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Overcome Rejection – It’s NOT Your Problem
One of the readers of this blog asked me to share some suggestions for overcoming the Spirit of Rejection. A lot of people suffer from attacks from this spirit and don’t even realize it. In fact, the reader who contacted me also had a generational curse of Rejection to overcome. But she’s determined to do it! And so can you!
I’ve met people (and you probably have too) that everyone seemed inclined to reject. It wasn’t even directly tied to their attitude or behavior – you just instantly get this feeling that you should avoid them. Guess what? That’s the Spirit of Rejection! People can be born with a curse of rejection assigned to them (from a generational curse that’s not even their fault). From day one, people reject them. This becomes particularly painful when they reach school age and NO ONE wants to play with them or be their friend. Can you relate? Or do you know someone like that? I do.
When I was in my twenties, I moved to a new city and was getting to know people my age. This one guy came across my path in a group setting and immediately, I wanted to walk away. I was surprised! I hadn’t even made eye contact with him yet and already I was repulsed. I knew something wasn’t right. As I asked the Lord about it, He showed me what the Spirit of Rejection does to someone. It was so sad. Over time, I got to know this guy and he was funny and tender hearted. I could tell he suffered a little bit from social anxiety – probably because he’d been rejected his whole life! I didn’t know then what I know now so I couldn’t help him, but I DID pray for him quite a lot and I hope he found freedom.
Most of us have experienced rejection in some form or another. In fact the fear of rejection is the number one fear that all human beings experience. Let’s talk about how to break it’s power over us!
Rejection is very painful. It can alter our view of ourselves. I would encourage you to make a list of the ways Rejection has affected you. Be very specific. For instance, I used to be afraid to walk into a room of strangers because I was afraid I would be rejected. I felt insecure about meeting new people – there was always this question, Will they like me?
Go through the list and break your agreement with the lies that Rejection has told you. For instance, one of my lies was – You should be afraid to meet new people, they probably won’t like you. That’s a lie! I had to break my agreement with those lies. If you have a hard time identifying the lie, there’s a little exercise called Lie Detector: Self Concept that can help. It’s here: https://establishingthekingdom.com/freedom-exercises/ (scroll down on that page)
Then make a list of the truth about you – the opposite of the lies. For instance, “I’m not afraid to meet new people! People like me!” The Lie Detector exercise helps you identify the truth you need to hear. I did that exercise over and over and over and gathered a long list of truths that I needed to hear.
Say those truths about yourself OUT LOUD every day. Print them and tape them to the wall so you can see them and read them and meditate on them every day. You are training your brain and shifting the way you think about yourself which takes time and effort. Like a parent raising a child, you have to say it over and over and over and over until it becomes the way you think about yourself. Then people will begin to treat you differently based on these truths. I was pleasantly surprised when it started happening to me.
Here’s an example of some of the things I said about myself to cancel the rejection I had experienced:
I am accepted and I belong.
I am appreciated and acknowledged for my contributions to the kingdom family.
What I say is important, valued and received with honor and respect.
I am loved for who I am.
I receive love and respect from other people.
I have faithful, loving, close relationships. I am a blessing to others.
To be honest, when I started saying them out loud, part of my brain would say, “Yeah, right!” with a sarcastic tone of unbelief. I kept doing it anyway – teaching myself the truth. Whether I felt like it or not, I just kept doing it – like going to the gym, I was working on my muscles, getting stronger in the truth.
Two BIG keys 🔑🔑
The first BIG key for me was a revelation the Lord showed me:
You are already truly and deeply loved by God. Other people are meant to love you too. We are commanded by God to love one another. If someone doesn’t love you and rejects you instead, it’s THEIR problem, not yours! Isn’t that amazing?! Rejection is NOT your problem. 💗
Rejection is NOT your problem. 💗
Fear of rejection is what we need to heal from. But whether or not someone rejects you is NOT your problem. It’s a heart issue between them and God. Let that sink in. Ponder THAT.
The second key was identifying a lie about being alone. Feeling rejected can make you feel alone and isolated. This was another big revelation for me – it’s actually IMPOSSIBLE to be alone! If you are a follower of Jesus, you are in Christ and He is in you. You are never, ever alone – you always have all that you need. He is in you – His love, His companionship, His encouragement, etc. You belong to God. Feeling alone and isolated is an illusion! You always have a place to belong – it’s with God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. Your eternal family. 🙂
I know it can be hard to really receive another person’s revelation – so simply ask Holy Spirit, “Will you please reveal to me how I am never alone?” Or, “Will you please reveal to me how rejection is not my problem?”
Healing from the spirit of rejection takes time. You can break it’s power over you in the spiritual realm instantly, but healing your heart and changing the patterns of your thinking takes time and effort.
Here are some videos and books that helped me – my best ones for dealing with rejection:
Inheritance by Graham Cooke – I’ve listened to this one, over and over. SO good!
Father’s Love Letter – another good one to listen to more than once and share with your friends!
Experiencing Fathers Embrace by Jack Frost This is a GREAT book – totally shifted my thinking about God’s acceptance and love for me as a Father. Some of Jack’s teachings might still be on YouTube – you can search for them, if you wish. His family also offers live workshops on this topic now that Jack is with Jesus.
Daddy, You Love Me by Brent Lokker This book WILL stretch you in the way you connect with God.
Whew! That’s a lot. Take whatever works for you – this is how the Lord set me free. Now, when I walk into a room full of strangers, I’m excited! It never occurs to me that they might not like me. God adores me! Why wouldn’t they love me too? 🙂 God’s love has given me SO much confidence in social settings. I used to worry about what people thought of me all the time, but not anymore. What they think is THEIR issue, not mine! And if they don’t like me, I feel bad for them because it’s their loss! LOL 😁
I trust that the Lord will lead you down the perfect path for YOU to become completely free of rejection. It takes time, but it is SO worth it to feel comfortable in your own skin and happy with who you are.
If this post helped you today, would you add a comment and mention which point spoke to you? Or if you have already overcome rejection, please share what set you free! I love to hear other people’s stories. 🤩
God’s Favor – Free Donuts 🍩
God’s Favor – what is favor? It is something in the Unseen room that most people are not aware of. Is favor something you can see? Is it something you can feel? What does it look like? What does it sound like?
The first person I ever heard teach in detail about the favor of God was Lance Wallnau. Search for his name and the word “favor” on YouTube – there may be a recording of his teaching on this topic. It’s worth listening to.
One of the things I remember him saying is that when you have the favor of God, people go out of their way to do things for you that they would not normally do. I guess he had experienced it because he gave examples. For instance, he might be talking to someone at a business and they would say, “We don’t normally do this for our customers, but I just feel I should do this for you,” and they would offer him something unexpected.
Favor might happen in any number of ways. Here’s an example that happened to me this week.
My mother was in the hospital for about a week and then she was discharged. She was home for only three nights when her symptoms reappeared and she had to go back in the hospital for a couple of days. After her second discharge from the hospital, we were driving home and it was getting late. The traffic was heavy and it was going to take us almost an hour to get home. I decided to stop somewhere and have dinner because I could tell that we were both weary. Being in the hospital really takes a toll on your soul.
We stopped at a place that we don’t usually go to because it’s so far from our house. But it was right around the corner from the hospital. We went in and had some dinner – the food was excellent. When we stopped at the restroom before leaving, we saw a connecting corridor and followed it around. To my mother’s surprise, there was a donut shop attached to the restaurant (my mom loves donuts). It was a specialty donut shop with all kinds of really fancy looking donuts.
There was a family there with three small children making a lot of noise trying to figure out who wanted which donut (“No, Mommy, I want the pink one!”). Their mother was giving them a treat because it was the Christmas season and their Elf on the Shelf left them donut coupons, which she gave to the clerk. Mom and I were tired and I was ready to say, “Forget it, let’s just go home.” But instead we waited while they picked out their donuts, including having to translate the flavors and descriptions into Spanish for their grandmother who was with them. Finally they left. Mom and I knew what we wanted because we’d had so much time to look over all the selections. I told the clerk the two donuts that we wanted. He said, “Well, I’m all out of small boxes – the only ones I have are large boxes. Do you mind?” I told him that was fine.
After he placed our two donuts in the box, he said, “Pick out two more – they’re free.” I looked at him surprised. I said, “Free donuts?” He said,” Yeah, go ahead – pick out two more. There’s room in the box.” So we did.
I said, “Well, I guess it’s the end of the day and these donuts probably won’t sell before you close.” He said, “No, I can choose to give free donuts to people at my discretion. Enjoy your free donuts.” 😁
Later as I was talking to the Lord that night, it occurred to me that it was Favor. It was a kiss from God. It was His way of saying, “I see all that you two have been going through in the last few weeks. You’re not alone. I see you – here, have a donut”. Just like a parent trying to cheer up a child. It was so sweet. 💗 We enjoyed nibbling on them on that long drive home.
How have you seen the favor of God? I have often seen it where it comes to my mother. She has tremendous favor everywhere she goes. I’ve often seen favor happen to my husband as well. Especially in the areas of provision. Things just happen for him that don’t happen for other people. For instance, one day he was outside doing yard work. He was chopping a bunch of tree branches and making a big mess. I was thinking, What are we going to do with all this debris? We don’t have a truck or any way to haul it to the dump. I guess we’ll have to chop it up into little pieces and put it in our trash can. (There was a LOT more than 1 trash can full.)
Just as I was thinking those thoughts, a small pickup truck comes around the corner, pulls into our street and stops right in front of our house. A young man comes out of the truck. We had never seen him before. He walks right up to my husband and says, “Would you like me to haul this away when you’re done?” My husband said, “Sure, how much?” I think the kid said 20 bucks. So he waited for my husband to finish and loaded it all in the back of his truck. My husband handed him a $20 bill and said, “Thank you very much.” I have never seen that young man again. He appeared at just the right time, providing exactly what was needed.
That’s the favor of God! At the time, I was shocked! I had never seen such favor in my life. I have since come to see that it is a common thing in my husband’s life. Whatever he needs just shows up and it usually shows up before he even realizes that he needs it. In fact the year that we went to Ireland, it’s like the Lord was emphasizing that to us.
We went on our own to Ireland without a tour – just the two of us. Since we speak the same language (mostly 😂), we figured we could probably manage on our own in a foreign country. There were so many challenges! I was surprised. But I kept noticing the favor of God throughout our trip. Let me explain it through a couple of stories. One time as we were going through the airport, it seemed that we had to walk and walk and walk and walk, pulling our luggage behind us. Our energy was starting to lag. It occurred to me that if we got a luggage cart, we could pile everything on it and it would be much easier to walk the remaining distance that we needed to reach our gate. Just then it dawned on me – we had just passed a machine that gives you a luggage cart when you put money in it. So I walked back and got a cart and it made the rest of our trek much easier! We had not seen one of those luggage cart machines for most of the time we had been walking through the airport. We saw other people using those carts, but we didn’t know where they came from. But it was funny how it didn’t dawn on me until AFTER I passed it – we were so focused on getting to the gate on time. I think the Lord was starting to teach me to pay attention to what we needed and expect Him to meet the need.
Later during our trip we were coming out of a train station. We didn’t know which way to go to get to our hotel so we just started dragging our luggage out of the station toward the curb in the direction of the city. People walk everywhere in Ireland so we thought we would too.
Just then a taxi drove right in front of us without stopping. That’s when it hit me – we need a taxi! He had just passed us so I started waving and yelling and he slowed down and we were able to catch up with him. I don’t think it was the proper place to flag down a taxi. I think we were supposed to walk to a specific place a long way off from where we were and wait for them. But since I saw him and I didn’t see any other travelers near us, I just knew that God had sent him for us. It’s very challenging when you’re a foreigner in an unfamiliar land trying to figure out how to get around. It was such a relief to have somebody realize what we needed and they were there to help us. Throughout that trip God was teaching us that if we will pay attention to what we need and then expect His provision, we will see it right in front of our faces. It took us several tries to learn this lesson. We often “almost missed” His provision because we weren’t paying attention to what we needed. I have since learned to anticipate His goodness for our needs, no matter how small. Even a cheer-up donut! 🍩
Where have you seen the favor of God? For me it’s easier to see it on other people than to recognize it when it happens to me. But I’m learning. Feel free to share your stories below.
The favor of God is an aspect of the Unseen Realm and I think it’s time for us to learn how to enjoy its benefits. Of course, favor can unlock much greater opportunities than a taxi ride or a free donut. But we learn to trust God by taking baby steps! 😊
Related posts:
Power Over Chaos: The Enemy’s Worst Nightmare
I had a really intense dream this week that gave me some wonderful deep revelation. Here it is:
I’m alone outside. I observe that the wind is starting to blow. I see all this trash on the ground. It was empty plastic bags – some clear, some white and some light blue. The kind of bags you get at grocery and retail stores.
I was in a semi wooded area and it was kind of ugly. The ground was white dirt. The trees had no leaves, like the way it looks in winter. When the wind started to blow, I noticed that all the plastic bags were being picked up by the wind – it was cleaning the ground.
I was happy about this – I was delighted to watch all the plastic bags being picked up and taken away or maybe just gathered in piles so they could be thrown away.
By watching the bags, I noticed that the wind was blowing in a swirling circular pattern. In front of me was a small lake. I saw that the swirling was centered in the lake and it was getting stronger and stronger. I could hear a voice warning me, Don’t go near the swirling! (As though this was very dangerous and the voice was trying to protect me.)
But it was inevitable for me to be swallowed up by the swirling. There was no way to escape it. It got more and more violent until I was in the center of it in the lake.
There was nothing but chaos surrounding me. It was like standing in the middle of a tornado. I couldn’t see anything – just the sense of being in the middle of this powerful swirling wind.
But instead of freaking out, I started calming down inside by humming two tones over and over. And I knew that as I calmed down on the inside, it would calm the chaos around me. Then I woke up – my husband thought I was having a nightmare and he woke me up (he said I was making noise).
Here are some Insights I received from this dream:
I have been warned to stay away from the chaos. But when chaos surrounds me, I have power over it!
You can stop the chaos without, by bringing peace to the chaos within.
I do NOT need to fear the chaos because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world (I John 4:4). I bet that terrifies the devil! Maybe I was having his nightmare! LOL 😂
I think the voice that was trying to protect me is either my ego or maybe religion. What sounds like wisdom, but it’s really based on fear. The voice was well-meaning and trying to protect me. It thought that the chaos would harm me. But when I was in the middle of the chaos, I found out that I actually was more powerful than it.
The enemy tries to intimidate us with chaos – he says, “Look at all this craziness you can’t control!! Be afraid, be very afraid!” (If you watch the news or read the headlines – it’s there every day.)
Yet the Chaos is the very thing that reminds me to tap into the Peace within me, which is more powerful than the chaos outside of me. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I am powerful in Him. It’s time to stop listening to the voice of fear that is trying to protect us. Because in reality we already have all that we need. Nothing can truly harm us. We are safe in the most wonderful way.
I feel such joy! The more I embrace that things around me are out of my control, the more true lasting power I realize I have because I am the one that brings calm to the storm. I don’t have peace by controlling things around me to keep things from getting “out of control”. I have peace because none of it is under my control. I don’t have to control it! I don’t have to manage it in order to have peace and power. Peace and power are already mine – it resides in me as I abide in Christ.
The devil is terrified that we will discover this secret and take away his power by bringing peace on earth.
We are the enemy’s worst nightmare. Not the other way around. I LOVE that!! 😁😍🤣
Wow. Thank you, Lord!! Your kingdom rules over all and we are your ambassadors. We bring Your kingdom wherever we go! ❤️
So what do you think? Does this speak to you the way it did to me? What is the Lord highlighting to you about this dream that you could apply to your life today? Please comment – I love to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for being part of this journey – bringing Peace on Earth. Go be dangerous to the devil! 😎
Learning to Hear God’s Voice
Whenever someone tells me they want to draw closer to God, one of my first questions is about whether they know how to discern God’s voice. Learning the language of the Spirit is like learning another language – it takes time and practice! You can pray all day and fast and read Scripture, but there has to be two way communication in order to build a RELATIONSHIP with God. It cannot be one sided!
In fact, I remember when I was a child and someone said from a pulpit that Jesus was our best friend and we should talk to him all day long. In my mind, my reply was, Well, He better talk to me too! No one talked about hearing from God so I didn’t say what I was thinking for fear of being labeled disrespectful. I guess most people just assumed it was a one way thing – you talk and God listens. I remember when I started to hear from God and I told my dad. He said, That’s preposterous! God only talks to holy men in the mountains. He was raised Greek Orthodox and there are special mountains where the priests go to hear from God.
Guess what? God still speaks! And you can know when God is speaking to you. Did you ever notice that almost every story in the Bible revolves around someone hearing from God? It’s important when God speaks to you and you should write down what He says! It also means He talks to a lot of people so why wouldn’t He talk to you too? 😊
If you want some step-by-step instructions, here is a course I can recommend to help you get started.
Developing a Close Relationship with God: A Simple Method – link to course
If you need encouragement and hope to develop a close relationship with God – that’s what this course provides. If you took the course, you’d learn how to focus so you can pay attention to God without distractions. You’d also learn to recognize His voice and become familiar with the different ways that God communicates. You’d practice recording what God has said to you each day. This would give you confidence to take action on what He tells you to do. That’s quite an adventure! Lastly, you’d have a new appreciation of what it means to really TRUST God.
It’s very short – like 15 minutes a week for 4 weeks. And it’s not expensive. You can listen to it while you drive or even when you exercise. It provides simple exercises to help you interact with God.
Recently a reader of this blog sent me this message about the course:
My husband and I just completed this course. It is concise and we feel so comforted and confirmed that our personal experiences with God are true! At our church, no one shares how they communicate personally with God. I learned by asking God to help me discern which voice is His, which voice is mine and which voice is the enemy (or accuser). This course gave us confirmation of our experience with Holy Spirit.
It is very important to learn how to tell the difference between God’s voice, your own voice and the enemy’s voice. If you need help with that, read this post: God’s Voice vs Other Voices: How Can You Tell the Difference?
If you have learned to hear God voice already, please comment on this post – that way we can all learn from each other!
Here are some related posts that might also help you:
How to Remove Blocks to Hearing God
Why Can’t I See or Hear in the Spirit?
Rainbow Circle of Light 🌈
I had an amazing encounter with God this week and I’d like to share it with you. I was with a group of intercessors when we had this experience together. It was life-changing – it shifted my perspective about our purpose on the earth.
As we were waiting on the Lord after taking communion, we saw ourselves sitting on the ground in a circle inside one of the chambers of the Father’s heart. It was like a cavern with soft lighting. There was a strong sense of peace and safety there.
The Lord brought to our minds the story of Moses when he turned aside from his day-to-day life and observed the burning bush. The Lord used the burning bush to get Moses’s attention and then he had an encounter with God. It was the light of the fire that got his attention.
I looked at the people sitting in the circle and we each had different colors, based on the frequency of who God is in us. First I saw a light blue light, then a purple light, and somebody else had a green light. Our brightness was increasing, becoming bolder, revealing more. It looked kind of like the light in light sabers. There was bright light in the center, but the glow around each light was different shades – blue, green, purple, etc. I also saw colors in the air around us, crackling like lightning.
Then we stood up and took each other’s hands and we became this rainbow circle of light. When our lights combined, one beam of light shot straight up like a spotlight. It was HUGE compared to our individual lights.
We saw this happening around the world as other lights were also rising up. The amount of light was increasing all over the earth as more lights appeared and were getting brighter.
We received the insight that when the light gets brighter, it reveals things – darkness can no longer hide. It becomes obvious what is not real, what is not true. This light reveals truth – what’s real and good and perfect and beautiful. The Light exposes lies, and the darkness flees.
Darkness has to flee in the face of all the colors of the truth.
We are the sons and daughters of the light, with all the colors of the rainbow becoming the beam of God’s love and truth from His heart.
We started singing, “This huge light divine, we’re gonna let it shine!” 😁
Then we were reminded of the story of Moses and the burning bush again. We realized that we can be a visitation to other people that don’t know God yet!
We carry the tangible sense of His presence, His peace, His joy, His love. They don’t know it’s going to happen until we encounter them, and something touches their heart and they turn aside. We just carry that presence, that goodness, that touch of heaven and it’s like the burning bush. It gets their attention.
There are some people walking on the earth right now that are literally just glowing with God’s light like a high wattage light bulb. There are other people who are not glowing with that light. Maybe they have a little bit of light, a little bit of truth, a little flame inside of them and when they encounter somebody that’s glowing, it encourages the light in them. It makes it easier for them to see things more clearly, to see what’s good and what’s not good for them.
Those that are carrying that bright light, it lights up wherever they go. And wherever there is light, there is greater clarity, truth, understanding and all kinds of good benefits. Because when you’re in the dark, you don’t know what to do. But when somebody who has the light walks in – all of a sudden you can see clearly!
Wherever we are positioned geographically, we are shining with that light, and the people that encounter us, encounter that light. And it’s not just geographically, but also relationally, because we have friends and family in other places, and when they interact with us, they interact with that light.
It’s not something we DO, it’s who we ARE. We are glowing through our union with God. He’s in our heart and we are in His heart. You can’t help but shine, even when you are having a bad day. 😉
Thank you, Lord, that we get to be You on the earth, representing Your goodness, Your love, Your truth. What a privilege!💕
✨✨ Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with Father’s glory! ✨✨
Have you ever seen yourself as a pillar of light on the earth? Which color do you think you radiate? (It’s probably more than one.) Can you imagine someone encountering God when they encounter you like Moses did at the burning bush? 😲
Feel free to share your thoughts below – I’d love to hear what you think about this. Did it shift your perspective like it did mine?
Remember: You can’t help but shine, even when you are having a bad day. You light up the world around you, just by being you! 💗🌈 😊
How to See in the Spirit
Last night I was in a prayer meeting and one of the ladies (JC) asked how she could see in the spirit. Often when we would pray together as a group, someone would say what they saw. This was challenging for her. She did not see things in the spiritual realm and didn’t know how to develop this ability.
Before we started praying, I briefly shared some things with her. This morning I received a message from JC saying,
Thank you for your tips on how to connect my hearing sense with my seeing sense. It was so good for me – I experienced some breakthroughs (she gave examples). Thank you so much, I am blessed! Glory to the Father! Thank Him for letting me move forward little by little.
Here are the things I shared with her – in case they might help you too.
First, what is your strongest sense? Do you see, hear or feel? Most of us perceive the unseen realm of God’s kingdom by one of these senses. I’m primarily a feeler. JC said she is primarily a hearer.
I encouraged her to focus on what is already comfortable for her – hearing. Then when someone else describes what they see, imagine that scene in your mind and see if the Lord will let you hear something that relates to what the other person is seeing. Imagine what you are hearing. This helps to connect the two senses.
Don’t focus on what you can’t do – focus on what you CAN do. Then share it with the group. Even if it seems very small or insignificant. What you focus on will grow. It also validates it for your mind.
Our mind (natural man) often questions what our spirits perceive. Our mind is used to being in charge and interpreting the world around us based on our 5 natural senses, right? So when you start using your spiritual senses, the mind tries to jump in and take charge. It often questions what you are perceiving and tries to convince you that you are wrong or stupid or even crazy. It creates doubt (the opposite of faith).
When you express what you are sensing in the spirit, it feels like a big risk. You risk being seen as foolish or sounding crazy. But guess what? When you say out loud what you are sensing, it validates it in your mind. It makes it easier to accept, which builds your faith and opens you up to sensing even more! It is honoring the Lord by honoring what He is showing you.
As you do that, your senses get sharper and they begin to work together. As JC practiced last night, by focusing her listening skills, she suddenly got visual pictures! She told me that some of the things she saw seemed impossible. But she told herself to accept it. After she did that, someone else in the group would describe the same thing she was seeing – confirmation! She was ecstatic! That meant she wasn’t crazy or just making things up (which is what the natural mind wants you to think).
Saying out loud what you are sensing brings it from the unseen realm into the seen realm. It brings it from the kingdom realm into the natural realm. It connects the two realms in our natural reality which makes it feel or seem more real. It IS real, but our minds often discount it because it’s from the spirit. This teaches our natural mind how to receive and accept the things from the spirit.
Here’s another exercise you can do to practice seeing:
- Look around the room you are in. Then close your eyes and imagine the room. Look around it in your mind’s eye. How much detail can you see? Practice this a few times until you can clearly see as much detail as possible.
- Ask Holy Spirit to show you where to look in the room. Focus on that area with your eyes still closed. Ask Him to show you something from the unseen realm. Wait and see what He shows you. Then ask Him to explain what you are seeing and He will.
I did this exercise with a friend and she saw an angel in my living room. Sometimes people have told me they see other things with this exercise like a portal or an item like a sword or a tree.
“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.” – A. W Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Let me know what tips have helped you to develop your spiritual senses. Comment below so we can all learn from each other. When you do the exercise I described above, please share what you saw. If you see anything dark or scary, ask Jesus, “Where are You in this picture?” Then focus on Jesus and watch what He does. 🙂
More posts that can help you see more clearly in the spiritual realm of God’s kingdom:
The Pain Is Gone! 😲
A few nights ago I was on the phone with a older Christian woman. She mentioned that her knees had been really hurting in the last two weeks and that her legs were very stiff. She has had leg stiffness and knee pain every day for the last year, but although she has been exercising and losing weight, the pain was getting worse not better.
We were both puzzled by this. As we were discussing what she could do to alleviate her pain, I had a sudden inspiration. I asked her, “Have you considered blessing your body each day?” I had heard a friend share this idea last year – the power our words have on our bodies and how we need to honor the body God gave us.
She said, “Yes, I could do that. But I suddenly realized that I need to repent for the way I have not always taken good care of my body in the past.” She started praying right then and there, “Father, I am sorry for not always taking good care of this body you gave me. I am grateful for the way this body has served me and allowed me to do so many things. Please forgive me for times I have misused it.”
Then she began to bless her body and suddenly she saw Pain as a spirit that was tormenting her. So she said, “Pain, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus! Go!”
She finished her prayer and we continued to talk.
Then she stood up to see what was the result of her prayer. She was shocked! She told me, “The pain is gone! Wow!! Thank you, Lord!” Then she sat back down and we talked some more. Then she decided to walk around. Again, she was incredulous, “There’s no more stiffness in my legs – they are SO loose! This is amazing!! Thank you, Jesus!!” 😲😍
It was so much fun to hear her joy! She had been in pain every single day for over a year. Can you imagine how freeing it must have been for the pain to simply leave?
“You know, if someone else had asked me to pray for their body because they were in pain, I would have probably prayed like that for them. But it never occurred to me to pray for my own body that way. Thank you for encouraging me to do that,” she said.
“You’re welcome. Thank you, Lord, for bringing that to mind! I think that’s part of having compassion on ourselves in the same way we would have compassion on someone else,” I replied.
The Lord has been talking to me lately about anticipating His goodness. What does it look like? Can we train our minds to anticipate a good outcome instead of worrying about bad things happening? He has been challenging me to reach out and grasp His goodness. Sometimes it feels easier to have faith for someone else, but right now, He wants me to pay attention and do this for myself. It’s a form of self-compassion – learning to receive His goodness toward me.
What areas of your life is God challenging you to anticipate His goodness toward you? Sometimes we need to start with repenting of Unbelief in His goodness in order to open our hearts up to receiving more from Him. I know I do. Lord, what do you imagine for my future? In what ways is Unbelief in Your goodness holding me back?
Please comment below – your insight might inspire someone else to open their heart to receive more of God’s goodness today!
Share this with a friend who needs to hear it! 💗
Book Review: My Descent into Death
My Descent into Death by Howard Storm is a very inspirational Near Death Experience (NDE) story about an American college art professor who has a medical emergency while traveling in Paris, France. I love reading books about another person’s experience of life after death in the heavenly realm. Unfortunately, Howard didn’t start there. He was an atheist when he died and experienced something terrible – something I hope you never see or hear in your life. I won’t go into detail – no spoilers here. But fortunately, a song from his childhood came to his mind – Jesus loves me. He sang it in pure desperation, wondering if he could ever escape this hellish place he found himself in and guess what? Jesus came to him!
The rest of the book is full of inspirational and unusual insight. Remember, he didn’t know Jesus when he died so he had no preconceived religious ideas (or not very many). So he asked a LOT of questions of Jesus and the angels – the answers he received provide some powerful truths we could all benefit from.
For instance, when Jesus told him that he needed to go back to earth, Howard was very reluctant and asked why he had to go back. He was experiencing such love and peace as he had never experienced before – you can imagine why he didn’t want to come back to earth. Jesus’ answer to him was unique.
You can save the world.
I don’t think so. I’m nobody and I’m not going to save the world. How could I save the world? Howard replied.
You are to love the person you are with.
How will that save the world? Howard wondered.
When you love a person, they will love the next person they meet, and they will love the next person they meet, and so on.
I don’t know if I can do it.
You can do it because we will help you. (“We” meaning Jesus and the angels who were with them.)
Howard was also thinking of his family – his wife and two children. Jesus told him he had to return to finish the job he had.
You have a job to do, which is to take care of the people God needs you to love. You were born to love these people. This is the job that you were created to do.
I LOVE this idea, don’t you? You have a job to do – to take care of the people in your life. Whether that’s your spouse, children, parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, etc. But it’s not “everybody” in the world – just the ones you are with – the ones you speak to, live with, visit or see each day. “You were born to love these people.” What a simple, yet profound concept.
I took my mother to a doctor’s appointment recently and as we were leaving, the doctor turned to us and said, “Take good care of each other.” That hit me with such powerful simplicity. Yes, that’s what we are called to do – every single one of us. Just take good care of each other. 💗
Reading Howard’s life story is very encouraging – his NDE completely changed his life. You can imagine what it might be like going from being a humanistic atheist to a man of faith who had actually met Jesus, face to face! How he changed his life and the differences it made in those around him is contained in the book and I am so glad! Often NDE stories end with the person waking up in the hospital, but not this one. He describes what life was like for him and how long it took to physically recover as well as process his supernatural experience. And the life choices he made afterwards profoundly changed the direction of his life and family.
He said something very powerful toward the end of the book,
Living life with faith is infinitely more rewarding than living without faith in God. Having faith gives one courage to do things one would never do, and the patience to endure the unendurable. Faith gives hope when you haven’t a clue how things will turn out. Faith gives joy when everything is bleak. Life with faith in God is so superior to life without faith that I recommend anyone to seek faith above all other things.
– Howard Storm, My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life
Thank you, Howard, for sharing your story with us. We need encouragement when things look bleak in the world. We need that courage, patience, hope and joy. And most of all we need Love.
As Howard learned to apply his faith, he was amazed at how much good he could do to help others. He said,
“There is nothing we couldn’t do if enough people listened to God.”
I believe it! And as my previous post described, Jesus is already drawing people together to bring restoration to the earth. They WILL be listening to God, whether they realize it or not! 😁
If you’d like to read Howard Storm’s book, you can click here to find it on Amazon.
Do you have a book you’d recommend? Please post the title and author’s name below in the comments. I love finding good books. Thanks to Andrey in Poland for recommending this one!
Angel appears – Zaps my laptop!
Guess what happened to me the other night? An angel zapped my laptop!
I was in a Zoom meeting with several other people, waiting on God to see what the Lord would show us about Himself and His kingdom. As we did, different members saw us together with Jesus in a garden. Then a door opened and a company of angels started marching out. They were full of Light.
Someone saw Jesus talking to the angels and assigning some of them to each of us. We thanked the Lord for sending them to us, to assist us in establishing His kingdom and His will in the earth.
Suddenly I sensed a very strong presence of an angel right there in my office. He was standing directly in front on me so I turned my head toward him to discern why he was there. Here’s the screen shot from the Zoom meeting. That’s me in the blue shirt with the beach scene behind me, turning my attention away from the screen.
Suddenly my computer started making a LOUD alarming sound that wouldn’t stop! I have never heard a computer make that kind of continuous sound before. I tried pressing the Esc key and then I tried pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete, but it didn’t respond. The screen was frozen and so was my mouse, so I held down the power button until it shut off.
What just happened, I thought. I was sensing a new angel here in my office and suddenly my laptop is freaking out!
I tried to restart my laptop but it was very hot to the touch on the bottom so I shut it down again to let it cool off. I rejoined the meeting on my phone and found out I wasn’t the only one who had experienced problems. Another member of the group also suddenly had tech difficulties and had to shut down her computer and rejoin the meeting using her phone. She also mentioned problems with the sound.
As the meeting continued, I tried to calm down and refocus my attention on the Lord. I asked Him about this new angel. I heard, He is here to serve you. And I saw gold glitter in the space where he had been standing.
The next night I was working on a painting in my office and sensing the angelic realm around me. It was getting late, so I took the dog out for a potty break before heading to bed. As we stepped out the front door, I saw a round rainbow around my front lamp post.
The rainbow was a perfect circle of red on the outside and I looked to see if I could see all 7 colors – they were not in rings, but more like looking inside a crystal prism. They were sparkling and winking and moving, especially the yellow and green. It was so bright and beautiful! I pulled out my phone to try and capture the effect, but it was fading and the phone could not see all the colors I could with my eyes. I noticed the air was cool and very moist. I blinked several times, realizing that seeing this effect was probably not “normal”. Was it the water vapor in the air refracting the light from the lamp post? I looked at other nearby lights on the neighbor’s houses. None of them had this rainbow effect. But the light from them was in a star pattern and they were also twinkling and moving. It was wild!
When I looked back at my lamp post, all I could see was the star pattern. I tried to capture it on my phone’s camera and you can kind of see what I mean.
Energy shifts things in the natural realm. The angel appearing in my office definitely shifted something and freaked out my laptop. By the way, it’s fine now – I’m writing on it right now with no problems. Energy was also shifted in the rainbow effect from my lamp post. Light was being refracted, but why could I only see it around the lamp and not any other lights? It reminded me of the scripture in Revelation 4 where it says there’s a rainbow around the throne of God that sparkles like an emerald.
I’m hoping to get more information about this experience, but for now, I just wanted to share it because it’s not every day that an angel’s appearance zaps your computer! Has anything like this ever happened to you? Feel free to share in the comments below.
By the way, here’s the photo I tried to take of the rainbow circle of light around the lamp – you can see the circle, but not the colors. It was so cool to see the colors! 🌈
I Googled this effect, it’s called corona phenomenon. Sometimes you can see it around the moon at night. Here’s a photo someone captured of a corona around a light post. That’s what mine looked like!
Walking by Faith – Amy’s story
Here’s an example of what it means to follow Jesus.
Amy works at Best Buy, an electronics store chain. She used to work in real estate selling homes several years ago, but took a break after she had a car accident. During her recovery, her husband suddenly died of a heart attack. Without her husband’s financial support, she needed a job – fast. She felt drawn to work at Best Buy and did very well there – she became a “pastor” to the people she worked with and often had opportunities to pray for them and help them find hope. This job provided a much needed sense of stability to the sudden roller coaster of her life. She’s been there for almost three years now.
A few weeks ago, she began to feel the Lord directing her to go back into real estate. She was a little hesitant because it had been so long and she was used to getting a regular paycheck from Best Buy. It would take her out of her comfort zone. She told the Lord, “If you give me a listing to sell a house, I’ll resign.” Someone called her and asked her to list their home for $650,000 (USD).
However she still had doubts. What if she didn’t get any more listings? What if she couldn’t pay her rent? A friend in real estate told her that right now is a seller’s market which means it is hard to find properties that are for sale (new listings). Plenty of buyers, but very few people are selling. This discouraged her and made her wonder if she really should quit her dependable job.
As she pondered it, it dawned on her that with just 2 real estate listings she could make as much as she made all year with Best Buy! This gave her courage to step out. So she said, “Yes, Lord, I am willing. I will turn in my resignation tomorrow.” That night a woman she knew called her at 1:30am. The woman had been looking at a particular house she wanted and it was suddenly listed as available for sale. She asked Amy to write a contract for that house immediately – at 2am she completed the contract and sent it in.
The next morning the agent that had listed the house was shocked. Who writes contracts at 2am? She had to find out so she called her. Amy explained how much this woman wanted THAT particular house and had contacted her in the middle of the night. The agent explained that she had only listed the house for a few minutes last night and that the house was not available right now. However she said she would talk to the owner and get back to her. Within a few hours, she called back and said, “We’re not going to list the house to the public, but we ARE going to work with you and the buyer who really wants this house.”
That was the listing she needed. Praise God!
That morning she went to Best Buy and turned in her resignation, giving them a two week notice. Two days later a coworker invited her to lunch with some friends of his (a couple). She had met these friends at a previous event and felt prompted to go. They had a nice lunch and she went back to work. A few hours later, the woman called and said, “We are moving out of our condo and we want to buy a house. We want you handle the real estate transactions for both properties.”
That was a third listing! And she would represent them in a fourth listing when they bought a new house!
But wait, it gets even better. 😃
She wanted to have her own office, but did not have the means to rent a place. A lot of agents work from their homes, but she knew with family obligations, she would prefer to have a space to focus just on business.
The next day, a business associate from her past called her. He said he was having a lot of trouble doing business in his country due to COVID-19. He asked her if they could build a partnership where he could do business in a city near her and she would represent him. He told her, “Find an office we can use and I’ll pay half of all the expenses.”
Yes! In less than 1 week, she got three new real estate listings and she now had the means to get her own office! She also would have even MORE business as she partnered with this colleague who would send her clients who were looking for real estate in her area.
She said, “I had been waiting on God, but as I stepped out to walk by faith, I felt like He had been waiting on me! He had all these people lined up, ready to bless me with business – and here I was afraid to step out. He is a good, good Father.”
This is an example of what it means to follow Jesus – to step out in faith, obeying the prompting in your heart from the Lord, even when you have no idea how it will work out. It means taking the risk that God is who He said He is and that His plans for you are always good. ❤
Do you have a story like this that you’d like to share? Please post it in the comments! Or you can write a guest post for this blog. We’d love to hear from you. 🙂
Discernment of the Supernatural Realm 