The zeal of the Lord

Oftentimes, Christians make the mistake of assuming that because Christ is gentle that He is passive.  He is quite the opposite.  He is zealous and passionate beyond explanation.  Isaiah 59:17 even adds to the "armor of God" that we find in Ephesians 6 by stating

"He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak."

Zeal is defined as "eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something".  The Lord is slow to anger, not absent of it.  1 John 3:2 reads

"... But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

 If we are going to "see him as he is" we must acknowledge that the same zeal that leads Him to pursue us relentlessly will be applied to His wrath against those who are His enemies.  God is perfectly patient, but there are those who will resist Him regardless of His mercies and grace (otherwise there would be no end-time army of the devil).  We must see Him as He is conquering King in Revelations 19 just as we must see Him as the suffering servant in Isaiah 52.

 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 
-Revelations 19:11-15

The more I have meditated upon this lately, the more the fear of the Lord has come.  It delights my soul to have that fear, since it both deters me from sinfulness and guides me in wisdom.  Mike Bickle addresses this in His study on the Book of Revelation NKJV.  I do not pretend to be an expert in eschatology, but I do continually pursue understanding from Revelations; especially since it is a Revelation of Christ not a revelation of the antichrist.  Be blessed dear readers!

Activating Spiritual Gifts - Exercises - Part 2

This is the second part in the series of Spiritual Gift exercises, you can see the first part here.  This will eventually become a permanent page.


6.  Treasure Hunts - Practices the prophetic gifts (words of wisdom and words of knowledge) as well as the gift of healing and the gift of evangelism
          This wonderful activity has swept the nation as Christians have become dissatisfied with the monotonous ineffective way-of-life that the traditional American church has been raised in.  This began with Kevin Dedmon and you can read more about it in his book Treasure Hunts. So here's how you do it: get a group of people together if possible (it's not required, I started doing these on-my-own before I ever practiced this with a group), wait on the Lord for prophetic revelation for clues for who to pray for and where to go, then go out and find the people God points you to!  
          The way that you can be sure to practice the gift of healing as well, is to ask the Lord for people to pray for that need healing and He will point them out to you.  This is the beginning of walking as true witnesses that we were called to be.  I wrote another article on how essential this practice is to the growth of the believer/Church as a guest post for The Prophetic Life and you can view that article here.

 7.  Hospital Run - Practices the gift of healing
           Okay so this one is just what it sounds like, go to a hospital and pray for the sick.  There are a few things to pay attention to when you go to hospitals.  The first is that security doesn't always like it when you do this.  I have never been personally kicked out of a hospital for praying for people, but I do personally know people that have been (you'd be surprised how many hospitals are branded with the name of a denomination of Christianity that disallow praying for the sick).  There is a tension between submitting yourselves to authority and going through and obeying the mandate from Christ to pray for the sick.  While I have called the clergy at multiple hospitals seeking permission to pray for people there, I have yet to be given that approval.  So how do you get in?  There are two ways that I (and others) do this.
          First, if you can let your pastor or healing team leader know that you want to pray for the sick, oftentimes they will notify you when a congregation member is in the hospital.  This gives you the excuse to be at the hospital.  When a member is in the hospital, not only should you pray for that individual, but visit as many other people as possible!  Just peek your head in and say "Hi, my name is ____ from ____ church, would you mind if I pray for you?"
          The other method can be done more often, but it is a bit more risky: simply go up to the hospital/ER and start praying for people.  We won't see the sick healed if we don't pray for them... and we don't build our faith on what we never do.  Just be aware that people are there for a reason and that Jesus wants to heal every single one of them!


 8.  Spiritual Reading Booth - Practices words of wisdom and words of knowledge
          As seen in Furious Love, this entails setting up a booth or table with a sign Free Spiritual Readings and giving people prophetic words.  This creates excellent opportunities for evangelism as well.  As the Lord reveals things about people's lives, call forth the destiny of their calling.  Sow promise and prosperity over all that you minister to with the love of Christ.  Do not be afraid to use the name of Jesus!  However, it's important to remember when doing this that you are not brow-beating people to Christ.  Nor does a prophetic word necessarily require the salvation of an unsaved person you are ministering to (let the Holy Spirit do His work, so that every time that person thinks about the word you give... he/she will be contemplating the reality of Christ).
         A word of caution for this one, I do NOT recommend starting off in a New Age or Witchcraft festival like you see Jason Westerfield do.  This is a great thing to do for people that are accustomed to walking in the power of God, but especially for people that have experience in battling the demonic.  Those settings can be dangerous for someone that has not quite learned to walk in the authority Christ has given them yet... so just pray about it before you determine to do that in an occult atmosphere.

9.  The Quickdraw - Practices words of wisdom and words of knowledge
          One moderator gets two individuals to be back-to-back, the moderator then counts out 10 paces, after the 10th step the two turn and whoever gives the accurate prophetic word first wins!  Obviously the paces can be increased or decreased to permit more time to receive revelation.  This exercise removes the "logical" human reasoning from the process, since the immediacy of the prophetic word disallows much contemplation on the revelation.  It's important that the winner must also have a correct interpretation if the revelation is abstract.  In other words, you can't turn around and say "I see you looking in a mirror that's shattered into a thousand pieces and then it becomes a solid pane" (the only way that word wins is if that is something that has recently happened to the recipient, because it has no interpretation).  The interpretation has to come with the abstract revelation.  In the example it could be something like, "I feel like the Lord is saying that you see yourself as have a shattered/disconnected life and that the parts don't seem to make a whole, but He is saying that He is making you whole."

10.  Concentric Rings - Practices words of wisdom and words of knowledge
          This one requires at least 6 people.  There is an "inner circle" and an "outer circle".  Every person faces another person.  Those on the "outer circle" give a prophetic word to the person he/she faces.  A moderator allocates a period of time to receive the words and then give them.  After the prophetic words are delivered, the circles rotate and new words are given to the new partners.
          To mix this one up, the moderator can have the group receive the revelation... and then rotate the circles (this prevents the bias of foreknowledge from interfering with the accuracy of the words).  A good starter time limit is a minute.  As the group progresses, the time to receive revelation can be decreased.

Soak in the Spirit

The term "soaking" was birthed out of the Toronto Blessing revival that took place at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship.  While even in charismatic churches this practice can seem New Age, I assure it is both Biblical and essential to our spiritual growth.  This is not something I practice on a daily basis (although it probably should be), but as often as it is feasible.  Soaking brings rest, peace, revelation, vision, and oftentimes divine encounter.  So what is it?

Soaking is when we still ourselves before the Lord in His presence and wait upon Him to work on our spirits.  We get saturated by His Spirit and His presence.  Most of the time, when people soak they listen to soft spiritual music (a couple sites that have free soaking music are Soaking with a Purpose and Soaking.net).  If you want to purchase music I highly recommend Glory Reign's Soaking CDs and Joshua Mills soaking music.  I liken this practice to much of what you see David do in Psalms and here's a few verses for it:

• Psalms 131:2 “But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” 
• Psalms 37:7 "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him” 
• Psalms 27:14 "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."
• Psalms 40:1 " I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry."
• Isaiah 40:31 "Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

That's just a few starters.  If you have ever experienced a solemn assembly, then the idea of waiting on the Lord should be familiar to you.  Some of the other terms that you'll hear that generally mean the same thing are "waiting" and "tarrying".

There are some things that you can expect when you begin this practice.  First, is that sitting still for 10 minutes (with or without music) is likely to seem like a long time.  Most of us are accustomed to darting from one thought to another in the busyness of life, so the concept of letting your thoughts be still before the Lord seems foreign.  One thing that has really helped me with this is worship.  Before I soak, I worship for a while.  It fixates my mind and spirit upon the Lord.  Soaking is a practice that initially requires discipline.  When most of us started reading the Bible we first had to discipline ourselves to do it, but later grew to love encountering the Lord through the Word.  It's the same way with soaking.  You can expect to see visions, feel Holy Spirit's presence significantly increase upon you in your daily life, and receive divine revelation.

So how is it done?  It's simple and I'll give you my steps for soaking:

1. Worship the Lord until your thoughts stay fixed on Him
2. Turn on some instrumental worship or soaking worship music
3. Get in a seated or lying position that is comfortable
4. Focus your thoughts on the Lord and holding your mind still before Him
5. Wait for Holy Spirit to takeover

When I feel His presence it comes like a very light blanket being laid over me, but it gets heavier and heavier the longer I soak.  Hold your mind still before Him and look with your spiritual eyes (similar to your imagination, except you are the one causing what you see/hear).  The more you look the more you'll see.  You may feel like nothing is happening, but as you wait on the Lord He works on your spirit and that doesn't include your mind.  Benny Hinn also has a fantastic teaching on this that makes me jealous (in a good way) every time I hear it.  So I encourage you to take up this practice and pursue God from the place of rest (and please share your experiences with it in the comments to this post)!

How to Ascend Into Heaven

Recently a friend at the Name Above All Names healing rooms I volunteer at gave me Katie Souza's Ascending into the Supernatural CD set.  I have heard teaching on ascending before and it never seemed to work for me, but I'm more than willing to continue trying and failing at something that offers the potential outcome of "being in Heaven".  If you want a thorough Biblical foundation for why we can ascend into Heaven, the saints that have done it in the past, the types of encounters you can expect: I highly recommend getting the teachings from Katie Souza.  Before delving into the step-by-step instructions for going to heaven (without dying), there are a few misconceptions that must be addressed.

First let me state that I've had both out-of-body and in-body experiences with Heaven.  The out-of-body experience, I had no inclination of what was going to happen... I was pulled up and that was all there was to it.  The encounter was not the result of my pursuing Heaven, but God granted me His grace by drawing me up through an open heaven.  Much of that encounter is personal, but I saw some of the Biblical locations in heaven (namely the throne room and banquet table).  This is not the type of experience that I have had as a result of the instructions which follow.  While I believe it is certainly possible to ascend into the heavens, in the natural, at will (Christ did it when He transfigured)... it simply isn't my experience.  However, my experience does not determine the possibilities, faith does. 

Okay, so is it Biblical?  Paul went up (2 Cor 12:2), John went up (Rev 1), Stephen saw into heaven (Acts 7:55), Jesus walked under an open heaven (Luke 3:21), Jesus saw into heaven (Luke 9:18, Luke 10:18), the heavens opened for Ezekiel's visions (Eze 1:1), and much more.  Encountering heaven is a mandate for divine revelation and retrieving God's response to earthly issues. 

So how do you do it?  Katie notes 5 steps on how to ascend and goes into detail on each step, if you need additional information view Expected End Ministries web site.  She also reviews how to bring things back with you from Heaven. 

Here's the steps:

1. Plead the blood of Jesus over your sins (repent!)
2. Cultivate an open heaven
3. Know that you're already seated in heavenly places
4. Come under the Holy Spirit's power
5. Activate your faith
   

The Lord has released me to share my first experience with this.  I was sitting quietly in my chair and I suddenly had the impression that I was in the throne room.  The more that I looked the more I could see myself surrounded by other thrones.  Again, this was not in the natural, but in the same realm as how we receive prophetic revelation.  If you've never done that try some of the exercises I mentioned in this previous post.  Then I saw a hand (which I knew to be Christ's) reach into my heart and turn up a dial on it as you would turn up a thermostat.  Next He took a flame and put it in my heart.  Before descending, I asked to take something with me and a flame appeared in the palm of my right hand.  Afterward, I truly wasn't sure if I'd just been to heaven or not and I asked the Lord to confirm the encounter through His word.  He said "read Hebrews 1 and 2".  I opened it up to Hebrews 1 and read "He makes His angels winds, and His servants flames of fire"!

So I encourage you to try this out on your own.  Let me know about your experiences and encounters.  Remember to ask for confirmation from the Word (the Word is to be experienced and experience must be validated with the Word, never contrasted by it).  Be Blessed!

Growing in God Exercises

The Lord has been giving me a couple exercises to help me grow in intimacy with Him as well as growing in love.  The first exercise is to grow in discernment of His voice.  Hearing God's voice is something that must be practiced regularly.  If the concept seems foreign to you, I highly recommend How to Hear God's Voice by Mark Virkler.  His book accustoms you to one method of hearing God (He speaks to us in a plethora of ways).  The exercise I have been doing is as I wait upon the Lord, I journal everything He says to me.  I ask open ended questions about my life/circumstances and note His responses as they light upon my spirit.  Then after I've written down the conversation, I ask the Lord to confirm it through His word.  This practice has actually changed the way I study the Word, it is a much more dynamic relationship since the Lord continues a conversation with me through the Scriptures.  Sometimes I'll ask Him where I should study, but most of the time I wade through the various bookmarked chapters I am going through (I usually read several chapters and have bookmarks in the Torah, the Prophets, SoS, Psalms, a Gospel, an epistle, and Revelations).  If I heard His voice correctly, He always confirms it with His Word!  Doing this validates what we hear and gives us confidence in what we hear Him say.

The next exercise is one the Lord suggested to me this morning, but I have yet to practice.  He said, "This is my 5 step plan: go to a public place and every 5 steps talk to a stranger."  Before I proceed, a major part of my calling is to publicly minister in power and love (I believe this is the calling of every Christian, but some have more of an aptitude for it than others).  Myself and a few others will regularly go to malls, hospitals, supermarkets, flea markets, etc. to find the sick and pray for them or just give prophetic words to strangers.  The Lord's 5 step plan is a new challenge for me, since I have historically waited until I had a complete revelation & interpretation from the Lord before approaching an individual.  Alternatively, I would approach people with visible illness/injuries.  This exercise will propel me out of that comfort zone, away from relying on the gifts, and into moving more in love.  Not everyone needs healed.  Not everyone will receive a prophetic word.  Everyone needs Jesus and the love of Christ is what we have that others do not, if we don't share it... the salt is losing it's saltiness.