Category: Journal

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Conversation with God Holy Spirit Journal Key Article Pain Prayer Targets

Words of Knowledge?

Still, Wide Water with Trees on the Sides

A Word of Knowledge?
18-Aug-2020, an entry for my Prayer Journal.

What do you think? I’m new to this, just putting things together. Can an answer to prayer be a Word of Knowledge? Lead to a Divine Appointment?

I think I may have had several related ones in a single day:

First, I heard a concern here in a WhatsApp group about home robbery. Not sure what to do with that and suspecting it was more likely for long-term members, I just made a mental note of it and moved on to other things. A special note, because a brother in Christ and a good friend had his brother in Panama recently attacked in his own house by several men, one with a knife. He’s in a coma in the hospital, still. So the warning of a robber in a house struck me stronger than usual, was more noticeable than usual.

Not long afterwards I saw that a rainstorm was coming. Even verified this with a neighbor who is Panamanian and who I expect can read the weather here better than I. (This rainy season has had fewer rainy days than has been usual, but when they come the rain pours hard for many hours.) So I took dogs outside for a last chance to do their outside business.

Rain came, it got cold and temperature dropped. AND I had a fear – not typical for me, of my house being robbed. So I locked outer gates, during the day – which I have never done. I even asked for intercession with two original sets of people. My concern was strong.

The rain was over in ten minutes, which was surprising. I was expecting it to rain hard for hours, as has been more common this rainy season here in Panama….

Even with house locked down and asking for intercession in two places, I still felt some fear. Usually, for me, fear is a warning of an impending attack or danger – so I pay attention and get ready. Nothing happened. It puzzled me.

That night I had a serious big muscle leg cramp that went on for thirty minutes no matter what I did. It hurt, and it went on for an unusual length of time. While I have a history of leg cramps, I have fewer lately and those that I’ve had were small muscle and did not persist — they were not serious or very painful. So this leg cramp was different.

During this time I asked to be more full of Holy Spirit. My Guide and Comforter helps with just about any situation.

Next day I was not doing well. Leg hurt, and I was not doing well at all. Unusual for me, but I noticed and tried to not do things that required me to be resourceful and at my best. I still ended up having two conversations, one by email and one by WhatsApp where I was not at my best. Maybe 60-70% of what is normal for me. So today I did what I could to set things right and to apologize.

Now, by hindsight, putting all this together…I am wondering if this was a Word of Knowledge warning me of a spiritual, not a physical attack.

Recently I’ve been in learning to recognize Words of Knowledge, something I had not previously noticed. I’m wondering how frequent they have been and how little I’ve noticed.

I now suspect that’s what happened here. And I may learn a lot that is useful. I think I may be in learning how to recognize a Word of Knowledge. (I already know that when I experience something that’s “not mine” I cannot move or change it. Such as a call to intercession. A demonic suggestion. Something like a pain or problem that belongs to someone else – a kind of Word of Knowledge.)

Another Word of Knowledge may have come, too. The tension in my leg from the leg cramp resulted in tension up and down my body on that side and eventually was resulting in a neck-headache. A painful one.

So I asked how to pray for this pain.

I then saw a picture of what may have been a lake. Still water, wide, with trees on either side. I noticed that as I kept my gaze on this inner-picture, my neck-headache was easing up. I gradually felt better. (This was surprising as an answer about how to pray – I expected to be told to relax. Something like that.) Then I got distracted.

Twice, later that day, I saw similar nature pictures on Facebook. Like the one above at the top of this article. When I would look at these, tension lessened, and I felt better. The second time I did this, I stayed with doing this until the pain completely disappeared.

And the second picture I saw on Facebook led to my meeting with someone new, a person who captured the second photograph. Which turned out to be a Divine Appointment – someone with whom God wanted me to meet. We are learning from each other. This was a Divine Appointment or a big coincidence. And I am learning that big coincidences are often Divine Appointments, it’s worth paying attention and finding out.

In one day I had these two experiences with what may have been a Word of Knowledge. I think maybe they were just that.

What do you think? What does your experience tell you? What is your own experience with how you experience a Word of Knowledge?

Categories
Conversation with God Hearing God Holy Spirit Journal Ministry Prayer

Trouble Praying?

Photo by Sam Rios, through Unsplash

Does your mind wander? Do you have trouble keeping your attention on your prayer session? Do you get bored or not know what to say and do?

Is what you do or learned to do feel like an obligation that you are not keeping as well as you like?

When you have an honest and sincere two way conversation with God, prayer is empowering and exciting. Jesus surprises and delights; does not condemn. Accepts you and loves you as you are. Jesus equips you with whatever he calls you to do. It is never boring. Your mind will not wander. There is no sense of obligation. It’s natural. It’s supernatural. It’s as easy as a two way conversational prayer with our loving Lord.

How? First, by giving up any obligation or ideas about how you should pray. A good way to do this is to simply ask for – and receive by faith – more of Holy Spirit. Or simply deeply intend, right now, to put righteousness and the Kingdom of God first. Second, by conversing with God, having a two way conversation with our Lord.

Whether wondering how to minister, how to engage in spiritual warfare, or to experience more of the Presence of God, how to lead, even how to follow leadership, how to intercede for others…whatever you seek to pray for, there is a solution that is powerful, effective, simple and easy. If it’s new to you, the initial learning curve is not that long.

Here are valuable resources for knowing about how to hear God better, and how to have an effective two-way conversation with our Lord. Crucial key – alternating rhythms of talking, then listening. Write both down – short term memory, no matter how vivid and strong, can evaporate rapidly.

These approaches are so good that you will do well to learn them.

When you have an honest and sincere two way conversation with God, prayer is empowering and exciting. Jesus surprises and delights; does not condemn. Accepts you and loves you as you are. Jesus equips you with whatever he calls you to do. It is never boring. Your mind will not wander. There is no sense of obligation. It’s natural. It’s supernatural. It’s as easy as a two way conversational prayer with our loving Lord.

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Stop, Look, Listen, & Write

P.S. From Mark Virkler, above, he gives us these Four Keys to Hearing God’s Voice:

Very simply stated, the four keys to hearing God’s voice are:

Stillness: Quiet yourself so you can hear God’s voice.

Vision: Look for vision as you pray.

Spontaneity: Recognize God’s voice as spontaneous thoughts that light upon your mind.

Journaling: Write down the flow of thoughts and pictures that light upon your mind.

Virkler, Mark. 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice (Kindle Locations 172-175). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.

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P.P.S. From the Immanuel Approach above, we have these notes:

Immanuel Approach Pointers – from video notes, he repeats these in each video at the beginning.

-1.  Immanuel truth: God is always with us, god is always glad to be with us, and God always wants to connect with us.

-2. Relational circuits: We have circuits in our brains that serve as the neurological hardware for running relationships.  And we can connect with each other and with God much more easily when these relational circuits are online and strongly active. 

-3.  Positive memories and appreciation: We can predictably, reliably, and consistently get these relational circuits online and strongly active by recalling and connecting with positive memories and then deliberately generating, or stirring up, strong appreciation. 

-4.  Interactive connection with God: We can establish a living, interactive connection with God by inviting God’s presence into the positive memory, asking God to help us perceive His presence, and then noticing whatever comes into our awareness.

-5.  The special value of God-connection positive memories: 

-Our relationships are memory-mapped – our relationships are carried in our memories.

-Reconnecting with memory recreates, at least to some extent, the same mind-brain conditions that were present at the original experience.

-Using positive memories that include an experience of God’s presence takes advantage of these two pieced of brain science. 

-6 Our brains are designed to work best in community: 

-Describing out internal mental content, out loud to another person, helps us to feel it’s importance and to recognize it’s meaning. 

-Including this piece in our Immanuel prayer will enable us to perceive subtle manifestations of the Lord’s presence that we might otherwise miss, and enable us to recognize and receive subtle interactive content from the Lord that we might otherwise miss. 

-7.  Immanuel Approach safety nets: At the beginning of the session we set up a positive-memory, appreciation, connection-with-God “home base” and then we can coach the recipient to go back to this home base if we get into trouble at any point later in the session, or if we run out of time at the end of the session and the recipient is still connected to unresolved traumatic content. 

-8. Splinter-free memories: It is really important to use splinter free positive memories for the safety net.

From Videos in the Resource Page at: https://www.immanuelapproach.com/

Categories
Healing Holy Spirit Jesus Preaching Journal Key Article Kingdom of God Ministry

The Gospel Process

There is a process to the Gospel of the Kingdom of God that Jesus teaches.

This process makes ministering with power, faith and love – easier. Knowing this process, you are more than clear about what to do next. Also, how to help someone take that next step.

I call this The Gospel Process.

The Gospel Process underlies the structure of how Jesus Ministered. He taught the Good News of the Kingdom of God. But preaching or teaching that Gospel is not the underlying process, although it uses that process. He often taught us to heal in that context. A context which changed the atmosphere, told an essential truth confirmed in listeners by Holy Spirit. Creating the atmosphere of the Anointed, his Anointing, and the Kingdom of Heaven.

If you want to minister more like Jesus, learn The Gospel Process and put it to work when you minister. When your ministry has been successful, you are probably already applying this process.

Like so much of what Jesus teaches & shows, this can work explicitly or implicitly. (You can look for and notice how he did this in Scriptures. You can learn a lot, especially if this is new to you and when you are ready to learn.)

Ministering healing and freeing people from unclean spirits is much more simple and easy when you understand The Gospel Process and allow it to work in and through your ministry.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God taught in the shortest form in your bible is in Mark 1:15:

Now is the time, the Kingdom of God is at hand (within reach); repent (make a new and better God-oriented, Kingdom oriented decision) and believe (rely, trust, and depend upon the Kingdom of God – and our King).

This scripture reveals the process when you read and meditate on this description. The process looks something like this:

  • (Hear the Word of God, because faith comes by such hearing, with the help of Holy Spirit confirming that truth to our spirit: have faith!)
  • Now. The time has finally come, and the time is now. (No other time is available; only now.)
  • The time – a Kairos moment, a Divine Appointment, if you will accept it being said this way.
  • Make a new decision, turning from your old life and orienting totally around the King and the Kingdom (rule) of God.
  • Believe and trust in the King and his Kingdom.

Now…notice especially the actions, the inner actions of the person hearing and acting on this:

  • Hear God’s Word and choose faith.
  • Make a new decision that totally turns around your life. Turning away from how you’ve been to orienting completely towards your new and alternative way of living – towards the King and his Kingdom.
  • Trusts and believe in God and his Kingdom.

Put those inner actions together and you have a process.

The same process that underlies and is The Gospel Process:

  • Hear God’s word and choose to trust it, having faith. (Sometimes this is done implicitly, and that’s another article)
  • In healing, a person at some deep level decides to be healed, to accept healing. Like the hemorrhaging woman who was so determined to touch the hem of the garments of Jesus (his fringes, or tallis) and receive healing: bringing her faith into contact with his Anointing. Her determination was so single minded and great that it reminds me of the being single and not double minded as in James 1. She already had great faith and determination. (From an experiential point of view, it’s hard to tell any difference between great determination and faith.)
  • In exorcism, like the man who ran to the feet of Jesus before a legion of demons could overcome and prevent him, he ran to Jesus and fell at his feet. He already wanted to be freed! Jesus then used his authority and power (which he gave to his disciples and to us) to tell Legion to leave, and even how to leave.

In healing – with the help of Holy Spirit, faith, love, power and authority – already given by Jesus, we encourage and help someone decide to be healed (or decide to receive healing).

In exorcism, or freeing someone from one or more unclean spirits – with the help of Holy Spirit, faith, love, power and authority – already given by Jesus, we encourage and help someone decide to be freed healed (or decide to receive freedom).

So….

+In each case (healing or exorcism) we create an atmosphere of faith and the experience of the Presence of God (with Holy Spirit and by saying what God says so Holy Spirit can confirm this to the spirit of the person being helped) for God’s work to happen.

+We help or encourage them to make a new decision, orienting around God’s truth instead of orienting around their previous problems.

+To trust, rely on and believe in this new Kingdom of God reality. That is, to believe.

=This, put together, is The Gospel Process. It’s the same process that undergirds the Preaching or Teaching of the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and that works in creating a context for ministering healing or freedom.

I believe this is also true for cleansing lepers (a kind of healing, in my view) and for raising the dead – though I have not yet done these two things. I’m convinced that it’s the same Gospel Process at work.

Oh – and I did not yet mention that this same process undergirds the making of disciples. Again and again – from the first decision to follow Jesus and do what he said, to deciding to receive and act on every other moment of teaching.

The Gospel Process undergirds the entire (every step of) the Great Commission as in Matthew 28!

Now…review this. Follow the links and review what’s written on this page. And pray – talk with and listen to God. And meditate.

Get personal revelation about this through Holy Spirit. Write that revelation in your Journal. Whether it’s a Prayer Journal like mine, or any other journal for this. And if you do not have one, please start one.

And get your own personal revelation and insight on this. Then be a real disciple – apply what you are learning. And as you make other disciples or help disciple other disciples (or as you disciple each other) – share this and help them have their own revelation of this, too. And encourage them to apply what they are learning in their ministry.

Disciples perhaps for generations – and those healed or set free – will be glad for such powerful and effective ministry. Even if they do not know all the details of what happened and how you ministered with power, faith and with love.

Categories
Conversation with God Discipleship Getting Help Hearing God Holy Spirit Journal Key Article Ministry Prayer

Get Guidance & Persist

Ask for Guidance. Best is to be full of Holy Spirit, first. Easier to notice and receive.

When you receive Guidance, make note of it. Best is to write it in your Prayer Journal or Conversation with God Journal, or Guidance Journal – best is with your own handwriting, but a computer will do.

Pray for your Guidance to succeed. That you will be faithful and follow through to see whatever is about is finished and complete.

Getting Guidance isn’t enough. We need to follow through. To complete what the Guidance is about. So praying for that is also a “best practice”.

Journal about your guidance. It’s an excellent way of supporting yourself, so you remember better and follow through.

An outstanding idea is to get support from people who want to encourage and support you and help you do what is valuable and important to you. Just because it is important and valuable to you.

If you do not have such support, go get some! You can even ask for Guidance how to best do this.

And – follow through. <warm grin>

Persist in following the Guidance gives you. The Guidance you receive is God telling you not only how to do something, but if you think about it or ask God – it’s also God telling you what to do. You have heard God’s “Voice” for this. It empowers you to do what God said to do. To do otherwise is to fail to do what God has asked you to do. Oops!

Persist. Until the doing of what you have asked for Guidance about – is complete and done. Finished!

Categories
Conversation with God Discipleship Getting Help Hearing God Journal Prayer

Always Talk to God About Your Dreams

The title is a quote from a book written by Dr. Barbie Breathitt, Dream Seer: Searching for the Face of the Invisible. It’s the name of a section of the book.

What a great section title! There is a lot going on these days about dreams, and prophetic dreams. What to do with them and what not to do. Opinions vary – opinions vary about what to do with dreams!

Dreams fascinated me as a child, noticing how many there were and how important they were in the bible. I’ve been recording dreams and studying about dreams ever since.

Dream journaling is an excellent thing to do, and if there is enough interest I may write about how to remember your dreams and how to work with them. Let me know if you are interested…comments will do; or email me.

Dreams can be challenging. So asking God about your dreams is always wise. Aside from the usual dream-work methods, even the dream-work methods I recommend – which work well for people who use these, asking God about your dreams is likely to be the most important thing you do.

Being attentive and listening to God about your dreams follows asking. Hearing God is very important, another subject we may cover here, and there is this article about How To Receive Quick & Reliable Guidance for Prayer that you may want to apply to asking God how to pray regarding understanding what to do with your dreams. And there are many wonderful books on the subject. It’s a fascinating subject and valuable to know about and to follow through with.

The key point is: talk to God about your dreams. Listen to God about your dreams. And listen carefully with your heart to everything else God has to say to you. Put to work and do as it leads you. This disciples do: learn, and apply. Get feedback. Learn and continue to put what you are learning. Get feedback and continue.

When you ask God about your dreams and listen, you may hear him speak through Still Small Voice. Or through your own thoughts – so pay attention! You may have a memory, see or hear something…and many other possibilities. Assume this is an answer to your prayer and be attentive. This is God’s answer to your prayer about how to pray about your dreams. You are now listening to God about your dreams.

Now pray that way. The way God showed you to pray. And keep on praying that way, enforcing the answer given you – until it is done.

Conversation continues. Ask more. Tell God what is important to you. Always be attentive and pay attention to what you what you experience. Best is to write it down – forgetting even powerful impressions is too easy at first when a response is still in brief term memory. So write it, preferably in your own handwriting. You’ll remember better than if you use a computer. Whatever you do, whatever method you use, commit to remembering by writing.

So talk to God about your dreams. Ask. Focus. Note what you asked and what you received, what you “heard” by writing it.

Take action on what you are learning and be ready for feedback and further guidance.

Continue the conversation – God loves talking with you. God loves it when you listen, and when you do as he says.

Have wonderful conversations with God about your dreams, learn and grow through doing this. Enjoy and rejoice at his goodness!

Categories
Conversation with God Discipleship Hearing God Holy Spirit Journal Prayer Prayer, Intercession, Angels,

Conversations with God – Fast & Slow

Some conversations with God are really fast. Only taking a moment. Like when you are reading scripture and a passage speaks to you more personally and more deeply. Or when Holy Spirit pulls you up short with a correction. And your answer is a wordless – or maybe with actual words, maybe something like, “Yes, Lord!”

Other conversations are slower and can go on for months or years. As when God brings us back to a particular scripture time and time again. These are usually topics of great learning and deep transformation over time. At other times, you may have a back and forth conversation with God where you are led and learn more gradually – over a longer period of time. There is a lot God has to say, and he speaks to you, one key notion at a time, over a long period of time. The conversation can cover many topics, even. Like a long walk in the rolling hills where the grass and trees are fresh and full of life.

Once I had asked to go west, to the western United States. I had asked strongly and repeatedly. I asked many, many times. Then I heard Still Small Voice say, translated into words, “Not yet!”. I had no idea Still Small Voice could be so loud and so definite.

God has taught me on particular subjects that go on for months, pointing out various things to me. Such as his teaching me about the Kingdom of God. We keep coming back to that, again and again. Sometimes there is no conversation on the subject for a while, at other times the subject is picked up again and he shows me new things, or he reminds me of previous lessons. A lot of my learning is this way.

I keep a Prayer Journal. A record of our conversations, often two way conversations. Reviewing these brings me valuable lessons back to mind again, it’s too easy to forget or lose track of key ideas. Writing also helps make the conversations more real and definite than when they are just “in my head”. I recommend learning about and doing this. Perhaps we’ll explore this in this blog. In the meantime, you can go to cwgministries.org and look for his book or video series about hearing from God, conversations with God; and especially, “4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice”, as an eBook or as a video series – offered on the same page.

Mark Virkler teaches that when we do all four of these things at the same time:

  1. Stop and be still.
  2. Look with the eyes of our heart towards Jesus
  3. Listen to what God says to us or shows us, especially through flowing thoughts, and
  4. Write down what we experience

He guarantees that we will hear from God or get our money back. Quite an encouraging guarantee!

Any area of your life where you let God freely operate and rule is part of the Kingdom of God. The King rules his Kingdom. This is my favorite place from which to hear God. His Kingdom is at hand – within reach. Now. Always.

If you are having a good conversation with God, especially a longer one over a greater period of time, you are probably having such a conversation inside of the Kingdom of God. You know what that’s like, then!

St. John had such a conversation, an unveiling. A showing. A revelation; it’s called the Book of Revelation. This will take a lot of time to study and study well. This will be a longer conversation.

See, the Kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking – no, not of things like that. The Kingdom is standing rightly before God, in peace and joy in Holy Spirit. (See, Romans 14:17.)

God has already been talking to you and with you for a long time. Are you ready to notice and realize how this is true? Can you recognize and remember some of those “conversations”? Appreciate them? Maybe even take notes. Begin or continue with a Prayer Journal or a Conversations with God Journal, if you like. I encourage you to write daily. When you do, your life and your faith will grow and transform. I promise you. So…do such as this, and be sure to give thanks and rejoice!