heavenly encounters – Page 8

195. The Source and River of Life

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott –

Jesus died to give us access to heaven, and not only when we die: eternal spiritual life begins here and now. He died, but He did not stay dead. He rose again and is alive today. He is alive in heaven; He is alive in us; He manifests His presence here with us. Because of our relationship with Him, we can have intimate relationship with the Father as adopted sons, and with one another as brothers and sisters in God’s family.

We are connected to the source of life, and the source of life is connected to us. Within our spirit, there is a door that connects to God and to heaven, and it is up to us whether we open the door:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me (Rev 3:20).

When we choose to open that door on a daily basis, He comes in, fills us, and manifests around us so that people see and experience Him through us.

Living Water

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

Jesus was not offering the Samaritan woman a cupful, He was offering her the River of Life which is flowing in heaven. It is the same river that was in the Garden, where it split into four rivers and watered the earth.

The river that Ezekiel saw (see Ezek 47) was ankle-deep as it flowed out from the Temple. Ankle-deep water can refresh your feet; you can even reach down and get a drink from it. But it did not stay ankle-deep, or even waist-deep, but got deeper and deeper until it was so deep you could not cross it. Wherever that river went, it brought life. God wants us to bring that water to others so that they too can be filled and experience that life.

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:38).

If we go to that spring every day and drink of it, it will become a fountain of eternal life not only for us, but also for those around us. It will flow through our whole being, spirit soul and body. But we do have to draw water from the well. We have to get into the river. We have to drink the water.

Do we know the gift of God?
Are we connected to the flow of living water?
Do we drink from the internal well of water springing up to eternal life?
Do we experience the constant flow of the source of life, the Holy Spirit?

There is a river

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns (Psa 46:4-5).

How deeply have we drunk of this river?

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers (Psa 1:3).

That is a description of what our life can be like when we live connected to that source of life, putting our roots down and constantly drawing from it.

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22: 1-2).

We can follow that river flowing in our spirit, back up into the heavenly realms. Years ago, we would only have expected to encounter the river in this realm – ‘we rejoice for the river is here’, as we used to sing – but we can also experience the river in the realms of heaven.

Five Rivers

The River of Life is only one of five rivers that God showed me cascading like waterfalls out of heaven today. We can jump in and experience:

The River of Life – New Birth
The River of death and resurrection – Water Baptism
The River of the Spirit – Baptism in the Holy Spirit
The River of Fire – Consuming Fire
The River of Glory – Heavenly presence

Jump into the River of Life. Experience something deeper of the presence of God. Open that door in your own life and begin to sense the flow of His life in you. And if you have never met Jesus before, open up that door for the first time and drink of the River of Life. Drink that water until it becomes a well, a spring that bubbles up in you.

If you have had a baptism experience but you want more, plunge into the river of death and resurrection. Be washed inside and out, cleansed from your past, have the power of sin broken over your life. Exchange all the old for the new. Exchange the struggles, the sickness, the guilt, the shame. Exchange your old identity for a new one. Stop to trying to meet your own needs and allow God to meet them. Walk in resurrection power.

Jump into the River of the Spirit. Whoever wants to be filled with the joy, whoever is eager for the gifts, whoever wants to speak in tongues, come and receive a river flowing from within. Open your heart and receive all He has for you. Experience the power of baptism in the Holy Spirit at a completely new level.

Be empowered. Then give it away; let it flow from you.

If you need to be transformed, if you need the fire of God, then jump in and open your heart to the all-consuming River of Fire. Allow God’s fire to refine you, purify you, transform you. Allow God’s fire to destroy your chains. Jesus came to baptise in the Holy Spirit and fire (see Matt 3:11). Experience the power of baptism in fire.

Open your heart and receive all He has for you. Do not be satisfied with less.

Upstream to the source

If you are born again and have never engaged with God in your own heart and spirit, He is there, and you can do so right now. If you have never been into the realms of heaven, find the river within you and follow it back upstream to its source.

Experience God at a new level today. If you don’t want to jump right in, you can start by standing in the shallows. Feel the river flowing, and gradually go deeper. Eventually, go under, breathe in, and drink. Feel the energy, His life flowing in and through you.

Taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8a).

Activation

Listen to this audio clip as Mike leads us into the river and upstream into the heavenly realms: http://goo.gl/uzjAFj

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Mike Parsons – Exercises: How To Enter The Spiritual Realm and Interact with God (YouTube video)
Inheritance 17-part audio series with slides
(this post is based on Mike’s teaching in session 15)
Freedom Apostolic Resources website and Freedom ARC Facebook page
The Engaging God programme (see below)

Support Freedom ARC

Our Patreon patrons give a small amount each month and can join us for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy further patron-only benefits. Or you can use the blue button to contact us about making a one-time gift.
Thank you!
*Note Sadly, because of abuse by scammers we can no longer offer a ‘click to donate’ option. However, if you contact us, we will get back to you with a simple means of giving.

Image attribution: Picture taken by John Maxwell in June of 2005 at the Krka National Park in Croatia. By Version13 at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3012949

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you!

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

To find out more and get started today*, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on completion of online registration form and payment plan setup. Terms and conditions apply.

193. Rendering Service (Angels – Part 2)

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott

All the miracles Jesus performed, He did as a man, a forerunner of the church that was to come. There was an open heaven over Jesus’ life. He lived in both realms, connecting earth and heaven, and angels were part of that connection. They were actively involved in all that He did, from the announcement of his birth to the empty tomb. This is a whole dimension of the supernatural which Jesus interacted with, and if we are to do ‘greater works than these’ (John 14:12), then surely we will need to interact with it in the same way Jesus did.

On earth as it is in heaven

Jesus died so that we could inherit. That inheritance is both earthly and heavenly, both natural and supernatural, in line with God’s eternal intention: for man to bring the rulership of God to the whole of creation:

Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
(Matt 6:10).

Throughout most of church history the enemy has blinded our eyes and convinced us that we are weak, powerless and of no effect. If we will start believing the truth of who we are, of our identity as sons of God, as joint heirs with Christ who have authority in the heavens and on the earth, then our lives will become a gateway for heaven to manifest on earth just as Jesus’ life was.

We saw in the last post that as a Joshua generation we are called to operate with the angels and the heavenly realms. The ‘promised land’ we are entering is the fullness of our inheritance, physical and spiritual, which God has set aside for us. Joshua met with an angel (the captain of the host of the Lord) who came and gave him revelation from heaven, and with an open heaven over our lives we should expect the same kind of thing to happen for us.

Ministering spirits

If ‘angels are ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation’ (Heb 1:14), then they must be bored silly, because most of us don’t have any connection with them. We are ‘those who will inherit salvation’, but how many of us actively enlist the help of angels on a daily basis?

What service do we want them to render to us? Do we want them to bring blessing, favour, finance, healing – for our benefit, or for others? Do we want them to minister to our families, our children, our friends and work colleagues? They are messengers, worshippers, warriors and more. We need to open up our perspective on this, and broaden it, because there is so much that they are available to do for us. God wants us to expand our understanding – and experience – of the angelic, so that we can do the things Jesus did.

When our baby grandson was seriously ill, we prayed for the angels to surround that room, that the spirit of death would have no place there. There was a sense of the angelic presence when we went in there, because we sent them. And his recovery amazed everyone at the hospital.

Personal attributes of God

Angels are often at work where a personal attribute of God is mentioned such as the arm, hand or eyes of God. God is spirit, and He does not have a physical body like that. When He does show up in person, He comes in a dark cloud for our protection. But the angels are the executors of God’s actions and the means of the revelation of His personal being to man.

The activity of the Holy Spirit is often confused with the activity of angels. A common argument you will hear from people who don’t believe we should engage with angels goes like this: ‘we don’t need angels, because God sends the Holy Spirit’.

The Holy Spirit is God. He was only ‘sent’ once, on the day of Pentecost, to come and fill the church. We come into that experience for ourselves when we get born again and baptised in the Holy Spirit. He is our internal Guide, Comforter, and Counsellor, bringing a sense of love, joy and peace. We know that we are dearly loved children – that is the Holy Spirit at work. And it is He who brings the power and the anointing for our mission. I am not seeking to minimise the importance of the Holy Spirit.

But God uses angels to do His business. So I believe the trembling, heat, electricity, fragrance and so on that we may experience in worship are actually angelic presence. ‘But that’s God!’ you may say. I agree, it is God. It is God using the angels to manifest these things so that we can experience them.

The angel of the Lord

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush… When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Exod 3:2,4).

How much of this was the angel and how much of it was God? I believe all of it was the angel – and all of it was God, using the angel to speak to Moses.

The angel of His presence

In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old (Isa 63:9).

We can feel the presence of God in the presence of the angelic. Angels communicate His presence to us. The angel of His presence can bring love, and mercy – and, according to this scripture, redemption and salvation.

The hand of the Lord

Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said to me, “O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling (Dan 10:10-11).

When we tremble and shake, are we being touched by an angel?

The eyes of the Lord

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His (2 Chron 16:9).

The fear of the Lord

“For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land… I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you” (Exod 23:23,27).

God sent the angels ahead of His people as they entered the Promised Land. As we seek to enter into our inheritance, we can expect angels to go before us and prepare the way.

Word of the Lord

The word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet. I saw at night, and behold, a man was riding on a red horse, and he was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine, with red, sorrel and white horses behind him. Then I said, “My lord, what are these?” And the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “I will show you what these are”. And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are those whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth” (Zech 1:7-10).

It is time for us to see the angels commissioned and released. There is nothing wrong in our asking God to do these things for us, especially when we are spiritual babies. But as we mature, we begin to understand that we have the authority to send the angels out for ourselves.

How many angels are there?

Jesus said He could instantly call on more than twelve legions – or more than 72,000 (Matt 26:53). If we are joint heirs with Him, how many can we call on? But the enemy wants to keep us ineffective, so we have never been taught to think that way.

Hebrews speaks of countless thousands (Heb 12:22). And there are 10,000 x 10,000 = 100 million angels surrounding the throne in heaven (Rev 5:11).

If angels are as numerous as the stars of heaven (see Rev 12:4), then there are around a billion stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, and between 10²² and 10²⁴ stars in the Universe (that is, the number 1 with between 22 and 24 zeroes after it). That is a lot of angels.

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? (Heb 1:14, my emphasis).

God made the angels, and He made them for us.

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Mike Parsons – Exercises: How To Enter The Spiritual Realm and Interact with God (YouTube video)
Inheritance 17-part audio series with slides
(this post is based on Mike’s teaching in session 13)
Angels (a Freedom ARC Pinterest board)
Freedom Apostolic Resources website and Freedom ARC Facebook page
The Engaging God programme (see below)

Resources from others:

Kris Vallotton – Your Identity as Sons of God (via YouTube)
Angels: God’s Servants, My Friends – Charity Kayembe (CWG Ministries – Mark Virkler)
Encountering Angels – Lindy Strong and Bonita Curtis (Podomatic audio podcast from Marketplace Ministries)

Support Freedom ARC

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

To find out more and get started today*, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on completion of online registration form and payment plan setup. Terms and conditions apply.

Image attribution: the image at the head of this article is “Paradiso Canto 31” by Gustave Doré – Alighieri, Dante; Cary, Henry Francis (ed) (1892) “Canto XXXI” in The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Complete, London, Paris & Melbourne: Cassell & Company Retrieved on 13 July 2009.. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – http://bit.ly/1ON8PY3

192. Ministering Spirits (Angels – Part 1)

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott

24. The Joshua generation will operate with the angels and the heavenly realms.

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD.” … Joshua said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” (Joshua 5:13-14)

Although we can easily read over a phrase like ‘he lifted up his eyes’, it suggests that Joshua was seeing into a different realm or dimension, not this earthly one. There are at least 283 references to angels in the Bible, and more in the New Testament (176) than the Old (107), which may surprise you. When they appear on the earth, they are often mediators between God and people, bringing a message. In fact the words angelos in Greek and malak in Hebrew both mean ‘messenger’, so it is not surprising that Joshua expected the angel to have a message for him.

Angels have been around a long time. We are created in the image of God as an eternal spirit with the ability to engage the spiritual dimensions, but God actually created the angels before he created man.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4,7)

You will find plenty of people who have some experience of the angelic, though many Christians are nervous of interacting with angels. But angels appear in scripture throughout the Old and New Testaments, in a number of different roles and guises, and it would be strange if we did not come across them in the present day.

What are angels?

And of the angels He says, “Who makes His angels winds, And His ministers a flame of fire.”… Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? (Heb 1:7.14).

So whenever we find winds and flames in scripture, such as at Pentecost, it is very likely angels are around. And everyone has angels assigned to them, even before they are Christians. They are actively involved in our lives, keeping us safe. Sometimes they have to work overtime!

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways (Psalm 91:11)

Ian Clayton offers this list of descriptions, names and titles of angels:

Guardian angels
Archangels
Seraphim
Cherubim
Living creatures
Dominions
Virtues
Powers
Authorities
Principalities or rulers (God has territorial spirits, as well as the enemy)
Judgment
Watcher
Salvation
Glory
Guard
Scroll
Lions
Seal
Mandate
Assignment
Art
Grace
Holiness
Healing
Gathering
Anointing
Provision
Mantle
Worship
Treasury
Finance
Fragrance
Revival
Portal
Deliverance
Warring
Wisdom
Pillars
Commanded
Hunter
Reaping

Wickedness in the heavenly places

A third of the angels fell with satan: some of those fallen angels occupy places in the realms of heaven and in the atmosphere of the earth:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12).

…in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2).

A third of them fell. That means God still has twice as many angels as there are fallen ones, who can also operate in those realms. We, too, should be engaging there and bringing light instead of darkness.

These are some characteristics of angels (you can click on the verse links to read the scriptures for yourself):

Intelligent and wise – 2 Sam 14:20, 19:27, Matt 24:3
Patient – Numbers 11:22-35
Meek – 2 Peter 2:11
Joyful – Luke 15:1-10
Modest – 1 Cor 11:10
Holy – Mark 8:38
Glorious – Luke 9:26
Immortal – Luke 20:36
Mighty, Powerful – 1 Thes 1:7-10, Rev 18:1
Obedient – Psa 103:20, Matt 6:10
Have wills – Isa 14:12-14
Created spirit beings – Ezek 28:14-15
Have spirit bodies – Heb 13:2, Judges 13:6
Need no rest – Rev 4:8
Can appear selectively – Num 22:31
Can ascend and descend – Gen 28:12, John 1:51
Speak languages – 1 Cor 13:1
Have limited knowledge – Gen 18:21

You can see all kinds of images of angels and angelic activity on our Pinterest board ‘Angels’.

Angels seem to be described differently depending on the context. Those ministering around the throne of God in heaven or comprising God’s army are called “sons of God,” “holy ones,” and “heavenly host”, with the focus on their status as celestial beings and emphasising the grandeur, power, and acts of God.

In earthly appearances the focus of the text is usually on the message, so the messenger is rarely described in detail. Interestingly I have not found a single description of an earthly appearance that mentions flying or wings. Most appear in human form – we have probably all heard stories of hitchhiker angels, or mysterious strangers who help in some way and then disappear after the event – which is why Hebrews tells us:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it (Heb 13:2).

Surrounded by an angel army

I have read of missionaries who were told ‘when you first came we were going to attack you and kill you, but you had soldiers guarding you’. This is a modern counterpart of Elisha’s experience:

So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened his servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16-17).

An opening portal

I asked Urandiel, our church angel, to open the heavens here at Freedom Church. Another time I engaged with Metatron, who gave me a golden key to open people’s eyes, so that they could see what is going on in the room.

Flags and banners, music, light and colours have an effect in this realm. They change atmospheres and things begin to move. At times we lay out flags on the floor and different angelic atmospheres manifest over each of them. We have a portal opening, a landing strip for angels, and we are experiencing their presence as they go up into heaven and down to the earth. Sometimes they join in when we are singing.

God wants to open this up, not just in one local church, but for all of us.

Further articles in this series

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Mike Parsons – Exercises: How To Enter The Spiritual Realm and Interact with God (YouTube video)
Inheritance 17-part audio series with slides
(this post is based on Mike’s teaching in session 12)
Angels (a Freedom ARC Pinterest board)
Freedom Apostolic Resources website and Freedom ARC Facebook page
Engaging God (see below)

Resources from others

Encountering Angels – Lindy Strong and Bonita Curtis (Podomatic audio podcast from Marketplace Ministries)
Angels: God’s Servants, My Friends – Charity Kayembe (CWG Ministries – Mark Virkler)

SoundTrack: Where Angels Walk (instrumental soaking track) – Creative Sound

Support Freedom ARC

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

To find out more and get started today*, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on completion of online registration form and payment plan setup. Terms and conditions apply.

191. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott –

Our inheritance is to walk with God, to experientially encounter Him and live in a daily intimate relationship with Him; one heart, one mind, one will, one purpose.

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Cor 6:17).

Since relationship is built on communication, how do we communicate with God? God is a spirit, God is light, God is love. How do we interact with Him, engage with Him? How do we see, hear and know?

When we see with our natural eyes, light is reflected from an object, focused through the lens to form an upside down image on the retina. Electrical signals travel along the optic nerve and are interpreted by our brain. When we hear with our natural ear, pressure waves from air cause the ear drum to vibrate, and that vibration is passed by bones in fluid to be interpreted by the brain. We ‘know’ by electrical impulses in synapses passing along neural pathways which the brain interprets as thoughts. That’s amazing!

But it’s not only physically that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Ps 139:14).

Active or passive

We have the eyes of our heart, our imagination. Images form directly in our mind as if on a screen, an expression of our creative ability derived from a creative God. Then there are the eyes of our spirit: our brain interprets and understands what our spirit – and the Holy Spirit – shows us. Every aspect of how God created us works together in this. He created us to be able to engage both with the universe we live in and with our Creator.

He wants us to be active rather than passive: not just hoping He might break in and interrupt, but eagerly seeking and pursuing Him. He is looking for those who will do whatever it takes to develop their relationship with Him.

Seeing in the spirit

Our world is filled with vibrations which can only be picked up if we have the right equipment, such as a TV or radio tuned in to the correct frequency. Our natural eyes and ears can see and hear just a tiny portion of all the frequencies that exist. When we are in tune with God, our spirit is capable of detecting wavelengths which our natural senses are not, and can interpret and describe what it perceives. Just as our natural body does, our spirit passes signals to the brain, so that we are able to understand and distinguish between spirits and realms. We can train our spirit to become sensitive to what God is saying and doing in the dimensions around us, and to recognise what is God and what is not.

When we talk about ‘seeing in the spirit’, what we really mean is that our spirit is tuning into a spiritual frequency and communicating information to our brain so that we begin to understand what is going on.

We know that our natural senses and abilities develop with practice: so too do our spiritual ones (Heb 5:14). The more we train, the more we practise, the more readily our spiritual senses will engage with God. Our spirit was dead to God: now that we are born again we need to get it up to speed. Here at Freedom we do what we call ‘activations’ in order to encourage our spirit to learn how to hear, see, feel and experience in the realms of heaven. Meditation, too, will help us to develop our spiritual senses.

Harmony

Sound and colour have an effect on the natural and spiritual dimensions. We have experienced this with the colours and movement of flags together with the sound of music in worship: something shifts in the spiritual atmosphere, portals open, it draws the presence of God and the angelic.

There are healing frequencies. Fragrant oils have healing properties. Our bodies have a frequency, in fact the whole of creation has a frequency. I have experienced the sound of harmony in heaven, and it is calling us to join it and bring it to earth.

Spiritual sonar

Most of us have known occasions when we could feel or sense the atmosphere in a room. There is a saying, ‘you could cut the atmosphere with a knife’. We feel cold chill shivers in certain places, and peace in others. It is as if our spirit is sending out a ‘ping’ like spiritual sonar, and forming an impression based on how that signal comes back.

I asked God to open up the eyes of my spirit, and with practice I have learned how to turn this on and off at will. I can sense the atmosphere around people and places if I choose to do so. I can discern angels, and even describe them in terms of size, colour, shape and activity, even though I am not physically ‘seeing’ them. There is no reason you cannot ask for and receive the same.

Visions

If we want to hear and recognise the voice of God, we need to develop a lifestyle of the supernatural. He created us to be able to receive from Him and to engage with Him in this way:

‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams (Acts 2:17).

Here are some examples from scripture:

As he [Saul] was travelling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”… The men who travelled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one (Acts 9:3-4, 7).

Saul saw the light and heard the voice of Jesus, whilst the others only heard the voice but did not see the light. That light caused blindness in Saul, but the others were not affected. We might wonder what sort of wavelength of light it was, whether it was actual light, or whether it was Jesus himself manifesting as light. Was the veil of heaven opened around Paul so that he could see into a dimension the others could not? And the voice that they all heard, was it an actual voice? As they all heard it, does that mean it is easier to hear than to see spiritual frequencies?

Later on (Acts 9:10-12) we read that Ananias heard God speak to him in a vision (without actual process of eyes, ears, light and sound waves), telling him that Saul has also had a vision, of him (Ananias) laying his hands on him.

Again, Cornelius had a vision of an angel, and Peter fell into a trance (Acts 10:3-15). Even if all these things happened in Saul’s, Ananias’, Cornelius’ and Peter’s heads, that does not make them any less real. God communicated with them, and as a result, the church was completely transformed.

Four kinds of wisdom

Jesus said:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:27).

With practice we can learn to identify when something is God communicating with us rather than coming from our own or other sources. Most people will tell you that knowing the word of God is the key, but I would suggest that knowing the God of the word is actually more important. If we have taken the time and trouble to get to know Him, His character, His ways, His heart, His mind and His purposes, then we will have a pretty clear idea whether we are hearing Him or not.

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. (James 3:15-17)

James gives a strong clue here too: do we see something characterised by jealousy, selfish ambition, disorder and evil or pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering and without hypocrisy?

A place of rest

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:28-29).

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1).

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).

No matter the situations or circumstances going on around us, we need to come from a place of rest and peace in relationship with God, not worrying, being anxious or fearful (see also Matt 6:25-34). Let’s also practice the conscious presence of God, who promises never to leave or forsake us (Heb 13:5), and cast all our burdens on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). All these things will make us far less likely to be deceived by things which are not coming from Him.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight (Prov 3:5).

Everything needs to flow from the rest and peace of our relationship with God, from the inside out. Let’s learn to live in a state of rest, peace and intimacy.

My prayer for you

Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-17).

From a natural perspective, the circumstances were dire. But Elisha could see into the spiritual realm, and he prayed for his servant so that he would also.

I want to pray the same for you.

Father, as You opened Elisha’s servant’s eyes
to see angelic beings and activity in the spiritual realm,
bringing peace and rest to his life in spite of the circumstances,
I pray that you will open the eyes of each person reading or hearing this.

Open the eyes of their spirit to see, to perceive, to receive;
To be a receiver of the frequency that comes from that realm
And that their brains will be able to interpret it,
So that they are able to see, to feel, to hear, to taste, to touch the things of God
And to know You through personal encounter, day by day.

Show them what you are doing,
Not only today, but as they practise and train their senses,
Bring them into maturity,
So that they are able to do Your works
As Jesus did, because He saw what You were doing.

Amen.

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Inheritance 17-part audio series with slides
(this post is based on extracts from Mike’s teaching in session 10)
Mike Parsons – Exercises: How To Enter The Spiritual Realm and Interact with God (YouTube video)
Freedom Apostolic Resources website and Freedom ARC Facebook page
The Engaging God programme (see below)

Support Freedom ARC

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

To find out more and get started today*, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on completion of online registration form and payment plan setup. Terms and conditions apply.

190. By Personal Encounter and Experience

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott

Israel always sent Moses to hear God for them, although God offered them all the chance to hear for themselves. We have no need for a mediator. Our inheritance is to walk with God, to encounter and experience Him in a real, intimate relationship as Adam did, to see, hear, feel, smell, taste, sense Him, and to mature in that relationship. Then, as we experience intimacy, we need to teach and model that intimacy to the next generation.

This is a characteristic of the Joshua generation.

22. The Joshua generation will encourage people to hear the word of God directly

Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God” (Joshua 3:9).

Regular communication is essential to a relationship. We have a Father who loves to have intimate conversations with his children, we have Jesus, the Living Word, and we have the Holy Sprit who leads and guides us. ‘For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life’ (2 Corinthians 3:6). The Greek (western) mindset is about hearing and thinking, analysis and study, whereas the Hebrew way is by seeing and feeling, by experience. God wants us to experience Him in fullness.

When Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me” (John 10:14), He is not speaking of intellectual knowledge, whether derived from a book or an earthly teacher, but of personal encounter and experience, of being intimately acquainted with Him, just as He is intimately acquainted with the Father:

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner (John 5:19).

The Father is in Me, and I am in the Father (John 10:38).

He who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:9).

All our worship and service must flow from the relationship of rest and intimacy that comes from truly knowing God in this way.

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Cor 6:17).

We are the house of God, we are the gate of heaven

Jacob called Bethel ‘the house of God, the gate of heaven’ (Gen 28:17). It was where he saw the ladder set up from earth to heaven, and where God spoke to him. Today we are that house, that gate. Jesus said:

In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2-3).

Tradition interprets it this way: the Father’s house is heaven, with many houses (mansions) in it. Jesus goes to heaven to build our houses, and He will return to take us to heaven, where we can live in them.

But in reality, the Father’s house is the church, and Jesus went to the cross to prepare us to be the dwelling places. Jesus was resurrected to receive us into relationship: ‘where I am’ is not a location, but a relationship (I am in the Father and the Father is in Me).

We can be included in the intimate knowledge and experience that Jesus had of the Father. The Creator of the universe has chosen to make a home in us. That is amazing! But if it is not our daily experience, then it is just head knowledge. We can experience personal encounters with God, both in heaven and on earth, as Adam did, and as Jesus did.

We can connect with God in the realm of the spirit, and experience the reality that our spirit is a habitation of God’s presence and glory. We can build a relationship with God who lives on the inside.

We can also encounter God in the heavens, as we become a gate of heaven – perceiving what the Father is doing, and ourselves doing the works that Jesus did. Knowing and hearing must lead to following and obedience. As we become like the One we follow, we do as He did.

When God reveals, we are responsible to do.

God speaks

Does God literally speak, so that sound waves come and cause our physical eardrums to vibrate, sending a message to our brain which it interprets as words? Rarely. Most often, something in our spirit picks up and discerns what God is communicating with us. It takes time and it takes practice to develop that sensitivity.

When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord (Num. 12:6-8).

There are 5 different ways the Lord speaks here:

dreams
visions
face-to-face, clearly
in riddles (parables)
in the open seer realm.

In fact, there are many different types or degrees of prophetic gifting throughout scripture, demonstrating how much God wants to engage with us in relationship. These avenues of hearing and seeing all require patience, practice and development. But most of all, they require relationship.

God of the journey

People can get frustrated that they are not having heavenly visitations and open encounters with angels, but most people do not start off on this level. God births spiritual babies, not mature eagles. However, baby eagles are born with the potential to fly.

If we are faithful with the little, more will be added. If we are faithful with the simple nudging He gives us, He will entrust us with more complex revelation. The nature of progressive revelation is that God gives us keys along the way, from one level of glory and experience to another. He is concerned just as much (and perhaps more) with the process in us as He is about end results. He is God of the journey, not just God of the destination.

The fundamental truths of our faith are absolute and unshakeable. However, they are living absolutes, because Jesus is the Living Word. He continually brings fresh life and fresh revelation into what is already written as we engage with Him today.

God wants to meet with you today

[Click here to hear the audio of this activation]

Picture yourself walking up to God, your Father.
Imagine coming to Father, head bowed, willing to be a servant.
Look up and see the Father waiting, arms open.
Look into His eyes, see the fire of His love and passion for you.
Feel His embrace.
Feel His arms around you.

Feel that ring of sonship which He puts on your finger
The seal that says ‘this is My son’.
Feel the clean robes He puts on you.
Enjoy the joy and celebration of His heart.
Feel His acceptance and restoring love,
Feel His affirmation,
Feel His approval.

Feel it.
The Father is here.
The weight of His presence is resting upon us,
The covering of His love.
We are under an open heaven

Hear these words coming from the heart of God,
Let them go deep into your spirit.

I declare you are my beloved child and I am well pleased with you
I call you My child and I am your Father,
You are mine and I am yours.
I legitimise you as my child,
I call forth your spiritual destiny.

I call your spirit to attention
Listen with your spirit to the words that I, your heavenly Father, have for you.
The Spirit of your Father gives witness to your spirit that you are My child.

I bless your spirit with the spirit of sonship and the mindset of sonship
I bless you with a deep heart identity as My very own child, securely loved in My family

I bless you with the settled assurance that I have a future and hope for you
And I have written your days in My book with love,
For your best interest and for My ultimate glory.
I bless you with the deep knowledge that I know what you need
And I have all the resources of the universe to meet that need.

Listen with your spirit to My words for you.
My Spirit testifies to your spirit that you are My child.
I bless you with the ears to hear the testimony of the Spirit of the Lord,
The Spirit of knowledge, wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel, power and fear of the Lord

I bless you with being tuned into Me
With eyes for seeing, ears for hearing and a mind for understanding according to the Spirit.
I bless you with being led by the fullness of My Spirit of truth
To see things as I see them in the heavenly realms.

I bless you with the deep knowledge
That you are an heir with your brother Jesus to all My treasuries.
I bless you with the confidence that you lack for nothing that you need,
Spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically and practically

I bless you with the sure understanding
That I want you to have My blessings and My glory, and to possess your birthright.
I bless you with the desire to press forward to see the glory that I am revealing.

I bless you with a heart that does not rebel
Or shrink back from the opportunities I put before you daily.
I bless you with a hunger for the manifestation of My glory
Day by day in you and through your life.

I declare that you are no longer a slave, an orphan or a victim.
I declare that you are Mine and I am yours.
I am your inheritance and you are My inheritance.

I declare that I am your Father and you are My child
And I give you access to your heavenly home.
I give you access to the river and tree of life in your heavenly home.
I call you to be a gateway of heaven on the earth.

You are my child
And I call you to be displayed as a mature son on the earth.

Receive the truth of God’s words into your spirit and into your heart. Pursue Him, and live in intimacy of relationship with Him.

Soundtrack: Pursuit (Daniel Bashta feat. Kim Walker-Smith)

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Inheritance 17-part audio series with slides
(this post is based on extracts from Mike’s notes for session 9)
Mike Parsons – Exercises: How To Enter The Spiritual Realm and Interact with God (YouTube video)
Freedom Apostolic Resources website and Freedom ARC Facebook page
The Engaging God programme (see below)

Support Freedom ARC

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

Get started today!*

To find out more about the Engaging God programme, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on receipt of payment and completion of online registration form. Terms and conditions apply.

186. No Longer a Slave, but a Son

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott

We are looking in more detail at selected characteristics of the Joshua Generation. All those characteristics come out of relationship: they are characteristics of sons, not slaves.

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and tutors… But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son… so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4:1-7).

If we are to have an inheritance, we need to know and have a relationship with the Father. Jesus secured that relationship for us, and we need to enter into it. We are heirs, those who inherit the promises of God, but if we remain as spiritual children we will not be able to handle all God has for us. Unless we mature, we will be no better off than slaves.

14. The Joshua Generation will be filled with the spirit of wisdom

Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses (Deut 34:9).

Wisdom is not just something that we can pick up along the way as we go through life. Wisdom is imparted by the spirit of wisdom.

The seven spirits of God

The guardians and tutors mentioned by Paul in Galatians are there to equip God’s people to act as sons; to explain what it means to be a son; to teach us what it is to have an understanding of the Father’s heart, just as they did with Jesus.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord (Isa 11:2).

…Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne (Rev 1:4)

The seven spirits of God are our guardians and tutors. They are not on His throne; they are not the Holy Spirit; they are heavenly creatures, created to bring God’s people into sonship. They have a deep understanding of the ways of God. If we are willing, the seven spirits of God are going to have much more to do with us in future than ever before. We can engage with them to teach us, because we need what they can bring.

20. The Joshua Generation will equip the people to be consecrated (or sanctified) – set apart, dedicated and holy.

Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5).

On the east side of the Jordan, before they crossed over into the Promised Land, they were called upon to make a decision: whether they would consecrate themselves, set themselves apart, from everything they had already gone through, into something completely new.

Now the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you” (Josh 3:7).

God will acknowledge and affirm the Joshua Generation. He will do things through them; but not the way He has done them in the past. God would be with Joshua just as He had been with Moses, but actually He was about to begin to do something new.

You shall, moreover, command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan’” (Josh 3:8).

Coming to the borders of the Promised Land they were faced with a very large river, in flood. It looked likely, from a natural point of view, that it would stop them entering in.

So they needed a supernatural answer.

Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite” (Josh 3:9-10).

All these ‘-ites’ had possession of Israel’s inheritance. For us, they represent mindsets, patterns of iniquity, or anything else that prevents us receiving our inheritance. We may have tried to remove those things before, from the outside in, but God promises that He is in us and can remove them from the inside out.

Pruning

In a vision I saw a tree with fruit on it. God came, pruned all the branches and removed all the fruit. He said ‘I am now going to deal with and fertilise the roots’.

He is removing all the things we have seen as fruit, maybe miracles and healings, supernatural provision: all the things God has done for us in the past. He wants to deal with the roots, to fertilise them so that the tree produces a new form of fruit. We are going to see miracles, but happening in a new way.

All the familiar miracles of God’s provision stopped when they crossed over the Jordan: manna, quails, water out of the rock, guidance by the pillar of cloud and fire, their clothes not wearing out. God had been treating them as children, doing everything for them, but now it was time for them to mature.

If we are entering into a new dimension of God in the Spirit, we cannot expect Him to keep on doing things exactly as He has done them in the past. So often we pray, ‘God, do this, do that’, or ‘Lord, heal this person’, and He looks down and smiles: ’I told you to do that. You can do that miracle. You are my children. You have an inheritance, to be like Me and do the things that I do’.

When the old ways stop, if we continue to try to operate in them, we will begin to find that there is no anointing in them. God is taking us from a place of being children in our understanding and encouraging us to mature into our responsibility as sons.

Spies

Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly… They said to Joshua, “Surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us” (Joshua 2:2, 24).

The enemy is fearful of us. That is why he tries so hard to keep us from realising who we are. He wants us to remain as children, because he knows he is going to be in real trouble if we mature as sons. He has no power over us other than that which we give him.

Since August 2010 I have been equipping and sending spies into the new land of our spiritual inheritance; firstly here at Freedom Church, and more recently around the world. Some of you are those spies. You have gone in to a new spiritual dimension and seen your spiritual inheritance. You have experienced the realms of heaven. You have seen something of mountains in heaven, courts in heaven, rivers in heaven. You have experienced these things first hand; perhaps not yet in their fullness, but you know they are there and waiting for you to move into them. You are like the spies coming back with a good report.

Consecrate yourselves

Some, like Joshua, Caleb and the spies have already been forerunners. Now it is time for the rest to go in. But 2½ tribes, the Reubenites (passing up their inheritance as descendants of the firstborn), Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, chose to make their home in the old and familiar rather than in the Land of Promise.

Who is willing to cross over Jordan leaving the old revelation and old ways behind?
Who is willing to separate themselves from their old identity as slaves?
Who is willing to leave the childish things of immaturity behind?

We can live in the new land of new spiritual revelation, new methods, and new authority; but the transition from the old to the new is always a battle.

Is anyone willing to consecrate themselves and cross the Jordan, to take personal responsibility as mature heirs and not children? If so, let’s step into the mobile court of God together.

The mobile court

The mobile court of God is here. Around us is a cloud of witnesses, here on our behalf. The seven spirits of God are here to affirm us in our identity. Jesus is here as our advocate.

We are coming to face our accusers: the strongholds and the familiar spirits which are behind the mindsets that would keep us in slavery, keep us in childhood, keep us from our inheritance. We are going to consecrate ourselves and separate ourselves from those mindsets.

I step into the place of responsibility in the governmental mobile court
I accept responsibility as a priest of my own life
I take the covering of the word of God
And I place it over my head as a covering of Your love.

I agree with my accusers
That I have operated with a slavery mentality and an orphan spirit
Father, I accept responsibility for thinking and acting like a slave and an orphan
I repent and renounce slavery
And I choose to forgive and release all my previous generations
For giving me an inheritance of slavery.

I come under the covering of your word, blood and presence
I ask you to judge me according to the covering of your love for my life
Judge this slavery and orphan spirit in me
To destroy its yoke and power over my life.

I stand cleansed, righteous, innocent
I receive divorce papers from its influence
I confess that I am divorced and separated
From slavery and its influence in my life.

I release judgment over my accusers
The familiar spirits behind the strongholds, speculations and mindsets of slavery
I release divinely power judgment to demolish all slavery in my life – body, soul and spirit.

I administer judgment and justice as a son
Into every circumstance and area of influence in my life affected by this issue of slavery.

I consecrate myself as Your son
I receive Your inheritance as a son
I declare myself ready to leave the old ways behind me
And cross over into a new land.

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Inheritance 17-part audio series with slides
(this post is based on extracts from Mike’s notes for session 6)
Vision Destiny 2015 (free audio series download)
Freedom Apostolic Resources website and Freedom ARC Facebook page
The Engaging God programme (see below)

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

Get started today!*

To find out more about the Engaging God programme, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on receipt of payment and completion of online registration form. Terms and conditions apply.

Engaging God

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

To find out more and get started today*, click here…

‘Engaging God’ is an interactive modular programme developed by Mike Parsons.

Through using it you will learn how to access God through Jesus who is the Way, Truth and Life, in the realms of heaven and within your own spirit and heart; and how to take up your responsibility as a mature son [daughter] in God’s kingdom.

Many people have had involuntary or ecstatic encounters or experiences where they have engaged God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and the realms of heaven in visions. Whether you have had such experiences yourself or not, through this programme you will learn to develop the ability to engage and re-engage those encounters at will, and to mature in outworking the revelation you receive from God on a daily basis.

Choose monthly, quarterly or annual options for your automatic recurring subscription payments via credit or debit card, and try Engaging God free for 2 weeks – no payment will be made until after 14 days, during which you can easily cancel if you wish.

*Technology permitting: automated process on completion of online registration form and payment plan setup. Terms and conditions apply.

183. The Judgment Seat of Christ

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott –

Judgment, coming to the house of God

Transformation is the ongoing process of restoring our lives to original condition and purpose; finding our unique true identity and eternal destiny. It is also preparation for God’s judgment that is coming to the church (1 Peter 4:17).

We are the church, an organic structure of relationships in the kingdom. In judgment, God is going to give His verdict (and the root of that word is ‘saying what is true’). He is going to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to the church: He will affirm and authenticate the true church, but there are aspects of the institution that we call ‘church’ that God is not pleased with, and He is going to make it abundantly clear that He is not pleased. Then people will face a choice: whether to stay with the institution, the religious structure, or whether to go for the relationship. And God is calling us into relationship.

Matching scrolls?

God is going to look at the scroll of our lives and see how it matches up with our scroll of destiny, all the vast thoughts God had about us; all that was written about our lives (Ps 139:16-17). Do our lives match up with how God intended them to be? We need to be ready to face that question and receive that judgment.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2 Cor 5:10).

We know this is not about sin; it is about whether or not we have done what God asked us to do, and with what motive. Each one of us will give an account of himself to God (Rom 14:11-12). The traditional understanding is that this only happens after we die, but my experience is that you can go to that judgment seat now.

If we build with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the quality of our work will be tested with fire (see 1 Cor 3:11-13). It is the quality that is tested, not the quantity. The transforming fire of God will consume and burn up all those things that are not of Him, but will purify and affirm those things that are.

The Lamb and the Lion

In my personal experience of this, I was given a sealed scroll and brought to a place where there stood a Lamb. Many of the encounters we have in the heavenly realms are full of symbolism, and as I laid my hands on the head of the Lamb, just as the high priest laid his hands on the head of a sacrificial animal in the Old Testament, I understood that all my sin was laid on Jesus.

I still had the scroll in my hands, and now in front of me stood a huge Lion. I walked into the darkness of His open mouth. It was a journey into the dark, until I came out into a place where there was a pillar of fire; and the fire had eyes which were looking into and piercing my soul.

The Lamb and the Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy to open the scroll (Rev 5). The seals on the scroll sprung open as I walked into that place and stood physically shaking and quaking in the presence of God. Everything I had done for Him was written on this scroll. Some things I knew immediately that He was really pleased about, because they were done in obedience and in the right heart. Others He was not pleased about, things I had done for the wrong motive, and I faced the fire of God’s presence as it consumed all that wood, hay and stubble,.and the scroll was purified.

Then the scroll was turned over, and on the back showed all that I had missed, the opportunities to serve God and to do His will that I had allowed to pass me by. Once the eyes of fire had burned through it all, it was completely wiped clean, and God gave me an opportunity for a fresh start, to see my scroll of destiny fulfilled in the scroll of my life.

It was a humbling, life-changing, difficult yet highly motivating experience.

That judgment seat is about recompense, about reward in the age to come. Our reward is to be able to serve His purpose, to operate in rulership, but only according to the measure that we have fulfilled our destiny in this time.

All of us can have access to that realm in heaven where our scroll gets dealt with in the fire of God’s presence. Ultimately, if we want real transformation, we will be glad to see the wood, hay and stubble burned up. The fire of judgment is not for punishment, but for transformation, purification and refining, so that our lives will better reflect Him.

Coals from the altar

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa 6:1-3).

It is through us that His glory will fill the earth. The more we surrender to His purpose in our lives, to transformation, the more of His glory we will be able to display and the more that glory will fill the earth.

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined! Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged” (Isa 6:4-7).

In the fire of His presence there is nothing we can hide, nothing that is not revealed. In the presence of God, we see things for how they really are. This was a real experience for Isaiah. He knew he was ruined, undone. But there is something about patterns of sin and iniquity in our lives, over years and generations, which can be purged with the fire that comes from that altar. Angels are coming today, bringing the coals, looking for those who are willing to be refined and purified.

God wants us to pursue these experiences. He is still asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” He is looking for those who will fill the earth with glory. Like Isaiah, let us reply, “Here I am, Send me!”

Such encounters lead us to our destiny. Think of Moses, Joshua, and Saul on the Damascus road. Jesus lived a lifestyle of encountering the Father so that He could do what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). Daily encounters with the living God in the heavenly Holy of Holies not of this creation will transform our lives, and give us direction day by day.

Identity, destiny and authority

We are being called into our identity and destiny as a Joshua Generation, a people transformed and ready for God’s judgment, authentication and mandated authority; a generation of believers who possess our heavenly and earthly kingdom inheritance and fulfil our eternal destinies; a people prepared to receive and disciple a harvest of supernatural labourers into their kingdom inheritance; a people to fill the earth with God’s glory.

As we come to the end of this series on Transformation, I make these declarations over you:

I call your spirit to attention.
Spirit, listen as a true son.

I call forth your identity as the Joshua Generation.
I call forth your destiny to manifest God’s kingdom
on earth as it is in heaven.
I call forth your destiny to fill the earth with God’s glory.

I call forth your identity, destiny and authority as lords
to administer God’s rule on earth as it is in heaven.
I call forth your identity, destiny and authority as kings
to have charge over God’s heavenly courts.
I call forth your identity, destiny and authority as sons
to stand in God’s presence and be displayed on the earth.

I call forth your identity, destiny and authority as sons of God
to answer the groan of creation
and restore to it to original condition and purpose.
I call forth the Joshua Generation
to rise up and take possession of your inheritance.

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Transformation 20-part audio series with slides
(this post is based on extracts from Mike’s notes for session 20).
40 Characteristics of the Joshua Generation (PDF).
Preparing For Destiny (audio series and blog series).
Freedom Apostolic Resources website and Freedom ARC Facebook page

← PreviousNext →

Support Freedom ARC

If our free or paid resources are a blessing to you, please consider making a donation to sow into and support this ministry. Thank you!

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

Get started today!*

To find out more about the Engaging God programme, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on receipt of payment and completion of online registration form. Terms and conditions apply.

182. Not Of This Creation

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott –

Therefore I urge You, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present Your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is Your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of Your mind, so that You may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:1-2).

Spiritual service of worship

We are spirit, so this is what we were created for. ‘Service’ and ‘worship’ are exactly the same Greek word, and they go together. You cannot worship Him without serving Him; nor serve Him without worshipping Him. My service, my worship, is God’s will for my life, my eternal destiny; and it will be revealed as I come and offer myself as a living sacrifice.

A living sacrifice

We can treat this living sacrifice as an analogy, as most of us have probably always done, or we can experientially present our lives as living sacrifices, by faith, in reality. It can be a real thing we are doing in a real place, in the presence of God.

The altar for this sacrifice is in the tabernacle in the heavenly realms. On a macro scale, the tabernacle is a pattern of the heavenly realms, but on a micro scale it is also an actual dimensional realm of kingdom authority.

The sacrificial lamb was prepared by the priest. It did not prepare itself. We cannot transform ourselves, however hard we try. We need the presence and power of God to change us. All we have to do is surrender, and let Him do the rest.

The priest slit the animal’s throat and drained the blood; skinned it, split it open and washed its inner organs; and split open the backbone to reveal the marrow. As we have gone through this series we have seen what some of those things represent.

Head and legs

Finally he chopped off its head and cut off its legs.

The head is all about government, rule or authority. We surrender our choices, our rights and our decision-making; our own head is severed, and we become connected to the Head: Jesus. We have the mind of Christ. We seek first the Kingdom; God’s rule in, around and through us. We seek His righteousness, ‘His way of being and doing right’ (Matt 6:33 AMP). ‘His way of being’ manifests as the fruit of the Spirit; ‘His way of doing’, as the power of the Spirit. We are under authority and we exercise authority, confidently expecting God to add to us all that we need.

Our legs are symbolic of our walk and lifestyle: we walk a surrendered walk, a walk of obedience. The one who says he abides in Him (Jesus) ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked (1 John 2:6).

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal 2:20).

Now we can walk by faith, not sight; not swayed by what we see around us. Having a heavenly perspective, we see things through God’s eyes. God blessed Adam: He empowered Him to succeed; and then told him to be fruitful and multiply; to subdue and to bring the rule of God to the earth. He is still calling us to do the same today.

Jesus is the only way

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).

There is no other way we can come. The only access point we have into a relationship with the Father is through Jesus and what He did on the cross. He is our only means of access into the presence of God in the heavenly realms.

Not of this creation

Jesus went into the holy place in the heavenly tabernacle, and the same passage of scripture says that we can go there too:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation… For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us (Heb 9:1, 24).

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:19-22).

We can enter the same holy place (there is no other holy place any more), and be cleansed, changed, transformed into the image God has of us.

Know the will of God

And in that holy place is the ark, containing manna, the tablets, and Aaron’s rod. The manna (bread of life) is the will of God (John 4:34); the tablets are the Word of God, now written on our hearts (Jer 31:33), enabling us to recognise Him in what goes on around us; Aaron’s rod is God’s authority, anointing and power to do His will and purpose (Matt 6:10).

I want to know the will of God for my life every day, so each day I step in to where God’s presence rests over the ark, and I take what is in the ark and apply it to my life. The blood of Jesus is always on the mercy seat, so I always have access to come and make a connection.

My spirit needs to resonate and harmonise and agree with the contents of the ark. When I come into agreement with God, I can expect God to reveal His will, His word, and His heart, and to release His authority. I get the thoughts of God, and I ask Him to show me if there is anything He wants me to do today, anything I need revelation of, anything I need specifically to do. If not, I ask Him to touch my heart so that my heart will see and recognise Him around me.

God’s will has a frequency. Resonance happens when I vibrate at the same frequency as God, to produce harmony and agreement; that is when authority and confidence come. Since God has told me to do something, I can be completely confident that He is going to give me everything I need – the authority, the power, the resources – to accomplish it.

Practice

I administer the kingdom government of God through my life, with authority and power, in the sphere of influence He has given me. But it is heaven first, earth second: I need to know the will of God in heaven before I can outwork it here on earth.

I encourage You to practise engaging until You can live and operate out of the revelation you have accumulated, and it becomes a pathway of entrance.

When you learn to drive a car, at first the driving instructor has to constantly remind you to think, be aware, look in your mirrors, step on the gas, apply the brakes and so on. But once you can drive and have built up some experience, you do it all without thinking; it comes as second nature to you.

When I first began to access heaven, it used to take me quite a long time. I was going through the process, learning to present all the different parts of the living sacrifice. Now, I can go from here in this dimension right to the very presence of God in one step, following the pathway I have learned. This is what we mean by learning the protocols of engaging heaven, so that we can step into whatever realm of heaven we need to, whenever we need to, in order to bring the rule of heaven to earth.

We need to live on the other side of the veil, in the realm of His presence. The earth responds when we govern from beyond the veil, no longer looking to live on the earth out of the supply of heaven (great though that sounds), but living our life both in heaven and on the earth, in dual realms, at the same time; no longer trying to get heaven to come down to earth, but to be in heaven, and bring heaven to earth with us.

Let’s engage as we step in:

Jesus, I thank You that You have opened up the veil.
You are the door, the matrix to the Father
into the realm of His presence

I thank You that You have torn the veil.
So today by faith I step through the veil of the natural world
into the realm of Your presence.

I thank You that while I am standing here in Your presence
I am a gate of eternity.
I open the gate of eternity in me
and I receive the realm of eternity.

I receive the fullness of the breath of God into my body
[breathe in]
that my body would take on the reflection
of who I am in the kingdom as Your son.

Father, I engage that and I push and pull it in
and draw it into my spirit being.
I ask You to breathe into me while I am in Your presence,
Breathe Your spirit and Your being into me.

I draw it into my spirit being
so I become one with You

I step back into the atmosphere of the earth
to administer the breath of God.
[breathe out]
I breathe out the breath of God
into the atmosphere of the earth around my life
to establish Your kingdom.

I step forward into the realm of Your presence.
I open my life to expose my inner being to Your presence.
All that I am, Father, I make open
for Your presence to gaze upon.

Jesus, You are my high priest,
You take my living sacrifice and make me clean.
I receive Your purity and holiness
through the absolute cleansing of Your presence.

Lord I breathe You in,
Baptise me afresh in Your Holy Spirit.
Bring me to the house of wine
to the banqueting table of Your presence
under the covering of Your government and love.

I ask You to fill me with the wine of Your love and presence.
I drink the wine of Your presence
and engage this as provision for my life
out of the realm of heaven.

I step back into the realm of earth
and release the wine and atmosphere of Your presence
into this atmosphere around my life.

I release it out of my spirit being
through the matrix gate of eternity
into the atmosphere of the earth
to administer Your kingdom through me.

You can find your own words; you do not have to use these. But as you practise stepping in by faith day by day, you will start to engage. And as you step out, things will begin to change. You will be bringing God’s kingdom into the atmosphere around your life, to His glory.

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Transformation 20-part audio series with slides (this post is based on extracts from Mike’s notes for session 19).
Preparing For Destiny (audio series and blog series).
Freedom Apostolic Resources website.
Freedom Apostolic Resources’ profile on Pinterest.

← PreviousNext →

Support Freedom ARC

If our free or paid resources are a blessing to you, please consider making a donation to sow into and support this ministry. Thank you!

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

Get started today!*

To find out more about the Engaging God programme, click here…

*Technology permitting: automated process on receipt of payment and completion of online registration form. Terms and conditions apply.

180. Divine Nature Assimilated

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott –

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb 4:12).

The deepest level of transformation is the dividing or separating of soul and spirit, bone and marrow: at the genetic level, in our very DNA.

A record of past generations

We each get half our genes from our mother and half from our father, just as they got half each from their parents, back and back generation upon generation. Therefore we all carry a record of our past generations back to Adam and Eve. Only about 2% of our DNA is coded for our physical appearance and characteristics, and 98% used to be considered ‘junk’, because scientists couldn’t figure out what it was for. But it has been found that DNA is not only responsible for the construction of our body, but also serves as data storage and in communication.

Programming DNA

Russian scientists have found that the genetic code, especially in the ‘junk’ 98%, follows the same rules as all our human languages. By exposing DNA to sound frequency patterns on a laser beam, they were able to influence both the DNA frequency and the genetic information itself. Living DNA substance will react to language programmed on modulated laser rays and even to radio waves. By applying sound vibration and language through light the human body can be programmed by language, words and thoughts.

It seems that depression, grief, sadness, anger, negativity and unforgiveness can actually program our DNA to produce sickness and disease in our cells, whilst praise, joy, peace and forgiveness can program it to produce healing, health and wholeness.
Could it be that anointed prayer and laying-on of hands release frequencies that can repair, restore and reprogram our DNA, resonating and vibrating with heat and power? People have been healed during worship services, as their DNA responded to the sounds of heaven.

Faith words

We can apply faith words to change and call things back into wholeness. Matter is never destroyed, but just changes form, so something that once was can be called back into existence. Lost limbs, for example… And we know of the opposite effect too, instances in which tumours have dissipated on command. Could we direct things to change form? Jesus changed water into wine.

If you mix God’s grace (divine enabling strings of power that exist in the fabric of all our beings, at a sub-atomic quantum level) with faith filled words of agreement, that will produce a charge of anointing power.

Genetic triggers

We need to resonate at a frequency that can change things at a DNA genetic level. In that 98% of DNA, there are latent switches waiting to be triggered – by nurture, trauma, the environment, sin, or generational behaviours. We know that some conditions run in families, though not all members of the family may exhibit them. That is because these genetic switches turn on or off certain genes, giving individuals a predisposition to:

Disease – heart, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, liver, kidney etc.
Poor mental health – depression etc.
Addictions – alcohol, chemicals, food, sexual
Behaviours – sexuality, criminality, religious, occult

It is not that genetic factors waiting for triggers are any excuse for licence. We know that God always makes a way to escape from temptation, so we are all responsible for our own behaviour. Rather, it is that God desires to transform our lives if we will cooperate with Him. Perhaps we should consider just what we want to pass on to our children.

Transformation

There is a solution. It is called ‘repentance’ (which, as we know by now, really has nothing to do with ‘saying sorry’ and everything to do with choosing to come into line with how God thinks and speaks about us). We can be transformed from these genetic factors and conformed to the image and DNA of God; we can be restored to wholeness. We can apply the power of encountering God’s DNA in communion.

Supernatural abilities

There may also be triggers for God-like latent abilities or other supernatural abilities, already contained within our DNA. As we surrender ourselves wholly to Him, God may ‘turn on’ certain abilities that have been lost.

So the enemy counterfeits real abilities that Jesus demonstrated? We should not allow that to put us off demonstrating the authentic. Again, the secular world have picked up on these things, so you see plenty of books, films and TV series about characters who actively use ESP and telepathy, can fly, become invisible, teleport, heal, or manipulate matter. Although they may be presented as science fiction, these things have a basis in fact. Most Christians lag far behind the followers of the occult and the New Age in demonstrating supernatural abilities, because we have been warned off and told ‘you can’t touch that’.

This needs to change, and soon. I want to be able to do everything that Jesus did. If He could disappear from one place and reappear in another, I want to do that. If He could walk through a crowd of people who were trying to throw Him off a cliff – imagine what that was like – I want to do that. If Jesus was able to walk on water, turn water into wine, multiply food, and do healing miracles, I want to do that.

Jesus levitated into the air when He went back into heaven. Levitation? Surely that’s really dodgy stuff! Yes it is, when it’s done by occult practitioners. Not when done by Jesus. So what about if it’s done by us? There may be need for some of these abilities in the things that are coming. And what are the ‘greater things’ that Jesus spoke of in John 14:12?

The visible spectrum

I believe Adam could see more than we can see with our natural eyes. He had trans-dimensional vision: he could see into the realms of heaven, but he lost that bandwidth perception at the fall. Yet more was lost at the flood, after which the rainbow formed of only seven colours, and at the Tower of Babel, where God took away the ability to move things with sound.

spectre visible — By Philip Ronan, Gringer – File:EM spectrum.svg and File:Linear visible spectrum.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24746679

We can only see a very small proportion of all the colours that exist. If we took the seven keys on a piano to stand for the seven colours in the spectrum of visible light, then a keyboard with all the wavelengths of invisible light would stretch to the moon.

The spiritual realm operates in a bandwidth we cannot see. But I believe Adam could see it, and that God intends us to see it. He wants us restored to original condition. DNA transformation occurs in us when the divine nature is assimilated. He wants us to be like Him, and to be revealed as His sons.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified (Rom 8:28-30).

Search me thoroughly, O God

Abilities latent within our DNA can be triggered by an encounter with the living God.

On the other hand, negative characteristics latent within our DNA can be triggered by iniquity, allowing the enemy access. If sickness and disease, weaknesses and patterns of bondage are lying in wait in my DNA, I want them transformed before they have the chance to be triggered.

Search me thoroughly, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way (Psa 139:23-24).

Other resources from Freedom ARC

Releasing Toxic Emotions – seminar by Kari Browning
Transformation 20-part audio series with slides (this post is based on extracts from Mike’s notes for session 17).
Preparing For Destiny (audio series and blog series).
Freedom Apostolic Resources website.

[Thanks to Ian Clayton who first suggested that DNA might stand for ‘Divine Nature Assimilated’, and RNA for ‘Revealed Nature Achieved’.]

DNA Restoration Process video by Adam Butterick

Support Freedom ARC

If our free or paid resources are a blessing to you, please consider making a donation to sow into and support this ministry. Thank you!

Are you part of the Joshua Generation?

We developed this just for you:

Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek

Get started today!*

*Technology permitting: automated process on receipt of payment and completion of online registration form. Terms and conditions apply.

Living Water

There is a river

Five Rivers

Upstream to the source

Activation

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Ministering spirits

Personal attributes of God

The angel of the Lord

The angel of His presence

The hand of the Lord

The eyes of the Lord

The fear of the Lord

Word of the Lord

How many angels are there?

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What are angels?

Wickedness in the heavenly places

Surrounded by an angel army

An opening portal

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Active or passive

Seeing in the spirit

Harmony

Spiritual sonar

Visions

Four kinds of wisdom

A place of rest

My prayer for you

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22. The Joshua generation will encourage people to hear the word of God directly

We are the house of God, we are the gate of heaven

God speaks

God of the journey

God wants to meet with you today

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14. The Joshua Generation will be filled with the spirit of wisdom

The seven spirits of God

20. The Joshua Generation will equip the people to be consecrated (or sanctified) – set apart, dedicated and holy.

Pruning

Spies

Consecrate yourselves

The mobile court

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Judgment, coming to the house of God

Matching scrolls?

The Lamb and the Lion

Coals from the altar

Identity, destiny and authority

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