Supernatural Diagnosis

For the supernatural Christian, there's nothing more frustrating than seeing one person after another healed and then praying for someone who isn't. You release power. You exercise authority. You kick out a demon but the symptoms remain. It's natural to wonder what happened. What am I missing? What am I overlooking? The keys to divine healing continue to elude you.

I'd like to offer an analogy that may shed light on the real nature of the problem:

When a patient arrives in the Emergency Department, whether they have a gunshot wound or a fever, a systematic evaluation is done to determine what their problem is and what should be done about it. A doctor does a physical exam and obtains a history from the patient. Vital signs are obtained and diagnostic tests are done. An X-ray or CT scan is obtained. An ultrasound may be done and bloodwork is ordered. The physician gathers as much information as possible then arrives at a diagnosis and puts together a treatment plan based on their findings.

This is the standard approach to emergency medicine. When used properly, it's an effective way to diagnose and treat someone you know nothing about. It's effective because it's systematic. The interview, assessment, and tests are standardized. There's little variability from one patient to the next. Which means a doctor is less likely to overlook something, accidentally.

Because this is how I was trained as a paramedic, I use a similar approach for healing.

Increasing our effectiveness in healing and deliverance is a matter of developing a standardized approach. We begin by creating a list of tools that we know are effective and then making sure we're employing all of them. The list of tools would include such things as identity, faith, power, authority, and emotional healing. 

Standardization doesn't remove the Holy Spirit from the equation. Quite the opposite. One of the tools is revelation from God about the specific problem we're facing.

A few years ago, I created a list of keys to divine healing. I wrote a blog post on the 8 that I had come up with at the time. The list soon expanded to 12 and then to 15 items. Today, it stands at 18.

I recorded a message where I discuss the keys to divine healing that I use today. If you know what they are and how to operate in all of them, your effectiveness in healing will dramatically increase.

The message is available as an MP3 download here on my website. If you'd like to check it out, click on this link.

-- Praying Medic

Time to Grow Up

A wise man once said “faithful are the wounds of a friend.” I need to tell you something that may hurt a little, because I care about you as a friend.

I think it's wise to seek prayer from friends for our problems, whether they're health-related, relational or whether they fall into some other category. Prayer is a powerful thing. But there are problems that cannot be resolved by the prayers of our friends alone.

I have many friends who suffer from chronic aches, pains and illnesses and I have other friends whose relationships have been blown to pieces. When everything seems to be falling apart, there's a temptation to cry out to friends to pray for our problems to be fixed once and for all. Let me reiterate that I am not against prayer, because what I'm about to say next could be misinterpreted as that.

Many of us have not yet learned how to stand against the enemy in our battle against recurring sickness and most of us are responsible for our own recurring relationship problems. Let's take a look at sickness first.

The battle against recurring sickness is something like how we might deal with a criminal who repeatedly breaks into our home. Jesus used this illustration when teaching about how and why demons return to a person after being cast out of them in Luke chapter eleven.(See Luke 11:21-26)

When a burglar breaks into our home, we have a couple of ways in which we can respond. One option is to stand by helplessly and let them take our property and beat us senseless while waiting for the police to show up. An untrained and ill-equipped believer who relies on friends or the anointed "man of God" to pray for them is like a defenseless homeowner at the mercy of a burglar.

Evil spirits are opportunistic, just like burglars. They size up their potential victims and evaluate their defenses. A burglar looks for signs of vulnerability. They look for alarm systems, ease of access, unlocked doors and windows, the absence of a dog, and the likelihood that the homeowner will be armed. They look for homeowners that are the least likely to fight back. Demons do the same thing.

People who refuse to be trained in spiritual warfare or who never learned how to exercise their authority over the enemy are like homeowners who refuse to secure their homes or fight back against an intruder. They make themselves easy targets for evil spirits and once word gets out in the demonic community that they're an easy target - they can expect to be harassed by even more evil spirits. That's the message Jesus illustrated in His teaching in Luke chapter eleven.

When it comes to healing - many of us are content to let someone else deal with the bad guys. It's easier to find the anointed man of God to pray for us than it is to learn how to withstand the attacks of enemy ourselves. The problem is that Jesus gave every believer the power and authority they need to defeat the enemy, without going to someone else for help. Recurring problems with sickness and disease are the result of us refusing to take our responsibilities seriously.

You can plead with your friends to pray for your healing all you want - but if you never learn to exercise the authority God has given you over sickness, you're never going to remain healed. The spirits that bring  sickness will continue to assault you until you learn to take authority over them yourself.

I have a friend who once asked the Holy Spirit "How do you see cancer?"

The Holy Spirit replied, "I can't see cancer because it's under my feet. I want it to be under your feet."

The enemy is going to continue to beat us up until we learn to put him under our feet once and for all. I'm preaching to myself here as my wife and I don't always do this ourselves, but we're learning.

My wife was recently healed of back pain when she finally understood that the things she thought about herself , about her symptoms, and about God's desire to heal her were allowing the enemy to continue to attack her and keep her in pain.

The first problem was that she couldn't bring herself to believe she was healed as long as she still felt pain. This is a bit of a murky problem because sometimes people feel pain in response to a physical problem, while other times the sensation of pain is due only to the presence of a spirit.  To further complicate things - she had an MRI that showed two herniated discs. You might think that as long as she has herniated discs, she must resign herself to living with the pain. We know of people who have an MRIs showing herniated discs but they had no symptoms of the injury. She began to ask, "If some people have herniated discs and don't have pain, why can't I be one of them?"

She also wasn't completely sure at that point that God wanted to heal her. One day she decided to believe that God really did want to heal her and she entertained the idea that perhaps she was already healed. She accepted the fact that it was her beliefs and not God's reluctance to heal her that was the problem. So she chose to believe that she was healed. She also chose to see the pain she was experiencing as a lie from the enemy. Once she got her thinking straightened out, it removed the power the enemy had over her and the pain immediately left.

One of the major lessons we've learned is that the enemy only has the power over us that we allow him to have. Being healed and keeping the symptoms from returning is a battle. Most of the warfare is done on the six inch battlefield between our ears. Now let's take a look at problems with relationships.

Many of us cry out to our friends or to God to have our relationship problems fixed, rather than take an honest look at ourselves and admit that we're the ones responsible for our problems. God is not going to take away the consequences of our bad decisions. As we sow, we shall also reap. Many of us are reaping the consequences of manipulation, co-dependency, selfishness, immaturity and a failure to walk in our God-given identity.

Relationship problems are cyclical. The habits we've developed over our lifetime create the same dynamics (for good or bad) in all our relationships. When the same problems arise repeatedly, instead of  blaming others or crying out to God to fix the other person, we need to look at why we are bearing bad fruit. The fruit of our relationships is determined by the condition of our heart. It is only by changing the way in which we relate to others that the cycle of relationship problems will end. It's a sign of spiritual immaturity to blame others for our problems or to expect someone else to fix them. We must be the one who makes the change.

Most of us have a lot of growing up to do. It's time to take the training wheels off and learn how to live as mature children of God.

Transition

As we leave one season and look forward to the start of another, there is a short time of transition; a bridge if you will, that must be crossed.

There are things from the last season that we should keep and just as many that we should leave behind. Take an inventory. Don't be afraid to leave things behind. You'll be picking up better things, soon.

The assignments of the last season must be forgotten. There are new ones you must learn and be equipped for. Resist the comfortable, familiar flow that would keep you living in the past.

This time can be seen as a bridge.

We are done with the last chapter, but we can't begin the next one. The time has not yet come to enter it. We are now on the bridge between seasons.

The bridge is not really a season itself. It's the time between seasons, when we must move from one, toward another, being 'in' neither of them.

It's a time of having your wounds from the last season healed and a time of preparing for the challenges that lie ahead. The more you allow yourself to be healed from the past, the better you will do in the future.

The challenges and assignments in the next season require you to be re-armed and re-equipped with different weapons, tactics & strategies. What worked in the past will not work in the future. The landscape of the future and and opposition you'll face will be dramatically different. Now is the time to get prepared.

We're on the bridge. Don't set up camp. We're not staying here long. We're just passing through.

"Last Days" Prophecies - A Different Perspective

With all the ominous prophetic words being released these days, I wanted to reconsider the theology we use to interpret and apply prophetic declarations and suggest that perhaps an alternative view might allow us to see them in a better light.

You don't have to look very far to find prophets declaring a future that looks pretty bleak. There are thousands of prophetic words in circulation that foretell massive earthquakes, tsunamis, wars and famine. With all these declarations of gloom and doom, it's hard to have an optimistic view of the future. It occurred to me that maybe we need to take a fresh look at the process we use to evaluate, interpret and apply prophetic words.

When we look at prophecies, we need to do a few things according to Scripture:

1) We must discern whether or not they're from God.
2) We must discern if they're being interpreted and applied correctly.
(See 1 Cor 14:29)

For some, these prophetic words portray an expansion of the kingdom of darkness. Many hold a view that it is not the kingdom of darkness that will increase as we move forward, but the kingdom of light. Seeing a conflict with a victorious view of eschatology, they dismiss these prophetic words as rubbish.

So let me propose an alternative explanation that supports a victorious eschatology and validates these prophetic words.

The major objection to these prophecies is the idea that through catastrophic events, God is judging a sinful, rebellious world. If you understand that God has removed the sin of the world and it's judgment at the cross, you should understand that there is no more need for judgment. So why would God continue to judge mankind through catastrophic events?

Jason Westerfield's Revelation
Not long ago, I listened to a message from Jason Westerfield where he discussed the revelation he'd received from God concerning the earthquakes in Christ Church, New Zealand, where he lives. The revelation he received was that the earthquakes resulted not from God's judgment on man, but on the removal of powers of darkness that had been reigning over those places. I apologize for my inability to recall the details of exactly how the powers of darkness were defeated, but the short story is - they were defeated (or perhaps judged) and then removed. In the process of being removed from their place of power, they created some earthquakes in that region.

Jason is a well-known and trusted prophetic voice. If his revelation is true, then the catastrophic events that happen in the earth may be attributed to something other than God's wrath. They may instead, be a result of us waging warfare successfully against the kingdom of darkness. And if that is the case, then the prophetic words about catastrophes, need to be re-examined in light of this revelation.

The next thing I'd like to consider is how we might accomplish the task of removing the powers of darkness over a region.

I don't engage in direct warfare against the powers of darkness in the heavens over my region. I've never received revelation from God on how to do that, nor has He told me that it's my responsibility. But I do have friends who engage in such warfare. They've been given protection and revelation on how to do it and not get killed. I think there may be a means to accomplish that objective in a way that doesn't expose us to the kind of danger we'd encounter by visiting the enemy's turf.

Ian Clayton - The Courts of Heaven
If you're familiar with Ian Clayton, you probably know that he has a series of lectures on the courts of heaven. (If you're interested in hearing this teaching, there is a link at the bottom of the note to the podcast) Clayton teaches that we, as believers, have access to the courts of heaven. We can bring a case before the court and ask for a ruling. Clayton has appeared in court and asked that his adversary appear with him, citing the principle found in Zec 3:1-2, where Satan appeared beside Joshua, the high priest.

Clayton says that if we stand in a heavenly court and ask that judgment be delivered, while standing under the covering of God's testimony, (which prevents judgment from falling on us) the judgment falls only on our adversary. He points out that it's dangerous to appear before the court on our own merit, as justice is blind and will fall upon us if we're not standing under the covering of God's testimony. He goes on to say that once our adversary is judged, he is removed from the place he held power over and that seat of power is given to us. This is a key point - the powers of darkness must be removed from their place of power and the seat of power given to a son of God.

This example could be used by anyone who is willing to take the spiritual forces over their region to court. The good news is - the powers of darkness are de-throned. The bad news is - they seldom leave without causing a little damage. In being de-throned, they may stir up a hurricane, for example. Remember that Jesus rebuked a storm at sea, which tells us that storms can be a tool of the enemy. The enemy may also create floods, volcanoes and earthquakes.

Clayton teaches that one of the things we must do is to mitigate the damage done by the powers of darkness as they depart the scene. It's not enough for us to occupy the seat of power. We must also pray for as little damage to occur in the earth as possible.

It wouldn't be hard to imagine the consequences to the earth if hundreds or thousands of these rulers of darkness were removed in a short period of time. There would be wide-spread and potentially devastating destruction around the globe, if we fail to mitigate the damage in the process of having them removed. If the powers of darkness were cast down to the earth - all hell would break loose down here and we might expect an increase in demonic activity and persecution of the saints. Mike Bickle had a dream not long ago, where he saw this exact scenario take place. The dream was recorded on February 13, 2009.

Mike's Bickle's Dream
"I had a long, vivid prophetic dream. I woke up at 2:30 AM with a deep sense of reality.

In this dream I was in an outdoor conference with maybe 40,000 people. The conference venue was in an outdoor baseball stadium in a large fair ground. I was preaching on prayer, power and end-time judgment. I spoke at the two afternoon sessions. Leaders and their people from many different charismatic streams were there. I remember seeing Bill Johnson and his people at the conference. We were enjoying warm fellowship together.

In the break between the sessions, some were debating whether what I was preaching was right or wrong. IHOP people were talking to some from the various charismatic streams in the Body of Christ. They were debating in a friendly way about God’s power and prayer and its relationship to end-time judgment. There was no hostility but sincere debate with most of the people talking with humility and love. It was actually enjoyable.

I finished preaching after the second session about 5 PM, when the events of Rev. 12:7-9 began to occur. Demonic principalities were being cast to the earth. They looked like very large snakes (over 100 yards long and 50 feet thick) with large heads that looked like a dragon. Many of them were descending from the sky down to the earth. No one at the conference had sufficient understanding or faith to respond in power and confidence. All the leaders and the people in the various charismatic streams ran in fear and confusion, including the IHOP people.

These snake-like-principalities were filled with rage against the people. These were angry and even humiliated about being confined to the earth."

(There is more that Mike shares on his dream. If you're interested in reading the entire message, there is a link at the bottom of the note.)

If we put these concepts together, we can see that all of these "prophecies of doom"  could indeed happen, and they would not be the result of God's wrath upon mankind, but the result of His children taking their rightful place of authority over their respective geographic regions.

Now I'd like to consider one last point....

Revival
Along with prophecies of natural disaster, there have been prophecies that speak of a great "last days" revival. Many believe it will be the greatest revival of all time. I can't help but wonder if that revival isn't the reward God has in store for us for the time when we get our act together as a body and storm the gates of hell like Jesus said we would. If there were to be a massive removal of the powers of darkness from the heavens, it may be the thing that ushers in an unprecedented release of God's glory in the earth. Yes, there would probably be some chaos, but the light shines brightest in the darkness.

This scenario is (more or less) what a lot of prophetic folks have seen in terms of a "last days" scenario, albeit from a different perspective. Personally, I think we need to see things from a different perspective. I think there is a way to integrate the present prophetic words that seem to indicate 'doom and gloom' with a victorious eschatology.

The key to developing such a view is to permit ourselves to think outside the box of traditional interpretations and to pull together the pieces of revelation others have so that the picture becomes larger than just the piece we've been given.

Do We Have The Answers?

My wife and I were reviewing our dream journals, when I ran across this entry:

I had two dreams; in the first dream I saw a computer screen. People were scared and looking for answers on the internet. They were frustrated, but their frustration was borne out of fear. I knew that we must be the ones with the answers to calm their fears. In the second dream, I was in a dark house with my brothers; Peter and Paul. We were lighting explosives and throwing them at each other, trying to blow one another up.

As economic instability, civil unrest and natural disaster grab the headlines, fear is increasing in the world. And the world is already looking for answers.

Do we have the answers they need?

The body of Christ believes it does. Facing foreclosure, we tell our friends that God is able to make them prosper. After spending our paycheck on medications, we insist Jesus will set them free. And we marvel at their unbelief.

We argue over doctrine and slander our brothers and sisters over their ‘unbiblical’ behavior then try to convince the unsaved of how loving the body of Christ is. How dark indeed is the house in which the apostles dwell.

The church leans heavily on salvation as its main message and rightly so. But the reality of the kingdom of God is more than just salvation. To a nation on the verge of starvation, a church that can’t put bread on the table may not have a relevant message. To a village crippled with thousands of sick and injured people, a Jesus who can’t heal is of little use. To a state in bankruptcy, living under martial law, Jehova Jireh is the God who must be demonstrated.

The gospel of salvation must be demonstrated with signs of power, even more so in times of crisis. The power of God reveals his goodness toward man. Is it not the goodness of God that brings men to repentance?

For a season, the children of the kingdom have been learning to walk in the authority given to them at the cross. We’re seeing greater healing miracles, multiplication of food, financial miracles and more people are venturing into spiritual transportation. These things are supposed to be the normal kingdom lifestyle. The problem is consistency. Except in a few places like Zimbabwe and Redding, these things aren’t widely or consistently being demonstrated. That has to change and it needs to happen quickly.

The kingdoms of the world are crumbling before our eyes. But we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Our response to the destruction of the kingdoms of the world is to demonstrate the reality and superiority of God’s kingdom. As the world grows darker, the intensity of our light must increase.

What does that look like?

If our health care system fails and the sick and injured plead for their lives, we must be able to heal them.

As mobs empty store shelves, we must be able to take the few loaves of bread left and feed a multitude.

As gas stations close because gas is no longer being delivered, we must be able to fill gas tanks by faith.

As volcanic ash clouds shut down air travel for months, we must be able to transport supernaturally to conduct kingdom business.

All the miraculous things that are being done sporadically today must become normal, daily activities for every believer in the future. We must be trained and ready to function in whatever way needed when the day of calamity arrives.

Time is short. Prophetic information is revealing difficult days ahead. It’s imperative that we resist the spirit of fear. If we are prepared, there is nothing for us to fear. Our greatest opportunities to advance God’s kingdom may lie before us, if we take advantage of them.

God Is In Control....Isn't He?

by Praying Medic
I've been engaged in discussions with people about who exactly is in control of things; God or us. I'd like to share with you a brief explanation of my thoughts on the matter. You're welcome to disagree, but please do so respectfully. I'm writing this as a reference for future discussions. I'll examine only one aspect of the question, though there are others that may be considered.

The scripture teaches that God is an all-powerful, all-knowing being. These attributes are particularly well - illustrated in the Old Testament. I'm not arguing that this revelation is wrong. I would argue that it's incomplete, if you fail to consider what the gospels have to say about the nature of God and his dealings with man.

When Jesus came to earth, He revealed mysteries about the nature of God in the parables of the kingdom. In the parable of the wicked vinedressers, (Matt 21) He confronted the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, but He also revealed that God is one who leaves things in the hands of His servants for a season. Those He leaves in control are free to do as they please with the things He entrusts to them. From this parable, we see that God delegates a level of responsibility and authority to His servants. The parable of the talents (Matt 25) illustrates the same principle. Adam was given authority and dominion over the earth, but failed to rule wisely and suffered the consequences. Adam had been given a real assignment with real consequences that rested on his shoulders. Like Adam, we still exercise a measure of rule over the things that happen here on earth.

Jesus said all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him, (Matt 28:18) but He delegated some of that authority to us. (Luke 10:19) The kingdom of God is a realm where God truly does give power and authority to his servants to do as they see fit; for better or worse. Some use it for the advancement of the kingdom, some do not. God requires an account from everyone at the end of the age.

I am not endorsing deism. But I can't go along with the idea that I'm a helpless being, devoid of authority and that God is in absolute control of every detail of my life. We are His ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20). As such we're representatives of His kingdom. An ambassador knows the King he represents and how His kingdom operates. We're given a measure of freedom as representatives to establish His kingdom and enforce His will, here on earth.

I've been amazed at the freedom God has given me in the way I live out my Christian experience. Several years ago, He started giving me dreams about the things I might do. At first, I thought everything He showed me was something I would do. But I've come to realize some of them were things He offered and I chose not to do them, choosing something else instead. Once I said 'no' to them, He came along side me and said, "If you're interested in that, I can use you there, too." He then revealed how He would use me in that area. God gives us choices. After we make a choice, He'll give an assignment. It's up to us to choose the area and accept or reject the assignment. If we accept, it's up to us to decide how it's carried out.

A friend and I often say, "God is in control, but he left us in charge."