Paranormal Connections

You may or may not be aware of my involvement with "Now Interpret This!"  We teach dream interpretation and prophetic ministry, as well as provide a dream interpretation service for regular folks who need it and/or want to support our outreaches. We have always had interns scattered all over the country, or even the world, but I recently got assigned an intern that is not unreasonably far away from me.  We can actually get together in person every once in awhile. 

Our last get-together was to take a trip to a new age fair.  We are looking at places to get some practice and break out of ministry to only Christians.  We found out about this opportunity too late but decided to go anyway and make some friends and see if this is something we would want to do next year. 

We walked through and were seemingly invisible to all except a little paranormal girl.  She was overseeing a booth for the local Paranormal Society and had lots of photos set up on the table.  If you've followed this blog long, you know I'm all over that!  I book it on over there and she's showing me all her spirit photography.  The first one I looked at had a picture of a guy sitting on some stairs and a baby stroller next to him and a dark spirit looming over the stroller.  Looked like Darth Vader, I kid you not. 

So I'm looking at em and I go "Hey! Are you guys good at telling what's real and what's fake?"  She goes "Yeah!"  I say "Good, cause I got lots!"

Much to my intern's amusement, I invite myself behind the table, sit down next to her and excitedly start pulling out angel pictures, fire coming out of the bible pictures, burning bushes etc.  I was too busy pointing and explaining to see her reaction.  She verified them as real by the way, or at least she couldn't see any of the normal lighting/camera rationalizations, and I was trying to pick her brain about what can cause a camera to do weird stuff.  I don't want to be putting stuff out there if its not real.

Anyway, I got invited to hang out with them.  After getting connected on Facebook, it looks like they mostly hang out in graveyards.  I'll probably pass.  We went from there to coffee with a guy who wanted to talk to us about having a dream interpretation booth at 12 Days of Praise, which is an entirely Christian audience.  Talk about a juxtaposition.

In more efforts to break out into a different audience, we added an extra live chat to our site.  I invited strictly people who consult physics, astrologers, tarot readers and such.  Out of 130 sign ups, 4 showed. One of them informed me that our event was the same time as Paranormal Connections and she was trying to keep an eye on both. As time went on, she started engaging more and more with us.  She has a prophetic intercessory gifting, she doesn't know what that is, but I explained it in non-religious language.  She eventually revealed her real name and asked to connect outside of chat, so we're talking.  She wants to use her gift the right way, and is tired of the torment of not being able to stop what she sees happening.  For now, she tells me what she sees, I pray and declare, and she stands in agreement. 

So yeah, fun fun!  And maybe the paranormal people are my new demographic?  I could handle that!

In Jesus

I have been working through some things this week.  I'll spare you all the details, lets just say lotta crying going on.  I talked to a prophetic friend and one of the things she said was that she saw me in front of the throne wrapped in an indian blanket.  As soon as she said it I was there.  If you haven't been keeping up with me, I translate to heaven now and then.  It was a big deal because I had been crying out, feeling like there was no comforter, no cover, and boom, I'm there and seeing it. Momentary and I'm back in the conversation.

Last night I decided to go back there and get some resolution.  Engaging the process of going to heaven happens through the sanctified imagination.  God can do His sovereign thing and get you there,  my first time was a surprise, but we can also go boldly before the Throne of Grace.  You've already been invited.  For me, I have to start off with something I can visualize, for instance picking up where I was last time.  Starting is usually a little rough, but eventually the daydream takes on a life of its own and when you get surprised, that's when you know you're not making it up.

So I'm back, with my blanket on and I stand up.  I held the corners of my blanket in each hand and stretched out my arms and asked Him to burn up all the junk.  I've gotten over my issues with the consuming fire, I was ready for something to change here, drastic times you know.  He didn't take me up on that offer.

I did get to go sit with Jesus though, well, I thought "with", but as it turned out, "in."  That's how the scripture goes right?  Seated in heavenly places IN Christ Jesus?  I never knew how that worked before.  You just sit down and merge. I was sitting like you would sit on someone's lap, expect instead of on top, I just assimilated in.  And that was new, so I spent some time moving in and out of Jesus, cause it was weird, and cool.  Lean back, I'm in, lean forward, I'm out. In... Out... In... You can totally be a little kid in heaven.  In fact, it's kinda mandatory. (Matt 18:3)  I was focusing on what it felt like when I was in vs out.  Got done playing and settled in and stayed because I could feel stuff coming off of me when I was in.  "This must be what He meant with all that 'resting' and 'abiding' stuff." 

His hands were still his hands and my hands were still my hands, and I was checking out his hands.  They are kinda thin flat guy hands.  Nice hands, but just hands.  The scars are up at the wrists.  Then he took hold of my hand and put it up over his heart, which was my heart too and then I realized they were merged.  Wow. Really?  One heartbeat.  Whoa.  Pause for cry session.  I decide that is a good place to leave spirit me parked while I run around and do stuff down here.  I know you guys are all saying "Duh", but yeah, I really didn't get it before.  Its just words on a page until it becomes my experience. 

I'm in the middle of writing a book and have so far had a lot to say about the heart, beliefs of the heart etc.  I'm still processing the depth of my experience.  And at the moment, I can't process anything, so I'm simply going to hit "publish" and go get some rest. 

Walking and Hanging Out On Limbs (Me mixing metaphors again)

I was walking down the street today feeling fairly humiliated via my own doing and I did a quick Facebook mobile post: "Someday I'm going to grow up." What I actually meant was "Someday, I'm going to mature in my Christian walk and stop embarrassing myself continually." You see, the problem with doing what I'm doing, is that all the fruit is out on the limb. I'm spending an inordinate amount of time looking like a monkey, and constantly falling out of the tree.

So yeah, walking down the street, thinking that I'm done putting myself out there, at least until I get over this most recent boo boo, when I turn up the next street and I see my guy that I prayed for get up out of his wheelchair and walk out to the corner to meet me. And then I thought, "Yep, pretty much worth it." So what if I mess up and fall on my face some more. My ego takes a hit, but that's probably a good thing. I'm stumbling but he's walking.

So he yells out from up the street, "Hello honey, how are you?" I said "I'm good how are YOU?" "Reeeeeeeal good, how far do you walk every day?" I told him eight miles. "Eight miles! I'd be happy if I could walk one mile, but I got this far!" And his wife was out too and I'd never talked to her before, but she was wanting to pray together so we stood out on the corner and prayed, then she told me all about how he was doing. He's in progress.

I'm in progress too, I'm gonna keep on truckin. God's cool with the process. Parents watching their children learn to walk don't get upset every time the kid falls down. God's not up there going "Stupid kid's never gonna get it. She should just stop trying. What a moron." That'd be ludicrous. No, He's smiling and holding out a steady hand and picking me back up when I'm down by showing me something that went right. The proud Papa.

When I left my guy, he announced "I'm gonna walk up there! And then I'm coming right back here! (Pointing to the next street - how many times have I heard little kids say that!) "Good plan. Don't overdo it." I said. Afterwards I walked up on a group talking about me. "Seneca? She's out there." I walked up behind the person and said "Yeah, I am out there." I'm finding my next limb.

Crash Course in Healing

My friend organized a healing and miracles shin-dig downtown this week.  It was a blast.  I took a few photos but mostly I felt like I was invading people's privacy, so I don't have very many.

Sometimes ya gotta be bold.

Just about to go down

Two scared girls singing "Healer"

If I wasn't at work, that's where I was, which made for late nights and early mornings.  God sustained me through it all though and then I crashed hard, so I'm cheating this week and recycling this blog entry by using an old letter than I wrote to a friend.  She wanted prayer for her dad who fell off a roof and it was too great a distance so I had to just send my word, but I wrote her a basic how-to for healing.

Hi D, I'm praying for your dad, but if you go see him, there's really something to this "laying on of hands" thing. We see lots of miracles through that kind of prayer. There's a few things you need to understand for it to work though.

Jesus is our example. Jesus said that those of us that believe will do the same works he did and even greater. (John 14:11-13) And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Mark 16:17  He didn't say the super special gifted people would do these things.  He just said believers.

It is God's will for everyone to be healed. Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. There are no examples in the Bible of Jesus saying, "Oh, I'm not going to heal you because God's trying to develop some character in you." No, everybody gets healed. Jesus went to the cross for our healing as much as for our salvation. Everyone always glosses over that part. "By His stripes, we WERE healed." Were, as in past tense, already a done deal. He paid the ultimate price. We don't have to question it anymore. So when we pray for healing, it's not so much a prayer, but taking authority over a problem. Again, look at how Jesus did it. You don't see Him getting down on His knees and petitioning the Father, he simply spoke the words and people were healed. The same Spirit that was in Him is in you, so when you lay hands on someone, it's as if Jesus was doing it. Once you get your head around that, you're good to go.


So I'll just kinda tell you how I do it, not that there's a right or wrong way to pray, well actually there is a wrong way...  The aforementioned begging God to heal someone.  It's like saying what Jesus did on the cross was not enough.  "Get back up there and do a little more please."  Don't ask, know who you are, and know who Jesus is.  If I have a heads up before hand, I'll start building myself up by praying, listening to worship music and thinking about the awesome things I've seen God do. Having a heads up is overrated.  The less time that passes between deciding to pray for somebody and praying for them, the less time there is for you and the other person to get into doubt.  When the opportunity comes, just do it, even if it's more public than you would like.

I do try to get 1 or 2 other people to go with me and agree with me in prayer.  I start out by asking the Holy Spirit to come. I know He's already in me but what I'm really asking is "come in power" and I'm acknowledging that I'm depending on Him to do the work. Then I would probably say something like "All pain go in Jesus name. I command the bleeding to stop and all damaged blood vessels and tissues to be restored to the way that God created them to be in Jesus name." And so on for whatever you see or whatever God puts in your head to pray for. Then I thank Him for going to the cross for our healing as much as for our salvation (this is usually news to the person receiving it) and being with us ect. Then stop and ask your dad how he's feeling. You may have to repeat the process. Even Jesus had to pray twice. Stay on that pain until you see some real progress. Sometimes when I pull my hand off, I feel it vibrating like there's electricity going out through it and like I wasn't done yet, even though I ran out of things to say, (Jesus kept it short and sweet) so I plop my hand back on the person and just spend some time praising God, or singing or humming until my hand runs "out of juice." Other times I don't feel anything and they get totally healed so it's whatever, lol. But you do have to go and speak it out, because Satan and co. are not omnipresent, nor can they read your mind.

I realize this is really a crash course, and it took me a while of praying for people before consistently seeing results, but you need it now, so we'll ask God to catapult you into this and give you lots of grace for making mistakes and ministering angels to help you. I see you as a very compassionate and humble person that God would love to use in this way.

Her dad did end up recovering very quickly.   Another good reference for getting started is Healing 101.

Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts

We've been beating this one around in house church every since we got it started.  Nobody wants to step out of bounds but I'm coming to the conclusion that Jesus pretty much took the boundaries away when He said that we'd do greater works because He went to the Father.  (John 14:12)  I haven't quite got my mind wrapped around what that means, but I'm ever-expanding.

I do have some thoughts though on how this is all supposed to work with the average ordinary person, and I may not have it all right, and you can agree or disagree, this is really to get you to think and ask God about it anyway.  I'll put some scripture down, tell you what I think and you can decide what it means to you.

So the main concentration of gift scriptures is in 1 Corinthians.  "Each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that." 1 Corinthians 1:7  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: (1 Cor. 12:7-10)
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." 1 Cor.  12:7  "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills." 1 Cor. 12:11  "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." 1 Peter 4:10  Many people just look at those scriptures and say that we each get one gift.  Then there's a lockdown mentality that because I've operated in one particular gift before, that must be my one and only gift.  And if you are just looking to Paul for an explanation, then yeah, it kinda looks that way.  Here comes the monkey wrench.  Jesus said "And these signs shall follow those that believe: In my name they shall cast out demons: they shall speak with new tongues: They shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not harm them: They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." Mark 16:17-18  Tongues and healing are on that list, they are also on the gift list.  Notice how it didn't say the super-special gifted believers would do these things.  It just said believers.  Why that would be me!  What I want to suggest is that we are living far below our potential as Christians.  Now since we want to use Jesus to interpret Paul, not the other way around, I think it's safe to say that we can all speak in tongues and lay hands on sick people if we want to.

Paul also said we could all prophesy. (1Cor. 14:31) and prophesying is just hearing from God and then telling somebody else what He said.  I think all denominations accept that we can hear God.  (My sheep hear My voice") so if you can hear God, you should be able to get words of knowledge, words of wisdom and prophecy.  And there are people who are very prolific with these things and I'm not one of them, but I do get revelation.  I don't know if that constitutes gifting, or just stepping into what I rightfully have as a follower of Jesus.  Frankly, I'm not that worried about it.  I've stopped assuming I can't do something.  I'm not tying myself to the idea that I can only operate in one gifting or no giftings. "He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also." John 14:22  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you've received, freely give." Matt 10:8  The bible puts a lot more responsibility on Christians than most of us are willing to recognize.  Now don't get into a works mentality.  This stuff is not hard.  It should just be a natural extension of who you are in Christ.  The only hard part is that every time you operate in a gift, you are metaphorically getting out of the boat.  Peter didn't walk on the water, he walked on Jesus' word, and that is what this is all about.  As I was saying, there is no striving involved.  The NT commandments are 1. Love God and 2. Love your neighbor.  If you get after doing those two things, the rest all falls into place.  You can however, have all the love in the world, but if you never get out of the boat not much will happen.

The other attitude that's out there that I wanted to address is those that say "I don't seek after the gifts.  I seek the Giver."  Yup, that sounds very spiritually advanced and holier than me but also completely unscriptural.  "Covet earnestly the best gifts" (1 Cor 12:31)  "Wherefore brethren, covet to prophesy." (1 Cor. 14:39)  The one time in the bible where we're supposed to covet!  And do you know why we're supposed to covet?  Because the gifts aren't for you silly, they're to help you to help other people!  This kind of coveting should come out of love for others and if you read further, Paul goes into all that.  What it comes down to, is if you love someone who's sick, you're gonna wanna lay hands on them and see them get healed.  And since prophesy is for edification, exhortation and comfort, (1 Cor. 14:3) if you love someone who's been beaten down by life, you're gonna want to be able to prophesy to them.  The more love you have for people, the more you're gonna be coveting.  Knock yourself out!  But don't sell God short and don't sell yourself short.  He's a big God.  I figure if He can use a donkey, He can use me.

Adventures in Prophetic Evangelism

(Preface:  I am new at this!)

I'm learning to use my senses in the spirit realm and some senses work better than others for me.  I see some, but don't always believe my eyes, I hear some, but I miss a lot, I can feel sometimes, mostly just Friday night meetings, but I can SMELL!  I have no trouble smelling in spirit realm or trusting my schnoz.  The nose knows man!  The biggest problem is always ruling out anything in the natural that I might be picking up on instead. 

So I have a customer at my work that whenever I go to her door, which is everyday, I get hit by this rose smell.  It's winter time, so that's odd, and it can be storming and blowing or whatever and the smell is even more pronounced.  Months of this go by and I'm just enjoying the roses when I get there and kinda wondering but not really pressing into finding out what this is all about.  I was kinda looking around for a reasonable explanation, looking for porch potpourii (hey, you never know what people do) and I hadn't found anything.  So last week I said "Ok, God, what's with the roses?"  And I had a vision of Jesus standing at her door with roses waiting for her to let Him in.  My first thought was "Oh no, He's been out there a long time!"  Well duh, she's probably in her 50's, but it's different when you think of Him killing time up in heaven, vs. standing out in wind and rain and snow and hail.

So now I have some responsibility here because I was shown.  And I have very little dealing with this lady because I just drop her stuff off and run.  Sometimes I see her on the street and we say hi.  I think she's a seer because she looks at me like seers look at me and I wonder what she's seeing.  I figure she's a new ager, which is good, cause they do not think you're nuts for having visions, so the easiest way will be for me to come right out and tell her that Jesus has been hanging around her door for awhile and she might wanna let Him in.   

So, I'm waiting for my opportunity.  A couple days go by, no opportunity.  I don't wanna just let this pass.  Then yesterday, she came down her driveway to talk to me.  I said "Hey, do you have something rose-scented by your door?"  She goes "What?" As if I am a crazy person, so I repeat the question.  She doesn't have any secret roses out there so I say, "Ok, then it was what I thought I saw then."  Oooo, she's hooked now!  She's leaning forward and asking me what it was!  So I explain the whole deal with my spiritual senses and the rose thing and then asking God what it was and then the vision and she is actually taking me seriously.  I get done telling and her eyes got really big and she starts to tell me what she saw!  She saw Jesus in a rainbow over her house.  So then we are acting like crazy people in the driveway yelling and hugging and jumping up and down.  So she's on Cloud 9 and I'm trying to figure out where I go from here.  I have a little better feel for where she's at.  She's cool with Jesus, but doesn't see Him as the one way, or realize her need for repentance.  So I think this will be a process and a to-be-continued story...