Light in Their Eyes

"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Matthew 6:22

Recently the Lord has brought this back to our attention. We've all probably noticed it at some point--you can often tell if someone is a Christian if they have light in their eyes.  And beyond that, the measure of light seen often correlates directly with the strength of that person's relationship to God.
If our eye is single--if all our attention is being used up on God-- then there won't be any darkness left in us.    And that's where God is taking us!  That's what the Father wants.  He wants a people who have been so tangibly transfigured by Him that their eye--their whole countenance--show it.

There is another side to this. Unfortunately, some people aren't saved.  And some of those people are harboring unclean spirits, or even demons.  How do I know?  Well, if nothing else, you can see it in their eyes.

Even among the saved, some people don't have as much of that visible light as they could.  Maybe they've become distracted.  Maybe they lost somebody.  I've heard that some people lose their light--they lose that positive countenance--after something terrible happened in their lives.  That's why we need to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).  He'll perfect our inner light.  He'll perfect the work of the Spirit within us.  That's why we need to keep our attention 'single'--solely focused on Him.  He is greater than this the darkness of this present world.  He is greater than our own problems. If we look to Him, He will change us, and we will begin to take on His light.  That's what our Lord wants.

What About The "Outer Witness"?

In the book of Revelation, we have described to us two witnesses.  Now, this reference may be symbolic, it may be literal, it may be both.  Either way, I think that we can apply this concept to our own personal walk, too.  Recently the Lord has been speaking to us about what I'll call the 'outer witness' of the Holy Spirit.

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."           Isaiah 30:21

We all know about the inner witness that God gives us.  It may come as a still, small voice.  It may come as a strong unction, or a supernatural knowing.  It may come as a conviction.  Now, keep in mind that God confirms Himself by two or three witnesses (2 Corinthians 13:1). So then, what about external witnesses?  What about confirmations and promptings outside of ourselves?  That's where the outer witness comes in.

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."         John 3:8

Remember that the Holy Spirit can be likened to a strong wind--a ruach (Hebrew).  And I find that the wind is a medium through which God's Spirit often shows Himself.  Many times, I'll be outside and God will use the natural wind to speak to me.  I'll get the inner witness--the Lord will prompt me to head inside, for example.  Then, just a few seconds later, the wind direction will change, and gently push me towards where God's word already had me headed.  This is an external confirmation, and it establishes what God has already set into motion.  It's the outer witness.

Other times, the Holy Spirit may manifest as wind--inside! This is more rare (at least in my experience).
But sometimes, there comes into a room a supernatural and completely unexplainable wind.  What is it?  It's a sign!  It's a sign that the presence of the Spirit has come in.  I've noticed this happens must often in church.  But the Lord may do this anywhere!

Beyond wind, there are many other ways that God speaks through nature.  All creation serves to praise Him! And beyond that, there are many other ways that He gives an outer witness.  He my confirm Himself through another Christian, through a close friend, or even through something that an unsaved stranger says.  He may 'establish a matter' through a billboard's message, through a license plate, or through a street sign.  The possibilities are endless!  And all of these things are gifts from above, sent down from the Father to confirm His word.

We who are near God are commanded to acknowledge His power (Isaiah 33:13).  As believers, God wants us to have out faith built up by His outer witness.  He wants His Spirit within us to be communing, to be one, with His Spirit's working around us.  He wants us to grow from faith to faith.  The Lord wants to accomplish in us what He's already done among us.  He wants to have us walk into the establishment of His word.

When The Power of God is Present

"And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them."      Luke 5:17

How does the power of God show up today?  It shows up when people are desperate.  It shows up when people turn their desperation into expectation.  It shows up when faith is activated and people expect the Holy Spirit to work miracles!

Ministry becomes so much easier when the power of the Lord is present to heal.  Everything is easier when the power of God is there!  The Spirit of love comes in, and things start happening.  Events start aligning.  People start aligning.  Ministry breaks out, and so does the miraculous.

I remember about a year ago, Vanessa and I were praying for a man with back pain.  We were right outside our favorite restaurant, and a few people were beginning to take notice.  The Lord healed this man pretty dramatically.  Wonderful!  And then another man, an easygoing catholic guy, came up.  He wanted to know what was going on.

And then this second guy remarked that he, too, had back pain.  Vanessa and I knew what to do.  Faith had already been activated!  So, the guy talks about his back hurting, and continues walking up to us.  When he got close, I asked him how he was feeling now.  He said all the pain was gone!  Nobody prayed for him.  See, Jesus was there all along.  The Holy Spirit had already set up shop among us.  The power of the Lord overshadowed us.  The power of the Lord was present to heal.

This is what we need today, and it needs to begin within the Church.  We as Christians need His power enveloping us! We as believers need to be ministered to!

Once we ourselves are within God's power, then we can minister out of it!  Those not yet saved need to be exposed to the power.  They need to be exposed to the manifest presence of Jesus.  Those not yet convicted will only be convicted when the power of the Lord is present.  They'll only be saved when the supernatural power of God begins to flow.  This is a place of ministry.  This is a place of love.  This is a place of being inhabited by the Holy Spirit.  We need to have the Spirit, and we need to have His power.  We need to have been so touched by Him that wherever we go, the power of the Lord is present to heal.


"...And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power"         1 Corinthians 2:4

Declarations Make A Way

A recent theme--declarations!  God says something, we believe it, and then we speak it.  Receive, believe, achieve!

There are two types of declarations I want to go into here.  We can declare things from the written word, or we can declare things from the spoken word.  Both types can be Spirit-filled and Spirit-led, but one usually requires more discernment than another.  Let's look at both.

1)  Written-Word Declarations

Here we recite something written in God's Word--we take a written promise and make it our own.  For example, I may say, 'I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus'.  This is truth, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21.  Believing the Word, and hearing and speaking it, is how we are sanctified.  We are sanctified by the truth! (John 17:17)

We can also declare scripture when we are tempted by the devil.  Remember, that's what Jesus did!  So the Word is for upliftment, but it's also for warfare--it's our sword and our weapon for battle.

2)  Spoken-word Declarations

These can be tricker.  We need ears to hear; we need our own spiritual ears to be closely attuned.  The voice of the Holy Spirit is worth listening for!  For example, today the Lord showed me the shield of faith, and prompted me to pray that over myself.  So I did.  Another example--I may hear the Spirit speak strength to my body.  What should my response be?  Well, probably to speak strength to myself.  That's where faith comes in!  If God said it, then I need to believe it.  Do I feel stronger?  Yes!  Because it is written!  The joy of the Lord is my strength.

We declare what God says first.  If God didn't set the precedent, our declarations probably won't work. Remember that Job's friends were wrong! We need to be in tune, discerning, and not presumptuous.  We need to value His voice.

Written-Word and spoken-word declarations go hand in hand!  They feed off of each other!  We can have the Bible confirmed by hearing His personal voice, and we can confirm our rhema words by testing them against scripture.   Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17), and hearing comes in many forms.

When we declare God's will, it looses the heavens.  It loosens angels and an empowerment of the Holy Spirit.  It loosens any blockages and binds any opposition.  God's will comes down unrestrained, on earth as it is in Heaven!  That's what declaring does!  It brings us up into God's reality.  It brings up our faith, and our faith takes us to a place where God really is.  Declarations make a way.

Snapshot: Praying For The Holy Spirit

A few days ago, I was praying along with a prayer from "The Century of the Holy Spirit", a book documenting the history of the Pentecostal and charismatic renewal.  And I felt the Lord wanting me to repeat this prayer...so I just prayed along.  I asked the Holy Spirit to come and fill all churches that would want Him.

Just a few seconds later, the Lord gave a wonderful confirmation.  The TV was on in the background, and I heard, 'We've found a place of you to stay'.  Of course, this was quickened to me as having a special meaning--a spiritual meaning!  Praise God!  We invite Him in, then He finds a resting place.

Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."                                       Matthew 8:20

Then he called to me, "Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north."                    Zechariah 6:8

"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."                                                   John 16:24

Isn't that wonderful?  God can be welcomed in by us.  He allows our longing for Him to change things.  We are His children, and we are His place of habitation.  If we ask Him, He will come to us. We need to pour ourselves out and allow God to come in and change things!  We need to invite Him in, because He is more desperate to come in than we are.  We need to pray that the Lord would send His Spirit into any place that would value Him.

All About Visions: Intercession

So, this marks the last post (for now!) in this "All About Visions" series.  And I wanted to describe one of the most wonderful and common ways that the Lord gives visions.  Often, we receive a vision for intercession!  We receive from God a vision and it's message so we know how to specifically intercede.

Intercession is wonderful even if we don't know what to pray for.  God is still pleased!  However, Spirit led intercession is the best.  We pray through the struggles of others, as God reveals to us just what those are.  And one of the easiest ways for us to conceptualize Him--His thoughts towards whoever we're praying for-- is through a vision, sent by Him!

So, we pray through another's trials for ourselves, until we have attained to spiritual rest. When you're in the Spirit, you just know when it's time to fight.  Conversely, you also just know when the faith comes in and the battle's already been won.  Sometimes God moves into victory very quickly!  So it's important to be attuned to His heart.

Let's say you're praying for your friend.  And you see a turtle swimming for part of your prayer. Visions for intercession, like always, fall into several (broad) categories.  Also like always, they may have more than one meaning:

1) There is some Christian symbolism here--you're friend is the sea turtle

2) There is some Christian symbolism here--someone in your friend's life is the sea turtle

3) This is a literal vision--maybe your friend loves turtles, or just lost their pet turtle

OK, most visions are not meant to be interpreted physically or literally--especially when it comes to intercession.  But since God gave the vision, we need to look back to Him for the interpretation, also. God may give a vision and speak a word, but He may just give the vision, because He wants you to ask Him to speak a word.  This is where relationship with the Holy Spirit comes in.  We need an accurate inner witness.  Anyways...

So...vision, interpretation, now what?  Well, then we can pray!  Based on what God revealed, there will be things to pray for, or things to pray against, or things to pray into.  There may be things to simply thank God for--things that He's already done.  There are many variables here, but He can lead during this also! All we need to do is pray according to His will.  All we need to do is ask Him to bring Heaven down onto earth.

With the Lord's leading--with visions and insights from Him--intercession can be done from a point of victory.  We don't have to struggle in the flesh!  We don't (necessarily) need to go on and on with long, general prayers.  We don't need to fight or worry, thinking that our mind is going to wander. We can be in a place of spiritual rest, knowing that all we need to do is repeat after God.

Now, there's many places for long prayers, but what I am saying is that one minute with God's passion is often enough.  One minute under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit--one minute of targeted intercession--is enough.  You'll already feel the victory!  You'll feel the heart of God stirring up to carry out justice.

Intercession is meant to be a joy, not a burden.  For me, it used to be a burden--until I yielded to God's love for another!  That's when He made His love my own.  And that's when passion came. That's when visions and revelations came!  And that's when I knew what it pleased Him to pray for.

Snapshot: The God of Peace

Yesterday morning, the Lord specifically lead me to pray for Vanessa's peace.  And that got me thinking about the connection between peace, patience, and prayer.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."                    John 14:27

Since we belong to God, we can have His peace always with us.  It can be unconditional! That's what Jesus is referring to when He describes His gift--it's not given with conditions, as the world would give.  Even then, however, we have a choice.  We are given the option to let ourselves be troubled, and we are given the option to give way to fear.

"Now may the God who gives the power of patient endurance (steadfastness) and who supplies encouragement, grant you to live in such mutual harmony and such full sympathy with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus..."                                   Romans 15:5 AMP

Peace begins with a prayer, and so does patience.  If we have peace, it will probably lead us to do many things more slowly than we have done them in the past.  Peace will lead us to humility and trust.  Peace will lead us to patience.  If we have patience, then we will be content to let God's will--His plan, His purposes, His surprises--just flow into our future.

If we have been given His peace leading onto patience, we won't be presumptuous.  We won't rush into things too fast.  We won't become anxious when the next surprise comes.  Instead, we will be pushed at the Spirit's pace into the future with peace like a river (Isaiah 48:18).  We will take time to be still and wait on the Lord  (Psalms 37:7).  We will listen to others with humility, love, and godly discernment.  And we will bear such good fruit!

"This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.…"      James 1:19-1:20

All About Visions: When Healing Comes

**For the previous posts in this series on visions, search the labels for "all about visions"**

One reason that God gives visions is that they quickly and effectively convey to us messages and thoughts.  They allow us to conceptualize and see something that might be hard to explain with words!  For these reasons, God often uses visions to reveal how He wants to carry out a healing.  In the context of prayer for others--healing prayer in particular--a mental image or vision can bring us into line with God's will.  And these visions might apply to a situation in any number of ways.  And these ways might overlap!  God is so dynamic. Anyways, here is a list of common reasons for visions as they relate to healing.  There are many more, but this post is just an outline.  Below are some common ones....

1)  The vision reveals what is physically wrong

For example, you may be praying for a stranger and see by a vision that their ankles have been damaged.  And God reveals the negative so that you can pray for the positive!  This type of vision is a pretty literal word of knowledge.

2)  The vision reveals what is spiritually wrong

Or, you may be praying for someone, whether with them in the physical or in spirit, and see many pins and needles all over their body.  This probably isn't the case literally!  It's more likely a symbolic representation of many sharp, tiny spiritual attacks.  I find that visions that highlight spiritual issues are usually more symbolic than visions that highlight physical issues.

3)  The vision reveals the healing taking place

Let's say someone you're praying for does have that ankle injury.  While in prayer for healing, you let God lead.  And when you're praying into His will, He shows you a ray of light coming down and touching that bruised ankle!  Praise God!  He wants to encourage us.  This type of vision also builds faith in that very moment when faith is needed for God to work.

4)  The vision reveals how we should pray

Reasons 1-3 have one major thing in common: they all show us how we can best pray.  Which leads us to number four--the vision shows us more literally just what we should do.  Why do you think Jesus put mud into the blind man's eyes?  Probably because it was an idea--which was imparted through a vision--from the Father.  In the same way, we may not know exactly what is wrong with that stranger, family member, church friend, etc., that we're praying for.  And that's OK!  But it is important to understand how to pray, how to lay hands, how to impart, and so on.  And that's where a directive vision comes in.

This is actually all pretty simple.  If God is going to heal someone, He might also give the one praying encouragement as to what's taking place.  That's what He wants to do!  All we need to do is have eyes to see and eyes to accept whatever the Holy Spirit wants to show us.

"Denominationalism": When The Little Foxes Creep In

This all started when Vanessa and I were talking about John McArthur and other cessationalists while doing some errands a few days ago. We were driving along and pondering how and why some people go wrong in their teaching, and we saw a custom license plate that said, "LIL'FOXS"

"Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom."
Song of Solomon 2:15

First, we need to realize that Song of Solomon is a parable.  The Lover in that book can be likened to Jesus, and the Beloved can be likened to His bride, the Church!

The true Church, the sons and daughters of Father God, will be able to look across various churches and discern that some things may have went wrong.  Little foxes have crept in.   Left untouched in the vineyard, they can ruin it's plants and spoiled it's fruit.

I've read parts of Arthur Burt's "There Shall Be No Ebb", and he stated that every denomination was formed right where the Holy Spirit first began a new move of God.  John Wesley began a revival and holiness movement that, once plateaued, became known as Methodism.  The Salvation Army was once a group of powerful evangelists that did just what their name entailed.  And the Baptist Church also started off with more passion and Spirit-given life than they generally have now.  You can go on and on.

And it's been this way since the start.  Even the Azusa street revival was split by theological differences into various subsets and denominations. A newly introduced 'Finished Work' doctrine divided the movement and caused the largest revival ever to ebb.  Six year after it started, Azusa was finished, because the pride and tradition of man opened the door for some little foxes to come in.

And we can gather from the past a pattern.  It starts off with God's Spirit and ends with divisions:

1) Revival starts!  The Church is taken back to the Book of Acts.  Awesome!
...Mass salvations, signs and wonders, and Holy Spirit fire follow.

2) With revival comes the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
...The Word comes alive as God teaches the revived how to walk in it.

3) Those involved receive a key revelation to the scriptures
...A Kingdom mystery is revealed, and people realize just what they've been missing.  So they start walking in this or that newfound truth.  Good!

4) Pride creeps in.
...Usually, this begins in the person whom God has been using the most.  And a measure of the glory goes, because God gives grace to the humble.

5)  People who have received revelation become presumptuous.
...And they assume that the scriptural key they received is THE key. They stress their new revelation above all others.  They broaden the scope of their revelation by using out of context scripture to support it.  And they begin to look down on others.  The attitude of a revival shifts from welcoming to competitive.  And what really counts is then overlooked!

...Oneness Pentecostals claim that speaking in tongues in critical to salvation.
...Baptists may believe that baptism in water is essential to salvation.
...Holiness preachers stress the importance of works and perfectionism
...Catholics talk about penance, purgatory and prayer to saints.
...Cessationalists claim that tongues and healings are of the devil (hmm, doesn't that sound familiar?  Jesus was accused of such things by the pharisees).

At this point, revival is over, having been stifled by the pride of us people.  And the need surfaces to start a new denomination!

And the end result of all these errors is that church congregations lose their good fruit.  With that, they lose members.  And worst of all, they lose the favor of God.  All they have is a memory of what the Lord used to do.  All they have is a watered-down testimony.  All they can do to retain some measure of hope is look back.

Those who look back become more and more deadened to the present reality of God.  They create denominations that become increasingly watered down.  Some even discount the present work of God almost entirely, stripping the Gospel of everything but salvation.  That's where cessationalism (the belief that spiritual gifts have ceased) comes in. That's where pride, even an actual spirit of pride, can take over.  People fall deeper and deeper into err, because they understand neither the scripture nor the power of God.  They respond by lashing out at those who are still moving, still operating, and still loving by the Holy Spirit.  This is a vicious cycle, as people fall further and further from the actual, scriptural truth.

At this point, a once fruitful vineyard has become bitter and barren.  A church does not have the presence of the Holy Spirit, so much as they have a man-made template signifying who He seemed in the past to be.  Moves of God are stifled.  Gifts from God are discounted.  Conversely, a church may become hyper-charismatic and try to replicate God's gift with an effort out of the flesh.  The church becomes overrun with little foxes--spirits of pride, envy, hatred, mockery, 'pharisee spirits', and spirits that bear false witness.  The fruit of the Spirit is gone because the Spirit itself is gone, save for the measure that God, in His grace, retains so that there is still the reality of salvation.

The above is a sad reality in many churches today.  What is the solution?

...To welcome the Holy Spirit
...To humbly accept the implanted word
...To walk in love--from which all else flows:  kindness and patience and humility and meekness and           peace and hope and faith and joy
...To acknowledge that we see in part--therefore, our insight is not the only insight, nor is it the most critical one.  We need to remain teachable
--To fulfill the law, not through this or that theology, but for an overwhelming love for God and others

Let's address this by looking to the Word:


"So be careful how you live; be mindful of your steps. Don’t run around like idiotsas the rest of the world does. Instead, walk as the wise! Make the most of every living and breathing moment because these are evil times. So understand and be confident in God’s will, and don’t live thoughtlessly. Don’t drink wine excessively. The drunken path is a reckless path. It leads nowhere. Instead, let God fill you with the Holy Spirit. When you are filled with the Spirit, you are empowered to speak to each other inthe soulful words of pious songs, hymns, and spiritual songs; to sing and make music with your hearts attuned to God; and to give thanks to God the Father every day through the name of our Lord Jesus the Anointed for all He has done.  And the Spirit makes it possible to submit humbly to one another out of respect for the Anointed."       Ephesians 5:16-21


*thank you Angel S. for the timely scripture (:*

This is what we need to do.  We need to keep in tune and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in order to keep any bond of peace.  We need to stay sensitive, patient, and humble.  We need to give all the glory to God, so that all the discernment can be with Him, as well.  We need to steward His Spirit and His works in love and power.

Snapshot: Jesus Sows The Prophetic Word

Last week, I saw a vision where the Lord Jesus was holding a large, intact loaf of bread in His hands, just waiting and smiling at me.  Then He began to break off pieces and throw them up into the air, where they were caught in the wind and scattered across a larger area. It was really cool!  This vision was confirmed the next day in the natural, because Vanessa and I started feeding our chickens old bread by hand, first breaking it up and then throwing it to them.

And the Lord also gave the knowing into the vision--what He was holding was our daily bread.  He was breaking it up according to His will, and each piece of bread represented a specific and personal prophetic word.  He tossed the pieces, pretty much all at once, into the air, and it was the Holy Spirit than distributed each message to it's recipient.  Wow!

"So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:11

It is Jesus who sends out the word.  He's the one mediator! (1 Timothy 2:5)  He's the one through whom all blessings flow.   His testimony is by the Spirit of prophecy, and by this same Spirit, we ourselves receive a message that points us back to Him. (Revelation 19:10)

"All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills."
1 Corinthians 12:11

So Jesus sows this word, which is our daily bread, and then the wind of the Holy Spirit carries out the Father's will in delivering each message to the intended person.  One person gets one message, another gets a different one. They all come from one body of life, which is Jesus, and they are all given to one body--the Church.  And it's the Spirit that elevates the prophetic message so that it can be carried to it's recipient!

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth."
Ecclesiastes 11:1-2

Sometimes there is a lag time between a message from God and it's fulfillment.  There probably will be!  The revelation is waiting for it's appointed time (Habakkuk 2:3).  We need to give our prophetic words, our gifts, back to the Father, and trust Him with them.  We need to acknowledge His faithfulness, and we need to acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit.  He may deliver the same word again and again, in dynamic ways, until it is finally fulfilled.  Jesus casts our bread upon the winds of the Spirit, and once we have received, we may need to wait patiently, knowing that our promise will not be lost.

Once our word returns to us fulfilled, then we can share it with others!  Then we can use God's message to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16).  When disaster happens, mercy can triumph over judgement. (James 2:13)  And then we can look back to Jesus, hopeful that He will continue to give us our daily bread.