Brian L. Summy

Concentrated Faith

Inspiring Stories From Dreams, Visions, and Whispers of the Holy Spirit

Contents

Introduction                                                                                                                              Page 2

Chapter 1: Falling Asleep In The Arms Of A King                                           Page 3

Chapter 2: Whispering To Nails                                                                                    Page 8

Chapter 3: Heart Attack Or Holy Ghost                                                         Page 13

Chapter 4: Feral Christians                                                                                    Page 18

Chapter 5: Pills to Paradise                                                                                    Page 24

Chapter 6: Mustard Seed Faith                                                                                    Page 31

Chapter 7: Waiting At The Airport                                                                      Page 39

Chapter 8: Pulling Out Scorpions                                                                      Page 47

Chapter 9: Take Down That Sign Already                                                        Page 54

Chapter 10: Shipwreck Faith                                                                                    Page 61

All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2013.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my next project. I will make the introduction short in order to get straight to the stories and lessons. For those of you who are not familiar with my style of writing, I would like to lay some ground rules first, so you have an understanding of where I am coming from. I will be sharing lessons about life, people, and relationships that are typically sensitive in nature. Because of this, I do change the situations slightly and change the names in order to help hide the person that I am discussing. This book is not about any particular person. This is about how God teaches us, through adversity and success, of how much He loves us and is always there for us. As side note, I also write as I talk. I cannot help it. I do my best with MS Word grammar check and a few friends to proofread me. I beg for your grace as you read. I have had a lot of great visions and dreams to share with you in this book but it is sometimes hard for me to convey it. Just consider this a conversation with me as if we were hanging out together. I received a few reviews from a past book that gave a critical review on my grammar. I have used this as constructive feedback and have since reviewed all my books. I do want your feedback in order to help me grow in this ministry however; I am being open and honest from the get go. This book is about the message of grace and I am simply trying my best to convey as professional as possible.

The focus of this particular book, is a lesson each chapter about a real inspired scenario that I have come across in life or work and then supported by scripture and a lesson that I learned from it. I am not yet a minister though I am starting to have some good ideas for sermons and lessons for the future. Whatever God does in the future with these projects is up to Him. For now, let’s review some inspirational lessons and principles that make the God we serve loved more and more by His children. Every time I pray about the direction of the next book, I always hear the Holy Spirit simply say to my heart, “Tell them about My Son.” Therefore, the focus is all about Jesus and how the lesson can apply to our daily lives. Please show me a little grace as you read. I am always trying to offer an encouraging and inspiring tone with a little humor when it applies. If something doesn’t make sense, please just accept this as humor, which maybe only I get. In addition, I want to say from the beginning that when I challenge the reader in whatever point or lesson, I am equally challenging myself as well. I am growing tremendously from this exercise, so please understand I am always coming to you with love, respect, and the focus of Christ. I consider myself a non-denominational, Bible believing Christian. If we disagree on a few things, that is to be expected and again, I simply ask for your grace and love as you read. My intent for the reader is to draw closer to Christ. This book should stir up your own memories of God’s provision in your own life in order to build your faith, heal your emotions, and set you on fire for Jesus! I do have some awesome visions and situations the past few months, so I have some great chapters ahead. I truly thank you for taking the time to read this. If this does help you grow closer to Christ, please make sure you rate the book, hit like, and comment on the Amazon page for the book. You can also see all my other work on my author page on Amazon as well. www.amazon.com/author/briansummy

Chapter 1: Falling Asleep In The Arms Of A King

I had a dream a few months ago that I would like to share with you. I heard a message from my pastor on the radio, which prompted me to think about my status as a child of God. I know many people who come to Christ later in life, are offended by the term child of God or babe in Christ. In my opinion those people have a pride issue that God will deal with in the future. “Babe in Christ” or “Baby Christian” sometimes has a negative connotation in society but I think that this is because too many Christians use this term in a very arrogant way. Most people, including myself, may have a tendency to speak first and then think about our attitude after we have already offended someone. If we can just live our lives always thinking before we speak, just imagine the impact we can have for Christ with others. We must never forget the audience we are speaking to when we share Christ with them. The scripture verse of Matthew 18:2-4 (NIV) helps set the context for the right spirit and attitude we should have when living for Christ, “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

When I take the time to meditate this verse (deeply explore and ponder), I can remember many times that I have not been in this spirit. Even doing something at church on Sunday morning, by not having this attitude and spirit, it was really a dead work. The few of the successes of serving with events and projects in the past were all accomplished with the attitude of a child. I hate to admit this but even with the noblest of intentions and outward appearances, we all are guilty of performing dead works. Sometimes we are not in the right spirit, regardless of the attitude and heart we have toward the project at hand. Remember also the audience Christ was speaking to in this verse’s context. They were still in the notion that if He truly was the Christ, there was going to be a literal war by taking down the Roman Empire. In their minds, they were and still are today, looking for a human man to setup a literal kingdom on Earth. Did Christ offer any solution as of sort? No, rather he offered the concept of being converted into little children. They are completely different attributes than what they are expecting. What can a little child accomplish against a Roman army? In Christ’s perspective however, that’s how you do in fact defeat the Romans and all other demonic enemies that come against you in life. Christ is trying to teach them to strive for humility and not pride.

When you look in the spiritual mirror, what age in Christ do you see yourself as? Have you ever thought about this? Have you ever thought about how God sees you? I have been saved since I was 8 or 10, however I have only started growing in Christ for about the past 5 years as if this writing. So what’s my spiritual age? This is something that I was seeking in prayer to gain more understanding of how God views me. I want you to stop and take a few minutes and look at your life. Do not look at the negatives or anything like that. Just try to picture yourself from God’s perspective. If you have ever had an exercise in visualization, this is what I am getting at. Picture yourself from your youth, maybe you need to get a photo album out from the past. Try to look through all the pictures starting from baby pictures to your adult years. I want you to either pick the picture you think God sees you as or visualize the person who you think God pictures as you today. Remember that God sees your past, present, and future simultaneously when he looks at you. He knows everything about you, from every hair that grows on your head, to the very second you were born and will die. It is impossible for God not to see all this from you. God makes it all and knows it all. Stop here, at the end of this paragraph and get your photo album out or visualize for a few minutes what younger picture that you feel God sees you as His child today. To make a really strong impact with this chapter you could stop reading for the night at this point and do these exercises and continue reading the below after you have stirred all these pictures up. If you are willing to do this, I promise a stronger impact. Stop here! ;)

Ok, hopefully you were willing to take some time for this exercise. If you did, all your positive emotions are should be stirred up. Pictures from the past are sometimes a good reminder of who we used to be. I pray that you are in good spirits in anticipation for the dream and lesson, which I learned from the Holy Spirit. The dream was so vivid to me. The colors were so alive and when I woke up it was burned into my memory. Most dreams we have typically pass away from us and we lose them, unless we write them down right away. This dream however was one of the strongest dreams that have ever come to me. I wanted to see myself as God sees me today and try to understand how to become innocent as a child in Christ in the future. To be completely transparent, when I listened to my pastor on the radio, I honestly pictured myself as a teenager in Christ or possibly a 20-year-old young adult. From my current experiences of all the good things that I have been a part of in life, as well as a few successes in ministry, I thought for sure that when God looks at me, He at least sees the 16-year-old Brian who is in Christ. If there was any pride in my vision, I promise it wasn’t intentional or open but it was very much there. I thought to myself, “Sure, I have been walking with Christ for many years and also have done some good works. I have to be at least a teenager in Christ. Shouldn’t I?” I couldn’t have been further from the truth. Remember the scripture lesson from about becoming a child. The more you depend upon Christ, grow in Christ, and seek God, the smaller and smaller you become, and the bigger and bigger Christ becomes in you. Therefore, while the world says you get bigger and stronger with experience, you actually grow the opposite in direction when growing in the Lord. Christ is referring to a growth cycle of growing smaller and weaker, in order to let Him be your strength and purpose more and more each step of faith. Everything that your friends and family are teaching you may only be applied to the world, not your walk with God necessarily. What mankind’s understanding seems as right, is not always how God sees it. It’s human nature to work hard and accomplish everything based upon your own performance and effort. We are all taught to work hard, take control, and apply effort and you will succeed. Again, that’s not at all how growing in Christ is however. It’s actually the entire other way around.

The dream started out in the throne room of a king. The setting was a medieval castle setting with the traditional clothing of that period. All the characters of this time were in the room. The hustle and bustle was all around the room with hundreds of people crammed into the back of throne room. They were all fearful and intimidated of the king. The key difference about this setting was that the colors of Gold and Silver were everywhere and on everything. The colors were so strong and it was so bright. Everything was shiny and reflective. The king was sitting on his throne all by himself while the red carpet was rolled down from his chair to the people seeking to speak with him in a line. From what I could understand from all this, it was conducting regular kingdom business manners. No event specifically was mentioned. I wanted to get closer to the king to see what was going on. I could feel a sense of urgency for me to seek the king and reach his attention. There were a few people at a time approaching the king and I heard vague whispering. I had to get closer but I couldn’t since I was not 1st person in the dream at this moment. I was like a fly on the wall just watching a TV show. I was outside the scene. I noticed that there was a baby on the gray stony floor near the people playing near the carpet. The baby was on the other side of the king on the edge of the crowd. There was a large distance between the baby and the king. The king noticed the child from the other side of the room from intently looking at the crowd and then smiled. He called out to the child, “My child, come here to your father.” The baby stopped, looked up towards the king, and got all excited and started crawling as fast and as cute as he could on the red carpet. So here is this little guy crawling as fast as he can on the carpet and slowly gets to the king’s throne’s steps. The king started chuckling very loud once he saw the little tike coming to him. Everyone in the crowd stopped talking and all smiled while they looked intently on the little babe on the floor, on his way to the king. The king got off his throne, picked up the little baby in his arms, sat down, and placed the baby on his lap. Once this happened, I entered into the dream as the child on the lap of a king with a different perspective as the actual child. I was first person now. It was awesome!

Remember when we were young, how we wanted to be a part of everything and wanted all the attention. (I can remember when my father had business meetings at home, I always wanted to sit in on them at the dinner table in the evening. I was the only ten year old in the neighborhood that could talk and understand insurance. It’s funny but true.) I was listening to all the business going on with the king while I was secure in his lap. I wasn’t saying anything at all. I was just watching and learning with fascination by all the different things going on. I was completely at rest, in amazement, while in the safety of my father’s lap. Once all the business items were discussed for the day, the dream ended with the scene as the third person shot again of the throne room. I was asleep on the lap of the king. Anyone who wanted to see the king, now couldn’t because his child was on his lap in peace, sleeping. The king looked down at me and said, “You are my child and I will never let you go.” He kissed me on the head, while I had my thumb in my mouth asleep. The scene ended and I woke up feeling amazing. It was so real and so vivid. I made sure to write down all these details right away. I knew that I would need to take some time to pray about the significance of this dream. Since I was praying about gaining an understanding of my age in Christ, I knew there was no coincidence about this dream. I still however needed to seek a deeper understanding of the events that took place before creating this lesson in the chapter.

What age did you think you were in God’s eyes before you read this? I thought for sure I was at least 16 in God’s eyes, maybe even up to 25 spiritually. I could not have been further from the truth. In God’s eyes, I was a little baby, playing on the carpet, crawling into His lap. When I was in His arms, there was no pride, no self-reliance, and no resistance. There was only trust, peace, security, safety, humility, fascination, and joy. I was not saying a word to anyone, just listening and at peace. I was completely at rest the entire time. It’s ok to allow yourself to be innocent with God. There are some things in life where you have to surrender them to Jesus completely because only He is going to be able to take them from you.

I shared this message with many people at work and church while praying about the meaning and direction of this message. The hard truth is that when you chose your age, the older you picked yourself, the more pride and self-sufficiency you have. When Christ says come as a little child, it’s also a message on humility and dependence. The strongest, spirit filled Christians who read this, all considered themselves little helpless babies when getting a picture from the past. The correlation is directly related to your true spiritual age. If you thought of yourself as a teenager or older as I did, just like me, you have too much pride in you. Praise God however, that He is more than equipped to drain that from you and replace it with dependence on Him. In the few months since I had this dream, until the current time I am sharing this message, I have had many instances of growing in humility. It’s not so much that I was too prideful in my every day attitude though this can be a weakness of mine. God rather used circumstances in the past months to constantly test me in my pride and allowed me to choose humility instead with His strength. Praise God that He strengthened me enough to understand and recognize what was going on few months ago. I almost missed the entire lesson at first. As the Holy Spirit came to me, He taught me humility against my enemies. Through several instances in this case, in addition to the typical morning commute issues for example, I started to accept that humility was a better friend than pride. The more and more this started happening, I made a conscious choice to accept childlike humility. All my care started to completely fall away in a matter of almost a full year of constant situations. I started reverting from a prideful man to a carefree, humble child. This only took about a year and the situations were not too much either. Therefore, it was more like a lesson that was needed for my life right now and moving forward in the future.

To think that applying humility is going to be a strategic weapon for you in all adversity that you are going to face in life. Something is going to happen tomorrow to you. Whether it is in traffic, at work, or in your family, you are going to have to make a choice in some fashion. I challenge you to choose childlike humility and use all your effort and emotion to depend upon God for His salvation for whatever context it’s needed in your life. Make a choice to be that baby who trusts in God and crawls on the carpet to the king. If you commit the problem to God fully, He is more than committed to you for overcoming it through you. The time it will take however is something we never know. This is why we must ask for and receive patience. That will be another chapter though. Matthew 19:14 NKJV “But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus wants the “little children” to come to Him. Can you allow yourself to be that little child? From looking through the Gospels, the verses that I see, that show an urgency that Christ expresses in context, is all related to the children. Christ wants children to come to Him. It’s safe to say He wants all to come to Him, however look at the specific context. It’s all about becoming a humble, trusting child. Do you want to see God move in your life? Do you want your personal breakthroughs? Lay down all your pride and come to Him as a little child in prayer. To think that God looks at you as a little baby who is helpless and weak. He wants nothing more than to scoop you up into His arms and place you on His lap when He is sitting on His throne. He is not going to scoop up an adult with pride and self-reliance. He is only going scoop up a little baby who is humble. How many times do we resist Him, only to realize it would have been a much better future and decision to quickly crawl to Him when He calls?

Father in Heaven, I surrender to You right now in Jesus name. Take all my pride, all my anxiety, and everything that I am holding onto from me. Empty me of all the stress and worry that I am trying to control and fill me with Your peace, Your joy, and Your presence right now in Jesus name. Show me today that You are with me and help me understand how You look at me. Show me what age You see me as. Help me to grow into the little child of this dream. Give me the confidence I need in prayer to become an effective prayer warrior. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Chapter 2: Whispering To Nails

When was the last time you thought about how your speech affects others? Whether it is to your spouse, your co-workers, your friends, or even people who you simply pass in life, you can make a conscious choice to influence other people for the Kingdom of God. That is if you allow yourself to do so. I heard a good quotable phrase come out of my best friend’s mouth, who is a pastor, “If you are not directly headed toward Christ, you are only falling away from Him.” This made me think about how we have to make a choice each day to live for God. Some days it’s quite challenging to make a conscious choice to live for God. Only by His power and His life in us, do we have the ability to daily walk with Him. We are completely dependent on His grace for all the tools necessary to accomplish His perfect will for our lives. I have come across a few people in life, who I do not even know closely, and yet they influenced me greatly with their words in passing. I can remember their faces. I do not even know who they really are. The first and last impression I have of them is the attitude and spirit they had when being around them. The words leave their mouth with the right spirit and attitude, and they can break strongholds, set the captives free, and change hearts. Many times this happens when we are in need of some perspective. God then uses someone to touch our lives, in order to bring us back around to the correct mindset towards God and His plan. Who has God used in your life from the past to reset your perspective? What do you think you have learned about God’s ownership of your life from them?

There are many types of examples in life that we can find, to support positive words affecting others. Many troubled youth who get into drugs and gangs typically do not have anyone in their lives feeding them the positive future God wants for them. Most of my clients who I work with do not have anyone in their life to keep them pumped up and motivated for a greater purpose with their lives. When you leave your home in the morning, do you leave with someone sending you off with a smile, hug, or warm wishes? If you can honestly say that you do, please take this time to really thank God for it. These are the type of people in our life to keep us focused on what God has planned for our life. They are in our lives to build us up and challenge us to become better without changing who we are for the plan that God gave us.

I want to share a great vision that I had a few years back, which is related to God speaking to us. The story may sound a little bit like a rabbit trail but I promise it ties in excellent to the topic at hand and also has a very deep impact. This is the first chapter that I am going to discuss a vision with you. The last book I submitted had a few stories regarding a layoff experience a few years back. The vision of this chapter came to me a few months after attempting to understand what God’s plan for my life was during this time. Even though it was a typical corporate lay off, God’s fingerprints were all over it now that I take the time to look.

Just imagine the very worst conceptual day of your career. My primary job, through several different careers, has mainly been on the telephone in customer service based roles. I can handle most any type of customer. Typically, I can help the team I am on to handle difficult clients as well. I am not good at much however, on the phone, I am very confident. There was a certain week of sales orders that led to having a very bad day. This was at a previous job a few years back, which prompted this vision in the midst of a very stressful week. Everything that I was managing was falling apart. Nothing I did, to try to overcome the problems at work, was changing at all. I had an “aggressive” manager at the time to say the least. They had quite an oppressive, micro managing way of working with people. I was constantly reminded with a “what have you done for me lately” attitude. It was so insulting being unappreciated like that. To be very honest, I truly feel sorry for him. He desperately needs a relationship with Jesus Christ. No matter what job you have, no one wants to be treated like dirt. I understood where they were coming from sort of, but there was nothing I could have done, given my low sales numbers. You can talk to me all you want about goal setting. However, there are times when God allows everything to just fall apart and your efforts do not make any difference. Sometimes God needs to get our attention in a situation and most of the time we don’t get the initial prompting from the Holy Spirit. At this time in my life, I did have my job as an Idol above God. This isn’t something we will consciously think about unless it comes to our attention. As believers, we don’t wake up and consciously say, “Lord, you are going to be number two today. I hope that’s ok with you.” No one who loves the Lord would ever talk like that. We all must be on guard for this in on our attitude. Most people have the attitude to work hard, set goals, put in overtime, skip lunch if you have to, and win at all costs in order to achieve. Depending upon the project, I do understand, however it’s something that creeps up on us. Just as the 90’s commercial says, “No one ever says they want to become a drug addict.” The same goes for Christians also. We don’t ever say something else is going to become an idol over God in our lives but it does happen. So here I was, having a terrible day at work, not feeling God’s presence, and full of despair. I went home that night and new I needed to have some quality Bible time. I was praying a lot during this time in my life. Trying to understand God’s will has to be one of the hardest challenges we face as Christians. I continued to seek God in prayer, “What is the greater purpose for my life with You?” I also asked, “Help me understand how much You really love me. Can you help me understand the depth of Your love for me?” I was seeking God about answers regarding my purpose at work. I had a terrible manager who was cut throat, treated us terribly, my numbers were so far off my goal I felt I had no hope, and the icing on the cake was some difficult clients yelling at me on the phone. I didn’t want to look at another phone for a month. I was completely fed up with my job. I was ready to quit. I also was not as strong in as I am today in Christ at this time in the past, so this was a growth lesson for me, as you will read below.

I was sitting on my couch with the TV off and the Kindle Bible in my hand. I ended up staring into the blackness of the TV. It was just like looking into one of those 5D pictures. You have to relax your eyes and almost stare through the picture before you understand what lies into it. You will never understand or see the true intended picture until you surrender your understanding. Once you have submitted to the picture, your eyes will refocus and allow you to see the actual picture, which was hidden into the background. Once I surrendered my eyes, I thought to myself, not even aloud, “Lord, help me understand how much You love me.” Boom! Yes, an actual picture vision type of movie played in my mind’s eye for about 15 seconds. The scene depicted Christ building some furniture, very similar to “The Passion of the Christ” scene with Mary. Jesus was in the courtyard working with wood planks and every time He picked up a nail, He whispered something to it, and then drove in the nail into the project. Jesus was working with great passion and purpose, driving nails into a project hanging on the stone wall. The vision was quick but powerful. It was a great scene to depict working at our jobs. This is what I was trying to gain His understanding of perspective. I wanted to see how God was with me at my job. I couldn’t see a big picture of what I was doing.

At first when this happened, I didn’t fully understand what it meant. A few minutes later, the Holy Spirit touched me. It wasn’t with words so it’s hard to explain. It was as if He gave me the understanding all of a sudden. In any critical thinking example for analysis, you have to make sure that you ask the right questions. Something that I learned from my education is to ensure you ask the right questions in order to come to the true solution. The questions started coming to me and I simply answered them in my heart. The first question that came to me was, “What tools do you use for a living?” I answered to myself, “A phone of course.” Once I answered that to Him, I got it. I replayed the entire vision repeatedly and then wept. It all made sense to me. Before you read next, see if you can piece this together before I break it down for you. I had a terrible day at work, I was completely fed up, and the Holy Spirit reminded me about the tools that I used every day to work with compared to Jesus at work. Do you think you have it?

I do hope you tried to meditate this vision just for a few seconds. This impacted me so much. I am so glad to write this down and share it. Primarily because I never want to forget it and never forget the perspective, it gave me. I am not going to break down every scripture for you so let me paraphrase the logic. Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God, before the concept of time and humanity. (John Ch1) All things were made by Jesus and through Jesus. Jesus knew in the very beginning that there was no other choice but to go die a brutal death on the cross for us. He knows every single detail of every single person and situation, past, present, and future.

This begs the question, “Since Jesus knew He had to come to Earth and die for us, did He have the choice in which career He took?” Why of course He did. He’s God. He took on the career before His ministry as a carpenter. Wait a minute though; what tools does a carpenter use every single moment of every single day? Wood, nails, and a hammer. These are the tools of carpenter. What would you do if someone told you what the tools of your human destruction were going to be at the end of your life? Would you go into that career? For example, with my customer service jobs, if God told me in 20 years that a telephone would somehow cause severe torcher, to the degree of the cross and kill me, do you think I would have a career using the phone tomorrow? I highly doubt this. In fact, for you and I, this would be daily, dreaded, torcher. This would be, from the human standpoint, unbearable understanding to the degree of insanity. It would probably stifle our entire lives. We would go into panic shock and brink of insanity every ring we heard from any phone. If God gave us this understanding, we as humans could not live knowing the truth of the future. Every cell phone, every home phone, and every work phone would cause us to fall apart. If God told you that a specific model of car was going to kill you in an accident, you would be terrified every single time this type of car was headed in your direction. You would psychologically not be able to travel anywhere unless you were severally medicated to numb you of this thought. You would never teach any one drivers education, that’s for sure. For Christ however, this was a daily motivation of His love for us and His mission coming to us as Immanuel. I was really trying to grasp an understanding of my bad day compared to Christ’s. Obviously, my situation cleared up, we moved forward, and honestly everything worked out.

Going back to the vision details, before Christ hammered in a nail He whispered to it. That part of the vision was confusing to me at first but then the impact came. “Brian, this is how much I love you.” And He hammered in the nail. He picked up another nail, “Melissa, this is how much I love you.” As Christ worked daily in His chosen career, He thought daily of YOU. Every project that He hammered in, He very well could have whispered to it thinking, “This is how much I love YOU. You just don’t understand it yet.”

Again, for you and me, if God would say to us exactly how we are going to die and with the exact tools or situations, we would become paralyzed with fear. If you knew that you were going to have a very bad car crash ahead of time, I imagine you would be taking the bus instead of a car or walking everywhere until something happened to you. However, for Jesus Christ in His career, there were the exact same tools used against Him to crucify Him. Just stop and think for a few seconds, if you would have been in His place. Every time you hammered a nail into a table, chair, or bench, you would be reminded with every sound what was to come. With every inch, the nail went into the wood you would be imagining as if it were your hands and feet. I don’t know how someone can run through this train of thought without weeping about how much Christ loves us. Many of us forget that Christ, being God, is also equally omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. This means that He fully knew the future down to the exact detail of what was to come. To you and me, we would have chosen a much different career. In fact, most of us would have run from this. I would have been a baker or something, not a carpenter. Can you imagine the thoughts that Jesus could have had for us when He went to work year after year? Can you even imagine Him building a project and knowing all too well, what was to come with His future?

This brings me to the heart of the lesson of this chapter. With our own mouths, we have the ability to bless, encourage, and promote every single person we come across in life. Do we even take a second glimpse into someone else’s life though? Even people we work with every single day for hours and hours per week need daily encouragement. You may say, “No one is encouraging me with words!” That all may be true however will anyone ever make the first step towards you? From my experience, only God really makes the first step, strong enough to gain our attention. Your friends and family may be all you know of those who support you, however many people today do not even have this. I know too many people where the important people of their life, who should be speaking hope into their life, are speaking resentment, anger, and jealousy. Who is to say that you cannot be the person who stops the cycle in their life of negative emotions? As you know, any given action or decision leads to causing a reaction in any particular circumstance in someone else’s life. Have you ever thought about the people you are around through the day? It’s deciding to take the mindset of making every day an extraordinary day. That means you start doing for other people, regardless if someone else speaks into your life. It’s taking the first step into the victory of demonic oppression in others’ lives.

I hope that this vision has touched your heart. I hope that I have been able to shed more revelation and understanding on Christ’s passion for us. No matter how bad your job is right now, I hope you can remember what Christ chose to go through for you and me, not only on the cross but also before the cross. The sheer terror, which you and I would have been put through, was something Christ specifically chose to do. The tools of His trade were the exact tools, which created the absolute worse day in Christ’s human existence. Christ could have easily pre-ordained that he came from a different career related family. He chose carpentry to remind us, what we would see as a bad day at work for us, was something He used for motivation. He used this as a stronger and deeper purpose. This is something that we may never understand until He gives us this understanding ability. If you ever ask God again how much He loves you, just know that He gave us His very best in His Son. When we tell people, “Jesus loves you.”, stop and think about the pre-ministry mindset Christ had. It’s a deeper love than we will ever know.

Chapter 3: Heart Attack Or Holy Ghost

I want to share an important event in my life with you. This is one of those faith builders, which you never forget about. It does change your life forever. The Holy Ghost has a very interesting way of getting our attention sometimes. For this particular case, it was a literal, physical presence upon me. I cannot explain it well but it was almost as if God was holding me physically back to get my attention. I was still able to move however. I felt this weight upon my body, which was supernatural, and it very much got my attention. For clarification to any skeptics, I was not on any type of medication, did not have any drugs, nor did I have any caffeine in me at the time. It’s important to ensure you fully understand, something was going on, I was aware of it, and I knew it was God. I woke up early that morning very refreshed and naturally energized. Normally waking up is hard for me to do without some coffee or something else to get me going. It was a day through the workweek, a Tuesday if I recall correctly. This was a typical weekday where I got up and got dressed for work. There was nothing special about this day. I had a very strong dream presence through the night. I do not clearly remember the actual dreams but I felt the presence of caution on my life through them. When I woke up and opened my eyes, while still lying in bed and lying under my covers, I felt God’s voice in my heart, “Do not leave your house. Do not go to work. Do not get in your car. Do not go anywhere, for any reason.” It was very clear and very real.

Have you ever had some God experiences in your life like this? I would believe that you have had them. I am sure you have many examples in your life where you felt a similar prompting. There is a “but” coming though. Did you ever have to explain it to your boss? Well for this case, knowing my work situation, I had no choice but to call off sick. I was not honestly sick however, can you imagine my boss accepting me calling off work because the prompting of the Holy Spirit? It does make me chuckle and I hope you can as well but I really didn’t know what the “right” thing to do was at the time. It was one of the most awkward situations that I have ever had to call off work. I told her that I wasn’t feeling good and left it at that. It’s not as if I was 100% sure about this voice at first. I felt the presence of God but I was still fighting the emotions of submitting to God. It was kind of like saying, “I have to call off work today to go follow God.” I never had that type of experience before but due to the severity of the presence, I knew something was going to happen that day. I was walking around the house with a very heavy weight upon my chest. Some may say it was low blood pressure. Some may say it was some other physical condition going on however as you will read below, it was much more than I ever could have imagined. I continued to hear the voice of the Spirit, “Do not leave the house. Not for any reason.” It continued until I said audibly out loud, “Lord, yes, I hear you, I am not going anywhere. I will not leave the house for any reason.” Once I said this, the voice quieted but I felt the presence continue on my heart. I really thought that this was it for me. I figured I was going to have a heart attack or something literal like that. I didn’t know if someone was going to break into the house or if someone was going to be in an accident in the family. I called off sick, which I still do feel a bit guilty over however following God’s prompting takes precedent even if it doesn’t make any sense at the time.

I got out of bed and knew exactly this morning was going to be skipping breakfast and focused all on Bible study, prayer time, and singing some worship. When I read the Word, there was no special impact like the one I was expecting. When I turned on my headphones and cranked up my music, no special feeling. I was almost concerned thinking if I was listening correctly. I still felt the weight of God’s hand on my chest, and heard the voice earlier, but now I am starting to question myself in following God’s voice. Maybe I made this all up in my head or something like that. Isn’t that something we all can understand? Many of us start seeking God with a passion and then when we finally get in His will, we forget to stay focused on the task. We all long to remember the thrill of the call because that was the exciting part. Finding your calling very well may be more exciting than continuing the work you’re called to in the first place. Just like in a relationship, in the beginning, there is excitement but then when you are married for several years, it changes to the lasting commitment form of love. Most Christians seem to have the passion and excitement part down but few if any, me included, are doing well with the completely committed part of the relationship with Christ. Who doesn’t love a worship concert on the weekend with lights, sounds, and thousands of people worshiping all together? However, is that what the majority of a Christian’s life is like? It’s more like a Wednesday afternoon when you feel exhausted at 3PM with your business phone ringing off the hook, the car needs a new windshield, and you need to remember to grab some milk before you get home. If you forget the milk, a big fight will break out like last week and that still weighs heavy on your heart as well.

So all day I am back and forth questioning if my instincts were right. I still felt the presence of God and weight on my heart, I knew I heard the voice in my heart clear as day, but as Christ says in Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” At this point, I am thinking about this passage realizing about the commitment aspect to our daily walk. I know many Christians who are genuinely saved and love Christ but due to whatever pressure or misunderstanding of scripture, they are struggling Christians with no victory in their testimony just yet. If your mindset towards your daily walk with Christ says, “Life on Earth is a defeated struggle but someday we will die and go to Heaven.” You are completely missing the point of developing your relationship with the Holy Spirit. Whether you accept it or not, there are many verses, in context, which clearly say you have the right to seek God and win in your circumstance when you place your trust in Him. More importantly than that, is the thrill of winning others to Christ, knowing they have received the free gift of salvation and are headed to Heaven. There is no better feeling that you can get when you win someone to Jesus. Whether this is in prayer, adversity, healing, or something else, we have the right to expect God to move. Now there are some times when sickness doesn’t heal and marriages are not restored, so please don’t misunderstand me. I get it, I really do. There are things in life that don’t make sense and God allows it due to our free will of choice or whatever element out in the world for a greater plan. All I am saying however is that if we all have lives where there is no accomplishment of anything in the Holy Spirit, then we are not as being effective for Christ as we have the potential to. If you truly believe that, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4, NKJV) then we must be able to take hold of this power for the Kingdom of God and start doing something great with it. As always, I include myself in this challenge as well. I may not be there just yet but I do want to be.

My wife did not notice anything differently about me, other than I stayed inside the house all day and just stayed on my computer listening to my headphones. I really wasn’t sure what to do after a few hours of Bible time. If I can be completely honest with you, out of a full day, two hours of Bible time is more than enough for me to get charged up. I had no direction of what to do with all this time however, my only instructions were not to leave. I was feeling good but bored all day long. Maybe it’s a great lesson about waiting upon the Lord. If you do a word search in the Bible, NKJV, you will actually see many different verses that talk about waiting upon the Lord. My favorite, which you may have guessed it already, is Isaiah 40:31 “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

As the afternoon passed by, I did feel very strong something was going to happen and anticipated being needed for something. Again, for all I know, we were going to get a phone call about a car accident or some other tragedy, which we needed to be there for someone else. I hate to admit it, but it seems that I immediately go for the extreme on any situation when there is something supernatural going on. Sometimes we treat God as if He is only interested in the big things in life. The truth is that He wants everything to do with the details of your life. If you think about it, the details of your life add up and compound into the big things in life, whether it be large or small. On top of that, lest we never forget, all things are small to God and nothing is a challenge. Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.””

Finally, something started to happen. I felt the presence come to a climax event in my chest. The best way to describe it is the butterfly feeling. When this started happening, I was sitting at my computer, which we keep on our dining room table. I was on the side, which was closest to my basement door, which was wide open at the time. Normally we have it shut but for today, due to whatever reason, I wasn’t paying attention. I should have closed it. I normally cause an issue with my wife about keeping this door close to keep the air conditioning in the first floor. I feel some sudden feelings, though not pains, in my chest. I look up to my ceiling thinking, “Is this it? Am I having a heart attack or something?” Instantly, I hear this huge rushing of water coming from my basement. It was so loud like white water rapids in my basement. I turned back at my wife on the couch and asked, “Did you have laundry started or something?” She said, “Nope.” I then heard the Holy Spirit’s voice, “GO!” and I sprinted downstairs, jumping about five steps, to immediately recognized that this was exactly what the entire day’s waiting upon the Lord was about. The city main, water pressure release valve, rusted completely out. The main water, which comes into the house, goes into a pressure regulator, which then takes several hundred PSI down to a usable PSI in your home water pipes. I knew some basics about this area within the house due to a plumbing issue a few years back. Several times in the past, we had to turn off the entire main water to the house. So at least we did have some practice turning all this off before. I had everything turned off within about three seconds. Once I turned off the valve, the Holy Spirit’s physical presence left me. Mission accomplished. I will never forget that day. I am writing this account also to ensure that I never forget this event. In addition, I want to encourage and motivate you as well with God’s faithfulness.

The pressure reducer rusted out on the bottom of the valve. It gushed out at full force from the several hundred PSI coming in from the street. There was only a little water on the floor. Even just three seconds worth, I would estimate that to be at least 5 gallons worth of water or maybe a touch less. As panicking of a situation this would have been for me, I was so thankful. We had no main water coming in now and I am not a plumber. What do you when this happens? Yellow pages to the rescue or at least I thought at the time. I called a nationally known plumbing service, big mistake. They came to the house and wanted to charge me about $450. What?! I knew the part was only going to be $40 or so. I am slowly but surely learning not to waste money. I am not paying you $450 for a job that might have a part, which costs less than $50. After about an hour of the guy looking at it I told him politely I am not paying that kind of money and I will call my father. My father was not yet home though from his job. So here I am, with a few hours to digest this afternoon.

Let me boast in the Lord. Let me tell you how awesome He is. Had I went to work that day, I would not have been home until 7PM. The valve rusted out at 5PM and started the flood. Had I also not been home, my wife would have probably gone over to her parents’ house to visit and possibly go out to eat. There is a very good chance she would not have come home until 7:30PM or 8PM that night. With the magnitude of the PSI coming in from the street, I cannot imagine what a few hours of that force would have done to our basement. It’s not even a finished basement either. Everything in the basement, up to the door, would have been completely flooded. The water would have quickly rose high enough to hit our electrical box as well. I cannot imagine the devastation to our home and animals that could have potentially caused. It’s so humbling, that praise God by His grace, love, and mercy, He stepped into this situation. Had it not been for Him getting my attention with a physical presence on me and my simple, basic, obedience, this would have been a lifelong disaster that we would have never forgot. This would have been a life changing disaster full of heartache and so forth.

My message to you in this chapter is very straightforward. If you feel God calling you to either do something or not to do something, I want you to heed this voice. If this is clear to you, just like it was clear to me, you need to take a step of faith, regardless of who is trying to warn you about the risks. Remember, I am assuming that any intention you have perfectly aligns with God’s Word and you are seeking God without any personal bias. If you have surrendered to Christ as a true living sacrifice, then take the step of faith to go out and allow God to use you. Whenever you go outside of your comfort zone, it can be very scary. The benefit though is that you eventually grow into a new, larger comfort zone. This is something that we must allow Christ to continue to work on all our hearts for growing. If we stay in our spiritual comfort zone forever, we will never grow and then wonder why we missed the blessing of a greater future. When was the last time you heard God’s voice speak to you? What was it about? What concerns do you really have? Do you think God would call you somewhere or to do something that He was not already committed to your success in doing?

God does everything by His grace. The only reason He stepped into my situation was His grace. On top of that, during this time in my life I was struggling with some sin very badly. I did not have a clean conscious toward God. I knew His voice and His presence but I did not have any peace with God due to the shame of the sin going on in my heart. I was at a point in my life where I thought I was self-sufficient and was living for myself. I was trying to set myself free from my own trap. I was not at a fully dependent mindset yet. Sometimes God speaks to us through circumstances, sometimes through other people, and sometimes directly. I cannot explain why or how He touched me in order to get my attention. It’s just the fact that He did. I am so thankful to share this account with all of you and promote a real instance of Jesus in my life. Most people that I share this message with also have their own stories as well. I would hope that every believer reading this message has a complete list of accounts where God moved in this fashion in their lives. I pray this is true for everyone. My challenge to all of you, who do have several stories, is to start writing them down as well. I don’t mind these book projects because it seems that I have a compulsion to share these instances with as many people as possible to encourage them. If that is not you, then find some people at church to speak to in private. We know that in every body of believers, there are hurting people who need encouraged.

I remember Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14 about the prized gifts of the Holy Spirit. The most important gift you can have in the Holy Spirit is prophecy because it edifies the church as a whole. 1 Corinthians 14:1-5 NKJV, “14 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.”

If we can only have the consistent attitude towards each other in edification, just imagine how all of your relationships will be grounded in Christ. Just as with love, going hand in hand with all of the other spiritual gifts, we can finally start making ground into positioning the Holy Spirit in other people’s lives. Not that God can’t touch people on His own will, however we all must take on the responsibility to help edify all the sick and broken hearted in our lives. I know there are many of you with many stories. Let’s get prepared to share your own message to the people Christ has specifically placed into your life. That should even still be in your comfort zone. Let’s win for the King!

Chapter 4: Feral Christians

As some of you know, my wife and I have many animals in our home. Everything from cats, dogs, to fish tanks, are all throughout our home. My wife has the idea that she can try to save them all it seems. I of course get to pay for everything, just kidding. I am very glad to have all the animals that we do. They keep us company and remind us many things about ourselves when we least expect it. There are two cats that specifically come to mind though when we do the evening round up in putting them to bed at night. For some reason however, when I come around these two cats flee as if I am chasing them or threatening them. To be very honest with you, it rather hurts my feelings. All I want to do is pick them up and hold them. It’s not as if they want to get away from me in a general sense. They seem to look at me with much fear and scatter as if their lives were in danger. When we first started adopting all our cats, it was nice because they were just little kittens. I was able to be around them when they were young because my job at the time allowed me to be home more. When they started getting bigger however, things started changing. I now work through the whole day away from the house though and I’m hardly at home when there is an opportunity to spend time with them. Although I am technically their owner and their “father” and my wife is of course their “mother” in terms of relationship. I don’t really regard animals as property but that’s neither here nor there. For us, they’re our kids.

The inspiration for my vision came when one afternoon I was trying to make the time to play with them. All I wanted to do was go up to them, pet them for no more than a few minutes, and spend some time with them. There are two different cats, which my wife recently adopted. They are assumed to be brothers from the same litter. One of them is an orange striped cat named Garfield after, yes you guessed it, the cartoon character. The brother is a white cat with orange markings in a few different patches. His name is Gary based upon the SpongeBob snail, though there are no common colors really. It seems my house attracts all sorts of wild animals as a safe haven. It was nice at first until the vet bills start piling up. Garfield is a timid feral cat who is not always feral however, he must be approached slowly, and the timing must be right. Typically, when he is groggy from taking a nap or early in the morning, I can approach him or my wife can pick him up in her arms where I then can pet him. Gary on the other hand is completely feral to me. He is deathly afraid of me 99% of the time. Only on a few occasions have I ever spent some time petting him and getting to know him. Many of us exhibit these tendencies at different stages of our lives. Maybe some of you are currently in one of these stages. The Holy Spirit really spoke to me about these cats when I was trying to catch one the other day. It was as if He showed me that the roles are reversed when it comes to me and other Christians when following the Holy Spirit. Whenever the Holy Spirit comes into many of our lives, we also run and scatter from Him just as the cats do from me. We see Him coming, sprint downstairs, and try to hide from Him like my cats. Since there are different times in all of our lives, we can discuss each cat’s intricacies in the similarities of relationship.

Let’s do a quick definition analysis to ensure we are all on the same page regarding the concept and lesson. Feral is defined by The American Heritage® Science Dictionary as, “Existing in a wild or untamed state, either naturally or having returned to such a state from domestication.” What words jump out at you from the context we are discussing? For me just a few to name, as an example would be “wild”, “untamed”, “returned to such a state”. After taking the time to meditate about this, I remember many things from the current and past, which strike me. I can think of events not only in other people’s lives that we can see from the outside, but in my own life as well. Do you know fellow Christians who could be considered, “wild” or “untamed”? Many people who truly love God in their heart don’t know how to reach out to Him because of strongholds in their life. I know all too well about it. Odds are, you do also. Many of you reading this right now have a stronghold in your life that is distancing you from God further and further. What you are going to find out about this however is that all you need to do is take one-step toward Him and God will take 1000 steps toward you.

The first cat to discuss is Garfield. When he is in the right mood, he is actually quite playful and I can pet him. The only catch though is that the timing must be right and the mood must be set. Typically in the afternoons, he is on my side of the bed, upstairs resting. If I approach slowly and walk as if I am on eggshells, he will allow me for a few minutes to pet him before he gets tired of me. Isn’t that just like how we can be with God sometimes? Only if the circumstances are right and we are feeling in the mood, do we allow God to even enter our mind. At the first glance of adversity, however we immediately jump up and sprint off the bed and run away. That’s what he does whenever he is too disturbed with me. On the other hand, we only entertain God for few minutes and then cannot handle the idea of growing in Christ and we choose to “returned to such a state” as our definition shares with us. It’s like we allow God to have fellowship with us for a few minutes and then we get too disturbed with His will and we run away from Him. This prompts me to think about a very impactful scripture of how Paul teaches us to grow in Christ and continue growing. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2 NKJV. We must constantly be renewing our mind if we want to get to the next stage of development in Christ.

I can picture many people as a Garfield, in addition to myself of course during certain stages in my own life. A very good friend of mine, a pastor no less, admitted that sometimes we almost have a compulsion to mess things up. Even in the times of blessings and God’s presence, many of us can lose our focus in the matter of an instant. We are feeling so good in the midst of a situation, we don’t understand how to handle the good times because we are not typically in them. We inadvertently fall away from the mountaintop only to be right smack in the middle of yet another valley experience. Most of us, if we are all being honest, subconsciously say to ourselves, “I have to do something to screw this up. I don’t understand what’s happening because I rarely have God’s presence this strong in my life.” I know I have many times. I just didn’t realize what I was doing. Once I was able to recognize the different challenges of a peak compared to a valley, life started to make a little more sense to me. I did not struggle as much after I started recognizing when I was on a mountaintop. The difference was that I knew to stay focused on drawing closer to Christ as a more conscious effort since there was no burden currently in my life.

If you really look at this cycle of difficulties, we all can agree that in the valley, not the peaks, you learn the most about who you are, your character, your attitudes, and your view of who God is to you. Just imagine though, if we take this same focus, which we used to get out of the valley, and continued this into the peak? Can you imagine what your life would turn into had you kept committing to Christ in your last peak? I don’t know about you, but I am tired of living in the valley. By God’s gifting of obedience, faith, and so on, I want to continue the fight on the peaks. For those of you who are tired of living in the valley, I encourage you to keep the same prayer time, reading time, music and worship, that helped you through the previous valley. Stop settling for the valley Christian life. If you really think about it, most of the time when you are in the valley, you are not able to affect as many people for Christ because you are already struggling in your own burdens. You are actually focused on yourself at a heightened state. I of course am talking about general burdens, not the life or death situations. So if you really want to make an impact for Christ, stay focused on growing while in the peak and stretch it as far as you can go. I think that most of us talk about hardships, which to other people are nothing more than an inconvenience in their life. Let’s be honest with ourselves and start renewing our mind because most situations we go through are not that bad. In the midst of a blessing and peak of our lives, let’s continue to receive God’s grace, strength, obedience, repentance, and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Most of us climb to the peak out of a huge valley and then we simply walk away from God because there is no burden keeping us on our knees in prayer. All of us at one point in life have been guilty of being a “Garfield”. We allow God to touch us only in the midst of the perfect circumstances when the timing is right. By God’s grace, He still does come to us during these times however many of us are half feral and quickly revert back to the old self without renewing our minds. So if you do feel that you may be considered a Garfield now, the answer is set in Romans 12:2 “2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Continue to renew your mind by reading and meditating the New Testament and Psalms. Develop your prayer life and seek God in your own unprecedented way. Stretch the peaks in your life by maintaining your commitment to seek Christ.

Now Gary is a completely feral cat, that is, at least to me. My wife is able to spend time with him however since she feeds him however, when it comes to me, I have rarely ever spent real time with this cute little guy. Do you remember those Bugs Bunny cartoons with the abominable snowman? That’s the relationship that I have with Gary to sum it up. I literally have to trap him down stairs, under something, in order to just pick him up and help my wife either administer medicine or pet him. Going to the vet’s with Gary is almost an impossible task. If my wife represents the church and I am able to represent God, then Gary is going to represent Christians who have an Old Testament mindset, yet they do love Christ. I was brought up in a very similar background though I do not want to offend anyone from my past. It is what it is. Freedom in Christ was never emphasized for fear it would prompt people to run amuck in sin. The fact is, grace will produce the completely opposite lifestyle. Freedom and grace in Christ actually changes your heart to the degree that you produce real fruit in your life, not legalistic hypocrisy fruit.

People who are living as a Gary fear God so much they shy away from having any relationship with Him at all. They say they have given their lives to Christ in salvation however, that’s the only step they have ever made if that at all. The Gary’s of life have a mindset, which says, they are saved by grace but must maintain their walk with Christ with works and personal effort, which makes grace to no effect in their life. They flee from God every step of life because they do not trust Him because they are commandment conscious and sin conscious. Many Gary’s are also very self-righteous, judgmental, and prideful in their heart, which create such an un-Christ like heart they have no real prayer life. The fact is no Gary has ever genuinely studied Galatians. “21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” (Gal. 2:21 NKJV) A Gary acts as if you are saved by grace, then you are forced into the law and commandments. I am pleased to inform you that if you actually read Galatians, instead of fighting with people, this debate will finally end. I know this very well. I remember that when I was young in high school and really committed my life to Christ when I was 16, it was easy to trust God. All you had to do was drink some Mt. Dew and run around like a little kid on fire for Jesus. I went to a public highschool but was never really persecuted for being a Christian openly. Many of the teachers had either a tolerance for faith or they themselves were of some type of faith, typically Christianity. The only place people told me to calm down with my fire for Christ was, you guessed it, church and family. I had way too many Gary’s in my life growing up. Too many people stopped my snowball momentum in Christ and quenched the fire of the Holy Spirit in my heart. After a few years of being told to “calm down”, I was actually turned away from Christ for the most part and honestly turned into a worldly hypocrite. This is why I am so passionate about this train of thought. All the years of worry and anxiety that I had out of high school would have been eliminated had I developed a prayer life when I was young. I know that someone right now reading this chapter is dealing with the same thing in your life. People are trying to stop your momentum in Christ. I am here to encourage you not to ever stop. Keep praying and keep believing. God will show up, just hold on.

There are so many Christians today, who have accepted Christ as their savior but never grow, myself included until just a few years ago. That sad truth is that there is a bait and switch going on in the church today. It’s one of the most demonic doctrines out there in many churches. The sermons preach the love of God and how Jesus loves you but then once you finally accept Christ, they lay all the commandments on you and set expectations that you are now required to be perfect in their human estimation. If you fail in any trivial way, they judge you to Hell and claim you’re not saved, yet they themselves are exactly the self-righteous hypocrites that Christ called Pharisees and Sadducees. There are thousands, if not millions of people in a several different denominations that set and interpret their own rules on their congregations based on Old Testament teachings, such as not working on Sunday rather than set in the New Testament teachings of Christ. “Oh, John is working on Sunday now? I knew he was never saved” Yet those exact hypocrites will buy lunch after church at John’s restaurant and have him as a waiter.

So if you feel convicted that you are a “Gary” right now, repent, accept God’s grace, and make a point to grow in what grace really means. Most people never get the support and discipling they need to succeed in the walk with Christ. Most of us have to get through intense adversity and back in order to have any realization of mistakes we have made and the power of God’s grace. I don’t want to dwell on this too much but it needs addressed. Paul covered this entirely in the book of Galatians. We are perfected by grace, not works.

If you are a Gary, as I once was, let me share with you the Biblical truth about how to get you from point A to point B for the next stage in life. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16 Do you believe this to be true in your life? How about this great verse from Acts, “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Acts 10:43 Here is another great verse, in context, about salvation. Let’s continue on with, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18 Have you already asked Jesus to forgive you and save you? If so, you are set free from all the legalism and legalistic demons trying to quench your fire for Christ. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” John 6:47 Can we get anymore clearer? I could go for at least another 25 verses. If you believe in God but are scared to death of Him, let these verses be a reminder. You are God’s child and He is committed to you. If God gave His only Son for your sins, then what else does He have to do in order to prove His love for you? There is nothing greater than who God gave us in the person of Jesus Christ. He gave us His very best. I want you to drop your legalism and embrace grace. The other side of the discussion then accuses my view of promoting grace, as a license to sin. I had a good friend even accuse my conversation of this however he put the words into my mouth. If you were thinking this, I feel very sorry for that. Which sentence in my book or chapter promotes sin? Which sentence promotes freedom to corrupt you in sin? Not one sentence in this book ever implies you should do this. If you were thinking that, then you need to address it now. You need to pray about it. Your mind develops your own thoughts and attitudes. If you are not embracing grace, then you are only strengthening sin and satan’s power in your life. People today continue to attack grace. I am glad however, I am in the company of the Apostle Paul. “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:15-18. If you have never accepted the grace of God through Jesus Christ you are not saved. It’s not based upon the works of the law or the commandments. Read every book the Apostle Paul wrote. Take the time right now to commit yourself to grace and rest in Christ’s love for you.

This prayer is for those who have never asked Jesus to be their savior and start a walk with Christ. Pray out loud or in private silence.

“Father in Heaven, thank you so much for sending Your only Son to die on a cross for my sins. Thank you for loving me so much that You gave me your very best. I surrender all my sin and shame to You right now in Jesus name. I ask that you become my God and that Jesus Christ becomes my savior right now in Jesus name. I ask that you fill me right now with the Holy Spirit and help me to live a life pleasing to You. I believe that Christ died on a cross with my sin and rose again the third day to justify me to You. I receive your presence, salvation, free gift of eternal life right now in the name of Jesus.”

If you earnestly prayed that prayer, you are now saved. You’re going to Heaven. Get plugged into a grace-focused church near you. The below paragraph is more specifically a pray for all the Gary’s out there.

“Father in Heaven, I love You. I really do love You. My life doesn’t show it, but I love You, Lord. I want to come back to Your presence. I want to put you first again in my life. Lord, I know about You, but I really don’t know You. I know You're with me but I can’t feel You. Father, give me the faith to understand You. Give me the faith to put You first in everything I am doing with my life. Give me the faith that can see your face, walk in Your presence, and move the mountains in my life. Father, I am empty, I am bankrupt, and I am broken. I now understand and believe that I cannot live this life on my own. I cannot do anything on my own efforts or ideas. It’s all You and it’s all about You. Help me to see what Your doing with me and give me the faith to trust in You. I lay down all my sin and shame right now and nail it to the cross. I love You Jesus. Amen.”

Chapter 5: Pills to Paradise

I have a very powerful story to share with you about someone who I have been coaching/discipling for the past few months. Let’s call his name “Jim”. This story is an amazing story of grace and even still encourages me today when I think about it from months before. Jim was the most pivotal coaching opportunity I have ever come across. This story of grace was able to take me to the next level of my faith and develop God’s calling into my life. This was the scenario, which provided the critical evidence to me that woke me up in life. The true events that happened in this story brought me to a place where I can never go back from acknowledging them. I now understand and believe with my life about a constant spiritual war going on all around us.

Jim started working with me at a previous job a few years ago. I was in a different department at the time than Jim but we surprisingly sat right beside each other. If you have read any other of my stories or books, you now can already guess where I am going with this. I have come to find out, and truly believe, that there are no such things as coincidences when living for Christ. God is always orchestrating something around your life. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days per week, God is always giving you the opportunity to share Christ with the lost and encourage other believers with your life. Most of us however, do not take the time to stop, listen, and see what He is doing. We take for granted His active will in our lives. Sometimes we are all guilty of only seeking His blessings, while the real faith building challenges are either overlooked or completely avoided. This is something which we all must strive to surrender to God. Just imagine, the God of the Universe is using you like a magnet to attract the lost to you. He enjoys using His children to point the lost to the cross. At this time in my life, I was not really on fire for God. I was still weighing out all the options. I didn’t directly open up about Christ to Jim but I tried to plant some seeds to see if he entertained the conversation. We went to the same college and both played football in the past, so we hit it off right away. In a matter of weeks, we were best friends. Again, during this time I thought this was too surreal. The fact that someone with a similar background, same college, and same exact interests just so happens to sit right beside me at work was remarkable. Typically, that would have never happened. There were about four variables going on which would have normally prevented this encounter in the usual new hire training. Now I understood, that meant God was up to something in the both of our lives.

Jim grew up in a particular faith (a Christian denomination) but never accepted salvation or understood a relationship with Christ. He was taught to be a good person and he would go to Heaven. The shame is, that is not at all what the Bible teaches us. Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven in a personal relationship. That’s what the Bible teaches us. Only Christ determines your salvation but it’s safe to say Jim played the part of a good church kid to his family but never had a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He engaged in some very real and very adult activities, using serious substances during his college years. There is no need for details but just understand he was into some very heavy drugs and a very shady crowd.

What started taking Jim into the lower parts of his life, was a single play in college football. He was in division 1 level football in college. The next step was the NFL. His statistics were quite good also. He had a genuinely good chance to make it to the NFL if everything was going to stay in his favor. Even to see him today, several years later, he looks like a bodybuilding monster. Jim never made it to the NFL however. The ball was hiked to the quarterback and the front line pushed hard to go forward against the defensive blitz coming at the ball. The quarterback pitched the ball to the side and Jim scooped in forward and ran to the right hand side. He was ready for this play, as he rehearsed this several hundred times in the course of a few years of practice. The lineman, which was supposed to blocking him, tripped and fell over prematurely for whatever reason and two defensive backs plowed into Jim and completely leveled him. He landed hard enough the medics and coaches heard the thump. The whistle blew and everyone got up to go back to the huddle. That was all players but Jim. The medic came to him and he could not breathe. They brought out the stretchers and carried him off. Jim had the most intense pain he had ever felt from sports. The injury in his back felt like he ripped muscles off his bones from twisting when he went down. The pain stayed at a high intensity for hours that brought this muscle bound giant into tears. It would not go away. For several days after that, the pain was unbearable. The doctors prescribed some very heavy narcotics for him to help with the pain. The injury was so bad that he was done with his season and eventually heard the news a few weeks after the season ended, he had lost his free ride academic scholarship. He was positioned as one of the university’s best hopefuls. Before the injury, he had the classic sports dream you hear about in stories. After the injury, it turned into the classic sports hero disaster story. The friends he all hung around were no longer interested in hanging out with a “could have been”. The girl he was seeing at the time also left him because there was no more potential NFL career to tag along with. Jim literally, in a matter of a few months, lost everything in his personal life. The only thing he had was memories from a dream of what could have been. There was a constant reminder of the pain by looking at dozens of used pill bottles on the shelf. Whether we like to believe it or not, there are thousands of true stories just like Jim every year in college and high school.

Jim continued college and graduated with high honors. He did very well in school but was never able to play again. The pain continued however even after college. The medicine was either Oxy Cotton or something similar. Doctors are using controlled substances entirely too much today. The cheaper form of these substances is heroin and literally, lead to shooting up if they cannot get prescriptions filled. Before I started coaching him, I naively did not realize this was such an epidemic. The really bad part about these drugs was the fact that Jim continued to get these prescriptions for a few years. Since he was hurt in school related functions, he was able to continually get scripts for several years. Within a few months, a pain therapy regimen turned into a critically bad stronghold of addiction. The cycle from these drugs, whether it’s pills or heroin, is an exhausting recovery from addiction. If the mental addiction and stronghold are not bad enough, the physical withdrawal will borderline kill you. The withdrawal is so bad that anyone going through it will practically do anything and almost commit any type crime to get relief. What started as help from a doctor turned Jim into a junky. For years after college, Jim found dealers and was able to stay on pills.

Now back to the work relationship. Jim moved into several different departments in that company and I lost touch with him a little. We never had too much time to talk anymore since he did an entirely different function within the group. We were near each other for about 6 months and that built a strong foundation in understanding where I stood on Christ. I never thought that it was God bringing him into my life to help him 4 years into the future. Jim would periodically stay in touch and stop by our office throughout his career to say hello. Then something started happening with him. He came in one time, in a very concerned rush, and asked to speak with me in a conference room. He asked me a dead serious question with panic in his face, “Do you believe in ghosts?” I responded seriously, “Yes I absolutely do. However, they’re not ghosts, their demons. They are a serious matter that most people make fun of, even church folk. Why do you ask?” Jim then showed me some stuff, which I am not describing to you, on his cell phone. He recorded some stuff. I watched it, paused, and then said, “What is this?” with a very skeptical attitude. He replied, “This has been going on in my house. Isn’t this neat?” As he exclaimed how cool this was in his mind, I stepped back from his fascinated face. My heart dropped. I have not ever handled this kind of situation before nor have I ever been trained in how to handle this. You may be thinking to yourself, “There’s no such thing as ghosts, demons, or angels.” On the other hand, maybe you only allow yourself to believe in angels. Christ clearly talked about both demons and angels through the entire four gospels, so you are misled on what you believe if that’s the case. Many of us use the phrase, “Battling the demons of life.” or something similar. Now let me interject, at this time I was not aware about his stronghold of pain pills. He shared with me at this time about some things, which he was into, and then it all came together. Demonic forces gain strength whenever you feed them. Answer to eliminate them, first Jesus, second quit feeding them sin and fear to gain strength. Easier said than done and I get that. We will discuss more strategy below regarding battling demonic forces.

I did not know where Jim stood regarding Jesus Christ though I know he grew up in church. For all these years, I never directly asked him nor did I address it. Odds are that he was never saved in the past and he never took Christ to heart. All this time, one of my best friends would have probably went to Hell all because I never addressed the issue directly with him about salvation. After a few times of showing me stuff on his phone and the escalation of demonic events, we prayed together and he received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and savior. Well, now he’s saved but we basically have a principality of demonic force living in his bedroom. There was a twofold salvation, which needed to happen, 1.) Jim needed to get clean from the addiction stronghold and 2.) We needed to fight and win against the paranormal stuff going on. It’s one thing when you see stuff in movies, but when your best friend is completely scared out if his mind because of unexplainable phenomena, you simply accept it and believe him, especially seeing everything for myself on his phone video recording. I know that nothing was photo shopped nor were there any Hollywood movie tricks going on. It’s kind of mind blowing but again, if Christ and the disciples casted out demons in the Bible, that means there is still the presence of them in the Earth today. Remember, if you are in Jesus Christ by faith, you are saved from them. They cannot hurt you. Christ can and will give you power over them, all by His grace and the blood of Jesus. It’s just the reality check for me of never going back into the clueless and ignorant Christian I used to be. Sometimes ignorance is bliss about that stuff. Christ calls all of us to destroy the work of the enemy with grace and love. I now have been officially christened into the reality of the demonic warfare all around us. For years I have ran away from this stuff. I didn’t want to believe it let alone fight it.

I spent the first few nights praying over him. I was at my house doing my prayer time and he was at his house. To be very clear here, I never entered his actual house nor saw anything firsthand. The first real night of prayer time, I prayed for him and read some Psalms over him. It worked perfectly. He said there was, for the first time, nothing going on that whole weekend at night. Now I never said to him specifically I was going to just focus on him in prayer that weekend. It was a really good faith builder for me and proved to me about how concentrated prayer on one person can have a huge impact. So when I saw him Monday at work, he told me about having a calm weekend and being able to sleep easily. I was quite curious what was going to happen next. We continued to pray for him, my Facebook prayer team, and me, for the next few weeks. Jim continued to go in and out of his addiction. Every time he fell to his addiction by buying them from someone, I suppose at our job at that time, he would have an increase of demonic activity in his home. Again, it’s stuff he showed me first hand, caught on camera with no Hollywood influence. This was very much real. He miraculously found a good church, which had a pastor from Africa. This pastor was all too aware about demonic activity applying to real life. Jim spoke up one Sunday and the pastor was eager to come over to pray in the house. The pastor and his wife prayed, screamed in tongues at the demons, and then anointed oil on all the spots where stuff happened.

The first night they did this, there were two significant things which happened. The pastor warned Jim that he should not plan to sleep too much that evening. That was true for Jim. There was stuff going on which prevented Jim from sleeping a wink. It was demonic attacks against him sleeping in bed. There were a few crazy dreams that happened that night to Jim. Some people call these instances night terrors but they are realistically demonic attacks in dream or spirit form. Just before he would relax to go to sleep, he would start to have a dream however he was not in control of the dream. This happened to him for months before he was saved however at least now Jim is saved. He actually saw Jesus in the middle of the dream holding back the demons this time. This was the first night of terror dreams that he was no longer afraid. He still did not sleep a wink though because every time he was about to fall asleep, the demons harassed him in bed.

Another faith builder in disguise was that this very week I came down with a very bad cold. From a spiritual standpoint, Jim is saved, there is a pastor involved with Jim’s life now, and Jim is winning this fight. I was hit with the hardest cold I have ever had. I have never had the type of cold, which I was just attacked with that week ever in my life. It wasn’t the flu but rather sleeplessness, runny nose, headaches and much more, which hit me so bad I was so irritable with my wife and co-workers, I did not have the heart to pray at all. I was miserable, crabby, and just a plain jerk due to the lack of sleep. This went on for 3 weeks. I was so tired, miserable, and crabby I simply did not have the energy or spirit to pray for anyone or anything. Everything that came out of my mouth grieved the Holy Spirit. I was in such a mess with feelings of anger, rage, tiredness, short tempered, and you name it. I was a complete wreck for 3 weeks and I did not realize what was going on here.

During this 3-week period, Jim had the peak of all demonic activity in his home and the most weakness to his addiction that he has ever had. I was also struck with a never before level of sickness. The doctor’s cold steroids did not make anything different for me either. It was quite a struggle to say the least. I personally fought with my wife like cats and dogs for 2 ½ weeks of this. I am thankful that I’m not divorced as bad as I acted. I struggled and I didn’t even realize what was going on. I am not sure exactly if I needed to pray specifically for protection in this battle but I did not pray for any protection before. It was a hard lesson learned. Always pray for protection when fighting any demonic spirits in prayer. It simply never came to my mind and I never encountered this before. I never helped a friend seek Christ to break an addiction with directly associated paranormal stuff happening. This was a first for me. I can say however, I learned many lesson throughout this struggle.

Coming around to the end of my third week of this sickness and lack of prayer time, I had some energy to stay up for a few hours the one night. I spent some time with Jesus just sitting at my desk listening to my mp3 player and waiting for God to move. I read a few Psalms and New Testament verses but it was hard to concentrate when reading, so it really was not much use. I walked down stairs when the lights were all out to check on the air conditioner setting in the house to make sure we were going to stay cool that night and there was “something” on my wall. Nothing in bodily form and nothing scary to the common person, however it was the same thing, which was going on in Jim’s house at the time. While Jim had several hundred things going on, I had one lone scout in my house. Once I recognized what it was, I walked towards it and it left instantly by zipping right across the wall at an angle nothing reflective could have produced. The reason I am not going into too much detail, is that we’re not here to glorify demons. We are focused on glorifying God. Moreover, I don’t want to freak out any new believers who are reading this either. It dawned on me, this wasn’t a common cold, this was a demonic retaliation trying to stop our prayer time. Something as basic as this never came across my mind. Yes, demons can attack you however never forget Jesus Christ is bigger than any demon that comes against you. It motivated me to start praying more since I realized there was more to this sickness than before.

So a few weeks later, we are winning the war with this demonic force and addiction. Jim’s pastor came back to his house a second and final time. They did the same prayers and oil anointing. This was the last and final time the pastor needed to come over specifically for the demonic activity. That night was a genuine battle with Hell for Jim. Every time he was about to sleep he would get an insane sharp pain as if a knife was being stabbed into Jim’s back. Guess where the location was? You guessed it, at the exact location where the injury point happened and where this entire addiction started in the first place. Another interesting point on this, the pastor’s wife told Jim that she also had the same experience that very night in the same location. It was the pastor’s wife, which did the praying and anointing this time that very evening. Jim came into work the next day and he literally looked like he fought Hell last night. He worked a half day and then went home. He told me everything that happened and then felt at peace to go back home and sleep some more. He slept great with no demonic disturbances. He also was clean for a few days showing that the demonic issues were correlated 100% with the addiction. He came to work the next day and he was on fire for Jesus! He pulled me in a conference room, “I am free! The addiction is gone! God is amazing! The voices stopped!” I was overjoyed we won. Well, Jesus Christ won. We just participated in the process. Jim was clean for a week or more after that and was able to get a 30-day blocker shot from the treatment clinic. As of this writing, he has been clean for 6 months. The demonic activity does come back now and again to check in on his progress to see if there is an opening for them to reside. Praise God there is not. Jim is growing in strength and understanding of how to battle these demons with scripture. We are currently building his foundation in Christ and learning much more about prayer and casting out demons. This was one of the biggest wins I have ever experienced in Christ. This was the most satisfying event to be a part of to say the least. This was the first time in years that Jim did not hear the voice of the demons telling him he needed the pills. Once Jim gave his life to Jesus Christ, the demons no longer had much power, if any at all, over Jim. When the night terrors started in his dreams, they were buffeted by the Holy Spirit this time. Jim was in a dream state where demonic forces were giving him some terrible and insane dreams of horror. Once he accepted Christ, he literally saw Jesus in the middle prevented any harm to come to him. So what was normally a horrific night terror was now buffeted by Christ.

If that is something you are currently experiencing, you need to first give your life to Jesus Christ in salvation and then start seeking a good pastor to build a foundation in faith. Now the Holy Spirit guards all of Jim’s dreams and is faithful in protecting him. Jim is so on fire for Jesus as of this writing, there is no going back for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes a pastor in a few years. He has been changed forever. Not only is Jim changed regarding demonic things but with the salvation in Jesus Christ. He came up to me the other day and said how much weight he felt for all the unsaved people we work with. You can believe anything you want but Jim is fully convinced Heaven and Hell is real and only through Jesus Christ will you have any forgiveness and freedom. I really prayed about this as well. God allowed Jim to go through this in order to change his life forever. Jim is never going back. You can either believe this message or choose to rationalize it away. I am writing this to remind myself of the events and then offer this to help encourage anyone who is struggling with addictions.

I want to lovingly address Christians who watch the horror movies from Hollywood however. Based upon this real life experience, I will never ever entertain any of these types of movies again and you shouldn’t either. I am fully convinced that the beings and objects are the dramatized version of what happens in real life. Anyone who has a relationship with Jesus Christ needs to understand what you are allowing yourself to be subject to. I don’t want to tell you how to run your life however, what I saw in pictures and video from his cell phone, in addition to the association to his addiction clearly proved to me this is very real. We are at war with the demonic forces of evil whether you like this fact or not. The apostle Paul was not joking when he wrote, “3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NKJV. He was not joking about this concept. We are at warfare and every person you know who is struggling with drugs, alcohol, sexual perversion and either possessed or oppressed with a demonic force.

Why in the world would you pay to see a movie, which basically tells you the truth for all those who are unsaved? How does this bring a smile to your face afterward? Think about it, Satan is telling you the 99% truth to all the unsaved out there. Well you’re not going to drag me to Hell because Jesus Christ paid for all my sins and empowers all those who trust in Him to destroy the works of the devil. It’s very real and very important. I implore you, just as I have been through this myself, stop wasting your time entertaining demons and start going after them relentlessly in Christ. Start taking your walk with Christ serious and understand that you have the blood bought right to attack the enemy and win. Start setting the captives free. Use your position in Christ to go into your workplace and your family to declare that Jesus is Lord. Let’s start making a difference with our lives. I wasted how many years entertaining demons only to come to realization that they passionately hated me and would do anything they could to corrupt me. The war has been going on all around us and I am now out of boot camp. Let’s start getting serious and mad about all the chaos around the world and start fighting for the King!

Chapter 6: Mustard Seed Faith

One of the most life changing revelations about faith has just recently been placed in my heart. From a previous book, I shared a high school story about “Big Ry” who made some significant impacts on my life growing up. Would you believe in the past few months he recently chose to accept Christ as his savior? I saw him around town and we hooked up on Facebook, however I did not know he was coming closer to the Lord during this reintroduction. I am so thrilled that he has chosen to place all his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. In another chapter in the future, I will share his salvation story. I want to share some insight that the Holy Spirit gave me in order to help coach Ryan. I am humbled, like no other way, to see what God is doing with my senior class from high school. As I type this, I am 33 years old and every month or so I hear about someone from my past, all who mostly had a tough life growing up, coming to Christ. It’s just an awesome feeling that some days, I am so choked up that I cannot say anything. I just swell with God’s grace as He continues to save my high school senior class all by His grace.

When someone comes to the faith and starts to ask questions about how God works, it can be a very exciting time in our lives. If you don’t have many people coming to you about these types of questions, I really encourage you to put yourself out there for their sake. It’s sometimes hard and awkward to do, but we are all called to disciple and coach other people in the faith. We are commissioned to do this with our lives. Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV, “18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”

This seems pretty straightforward, yet the church is so busy fighting amongst itself, how do we have enough time to get the news of Christ out to the world? The fact is that, whether you believe it or not, all your unsaved friends and family are looking at your life’s testimony right now. When things are going ok in their life, they probably push you away. You must take the step of faith to reach out to them. If they are not living Heaven on Earth with Christ, they have no alternative but Hell on Earth without him. If they are not headed towards Heaven in their future and all the benefits thereof, Hell will be coming in and out of their life as much as it wants. You very well could be the closest thing to Jesus Christ or the messenger of salvation in their life. I am not saying be “preachy” but don’t you dare be ashamed to shine for Christ in front of them. Unfortunately, this is even the case at legalistic churches. Something as foolish as “no clapping”, “no contemporary music”, “no lifting of hands”, or in other terms absolutely no Holy Spirit movement or involvement, completely destroys faith. I am not talking about rolling around foaming at the mouth. I am talking about submitting your worship to the Holy Spirit in love and grace, in a scriptural order of worship. Your unsaved contacts are reading your life every second you are around them. Do you swear? Do you cut people off in traffic? Do you tell the dirty jokes? All of which I am guilty of one time or another in the past. All of us are. That’s why we can make such an impact in their presence when we allow Christ to change our hearts. When Christ changes our hearts, He will automatically change our character. They will have no choice but to see the change in our lives. Just as Ryan’s fiancée has recently seen, when Christ comes in, we start to change in every area of our life.

When you start coaching other believers in your life, they will be able to return the favor and perspective back to you whenever you face your own disappointments and frustrations. By allowing myself to start coaching some friends, who are new to the faith, the Holy Spirit now is coming on stronger to me because of the needed level of understanding and grace to coach others. Ryan will call me up and ask some questions about something basic and the Holy Spirit takes over my mouth. Either I start saying very profound lessons and points that I have never heard before or maybe I heard years ago and forgot about them. I flat out tell him, “Did I just say that? That’s got to be the Holy Ghost!” It’ pretty cool because even though I may be speaking to him about something, I can also see that the Spirit is speaking things to me as well. In the past month, Ryan was able to give me the same advice I gave him about being frustrated regarding someone I was coaching a few months back. Thank goodness, he has a great memory. Proverbs 27:17 NKJV, “As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” I seek out more and more people to help because, not only can they help me with support in the future as well, but also we both get sharper in Christ. It’s almost like the team approach in sports. Teams who succeed practicing together have to at least like each other’s company in some regard. If there is any resentment on the team, just like as in a family, there will be no harmony. When there is no harmony, there is no success, and no growth, which means there is no momentum to accomplish anything.

Many Christians have to “do it all alone” attitude. If that is you or someone you know please take this thought for just a little bit. Yes, your salvation is not determined by church attendance nor does it hold to joining a group of people. However, and there is a very important however, if you think that you can withstand the attack of the enemy all by yourself, you’re already defeated. Too many people, including myself at one time, have a feeling that they can live their own personal and private Christian walk. The fact of the matter is that is exactly what satan wants you to do. If satan can find you alone, he can do almost anything to you. The only people I know, as well as myself, who had that attitude had very strong sin strongholds in their life. I am not divulging details for me, however I was dealing with much shame regarding my sin and would not let go of it. Honestly during this time in my life, I didn’t know how to. Regardless of what sin it is, we all have a tendency for an addiction mindset towards it. It could be something as attitude or actions. During this cycle in life, most people do have the go it alone attitude. I can only encourage you that when you find Spirit filled believers in your life, they can help you overcome anything even if it’s something as simple as praying for you.

Addressing faith questions however, there was a lot of insight given to me the past few months when I was praying for more quantity of faith. Most of us seem to pray for a larger quantity of faith because we realize we are in over our heads many times. Many of us have been praying for the past several years for a larger quantity of faith but nothing ever happened. Does that sound like you? Every time I fell to a certain weakness, I would pray for more quantity of faith only to find out that nothing ever happens. I never receive more faith from that prayer. I went for years of an up and down cycle trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. In the past few months of coaching Ryan however, the Holy Spirit helped me remember this question and gave me the answer.

One of my favorite parables is from Luke 17:5-6, “5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Now you have to be very meticulous in the details of what took place in this interaction. The disciples said, “Increase” their level and quantity of faith. The context of the passage is the same thing as the disciples saying, “Give us a larger quantity of faith.” I even checked a Greek concordance for this breakdown to double-check myself. What was Christ’s response though? Was it showing a quantity example at all? No, it was the reverse to what their understanding was focused on. They felt they needed a larger quantity. Christ actually gave them an example of a higher “quality”. The mustard seed faith that Christ talks about is not a quantity of faith but rather a high grade, intensely concentrated, and powerful faith. A small amount of high quality faith is all we need in order to perform miracles in our lives. This is something that never dawned on me before. It was as if the Holy Spirit just poured out some understanding all over me. It impacted me greatly because this all makes sense. Sometimes you don’t need an entire army to eliminate a bad guy. Sometimes the entire need is accomplished with one lone sniper, deep into enemy territory for several weeks, only to end the entire conflict with one concentrated shot. Here I was with a large army mentality to roll over all of my obstacles, yet Christ is teaching us that all we need is one effective shot. It’s the quality you have in your fight, not the quantity.

During this time in my life, I was praying for a larger quantity of faith, yet nothing was happening at all. This is to compare about praying for patience. When I prayed for patience God allowed something to happen in a matter of hours or days so I can practice waiting. I learned patience pretty well however, faith was not happening. I learned how to patiently wait out life, but I never had much faith mixed into it. So when praying for the different fruits of the Spirit, faith was not really showing up. I didn’t understand what I was or wasn’t doing, until this came to me in conversation with my friend. I stopped praying for a large quantity of faith and changed my focus to praying for a higher potency, concentrated, and quality faith. That’s when things started happening. I challenge you to practice this form of prayer. Pray for a higher quality and more effective faith starting tonight. Just watch what happens in your life. Not only does this level of faith help you clean up any sin in your life, but also it takes you to a deeper level with Christ. It starts to increase all other areas of the fruit of the Spirit as well. Faith is always the foundation for seeking God. Hebrews 11:6 NKJV “6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” If you want to please God and receive all the fruits of the Spirit, you must seek Him with faith always being in the mix.

There are a few key points I want to share about Mustard Seed caliber faith. First, I want to highlight the quality of faith. I like to think about this similar to fueling up our vehicles. Do you put in the basic gas in your car or the higher grades? Now this may be an imperfect example however it’s easy to understand. If you only fuel yourself up with the limited refined gasoline then you cannot expect to have much performance in your vehicle. You have no choice but to deposit a higher-grade fuel to be at peak performance in addition to maybe some fuel cleaner or a booster. Fasting could represent as some fuel injector cleaner even. How many Christians, myself included of course, have been running on low grade fuel or running on empty almost all our lives, only to find out that the work God wants us to do is practically impossible? When we are starving ourselves spiritually, we will not hear God’s voice clearly. We will not have the full understanding or revelation about what God is doing with the task at hand either. It’s like starting out as a racecar for God only to arrive at your destination outside pushing the vehicle. Don’t expect to see too many moves of God, if at all, because without the right fuel and perspective, you will not be having too much power in Christ, thus explaining the majority of my life. Airplane fuel for example is even that much higher grade and refinement than for automobiles. The jet engines must have the best of the best fuel in order to operate properly and at peak performance. Did you ever think of yourself as the status of a jet engine for God? Christ made you a jet in potential performance and most of us continue to fill up with the basic 87 grade cheap gas of the Christian life. Let’s think about this before we fuel up next time. You were made to soar at supersonic speeds, spiritually speaking, so keep in mind the next time you are at your spiritual gas pump. You were built for air superiority in Christ yet most of us cannot even take off the runway because the wrong fuel keeps being added. John 15:5 NKJV, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” How many times do we live as if we can create or find our own fuel? Many of us do. We all accept the fact that “you are what you eat”. Why is it then that in our walk with Christ we never take the time to evaluate what we are consuming to prepare us to fight for the kingdom? Address your diet in the kingdom and see how you can operate more effective in your energy consumption. If you have never prayed about this, let’s take the time to address this today. The higher quality of fuel that you intake equals the greater output of your performance in the Spirit. Why wouldn’t we want to be the most effective for Christ as possible?

Secondly, we are going to discuss the concentration of faith. If you can, picture the potency of faith in a mustard seed. I found a great definition regarding this concept. “In the field of pharmacology, potency is a measure of drug activity expressed in terms of the amount required to produce an effect of given intensity. A highly potent drug evokes a larger response at low concentrations, while a drug of lower potency evokes a small response at low concentrations.” So in context to our discussion, a high potency of faith will produce a larger change in circumstances at low concentrations. This is exactly what Christ is teaching the disciples in the parables. They have enough concentration quantity right now of faith. All they need to understand is developing their potency to see changes in their life.

Try to imagine what it could represent in this parable from Matthew 13:31-32, “31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.””

From the very tiniest of all the seeds, yields such a large tree so that even birds from all around are able to build a home in the branches. How many times have you ran to someone, who we can now recognize their mustard seed concentration of faith? I know several people come to mind for my life. My most profound is “Bob” from previous chapters and stories. He could pray for you on a given day and you could literally feel the physical presence of God on you. He must have been a giant killer in prayer. What an amazing faith lesson that he taught me throughout the years we worked together. Just imagine when your faith is refined into a concentrated faith. It’s worth pursuing as aggressively as you can. Why wait until you are retired to really pursue God? This is also a great sign to us from the outward appearance of who to go to for advice. Do you want someone who has little genuine faith or someone whose faith creates the atmosphere of quality and motivating faith? I am thinking of a synonym for potency, which is effectiveness. Have you ever asked yourself if you have an effective faith? This makes sense also with the parable above. The parable example shares with us how effective our faith can be in the present and how it could look like in the future. I can honestly say that my faith is not yet too effective. This rationale should also encourage all of us to see what God can turn it into the future.

Finally, another key point in refining your faith into mustard seed faith is that you will be able to have the “mountain moving”, powerful faith we all enjoy reading and talking about. Matthew 17:19-20, “19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” So in other words, if you have the potency of mustard seed faith, you will have mountain moving faith against any obstacle or situation that you will ever encounter. I really like how Christ clarifies in verse 20, “and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Think about that. That’s a direct promise from Jesus Christ. If you trade in your quantity of faith mindset into a quality of faith mindset, nothing will be impossible for you. That sounds very motivating to me. How many people are living a Christian life without any power in the Spirit? Could it be that our past few generations have been deceived into believing for a quantity of faith where Christ is intending us to simply strive for and ask for a refined, potent, concentrated, giant killing, sick healing, dead raising, and high caliber faith? Based upon many different issues going on today, I think that is the problem with many of believers today. Millions of people are praying today, “Lord give me more faith!” Yet, what they don’t understand is that Christ is replying, “You’re not using what little faith I even started you out with.” He clearly replied to the disciples that quantity is not the issue, it’s the quality of it.

What have you thought about your faith when reading this chapter? Is there anything that came to mind worth writing down and praying about? I imagine so. The last part of this concept I want to share for discovery, when coaching Ryan was the concept of the sower for the mustard seeds. We have established the concept of having a faith of high potency so the next step is the bag in which we keep the mustard seeds. This is my own personal concept by the way but it helps me stay focused on faith in time of distress.

When you picture a sower in the field, what do you see? What types of clothing can you picture? What type of hat and shoes are they wearing? The possibilities are endless. The one thing in common is that we all must have a seed bag of supply to sow with. Without the bag of seeds, there is no ability for any one of our visions of a sower to accomplish anything in the field. What I have developed, in my own walk of faith, is keeping my mustard seeds in my figurative spiritual sowing bag. Whenever a future adversity comes against me, I stop everything I am doing and write down all the moves of God through the years. It’s a great exercise to do. If my job is giving me issues I will recount all the times God answered a prayer or worked out situations to my favor in the past years. It’s basically an exercise of psyching yourself up to get encouraged again. This exercise reminds us God can save our current adversity we are facing. If you take the time to write down a list of all the blessings and miracles God has done for you in the past, it will be ammunition to fight against satan right now. If you have been walking with Christ for at least a few months, I am certain you can probably generate a list of at least one hundred blessings to get yourself reset back on Christ. Remember that this is how most of the Old Testament was established. The Jews of today still remember how God brought them out of Egypt with the leadership of Moses. By constantly feeding ourselves the truth of the past, we then can position ourselves for a spark of faith to rekindle our fire in the Holy Spirit. Every event that God did in the past was consecrated by an altar. Why was this? It was to ensure the children of Israel never forgot what God did for them and to tell all the generations about it in the future. Let’s take this practice by simply writing down our blessings, which are personal to our walk with Christ.

For example, one time at a certain job, they changed my entire shift around without my notice. I was now unable to make it to the Wednesday night service. I was plugged into a good group at the time and I was growing from it. I felt that this was nothing more than a satanic attack against my growth. The timing of it was quite coincidental because there was a breakthrough for the one gentleman in the mens group. Now it may not have been a spiritual attack, however, there are few if any coincidences in life, the more I look around. We don’t want to run around blaming satan for everything going on at work, however other people on the team at work got their nights off which they wanted in order to go drink and drug it up. I was unable to get my Wednesday night church available however. Seriously? I have made the choice that I am done compromising with the world system and trusting in other people to provide me a good future. Our God is bigger than the people in the world who try to distract us and get us off God’s will for our lives. I am also done settling with life. My Bible tells me that I have the right to seek God and expect an answer to prayer. All I wanted to do is at least get Wednesday nights available to attend a church service of all things.

I brought up the issue with my pastor and Sunday night prayer team. We prayed about it for just a few minutes as part of a list of many issues of the church service for the Sunday evening. It’s not as if we fasted or did anything elaborate to gain an answer for prayer. We just prayed and expected God to move. For about 2 weeks the “wicked” got their way. The management ensured certain people had their nights free so they could run around with drugs and alcohol after work. This is all while they openly slighted me because they did not value a church service for me. I was not in their face at all either. They actually wanted me to go out drinking with them and quit talking about the church service. I want to clarify that I am not judging anyone here. You however only have two choices in life, sex and drugs or growing in God. They do not mix at all regardless of your opinion. You must make a choice of what path you are going to live by. I’m not talking about drinking wine at dinner. I’m talking about full-blown drunkenness in the world where your entire Christian testimony is completely ruined in front of those unsaved people in your life. If you partake in their activities, just know that they will never look at you as a spiritual leader. You cannot comprise with the world. It doesn’t work. I have already tried. Even the world hates hypocrites, as I once was. Either be hot or cold but do not be lukewarm to anyone.

By not getting an answer to prayer right away, it actually emboldened me to seek God at a higher intensity and consistency. It’s at times like these that you stop and see what you are truly seeking from God and also the intent that you are having. If you are genuinely seeking God’s hand to move in a given situation and the Spirit has not prompted you to stop, then your battle continues until the result is achieved. Many things take months and years however if we seek God about everything, we will notice that many things are rather quick fixes for God’s plan. This is why it’s so crucial that we give God everything. No matter how big or small in our own eyes, everything we can imagine is small in God’s eyes.

Week three came around and we had a meeting with all the upper management. They said something to the effect of, “We tried this schedule to accommodate the floor in order to make the majority happy however based upon the needs of the business, there will be needing one final change. We are going to trade the Wednesday late night into Thursday late night. Wednesday will be a regular day for all of you across the board.” Boom, I got my answer to prayer and did not manipulate anything or anyone! Now many of these unsaved folks started coming up to me a few weeks later. They realized that I had something that they didn’t. They understood that I didn’t find my joy in a bottle or a pill. Some of them actually opened up to me about specific things and we started praying together. God made a way for me to deal with an adversity in front of other people but still kept me safe. I didn’t do anything to fight this except pray, believe and eventually receive my answer. Matthew 21:22 NKJV “22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Only God can change hearts and only God can work your circumstances out to both bless you and use you for His glory. This is a great example of what I call my own personal mustard seed of faith. I place this memory in my figurative seed bag and pull it out whenever I have a mountain growing up in front of me. If you continue to remind yourself of what God has already done in your past, you will be confident in speaking against a future mountain that comes against you. This is a great point of why I am doing these book projects. They are nothing more than organizing my prayer journal. By remembering the account of details with the answered prayers, they continue to remind me what God has done in the past. If God saved me through three or four different jobs in the past with various wicked managers, He will do it again and again. I just have to trust Him. Every chapter that I have written in all my projects are in my figurative seed bag. I truly encourage every one of you to start your own similar concept. Your confidence will skyrocket.

Chapter 7: Waiting At The Airport

I had an interesting vision to share with you when I was praying about our dependence on God. I was trying to understand what it really meant to be dependent on God. Some people use the term loosely but have no hands on understanding of what it really means. There was a great example that I heard when I was younger. The concept was to hold your breath as long as you could. Once you took a breath, you would then see the desire that God loves us with and in turn our dependence on His love. Well, when I thought about this lesson, I had a vision from the Holy Spirit a few months back. Someone, I couldn’t make out, was waiting at an airport. They were outside with their baggage, impatiently waiting for their ride home. They were upset and continued to look frantic at their wristwatch. The vision ended. Just then, the emotions hit me very strong. It was an intense feeling of inadequacy and I was able to feel the rollercoaster of emotions cycling through this very impatient person. At this time in my life, I was extremely impatient. Had I been behind you or in front of you in traffic, I would probably not be able to speak to you about Jesus anytime soon. Maybe I am exaggerating a little however, it was enough for the Holy Spirit to convict me of my behavior. Frankly, my impatience was so bad, I could have easily been seen as a complete hypocrite in general. It was pretty bad. I cannot understand why I was so impatient driving for example. My commute typically takes the same amount of time and I can judge my progress by certain times and places. If I make it to the McDonalds by 8:17AM, I will be 30 min early into the office. If that is 10 minutes off however, I will be rushing into work within 5 minutes of starting. Every time I rush, I always make a mistake of some sort. The last time it happened a few months ago, I forgot where I put my mp3 player. The whole day was a mess it seemed though nothing major happened. It was a stressful day at work however nothing out of the norm. That evening I came home in a depression. I was off my game and felt very beat up from the day. I had washed my dress pants, because when I rushed that morning, I must have stepped in a puddle and splashed in some mud. “Where’s my mp3 player?”, I asked my wife. “Haven’t seen it.”, she replied. As it turns out, I ended up washing my mp3 player in my pants. I then was reminded about the guy waiting at the airport. Whenever I rush, I create my own situation. I then look to God asking, “Why did you let this happen?” Now I understand, God had nothing to do with it. I needed to start learning and accepting patience in my life. I needed this lesson in every area of my life also, not just one.

Let’s take this vision into a little meditation exercise, shall we? We first went on a trip. Then we we’re dropped off at the airport ready to be picked up. We couldn’t wait to get home and see all our friends and family. We had all the pictures ready and movies to show everyone. We did what we wanted and enjoyed the vacation. There was excitement and action all through the trip and we got to decide everything. We chose where we went, what we did, and whom we did it with. There was no room for downtime. We were practically obsessed with our trip. The season in life started to slow down however. We are finished with our trip and started to head back home. We arrived back at the airport all excited with the instances and memories of happiness from our trip. We look at our bag of goodies we plan to share with all our friends and family. Instead of a slideshow projector like our grandparents style, we now can show all our pictures on social media and video sites. We remember all the colors and smells of the good times on the trip. Basically put, we are headed back home and on fire for life. For this exercise, this trip was typical life however, God was not at the center. We had fun and didn’t make any major bad choices however, it was “our” trip. This was a trip planned for our personal pleasure, success, gain, or whatever word comes to your mind that fits in context.

This is where it is going to get fun. This train of thought was influenced by the Holy Spirit as I was writing down ideas on my scratch paper while writing this chapter. We are now up to speed with this vision and we will address it in present tense moving forward.

We speak with God on our cell phone before we leave our destination. The cell phone service is spotty and all we can gather from the short conversation is that He is committed to picking us up. He clarifies with us not to leave the airport several times however, by the time we discussed the arrival time, the signal went out, and the call was dropped. We recap this call in our thoughts. We know for certain that God knows what our arrival time is. We could not make out what time He is going to arrive to pick us up. We only know to wait for Him and He will come to get us. God never let us down before and we know He never will. It’s just that this time, we are very unclear of the exact scenario of what to expect. This may be an unusual pick up this trip though because this time, we could not clearly hear His directions. We only have a good guess at best of what to expect. Since our trip the past few weeks was not Christ centered, we are somewhat rusty in making out what may be happening in this case. We are starting to forget how God works in some cases. We try to jog our memory but we have lost our confidence. We haven’t been trapped in any sin, but our commitment started to fade out just as this cell phone signal.

We arrive at our destination and pick our bags up. Here we are, waiting outside with all our baggage, ready to be picked up. We are still reminiscing from our trip and are in a fantastic mood but deep down inside our confidence in God is starting to waiver. Since the plan is unclear this time, we expect to wait at least a half hour and quickly surrender to this expectation. In our own minds, we have ourself set for a small inconvenience however, we think that we are already a very patient person. We are going to find out quickly about our own estimation of our character rather quickly as we progress through the day. We make small talk with the people standing beside us and rejoice with them as they share some great stories about their trips. Let’s define a trip as a few months or few year period example. Let’s call a trip something which maybe we went on, sometimes with God even, but simply didn’t put Him first in. Many other people are beside us, standing, and waiting, sharing how they were on a trip but there was some turbulence on their flights. Some people talked about how they even saw a hurricane from the flight. We then come across someone who speaks up and shares how they were on the ground going through that very hurricane. We stand by in awe and hear how other people were able to get through such a terrible storm on a trip yet overcome in one piece. We try to sympathize with them however, we are still fighting to feel good. We distance ourselves from them in the crowd to try to catch our own thoughts. In our impression it’s starting to get a little too heavy in emotions. Even though it may be some tough stories to hear, it does pass the time better than just sticking to ourselves. We had some rough patches but nothing compared to them and we don’t really feel like sharing our small inconveniences from our own trip. We distance ourselves until the crowd starts to die down. Time goes so slow however, we are just not interested in speaking to complete strangers right now about our struggles. It’s a shame because many of them would make great friends. We just don’t see this at the present moment.

Things calm down as we listen to everyone small talk outside, still waiting for our separate rides home. The first vehicle shows up. Nope, not ours. We look at our watch. It’s been forty-five minutes already since we have been waiting. Things are starting to slow down almost to a complete halt. People have their rides come and pick them up. We wish them well, fake smile at them, and halfheartedly waive but we are starting to allow a rage to foster deep down inside us. We look at our watch again and it’s been an hour and fifteen minutes. We are borderline cursing under our breath. (Yes, I am speaking to you, the saved believer. God knows our limits and the character which needs refined by His plan.) We can see the airport’s entrance from a distance. We keep telling ourselves, “He will be here any minute. I just know it.” From this scenario, the only facts we have to go on are 1.) God knows our arrival time. 2.) God is committed to picking us up. 3.) We are not certain what exact time pickup will be.

What would you do at this point? What would any of us do? You pick up your cell phone and check it. You have service but only 1 bar. You're thinking that it’s practically a miracle. For this case, it is indeed a miracle. You dial God on your phone. From your understanding, it rings and rings but nothing happens. At the end of the ring cycle, it goes to voicemail. If one of your friends for example, were the one picking you up, how would you behave in this time? I can tell you within the hour mark, given this situation, we would all probably be irate and would no longer have any friends by our actions which will take place in the future. All of us would be checking the phone and appointment to be picked up right on time. We would dial, text, and email from our phones to ensure we would not be inconvenienced. I can see myself leaving God or my ride several voicemails in advance.

Now let’s add to the vision. Picture yourself leaving God a voicemail here. We start out a simple, “Lord, I just got off my plane. I am excited to see you and go home. Please call me back.” Consider this a sweet tone for a lady and a confident excited tone for a guy. Nothing happens. Other people get their rides and you are tapping your foot. “Maybe I will try again, just one more time.” As if one voicemail, email, and text are not enough. We think to ourselves, “I will just stay persistent and keep trying.” My question to you though is, did God forget about you? No. He already told us that He is coming to pick us up from the trip. How does leaving message after message help? It doesn’t. Here we are at the point of messaging a few hours later, “God, where are you? I am ready! I am waiting! I am starting to think You forgot about me! Would you please at least call me back when You get this?”

At this point, we are starting to lose hope. We are upset and frustrated. We feel all alone even though the hustle and bustle of the airport happens all around us. Someone comes up to us, “Can you please help me load my baggage over at the other terminal? It’s very heavy and I am having a hard time all by myself.” We assertively but respectfully say no. We say, “My ride will be here any minute. I cannot help you otherwise I will miss it.” They walk away from us with a saddened and desperate face. We were the only one strong enough they could find that was just waiting around. It’s not like we couldn’t have helped this person in need. Their car was still within visibility of our departure point anyways and it’s not like God was going to drive by and leave without us. We just stood their insisting, “I cannot help you. My ride is coming any minute. I have been waiting for hours and I am very upset.” We could have at least done something to help out but we continue to insist to all those who come near us, “Sorry, I am busy waiting on my ride.” Since we are just standing around, person after person comes up to us. “Excuse me, I am “lost”. Can you help me?” How many “lost” people come up to us in the midst of our wait? Far too many and we treat them with a reply, “I cannot help you load luggage and I do not know the way to the restroom. Sorry I am busy waiting here.” Or in other terms, “I am really not in the mood to help you with your luggage because my pride and selfishness are taking over. I really don’t care about you, so please leave me alone.” Every one of us is guilty of this attitude, in this type of scenario, at one point or another in life.

Now our attitude is starting to turn into deep-rooted anger. We pick up the phone and dial the number again. Now we start leaving messages, which are completely out of line. We are borderline ignorant, as we leave such terrible messages. (Consider this an out lash of sin in our lives.) “God, where in the world are You? I keep getting this voicemail. If I didn’t have only You to come pick me up, I would have been home already. I have been here all afternoon. People think I work here because I am just standing around all day. When are You coming already?!” We have gone from excited to be picked up, to completely irate from waiting. We have all been in this cycle of emotion. For some of us, this was a few weeks in the past. For others it may have been a few years through addiction. Whatever the case, you can relate and understand to this cycle of emotions.

As we come to our brokenness in the situation, we start to gain acceptance of the situation at hand. At this stage in our life, we can start to genuinely see if we truly trust God. Do we really just trust God in the good times only? It’s something where all of us can remember past failures. Some of us can start to reflect on waiting out circumstances patiently as well. If you are currently in the process, where you are at the airport awaiting God’s arrival to pick you up, rejoice!

Do you know of anyone in the Bible who can relate to you? I sure do. One of my favorite verses, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” See right there. Paul gets it. Of all the apostles and disciples, Paul understands. This is the perfect message for someone who is boiling in mire right now. God’s grace is sufficient for you, when you have times of waiting in life. You know that God is committed to you. You genuinely believe in your heart that He is there with you and coming to solve your problem. Sometimes we just don't understand why we’re not picked up faster than we would like but again, we only know that He is coming to get us. We still do not know the timing. We are not questioning His love but we are furious by not knowing His plan.

We look out at the entrance of the airport on the road. We noticed that traffic has been very light the past few hours. Something doesn’t add up with traffic however, with our current emotional state, we haven’t thought about anything or anyone else in the past five hours. We look around at all the problems we are creating by ourselves and start to lose track of why we are waiting in the first place. The traffic flow opens back up to normal many hours later and you see several fire and ambulance crews turn around in the entrance. When they clear the area, we see our salvation arrive! He’s here! He’s been coming all along! Our negative emotions are instantly washed away by all the excitement because we see that our ride is here! When we finally get to speak with God, He gives us understanding of everything. There was a large, several car accident wreck for instance. It took a few hours to clean up the mess. God was coming to you all along, in His timing, to bring you back to where you needed to be. You relax and finally accept God’s greater plan in your life. Things are starting to work out when on your drive home you receive a text message on your phone. It reads, “Bad wreck, I’m needed to help out, will be late, someone hit cell tower. Luv u ~ God” The message that you just got was delayed by several hours until emergency crews were able to clear the scene and call a crew to restore cell tower service. God’s phone starts blowing up. I am talking about text after text, entering the inbox and His voicemail starts blowing up as well. OH NO! Your messages and texts were delayed because of the cell towers being down. (God always hears our prayers but sometimes we all can admit that we may feel as if our prayers are delayed due to whatever circumstance or situation.) It just starts happening. Now your joy turns into terror and you sink into your seat. Condemnation hits you like you have never experienced before. You think to yourself, “What do I say?” “What do I do now?” You hear a voice from the back seat softly speak up, “Dad, can you give me your phone real quick.” A nail pierced hand grabs God’s phone and punches in a code. “Erase all Inbox” “Yep, that’s it!”, He exclaims. He hands back God his phone and says, “Good to go Dad!” Out of the shadow from the backseat, you exclaim, “Jesus!” Jesus replies, “You’re all set. You’re forgiven, so don’t worry about all that. Everything is already taken care of for you. Just rest in the presence of God, your father.” You relax in God’s presence and finish your ride home.

I hope that this exercise has helped you discover some good areas of your growth in Christ. I also hope I was able to offer a few challenges as well. As always, I include myself in them with you. The biggest part of the message to me is the fact that God was on His way. We had no choice but to trust Him as well as depend on Him. What areas in your life do you think you must depend on God more? What are you holding on to too tightly?

Another lesson that I learned from this vision and exercise from the Holy Spirit is about praying. I want to go back to the voicemail messaging part. If this same scenario described us and someone agreed to pick us up, how would we leave a voicemail? For example if you agreed to pick me up from the airport, I would have sent you a text at every travel milestone. If we were really being honest with ourselves, most of us would be upset very quickly. Even on the cases where our parents are coming to pick us up from any function going on, I can remember many times I was quite irritated waiting. While I was praying about this dependency question, it also spoke to me with a quick capture vision within this vision about leaving the voicemail. It was like whenever we pray, we are to be praying with confidence and faith. This was a good example to me of what praying in faith looks like. I will remember this vision whenever praying in faith for adversity or helping coach others in prayer.

If your loved one was coming to pick you up but running late, how would your message go? I can see the first message like this, “Hey, I am off the plane. I am at gate number 5 ready for pickup. I am excited to see you. Call me back. Thanks!” This is like the type of prayer we send whenever everything in life is going ok. Things could be improved however, we are not too serious about our prayer life. We are basically patiently awaiting God to move in our life and not doing much for the kingdom. What would a message an hour later be like? “Hey there. Where are you? I am waiting at gate 5. I am not sure if you understand when I got off the plane but I am ready for you to come get me. Call me ASAP!” This is the type of prayer when something is going on. Let’s consider this the prayer we send when we recognize that we need to start taking prayer time and Bible time serious. We evaluate the circumstances and see what the best options are to manage. We prioritize what we feel is the best plan of attack and pray halfheartedly. This at least describes me. You may be above this level already though. I ask that you entertain my train of thought for now. I feel that this describes most of the Christians I know today and again, including most of my life. It’s almost as if either we forget about dependency on God or our pride starts to creep up. I can fully admit, my pride is the #1 destructive character trait I have to manage. I remember praying with “pride” instead of faith. Needless to say, there were no answers or miracles happening anytime soon with those situations. Jeremy Camp has a song out called “Empty Me” which describes the perfect heart to overcome this attitude. Whenever we choose to seek emptiness, God then fills us with His power, faith, joy and so on which leads to having a better prayer life.

Finally, after the cycle of emotions, given whatever our adversity, we realize that only God can genuinely answer the prayer and change the situation. At this level our voice mail is, “Hey, I hope you’re ok. I am still waiting here at a certain location for you. I only have you to come pick me up. You told me that you would be here to get me. You made promise after promise and you have never let me down before. I will remember your promises and keep waiting. Please be careful and call me as soon as you can. For now, I have no choice but to trust that you’re coming.” This model is the prayer of faith, which gets God moving. Praying with a passionate conviction, actually believing what you pray, actually reminding God what His promises are (though He of course doesn’t need reminded), is how you get to see His presence show up in your life. Praying in faith is not saying, “If you can Lord, please heal my friend.” There is no confidence in praying this way. Do not expect to see any results. Praying in faith says, “Lord, you took all our stripes for our healing, you healed everyone you came across in the Gospels, and you said if we ask and believe we will receive your healing. I receive this healing right now in Jesus name.” Can you see the difference in mindsets of the different models of prayer? The first one has no faith in it. There is no mix of faith, patience, trust, or any other fruit of the spirit. The second model of prayer is praying with expectation in addition to reminding ourselves what God’s promises. God may answer the first model of prayer by His grace, however there is no longevity in this model.

Brokenness is probably the fastest way to gain your victory. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 is a great example of the lesson, “8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul understands more than we do. Paul gets it. Paul was at a figurative airport waiting forever through many times in his ministry. To think that Paul teaches us to boast in our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ will rest upon us. Some other words for boast, which I like, are brag and feature. Did you ever think about bragging about your weakness? We read this scripture way too quickly. Just think about that verse for a few days. Meditate this like a fruit juicer and run this scripture through your mind over and over. Get every ounce of nutrition of this verse. Christ has already taught us this method of prayer. We are not to give up but to be persistent and pray with faith. Luke 18:3-5, “3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ 4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” Keep leaving “voicemails” for God. Stay focused and serious about your requests. You are called to stay committed and pray with faith.

As I was writing this above, I mentioned about other people who ask us for help to load their luggage at points in our life when we are waiting for God. That only happened when I meditated this vision while writing this chapter. It’s such a great lesson as well. When we are waiting and praying, there is nothing else to do sometimes but to start helping others “load their luggage” but we do not always have this perspective. Most of us can say we don’t. If we all did, the world would not have a genuine case to judge us as religious hypocrites. It’s not always the case but imagine this world today if we did nothing but help others “load luggage” while we were waiting and praying for our own personal ride home? Once you start helping them, you’re going to strike up conversation about what is going on in your own life. One thing leads to another and before you know it, you are sharing Christ with them, in the right way, and not preaching down their face. You will notice that when you take the time to help other people, which to them it may look like an inconvenience, they will genuinely listen to you. If you buy someone lunch, they will listen to you. The world doesn’t need a preacher in their face, they need someone who is willing to come alongside them and help them “load their luggage”. Once that starts happening, you can plant the seeds of a relationship in Christ with them. Can you imagine their perspective whenever you start helping them out? When they clearly see you need picked up in life, yet you’re taking the time to help them, prepare for a real impact in that relationship. Most, if not all of the people who make an impact in society, are people of this character the world round. Humility speaks for itself and is like a megaphone clearing the way whenever the person is coming to prepare the way for salvation in whatever circumstance.

I hope that this exercise and analysis was beneficial to you. It was really helpful to me. I recognized some areas for improvement in my own life and also a few places where I have grown significantly from the past. The next time you are finishing up a “trip”, I want you to remember that even if your ride is late, He is coming. You will get home in time. If you end up waiting for your ride, do not hesitate to start helping out other people “load luggage” and keep leaving voicemails in prayer. He will call you back and show up in time but there may be a few things either delaying Him or getting worked out for the right timing.

Chapter 8: Pulling Out Scorpions

Probably one of the most conscious feelings I have as a Christian, is to be constantly growing, changing, and challenged. If there is any time in our lives while walking with Christ that we get complacent, it eventually turns out into a disappointment. I know that most, if not all the times in my life, the disappointments come from the lack of focus in prayer or accepting a wrong perspective about my situation from ungodly advice. We may have some victories for a time but then we start to relax. There is nothing wrong with celebrating God’s victories in life however, we cannot stop growing. We must constantly be moving forward against the enemy. We must be relentlessly striving to take back the Kingdom of God in our family, country, job, and everywhere else we go. This chapter will help prepare you to do such a task. No matter what the issue you are facing today, I feel the below rationale is the answer.

If we allow satan to take a stronghold in our lives, it will always turn into a cancer. If we hold on to something too tight, satan will actually use this directly against us as leverage. This is why surrendering our lives, goals, and hopes to Christ make the best decision for us. When we trust Christ with everything, then satan cannot take them out of Christ’s hand. When we treat Christ as our strong tower, no demonic attack or storm can prosper when it comes against us. Remember though, it may be allowed to come against you. The promise is that if we trust in God, it will not prosper against us. This is where you will really see God protect and provide for you. In this chapter, we are going to focus on creating a plan to help eliminate some imperfections in our lives. Sin is the most destructive thing that can consume us. It’s the highest stage of spiritual cancer we can have.

Many strong believers still struggle with some issues which are blatant sin. We hold onto attitudes or actions, which do not glorify God in any way. We are all guilty of this however, we are going to discuss how to overcome them. By God’s grace, I have been able to overcome most attitudes and actions, which caused grief in my life. I’m of course still a work in progress however I want to share some insights with you that have renewed my mind in Christ as we learn in Romans 12:2. We all have issues and I simply am going to offer some ideas of how to overcome them. In the past six months of this writing, I have discipled about four addicts out of addiction. Let me be very clear, I had no idea what I was doing. It was all orchestrated by the Holy Spirit as He taught me minute by minute. A few distant people in life are now close friends all because the Holy Spirit took over. I don’t believe there is a defined system of how to overcome addiction or weakness of a certain sin, however I think there are a few key points to discuss. There are many things in us which need purged out to say the least. There is no reason for anyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit to be in bondage with an addiction struggle. Sure, it’s easy to say that but it seems almost impossible to get out. That’s exactly what satan wants you to think. He’s a liar, and the father of it. Let’s start building a foundation for the freedom we have in Christ in breaking some sin in our lives with a really cool dream message Christ spoke to me about.

I want to share a great dream with you that touches upon some sin strongholds I was dealing with in my life. This was one of the most fascinating dreams I have ever had. Just the sheer fact that I was able to remember every detail was pretty wild. The dream begins with me outside somewhere in a grassy yard. I am in my own body with a first person view. My hands began to hurt a little bit and I look down at my left hand. When I looked at my hand, I saw tiny little black things squirming on the tips. The scene zooms in on my fingertips, as if it was a camera pan inwards. The screen captures my left hand looking at my palm while little black scorpion stingers are trying to go deeper into my fingers. The bodies of the scorpions are buried into my full-length fingers and just the stinger is trying to work its way in. There is a scorpion in all five fingers of my hand. I do not know what caused me to do this in the dream. I took my right hand and pulled on the scorpion that was imbedded in my thumb. I started to twist and turn it but nothing helped. I then remember positioning my stance and pulling on the stinger with tremendous force. After a few seconds of intense pulling, it slowly loosened and came out. The entire scorpion was hanging in my fingertips as I looked in fascination. It stared right back at me and naturally tried to strike me with its claws. I kept it at a distance from my face and then tossed it away. I then proceeded to take all the scorpions out of my fingertips. Once this was all accomplished, I woke up. Pretty wild isn’t it?

I am not great at dream interpretation but there is a lot of symbolism in this for my life as well as many of your lives. The research I found from Christian dream symbols was quite interesting to use for analysis. I was staring at my left hand in fascination. The left hand symbolizes the riches and honor of wisdom, Prov. 3:16. My hand was also open looking at my palm. An open hand is symbolic of grace, Ps. 123:2 A scorpion is the equivalent of a snake and a spider. In a dream, scorpions represent demons, Lk. 10:19 Now remember, on top of all this, the demonic creatures were specifically black in nature. A figure in black is almost always an enemy. Black skies and dark surroundings indicate your mood or the spiritual atmosphere of an area. Black is also symbolic of famine, Rev. 6:5 In the distance there was a lawn of green grass as well. Green means flourishing or life, Prov. 11:28 Also, there were 5 scorpions being removed and in Hebrew the number 5 also represents grace. (Nice little side note for you. When reading all the Old Testament books, you can symbolize and substitute grace for 5. It’s quite neat to do this. Just check it out during your Bible study. Here’s a hint for you, look up the fight for David and Goliath. Remember the number 5. See how that goes into the victory.) Also let’s not forget that I used my right hand to pull out the demons. A right hand symbolizes God’s strength or long life, Ps. 20:6, Prov. 3:16. So all things working together, this was the model God showed me in a dream to clean up everything in my life in the past few years which I struggled with. As of this writing, using this model, I am set free from most, if not all, the issues in my heart. This is why I am so excited to share this message with you. I still have to be cautious of my pride and being cut off in traffic for example. I drive a lot, so it’s a constant battle for me.

I want you to understand that I am simply taking all this at face value from the research I am finding. From digesting this symbolism, which I am choosing to accept as true since there is a scripture reference, there is actually a great lesson here. When in my dream did I start to pull out the scorpions? At the end of course. Well, what had to happen in order for me to have the strength to pull out all those scorpions from my fingers? I had to first recognize my left hand by placing value on wisdom. It all starts with wisdom. How can I fight a battle with demons and win? Answer, by using Godly wisdom. The question remains then, how do I empower the wisdom that God gives me? That would be the next stage. The left hand is open into a palm. An open palm means grace. When you have Godly wisdom working together with the grace of God, nothing is impossible. After looking at my open left hand for a few seconds, I digested the situation. Then I zoomed into the fingertips where these little scorpions were invading. Then using God’s strength, you will be empowered to be set free. This was not a scary dream either. It was almost a fascination of what was happening to me. I was conscious in the dream as if God was teaching me how to overcome all the sin and struggles in my life. I admit there is much to continue to grow into.

The question I have to ask you then is, what has been your plan of attack on your struggle? Are you seeking Godly wisdom, accepting God’s grace, and then using God’s strength to pull out the scorpions in your life? Or are you looking in the mirror, saying to yourself you can do this, and then failing time and time again? Are you in a cycle of up and down like a rollercoaster with your struggles? I challenge all of us to stop everything we are doing.

Take a look at Godly wisdom whether it is in the Bible, daily devotional, or a book from a trusted pastor. Seek wisdom first. Once you see how God is positioning you to attack this struggle, you will have clarity in receiving His grace for the situation. Once you receive His grace in a manner of terms, you will clearly and confidently see how to effectively and permanently pull out the scorpions on your own fingers. If you are currently in the middle of your struggle now, let’s be honest with the situation. It feels as if you will never get free. It feels as if this is an impossible pit you are currently stuck in. It feels as if the demon has you trapped and you are helpless. We are not done yet. Just be honest with God in prayer. Be real with Him. He already knows how you feel and what you are thinking. Why make the mistake of a superficial prayer life? Our God is more than enough. He is awaiting your broken, honest prayer to be sent right now. He is waiting for you to describe in detail what is going on. Most importantly, He is waiting for you to start showing Him that He has never failed you and you remember this from the past. He is waiting for you to show Him that you trust Him and you trust His word to you.

There are a few verses that come to my mind when reading this. The lesson that I received from this dream was the focus to use God’s empowerment to eradicate the sin in my life as well as help others. We need to build a foundation for our freedom. The question could be proposed, does God expect us to be set free from our struggles and demons of life? I love how Paul expresses this answer in Galatians 5:1 (NIV) “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” From Paul’s mindset and revelation, Christ died in order to set us free from these demons, sins, and addictions. Christ has many benefits to us as children of God, freedom being one every day practical example.

How many Christian brothers and sisters do you know who cannot either understand this or accept this? It’s such a shame however it shows yet another reason why the body of Christ is so weak in this day and age. I have a very good friend who I coached/discipled about four years ago. He is a very big influence in his local chapter of alcoholics anonymous. He gives talks to other AA members and has gone on a mission’s trip with my youth group. We took the kids to a homeless drug and rehab shelter. I shared this instance in one of my other books. His message however that he shares with the struggling addicts, is that once you are an alcoholic you are always an alcoholic. I want you to really stop and digest this sentence. From the surface level, it sounds something of a caution to your identity in a preventive understanding. If you know you struggle with alcohol, you will want to make sure that you are extremely careful where you go and who you hang out with. Now I very much support that of course however my issue is with this motto preached by our good-hearted AA brothers and sisters in Christ. Based upon our analysis of Galatians 5:1, Christ does not at all support this motto. Christ never ever said or implied, “once a sinner, always a sinner”. Again, from the heart of the surface level, I do get it but if you are a Christian and continually remind yourself of your weaknesses, you are effectively doing satan’s job in your life for him. Christ does not, repeat, does not want you walking around every day whispering to yourself, consciously or subconsciously, that you are a failure in a certain area of your life. Show me one verse that would ever imply once an addict, always an addict. I don’t see how you can. That’s the whole point of why we are trusting in a savior that reaches down to help us out of this. John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” That clearly teaches us, from Christ’s own words, you are free from sin, addiction, and so on when you place your trust in the Son of God.

This message is for someone reading this right now who is struggling with a private addiction. I want you to clearly and plainly understand when Christ says, through Paul, that He died for your freedom, which means of any addiction as well. Paul instructs us to stand firm against the attacks and temptations of the enemy. Do not fall and do not waiver. Stand firm and stand tall in the identity that you are forgiven in Christ. Do not constantly beat yourself up with repeating condemnation. You may want to get a new crowd of friends to hang out with and again I am not at all saying to be careless. In order to be set free from this or any other addiction however you need to stop reminding yourself of it and start depending upon Christ instead. I do personally know what addiction is and how to overcome it by God’s grace. I am not interested in going into details, just know that I understand. Not until I prayed a prayer of broken dependence was I set free. I will be offering a prayer at the end of this chapter for anyone stuck in this mindset in order to overcome this. Whether there is an addiction of drugs, alcohol, or other substance, that is not only the potential threat to the church today. Attitudes are addictive and just as destructive. I know people who are addicted to pride, jealousy, gossip just to name a few. After you stop and think about this, you will be able to see what I mean. Addiction, in my own definition, is an attraction and propensity to sin. Many believers today are into much more than drugs and alcohol.

There are many people today who can easily pass a drug test but they are still struggling in addiction. I know a very sweet girl who is still in anger from her father dying. When we talk to her, even years later, she is boiling with anger. She is literally addicted to the demon of anger and doesn’t want to let go of it. So my message to the AA members reading this, I understand the heart of the message which my buddy gives however you have to adjust the motto. That means that you can pull out the scorpions of addiction from your life and be set free for good. Many of us know what it’s like to have a break from it but only to fall back into it. The difference is depending upon God. Stop saying, “God give me the strength!” That’s a foolish prayer for most people, including myself. What do you need strength for when your faith is not active or moving? Only faith pleases God. Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” If you are trying to fight your addiction or issue without any genuine faith, you will only have temporary success at best. To completely overcome the issue and move forward you must first engage dependent faith in God. As we see from the lesson of my dream, we first have to recognize Godly wisdom which leads us to grace which then teaches us God’s strength which empowers us to pull out the demons of our life. If you have an attitude of “once an addict, always an addict” you are not only insulting God’s grace but you are limiting the power Christ who wants to touch your life. You need to allow the Holy Spirit to show you how real and awesome He is.

Another scripture that speaks to me is James 4:7 “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” If you are trying to pull out the demons from your life on your own effort or understanding, it will never work. This verse is a good battle plan in fighting the devil. Many of us do the complete opposite. We may not realize it however, we end up taunting satan and falling harder. We then ask, “God why did you let this happen?” The reality is that we never once truly humbled ourselves and submitted to God. If pride is the most destructive attitude, would it not make sense that humility is the most productive attitude in the world? Have you ever thought about this? If we submit to God in our life, attitudes, actions and so forth, we are positioning ourselves for a move of God like we have never seen before. The reason why we never saw any of this happen before, is that we are all guilty of going on the offense in any given situation. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” This saying from the world is a good-hearted “go get them” attitude however in God’s economy absolutely false. The better phrase in God’s economy would be something to the effect, “When the going gets tough, the tough submit to God.” From a worldly perspective, it doesn’t make sense but remember, you are in the world, but not of it. Do you truly want Christ to set you free? What is it going to take for you to humble yourself before God? How hard do you have to have it? I know that for me it took a lot though not as much as some others I know. That’s not the point though. God knows our breaking point. Trust me, God loves you enough that He will allow you to come to this breaking point. Most of us seem to experience this a few times a year or a decade for example. How many people do you know that always have insane drama going on in their life? Do you think they know it can all be fixed by submitting to God? I know church folks who are so wrapped up in pride, they create their own heartaches and then blame God. Submitting to God will be the key point in winning against the devil. If you are not deferring the battle to the Lord, then how do you honestly expect Him to fight it for you? You never truly gave it to Him in the first place.

So the first scripture is to show you that it is indeed God’s will for you to be set free. The second scripture shows you how to fight the battle in the midst of it all. The third and final scripture I want to cover is going to address how to move forward after you have fully surrendered the issue and are completely depending upon God’s grace to change it. Philippians 4:8-9 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute , if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

I read this over a few times. It speaks volumes to my life. All of the issues I created on my own efforts could have easily been avoided by applying this verse and logic. This goes into sowing seeds and getting a harvest. If you take this verse to heart, after you are submitted to God, you will have so much more peace with God and confidence in His presence. By focusing on topics, attitudes, discussions, friends, and so forth who are engaged into truth, purity, Godly conversations and decisions there is no threat of satan using anything against you. You are living a submitted life to God by practicing this lifestyle. A submission to God, which creates in your heart an attitude of grace toward everyone you meet in life, turns us from Sunday Christians to a ministry focused believer everywhere we go. To me, that sounds like an excellent quality of life.

I personally love the end of the verse. “...and the God of peace will be with you.” This is a very powerful concept if you meditate it enough. Practicing a lifestyle of grace creates the presence of God to be with you. God is always with you however, it may not always feel this way. Especially when struggling with something private. You may feel isolated most of the time. By submitting to God and walking in the grace mindset Paul shares with us, God’s peace and His presence will be with you. Paul emphasizes “God of peace” instead of just God. I want God’s peace to consume you and me everywhere we go. Think of all the fast-paced places you go through your day. For many of you, it will be at your job for eight hours. Everyone can understand a certain degree of stress that our jobs create, no matter where you work. Just imagine the day when you can be doing your job with confidence knowing that “the God of peace” is with you. You will be able to spread God’s peace and joy with all those who come around you.

I feel God speaking through me right now for someone who is having addiction issues. Whether it’s a drug, alcohol, sexual immorality or something like pride or anger, our God is more than enough to overcome it. I want you to rest in the fact that when Christ died for us, it was to truly set us free from every sin and burden that will come against us. Lay your burden down right now at the cross. Understand that only Godly wisdom can start the right path to overcome this. Once you are accepting Godly wisdom to point you in the right direction, it will teach you how to accept and use God’s grace to pull out all of your own scorpions from your fingers by His strength.

I want to offer a prayer, which I prayed, in a matter of terms, a few years ago. This model of prayer stopped my “addiction” that very night. By praying for and depending upon God moving forward, He continued to pour out obedience and repentance in my life each day. I have been able to stay on track for a long time since. Every day I pray this type of prayer to stay on track with God. If I stop praying this prayer, I know that I will fall back into the old life. This really works to stay out of your weakness areas. Pray this prayer silently or out loud, whatever is most effective for you.

Father in Heaven, I come to you right now in the name of Your Son Jesus. I thank You and praise You for who You are. I understand right now that I have a problem. Without You giving me Your repentance, I cannot stop this sin. Without You giving me Your obedience, I cannot stay committed to obeying You. I keep trying to stop myself but I cannot. I am lost. I am broken. Nothing I am doing is working. Without You stepping into my life, I am hopeless. I fully surrender this sin to you right now in the name of Jesus. I am fully and unconditionally surrendered to You. I can’t continue to live like this. I receive Your abundant grace to consume me, forgive me, restore me, and cleanse me. I have authority in the name of Jesus to stop this sin. I bind this sin right now in the name of Jesus. I bind the demons who tempt me in the name of Jesus. I bind my flesh in the name of Jesus. I receive your mercy to flood my mind and body. I loose angels over me right now in the name of Jesus to assist in repairing and protecting me from the demons of addiction. I bind them right now in the name of Jesus for anything that comes against me to tempt me. I believe right now more than ever that Jesus Christ is Lord and I believe that He rose from the dead and is with You right now in Heaven. I confess my complete dependence upon Your grace to pull out the demons from my life. All that I am and all that I have is Yours, fully and unconditionally surrendered to You. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Chapter 9: Take Down That Sign Already

I want to speak to the Christians out there who still have some reservations about their relationship with Christ. Maybe you accepted Christ when you were young. Maybe you went through your church’s classes and Bible studies to join your church however, you might have never asked Christ into your heart. Many people I come across in life have the impression that Christianity is still a religion and they hate thinking about how they grew up. This has been for both believers and nonbelievers that I come across in life. Christianity is in no way a religion. It’s a relationship with Jesus Christ, not following a list of rules and works like all other world religions. Many denominations however have turned it into a religion though. Many people have these memories of church being a chore to check off the list on the weekend because their parents forced them to go. Once they were old enough to fight it, the parents simply gave up. Odds are, one or both parents stopped attending as well. We are going to address a very good reason of why this may be happening in the church today. I know this from too many personal instances and sometimes, even mine. When I was 16, I was completely fed up with church.

Now I have come to realize that there is a difference in the church today between Old Testament minded Christians and New Testament Minded Christians. If your church preaches more about the Old Testament Ten Commandments than the finished work of Jesus Christ, they completely missed the point of The New Testament and Christ’s death. Gospel means the good news. It’s something worth sharing with excitement. Paul addresses this in the entire book of Galatians, which we will discuss in depth in this chapter. I don’t want to stir up any negative emotions with you, however I am going to nail this argument to the wall with the New Testament defense. Jesus Christ did not die on a cross for anyone to pridefully defend the Ten Commandments. The law of God does not need any defense if you truly understand the power of it. We can choose to believe whatever argument we want, however, there is only one correct view. I want to clarify I am speaking in love and respect to all believers here. I will openly say that I am quite passionate about this topic, as it has caused an argument with some family and friends of mine. If this is something you do not agree with, I can understand. Please go to the next chapter. My intent is not to start a fight but rather come to you in grace, truth, mercy, compassion, and so forth. I do however want to challenge all of our points of view to ensure no matter what we believe that it is aligning with God’s word and in the correct context of translation. If I am wrong, I want you to understand that I am seeking the correct Biblical view by developing this chapter. When discussing the topic with others who disagreed with me, they didn’t acknowledge any scripture and blindly refuted me with no scripture context at all. This has what triggered this chapter for my personal growth.

The fact of the matter is that 100% of all the ex-church folks I come across in life, come from an Old Testament minded church background. All of the people who are great examples of love, joy, and peace, who I aspire to be, all come from or are attending a Christ focused, grace focused church. I have a very good friend whose pastor is a healer. Yes, I am referring to, when God allows, full-blown healings when he prays for them and touches them. The Holy Spirit manifestation is so strong with this pastor it’s truly amazing. This pastor’s entire mindset is 100% grace focused and Holy Spirit focus. You only have two choices in your walk. It’s either all legalism, which Christ calls hypocrisy or it’s growing in relationship with the freedom of the Holy Spirit. They do not mix at all. We will address all the scriptures below which clarify all of this for us.

I have friends and family who are of the Old Testament mindset. We will leave it at that with no names needed. So for me to be finally growing in Christ and the Holy Spirit, I wanted to share these new revelations with them about grace. Would you believe I am pretty much attacked for my viewpoint, even though I am 100% New Testament scriptural? It really blows my mind that some people are so hard hearted, even people who I know. These are the people who do not genuinely study their Bible. Is their pride so strong it blinds them to the truth of growing in Christ? The answer unfortunately, is yes. Let’s just say I had a heated conversation at a dinner about this exact subject. I walked up to the particular house as I see this cut out replication of the Ten Commandments in their yard. At first, I did nothing but smile and almost laugh. Then the Holy Spirit was as clear as I have ever heard Him, “TAKE THAT DOWN!”

Millions of Americans have the Ten Commandments posted in their front yard to show support for whatever cause. Frankly, the more I draw closer to Christ and develop a relationship, it’s an absolute insult to the finished work of Christ. Where did Christ, the Apostle Paul, Peter, or anyone else in the New Testament epistles ever once preach a defense for the Ten Commandments? Well I encourage you to check, because there isn’t one. Don’t take my word for it. All Paul’s epistles speak for grace now and against the legalism and hypocrisy of the law minded people. Every person in the New Testament all promotes the cross and talks about the fact that commandments are now fulfilled by the cross. I also want to note again that I am coming to you in a loving and encouraging tone. If this issue is something that you are not willing to read about and develop with scripture, than this chapter is not for you. Everything I am sharing is of course my opinion here based upon my spiritual growth. I am using scripture, in context, to back it up. Some people refuse to even listen about the others side of the argument. If that is you reading this, just skip the chapter or prepare yourself to grow in Christ.

I went home that night so fired up like I have never been before. It’s one thing when you have differing opinions however it’s quite another when the Holy Spirit, Apostle Paul, every New Testament Disciple teaches us to set the commandments down and focus on grace. I was so mad from the argument we had that night. It was hilarious however because every scripture I fired at their argument, was not even acknowledged. They just fought with me, that I was choosing to believe whatever I wanted. They did not even consider the scripture for the context or ask to see a Bible. The fact is, regardless of me being right, I am scriptural. This isn’t a matter of pride. I just prayed that night for God to calm me down and then give me a clear answer to what the truth was about the situation. “If I am wrong here, please let me know.”, I thought. Since I was practically stoned from my own environment, I started to slightly understand Paul as he preached to the Jews about Christ and not commandments. In addition, I clearly understand Christ when He says in Mark 6:4 “Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” That point is well made in this case.

I want to share a great dream with you that symbolizes just this concept. That very weekend from this fight, I had a dream that I was over in the Holy Land taking an overseas tour. I was with a huge crowd of people, whom I didn’t recognize. We were all right off the tour bus walking on a sandy path. I looked over in the distance and there were five large Jewish Temples. They were huge like the Roman style buildings of the time with the tall pillars. The crowds were all standing outside however they could not go into the temples because there was a large electrified wall. The colors were a dark purple and bright green electric field. When I saw the temples and the crowds, I stopped and thought something isn’t right. I sat down on a bench and just stared at the scene. Something got in my mind where I jumped up and start running into the crowds. “We can go in now! Why aren't you moving in? It won’t hurt you! We can go in now!” I then woke up from the dream. It was so vivid I knew to write down all these details. I was in third person view from a distance.

I was trying to piece together this dream, based upon the backdrop of this argument the previous night. When I really thought about this message, it was very clear how many people want to believe in God but are afraid of going into the temple to visit Him. Now in modern day terms, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Many people are frankly terrified about the Holy Spirit. Law minded legalists cannot accept the free gift of the Holy Spirit it seems. Now that Christ has died, He has restored us into relationship with the Father. We can freely and joyfully go into relationship and fellowship with God. Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJV “15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Remember verse 15 is a double negative that means we do in fact have a High priest, Jesus Christ, who does understand everything about us and our weaknesses. We now have the right as God’s children, by faith in Christ, to come boldly direct to God for His help. We no longer have to depend upon our own performance with the Ten Commandments of God. Many people get caught up into the Old Testament, prideful mindset that they can perform God’s laws perfectly. Millions of people put a plastic version of this Ten Commandments in their yard however, my question is, what is your walk with Christ like behind closed doors? In the Old Testament, the sheer glimpse of the Ten Commandments immediately killed you. And this is what you want to promote on your front yard? Really? How many people in your life are you bringing to Christ? How is this action a witness for Christ to your unsaved neighbors? Are you the one telling the dirty jokes at work? Are you the typical complaining Christian, like I used to be, who does nothing but look at the negative? I speak so strongly on this topic because this is who I used to be. I know what it’s like to be a full-blown hypocrite and know it. I get it. This is all the times in my life where I was commandment and sin conscious. I want to finish this argument once and for all, in case someone reading this does in fact want to grow in Christ. If you read this far I assume I have not upset you too much and I want to clarify I am speaking with grace, love, respect to all readers. As you can tell, this subject hits very close to my heart.

What does the New Testament writings say about placing a plastic sign in the yard about this issue? What did Christ say about the commandments or law of God? Matthew 5:17 NKJV “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” When Christ died, He came to fulfill the law for us so that we no longer would be subjected to it. Why is it that I hear preachers in this country and even a few on TV beat their congregation with the law of God over and over again? If Christ set us free from the law, why then are you even using it in a sermon to condemn believers? Galatians 2:21 “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” How many people today are trying to achieve right standing with God through their works and self-righteousness? Answer, anyone who is focused on law and works. Why is it that Paul tells us that following the law will never ever make us righteous, yet we see millions of misguided people focused on defending them? Paul clearly says in this verse, if that’s the case then Christ died in vain. If someone is drawing from the Old Testament to show grace and Christ in the backdrop then this is acceptable. However if you are currently sitting under teaching that does nothing but demand from you, that’s not grace. More importantly, the Holy Spirit is not giving this message. He gives grace not condemnation. How many times do you look at yourself in the mirror and beat yourself up based upon your weakness? You are doing the devil’s job for him! This is why only the law gives the devil power. He can accuse you constantly because you can never make the mark. This is why grace defuses the ticking time bomb of satan. Only grace consciousness can give you freedom to be from sin.

What does Paul think about the before and after of the law compared to grace? 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 NKJV “7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.” Another great summation from Paul, as He teaches, that if the law, which this verse is specifically describing the Ten Commandments, was glorious how much more will grace be. Paul clearly calls the Ten Commandments the ministry of condemnation because it only demands and never imparts anything except death. So again, is this something you want to promote on your lawn? You think this is going to share the love of Christ to all your neighbors? Really? Again, is this viewpoint scriptural at all? So far, no, there is no ground for defense or promotion of the law, just defense and promotion of grace and more importantly Christ. Why would you defend something that cannot ever save you? That’s what the Holy Spirit said to me when praying about this whole argument. Defend and fight for Christ because only He can save.

Paul addresses legalism directly in Colossians 2:11-15 where even the heading of the NKJV Bible clearly says Not Legalism but Christ, “11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” All the handwritten requirements for you have been wiped out. So to say we need to defend the commandments is a completely foolish statement. Paul clearly says the contrary. I made sure to put the entire section of this scripture so that the context is ensured. Lay aside your legalism and self-righteousness and start building a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.

Paul addresses this very well all through Romans. Again, picture yourself walking with the Apostle Paul into places and neighborhoods with all these signs of support for God’s law. What is Paul's reaction going to be? What is he currently teaching us in these verses? Romans 3:19-20 “19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Everyone who now chooses to live under the law is completely insulting the grace of God. The law of God clearly shows us that we are bankrupt before a perfect God. It is showing us that we need someone to come down and save us. It shows us the need for a savior. If then a savior has already come down to save us and fulfilled the law, why are we even discussing where the commandments should be placed in this country? The law was given in order to shut all our mouths, including the people who are promoting it. It’s given to put us all in our place. Not to be promoted to our unsaved neighbors who now have the wrong impression of what the term Christian really means. This actually promotes the viewpoint of the finger pointing Christian to all the neighbors, which generates hypocrisy.

The law is the knowledge of sin. It’s not going to give you anything except the knowledge of sin to strengthen satan’s accusations and condemnation against you. Why then are people in such an uproar to defend it? Romans 3:27-28 “27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Paul clearly says to stop boasting by anything you think you can accomplish. It’s not about your behavior; it’s all about your faith. When you fall in love with Christ by faith, you will have more strength to overcome sin in your life. When your faith is right then your actions and behavior will all align with Christ. It will be all Christ consciousness that takes you to the next level with your walk with Him. As you can see with this viewpoint, there is nothing to boast in except what Christ did. You are not taking any ounce of credit.

There are many more verses to support my argument. In fact, every writing of Paul clearly says in a matter of terms, rise above the law into the grace of God, and focus on the cross. Focusing on a relationship with Christ is a humbling experience. When people pridefully promote the Ten Commandments, it does nothing more than fulfill their ego thinking it’s something that also supports them. If the Ten Commandments had a voice it would very well put all the supporters in condemnation leaving them speechless. Wipe away all the monuments of the commandments and replace everything with a cross. The cross saves. More importantly though, if you have a commandments sign in your yard, you have much to think about. Why are you promoting a law, which actually strengthens sin in your life? The more you promote it, instead of the grace of God, you will actually be in much worse shape in the future. Never read it in the Bible? Romans 5:20-21 NIV “20 The law was brought in so that the trespass (this means sin!!!) might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Be very clear here, you’re not promoting Christ at all. I have talked to so many people that they somehow think they are promoting Christ. As if they are blindly making up their own agenda. How is this possible? You are not promoting a cross. You are not promoting grace but rather you are actually promoting condemnation by the law. You then wonder why none of your neighbors ask you about Christ? Let’s look at what approach we are taking here.

Again, see what Paul is saying. The commandments were given so that sin may be at its full understanding, full power, and full potential. Why in the world would you want every demon passing your house to see a sign that represents this? Talk about an easy spiritual target on your back.

Are you a Christian who is struggling in some area of life? If you are law conscious and legalistic to others and yourself, see what Paul tells us in Romans 6:12-14 “12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” So if you want to be set free from a sin, do you then focus on the Ten Commandments? Answer, no! Read this verse again and again until this argument stops already. You accept the grace of God to consume you and set you free. If you are under law and legalism however, sin has power over you, also called dominion. This means full control and power over your life. I am thinking of a derivative word, dominate. Do you want sin to dominate you? This is why with every Christian circle, anywhere there is legalism and judgment, hypocrisy is abounding.

Romans 7:7-12 NKJV “7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”

Paul even clarifies to the haters who try to distort his teaching in the crowd that the law is not sin. He breaks down how we should understand this. Many people were accusing Paul for using the grace and freedom in Christ for opportunity to sin. It could not be further from the truth. Paul is showing us that in order to be set free from sin, only grace and the grace mindset can ever accomplish this.

The more and more I research this argument, I see that Paul spent the majority of all his writings teaching the New Testament church, that it’s no longer about laws, commandments, or legalism. He is teaching us it’s now all about Jesus Christ and the grace of God. I hope that in this chapter I at least made you think about this argument. The USA has millions of people with The Ten Commandments signs in their front yards and they feel they are protesting something and fighting for some freedom. The fact of the matter as we have discussed, it’s a prideful works based mentality which creates the anti-grace environment. Let’s replace every single sign of a commandment with a cross. More importantly though, anyone can put a sign in their yard and not live for Christ through the week. Stop focusing on signs and prideful attitudes and start going to work with the Holy Spirit. Start winning your lost co-workers and neighbors to Christ. Start being salt and light everywhere you go. Stop being a judgmental hypocrite just as I was. Stop spreading the venom of legalism. Start showing people what Jesus Christ changed in your life, if He even did yet. If you genuinely didn’t start working on your own walk with Christ, then allow Him to create a testimony with your life. Even the world hates hypocrites. Maybe this is why I am so passionate about this topic. I used to spread my venom of pride, arrogance, and legalism everywhere I went when I was younger. I genuinely hated myself because I was constantly under preaching of law, not grace. I struggled very badly with sin in my life and stained myself quite good. Oh but for God’s grace, when He finally showed me what I needed to do. Since I have completely had a spiritual overhaul by replacing law with grace, life is amazing with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and this joy has never been better.

I pray that this message helps you understand, that it’s not about you! It’s all about Jesus and His finished work. Once you accept and believe in this work, by replacing law with grace, your life will change and you will have more power over sin in your life. When you promote and defend Christ there is no room for pride. This is what God wants. God doesn’t want nor does He need us to defend His law. He wants us to promote and defend His Son, the most precious sacrifice ever given.

Chapter 10: Shipwreck Faith

Most people have a very hard time putting God first in everything they do, especially when it comes to times of adversity. Let’s be honest about it. It applies to everyone. From the premise of this book, I am sharing dreams, visions, and whispers from the Holy Spirit and tying them into a lesson, which will highlight the urgency of building a concentrated faith. As we have already discussed, it’s not the quantity of faith that you have, it’s the concentration and potency which makes the difference. Many people refer to this as the refinement of faith. There is a great song out there from the 80’s and 90’s called refiners fire to help show us this example.

God will allow things to happen to us in life, not to destroy us but rather refine the quality of our faith. What we have been discussing however is that when we allow the lesson to be learned quickly, there is no need for a dragging out of the adversity. Many Christians go for years with a complete cycle of emotions and situations, which are not needed if they would submit to the lesson trying to be taught. I know that I have learned both ways. What Christ is looking to teach us is that when we finally accept His lesson, we then are armed with a higher quality faith to overcome a larger adversity in the future. We are also positioned to be a leader for someone else who is facing a similar struggle. We can then show them how Christ is used in that adversity. When this happens the right way, we are able to glorify God as the end result. Most people, including myself, seem to forget about the quality of faith in the midst of adversity. For example, Paul talks about being ship wrecked several times in the scripture. Many of us can look at certain parts of our lives and somewhat relate to what this means. Acts 27 and 28 breaks down Paul’s message regarding his experience being shipwrecked on Malta. Paul does an excellent job of keeping the faith in the midst of insane adversity. I am going to breakdown some symbolism for us however, Paul went through this literally.

What really strikes me however is Paul’s attitude in the midst of the adversity in chapter 28. The entire crew, prisoners, guards, and so on is shipwrecked and hopeless. Did Paul recognize or believe this? Not one bit. Paul was trusting in God to make it through this situation. Acts 28:5 “5 But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.” Paul was not affected even by snakebite and did not even have any signs of adversity from it either. Did you ever feel like satan is attacking you at several angles? Paul completely understands this but how did it affect him? He did not flinch. Paul stayed focus on God and what his greater mission was. What was Paul’s testimony in the midst of his shipwreck? Check this out. Acts 28:8-10 “8 And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him. 9 So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed. 10 They also honored us in many ways; and when we departed, they provided such things as were necessary.” Again, Paul is in the midst of what we all could consider our hopeless situation. What is he doing here however? Healing the sick and preaching the gospel. I would imagine that this created a small church on the island. Knowing the character and mindset of Paul, he would never take credit for the healing power but would be explaining Christ to all the peoples of the area. When we are in the midst of our adversity, do we have the testimony of a life like that? Most of us don’t. I challenge all of us to start remembering what is really important in life, especially in the midst of a shipwreck. Most of the time, I am so conscious about my own selfish comfort in the midst of any adversity in life. To think, Paul was always conscious of the Holy Spirit and remembered what true priorities needed to be first in every situation. Paul is another great example of someone who has a concentrated faith.

I have a few dreams left to share some lessons from. For this last chapter I am going to offer one of the most positive dreams I have ever had. I prayed about being shipwrecked and wanted to gain some understanding how to handle this concept in the future. I wanted to really understand what it takes to be refined by a personal shipwreck without getting defeated. This dream was nothing directly related to success or anything material however, I will never forget how I felt when I woke up from it. The Holy Spirit was all over me while lying in bed with my eyes open looking at the ceiling. I cannot explain it but I felt overwhelmed in amazement when I woke to this awesome presence in my room, which of course I believe was the Holy Spirit’s manifestation. It was a very simple dream actually but very interesting to dissect. Again, please remember, I am choosing to accept the information I am researching about Christian dream analysis since it’s backed with scripture references. It’s a work in progress however, everything is backed up with scripture. I will probably be buying some books on this subject very soon. For now, I found some great websites to draw analysis from.

As odd as it was, I was standing in my parents bathroom when I was younger, looking out the window. There is a very large hillside in my parent’s back yard and a cornfield. This was the true background from growing up. I was looking at the field when it started to rain. It was nothing more than a sprinkle in the distance, however it did not rain on my window or the area I was. This was all in the distance. The clouds were very dark purple with several clusters of clouds. In the dream, I started to say something to the effect “Jesus you’re so awesome.” Every time I made a shout of praise like that there was a bolt of lightning, which went back and forth in a horizontal movement. This was very similar to the heat lightning that you may have seen before it starts to rain. Sometimes heat lightning happens and it does not rain. So the lightning bolts were 100% directly related to the praise I was giving Jesus in the dream. The bathroom had the colors green, white, and brown from what I recall. When I realized that my praise was correlated to the lightning, I started singing something related to a praise and worship song. Then the sky lit up like nothing I have ever seen before. It became so bright that there was enough light to illuminate the cornfields and hillside every few seconds. I was in awe of all the flashing of light and how close it was to me. I don’t exactly recall the ending other than waking up after praising Jesus.

Ok, I completely admit that’s a pretty far out dream. Let’s take a look however, what Christian Dream Symbols may apply to what it could mean for me or us as a lesson. Let’s start to first break down the colors. The floor in the bathroom was white. A bathroom is symbolic of exposure or an invasion of privacy. 2 Sam. 11:2 White represents symbolic of righteousness, Rev. 3:5. So to start building a lesson we have to first be walking in righteousness and outside of our comfort zone from my understanding of it. This is a great example of a shipwreck situation getting our attention in life. This also is of course achieved as a gift from Christ by His grace. Nothing we can do to earn it. It’s all by grace. This would represent the beginning of salvation to a believer or the beginning of really walking with God in my understanding or a shipwreck for someone who is already a believer. We don’t have any righteousness in ourselves. The bathtub and toilet are green. Green means flourishing or life, Prov. 11:28. So maybe this could mean that when the righteousness of Christ comes into our private life there is much flourishing spiritually. So for now this is what was all contained within the bathroom. Now, I was staring out a window. A window is symbolic of vision, insight, or a person’s eyes, Eccl. 12:3. The window edges however were brown. Brown is symbolic of earthly wisdom.

So when I was looking through the brown window, I understood more and more about the purple clouds and rain in the distance. Purple means royalty. Clouds have two angles that could apply to me. If it is a rain cloud, it can symbolize God’s favor, Prov. 16:15. Dreaming of a rain cloud that does not deliver rain when expected is symbolic of bragging about abilities and gifts that someone does not possess, Prov. 25:14 So when I realized the clouds moving in they did not rain right away. They just were up there in the sky. I do admit I used to have tendency to get excited about things and possibly brag about stuff though I have calmed down about acting like this whenever I started growing up. When I was young though I do confess I stretched the truth a little, I guess. It could be an angle of convicting me also from the past. From what I recall, I seemed to seek others approval of the group of people I was around at the time. I am coming to a better understanding though as I get much older, that we only need to seek God’s approval. The reality is that Jesus has accomplished this for us already. When the clouds started raining, I then exclaimed, “Jesus you’re awesome!” That’s when the lightning started happening. Lightning is symbolic of supernatural power, Ezek. 1:14. The more I praised Jesus the more a bright lightning bolt lit up the sky. Rain in a peaceful shower is symbolic of the presence of the Holy Spirit, Ps. 72:6 You could then make the argument that when we praise Jesus, He then sends the Holy Spirit to manifest to us to have His supernatural power. This is something, which I have been seeking for a few months so to have it in a dream could be spot on for what I was praying about. A hill in a dream may indicate an easily overcome obstacle. A brilliantly lit hill is symbolic of God’s dwelling place, Ps. 43:3. A hill can also symbolize a place in life where you can build, work, and cultivate good things, Isa. 7:25. The hills were all in the backdrop of the scene. It’s almost like first we praise Jesus, He sends us His Holy Spirit with supernatural power, and that enables us to reach the green pasture of God’s dwelling place and success. That actually does make sense though because Christ’s own words say in Matthew 6:33 NKJV “33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Wouldn’t it be funny if I had this dream just to have this lesson reinforced?

So from what the dream shares, I think we can draw some good lessons regarding a shipwreck faith to overcome the adversity. Many times, we feel safe in our own private comfort zone but then when God steps into our lives, we do feel as if we have had an invasion of privacy. In order to be growing in the Lord constantly, you will feel as if God is constantly trying to open you up to more of Him and less of you. Many people have the attitude that they are currently in a shipwreck situation yet it is actually God coming into their life in a real way. In the beginning let’s be real about it, it’s no fun at all. However when we genuinely allow the righteousness of Christ as our foundation it will change us. We will turn into something better than we could ever imagine. We then will be able to see the abundance of life and spiritual flourishment. By allowing this to grow us outside our comfort zone, we will recognize the wisdom to seek Christ at a greater level. Once we realize our praise increases His presence in us, we will be able to better overcome any adversity to our lives.

Based upon the topic and the dream, this should all fit pretty well together. I think that there is much to be said about the concentration of faith that Paul had. He was in the middle of a literal shipwreck and always had a ministry based mindset. I will be completely honest with you that I am not there yet. I have some selfishness, which tends to creep up when I am inconvenienced. I think though that this is a great study from what Paul is showing us with his life. Remember that the writer of Acts is Luke, not Paul. So Paul is teaching us several things about overcoming in the midst of struggle without having to preach a single word. That’s pretty powerful to me. The next time an adversity strikes you, I want you to ask yourself, “What kind of testimony will I be making?” I know that I will be thinking twice, hopefully, when the next struggle comes into my life. We may learn more in our valley experiences in life however, God never intends us to stay there. If you are seeking the constant valley of life in order to grow, I think that you are losing complete focus on conducting your own personal ministry. Regardless of the ups or the downs in Paul’s life, he was always ministry minded. I know that sometimes we do in fact seek a valley just to gain the closeness to Christ, however if you have a constant ministry mindset, you will not be paying too much attention to the circumstances at hand regardless of the peak or valley you’re in.

At the end of Acts see how Paul again stays focused, “30 Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” The keyword in there, which speaks to me, is confidence. How many times does our confidence waiver? Nothing stopped Paul all because he was ministry minded, was confident in Christ, and realized the urgency of Christ for everyone. This creates, in my opinion, a stronger testimony to the lost people out there. To be able to say that we went through a major adversity and to still come out saying the only thing that matters is Jesus, is simply amazing.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Falling Asleep In The Arms Of A King

Chapter 2: Whispering To Nails

Chapter 3: Heart Attack Or Holy Ghost

Chapter 4: Feral Christians

Chapter 5: Pills to Paradise

Chapter 6: Mustard Seed Faith

Chapter 7: Waiting At The Airport

Chapter 8: Pulling Out Scorpions

Chapter 9: Take Down That Sign Already

Chapter 10: Shipwreck Faith