Traveling in the Spirit and Portals

I live in Arizona, which is home to the city of Sedona. A beautiful town nestled in the red rock cliffs which is famous for its “energy portals.” People travel from around the globe in search of a supernatural experience with these portals. I’ve visited Sedona a number of times and I’ve read some of the research that’s been done on the source of energy found at the portals. Most of the research suggests that the portals owe their energy to a unique presence and arrangement of rocks and minerals such as iron oxide and quartz which cause circular flows of magnetic energy in certain locations.

Such portals may provide entertainment for the curious and some opportunity for spiritual travel, though testimonies of the later are difficult to find. Many people experience spiritual travel without accessing one of these portals. If you don’t happen to live near one, your opportunities to use them are limited. The use of such energy portals for spiritual transport is impractical for most people. And even if they were more widely available, I don’t think they’re the best means to accomplish our goals. The kind of portals we have access to as believers are more powerful, more reliable, and safer than these energy portals.

As it relates to spiritual travel, a portal is generally understood to be an entry and exit point between two realms. It’s really nothing more than an opening or a doorway. A portal could be a passageway between the earth and heaven or between any other two places. In the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation, we read where the apostle John was invited to ascend through a door (or portal) into heaven to witness the things God wanted him to see and hear:

“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.’

“Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.  And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.”Rev 4:1-3

This is a wonderful example of what traveling in the spirit can be like for the believer. For those who are not experienced with traveling the spirit, a good place to start is to understand first, that God wants us to come into His dwelling place and meet with Him. The words “come up here” go out to all of His children. If we want to enter into the heavens we must, like John, become “in the spirit,” which is to say that we must become more aware of the spiritual world than we are of the physical one. Once we are aware of the spiritual world, we simply set our heart on God and expect (by faith) that He’ll reveal Himself to us the way He did to John.

Whether or not you see a door open in the heavens, you can travel there any time you like. It was nice that John received a personal invitation and that the Lord showed him the doorway but we have an eternal invitation. Jesus said He is the door that anyone can go through if they desire to visit heaven or meet with the Father.

This is an excerpt from my book Traveling in the Sprit Made Simple. 

Wisdom for Social Media - Periscope

God has been speaking to me about connecting with people through live video, so I've begun teaching via live video on a platform called Periscope. Some of you are familiar with Periscope but some aren't. I know that new social media platforms can be intimidating, so here's what you need to know if you want to join me:

First, you don't need to have a Periscope account to watch my videos. You can view them on the Periscope website without logging in. Just bookmark this link: Praying Medic Periscope and you can view my videos whenever you want.

There are a couple of advantages to creating a Periscope account (and it's easy to do): If you download the periscope app and follow my account, you'll receive a notification when I go live. And if you catch me while I'm broadcasting live you can leave comments and questions in the live chat and I can answer them.

Periscope is not a perfect platform. Users do experience connectivity problems now and then. If you're trying to watch a live broadcast and you can't connect, the easiest solution is to close out of the video, wait a few seconds and then rejoin.

I'm considering doing 2 live messages a week—probably on Sunday afternoon or evening and either Wednesday or Thursday evening. I hope you'll consider joining me

Here's my latest video:

 https://t.co/FnACTwndr6

— Praying Medic (@prayingmedic) April 20, 2017

The Not So Obvious Nature of Breakthrough

Breakthrough.

That moment of sudden victory.

And a word that's become cliché.

It's hard to find a prophetic word these days that doesn't promise breakthrough. But after hearing the word for years, many people have given up on it. They've been disappointed too often and don't want to have their hopes dashed again.

I wonder if our disappointment isn't because we don't understand what breakthrough really is.

I received a prayer request yesterday. The request was for a blessing. A woman asked that her niece would never suffer hardship, never be attacked, and always be protected from harm. I know what it's like to want your children to be blessed and protected. I've prayed for my kid's safety and protection many times. But I've come to realize that safety and protection don't always do the kind of work God needs to accomplish His purposes.

It would have been easier for Jesus to avoid the temptation in the wilderness. And the betrayal of Judas. And the scourging. And being nailed to a cross. But all those painful, humiliating things were necessary. They were part of the process of learning obedience and being conformed to the will of the Father. After he had endured it, he stepped out of the tomb, more alive than He'd ever been.

The breakthrough had arrived.

A bystander who knew nothing about the Lord, on seeing Him emerge from the tomb might have assumed the resurrection was an event disconnected from a process. A random miracle. But we know better. Without the suffering and pain, the breakthrough never would have happened.

How often have we looked at a person who achieved a great victory and wrote it off as divine favor or luck—never considering what it cost them? Many times, what seems to be a sudden breakthrough is merely the last stage of a long, grueling process. Emerging from a lonely and difficult walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Not everything is a process, but many things are. When we're sick, it's often because we've ignored eating right and exercising which could keep us healthy. But we don't want all that. We just want the sickness gone. When we're stressed out, we don't want to change our circumstances. Change is a hassle. We want the peace. Without the process.

God is more interested in our growth than our comfort. We want a life that's free of difficulty. He wants transform. The difficulties we suffer are intended to cause growth. (I would make an exception for sickness and injury, which seem to lack redemptive power. If they're meant to transform us, Jesus did more harm than good.)

Maybe the process is a humbling situation designed to rid us of pride. Or a weekend in the psychiatric ward where He heals us of shame. The process is uncomfortable. But if we avoid it, we never grow. And if we don't grow, we're robbed of our breakthrough. When we submit to it, when it's done its work of transformation, we get our breakthrough.

If you're looking for breakthrough, you might also be on the lookout for a process that God wants you to submit to. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it.

The Word of Wisdom

This is an excerpt from my book Hearing God’s Voice Made Simple.

The word of wisdom is one of the gifts (or manifestations) of the Holy Spirit mentioned in first Corinthians chapter 12. It’s wisdom about a situation that we would not normally have. It’s similar to the word of knowledge. The difference between them can be seen when we understand the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is information about something. Wisdom is knowing what should be done with the information—the action we should take once we know the facts. Wisdom is knowledge correctly applied.

Before I go into a job interview, I usually ask God for any revelation He wants to give me about the interview process and I spend a few minutes in silence waiting for His reply. I sometimes receive images in my mind about things I’ve said in past job interviews that I might mention. Sometimes I’ll receive images of calls I’ve responded on in the past. Sometimes I’ll see flashes of conversations I’ve had with coworkers. Since God knows the mind of the interviewer and what they might be looking for in a candidate, I take these impressions as suggestions about things I should be ready to discuss in the interview.

Sometimes a word of wisdom will instruct you about something you should not do. One day my partner and I transported an elderly man who fell at home. Based on his symptoms, it seemed as though he might have had a hip fracture. We placed him on a plastic backboard to make it easier to lift him onto the gurney. My partner asked if I was going to start an IV and give him morphine. I observed our patient and noticed that as long as we didn’t move him too much, he seemed to be tolerating the pain pretty well. I received a thought impression in my mind which seemed like a message from God that said, “He doesn’t need morphine.”

I wasn’t certain that it was God speaking. But I proceeded as if it was, and we transported the man without giving him morphine. During the transport, his pain gradually subsided. By the time we got to the hospital, the pain was almost gone. Having seen people healed in the ambulance before without prayer, I wondered if it was another case of the Holy Spirit healing someone by simply manifesting His presence. It’s difficult to explain how placing him on a hard plastic board and driving him over bumpy roads would make him feel better. I believe I received a word of wisdom telling me He would be healed if we simply transported him and allowed God to do the healing during the trip.

Words of wisdom can be given for just about any kind of situation. My family has a tradition of gathering in snowy locations over the Christmas holidays. One year it was decided we would be gathering in New York. From the moment I first heard the plan, I had a sense that something would foul things up. When my family asked if I was going, I politely declined. When they asked why, I explained that I had a feeling as though the weather was going to cause problems. Not understanding how God forewarns us about these things, they were disappointed. But I stuck by my convictions and stayed home. That Christmas, New York City received almost two feet of snow and experienced extremely gusty winds. Most of the main streets were impassable for days. The airports in the area were closed and inbound flights were diverted to other cities. Many outbound flights were canceled. Some of my brothers and sisters had to take extra time off work because they could not get flights back home until the mess from the snowstorm had been cleaned up. I believe I’d received a word of wisdom from God. I didn’t just receive information about an approaching storm. He told me what plans to make in order to avoid having travel problems.

After I had published the first two books in this series, God began giving me dreams suggesting that I mentor other authors. One night, I had a dream about one author who was writing an excellent book. He became discouraged and considered giving up on the book completely. From my perspective in the dream, I could see that the enemy was not happy about the potential impact the book would have, so an effort was organized by the enemy to discourage him and prevent the book from being published. In the dream, I knew my part was to encourage the author and help him see the book through to completion. Right now I’m the administrator of an online group of more than 500 writers. I personally mentor some of the authors God has shown me in dreams. It’s another case where God didn’t just give me information about someone, but specific actions I should take in order to help them.

The word of wisdom is one of the least mentioned, but most useful gifts given to us by God. I hope this article has helped you to understand a little better how He can instruct you through it.

Related:
The Word of Knowledge

Click on the link to learn more about the book Hearing God’s Voice Made Simple.

Christian Spiritual Travel or Astral Projection?

There is much debate in the church today over what some people call "Christian Spiritual travel." Many are not convinced that it is of God. They suspect that it is in fact astral projection or some other occult practice. In this video I provide testimonies from people who practice both. I list the features found in each practice and at the end of the video I provide a summary of them. Using the list of features I allow you to decide for yourself whether this is Christian spiritual travel or astral projection.

For more information on spiritual travel you might check out my book Traveling in the Spirit Made Simple.