Search this site

Click here to listen to this teaching. This talk is R-rated, for adults only. Our world is full of empty words and slogans that really don't do much for any of us. Examples: “I'm sorry for your loss,” “thank you for your service.” “How are you?” when you really don't want to know? Why not try, “Wow, I heard your mom passed. That's such a big change.” “I'm so glad that I live in a country where powerful young people choose to defend it.” Followed by, “Can I buy you a beer, a dinner?” or “Thank you so much.” “I haven't seen you in a while. I'd love to catch up either now or sometime soon.” I'm not really looking for more and better buzzwords. I'm just saying, really talk to someone like they matter, even if you don't know them. Which leads me to my main topic: certain slogans that are empty and almost powerless. In many cases that we say in church and to each other: “Have faith.” “You must have faith.” Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” It is not endurance. It is not hanging in. I have heard people encouraging each other and even going so far as name-calling, saying, “You don't have enough faith.” When really they're trying to say, “You don't have enough determination and endurance.” Sometimes that wins the day, but often it does not. In Ephesians 2:8–9 and 1 Corinthians 12:3–9, it says that the gift of God is faith, a supernatural gift that moves mountains. It is not the same as waiting patiently. Many times church people do not move towards solving a problem that needs to be solved in another way. Faith without works is dead, as the body without the spirit is dead. What is the work? The work is connecting with God in a powerful and substantial way so that the gift of faith inhabits your prayers. It does not mean “grab a shovel” in most cases. What is prayer? It's a movement of power, force, and energy. It is not endlessly begging God to do something on your wish list. Do your prayers work? Do they bring about change in a timely fashion, at least as a general rule? If they don't, you need to reset. Many people would rather be given a cup of coffee than an empty “I'll pray for you” or a praying hands emoji. For many, this basically means a symbolic show of support without much power or effectiveness. When you do empty things, there's no room for you to move toward doing effective things. The answer is not to go up, but to go deeper with our generous Father, loving Jesus in a way that actually moves you. Like kissing someone for the first time that you plan to marry. Many of us have been raised on formula. And what do you give a baby when the mother has no milk? Formula. The problem is not that the scriptures are empty. We are—sometimes our lack of connection with a powerful God who loves us. How many of you love your children because you should, or out of an intellectual assent that you should, rather than joyfully connecting with them because you love them? That's the kind of connection we need with God. The body is dead without the spirit. So are all of our prayers and slogans without the spirit inhabiting and animating them. It's a good hint, if our prayers don't work, that we're not doing it right. Slogans are bad because we quit too soon. With a warm sense of satisfaction, without checking, “Did it work?” Many of us noticed that most of our prayers don't work, and we become discouraged and cynical. The Bible says, “Judge by the fruits.” Well, what are the fruits? I know there are some, but don't quit digging; adjust your fire; ask the Father to show you how to pray more effectively, with more of his strength inhabiting what you do. Jesus said to be as a little child: growing, changeable, interested, teachable. We have enough arrogant, empty adults who talk a good game without much demonstration. Don't settle for that. We were created for much more. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. If you are humble, you will have a demonstration of power. Look to the past; practice some of the monastic practices: silence, any kind of communion, fasting, meditation, deep prayer, spiritual exercises; put time and intention, and you'll get results. I remember going to a gym once, and my main contribution was wearing the gym T-shirt. I looked cool, but it didn't do me much good physically. Going to church and listening to a talk once a week and giving each other a hug at the end is not what the Bible says that we are to do, at least without the following: heal the sick, raise the dead, make disciples of all men, cast out devils, visit me in prison, give me, being Jesus, a cup of water. I haven't ever raised anyone from the dead, but I've had the joy of doing all the rest. There is a great hunger in many to speak, but not so much to do. If we have to look up to a person, how about Heidi Baker or Randy Clark, someone who does a lot more than talk? We used to call it “doing the stuff.” Be a doer of the word, not a hearer only. You cannot be a successful Christian without supernatural power. It is a supernatural calling, not a physical calling. Well, I may have made some of you mad, but I, I like the saying—“Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”—will get us a lot further than settling for way less than we should. My goal is not to make you unhappy. Just take a look at what I'm saying; test and see if it holds up. If your spiritual life can't be challenged, it must not be very strong. This is a two-way street. I live this way myself, and I am happy to trade comfort for growth, at least at times, because without it, I've stayed the same, which is boring and leads me to being an ineffective Christian. Be blessed in Jesus' name and the Father who loves us as we are, as dear children that he wants to see grow, as any good father would.

Click here to listen to Dangerous Love. “This love is getting kind of dangerous.” The song lyric really reached out and hit me in the face. Give a listen to the song White Horse by Chris Stapleton. There is an urgency and a passion in the music that is central to what I want to talk about today. Three or four years ago, I got very sick. I lost a lot of what I cared about and had sacrificed for. And I was greatly humbled by being so weak and out of it. Thankfully, good friends stuck by me in almost unbelievable ways. And I had pulled through and returned to a normal and even happy life. God told me, “Good, I can trust you more now because you're afraid of me in a good way.” The Bible wasn't fooling when it said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It turned out very well for me. God trusted me more and promoted me more and gave me a very happy living arrangement. Things went along smoothly for a year or two. I found myself falling more and more in love with the father as I started to experience him in many new ways. He is the best. If I was made to spend the rest of my life telling people how good, fun, and delightful he is, I would be more than happy and satisfied. But as that love grew brighter, I started to notice that, by comparison, my love for Jesus was like an old, somewhat worn out marriage, not bad enough to leave, but not exciting or good enough to want to give it much effort. As usual, the problem was me. Jesus hadn't gotten cold and distant. I had. I took a good look within and, like a little kid, I felt like he had not taken care of me during my illness, where I had suffered so much, even though he sent friends to help me in unbelievable ways. I was mad at him and had withdrawn myself, not completely, but enough to shut down much of my heart and soul to him. I realized after two years or so that I really was at fault and was missing out on one of the most important and intense relationships I'd ever had. I decided to repent and start moving back to him bit by bit. It was slow, but it started to work, like a flooded engine sputtering to life. I was talking to a friend one day about my early life around the age of 21, where I found a key that has really helped me come alive again. I have been becoming more and more fascinated with Christianity, and everywhere I turned, Jesus seemed to be there. I joined a Christian group. I was a hippie at the time. I cut my hair, started wearing a black suit with a collar and a cross so that people could see that I was available to help them. I started getting up at 5:30 AM for prayers and communion, making my bed, just so taking orders, working at a straight job, then going out at night to help people and tell them about Jesus as well. And there were many people on the street at this time. It was San Francisco in the 1970s. I gave up sex and drugs and left my girlfriend behind. I got $7 a week spending money, and yet I was happy as a clam. Had I joined a cult? Had I been hypnotized or drug? No, I had fallen into a dangerous love, head over heels in love with Jesus, not with just my mind, but with all of me. Those of you who know me know that I'm not soft or easy to influence. One of my favorite words is no. My childhood had been difficult, with four different families, and I was on my own by the day I was 17. I had a job and was self-supporting and an apartment, and I was very popular with the other kids. I even finished high school. But God kept calling me to himself. As I remembered that first intense love affair with Jesus, I wanted it again, and something started to pull me back. Things between us are so much better now. I smile when I think of his name. Enthusiasm and energy has reentered our relationship. I am falling again into a dangerous love with Jesus, and I'm loving it. Can any of you relate to any part of this story? Ask yourself the question: have I ever had a dangerous love with Jesus? If not, do you want it now? If you lost it along the way, do you want that love to come back between the two of you? Are you willing to pursue it as something you really must have?

Click here to listen. Genesis 1:1–2 says: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” 1. What Emptiness Really Is Emptiness is not abandonment. It is not cold, endless isolation. It is not the terror of floating alone in a black universe. Emptiness is receptivity. It is the condition that allows something greater than you to move toward you, speak to you, and love you without interference. Emptiness is not the absence of presence. It is the absence of control. When you stop filling the space with effort, fear, performance, or self-protection, that space becomes inhabitable—not for nothingness, but for God. 2. Letting the Greater One Lead If you were sitting at dinner with someone vastly wiser, deeper, and richer in experience, the most natural thing would be to let them speak. Not because you are worthless.But because they have more to give than you have to say. This is how relationship with God works. You do not dominate the conversation. You do not wrestle Him for what He is already offering. You do not force intimacy. You yield the floor. And even then, love will still draw you in. God will still rope you into the conversation. But the posture matters. You are not trying to extract something. You are allowing yourself to receive. 3. The Posture of Delight There is a way of sitting before God that is neither passive nor aggressive. It is open delight. You do not manipulate. You do not strategize. You do not perform. You do not try to feel holy. You simply open yourself to what is greater than you—with pleasure. Like eating a steak because it tastes good.Not because you earned it.Not because you’re starving.But because it’s there, and it’s generous. This is how presence is meant to be consumed. 4. You Were Trying to Take What Had Already Been Given Long ago a counselee and I when we were physically together we had tussle where I made you, the counselee, play fight with me over some money. This is one of the few times I have ever actually physically wrestled with a counselee. I made you say, “Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me.” When I had already handed you the money. I tried to force you to make me hand over money that I had already given. It was completely unnecessary. You already had it. Just like you already have God’s love. The wrestling over money was a parable. The struggle was unnecessary because the gift was already in your hands. This is how people relate to God. They fight to receive what they already possess.They beg for affection that was given at creation.They fear rejection from a love that never left. “You had me at hello” applies here—but deeper. God had you at creation. He gave you His heart before you had the capacity to respond. You never stole it. You never manipulated it. You never earned it. If you could steal God’s heart, He wouldn’t be God. 5. The Myth of Conditional Love God’s love is not fragile. It is not held hostage by your behavior. It is not removed as punishment. Discipline may happen. Correction may happen. Direct confrontation may happen. But love is not revoked. Love is not on the list of consequences. The fear of being expelled is not humility. It is control masquerading as responsibility. If everything depends on your performance, then you remain in charge. And that, paradoxically, is far more exhausting—and painful. 6. Self-Inflicted Pain Is Not Spirituality Much of what people experience as “conviction” is self-authored suffering. No one handed you a manual for how to hurt yourself. You wrote it. God does not teach you to live in fear of expulsion. He does not delight in your anxiety. He does not prefer your misery to your joy. A good father celebrates his child’s success, even while addressing failure when needed. Correction serves love.Encouragement serves love.Both aim at growth—not humiliation. 7. The Womb of creation is not a Void of emptiness The phrase matters because it points to reality, not metaphor. The womb of creation is not emptiness as nothingness. It is emptiness as pure capacity. It is where the spirit man lives. The spirit cannot be dissected. It does not exist as an object in this dimension. It lives in another order of reality. The womb of creation is that dimension. You do not become the void. You enter it. And by entering it, you encounter yourself as you truly are—not the constructed self, not the defended self, not the striving self—but the spirit self. 8. Visiting the Spirit Man You do not analyze the spirit man. You visit him. You remain there. You camp there. You acclimate. At first, it feels disorienting. Then it feels stabilizing. Then it feels real. This is what was once called self-realization—not self-exaltation, but self-awareness rooted in truth. You become dimensionalized. You become realized. You stop striving to exist and start living from where you already are. 9. The Invitation God places abundance before you and says, “Are you hungry?” Not: “Prove you deserve this.” Not: “Work for it.” Not: “Be careful or I’ll take it away.” Just:“Eat what you can.” And the wonder of it is this: He is far more in love with you than you are with Him. Your task is not to manufacture devotion—only to receive what is already pouring out. That is emptiness. That is the womb of creation’s void. That is where the spirit man lives.

The following was a letter written by Richard Kinney to our prophetic board concerning the concept of demonic principalities. Dear friends, As we meet together as a prophetic board, it becomes clear to me that we have much to learn from each other. In our last meeting, the subject of principalities came up, and I'd like to comment on that. I may not be an expert, but I cast out my first demon at the age of 21, and over the next 55 years, have often been very active in deliverance ministry. I've enjoyed being a counselor these last 30 years because I get to see the fruit of what I pray and do with people, rather than just speak something into the void and hope that it works. I've never met a human, to my knowledge, who can go up against a principality and win or have much of an effect at all. The principalities still seem to be with us, despite many people praying against them. Of course, we can humbly ask our Father if there's a problem that we perceive with a principality, and certainly they're part of the overall difficulty of living on a fallen planet, but they are not ours to directly confront. The Father has assigned many large and powerful angels and beings to deal with them, and someday they will definitely be gone. But for now, we have much to do down here. Many people have hurt themselves with the scripture from Ephesians 6: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places." God has tasked others to deal with the big guys, but there's also a wall between us and them, so they're not allowed to directly hurt us, or, believe me, we would be hurt. But we are given the opportunity. Everything that's on our plane here on earth, we have dominion over, including the demons. And if you learn the basics, the demons down here are not that hard to deal with, particularly if you get heavenly help from angels and the various beings that live up in heaven. Sometimes I notice some of the bad fruit that I've seen from people talking in kind of a proud way about principalities. They like to rattle off the names of different principalities, as if that gives them great power, but largely it doesn't do anything except needlessly poke a bear you probably don't want to poke. Luckily, rarely does that result in disaster, but occasionally it does. So I feel that, in the Christian church in America, a lot of people talk with great emphasis, using tiny scraps of scripture, with almost no hands-on experience. And so we hear people who speak with great authority about something they know almost nothing about. When we say, “this or that principality is affecting us” or “our group” it is in most cases a much smaller demon posing as a principality coasting in on our fear. So we don’t handle it as we should, like any other earthly demon. And they get away with bothering us. They are very sneaky, but weak. Whatever sense of importance we get by saying the name of the principality is not worth the deception or the toxic effects from unnecessarily poking that bear. And I would like to start with an explanation of what principalities are like, and I'm going to recount to you a hands-on experience that I had. Fortunately, through God's grace, I have been able to see and hear in both the positive and negative supernatural world. I'm not much impressed with the demonic world, to tell you the truth. I'm very impressed with the heavenly world, and if you want to be afraid of somebody, be afraid of God. So I would like to tell you something that happened to me, and I'd love not to ever repeat this experience, but I'm going to tell you about it anyhow. God commanded Nancy and me to go to Israel, and it was during an election period, and there was a lot of terrorism and buses being blown up, and I was afraid to go. And I thought, "No. Why do I have to go there? Jesus is here. What's so special about Israel?" Well, it turns out that there's something very special about Israel. God really likes Israel. I've never seen so many angels anywhere besides Israel. Israel was just teeming with angels, so for some reason, God really loves them. And I was sleeping there, and the trip had had so many great highlights. It was like one of those moments when I wanted to whack myself in the head for resisting, you know, because it was a great trip. But anyway, I was sleeping in my bed in the hotel. Jesus came and gathered me up in his arms, and I was full adult size, and carried me up, up, up. And he said, "I'm going to take you to see a principality that is over Jerusalem." And he didn't say much. We didn't really talk much, and we went up higher and higher. And the closer and closer we got, I started to see something I can only describe as a floating city. But you have to realize this thing is as big as a big city. It's not little. It's not 30 acres. I mean, it's huge. And it was teeming with toxic, indescribably evil energy and power. And my contribution was to frantically try to get down. Have you ever seen a little kid who really wants to get down? That's what I was doing. And Jesus just held me, even while I squirmed to get away. So there wasn't much heroism going on there. And he let me circle it and look at it, again, without much conversation. And then he took me back and put me in my bed. I had been perfectly healthy when we left that evening. But when we got back, I had very strong flu-like symptoms that lasted for about 10 days afterward, just from being that near the evil that was there while being held by Jesus. So I want to tell you, this is not a place you want to go. Okay, so if you will make friends with the angels and the other creatures, like I say, confronting and defeating the demons down here is pretty easy. I want to discourage us from talking proudly. The Bible says, "Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought." We're much safer under the cloak of humility than we are in pride. You know, when we have pride, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. And I find it easier to be humble as I get to know the angels and the different creatures because they're so much bigger than I am, and stronger, more perfect, and smarter. And I am obviously the small fry. And I like it there. I mean, it's easier than pretending that I'm so big and bad. I have seen people, in some very innocuous ways, get in terrible trouble praying against principalities. And I want to caution you not to do that. I knew several people who, like a group of people, would get together and say, "Let's go pray against the principality." I think, in this case, it was Raleigh, North Carolina. And they just went out with a group. They weren't a big, you know, spellbinder or anything. And they prayed against the principality. Well, not much happened except their life fell completely apart. It was like they were covered in tar, and their relationships fell apart. They lost their job. They got physically very sick. And that went on for three years. I'm usually pretty good at getting people free from spiritual consequences when they make a mistake. But that's one mistake you really don't want to make. And I think I've seen that three times in my counseling career. I'm sure it happens more often. The other thing I'd like to say to you is there was a prophet that I spent a lot of physical time with that I really respected and enjoyed. John Paul Jackson is a lovely man, a model of humility and prophetic power. So I just liked to be near him. I would go and be with him during his junior beginning classes just so I could stand next to him. And he wrote a book called Needless Casualties of War, or Needless Casualties, and you can buy it on Amazon. And I would just recommend to you that you read that book because you may save yourself a lot of trouble, or one of your loved ones.

Listen to this teaching here. In martial arts, we were all trained to move out of the way of an opponent’s attack. If they were trying to punch you in the face, you quickly moved your face to one side or the other or took a step back. Watch trained fighters. They are almost always constantly moving and keeping out of the way and out of the angle of their opponent’s attacks. “Don’t block a punch with your face” has always seemed like good advice to me. The devil attacks us, especially as Christians. We find out that we’re being attacked at times, some in very obvious ways, but at other times in much more subtle ways. The subtle kinds of attacks are what I want to address today. If we are Christians and have a good, strong spiritual practice, we will be walking in the light of Christ in a literal way. I like to envision a bright circle of light, almost like a spotlight all around me, coming down from heaven and out from the center of myself, in the deepest place, into a bright 360-degree circle of light filled with Christ’s power. Now, what I want to talk to you about today happened in my own life, and it prompted me to create this class. In the same week, I got two compliments from two different people about my personality, supernatural self-esteem, and overall spiritual abilities. They both said, “You are not a normal human being.” In some ways, they were right. I started meditating at age 17. I went and joined a powerful spiritual Christian order with many of the old monastic practices and much charity work. And I stayed for 20 years and was privileged also to be part of the Toronto Blessing, the Father’s Love Blessing, and the Prophetic Movement, and many other things that were so meaningful and helpful to me. Now I’m 76, so I’m pretty good at meditating and prophesying. So, in fact, I’m not a normal human being, but the same could be said of an athlete or Bruce Lee or another martial artist who has spent 30 or 40 more years studying and practicing, and they’re able to break bricks and do jumps and kicks that the rest of us can’t do. They are not normal in the classic sense. But here is where Satan got in on the act. I started thinking a lot about not being a normal human being and kind of liking that idea. Sort of like, “Hey, I’m different. I’m more special than other humans.” And I enjoyed that in a subtle, quiet way. But while it was in part true, something was off. I just want to remind us all that the best lies have some truth in them. I could feel myself suddenly being pulled out of the center of the light from above and from the center of myself, kind of like a negative magnet. Now, it didn’t turn the light all the way off. It just moved me two or three inches off center. However, two or three inches can be very hard on you in certain situations. I sort of shook myself and said to myself, “Hey, wait a minute. I’m being tricked.” Even if it was subtle, it was pulling me out of the light that I enjoy so much and into a low-key, subtle, but hurtful pride and quiet egotism. That made me mad when I realized that. And so I decided to stop thinking of myself as a separate kind of human being, a “not normal” one, which is partly true, and especially different and special, even though I already am considered special and different by my Heavenly Father, and all His children have that same distinction. He sees us all uniquely. It’s sort of like a mother who says, “I love all my children the same way,” except He means it. And a healthy response to being special and different because of God’s view of you, and He is the last word, is to love Him back and be grateful for how favorably He sees us. What I didn’t need was even subtle egotism and pride. So I decided, going forward, to start calling myself a lucky ducky rather than a “not normal human being.” Not that that denies that I learned a lot in 60 years of ministry, but feeling grateful for the changes and for being drawn closer into my Father’s arms and encountering His love in ways that were quite meaningful to me and continue to be. I do love Him, and I don’t like to be distracted from that. I have decided to stay off the angle of Satan’s attack as much as I can. So I make it a rule in my life not to allow that to happen, and I believe you should too. Some of the other ways he attacks us are with thoughts of how bad or shameful we are, or how bad our sins are. Godly sorrow leads to repentance, not to self-condemnation. I’ve never seen self-condemnation lead to anything good, and I’ve been a counselor for 30 years. It’s just another way to get us off center and out of the light from heaven and the light within us, and to make us weaker so Satan can prey on us even more easily. This is also a kind of egotism and pride, which makes us sick as we concentrate on ourselves and move away from the light and the love of our Father.

Tabby cat with confident look. Click here to listen. If you long to connect with the heavenly family, which is the angels and the Father and Jesus who love you, and that you have a longing for—it's because you’re born with a longing for this loving, intelligent, heavenly family—and most of us don’t get that in our physical earth. All the adaptations that we make to try to somehow make that still work will just fall off of us if we will turn toward our heavenly family and connect there. As we get full, all those other things just flake off. I always have a picture of a person covered in mud, and then it dries and cracks and just falls off. That is so much easier than the back-and-forth fight of “I want my family to love me, but they don’t. I love them, but I hate them.” You can play that game till your death. I have supernatural self-esteem, which means that I tend to look at myself in a positive light and am very slow to criticize myself, even though I’m not completely impervious if I make a mistake. I am able to repent and correct. I have supernatural self-esteem, which I pretty much take for granted. I tend to be right, that people will like me, that people will cooperate with me. And if people try to push me around, I will successfully push them back. Pretty much any conflict or contest I join, I expect to win. That doesn’t mean I can’t say, “Well, that’s not fair,” or “That’s too weighted in my favor,” but nonetheless, I expect to win things. Once in a while I realize I can’t win—like a policeman giving me a ticket. You’re not going to wiggle out of that, particularly if you actually did it. But you can have supernatural self-esteem, and it cuts out so much self-criticism. The enemy uses that over and over again on people. You read about all these Hollywood stars, and they’re so conflicted, even though they have massive success, people telling them they’re pretty and talented, and they have millions, and they’re still unhappy. Supernatural self-esteem is something I want to start sharing in counseling because so many have that problem—saying things like, “Things never turn out for me,” even though many things do turn out for them. They need to stop saying that. Even at my age, I’m certain I could find a woman who would enjoy me, whom I would actually like, if I wanted one. I don’t want one, but it’s nice to be this old and feel like that wouldn’t be hard for me. It’s a funny kind of thing, but it sure saves you a lot of trouble. I got angry at someone recently, and I wanted to hurt her, and someone said, “Most people would be sad that they lost their temper. You’re just pleased that you didn’t hurt someone.” It never occurred to me to think I should feel bad about losing my temper. Why should I? I want to share this because it takes away a lot of ground the enemy uses. Most people who should be concerned about how bad they are usually aren’t. They’re mostly concerned they’ll get caught. Truly wicked people are usually into their wickedness. But a lot of the people we deal with are largely good people who just pick themselves apart. Supernatural self-esteem is a gift, and it should be shared. Some people need a little more supernatural self-esteem. Father in heaven, I thank you for giving me supernatural self-esteem You're such a kind God you're such a generous God. I ask that you release supernatural self-esteem to all Christians and to every counselee. And any person who struggles to do Your will. Please release the gift of supernatural self-esteem and anyone who hears this tape let it fall upon them truly it is a spiritual gift in Jesus name amen One thing that I will say there's really nothing in my history that suggests that I should have supernatural self-esteem Vital Points: Heavenly Family Humans are born with a deep longing for a loving, intelligent heavenly family. Earthly families often cannot fulfill this longing. Many emotional adaptations people make to survive family dysfunction fall away when they connect with the heavenly family. Turning toward heaven brings fullness; striving for earthly approval becomes control. Letting heavenly love fill the inner void is easier and more freeing than the constant struggle of wanting family love that isn’t given or approval from others. Vital Points: Supernatural Self-Esteem A form of spiritual confidence that minimizes unnecessary self-criticism. Includes: Expectation of being liked. Expectation of cooperation from others. Expectation of prevailing in most conflicts. Not denial of mistakes—just freedom from excessive self-blame. This gift removes the enemy’s foothold of constant internal accusation. Many people, even those with success, live in deep self-conflict without this gift. Clients often struggle with thoughts like “things never work out for me,” even when evidence contradicts it. Supernatural self-esteem helps counter such lies. Vital Points: Moral Clarification Truly evil people are usually not tormented by self-criticism. Most people we counsel are fundamentally good but harsh on themselves. They need relief from self-accusing patterns, not more scrutiny. Vital Points: Accessibility of the Gift This spiritual confidence is not tied to personal history or natural personality. Anyone can receive it regardless of past rejection or trauma. It is considered a spiritual impartation, not psychological self-talk. A request to heaven asking for supernatural self-esteem to be released to all who need it. An acknowledgment that the gift is spiritual in nature and freely given. Affirmation that it is not dependent on personal background. Vital Points: Practical Application Consider sharing this concept widely because it helps remove the enemy’s influence. Encourage everyone to take note of positive thoughts quickly and write them down before they fade. Most of us say God loves us so let us think and act like that.

Listen to this post by clicking here. Dove flying. I want to give us today some keys to controlling our mind and entering the peace and the joy of God. First, it comes from a psychology viewpoint, and I think they really did a good job, so I'm just going to read it to you. This suggests that the highest form of peace lies in releasing the need to be understood, admired, pitied, or known, because these desires tie your internal state to external factors that you cannot control. When you crave admiration or recognition, you often subconsciously perform a version of yourself designed to get approval. Letting go of this desire allows you to act based on your own authentic values, rather than trying to satisfy an audience, which significantly reduces the mental exhaustion of constant social negotiation. Relying on external validation, whether it's someone finally understanding your pain or admiring your success, makes you emotionally unstable and fragile. If your worth is assigned by others, it can be taken away by them. When you stop reading others to validate your reality, however, your self-worth becomes self-generated and unshakable. Seeking to be understood or pitied stems from a desire for others to mirror our internal feelings. When you release this expectation, criticism or misunderstanding loses its power to ruin your day. You also no longer feel the need to explain or to send yourself to people who may never intend to understand you anyway. According to the self-determination theory, autonomy and self-acceptance are the core drivers of well-being. True peace isn't about being invisible or isolated, it's about being grounded in your own identity, and you no longer feel that you are required to be validated by others. Now, many people have approached this same problem, and so I want to tell you another way that someone helped me long ago, when I was a young man, to learn to begin to control my own mind and emotions, and the fruits have been very good, and I'll tell you about them as we get closer to the end of this message. One of the keys to controlling our mind is to realize that most of us have a civil war going on inside, of desires and fears that we won't get those desires or needs met. For instance, will I be one of the popular people at work or school? Will I be promoted at work? Do my parents love me? Does my spouse love me? Do people respect me? Do they think I'm pretty or good-looking? First, we have to decide to end the almost constant back and forth many of us have in our mind and emotions. We need to decide to end the civil war within and let the peace of God and the joyful life that God intends for us to start to dominate and enter us. Here's some advice that I got, and I want to share it with you. Once we decide to go ahead and fight that civil war and win it, one of the ways is to rise up as a warrior of God that he created us to be and to be alike in pleasure and pain, praise and blame, joy and sorrow, to be a person of discernment and to leave the pairs of opposites behind. This may sound radical, but as you leave this push and pull on your mind and emotions, you enter peace, something that most of us don't have. When we come to peace, we will gradually be flooded with the joy and energy and intelligence of God. I have lived this way for more than 50 years, and it works. I want to give you a little teaching that comes out of a book that Nancy and I wrote called Welcome to the Family Business that illustrates this pretty well. There are two characters, Conal and Skye, and Conal is giving Skye a lecture because she's caught up in the civil war. Conal is a little older and wiser, and he's going to give her some hints on how to end that war and to enter into God's peace. They sat down near a stream. Conal said, "Don't try to do anything," he said, not sharply, almost casually, "Just sit." She glanced over. His blue eyes were calm, almost amused, as if he already knew that she would eventually understand. She remembered feeling slightly foolish, like she should be doing something better than sitting on a rough slab in the woods. "Stop filling the space," he added after a moment. "Let it be empty." She bristled at the word. Empty sounded like loss, like absence, like being left. "I don't mean empty like nothing," he said, as if he had felt the resistance before she spoke it. "I mean empty like a cup, expecting to be filled." They sat there for a long time, long enough for everything else to fade—birds, water, wind higher up the slope. Her breathing, which she only noticed once it slowed. And then, without warning, something shifted. The effort stopped. The part of her that was always managing, bracing, interpreting, and proving stepped aside. It just wasn't needed anymore. The space it left behind did not feel hollow. "That is it," Conal said as they faced the stream. "Don't chase it." She didn't ask what it was. Asking felt unnecessary. Words would have been clumsy there. Later, he stood, pulling something from his pocket—cash, folded once. "Here," he said, placing it in her hand and closing her fingers around it. "Hold this." She looked at him, confused, but did what he said. The bills were still warm from his pocket. "Now," he said, sitting back down, "Say, give it to me." She blinked. "What?" "Say, 'Give it to me.'" So she looked at him and said, "Give it to me." And each time she said it, the words felt stranger, almost embarrassing. She opened her hand and closed it again, fully aware of the money resting there. "I already have it," she finally said. "I know," he replied. But she said it again anyway, "Give it to me." Something in her chest tightened, not from effort, but recognition. The absurdity of it. The unnecessary strain. The way her body still wanted to take what was already hers. "You're fighting for something that was never withheld," he said. "That's what people do with God. They beg for affection, which was given at creation. They fear rejection from a love that never left." She went still. "You know the lines," Conal said, looking at the water. "You had me at hello." She glanced at him. "That's God speaking," he said. "You had Him at hello." A new thought about God landed in her, small but alive, like a seed just planted. They never talked about it again, not directly. And she never told anyone else. The moment felt too exposed. But she carried it along inside of her. And she found a new stillness and a peace and a joy and energy that she'd never had before, though it took a while to unfold. And if you will try these things—and I have lived this way for a very long time—you will find that you're not part of this horrible fight in the society around you. So you rise above it in a way that leaves you free to interact. You don't retreat from life. But you will win more of life's battles with much less effort and be much happier in the meantime. And you'll have long periods of rest, which most of us rarely ever get.

Listen here to this teaching. Today’s class is about drama and our need for significance and to be seen. I’ve been on quite a few mission trips overseas. This particular story happened in Africa, but I’ve seen it in several countries where the people are very poor. The little kids might own one pair of shorts, one good outfit for church, and maybe a broken toy or a flat soccer ball. One thing the little kids always wanted us to do was take their picture. They would say, “Hey mister, take our picture.” They weren’t trying to get money or anything else from us. They simply wanted to be seen—seen as significant. We were taking pictures with digital cameras, and most of the time they never saw the photo, and then we were gone. But to them, it was very important that we took a moment and photographed them. I saw this in several countries, and it occurred to me that this is a deep need in people. I want to talk about this because this need can bring us a lot of good, but it can also cause a great deal of trouble. All of us are born with a need to be seen and to feel significant. Many of us have seen a little baby in a supermarket trying to make eye contact with us—staring deeply, wanting us to look back. They don’t know us, and we don’t know them, but they want to be seen, and they want to matter to us for that moment. As we grow, if we’re left alone or our needs aren’t met, or someone is unkind to us, we begin to starve for attention and help. Even in a fairly happy family, the sibling pecking order can communicate that we are either less important or more important than our brothers and sisters. Even in a very good, healthy family, many of us don’t get what we truly need. God also places in us the need to be connected powerfully to Him. As we grow older, we shift from our parents—who often take God’s place poorly or occasionally quite well—to God Himself, who made us to need His perfect love. The angels and our big Brother, Jesus, are also part of His plan for our connection to Him and to heaven. Some of the dramas I’ve seen in my 30 years as a counselor come from a deep emptiness. And I’ve seen this emptiness in many people who have been regular churchgoers—some for 50 years or more. I have also seen groups of pastors, most over the age of 50 and many with white hair, vying with each other to be first among many—much like the disciples asking Jesus, “Who among us will be first in the kingdom of heaven?” The sad truth is: you cannot communicate what you don’t have. To be fair, they are saved, and they do lead others to salvation, which is very important. Some genuinely have connection with heaven and communication with God and with the angels. But this doesn’t happen often enough. So they can’t give the people in their care what they themselves don’t personally have. I’ll come back to this problem and its solutions in a moment. First, I want to describe the problem that emptiness causes. In my 30 years as a Christian counselor, a few of the dramas people create go like this: “God does not like me and is out to get me.” I had to laugh when I heard this because if God were out to get you, you’d be flat as a pancake—or have leprosy. And this person’s life was actually quite normal. Another person believed they belonged to a large, loving Southern family, even though the dynamics of that family were cold and distant. Another carried a gun to work every day to save coworkers from terrorists. After twenty years without an attack, that gun was probably rusty. Another believed, “Women will reject me very quickly,”  even though he was educated, physically presentable, loved children, and made a good living. Another believed, “Everything always goes wrong for me,”  even though they were healthy, earning over $100,000 a year, and respected at work. Another believed their mother—who beat them—and their father—who sexually abused them—were great parents. When we believe these dramas, we begin to create circumstances that prove them true. They manifest over and over again. Happily, there are some answers to this problem. Let me give a few. First, our Father, God, puts a need and hunger in us to reconnect with Him. This desire drives many of us to find Him, even if we were raised in a heathen environment—this would be my story. There was something in me that deeply wanted to connect with God, and thankfully, it worked. We are significant to Him—and that was true the moment we were born. Most people would fight to the death to protect a helpless baby who can’t even sit up. The significance of human beings is also shown by the fact that in every civilized country, it is a crime to kill a human being—no matter how dilapidated, even if they are homeless. God sees us and feels that we are significant. He is the main Person we are designed to connect with in order to feel that way. And when you feel that way, you will drop a lot of draining, energy-demanding behaviors. You will no longer need people to think you’re cool, powerful, good-looking, or highly desirable. And strangely enough, when you stop needing those things, people often heap them on you. It’s like when you don’t need a credit card—everyone wants to give you one. When you’re not trying to pick people’s pockets emotionally, you have room to actually see others as they are, because you’re no longer staring at yourself in the mirror of your own drama. If you ask God first, “Is this true about me?”  He will begin unwinding those dramas from your soul and your life. A good Christian counselor can help you with this—just make sure they personally have a strong connection with God. A PhD will not necessarily give you someone who knows God. Learn to meditate. Get in contact with your spirit-man. Open the door of prophecy. Learn to quiet your mind. Learn to visit the Father—He will welcome you. Connect with the angels and heavenly beings who are your family. You are never alone. Never insignificant. As I said before, you were significant the moment you were born—and you still are. No less than the moon and the stars,  you have a right to be here. That line from one of my favorite poems nearly made me faint when I was an insecure teenager, reading it for the first time. All these topics are taught on our website and blog, and in the School of the Four Living Creatures, they are addressed in different ways. Or you can book time with Nancy and me, and we can help you learn these things. Truthfully, these things are not learned in a week or a month—but what else do you have to do? The alternative is to play out endless dramas and fantasies that bring you nothing. Denzel Washington recently said that even though he is loved by many, is a very good actor, and extremely rich—none of it matters. Almost like Solomon, he said the only thing that matters is your connection with God. I thought that was pretty awesome for him to say. Reality becomes your greatest joy and power as you learn to rest confidently in the Lord who loves your soul.

Praying Powerfully and Effectively for our Government and Country Listen to this teaching here. This teaching talks about ways to protect yourself and have an aggressive response to evil without falling into witchcraft. Currently we especially need to pray, not only for ourselves but for our whole country and all branches of our government. This technique of prayer is an effective way to stand up to the enemy safely. Some people spend their time being angry at God that He doesn’t change things as if he’s not a good enough Father, That is pretty absurd. People in this world have been given free will and they have a right to exercise that. It is not for us to determine what those limits are. I am going to teach you to take charge of your environment in a godly way that will deal with problems created by people’s choices without you overstepping and attacking their free will. When in prayer we try to manipulate or control others, that is we call charismatic witchcraft. As we discuss the problem of avoiding charismatic witchcraft or Christian witchcraft, I want to give you a powerful way to pray to change things that is actually an aggressive weapon. But it is not manipulative and won’t push us into the consequences of witchcraft. The consequences of witchcraft are extremely destructive. They are not worth having and must be avoided. Unfortunately, some Christian intercessors pray against people in ways that they should not. They suffer for it and get sick or suffer set backs and blame it on Satan thinking it is because they are such good prayers. The problems they suffer are mostly not Satan whose punishing them. It is a consequence from Charismatic witchcraft. God wants them to turn away from that destructive behavior. So I want to tell you about something the Lord showed me that has shown itself to be an extremely powerful way to pray. 20 years ago God taught me this. I've taught this to many people, and there are a couple things I want to say about this powerful way of praying. One is, if I was teaching them something wrong, the Lord has no trouble disciplining me and straightening me out. Throughout my fifty years of walking with Him, He has easily gotten my attention and let me know I must unequivocally quit something I was teaching or doing. And He does it in a way that I can't safely not listen. His discipline of me is strong and certain. One of the by products of hearing His voice clearly is it is serious to ignore His directives. The other part of this is that it's had really good consequences in people's lives, and the Bible does say, “Judge by the fruit.” So now I'll tell you the teaching. When you're praying a prayer to deal with a person responding to a person's behavior or how they're treating you—or a situation (a legal situation, a work situation, even a government situation). You can use this to bring considerable pressure to change things in a way that is positive, powerful and approved of by God. Remember, this technique is not for smaller or inconsequential things. Let me tell you a question one of my counselees asked me. She heard her husband speaking to someone on the phone in a gruff and hostile manner. She started to pray, “My husband speaks to people in a kind and gentle way.” This sounds good but it’s not. She needed to realize that she doesn’t own her husband but is in relationship with him. So the way for her to pray, is to say, “People in my home, speak in a kind and gentle way.” This will help her avoid Charismatic witchcraft. She makes a positive  declaration that she knows lines up with God’s will. Let me give you an example. I was on a mission trip with Randy Clark, and it was my first one, I think. Those mission trips are quite challenging, and even though I'd been a pastor for 20 years, I had never been put before 500 to 1,000 people with a group of maybe 120 of us and just told to pray for healing for this huge group of people who, in Brazil, are extremely pushy and actually rush you. I'm a very big guy, and they would rush me and jam me against the stage so that I would have fallen over flat if there hadn't been a stage behind me to keep that from happening. One of the women on the trip was afraid before we got started because she didn't have a background of praying for healing for people, and none of the new people had a background for praying for so many. She was understandably nervous. Normally, when people are on the trip, particularly the people who've been on a trip before, they will say, “Oh, you're going to be fine. By the end of the night you'll have a whole book full of healings, and you'll see,” basically comforting them and telling them—truthfully—that they are going to succeed, because the Randy Clark method is the best method for healing that I've ever seen, and it works. A woman was pacing around the bus before we got off to go pray for people. This older woman was pacing around, very nervous, and another woman—who was actually a Christian counselor, but she was very negative in the way she spoke. She responded to the older woman, “You're pacing around like a little lost dog.” Instead of comforting her and helping her, she insulted her very much, and the lady took it really hard. I felt that was so out of line, and yet I had no positional authority on that trip. I probably had some of the most spiritual authority, but no temporal authority. On those trips, you can be sent home, but I wasn't one of the deciders of that. I would have loved to send that woman home. So I said, “Oh, no, this is not going to happen on my trip. At that point, I know the Holy Spirit inspired me.” I went up to the Lord and said, “This is your bus. You own the cattle on all the hills, and you own the sky and everything that's underneath it. And because of that, I represent you, so I own all those things. So I own this bus, and the rules on my bus are that people speak to each other in a kind way; people speak to each other in a loving way; people are considerate; people treat each other like they'd like to be treated.” Any biblical positive is fine for you to say. Don't deal in negatives at all. Don't say, “People don't speak in a mean way; people aren't mean.” Just say a series of positives over wherever you are—whether it's your business, your house, your home—it doesn't matter. You can do this within your home. I have clients who have had large trouble within their marriage and start to pray these positives and see their marriage partners changing in a positive way toward these biblical positives. Let's say there's another person there who has as much authority spiritually as you do, or even more. They're not really going to be against biblical policies happening in that territory, so you're not going to conflict with them. So anyway, I said that, and I saw shooting down the center of the aisle strands that looked like razor wire, about two inches thick. They were about 60 feet long—the buses were big; they seated 60 people each. Shining, kind of aluminum-colored, they moved through the center of that bus. The woman who had spoken to the older woman in that unpleasant way lost her voice for three days. That was the manifestation of her running into the barbwire. That calmed her down. When you effectively use barbwire, largely what happens is people will lose their voice or they'll get sick. We don’t hope for that or cause it as if we are cursing those people. No. It is our hope they will repent of their ways and agree with God. It's much more like a barbed wire fence, which is why I call it the spiritual barbed wire. The men who put up barbed wire are not out to hurt their cows. They don't want their cows to be hurt; they want them to be contained in a way that they can be harvested and sold. So you don't want sick cows. In the same way, we're not trying to hurt people, but we are making rules about what is permitted in our territory. And in the Bible, it says to go out and take territory in my name. Well, we don't do that by buying many houses or condos. We take territory by asserting God's influence wherever we are, whether it's at work or at home. I've had many people do this type of praying. Most of the examples have ended up with the people who are acting badly rubbing against this spiritual barbed wire. Sometimes people will turn away from their evil choices. But if not, they may lose their voice, or get sick, or something unpleasant happens to them. Once again, we are not causing that. It is not our fault. If they choose to rub against a barbed wire fence, then there are consequences to that. We're not rubbing it on them. I've never seen God rebuke people for using this or have a consequence. I have seen people repent and turn towards God’s way. People speak like they like to be spoken to. People speak in love. People's hearts are open. People are generous. People are kind—using all biblical positives. Okay, so here are two points I want you to remember. Number one: You can do this because Jesus owns everything, and you, as his proxy, can do it. Because he owns it, you own it. Point two: Only use biblical positives and say them in a general way. You say, “On my bus, people are kind.” You cannot say, “On my bus, Susan is kind.” If you do that, then you are doing witchcraft on Susan, because Susan has free will, and if she wants to not be kind, that is actually her right—even though it's an annoying right. So just use general terms. Do not name people specifically or even necessarily aim at them. This is the Lord’s Prayer in action—‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ We declare what aligns with His will and apply it wherever we carry authority—in other words, in our territory.” There was a man who worked with a client of mine who was the head psychiatrist of a large hospital. He was not an intern but someone in residency, being taught by her how to be a psychiatrist, and he was showing up very inappropriately dressed, unshaven, and he was actually giving prescriptions that were counteractive, one against the other. She was in charge of him—basically the buck stops with her. She told me about it, and I said, “Do the barbed wire.” In just a few days he showed up properly dressed, clean-shaven, sought out her advice, asked her for guidance, started running his prescriptions by her before he gave them, and actually turned into a pretty good psychiatrist. That's was a happy outcome. I have a few little hints about this. Let's say you're a gossip, and you pray that “in my world, people are careful with their speech.” Well, the barbed wire will get you just as easily as someone else. It doesn't care; it's just a fence. So don't pray for things you can't live with, because it doesn't matter who gets the barb, so to speak. But you're not actively cursing people. I've never gotten a consequence for teaching this, and I've never seen a consequence for someone who used it. I encourage you—this is a much better way to pray actively without doing witchcraft against someone who's behaving in a way that absolutely should not be tolerated. Declare God’s will over people and situations. Lately, the warfare in our country has escalated within our government and within the population as a whole in a way that we can no longer sit idly by. At the same time, we don’t want to fall into witchcraft with our prayers. This method is extremely powerful, though it sounds benign and perhaps even weak—but it is not. Here’s what we should do. Let me give you some suggestions. Say: In my world, the people in the House of Representatives are sane, truthful, kind, and they make good decisions. In the same way, pray directly for the Senate: The people in the Senate have common sense. The people in the Senate have the country’s best interests at heart. The people in the Senate love our country. The people in the Senate are honest. They tell the truth and have goodwill toward all the citizens of our country. The laws they make are for the good of everyone. If you apply this, then you can also pray for the whole country. The confusion and the mist of lies in so many of our fellow citizens’ minds need be broken up. Pray people in my country are honest. People in my country hear and recognize the truth. They are moved by the truth. They are moved by love, and they love our country. In this way, we can participate powerfully in our government and in the well being of our country instead of just complaining about it. We are a government by the people and for the people, and so all of this is our territory and concerns us deeply.

By Dr. Nancy Moelk We all carry an inheritance from our ancestors. Our DNA reflects the choices, tendencies, bondages, and strengths of all those who came before us. As the Holy Spirit leads me, I address everything in my bloodline that has welcomed sin into my inheritance. A familiar spirit is a demon that has recognized family patterns passed down through the years. It attaches itself to these habitual sins and keeps the pressure on to continue the family tradition of sinning, generation after generation. To deal with the iniquity in my bloodline, I use several approaches. One is to pray bloodline prayers, especially those addressing the different types of covenants. The book I use for this is Redeeming Your Bloodline: Foundations for Breaking Generational Curses from the Courts of Heaven  by Hrvoje Sirovina and Robert Henderson. I also use a prayer breaking every Masonic curse spoken by any family member who was a Mason. Additionally, I rely on a book that addresses specific generational issues passed down through sinful behavior. The book I use for this is Dangerous Prayers from the Courts of Heaven that Destroy Evil Altars: Establishing the Legal Framework for Closing Demonic Entryways and Breaking Generational Chains of Darkness  by Dr. Francis Myles. If I notice something like resentment or bitterness common in my family, I create my own dangerous prayer using the patterns given in the book. Some of these prayers I say multiple times as led by the Holy Spirit. It is not enough just to say prayers; there needs to be a time period of allowing God to deal with corresponding belief systems and habitual responses or behaviors that help support the demonic stronghold. Another approach I use is based on Robert Henderson’s books on operating in the Courts of Heaven and addressing curses. I think I have read at least six of his books and have said the prayers in them many times. When I started doing all these prayers, I did them simply by faith. Over time, I began to see and feel the Courts of Heaven and had a sense that significant changes were happening within me. Another important spiritual practice is recognizing the relevance and power of communion in setting me free from inherited sin and destructive elements in my DNA and inheritance. Taking communion is receiving the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ into our bodies. His blood is effective for destroying any legal hold that sin—ours or our forefathers’—has over us. His body replaces our brokenness with His wholeness. Not just when we partake of communion, but even when we eat or drink anything, we can speak declarations over ourselves about how these elements are reordering, healing, and restoring our DNA, our bodies, our beliefs, our emotions, and our choices to come into Divine Order. We can do this every day. The more often we do this in faith, trusting that our declarations along with the power of the blood and body of Jesus are effective, the more we will sow health and immortality into our bodies. Here are some sample declarations: I receive the DNA of God as I take this communion (food or drink). I apply God’s DNA to my bones and to my marrow and command them to live. I speak over my genetic record and command it to align with that of Jesus. I apply the blood of Jesus to all patterns of iniquity. I accept God’s light overshadowing me and causing me to be joined with the Lord and to be one spirit with Him. We can also ask the Holy Spirit to send angels to recalibrate our ability for faith, hope, and love back to the innocent, childlike state we once had. Angels are ministering spirits sent by God to assist us in aligning with His purposes. By inviting their help, we open ourselves to Divine intervention that can restore the purity and simplicity of our faith, renewing our capacity to trust, hope, and love as children of God. Further, we can use our breath to remind us of constant communion with God. Every breath we take is from Him and is full of His life and presence. For more information on using communion to cleanse DNA, here is a link from the Mike Parsons website which inspired my information on this topic. https://freedomarc.blog/teaching-series/communion-prayer/ Other resources: Look towards the bottom of this list of books to find those pertaining to bloodline cleansing. Books to Launch You into Heavenly Places

There are places in the Spirit that are more than vision—they’re encounter. The Fire Stones are one such place. They are not symbols. They are living expressions of God Himself—personal, powerful, and present. When you lie upon a Fire Stone, you’re not engaging a spiritual object or an abstract idea. You’re encountering Him —His heart, His nature, His voice, His very being—in a form you can receive. Each Fire Stone carries an attribute of His essence: ·        He is Love. ·        He is Joy. ·        He is Peace. ·        He is Patience. ·        Etc. He is all these things—not just in theory, but in a way you can feel and soak into. What Are the Fire Stones? The Fire Stones are nine living stones that form a radiant pathway leading to the throne room of God. They aren’t cold or hard like rock. They are warm and alive—substantial yet yielding, like the surface of a firm mattress or a quiet pool of light. They’re large enough to lie down on—about the length of a surfboard—and each one is lit with soft, holy flames that rise from their surface. These flames do not burn; they heal. And you can sink into them. Some who have seen them describe fire pouring from the chest of the Father, cascading down and forming the stones—a river of presence solidified into steppingstones of divine encounter. These stones exist to bring you closer to Him, piece by piece, encounter by encounter. They are His way of saying, “Come closer, and I will not overwhelm you. Let Me give you Myself in ways your heart can hold.” Each Stone Is an Invitation There are nine stones, each bearing the name and nature of one of the fruits of the Spirit—not as virtues to imitate, but as manifestations of God Himself: ·        Love ·        Joy ·        Peace ·        Patience ·        Kindness ·        Goodness ·        Faithfulness ·        Gentleness ·        Self-Control These are not abstract traits. They are who He  is. When you lie on the Stone of Joy, you are resting in His joy —His joy over who you are and His joy over His connection with you. When you soak in the Stone of Faithfulness, you are being held by the One who never left your side—not once, even when others did. Why the Fire Stones Matter Fire Stones are all about transformation of being, and that transformation unfolds through ongoing surrender—as a living sacrifice. We go up into heaven, into the tabernacle, and enter the Holy of Holies. It is there we present ourselves—not merely here on earth. There, we are willing to lay on the altar before Jesus and allow Him to do whatever surgery is needed on our hearts. We receive His direction and encouragement there—His equipping to live lives of joy and satisfaction, which are not about doing, but about resting and becoming  in union with Him. Many of us carry wounds from unfaithfulness—from churches that failed us, families that turned away, leaders who broke trust. The Stone of Faithfulness is not a concept to study. It is a living presence to restore you. As you rest in that presence, it begins to gently detach your soul from places you were never meant to depend on and reattach you to the One who cannot betray you. This is what the Fire Stones do. They take the grand, overwhelming reality of God and offer it to you one layer at a time—so you can soak, absorb, and be healed. A Personal Illustration Here’s an example from my own life. I (Nancy) had been deeply disappointed—wounded, really—by people and places that were supposed to be safe. Churches, ministries, friends, and family who, for one reason or another, just weren’t faithful. I didn’t realize how much I had been trying to get from people what only God could give me. The first thing that happened on the Faithfulness Stone was the Holy Spirit revealing my heart to me in this matter—it is possible to walk around ignoring our own hardness of heart over woundings. After engaging God for a while, I was ready to let go of my demands on people. I laid on the Stone of Faithfulness—I wasn’t even sure what I needed. But as I rested there, something began to happen. I wasn’t just thinking about God’s faithfulness—I was experiencing  it. His presence came in waves. Gentle but persistent. Healing but not overwhelming. It was like He was slowly gathering the shattered places inside me and drawing them back into Himself. That Stone— He —began to detach me from unhealthy dependencies and expectations I had unknowingly formed. And at the same time, He started reattaching my soul to His unchanging love. It didn’t happen all at once. It happened like soaking. Like mending. One thread of trust at a time. This is what the Fire Stones do. They take the vast, eternal heart of God and offer it to you in portions you can hold—so you can soak, absorb, and be healed. How to Engage the Fire Stones: A Meditation Journey You don’t have to force anything. Just come with openness and a whisper of faith. God will meet you. Step 1: Ask Him to Lead You Quiet yourself. Breathe. Then simply say: "Father, take me to the Fire Stones.” You may begin to see them—or just sense them. Don’t worry if the details are faint. His Spirit will guide you. Step 2: Lie on the First Stone Let Him choose which one you need first. It may be Love. It may be Peace. Or it may be Faithfulness. Say: "Father, let me receive this part of You.” Then lie down in your spirit. Feel the flames of His presence rising up into your body, your emotions, your mind. Let it sink into places where you’ve been empty. There’s no rush. Step 3: Move to the Next Stone When you feel ready, stand. Walk forward. Each step is an ascent toward greater union. You don’t leave behind what you gained—you carry it with you. Love combines with Joy. Joy flows into Peace. One becomes many, and many become One. Step 4: Ask the Angels to Lift You When you’ve received all your heart can hold, speak aloud: “Angels, take me to the throne room.” And they will. You may feel yourself lifted under the arms, like a child, and drawn upward into a place where all the Fire Stones converge in the radiant presence of the Father. There, you can rest. There, you can ask.There, you can be . What to Expect You may cry. You may laugh. You may feel nothing—and find later that something deep has shifted. Trust the process. The Fire Stones work because He  is faithful. He is the Rock from which everything is carved. He is the Flame. He is the One waiting for you at the end of the path—and with you at every step of it. This is not about technique. It’s about encounter . And there’s room for you.

Audio file You have likely heard teachings about renewing the mind and setting your mind on the things above. Most of the teachings I have heard seem to focus on what NOT to think about, what not to expose yourself to, what not to pursue. Suggestions for what you SHOULD think about are focused on reading the Bible, praying often, going to church, reading Christian books, etc. Let’s look at ways of renewing your mind that combine your faith, your imagination, and your will. Faith starts with the end result God imagined you in his heart before the world ever was. [i] He was already seeing the end result of you being with Him in heaven. He is not limited by time. He calls us holy and blameless because he is seeing the end result of your union with Christ. The Bible is full of examples where things are declared long before they manifest into reality. [ii] Faith is evidence of something you are hoping for and a firm conviction or something not seen. [iii] The way we see these things that are not seen in the natural is by our imagination. We begin by imagining God’s presence and intervention in whatever circumstance, relationship, problem, possibility, etc. that we are in presently. That is our starting point. If we see ourselves as being weak in faith and hopeless, then we need to imagine our starting point as believing God loves us and wants to help us. We imagine the person of Christ dwelling right there in our situation and offering us his faith, his character, his resources. Your imagination is the eyes of your heart. The truth is our imagination is meant to play an important role in both the renewing of the mind and in our ability to set our minds on things that are in heaven (above).[iv] Imagination bridges the gap between what you know to be true and what you are actually experiencing. [v] [iv] Imagination bridges the gap between what you know to be true and what you are actually experiencing. [v] “I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling” [vi] Our imagination can create a space to receive something new and wonderful. Our imagination is like a house waiting to be filled with furnishings. If it has been filled with nasty, negative things like worry, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, hopelessness, etc. then those things will have to be thrown out. The Holy Spirit is more than happy to help with that. He is your joyful interior decorator and handyman. He will engage your imagination to go back over each episode where you didn’t feel God’s presence and intervention and give you a different perspective. This time, you will see him providing you with hope and restoration in that part of your soul. Over time, you will begin to practice imagining and declaring positive things instead of negative. This is where you use your will. Here is an example of using the imagination to engage with the Jesus using the first few verses of Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd. I will lack no good thing. He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul." Click here to listen. See also Seated in the Heavenly Places in Christ. We choose what to highlight and focus on in life The world’s way is to focus on the negative and highlight all that is wrong. This is opposite of God’s kingdom where we are encouraged to focus on what is right and worthy of praise.[vii] The reason we do that isn’t just to pretend. Our positive declarations and expectations are creating an atmosphere for God’s presence to come in and have his way. Persistent and consistent imagination nurtures and nourishes the seed [of God’s word] until it is birthed. [viii] [vii] The reason we do that isn’t just to pretend. Our positive declarations and expectations are creating an atmosphere for God’s presence to come in and have his way. Persistent and consistent imagination nurtures and nourishes the seed [of God’s word] until it is birthed. [viii] Pay attention to your thinking and your words. Are they constantly referring to God’s ability to be present and figure things out? Are they focused on how God sees a person or situation? Spending time with God and asking him to show you what is going on in the heavenly dimension will open your eyes to the deeper reality of each circumstance, of every person. This will take practice and the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. We are not describing an instant fix. Go to the post of resources and choose one of the recommended books and study it. Use it to give your thinking some renewal as you apply the concepts presented in the book. No matter where you start, the Holy Spirit will honor your effort and guide you through a transformation adventure. Don’t sit and wait for God to step in and do something. Be proactive and put effort into doing things differently. Your subconscious mind can only recirculate what has already been placed in it. To renew our minds, we need a new infusion of perspective, truth, hope, pictures. Use the word of God to give you scenarios to feed your imagination with hopeful and faith filled expectations. A prayer to cleanse the imagination [ix] Thank you, Heavenly Father, for creating me in your image and giving me an imagination. I repent for any misuse of my imagination: for trying to escape reality, for negativity, for worrying, for bitterness and resentment. I forgive others who have defiled my imagination by negativity, abuse, or neglect. I bring my imagination under your supervision. I reject unbelief and skepticism. My regular mind can’t understand things of the spirit. I want my spirit to inform my mind. I renounce any ways I have cursed myself by making limiting and unbelieving statements about my life and possibilities. And I forgive anyone who has shut down my imagination, stole my dreams or clipped my spiritual wings. I receive the cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ over my imagination. I submit myself and my imagination to you, my God. I am one with you and I now want to use my imagination with wisdom and intent to manifest your kingdom here and create an atmosphere where you are welcome. “The Lord gave us an imagination to be used to encounter him.” [x] Every child has a great capacity to see things with their imagination. Adults assume none of what they see is real. Unfortunately, the monster under the bed or in the closet might be a demon! I have spoken to many people who have seen angels as a child. When I was about 8 years old, I woke up in the middle of the night and there was an angel standing beside my bed praying for me. My husband, Gary, remembers crying in his room at 3 years old when Jesus walked into the room to comfort him. I don’t think these stories are unusual. God placed the innate quality of imagination which is so heightened in children as a link between this dimension and the heavenly dimension. When my grandchildren were younger I would have them close their eyes and imagine Jesus ministering to them. I would have them ask him to help them feel his presence and hear his voice. We can take a Scripture such as “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” [xi] . We can use our imagination to engage with God. Picture a father who is loving and full of mercy. Mercy means he is compassionate instead of wanting to harm you. What is the look on his face as he gazes at you? Imagine his accepting smile as he welcomes you into his arms. Feel him with your imagination holding you and comforting you. You can see yourself as a small child sitting on his lap and resting your head on his chest. [xii] Or you may have a whole different set of pictures. You are not making up something that isn’t true. You are calling forth the reality of heaven into your earthly existence, are you not? The more we utilize our imaginations to connect to the reality of heaven, the stronger we will become in creating an atmosphere and being a portal where heaven can come to earth through us. Read Revelation 4 and imagine you are interacting with everybody in the throne room. One of the wonderful things about heaven is that everyone there carries God’s attitude about us. They love us and want to help us. They pray for us and long for us to come into our full potential. Just imagining that you have such an amazing family in heaven can lift your mood on the worst day. The imagination is a fantastic resource to us. It may need some cleansing and retraining but the basic facility is still powerful and capable of great good. The resources listed at the end of this article will give you more help in retraining your imagination. “What you see in your imagination will become your reality. What you see in your mind has the power to shape what you do. It shapes your actions. The more you see it in your mind, the greater the power that image has over you” [xiii] My common practice in prayer is to discern what is God’s will and then declare [xiv] that it be so. I then imagine that answer coming about. I use my imagination together with the faith God has given me to expect and welcome God’s intervention. Years ago, I needed to learn how to use Quick Books Pro for our ministry. I had no training in accounting at all. I began thanking God and imagining a person who would help me with it. I searched online for information. After a couple of months, I stumbled on a website about QBP for ministries. The man behind this website was more than willing to answer my questions and offered to set up my books and teach me how to use the program! When I asked him what he used to do, he said he was a retired CPA who specialized in helping ministries use Quick Books Pro! Our imaginations have great power to shape our reality. Scripture is full of encouragement to imagine good and not evil. Worry and negativity are destructive uses of the imagination. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” [xv] We can use all of the amazing stories in the Bible as gateways to spiritual encounters. I have read the chapter on the transfiguration of Jesus and imagined I was there with Peter, James and John experiencing the light coming off of Jesus and Moses and Elijah. As I soak up that heavenly atmosphere, it rejuvenates me. Another example is the story in 1 Samuel 19. The anointing from Samuel and his group of prophets in Naioth at Ramah was so strong that it overcame King Saul as well as several soldiers sent to hunt David. I have imagined myself getting to hang out with Samuel and his group of prophets. I ask God to put some of their anointing on me for prophecy. Once we step out of this dimension, time is no longer a factor. Quantum physics affirms this. We will be so much better off allowing our childlike imagination to steer us into heavenly encounters rather than allowing our negative adult mind to anticipate worry and harm. We need to have childlike faith in the heavenly dimension. We must believe it exists and welcomes us. Jesus did say that unless we become like a little child, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. [xvi] Your childlike nature is buried somewhere inside yourself. Ask God to bring it forward and help you reconnect to that vital part of yourself. A prayer to activate your imagination “Heavenly Father, I want to encounter you. I want to see you with my imagination. Cleanse my imagination of any and all destructive patterns and memories. Rejuvenate my childlike character. Help me to be imaginative, trusting, open to intimacy and comfortable with being dependent on you. Give me many moments with you, Father… and with Jesus… and with the Holy Spirit. Teach me how to do this and lead me to the right resources. In Jesus name.” Resources to move you forward I want to refer you to some authors who give us some positive ways to use our imaginations in bringing every thought captive to Christ. [x] Steve Backlund encourages us to declare the reality we want to see in our lives rather than complain about our lives as if we had no ability to change them. “Declarations” is one of his books which I found particularly helpful. Wendy Backlund has a great book on the imagination called “ Living from the Unseen Realm ”. I have quoted in this article from Virginia Killingsworth’s “Miracles are Normal: Co-creating Through Oneness with Christ.” This is a wonderful book but will take some effort to apply in your life. I am reading it for the third time and still finding new ways to incorporate it into my spiritual practices. Have fun and remember the Holy Spirit wanting to dance with you all the way! PDF of article [i] See Ephesians 1. [ii] See Abraham’s story, Gideon’s story, David’s story, Jeremiahs prophecies about Jerusalem, prophecies about Jesus, etc. [iii] See Hebrews 11:1. [iv] Colossians 3:2. [v] Miracles are Normal: Co-creating Through Oneness with God by Virginia Killingsworth , pg. 119. [vi] Ephesians 1:18 TPT [vii] Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” [viii] Miracles are Normal: Co-creating Through Oneness with God by Virginia Killingsworth , pg. 144. [ix] This prayer is a paraphrase of one from this book. Miracles are Normal: Co-creating Through Oneness with God by Virginia Killingsworth , pg. 149-150. [x] Ibid. [xi] 2 Corinthians 1:3b-4a [xii] See the post Sitting in the Heavenly Realms with Christ . [xiv] See resources by Steve Backlund at end of article. [xv] Philippians 4:8, NIV. [xvi] See Matthew 18.