Tag: Holy Spirit

403. So you think the ‘Word of God’ is the Bible? Think again!

Mike Parsons

The Bible, the Word of God?

I couldn’t move beyond, as long as I was restricted by my mindset and belief system, which was deeply rooted in evangelicalism. For years, I held the absurd notion that certain Bible verses referred to the Bible itself as the “Word of God.” But none of those verses mean the Bible, even though my deceptive sola scriptura programming led me to believe they did. I read the text and interpreted it in the way I had always been taught.

The Bible is a collection of writings, compiled over centuries, that wasn’t formally assembled until around AD 385. It couldn’t possibly refer to itself as the “Word of God” because it didn’t exist in its current form. Those who wrote its books had no idea they would one day be gathered into a single volume called The Holy Bible. That title was given by man—not by the Bible itself, and certainly not by God.

Misunderstood verses

Here are some examples of verses I misunderstood because of my conditioning:

Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” I immediately assumed ‘word’ referred to the Bible.

Ephesians 5:26: “That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” Again, I thought ‘word’ meant the Bible—it doesn’t.

Ephesians 6:17: “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” I thought of the Bible as the ‘sword of the Spirit.’ But in reality, Jesus is the Word of God, and the words He speaks are the Word of God. This verse doesn’t refer to the Bible. My children even played a computer game where you would ‘draw your sword,’ which was portrayed as the Bible. You’d take it out from under your arm and use it as the ‘Sword of the Spirit.’ That just reinforced the idea that the Bible itself was the weapon, which was completely inaccurate.

1 Timothy 4:5: “For it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.” To an evangelical, as soon as ‘word of God’ and ‘prayer’ are mentioned in the same sentence, it automatically means the Bible and prayer—because that’s what we were taught.

2 Timothy 2:15: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” Again, I was conditioned to interpret ‘word of truth’ as the Bible. In the King James Version, it even says ‘study to show thyself approved,’ which led to the belief that studying the Bible was what made you acceptable to God. But that’s not what it means at all.

We need to embrace a deeper understanding. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me.” He didn’t say, “By reading the words in the Bible.” It’s about hearing His voice and following Him. Of course, some of the words Jesus spoke might speak to us today, but not all of them were meant for us. Many were directed to the people He was speaking to at the time.

Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit.” I thought this meant I had to use the Bible to separate my soul and spirit. When I heard teachings about soul and spirit separation, I believed this was something I had to do. Thankfully, God had a completely different way. Jesus, as the living and active Word of God, was able to separate my soul and spirit and reintegrate me into wholeness.

2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled faces, look as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” When I read this, I had no idea it meant I could look into God’s face and see Him directly—face to face—and be transformed by the image reflected back to me. I thought it meant looking into the Bible and trying to identify the image of God in it so I could imitate it. I was so caught up in this evangelical belief system.

Hebrews 6:5: “And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” Again, I interpreted ‘word of God’ as the Bible. But I don’t see it that way now.

1 Peter 1:23: “You have been born again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” Once more, I could only see this as referring to the Bible, rather than to Jesus—the living and enduring Word of God in me, bringing life.

1 John 2:14 says, “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

When preaching on this, I would have said something like, “You need the Word of God! You need to feed on the Bible! You need to read it daily so that it’s in you, and then you’ll overcome the evil one and grow strong.” But the reality is that the ‘Word of God’ in this verse refers to Jesus, who is in us. He has already overcome the evil one, and we overcome through Him. At the time, I would have thought John’s letters—now included in the Bible—were the key to their strength. However, their strength came not from intellectual knowledge, but from their personal, experiential knowledge of Him.

Titus 2:5, which instructs women “to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, and subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonoured,” was another verse I misunderstood. I was taught this meant wives needed to submit to their husbands to avoid bringing dishonour to the Bible. But let’s set the record straight. This isn’t about women submitting to their husbands in some rigid hierarchy. Instead, it’s about being in a mutually respectful and loving relationship. It’s about mutual submission in the context of Christ’s example. The focus is on living in a way that honours God, not enforcing roles for the sake of protecting a book. Jesus is the Living Word of God, and He calls us into relationship with Him.

When we talk about the ‘Word of God,’ it’s essential to recognise that this primarily refers to Jesus, not the Bible. God’s words, whether spoken directly to us today or recorded in Scripture, can be meaningful. But the emphasis must remain on Jesus, the Living Word, who is still speaking and guiding us. He wants us to hear His voice and follow Him.

All God-breathed writings

Now, let’s address 2 Timothy 3:16, a verse often quoted in evangelical circles: “All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness.” This verse is frequently used to argue that the entire Bible is inspired, infallible, and inerrant. However, there are several issues with how this verse is traditionally interpreted.

First, the word ‘all’ doesn’t mean everything indiscriminately. Second, the term ‘scripture’ is often mistranslated with a capital ‘S,’ implying it refers to the entire Bible. The original text doesn’t imply this. In fact, when this was written, the Bible as we know it didn’t even exist—it wouldn’t be compiled for another 300 years.

Let me read this verse from Young’s Literal Translation, which translates it as: “Every writing God-breathed is profitable for teaching, for conviction, for setting aright, for instruction that is in righteousness.” Notice the difference? It says every God-breathed writing is useful—not that every part of the Bible is God-breathed, nor that it refers specifically to the Bible at all.

This means that writings inspired by God—whether ancient or modern—are profitable and beneficial. God is still breathing inspiration into people today, and those writings can be just as useful for teaching, guidance and correction as any ancient text. This isn’t about elevating the Bible to an infallible status but recognising the broader scope of God’s inspiration.

God is still breathing inspiration into people today, and those writings can be just as useful for teaching, guidance and correction as any ancient text.

Unfortunately, I was conditioned to believe that this verse proved the Bible was infallible, inerrant and the ultimate authority. The evangelical mantra reinforced this: “The Bible is inerrant, infallible, and inspired.” But when you take a closer look, 2 Timothy 3:16 doesn’t say anything about the Bible being inerrant or infallible. It simply states that inspired writings—those breathed by God—are beneficial.

We must break free from the deception of assuming these verses mean something they don’t. God is still speaking today, and the Living Word—Jesus—continues to guide and transform us through His voice and presence.

This video blog is an excerpt from Mike's current teaching series, Restoring First Love. Get the full length videos every month, only at eg.freedomarc.org/first-love

Activation

So let’s take a few minutes to engage with God, with unconditional love.

Close your eyes,
begin to still your heart,
and still your mind.

Start to slow down your breathing.

Focus your thinking on God.
Focus your thinking on engaging unconditional love.

Breathe in deeply.
And as you breathe in,
you are breathing in
the unconditional love of the Father for you
as his child.

Wait in that place.
Be still.
Let the love of God,
that unconditional love,
rest on you.

Let Him reveal Himself
as pure, unconditional love.

Perhaps now,
you want to ask Jesus, as the Truth,
to speak something specific to you?

“You have heard it said,
But I say unto you.”
Maybe some belief system,
maybe the way you’ve looked at God,
maybe the way you have been programmed
with religious thinking, 
some mindset or belief system.

Open up your heart.
Ask Jesus, as the Truth,
the Living, Active Word of God,
to show you something
where is He saying,
“You’ve heard it said, you believe this
but I am saying unto you… this.”

Listen to His voice,
revealing something at this moment
that will bring truth to you.
Just let that frequency of his voice engage you.

Related posts by Mike Parsons

400. Living in Union with God: Embracing Our Original Design

Mike Parsons

God wants to take it deeper

As individuals and as humanity as a whole, all we, like sheep, have gone astray, following our own path of independence. But God proactively came to seek and save that which was lost. The Good Shepherd sought out the lost sheep—and still does. He is continually seeking those who are living in lost identity. And a lot of Christians are still living in lost identity, even though they have a relationship with God at a certain level. Whatever level of relationship we have, God wants to take it deeper. He doesn’t want us to remain in the same place.

Mankind may have turned away from God to live in that lost identity and independence, but God never turned away from us. God, as Father, has always seen us as His children through the lens of love. He has always desired that we all return to our first love—our origin. This is the key, and there are a number of Bible verses that speak about this love and its depth. , For example,

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, neither things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing [including ourselves] will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

That’s quite a statement, but it’s based in God and not in us. It’s not based on our ability to maintain a certain standard. It’s purely a statement of God’s grace, mercy and love. The Mirror Bible puts it like this:

This is my conviction: no threat—whether it be in death or life, be it angelic beings, demon powers, or political principalities, nothing known to us at this time or even in the unknown future, no dimension of any calculation in time or space, nor any device yet to be invented—has what it takes to separate us from the love of God demonstrated in Christ Jesus, our ultimate authority (Romans 8:38-39 Mirror).

Relationship

When we go back through Romans 8, we see there are a number of things that lead up to that passage which are talking about our relationship with God. Romans 8:14 says:

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons and daughters of God.

As we come into union with Him, joined to God—not separated from Him in our own understanding—we become one spirit with Him. This union enables our spirit to mature, to grow, and to develop into who we were always intended to be. It helps us discover who we were before we came here.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again… (Romans 8:15a).

Yet how many people became Christians and, through the church or religion, ended up back in fear—living in works of appeasement to an angry God? But God is a loving Father. He wants us to know the truth: we are sons and daughters.

… but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ (Romans 8:15b).

This was impossible under the old covenant. Crying out “Abba, Father” is a new covenant reality. Jesus came to reveal His relationship with His Father so that it could become our relationship with our Father too.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16).

This is what happens in this union: the Spirit testifies to our innermost being, confirming that we are children of God. Not only that, but we always have been; we always will be—we will never, ever not be children of God.

And if children, heirs also—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:17).

Now, this is where the way this is written may challenge some people because it uses the word ‘if.’ However, this ‘if’ is not conditional, as though we need to do something to make it happen. Instead, it is a declarative statement, affirming that something has already taken place: because we are children, we are heirs. Heirs of what? Heirs of God Himself and fellow heirs, co-heirs with Christ in the whole of creation. And “if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him,” is not suggesting that we must endure suffering to earn glory. Instead, it means that we identify with His sufferings because He went through them for us. We don’t have to go through it, other than by identifying with Him.

We originate in God

So if we go back again and read those verses in the Mirror Bible:

The original life of the Father revealed in His Son is the life the Spirit now conducts within us.

So the spirit is now looking, with the Father and the Son, to reveal our original origin and identity, the original life that He intended us to
have as children of God in relationship.

Slavery is such a poor substitute for sonship. They are opposites. The one leads forcibly through fear, while sonship responds fondly to Abba, Father.

This is what God desires: for us to engage with Him as Abba, Father, Daddy, without fear—resting instead in wonderful peace and intimacy.

Verse 16:
His Spirit resonates within our spirit to confirm the fact that we originate in God.

Through this process, God is showing us our origin—who we really are, from the beginning, so that who we are now will be in alignment with who we were in the beginning, not as a product of our lives up to this point.

Because we are His offspring, we qualify to be heirs. This isn’t something we earn—it’s purely by grace. God Himself is our portion. We co-inherit with Christ, since we were represented and included in His suffering. This is very different than us going through suffering. We were already included in His suffering, and we equally participate in the glory of His resurrection. This isn’t something that happens in ‘Glory’ (as they used to call heaven); this is something that can happen now—because as He has been resurrected, so also we died with Him and we are now alive with Him, to fully embrace the glory of that resurrection power that reveals who we really are. You could say that ‘who we really are’ is our glory. It is our true identity, the clothing of that glorious nature we have as children of God.

This video blog is an excerpt from Mike's current teaching series, Restoring First Love. Get the full length videos every month, only at eg.freedomarc.org/first-love

Activation

Close your eyes,
come to a place of rest.
Begin to think of living loved,
being loved in that first love way.

Again, start to focus your breathing,
just begin to slow down, relax,
focus your thinking as you
breathe slowly,
and breathe deeply,
thinking about God,
who is love,
who loves you.

As you breathe in slowly,
you breathe in that unconditional love of the Father.
You’re breathing it into your very being.
Every breath that you take
is a life-giving force of energy,
of love.

That unconditional love,
as you breathe it in,
flows through your being.
Start to feel it flowing through you.
Breathe deeply.
Be still,
as God releases that love
in you,
on you,
through you.

You are cocooned in unconditional love,
filled to overflowing.
Unconditional love flowing through you
as God demonstrates to you how much He loves you,
how valuable you are to Him.

You are the apple of His eye,
the treasure of His heart,
the object of His desire.
He calls you into union and oneness.
He’s calling you
into this union of relationship.
Be filled with love.

Stay in that place of intimacy and love.
Just embrace it.

The music in this activation is by Samuel Lane. 
Stream or download more of his soundscapes at linktr.ee/SMLMusic

389. More Than A Belief

Mike Parsons

Mike: I don’t believe I’m out of the ordinary. I’m a normal sort of person who likes normal, everyday things. You know, I like sports, I like movies, I like normal, everyday stuff. I like making things, I like the garden. I’m not a mystic in a cave somewhere; I have a very normal, everyday life. If I can do it, coming from the background I’ve come from—which didn’t even believe in the gifts of the Spirit or anything, and had no real intimacy with God or any concept of what that might be—if God can do it with me and bring me to a point of dwelling in His presence and living this relationship, then I think that’s possible for everybody.

Mentoring participant: “Listening again to Kay Fairchild, her question this week was, What are we waiting for? She was speaking about Romans and the verse absent from the body, present with the Lord—and how we, as Christians, think we have to die and be absent from our body to actually be with God – and that’s not true. But she said our beliefs are the big picture, and what we believe determines our reality. That’s why people have believed they have to die to go to heaven. She believes we came here upright, that God had finished everything, and we were already upright but simply not aware of it. Because of that belief, these lies have dictated our lives, like penal substitution and other doctrines. She was using Romans 8:19, about the earnest expectation, and explained that our belief about waiting is wrong. There are different meanings of waiting, and essentially, we have to have the maturity to be the sons of God—we already have it.

Mike: Yes, there’s a sense that everything God has done—making us justified, righteous, reconciled, forgiven—all of that is already done from His perspective. But people don’t believe it, and because of that, people don’t experience it. We experience what we believe. So, while it is finished and the work is done, not everyone is living in that finished work because they either don’t believe it’s true or believe a twisted version of it.

Maturity is a measure of growth. You could say, “I’m a child, I’m not mature,” but you could also be an adult and still not mature. It’s not just physical but also about the knowledge of who we are and who God is. Maturity comes when we fully know who we are in the mirror of God’s face. If we have a distorted view of God, we’re not mature in knowing the reality of who we are, and we live in an immature state.

Now, if you think of maturity as growth, you’re not mature until you grow. I can’t say, “I’m 25 years old,” if I’m 3 years old. You have to go through the process of maturity, which is a relational process. In our relationship with God, the truth is unveiled and revealed, so we can then live in that truth. God has done everything for that truth to be outworked, but we don’t just know it as a programmed download.

While the work is finished, we’re not complete in the maturity process until all the things in our lives hindering us from knowing, understanding, and living that truth are removed. That’s a process of maturing, healing, and wholeness. I know some people will say, “Before the foundation of the world, I was perfect.” Yes, your spirit was, but when you came into this realm with a body and a soul, it was a less-than-perfect environment.

Our spirit is disconnected from what we learn in the soul through everyday life. We’re programmed by the life we live, not by what our spirit knows to be true. Until our spirit is reconnected to our soul through reconnecting with God, the spirit can’t bring the soul back into wholeness and agreement with what we always knew in the spirit. Cognitively, our soul doesn’t align with our spirit until this happens.

My soul has never been in the state that my spirit was before the foundation of the world. My soul was born with lost identity. Some say their soul was right, but I’m not talking about original sin or Adam’s loss—it’s lost identity. None of our souls know who we are because we’re born in a disconnected state from God, even though He remains connected to us, loves us, and wants us to know the truth.

That truth has to be relationally outworked on the journey to rediscover who we are from His perspective. Just because God says, “This is how I see you,” it’s not our truth until we mature into it. It is the truth, but it’s not yet true for me. There’s a distinction. What God says about me is absolutely 100% true, but it’s not yet the truth for me until I come into conscious awareness and it is outworked in my life.

This is a relational process that takes time. The time it takes depends on the relationship we establish with God. For some, their relationship with God is the absolute priority, and they spend nearly every day engaging with Him, knowing Him in ways most people don’t. Most people, however, have jobs, families, and responsibilities. These compete with their relationship with God. That’s not wrong. If you have a family, you need to be a good parent; if you have a job, you need to work well.

Still, our relationship with God should be prioritised. A young mother homeschooling four children will have less time than a retired person with no obligations. God understands this. It’s not about how much time you spend, but about the desire and intention. If my desire is for a relationship with God, I will pursue it to the best of my ability.

No one has more time than anyone else—we all have 24 hours in a day. It’s about what we do with that time. A parent may only have half an hour before the children wake up, but they can pursue God in that time.

The waiting isn’t about sitting back and hoping for the best—it’s about pursuing the relationship. It’s not about manipulating God through fasting or prayer. He’s already done the work. He wants us to relationally know the truth so it transforms us, renews our minds, and aligns us with the truth of who He created us to be.

There are various ways of looking at it. Some believe that the finished work of Jesus means everything is done, and therefore, it’s true in them now. However, I think those who teach that can inadvertently cause people to feel condemned when they don’t experience it that way, and many people, of course, don’t. It’s like saying, “I’m saved now because Jesus died for my healing,” and then assuming that everything in your physical body is instantly renewed and healed. But we know that’s not true for most people who have discovered a relationship with God. So, it’s not automatic—because if it were, there would be no relationship.

For me, the danger in allegorising everything in terms of the Bible is that it can make things seem unreal when they are, in fact, real, treating them as merely spiritual. For example, I’ve heard people like K. Fairchild say, “Heaven is in you,” and while there’s a sense in which the kingdom of God is within us, they almost suggest that there is no actual, real heaven to go to. Now, I know the presence of God in us is a manifestation of heaven with us, but it’s not heaven itself. The heavenly realms, the spiritual realms, and angels do not live within me. They exist in a spiritual dimension of a real place. It may not be physical as we know it, but it’s no less real.

The danger in saying that everything is allegorical or spiritual is that it could lead to dismissing literal realities, like angels, fallen angels, or even the devil, treating them as just accusations in our minds that cause us not to believe the truth. People who take that view don’t see angels as personal beings, and they miss out on a lot if they reduce everything to a purely spiritual matter between God and them.

There’s a balance to be struck. Often, when the pendulum swings back towards where it should be, it swings a little too far in the opposite direction before settling in the right place. Some people get caught in that swing, going too far one way. I believe in personal fallen angelic beings and literal angels, and I believe in a real heavenly realm that can be encountered. We are seated with Christ in these heavenly realms, and it’s not just figurative. While it’s true that we rule and reign with God in our lives, the heavenly reality is actual, and we must factor that in.

The reality of our relationship with God has to be balanced. There are extremes on both ends of the spectrum. On one side, there’s the belief that it’s all done, that we just have to believe, and that’s it. But most people who try to embrace that find that it doesn’t quite work that way. They struggle and feel guilty for not having enough faith to just believe that everything is done. On the other end, there’s the idea that it’s all about us, and we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, doing it all ourselves. There are extremes on both ends, but the balance is in the middle: God has done it all, and we must come into the reality of that.

Romans speaks of creation longing and waiting for the sons of God to be revealed, not talking about us waiting to be revealed, but creation waiting for us to mature enough that they can recognise our sonship, instead of seeing our childish immaturity. When we fully embrace who we are, creation will be set free into the glorious freedom of the children of God. That freedom is tied to our glory, the fullness of who we are in God’s eyes. If we don’t embrace who we truly are, creation won’t be set free in its entirety, because it’s ultimately down to us, with God, to express the oneness we have with Him. This is what allows creation to recognise our sonship in the union with our Father, not independently of Him.

When people allegorise too much, it’s easy to miss the literal realities, and this can be problematic. There are spiritual stories in the Old Testament, and while they can carry spiritual truth, the people who wrote them often did so from their own understanding, without a full knowledge of God. The Holy Spirit can certainly bring truth out of those stories, but you don’t need to make every story an allegory to understand it. If you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the Father, they can reveal truth directly to you. There’s no need to go through a mediator like a book to understand God.

Jesus is the truth, the living Word of God, and I think there’s been too much focus on finding God in the Bible through allegory or stories. Why spend time trying to understand God through these stories when you can meet Him, follow Him, hear His voice, and encounter Him every day? I don’t see the point of spending so much time trying to understand Him through a book when the relationship itself is where the truth is revealed. It’s about understanding God through relationship, not through a book.

Now, if people are used to the Bible and need it as a frame of reference, I understand that. But many teachers don’t have a personal experience of Heaven. They don’t engage with God on the inside in a deep, personal way, and they’re trying to explain the relationship using the allegories and truths found in the Bible. While the finished work of God and His grace are important, the relationship itself is the key. People who miss the mystical dimension of the relationship might use the Bible to explain things, but they’re not sharing their personal experiences of face-to-face encounters with God. They’re still making it about a belief system, not about a lived experience.

Believing what Jesus says is important, but it’s so much more meaningful when you experience Him face to face. It’s vastly different from just believing what the Bible says He said. You can resonate with the love and grace of God, but if you’re not encouraging people to have those real encounters with Him, you’re missing the point. It’s not just about believing a set of doctrines or ideas; it’s about living the experience of truth.

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385. Understanding Manifestations | From experience to reality

Mike Parsons

When it comes to what God is doing and how that is going to be expressed, I think people see it from different perspectives. Personally, I see it as a process, as relationship, not as an event. Now, I’m not saying there won’t be a vanishing point where people may have incredible experiences, but those experiences alone won’t be enough for them to sustain that way of living unless they come into the revelation and reality of it in their own lives.

Things can happen to you, but that doesn’t mean you can do them yourself until you come into that reality. You have to step into it to make it part of who you are. For instance, if someone like Justin has seen in the spirit that congregations may just vanish into heaven and do amazing things, that’s great. But when those people return, how many will be able to engage in that way on their own? That’s the key: living a life where you’ve learned to develop your spiritual senses through practice, enabling you to live out those experiences yourself.

Now, will there be a wave of new giftings? I don’t think there will be new gifts, but rather a restoration of what God originally intended for humanity. Think about being clothed in glory, having the ability to walk through things, or engaging with quantum realities like translocation and transport. These aren’t new ideas; they’re simply a restoration of what Adam could have done if he had continued walking with God.

Yes, there are levels of ascension God wants to take us through, but I don’t believe these will happen corporately in the sense that everyone in a group will suddenly be able to do all these things. There may be corporate experiences that inspire individuals to pursue these realities for themselves, but it’s still a personal journey of development. The same applies to spiritual gifts: there’s a difference between being given a gift for a moment and developing the ability to express that gift as part of who you are as a son or daughter of God.

There might be manifestations that serve to inspire people to live a lifestyle beyond their current expectations. But these manifestations are not a guarantee of lasting ability—they’re invitations to pursue a deeper life of relationship with God. It all comes back to knowing who you are and stepping into your true identity. Along the way, experiences that inspire or motivate us are wonderful, but the ultimate goal is for each person to grow in their own journey.

Years ago, there was a trend where people would go to conferences to have hands laid on them in the hope of receiving an anointing or impartation. Some may have experienced something profound or even temporarily received a gift, but the reality is that lasting transformation requires more than receiving a gift. It requires living a life shaped by that gift.

Our spirit is capable of doing everything the Holy Spirit enables, but we need to develop discernment and practice. The key is to align with the Father’s heart and only operate out of what he is doing—not just act because we can. There’s a temptation for people to misuse spiritual gifts for personal gain, like fame or fortune, and that’s not what God intends. The glory belongs to God, not us.

One danger with dramatic manifestations is that people can become overly focused on the individual through whom those manifestations occur, or on the organisers of such events. This can lead to disappointment when those people inevitably fail or let others down. It’s a cycle we’ve seen repeated time and again. That’s why it’s so important to develop our own relationship with God and nurture our own giftings. When it’s your gift—something developed through practice, perseverance, and growth—it becomes a part of who you are.

There’s a difference between a temporary ability to do something and living in the reality of that ability every day. The latter requires perseverance, growth, and development—not just in ability but also in character. Immaturity in handling spiritual gifts can lead to misuse or even harm, which is why God prioritises the development of our character alongside our abilities. When love is at the centre, we can use these abilities in a way that doesn’t draw attention to ourselves but instead points back to God for his glory.

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384. Spiritual Senses | Learning to see beyond the physical

Mike Parsons

I think practice helps, but ultimately it’s about desire, relationship, and intention. Discipline often gets framed as just trying harder or forcing yourself to practise even when you don’t feel like it. But in reality, it’s not about effort; it’s about relaxing into it. When it comes to ascending or engaging spiritually, the easiest and best thing to do is relax. Meditation and engaging with God are always better when you’re relaxed.

Don’t approach it with an agenda. Don’t force it or try to control it. Just set your heart’s desire on the Father, on Jesus, and let them lead the encounter. Whether the encounter comes as a vision or just an impression doesn’t really matter. When you talk about engaging through the eyes of your imagination, think of it as the screen where everything happens in your mind. That’s where you perceive, hear, see, smell, or otherwise sense things. It’s the place where both natural and spiritual stimuli are interpreted.

The brain processes spiritual senses in a similar way to how it processes physical senses—through electrical impulses. These impulses come from stimuli, whether physical or spiritual, and the brain learns to interpret them. Just as a child learns language through repeated exposure to sounds, we learn to interpret spiritual senses over time. It’s a process of practice, repetition, and intention.

If your desire is to engage with the Father, start by simply ‘being’, relaxed and present. Don’t put an agenda on it. Let him set the agenda. When you open yourself up to him without a specific goal in mind, you create space for him to reveal what you need to know and experience. It becomes a journey—a walk with him.

For example, when it comes to things like portals, I’ve never tried to force my way through one. The Father led me through them when the time was right. Early on, I didn’t even go through portals; I just observed things coming through them. Later, when the Father led me to a portal, I went through it because he took me there, not because I pushed my way in. It’s about letting him lead instead of striving to figure everything out on your own.

I used to be the kind of person who always needed to know, to understand, to push through and figure things out. But that was me operating in my own strength, trying to validate myself. When God separated my soul and spirit and then reintegrated them, it set me free from that need. I didn’t have to pursue knowledge or understanding in the same way anymore. Now, I can simply be open to whatever experience he wants to give me.

Sometimes my experiences aren’t visual at all. They’re more like a deep knowing or perception. For example, I’ve journaled encounters with my eyes open, writing down what I was experiencing as if I were seeing it, even though I wasn’t seeing anything physically. The encounter was real—it was just perceived differently.

When it comes to engaging spiritually, start internally. Focus on the garden of your heart, your spirit, and your first love for God. Let the rivers of living water flow, lie down in green pastures, rest by quiet waters. Let the Father set the agenda—what he wants to show you, talk to you about, or take you into. Then, as you follow him, those experiences will naturally unfold.

Don’t try to force things. If he wants to take you through a portal, great! If not, that’s fine too. The key is not to push for an experience just because you want one. Instead, ask the Father to open up what that experience is meant to be and then learn to listen and sense his voice. When you go with his voice, you don’t need to set or force an agenda. Just relax and enjoy the journey he’s taking you on.

That journey will lead you to discover who you truly are. And as you step into that identity, you’ll begin to express it naturally, living out the Father’s heart in your everyday life and circumstances. It’s about being who you were always meant to be and letting that flow out into everything you do.

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370. Abiding in God

Mike Parsons – 

In God’s Presence

That’s where you can abide and dwell, whether you do it consciously or whether you’re doing it unconsciously; it’s all the time. We are seated with him in heavenly places. It’s happening all the time; we just become more aware of it and benefit from it. But it’s happening all the time. You know, I used to want to know what was going on, what you wanted me to do, what my mandate was, and what I was supposed to be doing, all this stuff. I was still driven by an old covenant mindset of works, obedience, duty, and obligation.

I just relaxed as I realised how much I’m unconditionally loved. I relaxed and I just dwell in His presence, in the light of His face, in the heart-to-heart intimacy. I dwell there, so there’s this constant flow of truth, revelation, experience, intimacy—whatever all the different names for it are—that’s flowing all the time. Now, sometimes, yes, I consciously turn into that and I engage with it consciously because it’s great to be in that intimate place of being surrounded by love, light, and truth. It’s amazing, and it’s good to experience that cognitively at times, as long as we don’t make the cognitive experience our goal.

Know by experience

We have to know by cognitive experience; otherwise, we won’t believe. I do have cognitive experiences at times, but most of the dwelling and abiding in His presence is in the spirit, not in the soul or the flesh. It’s in the spirit. My spirit is constantly dwelling and abiding in God’s presence, and that wonderful place of abiding is what brings the peace, joy, and love into my life, flowing all the time. This reveals the Father’s heart. Going back to the first question, it was all about how do you have this wisdom to know what the Father’s heart is? It gets infused when you dwell and abide there. He constantly reveals His heart to you, and you just instinctively flow from His heart rather than what I used to do, which was to want to go and get my mandate for today.

Yes, God gave me that mandate because He’s gracious and merciful. I was still a child, if you like, and I still didn’t know Him that well, so I still wanted to know what He wanted me to do. Now I dwell in His presence and I live my life in a way that is filled with love, joy, and peace, being at rest, and working every day in every situation with that amazing love that He has. Therefore, in any situation, do I have to sort of go and do this SOS prayer to God, saying, “Oh God, help me! I need to know what I’m supposed to do here”? No, I instinctively know what to do, and the more intimate I am, the easier that flow is to just be. I just need to be me in a situation, whereas before I needed to know what to do.

At rest

Now I feel I’m at rest. Before, I thought I was at rest, but actually, I was still needing to do. Now I just need to be, and everything flows out of that being. Most of it is just me being me. I don’t need to have a whole list of things to do. When someone says, “Oh, will you pray for me?” I don’t say, “Oh God, do I have permission to pray for this person?” No, I just need to be me, and if I feel how to pray for that person or engage with them, then I just express that. I don’t need to think, “Oh, how should I pray? What should I do? Do I need to pray in tongues for five minutes to tune in?” All of that was like work, and part of it was that I didn’t want to get it wrong. I wanted to get it right.

Now I just need to be instinctively me in that situation, and I find that sometimes I say things or do things or hug someone, or whatever it might be, instinctively without having that need to know what I’m supposed to do. Because I know that if I’m being me, I’m going to be expressing the father’s heart—the me He made me to be, not the me that I might have been or what other people want me to be, but the me that He made me to be, which comes from the revelation of the Father’s heart that I’m experiencing in that intimacy of dwelling and abiding there.

Enjoy!

It is so much easier than I ever thought. All the other stuff that I used to do, and I am still doing it in the spirit in a multi-dimensional way, I’m still just expressing me in it. I don’t need that great list of instructions anymore; I just don’t need it. Life takes on such a joyful position because I enjoy being. I enjoy being alive. I enjoy being in the garden, I enjoy being in the workshop, I enjoy being.

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369. Living in Abundance: The Wellbeing Economy

Mike Parsons – 

The government of God

Dominion is the rule of God or the government of God. It is a government of life. When Jesus said that the enemy wants to rob, kill, and destroy, but He has come to give us life in abundance, that’s what He meant. It wasn’t a case of just getting through by the skin of your teeth and hoping for the best. It was about abundance. He came to give us a whole, restored relationship and connection to creation. But we have to bring that government and peace because there is no end to the increase of God’s government and peace in the Kingdom of God. We have to seek first the Kingdom of God so that everything else is added to us. We can’t live selfishly or independently. We’ve got to live an interdependent life with God, dependent on His life, with rivers of living water flowing in our innermost being.

Well, what is that river doing? It’s bringing life wherever it goes. If you read Ezekiel, it talks about the temple and the water that went under the threshold of the temple, going ankle-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep, until it was flowing. What was its purpose? To bring life wherever it went. So, initially, that river flows in us because we are the temple of the River of Life. The Spirit is flowing in us, and it should bring life to us, energising, restoring, and making us whole. Then, as recipients of that, we are to flow that outward, creating an environment or atmosphere of it around us—fields of energy. Peter had an energy field around him, and it says his shadow healed somebody. Well, it wasn’t his shadow, as the shadow is just an absence of light. It was the energy within him that created the shadow. Was it the sun, or was it his own light? Who knows? They used the best words they could to describe what happened, but they weren’t scientists using scientific expressions to explain what really occurred when Peter walked past someone and they were healed. I believe he was producing an energy field that brought life.

Our capacity as sons of God

Now, we’re discovering wellness and technology that produces energy fields, life, and health, but I do ultimately believe it will be through the power of our own choosing of reality and consciousness. Our consciousness is expanding to fully embrace the capacity we have as sons of God, just as Adam did, using sound, light, and energy—things we are only now beginning to discover technologically. He had the power of his own mind and consciousness to choose, and creation responded to him as a son of God, to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to overcome, and to rule, having that dominion. But you can’t do that by living independently and selfishly. Jesus came to model this, but He only did what He saw the Father doing. So, we need intimacy with the Father if we are to live that sort of life.

A lot of people just want to live forever, but they don’t necessarily want to live forever in the purposes of God. They just don’t want to die so they can carry on having a good time. Whereas I don’t want to die because I want to outwork the purposes of God. It’s a different motivation. If it’s going to be technology that extends life, guess who will get it first? The rich, the wealthy, those who can afford to pay millions or billions for it. But that’s not how God wants it to be. He shows no partiality. This technology, or these abilities when restored, are for everyone, not just a few. That’s why we must ensure that any discoveries related to health, agriculture, and energy are for everyone, not just some. These things need to come into the right hands and be administered correctly, not just treated as another discovery to be suppressed or kept for the few. God wants to bless every family on the earth, not just some, and certainly not just the rich ones.

Hidden from view

That’s why the administration of these discoveries, such as advances in energy, agriculture, and water, needs to be done properly. A lot of new advances are out there, coming from heaven, but they are being administered away from the usual people who control all this stuff—the financiers who essentially control the energy producers. There have been many free energy solutions out there for a while, but they’ve been suppressed because no one is going to make any money out of free energy. There’s no incentive for it. Boilers and cars that run on water have been possible for some time, but these technologies have been suppressed and could never get funding or come to market.

We need new energy sources not based on heavy metals, which are poisonous, but perhaps on gravity or other natural things that can produce energy. And there’s also the quantum field, producing zero-point energy from the quantum field, as it’s designed to re-energise the planet. We are being re-energised all the time, but we’re not focusing that into specific energy that can be used to power things or run things. So, a lot of interesting things are happening behind the scenes, much of it hidden from view, being prepared to be released at the right time to the right people in the right places.

Let’s be honest, if there were new advances in water technology, for instance, that meant water could function like a gel to irrigate crops, who should get that first? Third-world countries that have no irrigation, living in famine and drought. We don’t really need it in America or the UK, because we have plenty of water and irrigation. So let’s ensure that those who need it most get it first, because that is what God would want. But that’s not going to make money, is it? They can’t pay for it. We want these developments in the hands of those who won’t charge for it.

The well-being economy

So there’s a lot that needs to be in place in terms of the government of God, the rule of God, to facilitate the changes that need to happen to bring about heaven on earth; to bring about the well-being economy, where we focus more on people being happy than being rich. Finances shouldn’t be the measure of the world, but they’ve become the measure over the last couple of centuries—particularly in the last 2,000 years, and even worse over the last 400 or 500 years—where most of the world is controlled by very few people using their influence and money to control things. God wants everyone to be blessed, not just some.

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366. Decoding the Old Testament | Beyond the Literal

Mike Parsons

A very literal perspective

A lot of our understanding of the Old Testament comes from what we’ve been taught from a very literal perspective. However, much of the Old Testament can also be figurative. There’s poetry, and all sorts of things which can have a deeper meaning for us. In Noah’s day, the flood is often referred to in terms of Jesus being the Saviour, and it’s illustrative of how God came and rescued those who were willing to get on the ark.

What we must be careful of is not taking this too literally, as it was written with a different understanding of God. They didn’t have the New Testament understanding of God, nor did they know God in the way Jesus revealed Him. Their perspective was through their own understanding at the time. When we look at it now, we see it doesn’t line up with the God that Jesus came to reveal. So it’s our understanding that needs adjusting, not the idea that God was ever like that. God didn’t destroy the world.

Figuratively as well as literally

Now, there are those who say, “Yes, but the world was totally corrupt, and there were no genetically pure people left other than Noah.” Illustratively, of course, God desires that nothing within us be contrary to His image, the image He created us in. Our lives are being transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we come into that correct image. You can view these things figuratively as well as literally.

When it comes to questions like Sodom and Gomorrah—who caused the fire and brimstone? Well, who causes earthquakes? God doesn’t cause them. Who causes many other things? These are often the result of the natural world being in tension, not yet restored, groaning and longing for the sons of God to be revealed.

Fire and brimstone

Now, when you look at fire and brimstone—fire is often seen as God’s consuming fire. But we tend to think God destroyed them with fire. Fire could also be seen as a purifying force, a purification of what Sodom and Gomorrah represented, rather than a literal destruction of two cities. Some people believe they’ve found Sodom and Gomorrah, pointing to tar pits in the Middle East.

Brimstone actually means “God’s presence”—it’s the word “sulfur.” Brimstone is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and the word used is “Theon,” from “Theos,” meaning “God.” So, brimstone signifies the presence of God, and God’s presence is purifying. These stories can be seen in that light. I know God didn’t cause these events because He doesn’t pour down judgment on people in that way. However, He does judge things that operate against the truth and will bring fire and brimstone to anything in our lives that hinders us from knowing and experiencing the truth and His love. But He’s not destroying people—He’s destroying the obstacles in our way.

There are different ways to look at it. Ultimately, I believe that God is love, God is good, and what He intends for us is to know His goodness and love. A lot of the Old Testament stories are figurative, but they’re written in a way that often doesn’t differentiate clearly between sowing and reaping. If someone sowed something bad, they reaped the consequences, not from God, but as a result of their actions.

The one who accuses

So, who brings about the consequence? The one who accuses and then comes to execute that accusation. We sow, and we reap the accusations against us for what we’ve sown. You could say the enemy brought the fire. In the undifferentiated view of God, if something bad happened, they thought God must have done it. But it could have been the enemy bringing the consequences of their behaviour, as the enemy seeks to rob, kill, and destroy.

Jesus said the enemy comes to do just that. So, who brought fire and brimstone? The enemy. Who brought the flood? You could say the enemy, or you could say the Earth itself reacted to the violence and horror, as described in Genesis 6, where violence was continual. The Earth washed itself clean. There are different ways to view it.

God is good

What I do know is that God is love, God is good, and He doesn’t kill or punish anyone, even if the Old Testament seems to say otherwise. Jesus came to reveal the truth. He said, “You’ve heard it said, but I’m saying to you,” and “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Jesus didn’t destroy anyone. He only wanted to gather them to Himself because that’s what love does.

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364. The Hidden Texts

There were lots of writings that the early church had that were destroyed by Constantine. So, Constantine, in the Nicaean Council in 325, got all of the writings and letters that had been written, that they were using to preach from, took them all to that Council, decided which ones were acceptable, and then burnt the rest. Then they selected from the remaining writings during the Council of Carthage in 385, determining what they considered acceptable, which later became what we now know as the Bible, τὰ βιβλία, a library of books and letters. I don’t believe that God made the choices; I believe they did.

In the original version, there were different numbers of books. For example, what Protestants now refer to as the Apocrypha included 11 additional books. Some of the books Jesus quoted from, like the Book of Jasher, the Book of Enoch, and the Book of Jubilees, were among those not included in the final selection. I believe there were several such books that were referenced but ultimately left out.

Now, why didn’t they include them? Why did they include certain other things? Well, there seemed to be a bartering going on, from what I can understand, that there was a “Well, I want this one, and I want—well, if you’re having that one, we’re not having this one.” It wasn’t an inspired selection, that God told them to put these books in and take those books out. The Ethiopian Bible has 84 books, I think, and that’s one of the oldest recognised Bibles. The Protestant took all of those others out. Even the original King James had the Apocrypha in it, and then they took it out.

So, which books were the books that were in the Carthage one? Well, more than the 66 books that are in the present one—that’s the Protestant version. I remember asking people, “Well, why are these books not in the Bible?” and they were like, “Well, they’re not inspired.” That’s just nonsense. That’s just an excuse for saying, ‘Well, we don’t want these books because…’

And some are letters or documents that were written that were too controversial or complicated for them to accept. Because remember, why were they making a Bible? Because people couldn’t read, generally. You know, probably like less than 10% of the population could read. So, someone had to read it. So, why were the letters read out in the church? Because most people couldn’t read. That’s why they read them out.

So, they weren’t producing a Bible so people could read it. They were producing a Bible so they could actually say, “This is what we are going to tell people,” and they can’t hear anymore. Because, essentially, then what happened was, “Well, we’ve got a Bible, we don’t need to hear God anymore. God doesn’t speak anymore. He’s spoken through the Bible.” That’s what happened primarily.

And then, because most of the Bibles, in the Roman aspect of things, were done in Latin, they were written in another language, which most people couldn’t read because they didn’t really speak Latin. It was a written language, but it wasn’t the common language of the early church. Greek was, but it became the Roman language. And who could read that? Priests. So then it became a priestly thing to tell people and mediate. So it became a mediatorial system to control people because people couldn’t read it for themselves.

So someone had to read it. Well, what are they going to read? They’re going to read the bits [they like]. And well, then, how do people know what it’s saying? Well, because they’re telling them what it’s saying. So then you’ve got doctrine and theology being set by the Pope, effectively, who is “God’s vicar on Earth,” who has the divine authority to say what’s right and wrong. Which, seemingly, for me, is the Holy Spirit’s job, to guide us into the truth and lead us into the truth.

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363. Deconstructing the Pillars of Your Mind

Video summary

The Word of God

The traditional Evangelical view of the Bible as the inerrant and infallible word of God is problematic. The  true “Word of God” is Jesus, the Living Word, and direct experience of God through the Holy Spirit takes precedence over scriptural interpretation.

Biblical passages often used to support legalistic or fear-based theology, including those about the “deceitful heart” and “missing the mark,” point to humanity’s lost identity in God rather than inherent wickedness or behavioural failures.

Redemption

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was not to appease an angry God but to restore humanity’s true identity as children of God. Redemption is not earned through religious practices but is a free gift received through recognizing our inherent union with Christ.

Religious Conditioning and Personal Experience

Religious indoctrination, particularly within Evangelicalism, parallels cult-like control through fear and guilt. Personal experience with God, guided by love and discernment, is preferable to blind acceptance of religious dogma and trusting external authorities (including charismatic figures and self-proclaimed prophets).

Nine Pillars

In my personal journey of deconstruction, I once viewed the world through a framework of nine “pillars,” primarily rooted in Evangelical doctrines but also influenced by cultural and scientific conditioning. The process of each pillar being challenged and ultimately dismantled led to a transformed mind, grounded in love and direct relationship with God.

The Role of Love

Prioritise direct relationship with God through the Holy Spirit over rigid adherence to scripture or religious systems. Love is the ultimate measuring stick for discerning truth and evaluating personal experiences. Actively seek God’s guidance in a process of ongoing deconstruction and renewal, leading to greater intimacy with God and a more accurate understanding of our true identity in Christ.