OPEN YOUR EYES

“My Supernatural Journey”

By Conrad Carriker

Text copyright © Conrad Carriker

All rights reserved

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

DEDICATED TO

Dad…. You are forever in my heart.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

SOMEONE TRIED TO MURDER ME

A TRAUMATIC MEMORY

SEEING IN THE SPIRIT AT TWO

KIDNAPPED

THE DEMON SLAYER

WAKING UP UNDER WATER

I BEGAN TO FLY

THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

PERSECUTED FOR TRUTH

I SAW A GHOST

EYES SOWED SHUT

WAKING UP ON THE CEILING

A LITTLE HISTORY

I'VE BEEN EXPECTING YOUR CALL

A COUPLE OF PSYCHICS

THE STARFIRE PRAYER

KINGDOM EXPERIENCES

BORN TO SEE

OPEN YOUR EYES

THE ACCURSED THING

ANGELS WALKING ON AIR

CASTING OUT A DEMON

THE TRESPASSING DEMON

THE CANNON BALL VISION

THE CHRISTINA VISION

THE Da Vinci CODE

FUKUSHIMA

THE 2011 TORNADOES

FLORIDA

DISCOVERING INIQUITY

THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD

FISHBAIT

THE GLORY CLOUD

THE MISSING LINK

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge a few people that helped make this book possible.

Glynda Lomax, a good friend of mine who authors WingsOfProphecy.com, was writing "The Wilderness Companion" while I was on a wilderness walk. If it wasn't for her, this book may have been years in coming. I am deeply grateful for her friendship and support.

I want to thank my pastor, Howard Jackson and his wife Karen. I have learned much from them. They have encouraged me and supported me in many ways. We have spent many magical hours discussing the deeper things of God. Howard and Karen are rare gems. It is an honor to know them.

I would like to thank Chris, Danel, CJ and Jeanette. My family has endured much tribulation with me. If it wasn't for them, I have no idea where I would have ended up after the passing of my dad.

I must thank all my cyber friends and supporters. My internet friends and supporters are the main reason I decided to write this book. If it weren’t for my friends in social media, I wouldn't know that people were interested in what I have to say. It is comforting to know there are people out there that have had similar experiences.

Dad was born with a veil of flesh over his face that had to be surgically removed. The family took that as a prophetic event signifying a veil would be taken away beginning with him. Dad shared much of what he learned about the supernatural with me. He also pointed me in the direction to learn much more.

His last words to me were, “I love you”.

Thank you Dad.

INTRODUCTION

I have had numerous supernatural experiences since I was a child. Out of body, telepathy, precognition and the list could go on. I can attest that demons, ghosts, and angels are real.

In time, I learned to keep my supernatural experiences to myself to avoid persecution from my friends, family, and even the church.

Naively, I thought the church would provide answers. Isn't the church built upon a supernatural book overflowing with spiritual experiences and God given revelation?

I asked many Christians to help shed light on my supernatural experiences. I was abruptly told that I was using divination or the occult. The best answer Christians had for me was to 'stop doing it'. They embraced me with all the love and compassion one would expect to find present at the Salem Witch Trials.

Because I was offered persecution instead of answers, I explored other religions and sciences that readily embraced the supernatural. I spent a great deal of time studying the New Age, Eastern religions, and the paranormal sciences. I began a relentless journey to uncover the truth. I needed answers not persecution.

Anyone familiar with church history knows that the church has an embarrassing history of killing people for disagreeing with church doctrine. You may have heard of the Tyndale Bible. William Tyndale (c.1492 - 1536) translated the bible into English and was burned at the stake branded a heretic.

Hidden within Tyndale's last words lies the key to the supernatural.

"Lord! Open the King of England's eyes."

Tyndale’s final statement illuminates the problem within the church. There are those that see, and those that don’t see.

In this book, I recount many of my supernatural experiences in detail. As my spiritual journey unfolds, I communicate how the veil was removed and my eyes were opened.

SOMEONE TRIED TO MURDER ME

I was five years old and sleeping soundly in Houston Texas. My step mom and my father were still awake in the other room. An assailant came into my room unnoticed by my parents. He put his hand over my mouth and nose while I was in a deep slumber.

In my sleep, somehow I recognized that something was wrong. I couldn’t breathe. I was in such a deep sleep that I had to struggle to wake up. It wasn’t happening fast enough. I was terrified. The assailant pushed my head down further on my pillow. Obviously, he was intent on killing me. All the while, I was struggling to wake up. It was as if I was in very deep-water racing to the surface, yet the surface wasn’t coming.

I remember being paralyzed with fear. I was literally paralyzed. There was nothing I could do. I tried to form words but all that was coming out of my mouth was gibberish into this evil man’s hand. The more I tried to scream the harder he pushed my head down into the pillow.

As I was struggling to wake up the only thing I could do was yell “Mommy Daddy, Mommy, Daddy” hoping they would come to my rescue. This was to no avail because the hand well muffled my cries for help.

I was not able to breathe. I remember slowly coming to consciousness and being able to rock my head from side to side slightly, not being able to break free from this mean man’s hand. I was still paralyzed, unable to open my eyes, but I was slowly coming to consciousness. Before I could open my eyes, I gained control of my right arm. I quickly grabbed the man’s hand and struggled to break free, but to no avail. This entity was stronger than a five year olds one-handed grasp.

As I was waking up, I was able to enunciate the cries for help more clearly into the hand that was suffocating me. I remember finally being able to hear with my physical ears the muffled cries for help.

The hand did not relent.

My consciousness was then surging quickly into reality, but I was still somewhat paralyzed. I remember only being able to hold this man’s hand with my right hand and pull with all my might. Finally, I was able to open my eyes while the rest of my body remained paralyzed from the chest down.

As I opened my eyes, I glanced left to see that the assailant that was trying to kill me was my own left hand. There was no man there. No attacker. Somehow, in my sleep something took control of my left hand and tried to kill me. It was not me. I had no control.

The fear was constantly increasing in intensity even more because I realized that I was not in control of my own body. For about two seconds after I opened my eyes, I was not in control of my left hand. Something or someone else was. My fear spiked past the boiling point.

I soon realized with the mind of a five year old that I should be in control of my own body. Something let go as I gained control of my entire body. I then ran into the living room and screamed that someone was trying to kill me.

My dad went into the haunted room and secured the fact that no one was there. I told them to call the police. No phone call. I tried to convince my parents that someone tried to kill me, but my cry fell on deaf ears. They thought I had a nightmare.

There was no one there. No assailant. No evil man with an evil purpose. Just a creative imagination of a little five-year-old boy, out of control. So they thought.

However, I knew better. It was my left hand, and I will never forget that moment as long as I live. Something took over my body and tried to kill me.

This incident molded my life forever. There is something else out there. Something in the unseen world. Something evil.

In retrospect, I know that there was a demonic force that tried to gain full control of my body. My soul was out of my body during my sleep and an entity tried to get in. I learned later after many experiences of being out of my body that evil entities want in. They crave a home. They need a place to live.

Jesus gives us a clue that demons want in the human body.

Here is a plain reference:

Mat 12:43-45 But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. (44) Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. (45) Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation.

For years after this, I had many similar experiences. I would be wide-awake out of my body while my body remained paralyzed and sleeping. During these times, I had to be aware of my body and its position in relation to other entities. I call them entities because it isn’t just demons that float around in the spirit world.

I will shed more light on these experiences soon.

A TRAUMATIC MEMORY

I loved my dad and my mom as a child. Even as a two year old I could sense there was something wrong in the relationship. I sensed a spirit of manipulation. One day I walked in and witnessed a traumatic experience that I will never forget.

My dad was a very good-looking man. He had jet-black hair while he was in his 30’s. He used to jog five miles a day and looked like a movie star. Dad loved me very much. I remember before I could walk Dad would roll the ball to me and say, “Catch it”. Dad wanted me to be a ball player. He instilled a desire in me at a very early age to do great things. To be significant. To be an achiever.

Later in life, he would reflect to our playtime when I was a baby and told me that my very first words were “catch it”.

Mom on the other hand had a different relationship with me. It was more guarded. She had a poor time growing up with an alcoholic parent. She left home as soon as she could and ventured to New Orleans and Florida. She was very independent and strikingly beautiful.

Dad was a Christian with Christian values, and a very strong family bond. Mom looked at the family unit as weak. The family unit was something that served a purpose. She was not a Christian. I am not sure if Mom ever knew what love really was. Mom believed that people could be manipulated by feelings and those people were weak. If love was in a relationship, it was to be exploited for personal gain and not for self-sacrifice.

Mom was interested in the things of the New Age. It wasn’t just a hobby with her. She had the psychic intuition that few people have. She was intelligent and cunningly fabricated her own ideologies of the supernatural.

Because of the differences between Mom and Dad, I felt that I was viewed by my mother as a pawn to get what she wanted. I never remember her telling me she loved me as a child. I never remember a genuine, heart felt hug. It was a cold relationship. However, she had this way of projecting her thoughts and I could pick them up. Usually it was just a look. I was only two but I remember those looks.

One look was “be quiet”. I knew that look. In addition, I knew to be quiet, or else.

Dad didn’t like living in Los Angeles because it was nothing like Texas and more importantly, his family wasn’t there. He had left a good job selling cars in Lubbock to pick up and follow mom’s ambitions. Mom got into television. Isn’t that why everyone goes to LA?

After a short while of being in Los Angeles, I sensed things were coming apart quickly. Then it happened. I heard my dad screaming in tears for mom to change her mind. I don’t really remember what they were saying, but I remember the scene vividly.

Dad, in tears, was down on his knees with his hands clasped crying and begging mom to do something. I remember him begging her. I even remember the words, “I am begging you”. In retrospect, I am sure it was to go back to Texas. Mom was just sitting there with a look of power over Dad. She had the defiant expression of “No!” on her face. I don’t remember if she even uttered a word. It was as if a portrait was being etched into my mind that would affect me forever.

Mom was doing something that I sensed was wrong. I felt that whatever was going on, Dad was right, and she was going to do something wrong in spite of whatever Dad said. She valued something more than Dad or me. The look she had on her face, and the posture of superiority is not something one forgets.

This was difficult for me. I loved Dad very much and out of the pair, I believed - no I knew that Dad genuinely cared for and loved me. To Mom, I felt like a pawn.

I don’t remember if I cried or if I said anything. I just remember the scene and then my memory fades to black.

The reason I am including this experience is because this is about the time all of my spiritual experiences started occurring. I cannot put my finger on it, but this confrontation between my mom and my dad left me so scarred that I believed something was triggered in realm of the supernatural.

Mom and Dad divorced.

SEEING IN THE SPIRIT AT TWO

I slept in a crib as a baby and I am not sure how long I continued to sleep in the crib. It had wooden bars, and I remember before I could even talk Dad would peek through the bars and move his head left or right. I would follow his gaze with my eyes and smile or laugh at the fun we were having. No words, just love of a dad for his son.

On this particular day, Dad wasn’t there. I don’t know where he was. Maybe he and Mom had already split up. I don’t remember.

I woke up in the crib, but I couldn’t open my eyes. Even though I couldn’t open my eyes I could see everything. It was if my eyes were wide open - but they weren’t.

I wasn’t afraid. This seemed natural. Not only could I see - I could also project myself around the room. I realized that my eyes would not open, but I wanted to see if it was time to get up. I could see clearly that the sun was up and figured that it had been up for some time. By some means, I could tell that daylight was coming into the hallway and in my bedroom.

I remember projecting myself over the crib to the door, and realizing that I had left my body behind. Next I projected my soul back to my body and began the laborious task of physically climbing over the side of the crib, and stepping very carefully between the wooden bars and down finally onto the floor. As I ventured out into the hallway in my pajamas, I sensed that Mom was having a conversation with a couple of women in the living room.

I went into the living room and told Mom that I couldn’t open my eyes. The funny thing is that as I told my mom I couldn’t open my eyes, then all the sudden I was completely in my body. I had lost the ability to see with my spirit the way I was when I first woke up.

Mom tried to open my eyes with her thumbs and started panicking. I blacked out.

I was told later that I had a very high temperature and was diagnosed with scarlet fever. I don’t remember how sick I was, or why I couldn’t open my eyes. I only remember that I couldn’t open them, but I could see up until I made it into the living room where mom was.

KIDNAPPED

Some time had passed since the divorce. I was temporarily in a little town in West Texas that wasn’t even on the map. That was it’s claim to fame. T-shirts used to be sold with the phrase “Where the heck is Jayton?”

I ended up living with my paternal grandparents because Dad was too busy working on the road. He was a traveling cheese salesman.

One day after the divorce, I remember my mom parked out on the front of the street and was allowed to see me. She bought me a plastic bazooka with nerf like pellets for the shells. It was awesome. I played with it a lot. That was the last time I had seen or heard from my mom. She never bothered to call, write, or anything. It was as if she disappeared from earth. No one ever spoke of her.

Dad met a nice new lady and quickly married her. I am thankful because that led to me having a little brother later on in life. This marriage didn’t last long. I remember Dad all throughout life looking at me whenever there was a female meddling with his plans he would say, “Conrad, I just don’t understand women!” I can still hear him say it today! It was somewhat comical. He never did understand women. He never got the whole rational versus emotional thing. Strangely enough, Dad was quite emotional himself.

During the event of the attempted murder at five, I was living with Dad and my new step mom. I went to this school in Houston Texas. There were these makeshift classrooms. I had what seemed to like to be a very long walk from the sidewalk to the shed where I had to trek up some steps and into this makeshift barn type of environment. The floors were white tile and it had this cold, sterile, hospital type feel to it. I guess I was smelling antiseptic or something.

One day, while I was in the classroom I received a notice from my teacher that my mom was outside waiting for me. I thought that was strange, but I was five, what was I going to do?

They opened the door, and I walked toward a lady with blonde hair and I knew it was my mom. She said, “Conrad, I am your mother”. She extended her hand and we proceeded to walk down the sidewalk to a parked car with a man inside. I didn’t know who this man was. It was her new husband.

As I got into the car, I remembered my training of not getting in cars with strangers and not to talk to them. I told my mom that I couldn’t get in the car with strangers or even talk to them. Years later, I remember her telling me she thought that I was calling her a stranger. I wasn’t. I was referring to the man I never met, her new husband.

As it turned out, we took several different planes on way to Los Angeles. Her new husband owned a single engine Cessna and flew it back on his own.

I arrived at the new home in Los Angeles where emotions ran cold. I never remember Mom ever telling me she loved me or hugging me. My contact with her was cold and distant. I was only a pawn in a game I didn’t understand.

She put me in a room all by myself. I was missing my family in Texas a lot. The people that really loved me were nowhere to be found. I began wetting my bed at night. I was very stressed in this cold, heartless environment.

I was soon thrown into a routine of what felt like a prison. I suspect that they knew Dad would find out eventually where I was and come get me. I was closely guarded and stayed in doors mostly. It felt like her taking me was a ploy for revenge.

Dad told me one time, that they were near some bikers in Arizona and Mom tried to get the bikers to beat him up over some trivial argument. I never understood that. Why do people even bother to get married?

To keep me from being snatched back by my father they put me into a military school for children. This was complete hell. Everyone was mean. The older kids would beat up the younger kids and the grown ups didn’t even care. Violence begat violence.

I remember the teachers were cruel. Sometimes, if a person answered a question incorrectly, they would take a ruler and slap them across their wrist. This was a painful penalty for not knowing the answer to a question.

This was so traumatizing that I had bladder problems during the day as well. It was an intimidating environment. The corporals, which were actually older boys, would make fun of me and tell me to lose control in front of the Sergeants office. They would punish me for having this problem. The thought of counseling me never crossed their minds. Making fun of me and beating me was their solution.

I desperately wanted to escape this hell but I was trapped behind bars. Literal bars. The place was a prison! I wasn’t the only kid that wanted to escape either. Some of us during recess would talk about how to escape. We fantasized often of how we would sneak through the steel bars to liberty.

This torment would last from seven or eight in the morning till late in the evening. My mom worked unpredictable hours so I would stay there in that prison until she came and got me. I remember getting up and watching Spider Man or Speed Racer and then being hustled off to school. Often times it would be dark by the time someone picked me up.

Mom wouldn’t let me call my family. I was completely broken off from the people I loved. The people that really loved me didn’t even know where I was.

Her new husband would try to be nice to me. That was cold too. I think he was conned into the whole kidnapping thing. If Mom loved me, I would have sensed it. Maybe she did love me in a strange way. A way I never understood.

They had a nice home with a swimming pool in the back. They also had a couple of dogs with a make shift dog run in the back yard. I was fascinated with the doggy door. I had never seen one before and I thought it was so cool. I remember one dog always had flies, or fleas. Some type of bug with wings would always bother one dog, but not the other. I remember being puzzled as to why one dog always got the bad deal while the other simply smiled and lived its life. It seemed unfair.

One day in the back yard, I had a telepathic connection with Dedad.

Dedad, was my dad’s dad. The best grandfather a person could have. He had integrity. When I think of Dedad the word ‘noble’ pops into mind. He was the patriarch of the family. Everyone looked up to him. He was the youngest of a big family and even his older brothers and sisters respected him. He always knew what to do. He was the kind of man that you didn’t want to disappoint. Not because he would smack you, but because we loved him. We never wanted to disappoint him, because we knew when the going gets tough, he would never abandon us. Dedad was the kind of guy that would run through the front lines and snatch a loved one from the jaws of the enemy.

One day, I was in the back yard, and I was drawn to a certain area by the pool. Something made me look up on a hill. I remember going into a semi trance and saying “Dedad is here”. Far away and up the hill next to a house, was a man standing next to a large cream-colored car. I couldn’t make out who it was, but I knew intuitively that it was in Dedad. I remember either Mom or her husband heard what I said and grabbed me by the arm and pulled me inside.

Something sparked in my spirit and I knew that I was going to be rescued. At the same time hope was dying. A small portion of me knew I would once again be reunited with the people that loved me. However, the larger portion of me was trapped in the reality of the here and now. I was learning hope versus realism at five years old.

I was in prison at the house, and at the military academy. I mostly had no fun. No toys. I was constantly hassled for my bladder problem. The military people harassed me. Mom gave me a hard time as well.

Mom’s husband would try to entertain me. He took me flying in his plane a few times. He let me pull the wheel up and let go. This was fun because the plane would go into a freefall. I never will forget climbing high in altitude and then dropping like a rock! It was awesome! I still remember how my stomach would go up into my throat.

He used to play games with me too. I remember that he would make the electric window go up an down, and I was fascinated with how it worked. I thought it was magic.

He spent a lot of time at the airport and would take me with him. They had a restaurant at the airport, which had fortune cookies. He let me eat all I wanted and would read the fortunes to me. I was new to this fortune-telling thing. I thought that if I ate just the right cookie, one of them would tell me that I would see my family again. That cookie never came.

Weeks went by, and hope was waning. I was slowly become resolved to this newly designed prison of a life.

Then it happened.

Someone came to class and said, “Your dad is here in the Sergeant’s office”. I was thinking that it was my mom’s husband because they were telling everyone that he was my dad.

I went into the sergeant’s office. There was Dad, with a jacket for me. The private investigator he had hired had coached him not to display emotion. He was standing there as if it was an every day thing, and gave some excuse as to why he had to get me out of school early. The sergeant suspiciously observed this early release.

I was emotionally dead. I was afraid that if I acted without discipline that I would get another beating. At this place, any emotion other than aggression was not allowed. They only rewarded aggression. I stood there with no emotion.

Dad put the jacket on me, and I saw the cream-colored car that I saw on the hill previously. I saw Dedad with the cowboy hat that I remembered he would always wear. I blacked out.

I slept in the back of the car for the two-day trip home. I don’t remember the trip.

We made it home to Jayton. I was wearing my military uniform as I came in the back door. I was greeted by a slew of family members in tears. They were so happy to see me. I remember my aunt Billie Ruth especially because she was crying and I could tell she was genuinely happy to see me back with the people that love me. Everyone was there. The people that loved me were there. This was home.

The sad part is, instead of jumping up and down, doing back flips and hugging everyone, I stood there rigid like I was at attention. I was only at this military school for about a month, but it had me so trained not to display emotion that I was afraid to do so even with my family. People would take turns hugging me around the room and ask me why I wouldn’t hug them back. I thought it was a test to see if I would show emotion.

I never remember my mom hugging me, or telling me she loved me. Then I was thrust into a whole slew of people that loved me. Hugs were falling from the sky like rain. It was confusing. I didn’t know how to behave.

I blacked out again. I was sick. I had pneumonia.

I was so sick that I had to go to the hospital. When Dad picked me up I had a runny nose. Apparently, I was so traumatized by everything that happened that my immunity dropped and I got pneumonia. I am not sure if anyone was to blame. Everything turned out ok.

No more bed-wetting. No more cold tense feelings. No more prison. No more days without hugs. No more days without being told I was loved. I was home and it felt good.

Cherish the people in your life. Tell them you love them and hug them often. Never take them for granted. You don’t know how much time you have with them.

The reason I included these experiences in this book is that I have learned that many people with supernatural experiences have had traumatic childhoods.

THE DEMON SLAYER

If you haven’t already caught on, I thought the world of my grandfather. Somehow, he got the nickname Dedad. It took me years to discover that his name was actually Benjamin. I idolized my grandfather ever since I can remember. He was the leader of the family. No doubt about it. If Dedad said it was the day to work cattle, we dropped everything and worked cattle.

He always wore a cowboy hat. He had more than one. He had one that was classified as a work hat, it was a grey felt in the cool months and a straw in the summer. Every time he came home from whatever he was doing, he would promptly put his hat on the hat rack right inside the back door.

Dedad was a real cowboy. In addition, he was a good man. He would do whatever it took to protect his family. Dad would often tell me all the stories about how awesome Dedad was. When I was kidnapped Dad said he was running in circles around the track and lost tons of weight. Dad was at a loss for what to do. Dad told me that Dedad looked him in the eye and said - “I reckon we ought to go get him”.

Dedad was smart. It was difficult to lie to him. He had discernment of spirits without ever calling it that. He could tell things that were going to happen before they happened. He knew who the bad people were. He had this insight that was uncanny. It was futile trying to lie to him. A person simply couldn’t get away with it.

When Dedad said that they should go get me, he knew somehow that it was Mom that got me. He just knew. I don’t know if he prayed and figured it out or what. That day while I was in California and something drew me to the part of the yard to where I could see him, a part of me knew that everything would be all right.

Dedad was to the rescue. He didn’t wear a cape - he wore a cowboy hat.

After I got back from California, I lived with Dedad and Mema in their quaint house in Jayton. Dad’s second marriage was short so I ended up living with Mema and Dedad permanently.

All these traumatic events triggered serious nightmares. The nightmares evolved into astral projection. I would often wake up outside of my body floating around the house in the early years. It was frustrating because they kept telling me I was having nightmares. However, I knew what was going on. I was floating around in the house wrestling with demons.

Often times, I would wake up outside my body without warning. I didn’t know how to navigate until I did it many, many times. I would wake up somewhere outside of my body, and then the demons would torment me to no end. They would laugh in the spirit and try to scare me with deep, echoing voices. I would be aware of my body breathing heavily in fear, while I myself for some reason couldn’t get into my body at times. I am not sure why. I don’t know if I couldn’t get in because I did not know how, or if something was preventing me.

There is one room in the house that was haunted. No one else knew it but me. It was the hub of all the evil in the house. This was the den. It was only used for one purpose. Christmas. Often when I read Jeremiah chapter ten, I wondered if the pagan Christmas tree tradition had anything to do with summoning evil into that room.

I don’t know why there was evil in that particular room. Nevertheless, it was there. All the evil stuff that occurred in my early out of body experiences had something to do with that room. Who knows? Maybe the former owners practiced witchcraft in that room. I don’t know. All I know is that was a scary room. I couldn’t stand to be in there day or night. I would only go in there if other family members were in there. I didn’t talk about it much. Even after I was grown that room disturbed me.

As a small child in the beginning of my out of body excursions, I would float into the bedroom with Mema and Dedad. I did that rather than get into my own body. I didn’t know any better. I would come into their room and try to position myself to where the demons wouldn’t get me.

This wasn’t working out too well. The demons didn’t really care about where I was. They just wanted to scare me and I was terrified. Many times, I would go into my paralyzed body fighting desperately to wake up and upon awakening run into the bedroom with Mema and Dedad.

I would jump in the bed with them and tell them there were monsters that were trying to kill me. I remembered the first incident where my left hand was controlled by something else. It wasn’t me. Something was trying to kill me.

My family thought I was just having nightmares. I knew it was ghosts or something evil. It was very frustrating.

As I was in the room with Mema and Dedad, I could still sense the evil beings in the house. I told Dedad where they were. I could point at them in the invisible realm. I was so adamant and terrified that he decided to go fight the monsters. I was freaking out!

When he looked like he was going to do something the demons would retreat into the living room or the den. I told him so. Dedad figured he had better do something to calm me down. So he went into the other room while Mema held me.

I could sense both worlds at the same time. I could sense the supernatural realm where the demons were. I could also sense the physical world as well. It was distressing. I was genuinely afraid.

While Dedad was pretending to slay monsters, I could hear thunders and perceive flashes of lightning in the spirit realm. Mema would hold on to me as I shuddered with fear. I could hear warfare going on in the supernatural. Dedad would yell commands and tell them to leave. Eventually I sensed the battle ending and I would calm down.

Mema would walk me into the living room where we would find Dedad sitting in the chair looking exhausted. He explained to me that he had killed all the monsters or that they had gone. I looked to him as my hero. Dedad slayed the demons for me. He fought my battles for me. Dedad was awesome.

Looking back, I wish they knew what was really going on. If Dedad had just showed me how to take authority over them in the name of Jesus things would have been a lot easier for me.

However, because my family was not versed in spiritual warfare, this became an all too familiar occurrence. That was until I learned how to fly other places.

WAKING UP UNDER WATER

I never had the ability to willingly leave my body. It always happened when I was asleep. I would simply wake up somewhere else. I never was able to do it in a deliberate way. It would be accidental. Perhaps I would be waking up to get a drink of water or something and just roll out of my body. Most of the time, I would be in a deep sleep and simply become conscious in another location.

This is about one of those times. I thought I was going to die.

In my early experiences, I did not know how to move maneuver at will. This is one of the reasons I think the prophets like Ezekiel had to be pulled around by the hair by God (Ezek 8:3). Maybe they didn’t know how to maneuver on their own. It takes a lot of experience just to figure out that you can actually travel places without your body I started getting the hang of it after many times.

There was a community pool in Jayton. I loved to go there and swim. I swam so much that they called me a fish. I would go there every chance I could get. This time I went there while out of my body.

I used to love to swim underwater much more than on top of the surface. I think it had to do with the fact that I was in the supernatural realm so much. I thought of reality as boring and desired the things of the supernatural world. The supernatural was a frontier I knew that I was destined to explore.

Maybe that is why I woke up under water.

I freaked out at first. I was consciously aware of both my soul being under water and my physical body being in the bed. I was having difficulty understanding that my body was in a separate location because experiencing the water was so very real.

I noticed that I wasn’t blowing bubbles and I wasn’t causing the water to move or anything. I was simply being there. I couldn’t move. I began to hold my breathe thinking that I was physically underwater. This experience was so real that I became confused between my soul and my body.

New Agers often quote:

Ecc 12:6-7 before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, (7) and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.

They cite this as a passage confirming astral projection. When a person is out of their body, they are usually aware of the physical body. There is a straight line or cord between the soul and the body. It is similar to always being aware of which direction North is. When the body turns to dust and dies, the cord is severed and the soul remains without a physical body.

This particular experience was one of the most frightening, but it is also one of the experiences from which I learned the most. I thought I was going to drown underwater. I soon became acutely aware of my body breathing in bed and my inability to move while I was under water. The dualities began to make sense.

My consciousness was becoming more and more aware. This is significant, because usually when I would wake up out of my body I was mainly just an observer. My cognitive functions were somewhat latent. I could rationalize, but I really didn’t use the engine of my mind. I simply existed and observed.

I held my breathe underwater as long as I possibly could. I couldn’t move. I thought it was all over.

Then I took my first breathe. I thought I was going to breathe water into my lungs. It didn’t happen. I started breathing with loud gasps of air in and out until I was confident that I was not going to drown. I became acutely aware that I was out of my body and had the ability to think.

Then something strange happened.

I BEGAN TO FLY

This experience of waking up under water started a completely new development in my out of body experiences. I learned how to fly around in the direction I desired to go.

While I was underwater, I was puzzled about how I was awake and under water without dying. Therefore, I held my breath and began to flap my spiritual arms as if I was swimming. This was incredible, because somehow I learned how to move around doing this. I went from swimming to behaving like a bird. I left the swimming pool and took to the sky!

Often times I would wake up out of my body in places that I desired to be. These were places that I simply enjoyed being. I liked the weirdest places. I used to go to the local grocery store and fly around in the aisles.

I loved the cotton fields and I would fly in the cotton fields as well. No demons or witches. It is like I knew how to wake up far from the place where the demons were and somehow keep them from getting into my body. I started waking up farther and farther away from home.

I could also verify things the next day. I remember climbing this tree in our back yard. On one astral projection trip, I went higher in the tree than I have ever gone and I had a certain perspective that I was not aware of in the physical realm. Curiosity got the best of me to verify my spiritual adventure. I ignored my fear and climbed up on the weaker branches to verify the view of my neighbor’s house across the street. I was right. I was really doing this. I was really leaving my body and going places.

I stopped telling people about my out of body excursions. They didn’t believe me, and I didn’t want to be thought of as a nut.

THE MAN THAT WASN’T THERE

Because no one was taking my supernatural experiences seriously, I decided not to talk about them. I believe this is what happens with most people. After being ridiculed or doubted several times it becomes less painful to keep these experiences to oneself.

Here is one time that I spoke up.

Often I would get this strange sensation to go somewhere. There would be a tugging desire. It was as if someone was calling me. Usually when I followed this urge, something strange would happen.

One time, when I was a child we went to Aunt Billie Ruth’s house for breakfast. While the family was in the kitchen having breakfast, I felt the desire to go to the room that was shut up. It wasn’t used at that time. I don’t really remember much about why the door was shut, but it was. I walked to the door, and I heard someone moving around in there.

I walked to the door, and said “hello?”

A man said, “Go and tell them I started a fire in here.”

I replied, “Who are you?

He said, “I have been living here, and I started a fire in here. Go and tell them”.

I went into the kitchen and said, “The man that lives in that closed room just told me to tell you that he started a fire in there”.

They said no one lived there and the room was shut up. I was tired of explaining things to people when they didn’t believe me so I just sat down. There is only so many times that you can tell people before you finally give up. They don’t get it, so it is a waste of breathe.

After several minutes, white smoke began crawling along the ceiling. They freaked out and busted into the room to find a raging fire had indeed broke out. I remember thinking “I told them. They just wouldn’t listen”.

I sat calmly as I vividly remember my dad and uncle removed the precious items from the house like the piano etc....

The house wasn’t that badly damaged. But if they had listened to me sooner a lot more would have been saved.

After I was an adult, I never learned the cause of the fire. People still maintain that there was no man in that room.

If there was no one in that room, who was I talking to?

PERSECUTED FOR TRUTH

How many times in the bible have you seen God’s prophets persecuted or killed for telling the truth?

Telling the truth was a big deal with my family. Especially Dedad. He had an uncanny ability to tell if a person was lying about something. I learned early on that it is better to tell Dedad the truth than to lie. It is better to tell the truth and suffer the consequences. Lying makes you feel dirty and soils your character.

My supernatural experiences went off the grid on the Dedad truth meter. He thought I had an overactive imagination. He could not fathom that I was telling the truth. The truth was too wild even for him. I was surprised because he related several supernatural experiences of his own to the rest of the family.

He didn’t realize that he had the gift of discernment. He really could tell who was a good person and who was not. He also would wake up and say he dreamed something and it came to pass the next day or two. One day he dreamed there was a bird’s nest in a certain tree, and he went out there and sure enough, it was there.

I would catch him praying sometimes. He wasn’t a religious man. He didn’t want anything to do with the phony churches or televangelists. He wasn’t a big bible reader. In fact, I don’t remember him ever reading the bible.

In one of my private moments with Dad he told me that Dedad said, “Weldon, I know the Lord”. That is a comfort I have carried around in my heart.

For a long time I was miffed at Dedad because I got in trouble for telling the truth. Actually, I got in trouble many times for telling the truth, and even suffered for it. But this is one of the first times, and it hurt because it was my family that accused me of lying.

I must have been about eight or nine years old, and I was out underneath the carport about to go for a bicycle ride. I was about to get on my bike, and once again, I felt that ‘drawing’ sensation. Something drew me to look intently at the metal kickstand on my dad’s bike.

I went into a trance. Time stood still and all I could do was stare intently at this metal kickstand on Dad’s bike. My focus zoomed in on the kickstand as if I had a spiritual magnifying lens on it. As I gazed intently only for a few seconds, the kickstand snapped in half. This knocked Dad’s bicycle over.

I was blown away. I thought “Wow! Now they will believe me, there is no way they could think I snapped a metal kick stand in half when I just walked out the door!”

Somewhat excited about what had happened I told them! “You guys aren’t going to believe this! Something caused me to look at Dad’s kick stand and it snapped in half right in front of my very eyes!”

What I said was right. However, just as I spoke forth, they didn’t believe me. I had brought in the metal kickstand that had broken in half. It blows my mind that they thought a little eight or nine-year-old kid could snap metal in half - but they did.

They grilled me. I will never forget my own family humiliating me. Dedad would say, “Conrad, tell me the truth now. How did this kick stand break?”

I was humiliated. The people I loved thought I would lie about something trivial like that. Heck, maybe they thought I started the fire. I don’t know. It is no wonder that people keep their mouths shut about these things. My family accusing me of lying was one of the worst feelings I have ever had.

I remember fighting back and retorting with anger, “You told me to always tell the truth and now you don’t believe me!”

That is the end of that memory.

I SAW A GHOST

This is one of the most vivid out of body experiences I can remember. By this point in my life, I have been out of my body hundreds of times and I knew how to maneuver.

I was about 16 years old and I was staying with my dad in Irving Texas. He went to New Orleans on a business trip so I was going to be home alone for a couple days. This was no big deal for me. I was mature for my age. However, this time I wished that I were not alone.

It was 3 AM.

As usual, I was sleeping before I left my body. I woke up right outside of my body and I was drawn to the front door the apartment. Desire often causes the soul to travel toward the object of the desire.

There are multidimensional realities existing in the same space all around us. Different beings inhabit different dimensions. In this particular dimension that I was in all of the appliances appeared to be running. Things like the television, the radio, and the blender were on. However, in the physical realm they were unanimated and off.

I was floating toward the front door. I was moving very slowly and I knew there was something outside the front door the apartment. I was expecting a being but I wasn't sure what type of being to expect. I was maneuvering out of the bedroom floating about four feet above the ground toward the living room. I very slowly made my way through the hallway into the living room and finally passing the kitchen closing in on the front door of the apartment. Before I could get to the front door, something came through the door to greet me. I sensed it was evil deep inside but it was very good in hiding that evil. On the outside, it had a deceptive warm feeling, but on the inside, I could discern the core was evil. If I didn’t have discernment, I might have let my guard down and would have been tricked.

In this dimension, the entity was not a shade of grey but very vivid colors. It was a cloud about a foot and a half to two feet in diameter. It was full of energy. This energy took the form of what looked like snow on a television screen. Instead of being black and white like a person would normally see on television, it was full of vibrant colors. It wanted into my body. There was no mistake about it. The race was on.

There was no direct telepathic communication except on a baser level I knew that it was determined to get into my body. I began to retreat to my body positioning myself between the entity and my body. The being was clearly only about two feet away from me (my soul). I also remember it was summoning other lesser entities to come to the room. However, my focus was mainly on this one. He was the leader and had all of my attention.

As I slowly backed towards my body, I begin to enter through my forehead as usual. This is how a person gets back into their body. This is why the only thing a person can do is open their eyes while the body remains in sleep paralysis. This is the time when I am fighting to gain consciousness. I know I am asleep and I am struggling to the surface of consciousness like coming up from ocean depths. At this time a person is not able to form words with the physical mouth but thinking them is possible. Eventually there comes a moment when thoughts make a connection with the vocal chords.

As I entered my body, I observed the spiritual dimension slip into the physical world. All the lights and appliances in the spirit world were giving away to the natural world. The televisions and radios turned off. The blender stopped blending and the lights turned off. I was awakening into the natural world.

The entity remained close to my body. As I entered into my forehead, I noticed the entity taking on form. My spiritual vision was giving way to my physical vision. This entity was powerful, more powerful than I have ever experienced at this point in my life and it meant business.

I struggled to open my eyes while my body remained paralyzed. Before I regained control of my body, I managed to look to my left. This reminds me of the time the entity tried to kill me as a child using my left hand. Here was another entity to the left side of my body. Could it be the same one?

This body of vibrant colors quickly changed into a French man wearing a beanie. He was standing next to me with a puzzled look on his face. His head was cocked to the left and he looked at me with morbid curiosity. I had the sense that he didn’t deal much with people that astral project while being conscious!

There was absolutely nothing I could do. I was completely terrified and still paralyzed. I remember being able to see him and the clock. It was sometime around 3 o'clock in the morning. This stare down lasted a few moments before I passed out in fear.

My memory is somewhat hazy but I remember waking up soon after seeing him. As I woke up, I was no longer seeing in the spirit. I was firmly entrenched in the natural realm. It was extremely cold in the apartment. So cold I could almost see my breath. I still sensed the presence of evil. It was very real, and it hadn’t left. It was still there, just invisible.

I wanted to get the heck out of there. However, I knew there was no place to go. How can you run from a spirit?

Still terrified, the only thing I could think of to do was call my dad. I had not learned about spiritual warfare yet. I was clueless. I only knew to call my dad. I knew he would not be happy about getting a call at 3 AM. I jumped out of bed and quickly back over to my father’s desk trying not to turn my back on where I had seen the ghost. I put my back against the wall as I sat on the desk. I picked up the phone and dialed the hotel number that Dad had given me all the while trying not to take my eyes off the place where I had seen the ghost.

My dad sluggishly answered the phone. I remember saying “Dad. You know I would never call you this late unless it was really important right?”

He said “Sure, son”.

“I have just seen a ghost.” I didn't tell dad the presence of the ghost was still there in the room.

“Oh really? Was it a French man with a beanie?”, Dad replied.

Dad had seen the ghost as well. He told me that there were many reports in the apartment complex about this ghost. He didn’t tell me because he didn’t want to alarm me.

I left out the part about being out of my body. People just don't understand that type of thing. Not even parents. I learned to keep my astral travel a secret many years earlier.

Dad remained on the phone with me until the evil had left and I was comfortable. Dad was awesome like that.

EYES SOWED SHUT

I have been a voracious reader all of my life. I have always tried to read things that interested in me or things that I knew you would benefit me. My dad had some fascinating interests to say the least. He was a closet audio book listener. He collected many audio courses from Nightingale Conant. They provided self-help and self-empowerment courses. This is where I picked up interest in neuro linguistic programming, psychology, and the paranormal.

Dad’s interest to better himself spiritually, financially, and emotionally led him to collecting a fascinating library. I began to discover new resources of things related to the supernatural.

I learned early on that the soul has a mind and it is powerful. I learned that the human mind could control things and do exceedingly much more than most people were aware of. This journey led to a very real interest in hypnosis. With hypnosis, I thought that I could overcome my weaknesses and program myself to be more efficient. I was convinced that whatever the mind could actually believe the mind could achieve. A goal began to manifest. I had a goal to transform my belief system by renewing my mind (Romans 12:2).

I wanted to unlearn my limiting beliefs and instill new beliefs that were more powerful. The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step so I decided to start small and work my way up. I needed to believe the little things before I started believing the big things. I bought many self-hypnosis books to aid me on my journey. I'm the kind of person that doesn't just read one book about a subject but I read them all. I like to have a thorough understanding of a subject before I partake of the adventure. Especially things that have potential pitfalls. Like tinkering with the human mind.

I had a friend that lived in Abilene Texas. His parents were both pastors. I was staying with them for a few days and I brought my hypnosis books with me. I am not sure why but everyone left me alone for a few hours and I decided to try self-hypnosis.

I read that people could stop blood flow during surgery or not have to take pain medication while delivering a baby. I heard of yogis slowing down their breath and heart almost to a complete stop for hours and sometimes days. This was because of the power of the mind. I had to have that power.

While I was left alone in an unfamiliar house in Abilene, I went in to the guest bedroom on the bed and decided to practice what I had been reading. I counted backwards from 30 while visualizing going down my mental escalator into the depths of my consciousness. Deeper and deeper into my subconscious until I was confident that I was tapped into my innermost being. This is the state where the conscious mind is still in control but intimately connected to the deeper self.

At this level, it is extremely difficult not to fall asleep. I would suppose the brain waves to be operating in theta or delta - the brain waves associated with sleep. Usually when the conscious mind is actively ‘thinking’ it is operating in the faster beta wave state. Then as a person watches television and zones out they drop into the Alpha wave state. This is where hypnosis is going on unbeknownst to people. This is why a lot of people think what their television conforms them to think.

As a child, I meditated, which is similar to hypnosis. The real difference between hypnosis and meditation is what you do while you are under. At a deep level of meditation or hypnosis, the conscious mind is able to ‘think’, but it is difficult to do so. The faster or more deliberate a person ‘thinks’ the more a person tends to wake up. A balance must be maintained between the conscious mind and the deeper subconscious mind.

Later on in life when I was praying deeply in the spirit, I found prayer to be a lot like meditation. Slowing the mind down and listening for God helps when the mind is still. It is easier to hear the spirit when your mind isn’t talking.

Psa 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

I had reached a very deep level of hypnosis. I knew it. I knew that I had reached the deeper part of myself where my beliefs are rooted. At this level, I gave myself the command that I would not be able to open my eyes even when I was wide-awake. I repeated this command and accompanied it with visual directives such as mentally sowing my eyelids shut. I spent quite some time doing this, until I thought my inner self was convinced or ‘believed’ it to be true. The ONLY way I could open my eyes would be if I counted to three.

I started slowly giving myself the command to wake up. Once I woke up something scary happened. I could not open my eyes. I panicked because a large part of me didn't think this would actually work. It's comical now that I reflect back on it. I started feeling my way around their house like a blind man. No matter how hard I tried, I could not open my eyes. I remember my heart was racing and I was thinking very quickly. I was wide-awake yet I could not open my eyes!

Then it dawned on me to follow my instructions. I remembered my command was to open my eyes when I counted to three. I calmly reminded myself of that and slowly counted from one to three. To my amazement, my eyes opened.

I learned a few things from that experience. Self-hypnosis is not something to be played with. It can be very dangerous. I also learned that what we believe deep down takes precedence over what we believe on the surface. There is a part of us deep down, that contains our core belief system. I had just tampered with it.

WAKING UP ON THE CEILING

One day I was taking a nap, and I woke up just like normal. Well, not really normal.

There was something pressing hard against my body and against my face. It was inhibiting my breathing. As I was becoming more aware, I began to focus my eyes on the thing that was pressed up against my nose. I could see that the sunlight was coming into whatever room I was in. There was just enough light to see the texture of the object pressed against my body. I had to focus my eyes by crossing them because this object was firmly pressed right against my nose.

I noticed it was white. Good so far. I thought, “The object I am up against is a white flat surface”.

Then I noticed the bumps in the surface. I recognized the bumps from somewhere. Oh yeah!

I remember thinking very clearly. “This looks like…” BAM as I slammed onto the bed! “…the ceiling”.

As soon as I realized that what I was looking at was my ceiling I was dropped like a rock onto my bed. The bed shook and bounced up and down. I was immediately wide-awake and Mema happened to be in the room. She was vacuuming for some odd reason against the window in my room. I think the noise from the vacuuming is what woke me up.

I remember the bed shaking scared her because she screamed a startled yell. She still had the vacuum in her hand and was trying to cope with what happened. She didn’t see me up on the ceiling because she was looking the opposite direction outside the window.

When my body dropped about six feet from the ceiling onto my single bed, it made a loud noise and shook the bed enough to scare her. My bed literally bounced!

She asked me what had happened and I told her I woke up on the ceiling. She shook her head in disbelief. No one ever believed me, or at least they wouldn’t admit it. This experience visibly shook her. It shook the very core of her beliefs.

At this particular time, she knew something very extraordinary happened. She didn’t press it, because confronting the truth would have really frightened her. I didn’t talk about it either because, I didn’t want the unnecessary persecution.

I have some thoughts about this particular encounter. On my many out of body experiences, I mainly only remember audio and visual being a part of the experience. I never remember smells or feeling things except back in my body. In other words, I could sense what my body was feeling while my soul was somewhere else, but currently where my soul was, I didn’t notice temperature, textures, or smells. It was audio and visual only.

I have noticed that the bible mainly deals with hearing and seeing in the spirit as well. We are to hear the voice of Jesus (John chapter 10), and we are to watch in prayer (Eph 6:18; Col 4:2; Mark 13:33).

Strangely enough, the people that talk about feeling in the spirit world are the ones being in torment like in Rev 14:10 or the rich man in Luke 16. They have feelings after physical death. Feelings of pain

Contrast this with the saints that go on with Jesus.

Rev 7:15-16 Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. (16) They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat:

After physical death, we see for the saints that bodily desires are somewhat absent. Then the very interesting thing of no heat. One striking thing here is that I don’t remember any temperature, or being hungry or thirsty in my soul travels. Yet in the dimension of hell, it appears as if all these physical sensations will exist.

In this particular example, I remember distinctly smelling and feeling the ceiling. I felt it pressed up against my face. I remained there pondering what was happening to me. I was wondering where I was. Then it dawned on me that this was the texture of the ceiling in my bedroom. Upon realizing this was the ceiling I was pressed against, I remember physically falling on to the bed. I recall hitting the bed and the bed bouncing. I remember Mema screaming a startled yell.

This has all the signs of my physical body actually floating physically above my bed. However, I had NEVER done that before. This type of experience never has happened to me. There was no struggling to wake up this time.

If I was out of my body, then what caused the bed to move? If I was out of my body, why did I feel the texture and smell the sheet rock ceiling? If I was out of my body, why didn’t I have to go through the whole routine of getting back into my body through the forehead?

I am still struggling to this day of whether my body was actually on the ceiling or not. But one thing is for sure, hitting the bed scared Mema. That is enough for me to know that something very physical happened.

This takes me to the concept of belief. Remember I was talking about what we believe we can achieve?

Mar 11:21-23 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. (22) And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. (23) Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it.

Mat 17:20 And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Jesus talked about belief quite a bit. Jesus said that if we harnessed the power of belief, we could actually throw trees or mountains into the sea.

I have to give a word of caution here. Many people catch what Jesus is saying and then delve into witchcraft belief systems. Christianity is not about believing ungodly things but believing God. Believing the Word of God.

Jesus cursed the fig tree to illustrate prophetically what was going to happen to the nation represented by the fig tree in the bible. He was very careful not to use His powers of belief for anything other than furthering His plan of salvation. He prefaced His teaching on belief with “Have Faith in God” (Mark 11:22).

It is obvious that to have faith in God, God has to have told you something to believe. Right? How can you believe someone if they never told you anything? Jesus is clearly telling His disciples to believe what God says and not doubt. He wasn’t telling them to believe things that God never ever told them.

Back to the essence of belief. The point I am making here with this particular experience is that as soon as I realized my face was against the ceiling, a thought went off in my head. “That’s impossible”. In that instant, I went into doubting what was happening.

This is like Peter having faith in God (Mark 11:22) while he was commanded to come out on the water with Jesus. Peter knew how faith worked! He was excited to get the chance to walk on water. Notice how Peter cleverly managed to set up this opportunity.

Mat 14:25-31 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. (26) And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. (27) But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. (28) And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. (29) And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. (30) But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. (31) And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Notice that Peter believed Jesus was who He said He was. Then Peter seized a rare opportunity. He ingeniously tied together the confirmation that it was in fact Jesus to having the Lord command him to come out on the water. This was brilliant!

Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2). Peter knew that if he had a word from God, then he could not only stand on it, but also walk on it!

Jesus obliges, and utters the command, “Come”. That is all Peter needed. He had a word from God, the Author and Creator of the universe! He did not doubt. Then instead of focusing on his mission to get to Jesus, he started thinking. He saw the wind and realized he was doing something that is considered impossible. Doubt crept in. Similar to the way I fell from the ceiling to the bed, Peter began to let gravity pull him down too. Doubt crept in and his faith wavered.

Having faith in God means if God commands us, then even gravity can’t stop us.

I want to emphasize the fact that I don’t remember God telling me to float against the ceiling. I wasn’t consciously following a directive of the Lord. I was using this episode to illustrate the power of belief and doubt. I didn’t fall to the bed until I recognized the ceiling. Then doubt crept in and I fell like a rock.

To this day, I am not certain if it was my body or my soul against the ceiling, but it is certainly an experience I will never forget.

A LITTLE HISTORY

My family name is Carriker. Yeah, I know, it is unusual. Lucky for me my Grandmother was into genealogy. She did some research and found that the Carriker family had some preachers in its lineage.

I find it interesting learning about people from my family that I never met. I heard stories of how they had supernatural giftings. This hasn’t been widely discussed.

Mema (my paternal grandmother) traced back the Carriker history all the way back to Germany with a few name changes. I remember the broad strokes. We came from England around the time of the Mayflower voyage. Before that, we came from Germany.

The name before Carriker was Kircher, and before that it was Kirche. Kirche in German means Church. Apparently, we have been involved in the church somehow for hundreds of years at least.

My mom was into the supernatural. She had intuition that was uncanny. When she met my dad, a lot of stuff she was into rubbed off on him even though he was a Christian. Mom got my Christian father to do séances and New Age stuff. Dad somehow started putting the two together which really went against the grain of the mainstream church. He kept his supernatural experiences a secret. However, he shared a few with me and taught me a few things.

One day as a teenager, Dad said he had something very important to tell me. We happened to be in Rotan Texas for some family gathering. This is the same town where the man that wasn’t there told me about the fire in the locked room.

Dad took me to this dirt road. He told me about the time when he was a young boy, and he saw Jesus in the sky. He described to me the entire scene vividly. I don’t know if he ever told anyone else that story. It was clear to me that he wanted me to know that Jesus was real.

One thing interesting about my dad is he turned 13 on Friday the 13th. That in itself is kind of spooky! He was born during a very bad storm and the story goes that the doctor had to cross a swelling river horseback to deliver him. Dad was born with a skin veil over his face that had to be surgically removed. The family took that to be prophetic. The veil would be removed beginning with my father.

Mom somehow got Dad into New Age practices. I guess he loved her so blindly that he put up with it to make her happy. He told me about one séance that they were involved in that affected him heavily. Some psychic said dad’s spiritual name was Nathanael. Dad wanted to see where that was in scripture.

Here it is:

John 1:45-51 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. (46) And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. (47) Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! (48) Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. (49) Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. (50) Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. (51) And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Dad told me this is like the vision he saw of Jesus as a small child. He said there had to be something to this. My curiosity was peaked of course. I had a hard time dealing with the whole Christianity bit, but I certainly knew Dad was convinced.

Dad went to Hardin-Simmons University, which was a Christian University. He intended to pursue where that vision as a child took him. He wanted to fulfill the prophecy of the veil being removed in him. He wanted to see the ‘greater things than these’ of which Jesus was speaking.

Dad knew there was more to the bible and Christianity than the mainstream church was letting on. He also knew not to talk about supernatural things in church. This is a colossal problem in the church. People are afraid to share supernatural experiences because they are chided by the church. The church has a history of burning people at the stake for supernatural experiences labeling them witches. This sentiment is still around today. It is simpler to keep your supernatural experiences to yourself and seek Jesus in your closet (Matt 6:6).

Dad had the utmost respect for Dedad. Dedad taught Dad to love Jesus, but wasn’t big on going to church. Dedad had some supernatural experiences that were closely guarded secrets.

Dedad’s baptism and funeral were both preached by the same person. On the day of Dedad’s funeral, I found out something very interesting. The preacher ran a little church in Clairemont Texas back around the time Dedad was running a local grocery store. On this particular day, the preacher had made his usual altar call. Except this time during the altar call, the lights in the church went out for a few seconds. When the lights came back on, Dedad was standing there at the altar ready to give his life to Jesus. The following week or so, Dedad and his two boys were baptized (Acts 16:31).

The preacher was resolute that the lights went out for a few seconds only in the church. They didn’t go out anywhere else in town. He maintained that this was a mystical occurrence orchestrated by the predestination of God’s will.

If you knew Dedad, then you probably knew why God had the lights go out. Dedad was not the type of person to draw attention to himself. When the lights went out it was a divine way of getting Dedad to go up front without drawing attention to himself.

It is interesting to me, that God reveals Himself in different ways to His elect. Often I would catch Dedad silently praying with only his lips moving. He didn’t like to go to the church buildings, but he encouraged me to go whenever the doors were open.

Mema had always maintained that she had seen Jesus in the sky as well. She particularly mentioned that there was an angel sitting on a cloud that she was concerned was going to fall off. She was very adamant about this vision. She shared this with me many times when we were alone.

Apparently, there are many people in West Texas that have seen Jesus in the sky. My family is just a few of I don’t know how many.

Back to Dad’s relationship with my mom. Obviously, my mom introduced Dad to some of the darker aspects of spirituality. However, Dad approached the supernatural as a Christian with a Christian belief system. He could not deny that the supernatural existed. That would be nonsense. The answers were not being expounded in the church, so he determined to find out how to remove that veil which is taken away in Christ in an unconventional manner.

2Co 3:15-18 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. (16) Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. (17) Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (18) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The answers weren’t in the church buildings. I guess Dad thought he met Mom for a reason! It makes sense in a strange way.

As I got older, Dad began to teach me things. He knew I was learning a lot on my own, and he didn’t want to manipulate my spirituality. He wanted me to find my way, or The Way on my own. The more you shove Christianity down someone’s throat, the more they run away from it. However, if you use bait, then you are fulfilling the call of being fishers of men.

Dad taught me the mind projection game. The mind projection game or projection of visual images is something we would do quite often. Dad and I would talk for hours about things of a metaphysical nature. Before we would go to sleep, He would project a vision and ask me what it was. I would describe it in as much detail as I could.

The idea is to clear your mind of all thought and pick up the vision on the screen of your mind. If your mind is quiet and the other person is good at projecting then you will get a good picture. We would try it about ten times. I would usually get the first three correct. Then I would get fatigued and begin missing it.

I could project images as well. I knew this because Dad was good at picking them up. Later when I met my mom, I found out she knew how to do this as well. It looks like Mom taught Dad this trick.

When a person practices the projection game, eventually they discover that people are unconsciously projecting all the time. In restaurants, or elevators or pretty much anywhere you can pick up on these unconscious projections. People in the church need to understand this. Not all spiritual information is because the clouds opened up and God spoke to them. It is often a projection of a desire that is transmitted like a radio transmission. The psychic and the prophet can both pick up on these signals. Prophetic people need to understand the difference between hearing from God and simply picking up unconscious projections.

Another big problem with this is that when a person is told something that they think, “Only God would know”; they have to test those spirits. Maybe they were projecting an unconscious desire and the prophet ran away with it. I have seen many people with gifting in words of knowledge but their prophecies did not come to pass.

Telepathic projection is something we do all the time knowingly or unknowingly. Some have taken the time to learn how to use it. It is misunderstood and underutilized.

I have also seen unsaved people predict the future accurately. This is referred to as the spirit of divination. It is warned against heavily in scripture.

Act 16:16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

In this preceding verse, we see the damsel had a spirit (pneuma) of divination (G4436) which is a Python spirit. Sound familiar? Like the serpent that predicted how things would turn out if a certain woman convinced her husband to eat a certain fruit?

Notice the damsel in Acts 16 had brought them financial gain by predicting the future. I don’t want to delve deeply into why, because that is outside the scope of this book, but there it is. Just remember that even the heathen can get it right at times.

Dad would also practice things like moving a toothpick floating on water with his mind. This of course peaked my interest in telekinesis and the poltergeist phenomena. Moving a toothpick around in a teacup is one thing, but it is very different from walking on water by faith like Peter did.

I am sure Dad was just itching to get to those “greater works than these” (John 14:12) that Jesus promised in scripture. He was on the coat tails of something big. He didn’t want to look like a lunatic to me or anyone else so he kept a major portion of his thoughts secret. Only after I was really saved did he open up more on his thoughts and revelations.

I’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOUR CALL

Many times in my life, I have fallen into trances without warning. Now that I am saved, it is even a bigger ordeal. They are more pronounced now. More distinct. I believe it has to do with my relationship with God. It also has to do with being sensitive to the spirit and a bit of experience.

The day was May 11th 1983.

It was a day like any other day. I was getting ready to graduate from high school and was excited about my future. I had so many possible avenues to take in my life. I was very studious. I loved so many different things. I loved science, math, acting, music, girls and all sorts of stuff!

This may sound strange, but I had a bathroom revelation. When I say that, I mean something supernatural was revealed to me while I was in the bathroom. Don’t worry; I was just blow-drying my hair! I cannot tell you how many times in my life that I have had things revealed to me in the bathroom.

I don’t know why, I think it has something to do with a pattern interrupt. Something that interrupts your thought pattern just enough to shut off your conscious monologue for enough time to be open to the things of the spirit. People are too caught up in their internal monologues and selfishness to be sensitive to the spirit.

On this particular morning, I was blow-drying my hair, and I went into a trance as I was looking at myself in the mirror. Mom was communicating with me.

It was the same feeling I had as a small child when I knew she was getting something across to me without words. When I was a child, the telepathic connection was initiated with a look. There was usually eye contact before I tuned into her thoughts.

This feeling hit me very strongly. I froze and turned off the dryer without moving it away from my head. I said aloud “Mom is going to call me today”. This trance like state lasted about 5 seconds before it subsided. I expect she was getting ready for work in California and she either consciously projected that to me or I simply picked it up because it was regarding me. It is like two tuning forks resonating across the room from each other because they are at the same pitch. The frequency happens to match so the other tuning fork picks up the vibration. I know, it sounds so New Age, but there it is. These things happen.

Things like this even happened in the Old Testament. The King of Syria wanted to do battle with the king of Israel but the King of Israel kept evading him. The king of Syria thought there was a traitor in his midst.

2Ki 6:11-12 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? (12) And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.

Elisha, which was a prophet of God, kept warning the king of Israel what the king of Syria was going to do or where he was going to be. This is because Elisha, which was several hundred miles away, could actually discern the thoughts or even hear the speech of the king of Syria in his bedchamber.

I wonder if Elijah taught Elisha his own version of the projection game. Elisha was doing some spying in the spirit for the nation of Israel by listening and picking up the thoughts of the king of Syria.

Not so New Age sounding now is it?

Moving on….

I knew my mom had communicated with me somehow and I knew she was going to call. I also knew the call was going to be that day.

I went about my school day just like normal. I thought that Mom would probably call when I got home. Right when I walked in the door, the phone rang and I don’t remember who answered it. It was either Mema or Dedad. They were on either side of the phone. I could tell by looking at them that they knew something significant was happening.

They looked at me while talking with the operator over the speaker. Back in those days, there were ‘person to person’ calls. It was because making long distance calls back then was expensive and people didn't want to pay if the wrong person answered the phone.

Dedad was looking at me as he said, “It’s a person to person call for you”. I knew when I walked in the door who it was. I had been expecting the call all day. My heart picked up a few beats and I remember feeling anxious. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I felt this was going to be a life-changing event. I took the four or five steps toward the phone as Dedad handed it to me and put the receiver up to my ear. The operator asked me if I was indeed Conrad and I confirmed.

Then the voice came. “Conrad. This is your mother”.

The very first thing I said was “I have been expecting your call”.

I recognized her voice as the same exact voice I had know 16 years earlier when she divorced dad. I also recognized it as the voice that kidnapped me when I was five.

This was an exhilarating moment for me to say the least. I remember trying to be at the top of my game. I didn’t want her to think I was dumb. For some reason that was important to me. Mom was smart. I heard a few things about her. Like how she used to be in MENSA and she could beat Dad at chess while eating a sandwich and watching television. I knew she was smart. That is pretty much all I knew about her.

None of my family ever said a disparaging word about Mom. Not even Dad. They just said that someday I may see her again and all my questions will be answered.

Because of the whole kidnapping thing, she wasn’t allowed to come back to the state of Texas. I am not aware of any court proceedings or anything like that. I just know that there were some legal proceedings and she wasn’t allowed to come to Texas.

Mom and I had several phone calls and we decided to meet on June 11th 1983, so that it would be an easy date to remember. One month after the initial phone call.

I could tell when she was thinking about me. It was the same feeling I had when I was a two year old. The feeling was so strong it would stop me in my tracks. It was as if someone slapped me in the spirit. If I was doing ANYTHING, I could tell exactly when she was thinking about me.

I couldn’t always tell what she was thinking. However, I always knew when she was thinking about me. Therefore, we decided to write down the times of day that we would think about each other and compare them on our nightly phone calls. This was 100% accurate. It was unmistakable. I can’t emphasize this enough. Imagine going about your daily activities and then someone throwing a bucket of cold water on you. That is how unmistakable it was.

Mom then endeavored to expose me to the things of the supernatural.

A COUPLE OF PSYCHICS

Christians are warned against seeing mediums and psychics but I wasn’t using the bible as my source of authority as a young man. I was into the supernatural and the New Age movement. The New Age movement is snatching up potential Christians because most of the church shuns all things supernatural. The New Age is only too eager to provide answers.

Mom’s New Age inclinations meant she dabbled with divination. Divination is mentioned often in the bible. Usually to tell us not to do it!

Delving a little deeper into the girl with a spirit of divination.

Act 16:16-19 And it came to pass, as we were going to the place of prayer, that a certain maid having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. (17) The same following after Paul and us cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim unto you the way of salvation. (18) And this she did for many days. But Paul, being sore troubled, turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. (19) But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers,

Clearly we can see that this girl has a spirit of divination. Which in current English means the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.

When I hear this word, I often think of Joseph. He refers to the missing golden cup that he had the Egyptians put in his brother Benjamin’s bag.

Gen 44:15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?

I found it strange that Joseph was a Godly man pretending to be a heathen. He even uses the word ‘divine’.

Divine was somewhat of a problematic word. Isn’t God divine?

In the original Hebrew the word is:

H5172

na^chash

naw-khash'

A primitive root; properly to hiss, that is, whisper a (magic) spell; generally to prognosticate: - X certainly, divine, enchanter, (use) X enchantment, learn by experience, X indeed, diligently observe.

Notice the word ‘hiss’ in there? That reminds me of the serpent in the garden tricking Eve into eating the forbidden fruit.

The word keeps a similar meaning in the New Testament. In the case of the girl with the spirit of divination in the Original Greek it is:

G4436

Puthon

Thayer Definition:

1) in Greek mythology the name of the Pythian serpent or dragon that dwelt in the region of Pytho at the foot of Parnassus in Phocis, and was said to have guarded the oracle at Delphi and been slain by Apollo

2) a spirit of divination

This power appears to come from the devil. I have always been intrigued at how the devil can predict future events. I previously thought that was only God’s department.

God even accuses the false prophets of using divination in later books (See Eze 13:6; Jer 14:14; ) We need to be careful about prophesying. Prophecy is serious business and even prophets in bible times were using the spirit of divination or divining a vision from their own hearts or minds (Jer 14:14; Eze 13:6,7).

Somehow, this damsel in Acts 16 could predict the future fairly accurately. So much so that when Paul cast the spirit of divination out of her, her masters were very upset and ran Paul out of town.

With this in mind, I was always puzzled why one of the psychics I saw actually predicted four events in my life that happened shortly after my meeting with her.

I forget her name but she was very expensive in the early 1980’s. I think I remember paying her about $150 for one session back then. This was big money in the 80’s!!!

To make a long story short she shared with me four things that came to pass shortly. I am only going to share two with you because the other two are too personal.

She said she saw me injuring my knee. She pointed to the exact location. She also told me I was going to have a traffic ticket. No big deal on the traffic ticket. Yes, it shortly came to pass. Yes, twenty year olds drive fast. I was not impressed with that. That could have been a lucky guess.

However, the knee thing cooked my noodle. It came to pass within a month and it was on the exact location on my leg that she indicated.

I was out with some friends and we were going to some person’s house. I don’t remember all the details, but I remember hurting my leg, because it was extremely painful! In Los Angeles, there are many hills. We happened to be parked on a hill with two cars. The car I happened to be in was on the lower part of the hill. My car had a plastic bumper. The car my friend was in was parked just a few feet above and it had a metal bumper. As were leaving this house I happened to be walking in between the two cars. The car above me had a standard transmission. As he stepped on the clutch, it rolled downhill into my car trapping my right leg between the two bumpers.

I was screaming out in pain with my leg trapped. I was worried that my leg was crushed. Thank God, I had a plastic bumper. I went to the emergency room, and my leg turned out to be severely bruised. I could not walk on it for a long time and had to have crutches to get around for a few weeks. It was difficult to say the least. There remains a numb spot where the nerves were deadened from the impact. I am thankful to God that I am okay.

How did the psychic know this weeks ahead of time?

This leads me to a scripture in Deuteronomy.

Deu 13:1-3 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, (2) And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; (3) Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

God had allowed false prophets to test the elect. Just because a psychic or diviner predicts something and it comes to pass, doesn’t mean God is not on the throne. They will say to you that God is not real but their gift is. Serve the god that they worship. Serve the New Age.

Don’t be fooled.

Now for the second psychic. This story is just as remarkable as the first one.

Mom turned me on to this lady as well. This lady, and I forget her name, was an amazing psychic charging $300 for a visit back in the early 80’s. Mom said she was a psychic for Rock Bands and famous people and she thought it would be worth the money.

This was an experience for which I was not prepared. I will never forget it.

Back then there were these portable tape players called ‘Walkman’. They were like mp3 players are now. They were portable and used cassette tape. I had one that would record. I’ve had a habit of recording my thoughts on audio for decades.

I walked into the room with the psychic lady and she asked me what I was holding. I told her a tape recorder. She told that it wouldn’t’ work and that I should take notes instead. I told her I was going to use it anyway. I had never been exposed to psychics killing tape recorders. I thought she was joking or something. I had a legal pad as a back up.

The reading began.

This was one of the most uncomfortable spiritual experiences I can remember. I don’t know how to explain this, but I will do the best I can. During the reading, her voice didn’t sound human. She had a female voice, but it sounded like it was in a tunnel and she was an alien.

Her personality changed so much I suspect she was channeling. Channeling is the act of letting a spirit guide speak through you. She didn’t warn me of this beforehand, but I think it is fairly obvious looking back.

That isn’t the only strange part.

I was sitting in a chair probably ten feet away from this very relaxed, very calm, psychic reader. However, I was anything but calm. As I was sitting in this chair facing her, I felt energy coming into my body and then going out of my body straight to her. It was like a fire hose of my psychic energy traveled straight to her through my solar plexus.

Pro 31:3 Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.

The way this energy was working was as intriguing as it was uncomfortable. Let’s say someone dropped a cross section of cardboard into my head all the way to my bottom as I was sitting on the chair. If you imagine it properly, you will see the front of me on one side of the cardboard and the back of me on the other. Forces were coming in from all directions in the path of that imaginary cardboard on all sides of me. These forces were then exiting through my solar plexus in a concentrated stream like a water hose. It felt as if I was opening my rib cage to this woman and exposing my spiritual guts to her. I sensed that she could see everything.

I am not sure why I didn’t immediately stop the session. I felt like crying or screaming. I was wiggling in my chair trying to stop this from happening all the while giving way to my curiosity. My curiosity was getting the best of me. Besides, I had already given her my money.

During the reading, she had this spooky monotone alien voice, she was telling me stuff like she saw a friend of mine with the initial J, and he was bad news for me. I told her who that was. She also saw some personal things that were more of a psychology problem. I took notes of course. The thing I remember most was that constant energy ripping my spiritual guts out toward this woman. Moreover, yes she pegged the initials of my friends and their problems. She was accurate on past events and problematic relationships but didn’t venture into predicting the future.

After the meeting, Mom and I were driving home and we decided to listen to the tape and compare notes. Talk about eerie. The tape was almost worthless. During the recording, there was this static background noise and the tape would speed up, slow down, and even stop during the recording. It always stopped when someone’s name was mentioned. Not one name made it on the recording. It was the spookiest thing.

I started noticing some interesting changes in Mom’s behavior after that. She would sometimes wake up in the closet screaming. Apparently she would sleep walk into the closet and shut the door. She didn’t know where she was. She told me she was utterly terrified when this happened.

I also remember that Mom grinding her teeth. I never noticed this before. I guess because I had only recently met her. But after seeing these psychics I remember waking up in the night and hearing this terrible grinding noise. I asked her husband what it was, and he said she would grind her teeth in her sleep. It was horrible, you could hear it all over the house. There was no escaping that eerie sound.

I didn’t see psychics after that. I had enough.

THE STARFIRE PRAYER

In Los Angeles, I had a fishing buddy named Donnie. He was tons of fun. We had a lot in common. He was a former lead singer of a heavy metal band, and I played heavy metal guitar. We both loved boats and we loved to fish.

We used to go shark fishing together. We would fish off the Continental Shelf near Marina Del Rey for Mako or Thrasher sharks at least once a week. We would stay out fishing for at least eight hours per time, often longer.

Both of our girl friends dumped us at the same time. Imagine that. I guess they didn’t like us fishing so much. It seemed only fitting that Donnie and I became roomies. I bought a 42-foot Chris Craft Yacht and we named it Freedom. We lived on Freedom. We would often take our house fishing or take it to Catalina Island. We were free to fish all we wanted whenever we didn’t have to work.

Donnie bought a 21-foot StarFire hard shell boat for serious fishing. This was an awesome, fast, durable boat that we would use to shoot up and down the coast. We used to fish on it, of course, but we would also take it to restaurants in Redondo Beach, Long Beach, or any of the nearby marinas. There is something magical about traveling on the ocean and pulling into a marina to have dinner.

This is about one time we were in San Pedro harbor and we almost bought the farm.

San Pedro was not the prettiest place but we had a few friends there. It is where I bought Freedom and where we got it into shape. We had a lot of memories in San Pedro so we would go back often in Donnie’s Starfire to visit.

Donnie really loved his boat. I am not sure, but I think that was his only real possession at that time. He was always working on it or fixing it up somehow. He spent a lot of time on that boat.

One day we were in San Pedro harbor after a day of fishing. San Pedro harbor is where Oil Tankers are going in and out all the time. It is a very dangerous harbor because of this. Oil Tankers are so heavy and huge that it takes a mile or two for them just to stop. Turning them is very difficult as well. When they are in the harbor tugboats are needed to help them maneuver to dock.

The massive propellers on these Oil Tankers causes an incredible churn. I have seen water churn like whirlpools long after the tanker is gone. I have never swam in water that churned like that, but I am sure it would be difficult if a person were caught in it. It would probably feel like you were being flushed down a toilet!

I often heard stories of tankers crashing into boats at sea and the crew never being heard from again. These stories are told with the purpose to warn skippers to always look for tankers. They are quiet, fast, and deadly.

On this beautiful evening in San Pedro, we were in the middle of the harbor and Donnie’s StarFire stops running without warning. Donnie opens the engine hatch and fiddles with the engine for a bit. I kept an eye out for danger. He was the mechanic and I was the lookout.

It was a beautiful evening. A nice breeze. Probably in the low 70’s. A perfect sunset for a perfect day. I remember the Sun setting in the West at the opening of the harbor above the breaker wall. It was magnificent.

Donnie was fiddling with the boat for some time and we were talking about calling the harbor patrol or Sea Tow to tow us. He kept his head buried in the engine compartment and then I noticed it.

I fixed my glance on the setting sun. At first, I didn’t believe it. It was as if my eyes were playing a trick on me. The sun was setting right above the ocean and it appeared to be giving birth to something. It was giving birth to an Oil Tanker! It was headed straight toward us!

Donnie tried starting the engine. Nothing.

Stories began racing through my mind about how oil tankers sink boats and kill people. I knew they couldn’t turn quickly and I knew they couldn’t stop. I told Donnie about the Tanker and he started worrying about the fate of his boat. He didn’t care about himself. He cared about his boat.

We got on the horn with the harbor patrol and told them that the engine was dead. During all of this, the tanker is getting larger and larger. Eventually it blocked out the entire sun.

Donnie fiddled with the motor some more and tried starting the engine. Again. Nothing.

The Coast Guard called us on the VHF and told us to get out of the way. They said they could not get anyone to us in time to tow us out of the way of the tanker. We were going to be hit. They said the best thing to do was to put on life jackets and swim to safety.

Donnie tried starting the engine again. Nothing!

I looked at the tanker closing in quickly; the sun was completely blotted out by this time. We only had a minute or so left. I put on my life Jacket and prepared to swim ashore. Donnie was having none of that. He was only worried about his boat. He took no thought of himself.

He resigned himself to sharing the fate of his boat.

In perilous situations, a person’s thinking speeds up. A person can have a whole hour’s worth of thoughts in about ten seconds! I was thinking the best thing to do was to save my life and swim to shore. If the impact didn’t kill us, those huge propeller swirls may get us. Why risk it?

Then I started thinking about being the coward that left Donnie behind to die with his boat. I am not sure that Donnie would have died, but something bad was certainly about to happen. I then pulled off my life jacket and determined to await the fate with my friend. I didn’t want him to go through whatever was going to happen alone.

For some reason, I felt the serious urge to pray.

They say there are no atheists in foxholes and this was about a close to a foxhole as I have ever been. I thought about the God that I used to talk to as a child. The one Dad and I prayed to while kneeling next to bed. I reached deep down in my memory and prayed to that God. The one I used to know. I prayed right there, in front of Donnie.

Then I had the strangest sensation. I knew the boat would start.

I told Donnie, “Start the engine”.

He said, “It’s no use. It wont’ start”. He just sat there dejected.

I replied, “It will this time, I just know it!”

Donnie started the boat and we fled from the tanker within seconds of it hitting us. It was a very narrow getaway. The type of getaway you see in the movies.

Why did the engine die?

Why wouldn’t it start?

Did the prayer have anything to do with it?

What was the confirmation in my spirit that told me the engine would start?

These are questions I pondered for some time. We never found out what happened to the engine. I started thinking there may be something to that prayer. I reflected on it often.

KINGDOM

EXPERIENCES

BORN TO SEE

You cannot see the things of the kingdom of God without being born again. It is off limits to unbelievers.

Joh 3:3-5 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (4) Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? (5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

While I may have been having supernatural experiences in the soulish dimensions, I was not seeing in the realm of the Kingdom of God. This will mess with people’s theology, because I was water baptized as a teenager in the 80’s. However, my real yearning for God didn’t happen until the 1990’s. At this time, I was slowly being exposed to the things of God. I was changing. My mind was being transformed.

When a seed is planted or when sperm hits a fertile egg time passes. During this time, a new creature is being formed miraculously. One day it finally sees the light of its new environment. It finally sees what it has been drawn too. It ultimately reaches the new environment for which it has been destined.

The supernatural experiences I was having earlier did not cease to exist, but rather I began having experiences in the kingdom of heaven. This is the kingdom where God and His angels are. They are no longer entirely hidden from view.

The veil was dissolving. My eyes were opening.

I knew a drug dealer who was radically saved. He went from dealing drugs one day, to being totally on fire for Christ the next. This got my attention. Something about this man’s radical change intrigued me. He began to share with me some supernatural experiences he had as a Christian. He told me that God heals God still does miracles today.

I have always been suspicious of the preachers on TV and their claims of divine healings. It made me think they were just running a con game to suck up money from elderly people who desperately needed miracles. I had no respect for those people, because I thought they were openly committing fraud and using the name of Jesus to do it.

Seeing the change in this man got me to wondering. How could he go from being a drug dealer to radical Christian? He could think for himself. He could carry on a conversation and he could defend his faith.

1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

I wanted to know more about his Christian faith and he gave me answers.

This is not the first person to come into my life and share the gospel. I have heard the gospel many times. I went to church. I have been exposed to it over and over. However I knew this man. I knew that he was truly changed from sinner to saint. This man got my attention.

It’s funny how God puts people in your life when you are ready for them.

I began to get curious about God after that. The seed was planted in my life and began to germinate. I was becoming a new creature. My thoughts were changing. This was a slow process. It wasn’t an overnight transformation. It was a slow, constant shifting of my belief system from the things of the world to the things of God.

OPEN YOUR EYES

My mind started shifting towards the things of God being real. I picked up the bible and read it periodically. I had a casual curiosity, but there was a battle raging for my soul. During this time I was going through a traumatic series of events.

The bible tells us that we must go through much tribulation to enter into the kingdom of God.

Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

I went through a lot of tribulation. I had serious business problems, and my girlfriend dumped me. I was struggling very hard with the break up. Solutions were not presenting themselves. I was at the point of ending my life.

I remember, having a life that people would literally kill for yet I was willing to throw it away. I had plenty of income, a place on the beach, and pretty much anything I wanted was mine. However, I was depressed. Money doesn’t cure depression.

Fake friends surrounded me. People who only wanted to be near me to see what I could do for them, or what they could get out of me. Even though plenty of people surrounded me, I was alone

One day, I became so desperate, I fell to my knees and I remembered the God that I spoke to as a little boy. The God that answered my prayer for a pony in less than a week when I was a child.

I cried out to this God. I was serious. I was at a point where my life was uncontrollable. I was willing to end things even though I had everything a person could want.

On my knees, I cried out to God. I said, “God, I need to know if you are real and I need to know NOW”.

A voice went off in my head. It was as clear as talking to someone in the living room.

The voice said, “Open your eyes”.

I was astonished, but it was a familiar voice.

Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

I opened my eyes in obedience and my eyes landed on a Super Nintendo instruction booklet that was lying on my coffee table.

Then the voice said, “Read the Instructions”.

I knew that this had nothing to do with learning how to play Nintendo. I instantly knew in my spirit that God wanted me to study and learn His Word.

At that point, my life turned around. I was on fire for God. I voraciously read the bible and studied it for hours each day. I read books about the bible, and just could not get enough information about the things of God.

Then I began to see the Kingdom of God.

THE ACCURSED THING

Jos 6:18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

There are many doctrines in the bible that I don't understand for a while, but when I experience them firsthand, the doctrine becomes tangible. God starts sowing the panorama of scripture into threads of logic that make sense via the Holy Spirit, the Word, and firsthand experience.

I had some very devoted Christian friends. People that were definitely sold out to Jesus. They were walking strongly in the prophetic gifts and I, of course wanted more of that gifting. New doctrines were coming into my reality. I have an issue about new doctrines. If I can’t make a clear-cut line of reasoning from scripture, I will let it simmer on the back burner until later.

Jesus said, "Ask and Ye shall receive" (Matt 7:7). I ask God to explain scriptures and doctrines for me. Sometimes He answers before the question completely comes out of my mouth (Isa 65:24). At times He is silent for years and then brings to my remembrance the question that I asked and provides the answer. Sometimes I have to experience the doctrine by living it out and having an epiphany.

This is about one of those experiences. It is about curses and deliverance. It’s about bringing cursed things into my house and repenting by burning them.

2Th 2:11-12 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (12) That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

There is an interesting thing about believing a lie. People will blindly believe a lie to their own hurt and blissfully keep drinking the poison. Believing the lie is pleasurable. Believing the lie is comfortable. Believing the lie reassures us that we don’t need to repent.

The lie is a veil that must be removed. But, how can a person remove the lie if they believe it?

It takes a leap of faith in the Word of God. It takes daring to believe the word of God over our own faulty logic.

Believing a lie is something that we treasure. We nurture the lie. We feed it. We look for scripture to support it. Thread after reinforced thread, the lie eventually becomes a steel cable stronghold in our imagination.

Here is something that I had a hard time believing until I was through the actual process.

Let me begin with a scriptural backdrop.

Joshua and the children of Israel were ready to take possession of the Promised Land and mow down the enemy. They were very anointed and so close to God that they conquered Jericho with no problem. Jericho was smashed down with ease just as God promised.

However, God gave them a conditional warning before they sacked Jericho.

Jos 6:18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

This warning was fresh on their minds. Nevertheless, one of the Israelites kept the accursed thing. He didn’t value God’s warning. He believed a lie and not the Truth. He exalted his own wisdom over the word of God.

In Joshua chapter 7, we see:

Jos 7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

In the preceding chapter, God had warned them not to acquire the accursed thing. However, one person disobeyed out of the entire nation. One! That is all it took for the entire nation of Israel to fail.

Joshua was not aware of this sin. He thought the Lord was with him and was ready to possess the Promised Land. In the next battle, Israel was soundly defeated. Joshua freaked out! The defeat they experienced did not line up with the promise that God had given. Something was wrong. In a fit of despair he falls on his face beseeching the Lord in prayer.

Here is God's answer to Joshua's prayer:

Jos 7:10-13 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? (11) Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. (12) Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. (13) Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

If you read the entire story, it is an amazing actuality that all of Israel was cursed because of one man's sin. One man kept the accursed thing and the promises of God could not be fulfilled until it was destroyed. God clearly said He would not be with them until this accursed thing was destroyed.

OK... so here is what I was thinking when I first read this. "That is Old Testament! Praise God, I live under the New Covenant!" I was excited that I was redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal 3:13)! I was selfishly manipulating scripture to justify what I wanted over what God wanted.

Carnal reasoning would allow me to keep accursed things in my possession. Things God didn’t want me to keep. See the point?

Israel would not be successful until they got rid of the accursed thing. The whole army of Israel would fail because of the sin of one man in the congregation.

Let's jump to a New Testament Post-Cross illustration of something similar.

Act 19:18-20 Many also of them that had believed came, confessing, and declaring their deeds. (19) And not a few of them that practised magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (20) So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed.

Some sold out believers burned their expensive occult books and then the word of God prevailed... sound familiar?

In both examples they got rid of the accursed things and then the word of God prevailed. Let that sink in.

The word 'believe' has become watered down over the years from its original meaning in the Greek.

The underlying word for 'believed' is:

G4100 pisteuo

pist-yoo'-o

From G4102; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), that is, credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being to Christ): - believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with. (STRONGS)

Notice words like "faith, entrust, commit"... these are not what I think of when I think of the contemporary word 'believe'.

I might say, "I believe it might rain tomorrow".

However, I will not say, "I entrust, commit, or have faith that it will rain tomorrow so much so that I will face a firing squad if it doesn't."

The first illustration has no consequence. If it doesn't rain, no biggie. I didn't entrust, commit, or have faith in it. The second illustration increases the stakes. Faith in God has consequences. This is why we read of martyrs for the faith.

The people in Acts believed in Christ at a time when Christians were being persecuted. They showed their deeds testifying of their belief.

Next lets move to the two letter word "so" in verse 20.

‘So’ mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

Here is the underlying Greek word for ‘so’:

G3779 houto

hoo'-to

Or, before a vowel, houtos hoo'-toce.

From G3778; in this way (referring to what precedes or follows): - after that, after (in) this manner, as, even (so), for all that, like (-wise), no more, on this fashion (-wise), so (in like manner), thus, what. (STRONGS)

Notice that the Strong’s uses phrases like "in this way", “after that”, "In this manner", or "thus"?

In both instances of Acts and Joshua the children of God

1 Believed what God said was true

2 They destroyed the accursed things

3 The Word of God prospered.

Notice before the word of God could prosper the accursed thing had to be destroyed. This is more emphasized in Joshua than it is in Acts, but both accounts are revealing.

I did this bible study and finally realized what I had to do. I had to burn my occult books and my rock and roll music CD’s.

Jos 7:15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

I had an internal conflict in my mind that was fighting this tooth and nail for several days. Constantly repeated threads of lies eventually became a stronghold in my imagination.

2Co 10:4-5 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

My Christian friends were supportive of me. They knew the doctrine and were encouraging me to get rid of all of my New Age books and secular CD's. Not to throw them away but to burn them.

After much struggling, bible study, and prayer, I decided to do it. If God had more for me, I wanted it. I resolved to have a party with my friends and burn the accursed things. I was attempting to recreate the account in Acts by doing it publicly.

These books and CD's cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars. I was struggling with comprehending the doctrine as well. The truth was in scripture right in front of me. The question was whether I would exalt the Word of God over my own desires. There was a dizzying battle going on in my mind.

I rented a cabin outside of Houston with a large fire pit. I bundled up all of my occult New Age books and secular CD's and brought some matches and lighter fluid. We built a huge fire so that the accursed things would be guaranteed to burn. Then everyone left it up to me to throw the books and cd's in. I was the one that had to take responsibility. A person has to repent for themselves.

As I was doing this... something much unexpected happened in the spirit. I noticed that demonic bats left the fire and flew around in swirls as if they did not know where to go. I felt a whirlwind in the spirit. Gravity became questionable. I became dizzy almost to the point of falling down. I also felt a weight lifting in the spirit. In spite of my dizziness, I poured on more books and CD's.

These spiritual black bats or crow looking demons were flying around all over the place as the fire was burning these books and CD’s. I have seen these particular type of demons often. Either they are the most prevalent or the easiest to see.

In Genesis chapter 15 we find that God was entering into a covenant with Abraham. God was speaking to Abraham about his heir and the fate of the children of Israel.

Gen 15:11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

Birds were trying to destroy the sacrifice that Abraham had offered God. Abraham had to drive them away.

Later we see in the Curses chapter of Deuteronomy that birds will devour the carcasses of the cursed people.

Deu 28:26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

Next we move to Jesus and the ‘Sower of the Word’ parable.

Mar 4:3-4 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: (4) And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Jesus then expounds what these “fowls of the air” represent.

Mar 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

God doesn’t just operate in the physical realm but all of the spiritual realms too. He is not constricted to the things we see with our physical eyes. These demonic birds in this passage represent something in the supernatural dimensions that literally tries to steal the word of God.

I have seen these particular type demons often. I remember this one girl walked into a restaurant and she had so many spirits on her that I couldn’t even see her eyes. These demonic fowls were attached to her and flew all around her as she walked. Only my Christian friends could see them. People in the restaurant were oblivious because they couldn’t see them.

Mat 18:18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

What we do in the physical realm has consequences in the spiritual realm. The curses in Deuteronomy were because of physical actions taken. The accursed thing in Joshua was just an object in the physical realm. The physical eye could inspect it all it wants and not see a curse. You could put it under a microscope, perform barrages of scientific tests, and see absolutely nothing to indicate it was cursed in the physical. In the spirit realm, however, the curse was bound to it. The man that committed the physical act of taking possession of the accursed thing in the physical brought the spiritual curse into the house of Israel.

The physical act of burning the accursed things loosed the spiritual curse from the house of Israel. The physical act of the people in Acts burning their occult books released the spiritual curse that was associated with them. My physical act of burning my ungodly music CD’s and occult books released the bird looking demons into the atmosphere. They had to leave because there was nothing physical for them to be bound to.

During this burning event of burning the accursed things - something else was happening.

Mat 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

There is a saying of a burden being lifted off one’s shoulders. I literally felt a burden being lifted off my back. I felt like I had lost fifty spiritual pounds. It was easier to walk. The depression that I had been going through left. I could think more clearly.

This experience was liberating. The lie had left. The veil was removed. The scales had dropped from my eyes. I could see in the spirit even better!

ANGELS WALKING ON AIR

I have had many supernatural experiences as a Christian. This is one of my favorites to share. I have a friend who witnessed the same event. He was right there beside me when it happened.

Through a series of divine appointments, I met pastor Pat Hodges and shared a word with him privately outside his church. He offered to take me to North Carolina to a Prophetic Conference. He said I needed training in the prophetic and this was the best place that he knew of. This conference was happening shortly so I graciously accepted the offer.

The conference was at Morning Star Ministries in the early 2000’s. I don’t remember the precise year.

I was hearing from God on a level at that time that was blowing my mind. God would give me specific words of knowledge about people and I was seeing in the spirit almost as vividly as watching television.

During this conference, a preacher was speaking. The Spirit of God was leading this particular speaker. He discarded what he was originally going to preach on and let God take over.

We moved into worship after that. I must emphasize that this was a prophetic conference filled with prophetic people. This reminds me of the scripture where Saul was accused of being a prophet because he was in the corporate anointing of the prophets.

1Sa 10:10-11 And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied among them. (11) And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?

When a group of prophetic people get together - supernatural stuff happens. The corporate anointing spills over to other people who may not normally operate in that gift. Moreover, if you operate in the prophetic to begin with - the anointing turns up a notch.

David talks about his cup running over in Psalm 23:5. I believe the overflow of his anointing is spilling over to those near him.

Suddenly during worship, I could see very clearly that angels began walking around about 10 feet above the floor. They were walking in the air. They looked like teenagers in white robes with golden sashes. Many angels were walking around somewhat aimlessly. That intrigued me. They were turning different directions as if they didn’t know where to go. Some angels had large golden pitchers of oil and they were pouring them on select members of the congregation. The people I was with received some of that oil. It was an amazingly powerful experience.

This continued for several minutes.

The disappointing thing about supernatural experiences is that I am often the only one to see things. It gets so frustrating that I don’t even bother to share it with people. People’s first inclination is to not believe me. So I am tight lipped about supernatural experiences. It’s a wonder that I even I wrote this book!

As usual, I thought that I was the only one that saw this angelic event. However, Pat appeared to be in shock. His wife tried to get him to talk, but he remained silent. We went back to the hotel room. He had to be alone for a while. After some time had passed, Pat came and knocked on my door. He said he had been shaken up after what happened at the conference, and I asked him why. He started to explain that he saw angels, and I quickly interrupted him and described the angels as well as the pitchers they were carrying. I also added the fact that they were pouring oil on select members of the congregation. He knew without a doubt that I had seen them too.

I was relieved, because it gets really lonely when no one shares the same experiences as you. This pastor had his eyes opened to see in the Kingdom of God at the same time I did. That was awesome! Finally someone to confirm the same supernatural event. Pat talks about this event even today.

In 2 kings chapter 6 we see that Elisha and his servant were faced with being killed by the enemy. Elisha was calm while his servant was freaking out. The secret that his servant didn’t know was that the angels of the Lord were there. He couldn’t see them. He wasn’t allowed to see the things of the Kingdom of God.

2Ki 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Two people were at the same place at the same time having entirely different perceptions. One saw the kingdom of heaven and the other did not. It was a matter of God allowing spiritual vision. God removed the veil to His kingdom in accordance with Elisha’s prayer.

CASTING OUT A DEMON

I don’t have that many stories of casting demons out of people. This is a recounting of the first time I had the experience. Needless to say, this took me by surprise.

I was leading worship for this small prophetic ministry in Houston. We used to meet in a small Christian coffee shop and have meetings in the up stairs area. I want to reemphasize that the spiritual gifts were really flowing at this point in my life. It was like watching television in the spirit.

During this particular night, we were having personal prayer in the upstairs area. People would want me to pray for them. I was all too happy to do it. Sometimes it gets old. I am very excited about being used by God in this fashion, but the sheep get lazy. They don’t want to seek God for themselves and they begin putting too much emphasis on man. This is a very real problem in prophetic circles.

This one lady would come up to me for prayer. It was scary because she had snakes all over her in the supernatural realm. I would pray for her regardless.

I am not certain why, but demons in the bible were cast out when they would manifest in the physical realm. So when they venture out of their supernatural realm and then began to manifest in the natural that is when they were cast out of people.

Her ancestry was from Jamaica. There had been witchcraft in her family for generations. She told us as much. The gospel seemed occluded or difficult for her. The bible mentions the blinding of the mind.

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Other Christians present saw the snakes too. We made a note to confirm that we were actually seeing this in the spirit.

One day she came up to me for personal prayer. At this point in my life, God would give me visions oftentimes without words to accompany them. I had learned not to interpret what I was seeing. It was better to simply repeat the vision to the person. They would get the message even if I didn’t.

This is one method God uses to communicate with the recipient without letting me know what is going on. I have no idea what is taking place even though I am the person relaying the information. I feel silly sometimes describing the cartoon. I have done it so many times and people would ask me “how did you know?” as if I knew some deep dark secret when in reality, I was just watching TV in the spirit. I was merely telling them what was on the screen.

As I was praying in the spirit for this woman, I saw a bright sky with sunlight shining over a barn and a farm. Then I saw a black cloud purposely come between the sun and the farm. At the time I saw the black cloud block out the sun and relayed this to her, a demon began to manifest. It was as if I shined a light on a rattle snake! I found where it was hiding and it was mad!

She had this surprised look in her eyes and began to act strangely. A demon was manifesting. That causes people to act strangely! At first, I didn’t know what to do. I remember being surprised. This was the first time that had happened to me!

Then the Lord told me to remember my training - I had ‘read the instructions’. I verbally commanded it to leave. As I cast it out in the Name of Jesus, she began to vomit green slime into a Kleenex and then into a plastic trashcan.

She was soon ok….

That is something I will never forget.

THE TRESPASSING DEMON

As the years have gone by, I have had many encounters with demons or negative spirits of some kind or another. I have had them knock CD’s off my desk and after I put them up, they knocked them down again. At first, I thought that maybe the CD’s fell for no reason in particular but then I watched them get pushed off the desk and said to myself - “that’s a demon”. Then I would tell it to leave. This is often referred to as poltergeist. Unbelievers don’t know how to handle these situations. In simple terms, they don’t have the authority.

Jesus said that only believers would cast out demons.

Mar 16:17 And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues;

I want to point out that Jesus specifically says demons and not principalities. I am not a demon chaser. My time is better spent doing other things. Some people are so caught up in demon chasing that they venture into the area of principalities without authorization. If you are traveling down that road, I want to caution you that Jesus said we would cast out demons, not principalities.

A good book to read on the subject is “Needless Casualties of War” by John Paul Jackson- http://amzn.to/zr5Mf0

This particular encounter blends an out of body experience with casting out a demon. Not too many Christians dare say THAT!

I was living in a house in Spring TX and I had a music worship studio in the home. At this time in my life I was leading worship and writing many worship songs. I would worship God for hours in the studio. Often His presence was so strong that I would sleep in there.

I remember in the studio, God would wake me up and ‘download’ doctrine to me in the mornings. This is difficult to explain, but He would sow together scriptures all across the bible and they would instantly make sense to me.

What can I say? Having a relationship with God is mind blowing.

The devil wasn’t fond of my relationship with God.

Sometimes there would be this relentless knocking in the ceiling. I thought it was an animal at first. However, the knocks were too organized to be a varmint. I would command it to leave in the name of Jesus and it would immediately leave. Unfortunately, it would come back in a few days and start knocking again. Each time I would tell it to leave it would leave.

I didn’t think much of it and I didn’t want it to consume too much of my attention. I had other things going on in my life. This was more of a nuisance than anything.

I had a roommate move in. His name was Kyle. Fortunately, he was an awesome Christian that operates in the prophetic as well, and I told him:

“Dude, ever once in a while you may hear a demon knocking around in the ceiling. Just tell it to leave in Jesus Name”

After I told him that, I realized that was a sentence you probably wouldn’t say to too many people. Kyle was cool with it and there never was a problem.

A few months pass and Kyle moved out. Something strange happened not too long after. After all those out of body experiences growing up I am very sensitive to evil, even when I am asleep. The human body may need sleep but the spirit of a person never sleeps.

One night I was sleeping in my bed. I sensed an evil presence. This type of situation had occurred several times in my life. It came to a point where I would either sleep through it or deal with it. I had to determine the threat level. Was this a demonic mosquito or a raging lion? A person can sleep through a mosquito attack and just be annoyed for a little bit. This presence was evil and powerful enough to wake up and deal with it. Plus, I was curious too. It had a unique signature. A strong signature of evil.

While this entity was trespassing my domain, my spirit man was communing with my soul man assessing the threat level. Scripture addresses this.

Psa 4:4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

Another one:

Psa 77:6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.

Recall that God said let ‘us’ make man:

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

The ‘God’ here is Elohim, which is a plural form for God. God made us in His image so we are in His likeness. He had an intrapersonal conversation within Himself before He made man. This is one of the ways we think of the Trinity.

Paul talks about body, soul, and spirit. We have Intrapersonal conversations within ourselves too. Examples are strewn across the bible.

My inner spirit was alerting my conscious man to get up and do something about this evil presence. Lazy me, I was just determining if it was serious enough or not. As I was coming too, I began realizing that this was a serious problem. This was an evil that needed to be dealt with - now.

I rolled out of bed to deal with the situation. The only problem is that I rolled out of my body. I realized I was out of my body but almost fully conscious. It had been a long time since I had been out of my body. I thought it was fun. I remember thinking I would quickly deal with the demon and then do some soul traveling like in the old days.

I threw my spirit arm down in a motion like one would command a dog to sit. I realized that I could not talk because I was out of my body. The demon didn’t react to my spiritual gesture. The sword of the spirit is the Word of God (Eph 6:17). Apparently, I needed to tell it to leave with my voice.

I started floating toward the kitchen. The focal part of the evil was there. There was evil all around, but the focal point where it was the most intense was in the kitchen.

As I floated into the kitchen, in the spirit I saw a black cat. Yep... a spiritual black cat. It was a little creature with a lot of evil packed into it. This cat would not make a good house pet.

Witches will often astral project and appear in the supernatural realm as a black cat. This could have been a witch coming against the ministry in the form of a black cat. Maybe they were trying to scare me.

It was not facing me. It was facing toward my worship studio. The Worship Studio was it’s focus. I t couldn’t look at me. It just sat there gazing toward the studio. I could tell that it was frustrated that it could not venture any closer to the studio.

When out of my body if I find myself becoming conscious, just like in a nightmare, I will wake up.

The etymology of nightmare is interesting.

late 13c., "an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus," from O.E. mare "incubus," from mera, mære, from P.Gmc. *maron "goblin," from PIE *mora- "incubus," from base *mer- "to rub away, harm, seize" (cf. first element in O.Ir. Morrigain "demoness of the corpses," lit. "queen of the nightmare,

here’s the link: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=nightmare

This makes sense because my original experience was from a demon trying to suffocate me in the night. The suffocation inadvertently serves to wake a person up.

I was so intrigued with this demonic black cat, that I lost track of what my physical body was doing. Maybe something was going on with my body, that I was not aware of. I don’t remember exactly how I snapped back into my body, but it was immediate. Something prodded this quick snap into the physical reality. I jumped up immediately to do battle. I commanded the evil to leave and it left.

In situations like these, fear is the enemy. Fear is the opposite of faith. I may talk real bravado like I am some super Christian. But I have learned through experience that fear really is the enemy. Fear is an emotion one cannot afford to let in.

If you have these encounters, whatever you do, do not be afraid. The bible tells us something around 365 times to “fear not”. If you are afraid, it displays that deep down you don’t believe God’s word. Fear is a function of doubt. I know that sounds harsh and I may not be articulating it correctly, but gird yourself with Truth like Ephesians 6 says. Take comfort and solace in the Word. The Sword of the spirit is the Word of God. Do battle with the word and don’t be a coward (Rev 21:8). Know that you have authority as a believer and God’s Word works!

I know as I write this I may sound arrogantly brave. However, I am just trying to get a point across. Be brave, and Stand on the Word. Demons have to leave. You will be surprised at how quickly they leave too. Once you do it a few times, the fear subsides…. It takes experience.

THE CANNON BALL VISION

Remember the conference where I saw the angels walking about ten feet above the ground? That wasn’t the only thing that happened at the conference. There was so much happening in the spirit it blew my mind, and I was accustomed to the supernatural. That conference was chocked full of supernatural activity.

This happened in the very first meeting at the conference.

Pastor Pat and I walked into this conference and we took our seats. There was some person speaking, but as soon as I sat down the Lord started speaking to me so loudly that I couldn’t even hear the speaker. God’s spiritual voice actually drowned out what the speaker was saying! Wow!

The spirit of God conveyed “They are going to break you into groups of threes. I am going to put you together with the man in front of you and I want you to tell him this”.

I was freaking out that I was hearing from the Lord this clearly.

He then shows me a vision of a car with headlights on going down a two-lane highway. The car keeps trying to pass a car in front of it but is too afraid to make the move.

As soon as the vision stopped - and I mean precisely when the vision stopped the speaker said “Ok now get into groups of three and prophesy over each other”. My mouth dropped, of course. Just as God said, I was to prophesy over the man He said I would.

At that moment, I knew the prophetic was definitely for me. I had found my calling! Before this moment, I was thinking that I was a guy that heard from God ever once in a while. This increased corporate anointing really got me hooked on all things prophetic. I am grateful that Pat invited me to the conference!

I told this guy the vision that I was supposed to. While I was doing this, a much stronger vision came in and dominated. I saw the vision, but I knew that it wasn’t for the man I was prophesying too. The impression was so strong that I said, “I don’t think this is for you, but I am seeing this so I will share it with you anyways”.

I was given a very clear vision of a silver cannonball being spiritually lobbed into a camp of small green plastic army men - the kind kids play with. This cannonball demolished the army men. I told him the vision, but there was a tugging that it was not for him.

The conference went on and it was awesome. Seeing in the spirit really ramped up for me. The visions were extremely vivid during this corporate anointing. Walking after the spirit can be addicting.

1Co 16:15 I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)

The things of God are so amazing you get addicted. There is no greater place to be. It puts my New Age experiences to shame.

We came back for night two. The spirit led me back to the same seats we sat the night before. I was drawn to those seats in particular. I was brought to the seat of the person I prophesied to the night before and there was a woman seated there. She had a nametag.

Her last name was CANNON!

I freaked! Instead of saying anything, I ran back to the pastor Hodges and told him. He said to definitely go over there and reveal to her the vision.

I ran back over to her. I said, “Excuse me” as she was talking to a couple of her friends. I was so excited that I wasn’t aware of my being rude. She looked at me and then looked away like I was weird or something.

I said, “Excuse me!” two more times! Finally, she looked at me.

I went on to say that I had the vision the night before and that I knew it wasn’t for the person I gave it too. I told her about the cannonball vision and how it demolished the army men. She looked at me with a blank stare and curtly said “thank you” and dismissed me. I felt like an idiot.

I was devastated. Why did God give me this vision? Why did she reject me?

It is our job to deliver the word. We are not supposed to get the glory. God gets the glory. If we fall into pride, we may end up like Paul did when he was getting puffed up about the abundance of his revelations.

2Co 12:7 And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch.

Yes, God even gave an apostle a messenger of Satan to keep his pride in check.

Judge yourself that you be not judged.

During night three, I am chatting with Pat against the far wall, and this lady is yelling my name all across the room. She is yelling “Conrad! Conrad! CONRAD!”

I started thinking “What girl did I mistreat in North Carolina? I have never been here in my life!” I was having a heavy metal band flashback from the 80’s. I had no idea why a strange woman would be running across the auditorium screaming my name. Unless I was in trouble.

Then I noticed who it was running towards me beaming in happiness all the way across the church. Her face was lit up. I knew this was going to be good news.

She began to say that on the way to the conference she prayed desperately to hear from God about her situation. She was at the end of her emotional rope. When I originally gave her the prophecy, she didn’t understand what God was conveying to her. She went home and relayed the vision to her husband who was of course, Mr. Cannon.

Mr. Cannon was in the military. Mr. Cannon also had a nickname in the military. His nickname was “Cannonball”. Mr. Cannon was in litigation with the military. The vision given to her through me was to show them that they were going to be victorious and to not lose hope.

She was beaming with joy. God allowed me to be a conduit… I am grateful.

I learned a lesson. Keep pride in check.

THE CHRISTINA VISION

I used to pray for a long time in the mornings. Often it would only be about 30 minutes, but sometimes it would last for hours.

One facet about prayer, if all a person is doing is just saying words and asking questions, then it is one sided. This is not the ideal way to pray. The bible says we are to be watchful unto prayer!

Col 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

1Pe 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Once a person realizes that we are supposed to watch in the spirit, prayer opens up a new dimension. This should be emphasized in the churches. We pray with our eyes closed so that we can see in the spirit!

If a person doesn’t watch in the spirit, it makes me wonder why they are praying in the first place.

When God made man His original intention was:

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

This was an awesome situation. Man had dominion over everything! The only command that he couldn’t break was eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17). Adam had it made!

In Genesis chapter three we find the serpent is trying to trick Eve into getting Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. He begins his rationale by persuading Eve to question the Word of God. The very first question in the bible is “Hath God said?” in Genesis chapter 3 verse one. One of Satan’s tools of manipulation is to get us to doubt the word of God. Satan sows a seed of doubt and then tells Eve that their eyes will be opened if they eat the fruit.

This sounded delightful to her. She took a bite of the forbidden fruit and persuaded Adam to partake as well. Volumes could be written on this one account.

Gen 3:6-8 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (7) And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (8) And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Notice that when their eyes were opened they saw in the physical realm in a different way than before.

If their eyes were physically closed before this - they were operating out of the spirit entirely without the need of using their physical eyes. This would comparable to the remote viewing done by Jesus when He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree (John 1:48). Jesus didn’t use His physical eyes to see Nathaniel.

If their physical eyes were open before the sin, I submit they saw things spiritually before the fall without the aid of their physical eyes. Similar to astral projection or remote viewing, they were aware of their bodies but not as confined to them as they were after the fall.

When they became acutely aware of being naked their focus was more on their physical bodies than the things of the spirit (Romans 8:5). The focus of their attention was more on their physical bodies. Their souls became a prisoner to their body. There were not as spiritually free as they were before the fall.

Because of this sin, they had to operate off the sweat of their brow. This was a curse pronounced by God for Adam’s disobedience.

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Notice that before this curse and before eating this forbidden fruit that Adam didn’t have to sweat. He was operating in the spirit to meet his needs. This reminds me of Jesus telling Peter where to get a coin out of a fishes mouth to pay taxes.

Mat 17:27 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

Jesus didn’t sweat to get this coin. He was operating out of the spirit in much the same way that Adam did before the fall.

We close our eyes when we pray in order to see in the spirit. Often times when I feel the presence of God in church I will put my hands over my eyes to block out all the light of the room that I can to see in the spirit more clearly.

We are spirit beings that have a body. When the body dies, the soul continues on.

Adam and Eve after the sin, and after the curse, had to operate out of their physical bodies. Then man, all of man, thought and from the same carnal frame of reference. New Testament scripture time and again tells us to walk after the spirit and not after the flesh (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:16)!

I am belaboring this point because seeing in the spirit should be normal for the Christian. Especially in prayer.

One time during my morning prayer I experienced a series of visions. This was a long prayer where I conversed with God. I was listening for words and waiting for visions.

As I slipped deeper into the spirit, I was shown a vision of being next to a stage with Christian Aguilera performing on stage. This was strong and out of the ordinary so I prayed it through.

When God starts communicating in prayer, don’t get up and leave. That is like hanging up the phone while another person is still talking. It is rude. It means you don’t care what the other person has to say. In this instance, it would be ignoring God. Not just ignoring Him, but intentionally walking away from Him (Hebrews 12:25).

God took me to a vision of snow-capped mountains. He also showed me a scene of playing my guitar worshiping in two different places. This prayer took a few hours to pray through.

I was convinced that I was to go to see Christina Aguilera in concert. I had no idea that she was on tour. I didn’t watch TV or listen to the radio, so there is no way I could have known. I didn’t even listen to her music. I went to the computer and discovered she was on tour with Justin Timberlake. She was playing two dates that weekend. One in Reno and the other in Sacramento. Both places were near snow-capped mountains.

I was confused about which place to see her perform. I posed the question to

God and very quickly I heard the spirit say “the place of the kings”. I went back to the internet and found that she was playing at the auditorium where the Sacramento Kings play.

This was awesome! It was sealed. I knew this was God’s will for me. I prayed it through some more but not enough in retrospect.

I thought the airline tickets would be very expensive at the last minute. I had to leave the day I prayed. Christina had a concert in Sacramento the next night. The flight for some reason was extremely cheap. I may even have had enough airline miles to pay for it.

I made it to Sacramento. I remember getting a call from my family asking me to come over. I told them I was in Sacramento and that I couldn’t. I have to convey something here that is very important. When you know without a doubt you are hearing from God, there are going to be people that will try and convince you that you aren’t (Hath God said? Gen 3:1). The best thing to do is to keep it a secret. Jesus revealed God’s plan for the crucifixion to Peter and immediately Satan attempted to thwart it by using Peter (Mark 8:33) which was a close friend!

This is why I told absolutely no one about this God ordained trip. They wouldn’t believe me in the first place, so what is the point? Why give them the opportunity to talk me out of God’s will? That would be allowing the snake into the garden and having a conversation with him. If one talks to the devil long enough they may end up believing him.

I found a hotel, and continued praying. I kept the ‘spirit’ channel open. The ticket office at Sacramento Kings Arena was closed the day I arrived. I had to buy tickets the next day. I continued to pray and rehearse the visions to be sure I was faithful to what I was to do.

On the very day of the concert, I went to Kings Stadium to buy the tickets. I asked for two tickets. For some reason I thought that I would be meeting someone there. Why else would God send me on a trip? However, that is not what God had revealed to me.

The two tickets would be way up in the nosebleed section. I was puzzled. I backed up and prayed for a few seconds right there at the ticket window. The ticket person got a thrill out of that I’m certain.

“How about if I buy just one ticket?” I asked.

The seat was exactly where it was located in the vision. Right next to the runway Christina was going to be performing on. I bought the ticket.

Between the times I purchased the ticket and the concert I went to worship at the park God had originally showed me. I grabbed my guitar and worshipped around quite a few people. Again, I was expecting contact with someone. It didn’t happen. God didn’t show me that I was going to meet anyone. My carnal mind was trying to make sense out of something spiritual.

The carnal mind is at enmity with the things of the spirit. It cannot understand Godly things. The carnal mind actually fights God.

Rom 8:5-7 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Concert time arrived and I was certain that I was going to meet someone or witness to someone. However, let me be clear, God never showed me that. I just assumed it to be the case.

The Black Eyed Peas opened up and I was right next to the stage. The best seat in the house. Then came Christian Aguilera -but she had black hair!

Black hair???? BLACK HAIR???? What???

She dyed her hair jet black! I saw her as a blonde in the vision. But she came right up next to me just like the vision portrayed. I kept expecting angels to come into the auditorium or something. But nothing like that occurred.

Later, I asked God why He did not show me that Christina had black hair. I was brought to the point in Acts where Paul was desperately seeking the will of the Lord. Paul was shown a man from Macedonia in Acts chapter 16 asking for his help. Paul was so zealous that they left immediately to Macedonia.

Paul goes to Macedonia expecting to meet a man. However if you read the encounter, he ends up ministering to women. He then casts a demon out of a woman and then goes to jail. Eventually the jailer gets saved.

God didn’t reveal everything to Paul in that vision for some reason. He didn’t reveal to me that Christina had black hair. I wonder if I would have gone if I had seen her with black hair. I may have doubted the vision and ended the prayer. I don’t know... Would Paul have gone to Macedonia if he was shown a vision of women asking for help? Or that he was going to be thrown in prison? I don’t know.

Justin Timberlake was headlining the event. I was standing there waiting for him to come on stage. I sensed the spirit leave the auditorium and I took that as my cue to leave.

Remember I had two visions of worshipping in two different places? I had only worshipped at one place so far. There was more worshipping to do. I got up the next day and had breakfast at Denny’s. I was wondering where the other place of worship was. I had no idea. It was not coming up in prayer. I felt on my own at this point. The intensity of the visions and the hearing of the spirit was faint compared to my initial instruction period. I was following the spirit on what I would call a baser intuitional prayer level. It was as if the battery was dying in a walkie-talkie!

I knew I had more to do. In addition, it had to be done that day. My flight was leaving the next day. I prayed while I was driving. I received no word or visions. However, a memory floated up from the recesses of my mind.

Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

During this prayer in the car, I had remembered a lady friend of mine that lived in Lake Tahoe, which was a few hours drive away.

I said, "Lord if you want me to stay with this lady, I am going to call her and she is going to actually answer the phone and invite me to stay".

I was being bold with the Lord. I don’t' normally do that, but I was running out of time. I needed to have some direction.

Isa 45:11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

I commanded God! Talk about scary!

I try to do the things of God based on the word of God. Here is a brief scriptural example of this type of prayer.

Abraham needed a wife for his son. He commanded his eldest servant to find daughter form the country Abraham was raised. He sent his servant off on the mission and he ran into a quandary of what to do as he entered his master’s home country. He decided to pray. Interestingly, he dictated to God how he wanted the prayer to be answered.

Gen 24:12-15 And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. (13) Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: (14) And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master. (15) And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

If you read the rest of the story you will find that the prayer is answered immediately and exactly the way Abraham’s servant prayed it. My prayer fell under the same scriptural model.

Back to my prayer for my friend to answer the phone. Normally she never answers the phone. Especially if she doesn't recognize the phone number. I had not talked to her in years. If she answered, it had to be a miracle.

She answered the phone!

She not only answered the phone but she invited me to stay with her that night and gave me the combination to her house! I was floored. I shouldn't have been. God has done several amazing things like that in my life. It never gets old.

The prayer worked out like Abraham’s servant’s prayer.

I went to the address she gave me. She was not going to be home for quite some time. She told me which floor my bedroom was on. Right outside my room was a balcony with the exact same view of where I was to worship! I immediately pulled out my guitar and worshipped the Lord thanking Him for His goodness.

I fellowshipped with her and her granddaughter that night. Her son had recently passed away and we spent quite some time talking about that.

I headed home the next day. It was an awesome time. I don't know why I was supposed to go. Other than I was supposed to worship in those two locations. I made no new contacts. Maybe I had an impact on someone that I never even met. Maybe, the conversation with her and her grand daughter was the mission.. Maybe the ticket salesman was impressed with my answered prayer. I don’t know.

THE Da Vinci CODE

Psa 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

One thing I cannot emphasize enough is the importance of relationship with God.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Often times I find myself trying to do things in my own strength. Trying to work harder to make some money or chase some fruitless endeavor. It’s as if I am pushing against an immovable wall. The times I have thrived best are the times where I have spent more time worshiping God and having the least amount of overhead.

If my overhead is low, then I find myself spending more time with God. When I was living in the room with family members, my overhead was extremely low. I spent more time seeking and worshipping God.

I would worship and write songs. I would go on long prayer walks. I even started a bible study at the urging of some neighbors. The closer I was with God the better things were for me. I was happier. Fulfilled is probably the right word. I loved praying on long walks and recording the fresh revelations God gave me into a voice recorder.

Living in a room had its’ challenges. I am not the world’s greatest roommate. Did I mention it was with my step mom and Grandmother? We did get along, but as a general rule I am not a people person. I am always thinking. I like to be in my head working out stuff. What can I say? Most people find me peculiar.

“The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown (http://amzn.to/ySr6bD) had been out a couple of years, and I was hearing a lot about it. Atheists were handing this book out to their Christian friends for Christmas. It was a book that supposedly put Christianity to death once and for all according to atheists.

I never bothered to read the book but I did watch the movie (http://amzn.to/yYDKxc ). I knew it contained errors. I had a hunger to learn all the refutations of the Da Vinci code that I could find. God gave me a desire to study this subject extensively. I started doing Google searches and found podcasts and sermons from all the apologetics speakers I could find. I was captivated with the subject.

The more I learned the outrageous claims made in the book, the more I was curious as to why people don’t bother to investigate the truth for themselves. Why did people get so upset over a fictional book?

Being cooped up in a small room meant I often had to get out of the house. Fortunately, I had a gym membership. I would go to this gym in Memorial City and hang out. I loved jumping into the sauna and Jacuzzi. Occasionally, I would hit the machines.

One day something supernatural happened.

As I was driving to the gym, it was as if the sky opened up and a school appeared. It was a vision, but it was faint. Simultaneously I was hit with a trancelike impression confirming something important with a school. It was one of those experiences where you know that God is up to something. I continued driving to the gym and pondered the experience.

I spent some time at the gym and as I was going back home, in the same location the same exact thing happened. This was a second witness. I remember a very strong impression about a school.

Often times, God shows me stuff, and after it comes to pass, I would think, “Yeah, God showed me that was going to happen”. Its frustrating, because I might as well be lying. Anyone can make that claim. It happened so often with me and I couldn’t prove it. This is a struggle with the flesh that has to be squashed. God does not tolerate pride. Pride is the sin of the devil.

1Timothy 3:6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

At this point in my Christian walk, I had to tell somebody. I just knew God was going to do something and it had to do with a school. I called my step mom and told her that God was going to have me do something with a school. I was thinking that if I didn’t tell her before hand that when it actually did come up, I would be confronted with an onslaught of unbelief - again.

That afternoon I received a call from a friend in California regarding putting a Montessori school in a church. He would pay my trip and give me a place to stay if I would just talk Christianese to the pastor! Apparently, he needed a translator to improve his chances.

I knew it was of God, so I accepted.

I took my guitar thinking I may need to do some worshipping the few days that I was there. Like the Christina Aguilera trip, I had my spirit tuned in the whole time. What was God’s purpose for this church?

I met the pastor and members of the staff. I kept waiting for some prompt to fall out of the sky cueing the great thing that I was supposed to do for God. Nothing seemed to be happening in the spirit that I was aware of. I kept an open channel for God to reach me at any time. I was ready to be used for His glory at any moment!

The house I was staying at was filled with atheists. Very sweet atheists I might add. They thought I was nuts. They thought I was a poor misguided Christian. Everyone seems to think something is wrong with me! Even now!

I continued waiting for God’s cue, but nothing happened. I was disheartened. It was my last night there, and I felt that I had failed God. I was upset. I tried not to let it show.

You can’t just come out and tell atheists that God sent you to them. Especially that you don’t know why! The atmosphere was bad enough already.

My friend had been talking off and on about a kid that was a math genius. He had a scholarship to an impressive college and was already getting job offers as a teenager. I was impressed but didn’t think much of it.

On the last night of my stay there, the kid came over unannounced to hang out. He was a nice kid. I was expecting a nerd. However, he was a good kid from the looks of it.

During our conversation it came up that I was a Christian.

Then it happened. BAM!

“What about the Da Vinci code?”

At that point, an anointing hit me that brought up the most compelling arguments that I had recently been studying. I remember the atmosphere of the room completely changed. I was there for that conversation.

One thing especially of note. After a few questions their mouths were stopped. They simply listened as I expounded elementary apologetics.

Tit 1:10-11 For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision, (11) whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.

Rom 3:18-19 There is no fear of God before their eyes. (19) Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God:

It is amazing, but there are times where unbelievers cannot speak. They simply listen. This was one of those rare moments. Maybe the arguments were too compelling. Maybe God was working something I wasn’t in tune with. I don’t know. All I know is they didn’t have any rebuttals.

I don’t remember much about that experience except that it had happened.

I don’t know what the fruit of that night actually was. My atheist friend still maintains atheism, however he asks me questions about the bible off and on. I never heard what happened to the smart kid.

I was there for that conversation. A seed must have been planted. I was the willing vessel for that occasion. It isn’t as if I went into a city witnessing to a bunch of people that might kill me.

I was faithful in a little thing and my trip was paid for.

A paid vacation from God? I’ll take it.

Maybe that conversation will result in something awesome to the glory of God.

FUKUSHIMA

In 2011, I had two significant prophetic events. They had to do with the earthquake on March 11th, and the devastation of tornadoes in May which was the worst tornado season in the last 50 years in the United States.

For years I had been seeing 3:11 and 9:11 on the clock. I would often wake up and look at the clock and it would be either 3:11 or 9:11. I would glance at the clock for no reason and it would be 3:11 or 9:11. It was such a strange phenomenon that I started asking other people if they have been seeing the same numbers. A lot of people replied in the affirmative.

This started shortly before the Madrid train bombing that was March 11th, 2004. The explosions killed 191 people and wounded 1,800. I have never really heard from the Lord in this manner. I still do not understand this particular form of communication. They didn’t have clocks in the Old Testament or the new, so I am working without a good biblical reference.

What causes a person to constantly glance at their phone clock, car clock, or wall clock and it frequently being 3:11 or 9:11 ?

Years went by, and I kept seeing both numbers. I was doing some paper work in early March 2011 on my dining room table and I wrote 3/11. Immediately I went into a trance as I wrote it. I sat there staring forward but saw no open vision. I remember feeling my spirit leave my body for a fraction of time and then zip back into my body as my eyes remained wide open. I felt as if my spirit had just witnessed something traumatic but I couldn’t put my finger on what I had just seen. It is as if, I had just witnessed a tragic event, and then I all of the sudden forgot it. I could compare it to waking up from a nightmare, but upon waking forgetting what I had just dreamed. My body was reeling from this quick trance and my head felt dizzy.

I had the distinct impression that something big was going to happen March 11th. It was as if all of the times I had seen the clock say 3-11 meant that something big was going to happen the following March 11th.

This was huge. I knew it. It had been a long time without a major revelation from God and I knew that whatever this was it was going to be big.

I did something unwise. I tried to predict what it was. God was silent on what the event was going to be. He only gave me the date. This reminds me of the time that I kept trying to second-guess God on the whole Christina Aguilera vision. I have learned never to add to or take away from what God gives me.

Being that the first March 11th in 2004 had to do with a major terrorist attack. I thought something similar was going to happen. I suspected another terrorist attack. I started looking up what events were transpiring on March 11th, and there happened to be a Muslim day of rage. I thought that I had pegged it.

I went out on a limb and email blasted my followers that something big was going to happen on March 11th. I was frank that I did not know exactly what it was. I deduced it might have something to do with this Muslim day of rage. The Muslims were going to enact a violent protest.

I called my family members and told them to gas up their cars and to buy food. I had no idea what was coming, but I knew it would be devastating.

March 11th came and Japan had the fourth largest earthquake in history!

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/the-10-biggest-earthquakes-in-recorded-history.htm

Arguably the largest nuclear accident in history as well. Not to forget a devastating Tsunami.

Looking back, I wish I had prayed this through. When I went into the trance, I came out too quickly. I really should have continued with the spirit and worked out what was happening.

Daniel had received a vision that he didn’t understand full of symbolism. Daniel didn’t give up. He sought for the meaning. He persisted in asking God for wisdom and it was given to him by the angel Gabriel.

Dan 8:15-17 And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. (16) And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. (17) So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.

Daniel had the wisdom to seek the answer through earnest prayer. He was given the interpretation by an angel. This vision from God foretold of Alexander the Great’s conquests.

If Daniel had not diligently sought for the meaning, then the symbolism probably would have remained too cryptic for us to really grasp what God was saying. When we get visions, we need to pray it through to the end.

Daniel is a good book to study on seeking answers to spiritual visions.

We often wake up and have dreams and forget them. During the trance that I had, it felt like my spirit had witnessed something traumatic and ‘forgot’ it. Like a dream. Often times when we can’t remember dreams, something will trigger the dream later and then it rushes to our remembrance. Maybe we will see a vase or a painting and then the dream floods our consciousness. The information is somewhere in our spirit. It is our responsibility to commune within ourselves and make diligent search as the psalmist says.

Psa 77:6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.

THE 2011 TORNADOES

I have had several prophecies over the years, but in the year of 2011 I have never seen them come to pass so quickly. Normally, a good amount of time passes between the vision and the event.

I had a clear vision that the stock market would dip down into the 6,000’s years before it happened in 2009. This was a clear-cut vision with a ticker tape running and the DJIA displaying numbers in the 6000’s. At the time I had the vision, the Stock market was way above that by several thousand points. This seemed like an impossibility. I only told a handful of people. Years went by before it came to pass. The people that I told were no longer in my circle of friends.

In May 2011, I was worshiping in my living room. I had a disturbing open vision on May 11th 2011. I saw very black storm clouds on the horizon coming toward me. Out of these black clouds came a rider on a dark horse. He had no face and was wearing a crimson hood and cape. He had a large, long black lance as he was coming toward the earth.

I heard the phrase “a storm is coming” in the spirit and God added:

Rev 18:4 ……..Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Obviously, God was serious about His people coming out of the world system and that there was a storm coming.

What resembles a lance coming out of black clouds? A tornado.

In 2011 America had the worst tornado season in the last 50 years.

I resolved to pray through this and determine more of what the Lord was saying.

He brought me to:

Jer 4:28-30 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it. (29) The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. (30) And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

Notice the parallels in the vision and this scripture? Black clouds? Horsemen? Crimson?

What is fascinating is that Glynda Lomax from WingsOfProphecy.Com, a friend of mine in the Dallas Area had a very similar vision about the same time.

"I was outside and glanced north/slightly northeast from the town where I live in Texas just north of the Dallas area. Suddenly a feeling of black mass destruction coming somewhere to the north or northeast stopped me in my tracks. It was so massive and so deadly all I could do was stand and stare in that direction. It felt like a huge black cloud of death hovering unseen above its intended target."

Glynda's blog article can be found here:

http://wingsofprophecy.blogspot.com/2011/05/destruction-is-coming-to-america.html

It was uncanny that all of the major tornadoes that happened in that month took place North and East of where she was when she had her vision.

After I had the vision, I prophesied this in my home church right before the tornadoes came. I also posted this on my blog. I had a lot of spiritual warfare at that time. The blog post was lost for two days and I had to re-post it on May 13th.

I don’t know why these things happen. It was clear that in 2011 the Lord gave me two advance warnings of significant devastation. The earthquake in Japan and the Tornadoes.

My sloppy handling of the Fukushima warning inspired me to be more vigilant in praying through the tornado vision.

If a person goes into a trance they should spend time to pray it through. Peter was given a vision of God giving the Jews the ability to eat unclean animals in his vision on the tanner’s house. So it would seem at first.

In Acts chapter ten, we find this vision.

Act 10:10-14 and he became hungry, and desired to eat: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance; (11) and he beholdeth the heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth: (12) wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds of the heaven. (13) And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill and eat. (14) But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean.

Peter’s first reaction was to distrust it and retort that he had never eaten anything unclean. This would break with God’s written word. In the same chapter, we can find that the Lord intended for this vision to mean something else very significant. The gospel was to be granted to the gentiles who were considered unclean at that time.

Act 10:28 and he said unto them, Ye yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come unto one of another nation; and yet unto me hath God showed that I should not call any man common or unclean:

Peter came into the house of Cornelius, a gentile, which was unlawful. The Holy Spirit fell upon the uncircumcised Gentiles. The people that were once considered unclean had been made clean by the Lord. He had granted repentance to the gentiles (Acts 11:18)! This event kicked off the preaching of Jesus to the gentiles.

Notice that it was brought to Peter’s remembrance through scripture that the gentiles would receive the gospel. Peter had scriptural evidence that would reveal the meaning of his vision. If careless, he would have at first misinterpreted this to be something about a new diet.

Act 10:43 To him bear all the prophets witness, that through his name every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins.

Some time passed after Peter’s initial vision. He prayed it through and was sensitive to the spirit of God. He also found scriptural evidence to confirm what the vision was really communicating. If Peter had not been diligent in praying this through he may have missed the whole point of repentance being granted to the gentiles.

FLORIDA

I was living in Houston in a nice home with a worship music studio. It had an atrium and plenty of room to stretch. I was leading worship in my home church. Everything seemed to be going great. Life was good.

Maybe it was too good, because God shook things up.

I discovered a radio show of a church in Kendall, Florida. I was captivated at this new treasure I found. A pastor who walked after the spirit and talked about it on air. This is rare. I was intrigued.

I began downloading the archived shows, and delving deep into the teachings this pastor had. It was refreshing to hear a pastor talk about spiritual phenomenon. He had many spiritual experiences and was not afraid to articulate even though what he said went over the radio waves.

About this time a friend of mine had become wealthy in the yacht business. I traded him a sailboat for a clunker car in the early 90’s. He then developed a passion for boating. Life was going well for him and he opened a couple of yacht brokerage firms in California.

I began getting words from people in church about something new coming into my life. Words that indicated my life would take a new direction. About this time, Mark calls me and asks me to run his new Fort Lauderdale Yacht brokerage firm. I was cautious. I knew to be attentive to what God had me to do. I was getting a job offer just 60 miles or so from this pastor that I was listening to in Kendall, Florida.

I prayed it through intensely. I let a lot of time pass while simmering in prayer. Days, even weeks went by. I watched for signs. One time in particular, I was praying about what to do while I was driving. As I looked up, I saw Mark’s last name on a street sign. Talk about a sign from God.

Mark had called me a few times and I still had not given him an answer. I didn’t want to leave my cushy life, but if this was of God then I had no choice. In reality, I was ignoring the signs. God had given me so many signs and I was simply ignoring them. I dreaded moving, starting a new vocation, and leaving my comfy surroundings. It was difficult for me. I was happy where I was.

The spiritual tug became overwhelming. Finally, in a fit of despair, I went to my knees in prayer and gave God an ultimatum.

I said, “God, if you want me to go to Florida, have Mark call me today and ask me one more time”.

It had been a few weeks since I talked to Mark last and I thought he had given up on me.

I got a phone call in less than an hour from Mark extending the offer to me yet another time. I knew I was supposed to go. The confirmations were overwhelming. I kept a list of all the signs that the Lord had given me during this time. The prophetic words and signs that stacked up were unmistakable evidence of God’s will. I kept this piece of paper of evidences to convince myself to get on board with God’s plan.

Then at church, a person unexpectedly comes up and gives me a clock out of the blue. Not just any clock, it had a seagull, a lighthouse, and a captains wheel. I knew that meant it was time to go. Time to go now No more delay.

I knew I would have to explain this to my family. This is never easy. I have learned that if you are convinced God is calling you to do something that people will try very hard to tell you that God doesn’t want you to do it.

(Mark 6:4) But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

Off I went to Florida. I knew on a deep level that my purpose there was not to sell boats. On the more conscious level I fantasized about how God was going to make me wealthy and I was going to use this money to fuel the ministry. Will the flesh ever learn?

My prophetic gifts ramped up quite a bit. More specifically my word of knowledge. I could not seem to turn it off. I would go into a room, and just know stuff about people. Often I would get surprisingly specific words.

As I was loading my new apartment, I noticed a lady across the street staring at my U-Haul trailer. I walked out to meet her and ask her what was going on. She told me she was a Christian and felt led by the spirit to come outside. We talked about Jesus. It was awesome that God had a sister in Christ greet me as I arrived (Acts 28:14). We talked off and on during my stay about Jesus. She would encourage me often and I would encourage her as well.

I fantasized that God was going to use me as a super duper salesperson and I was going to make boat loads of money. It turns out that particular year was the worst hurricane season Florida had seen in decades.

According to wikipedia:

“The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history, shattering numerous records. “

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Atlantic_hurricane_season

It is challenging to sell yachts when your business is repeatedly bombarded by hurricanes. Life was miserable. Why would God send me to Florida to sell boats during the worst hurricane season in history? He didn’t send me there to sell boats. He sent me there to minister.

One mistake I made was trying to witness too much. I know that sounds silly. I was trying to force God’s will to happen. I thought by telling people about Jesus that somehow God’s will would just miraculously happen. One can’t force God’s will.

I was showing a boat to a couple and they finagled the situation to where I had to buy them dinner. Buying dinner was just one of the things brokers do. Yacht salesmen schmooze their clients in order to learn their buying triggers. These people just wanted to look at boats all day and get a free meal. I started to not like the job after a few of those experiences.

After they left, God illuminated a man sitting by himself. He was lit up in the spirit. It was as if a spiritual mouse pointer was over this person’s head. God wanted me to go talk to that man. He was struggling with believing God and specifically had a problem with the books Paul wrote in the New Testament.

I walked up to him, and started a conversation. I asked if he was a Christian, and he indicated that he was struggling with his faith. He had been in prison and read the New Testament over and over, but couldn’t reconcile Paul’s writings with the rest of the New Testament. That blew me away of course. We discussed his concerns at length. As he left, he still held the same position as when I introduced myself, but we both left that conversation knowing more about Paul’s teachings than when we first sat down.

During my time in Florida, I had many words of knowledge for people. Words of knowledge are different than prophesying. The gift is from the Lord, but the information gleaned may simply be emanating from the person. It isn’t necessarily God telling you something about the person.

I would frequently sit in the sauna and exercise the word of knowledge gift. People would come and sit down, and keep silent. In the spirit realm, they would unconsciously project things about themselves. I remember one time that I was in the sauna and I perceived that a man had a Las Vegas experience on his mind. I spoke up and mentioned something about the heat in Vegas compared to the sauna. He mentioned that he traveled to Vegas once a month and just got back. This can be an icebreaker for a conversation and a powerful witnessing tool.

Here is a scriptural example of a powerful word of knowledge.

Joh 4:18-19 for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this hast thou said truly. (19) The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

The woman at the well perceived that Jesus was a prophet, when actually He was probably using the word of knowledge gift. Yes, Jesus was a prophet but at that time He was not forth telling a future event so much as giving the woman past information about herself.

She was so excited about this word of knowledge that she ran off and saved the whole town. The word of knowledge gift is powerful in this example - it brought salvation to an entire town. I was very impressed by this.

I was so intrigued with this story that I would often pray earnestly do more with five words than people do in a lifetime. That may sound like a strange thing to pray. I sensed the spirit was leading me to pray it however, so I kept at it.

This prayer was actually a conflation of the preceding scripture where Jesus mentioned she had five husbands and this next verse.

1Co 14:19 howbeit in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

Those precepts meshed together in my spirit. I was compelled to pray daily that I would do something significant with five words.

While I was still in Florida, I was depressed because the hurricanes were devastating my chances of selling boats. I engaged in fervent prayer. God reminded me of the pastor in Kendall Florida. I decided to go check it out. They had night services. Awesome!

I was very nervous. In my spirit, I knew I was supposed to go to this church. I also had this strange sensation that I was going to be embarrassed. I had a sick stomach and everything. A battle was raging in the spirit. It was very traumatic just to get into that church. On the day I finally went, I waited outside and prayed in the parking lot for a long time. I knew something amazing was going to happen. This is at least one of the reasons I was in Florida.

I was so nervous that I decided to sit on the back row. I tried to hide and be as quiet as possible. However, God wasn’t having that. The pastor’s wife ran all the way from the front of the church to the back row to meet me.

Did I mention I was nervous?

I told her that I was a worshipper and we discussed spirit led worship for a while. I think that spirit led worship may have been new to her. We also discussed dream interpretation. I was amazed because we got into an in depth conversation right there in church before the service started. She went out of her way to make me feel comfortable.

This isn’t the only church where the Pastor’s wife runs all the way to the back row to introduce themselves to me. This has happened at least three times at three different churches. You cannot hide from God - ask Jonah.

The pastor had an intellectual understanding of the bible that was impressive. It was obvious that his church was getting their feet wet in the things of the spirit. Pastor was telling them about spiritual things, and they were somewhat willing to go there, but they needed more encouragement.

I left, and came back again the following week. I tried to hide in the back row again. People were being friendly and beckoned that I move up a few rows. I was more comfortable - until the end of the service.

At the end of the service the pastor requested that we beak off into groups of four and give each other “words of encouragement”. I almost fell over. He was encouraging them to use their spiritual gifts, but calling it ‘words of encouragement’. He was obviously leading the spiritual horse to water.

My group began encouraging me one by one, and then it was my turn to encourage them. I was flowing heavily in the spiritual gifts, so I went completely out on a faith limb (Romans 12:6) and told them what I was getting for them spiritually. I knew what the pastor was doing. I went the whole mile instead of taking baby steps. The beans were spilled. I had given words of knowledge to complete strangers. Oops!

I came back a few weeks later anxiously anticipating what was going on in church. I was following the pastors teaching on a series called “Quantum Christianity” Intriguing…. It was a good teaching. However, something was churning deep within my spirit. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I sat a few rows from the front this time. I had a nice chat with the pastor’s wife again. I felt comfortable finally - until the end of the service.

The people that I had given the words of knowledge to earlier were on a mission. They were determined to introduce me to the pastor. It was the end of the service and pastor was under the anointing praying for people up front. I didn’t want to meet the pastor. I just wanted to hide in the pews. I told them no, that it wasn’t necessary for me to meet the pastor. However, they insisted that I did. They actually grabbed me and pulled me up out of the pew. I was so embarrassed. They literally pulled me up to the front to meet the pastor. I wasn’t fighting like a stubborn mule, but if you were watching, you could tell that I didn’t want to go!

They dragged me up to pastor and he asked me what I wanted prayer for. At that moment, the anointing was so strong that I could feel it.

Sometimes when I am next to a person under the anointing, I can feel moisture or a temperature change. This is a sensation that I am aware of in the flesh. It is something I sense spiritually and somehow it manifests in the flesh.

As I got close to the pastor and he asked me what I wanted prayer for, I totally sensed the anointing. I was wading in it as if I was in the shallow end of a swimming pool. I knew this was going to be a powerful moment.

Silly me. I used the word “Dude” in this very Holy Moment! LOL

I said “Dude, tell me about quantum Christianity” I actually said ‘dude’. I could have kicked myself. I was nervous. Then we both fell even deeper into the spirit. The conversation took on a completely new level. A level where words are spoken but something on a much deeper spiritual level is taking place. Deep is calling unto deep (Psalm 42:7).

I remember hearing, “yada, yada, yada, yada, - your brain”. I immediately became conscious and interrupted him.

I said, “Your brain or your mind?”

This question threw him for a loop. A spiritual connection was made. In his teachings, he was putting a lot of emphasis on the human brain when it was really the mind he was referring to.

He had made many trips to India where they study the things of the mind and the supernatural. The Asian and Eastern cultures know that the mind is separate and independent of the brain.

His eyes, started spinning - literally. Something huge was happening to this preacher at that very moment.

Some time passed and I found that he had changed his position on the brain. In one of his sermons, he looked at me while he was talking about his stance on the human brain and said, “At best the brain is a repository for storing information.”

This may not seem like a big deal, but it is a very important teaching. If we think that we are our physical bodies, we will value our bodies too much and neglect our soul. We will begin to think of ourselves as our bodies which are temporary and not our souls which are eternal. This thinking tends to make people walk after the things of the flesh, because they believe they are flesh and not spirit. In reality we are spiritual beings that have bodies.

Our physical bodies are referred to as temples or tents.

The ESV even uses the word ‘tent’

2Co 5:4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

After the many hurricanes, politics in the boat business, and the increased warfare in my life, I became depressed. I was worn out.

I was directly hit by three hurricanes that year but several more affected my business. Hurricane Wilma almost killed me and wrecked my apartment. I remember after hurricane Wilma that I had lost my desire to stay in Florida. I didn’t know what God wanted from me, and I was ready to throw in the towel. I didn’t know what throwing in the towel meant. Maybe it meant giving up on ministry. To be honest, I just wanted the pummeling to stop.

I got a call to live in a room with family in Texas. I don’t know if I heard in the spirit or not. I immediately thought of Elisha the prophet having a room in someone’s house (2 Kings 4:10), and I quickly gave in. Funny thing was, I couldn’t move until the electricity came back on where my storage unit was. This was about two weeks after hurricane Wilma. My life was running on fumes.

A few months had gone by, and I felt resentment toward God. People in Texas thought it was not God’s will for me to go to Florida in the first place. This is because of all the turmoil I had experienced. I had lost a lot in leaving.

I decided to get on my knees, seek God, and give Him a chance to explain Himself. I cried and pleaded “Lord, why did you send me to Florida”

The voice came. “Five Words”.

He brought to my remembrance the time I prayed daily to do more with five words than most people do with their entire lives. It felt like an arrogant prayer, but I was compelled to pray it… I can’t explain it. It was beyond my comprehension.

I said “Five Words? What five words Lord?”

The reply was “Your brain or your mind”.

God did it again. I realized that this man with a large ministry received five words from my mouth that changed his doctrine, therefore affecting many on their knowledge of the supernatural things of God. This man’s teaching went out over the airwaves. Five words made an impact.

I had an exciting time for Jesus when I was in Florida. When I was doing the work of God, it brought joy.

I learned to be more careful about what I pray for. Answered prayers often come with a price.

Well… I made it back to Houston…. And life went on…….

DISCOVERING INIQUITY

Lam 2:14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

I used to go to this church for their Friday night services. They had a soaking night. Believers would come together and worship God and soak in His presence for several hours. Then we would go to IHOP and talk about it until the wee hours in the morning.

The pastor would often speak but we would mainly soak in the spirit and let the Spirit of God move. Visions and revelations were plentiful. Everyone was flowing in the spirit. It was an awesome experience.

My memories are both vivid and hazy from these meetings. In a spiritual assembly with believers, it is easy to go so deeply into the spirit that I would pay no attention to physical reality. After becoming conscious it was as if I had a dream experience. I would be somewhat hazy, but I knew that something took place in the depths of the spirit.

Here is a time that I had a vivid experience. One that is not very flattering.

I remember the room was extremely bright as I was praising the Lord. The lights were augmented with a spiritual illumination. People were all around the wall as well as strewn about in the church. I had just come to from being deep in the spirit oblivious to my surroundings. I woke up to this moment aware of the brightness of the light. I was thanking God for a place to come and encounter His presence.

God decided to show me something. Something shocking.

He deposited the revelation that even though everything appeared fine, it really wasn’t. While this may be an awesome worship experience, there are those with unsavory agendas.

I heard in the spirit, “Behold, I will show you their motivations”.

Immediately a spiritual veil was lifted. I perceived the motivation for everyone being there. Not only that, I perceived iniquities of certain people as well.

I have to use the word ‘perceived’ because I didn’t see or hear anything. I just knew something about everyone in there. Primarily their motivation for being there. Secondarily, iniquities presented themselves in a few people. The iniquities fueled their motivation for being at this particular service.

This is difficult to explain because there is not a human organ counterpart to this perception. With eyes we see, with ears we hear, but what this was, there is no human organ counterpart. This sensation didn’t come in the form of words. It was simply a keen ‘knowing’.

I perceived the most horrible things of certain people’s pasts. Not specific events that had taken place in their lives, but the iniquities that caused these events. Things like molestation, astrology, witchcraft, lust, or pornography. I also discovered that many people came to church for the wrong reasons. I was sickened by what I was learning.

God was showing me something in a different method about the impure motivations of people coming to church. I could best describe it as keen intuition. Its that feeling you get about someone in your gut and you simply know something about them. It was like that but magnified.

I began thinking, “Why do people go to church?”

Many women will go to church to find a good Christian man. However, this man may end up being a wife beater and their marriage may end up in divorce like the secular world. Likewise, a future husband may be looking for a good Christian wife. My point is they are not going there for the right reasons. God was clearly getting His point across.

I struggled with why God showed me the iniquities of some people. I have to say some, and I think this is significant, because not everyone had that emanating from their presence. Iniquity was only prevalent on a few people that I remember. Lust was extremely prevalent. It was very disturbing and very pronounced.

Have you ever been in restaurant where a guy looks across the room at a pretty girl? This observation power was greatly magnified. Some people went to church because someone else was going to be there. The other person was the motivation for going to church and not God. I was shown men or women being there for a person that was on the other side of the room. A line was joining them spiritually. However this line of attraction transcended space. It was as if these two people were joined in the spirit and space was merely an illusion between spirit beings.

Was spiritual adultery happening during the church service?

Mat 5:28 but I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

In addition, provocative clothing was magnified. Why were these people wearing provocative clothes? Was it to please God or to catch someone’s eye?

Scripture talks about proper clothing and the adorning of the heart…

1Pe 3:3-4 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; (4) But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Our dress is important to God. Dressing to catch the eyes of the opposite sex is not pleasing to Him. Especially during a time that is supposed to be dedicated specifically to Him!

I knew I was going to have a tough time explaining this, but we must examine our reasons for going to church. Our motivations are important.

Lam 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD

1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Early in my faith I learned that the Spirit and the Word agree. The Spirit of God will never violate the Word of God.

The elect hear the voice of God.

Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Heb 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

I have always looked at Jesus’ battle in the wilderness In Matthew 4 and Luke 4 from the perspective that the Spirit of God had Jesus quote the written Word. Jesus didn’t make up something new. He used the written Word of God from the Old Testament to defeat Satan.

I made up my mind that if the Spirit and the Word agree and Jesus quoted the written Word to do warfare via the Spirit, then that was good enough for me. Therefore, I only listened to God if He spoke to me using scripture. I had it in my head that God didn’t speak outside of scripture. If any voice in the spirit was saying something that was not scriptural, I ignored it.

God can do this and still get His point across. God wasn’t bound by my carnal limitations. It is amazing the feats God can do if He finds one faithful. God can use scripture to tell a person which can of beans to buy at the store!

These were my early years of my relationship with Jesus. Sometimes He would say something to me that wasn’t scriptural but it didn’t violate the container of scripture either.

I was sitting in bed one night reading. My wife walked out of the bedroom and a voice rang in my spirit, “She’s leaving”. One week later, she told me she didn’t love me anymore. A week after that we were separated, and then she quickly divorced me saying there was absolutely no chance of reconciliation.

One could make the argument that maybe that was not the voice of God I heard. I was disturbed with my personal life at that time, and I never resolved that debate. The fact was that she left me, just like the voice said she would.

I continued only listening to the voice of God if He used scripture. This went on for a couple of years more until one specific moment in time.

I was on an outreach with Bread of Life Church in Houston Texas. I remember that day was hot, and we ministered in what pastor Kemp called the Crop Circle. It was a circle of in the middle of a lower class part of town. We set up shop there with music, fun and games, and shared the word of God with the people that came by for the festivities.

I remember that day was overwhelmingly hot. Finally, the day was dwindling down and it was time to pack up and go to the home church. Many commitments were made that day. Thank God! It would have not been very fulfilling to work in that heat for no one to repent towards God!

I needed a restroom break. The bathrooms were at the back part of the sanctuary and there is a wall between the bathrooms and the back row of the auditorium. This wall spanned a good distance intentionally to obstruct the view of the sanctuary. To the left and right were openings that exited directly into the sanctuary.

I was coming out of the bathroom and noticed that Robert, a friend of mine, was coming into the hallway. He was still in the sanctuary not quite entering into the bathroom hallway yet.

I irreverently yelled “Hey Robert! What’s up dude?”

Robert put his finger up to his lips and whispered quietly “shhhhhh”

Robert was visibly shaken and I suspected another holy moment was about to happen! I walked over to where Robert was in the sanctuary.

Then it hit me. God was there. His presence was so thick it was unmistakable - and frightening! I was experiencing the majestic nature of God. I was also experiencing the fear of God. His presence was wonderful yet terrifying.

Here we were in a dark sanctuary. The lights were off. It was just me and Robert - and GOD! God’s manifest presence was emanating from the pulpit area. Robert appeared paralyzed with indecision. I told him we should go up there and see what we could get from God. He refused. I didn’t blame him. It was a powerfully frightening and yet breathtaking moment.

I resolved to approach His presence. I didn’t care if it killed me. In fact if it killed me that would have been OK. The moment was too awesome to pass up.

I ventured toward the pulpit savoring the fear and proceeding forward in spite of it. I slowly started walking. With each step, I could feel the Power of God getting stronger and stronger. I was getting more fearful the closer I approached. I didn’t make it as far as the pulpit area. I was too freaked out at that point. I made it to the front row. There was a good distance between the front row and the pulpit, however I could not venture any further. I sensed there was a spiritual barrier that indicated that was far enough. If I went further, I don’t know what might have happened.

I had to sit down and bow my head to the ground. I didn’t kneel, even though that seemed appropriate. Something seemed to push me into the front row seat. Even though I didn’t see anything in the physical, I felt unworthy to look up. I knew not to say anything but just wait.

God spoke to me clearly.

“Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which testify of ME”

When He said “Me”! It was a very pronounced yell. The volume on the word ME was very much louder than the rest of the sentence. I knew that Jesus was getting the point across that it was Him speaking.

Something interesting about the scripture. I checked all my bible versions and they didn’t match exactly what God said to me. This may seem trivial but I knew God was teaching me something. I did a search and found that this specific phrase isn’t in a bible version that I know of. It is very close. It is a mixture of different versions of this verse.

Joh 5:39 Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me;

From that moment on, I didn’t give God such a hard time about using scripture to speak to me.

I sat there for quite some time. I don’t remember how long. I didn’t want to leave His presence. Once I got past the fearful part, it turned into something wonderful. I went blank after that. I just remember hearing the phrase and sitting there. I don’t remember leaving or even going home.

FISHBAIT

Mat 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Back in the late 90’s God had given me a vision while I was eating lunch after church in Lake Tahoe. He wanted me to start a band and call it FishBait. I was so excited. I didn’t know how it was going to play out but I knew to keep my ear tuned to the spirit and to watch for signs.

When this started coming together, I was walking deeply in the spirit. I saw demons, had words of knowledge, saw the Glory Cloud, God foretold future events, and the list could go on and on.

He gave me the vision of FISHBAIT while I was still married in Lake Tahoe. Several years went by and I was living in Houston attending Bread of Life church. I decided to go to the school of ministry because I liked the church and I wanted to get more plugged in. The Spirit of God was moving there.

After this one school of ministry meeting a person named Michael came up to me and mentioned something I had said about the demons fearing God and trembling.

Jas 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

We discussed the scripture for a few moments. Something tugged at me to get away. I had the overwhelming urge to leave. I made the excuse to go to the rest room.

What happened next is what is known in prophetic circles as a ‘bathroom revelation’. For some reason, God talks to people while they are in the bathroom. This happens to so many people that it is an incontrovertible phenomenon. I have no idea why this happens. Maybe we are emptying our minds for a few seconds of our own agendas and God has a chance to get through. Maybe not. However, many people get these revelations. Sometimes really huge revelations happen while in the restroom.

Someday I may have to discuss that with God. Maybe He simply has a sense of humor?

Picture this. I was in the bathroom waiting. Several other men were in there.

I was looking in the mirror and I heard: “That’s your guitar player”.

I retorted right back to the mirror in the bathroom with several other people around and said, “I’m the guitar player!”. I yelled this as I was pointing at my chest. I glanced around to see a few people looking at me as if I was nuts.

I had just had an argument with God in the bathroom. I was embarrassed, but I also knew that God was talking about Fishbait. The dream of Fishbait was manifesting in the physical.

The spirit led me to where Michael was sitting. I had this angry feeling in my spirit because actually I am a guitar player, and this was going to be MY band! I don’t know why, but I was angry with God about this. My humility needed some work.

I went up to Michael and said, “God told me you play guitar”

Michael, without missing a beat said, “God is right”.

The way he jovially replied melted my heart and we instantly became good friends. We had so much in common from being in hard rock bands in our pasts to having an amazing passion for the things of God.

One thing that Michael and I knew is that if God put us together He would certainly provide the rest of the band. We gave ourselves to prayer. A lot of prayer.

There was a rehearsal studio run by a Christian less than a mile from the church. I rented a room and we started practicing there.

One of the rules of the room was to pray in and pray out. We often found ourselves just worshipping the Lord or praying for long periods. Praying with other believers is really powerful.

We started learning songs God had given me via the spirit. We had quite a few down, just me and him playing our guitars, singing together.

One day something miraculous happened.

We were praying on our knees in the sprit and Michael had a revelation about a drummer. I don’t know what he saw or what he heard, but he was quite on fire in his prayer. His prayer crescendoed in intensity. Michael was praying for a specific drummer named Ron to come into our presence.

After the prayer I began talking to Michael about Ron and he said that he was an excellent drummer that was in San Antonio as far as he could remember. He wasn’t sure why God led him to pray that way.

Michael steps into the hallway to leave and at that very moment Ron was moving some equipment for a friend down the hall. Michael and Ron both happened to step in the hallway at that exact moment in time. This was God!

Michael fell to his knees within my view and yelled, “Talk about divine revelation”, meaning that God was involved in that prayer. Only a few minutes had gone by since we had prayed for Ron who was supposed to be hundreds of miles away.

It turns out that Ron was at a time in his life where he was struggling with his faith. He said that he really needed to have a miracle from God. Ron recognized that this was a divine appointment and he quickly accepted the call to be the drummer. Ron wanted to see what God had for us.

Our prayers in the studio were nothing short of miraculous. We would hold hands in a circle and pray for long periods. These prayers were so powerful that it was as if a rocket was taking off in the spirit. I would often shake under the anointing so strongly that I would almost fall down. These were powerful prayers with three close-knit believers. Believers that knew God was real. Believers that knew God did miracles. Believers that had a personal relationship with the person Jesus.

Believers holding hands in a circle praying as the spirit leads is probably one of the most powerful ways to pray that I know of. It is amazing. Sometimes the power of God comes in so strongly that a great deal of time passes without even realizing it.

The time for FISHBAIT came and went. We had a tremendous time together experiencing the things of God. We met all sorts of new people and learned many new things. A time I will always treasure.

THE GLORY CLOUD

I have previously pointed out that you must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Not everyone can see the things of God. Only people that are born again. Once you are born again, the veil begins to be removed from the Kingdom of God. God then begins allowing the born again person to see more of His Kingdom.

This premise holds true with the glory cloud as well.

In October of 1996 an amazing event took place at Christian Tabernacle. This event spurred the book “The God Chasers” by Tommy Tenney. http://amzn.to/yOLQNL

To make a long story short, pastor Heard went up to the pulpit and quoted this scripture:

2Ch 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

At that moment, the pulpit lifted from the floor and split in two with what sounded like a clap of thunder. Then pastor Heard was thrown back several feet slain in the spirit for quite some time. Healings and spiritual manifestations took place. The church had a long lasting anointing after this experience.

Many people come to Christian Tabernacle to see the split pulpit and to ask questions about that day. I was no different. I wanted to see what God had done and handle the pulpit with my hands. I went to church there and have had several spiritual experiences there.

The scripture that I often think of when I think of the Glory Cloud is when Solomon was dedicating the temple and the priests brought the ark into the holy of holies.

1Ki 8:10-11 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Jehovah, (11) so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah.

God has made His presence known at select times with this glory cloud. I have witnessed it a few times in very rare, holy moments. At Christian Tabernacle is the first time I ever had this experience.

I have had the privilege of being there when it happened. Not everyone sees it. I have stood right next to people as the glory cloud entered the room and have asked the person beside me if they saw it as well. They would often say no. Others would point in wonder because they did happen to see it.

Why did people in the same place not see the same thing?

This reminds me of some events recorded in scripture.

Daniel was the only one to see the angel.

Dan 10:4-7 And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel; (5) Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: (6) His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. (7) And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

Saul was the only one that heard the voice of Jesus.

Act 22:8-9 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. (9) And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.

Elisha asked God to open the eyes of his servant so that he could see the angels around him.

2Ki 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

In each encounter some had eyes to see supernatural things while others didn’t.

The kingdom of God was hidden from most but revealed to some. This remains true today.

What was missing?

THE MISSING LINK

Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

The church for centuries has shunned people with supernatural experiences and even burned them at the stake. The church has been afraid of the supernatural and therefore never wholly embraced it. I was treated as an outcast as well. I was told several times that my supernatural experiences were of the devil even though many similar experiences were in the bible. It was a natural progression for me to leave the church and to investigate other religions that embraced supernatural experiences such as astral projection, remote viewing, and telepathy.

The church is losing hoards of people to the New Age and other religions, which openly embrace the supernatural. This should not be so, because the bible is a supernatural book. The problem is, the majority of the church doesn’t bother to read their bibles between Sundays.

Even casual bible reading illuminates elementary biblical doctrines such as God being a spirit.

The bible clearly teaches this.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

2Co 3:17-18 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (18) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The elect hear the voice of God.

John 10:26-28 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. (27) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (28) and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.

John 8:47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

Heb 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

The preceding scriptures tell us that Jesus’ sheep hear His voice. If a person doesn’t hear the voice of Jesus then they aren’t His sheep. This should be a sobering thought.

Christians watch in prayer.

Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

1Pe 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

Col 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

These scriptures are obviously spiritual in nature. The ancient tradition of closing our eyes is in order to see in the spirit. Our spiritual eyes must be opened to do this.

Jesus promises to reveal Himself to the believer.

John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

The elect have a personal relationship with the person Jesus. The elect know Jesus personally, they don’t just know about Him.

What about the churchy religious people that do not have a personal relationship with Jesus?

Mat 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (22) Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (23) And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

These unfortunate souls appear to have been doing many Christian works. They think they are saved. They even call Jesus Lord with their lips. However, the crux of the situation is that they didn’t have a relationship with Christ. Jesus tells them to depart.

2Th 1:6-9 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; (7) And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, (8) In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (9) Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

Do you see how important it is to have a personal relationship with God? He takes vengeance on those that “know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”. We must know Jesus personally and not just know about Him.

A good illustration is the conversion of Saul. Saul was a high-ranking Pharisee that went about killing Christians using scripture to do so.

Imagine that! Using scripture to kill Christians (Matt 4:6; Luke 4:9,10). Let that sink in.

Jesus knew this was going to happen. He warned the disciples beforehand.

John 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God.

Saul knew the scriptures extremely well. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) which was one of the top theologians of the day.

One day on the road to Damascus, Saul met the Author of scripture (Heb 12:2).

Act 9:1-6 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, (2) And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. (3) And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: (4) And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (5) And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (6) And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Saul, a top theologian, went about persecuting Christians using scripture. What one could consider the contemporary main stream church (Acts 7:38) gave him the authority to do so. Notice that Saul clearly did not know Jesus?

Saul said, "Who art thou, Lord?".

This demonstrates that having a massive knowledge of scripture or having high-ranking position in the church does not save a person. The Pharisees were entrusted with the very words of God. However Jesus said they were blind. Notice in the following passage how many times Jesus called the Pharisees blind.

Mat 23:15-26 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. (16) Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! (17) Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? (18) And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. (19) Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? (20) Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. (21) And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. (22) And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. (23) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (24) Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (25) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. (26) Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

The leaders of what one could loosely call the church back then, were instructing others what to do, but our Lord says they were blind. If we meditate on the text, we can see that they were blindly quoting scripture without seeing the true meaning. Like Saul, they didn’t have a personal relationship with the Author of scripture and were exalting doctrines of men over the true spirit of what the scriptures meant.

Mar 7:6-9 And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, But their heart is far from me. (7) But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. (8) Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. (9) And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition.

Man made doctrines and traditions were their stumbling block. Man made doctrines was the reason they overlooked the Messianic prophecies and rejected the Messiah when He came unto His own (John 1:11).

To further illustrate this point - even the devil can quote scripture (Matt 4:6)! Demons believe there is a God (James 2:19). Demons obey Jesus (Mark 9:25, 26). Demons even confess that Jesus is the son of God (Luke 4:41). The unsaved religious call Jesus Lord, prophesy, cast out demons and even perform miracles (Matt 7:21-23).

The saved, unsaved and demons all do similar things. Clearly we want to separate ourselves from the unsaved and demons.

We must find the missing link.

What is the missing link between Christian works and actually being saved?

Neither the demons nor the unsaved religious have a personal, loving relationship with Jesus. This is the difference. Eternal life isn't about memorizing scripture or church doctrine. It is about having a loving relationship with Jesus.

Back to the story of Saul meeting the Author of scripture. Jesus then blinds Saul.

Act 9:8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing; and they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

Saul’s eyes were opened, yet he was blind. A Pharisee with opened eyes yet he was blind. Does this sound familiar?

Jesus gave Saul three days to think about his supernatural experience while he was led about by the hand without food or drink. On those three days, Saul had plenty of time to compare his experience with his theology.

Jesus then grants Saul sight through the workings of a disciple.

Act 9:17-18 And Ananias departed, and entered into the house; and laying his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. (18) And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and he arose and was baptized;

Jesus removed the scales from Saul's eyes so that he could see. After this experience, he immediately began preaching Jesus from the very scriptures that he had previously used to kill Christians.

Act 9:20-22 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. (21) But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? (22) But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

He expounded the Messianic prophecies to the Jews that favored their man made doctrines over the word of God. By the spirit of God, Saul proved that Jesus was the very Christ, the Son of God. He exchanged the doctrines of men for the doctrine of God.

Saul (later known as Paul) says something that is very significant. It is the difference between eternal life and death.

Gal 1:11-12 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. (12) For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul makes the emphatic point that he had dropped the man made doctrines and traditions and let Jesus lead his bible studies!

The Spirit of God will teach the elect doctrine.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

(see also 1 John 2:20,27; 1 Cor 2:12,13)

When the elect are fellowshipping with the Spirit of God, He teaches ALL things and ALL Truth. Jesus through Ananias restored Saul’s sight. Then Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit. Only after Saul had the Holy Spirit did he start preaching Christ from the scriptures. Only after Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit did He begin to teach and perform miracles.

In Acts 26, we hear more of the conversation during his roadside encounter with Jesus.

Act 26:15-17 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. (16) But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; (17) Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,

Jesus then gave Saul instructions. The instructions were:

"To open their eyes"

Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

When the eyes of a person are opened, they are turned from darkness to light. They are turned from the power of Satan unto the power of God. They receive forgiveness of sins. They receive an inheritance.

I would venture to say that Saul thought he was saved before he met Jesus. He knew scripture and he had a high position of authority. However, salvation didn't come until he met Jesus. His eyes were not opened until he had the Holy Spirit.

Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit? Jesus does - John told us so.

Mar 1:8 I baptized you in water; But he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

The spirit of God indwells the elect.

Get to know Jesus, don’t just know about Him.

Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and He will

Open Your Eyes…

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

SOMEONE TRIED TO MURDER ME

A TRAUMATIC MEMORY

SEEING IN THE SPIRIT AT TWO

KIDNAPPED

THE DEMON SLAYER

WAKING UP UNDER WATER

I BEGAN TO FLY

THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

PERSECUTED FOR TRUTH

I SAW A GHOST

EYES SOWED SHUT

WAKING UP ON THE CEILING

A LITTLE HISTORY

I'VE BEEN EXPECTING YOUR CALL

A COUPLE OF PSYCHICS

THE STARFIRE PRAYER

KINGDOM EXPERIENCES

BORN TO SEE

OPEN YOUR EYES

THE ACCURSED THING

ANGELS WALKING ON AIR

CASTING OUT A DEMON

THE TRESPASSING DEMON

THE CANNON BALL VISION

THE CHRISTINA VISION

THE Da Vinci CODE

FUKUSHIMA

THE 2011 TORNADOES

FLORIDA

DISCOVERING INIQUITY

THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD

FISHBAIT

THE GLORY CLOUD

THE MISSING LINK