Shove the Thief Out the Window and Shut it

I got an interesting breakthrough this week.

Usually, when charismatic Christians use the word “breakthrough,” they’re talking about money or sudden healing. Sorry to tell you: that’s not what I got this week. I got a supernatural breakthrough.

A few weeks back, one of the pastors at my church started prophesying. The whole church had spent a good long while praising and getting into the Spirit, and eventually, she started to speak. I recall two basic parts to the message.

1. We should not be picking at each other and causing disunity. I wondered if that was for me, since I’ve been pretty hard on the people at my former church, but I asked God sincerely, and I believe he indicated that it was about other people at the current church, New Dawn Ministries. There must have been some squabbling going on. I don’t have much to criticize at New Dawn. I will offer suggestions about things, like buying new ropes for the ushers to cordon chairs off, but that’s about it. Attending New Dawn is like being married to a gorgeous woman who treats you like a king. You’re not going to make a scene because she burns the toast once a month. This is earth. You can’t expect “perfect,” and if you receive “excellent,” you should get on your face every day and thank God.

2. The second part of the message consisted mostly of the sentence, “Don’t entertain it!”, repeated a number of times. I thought that was weird.

As time passed, I started to see the value of the prophesy. While spending time in prayer, when unbelief rose up in me, I would say, “Don’t entertain it!”, or, “I won’t entertain it!” The results shocked me. Not only did the unbelief wither instantly; the faith that had been competing with it shot out of me like soda from a can that had been sitting in a hot car all day.

I felt crazy faith running through me, up from inside my belly and out through my head. I physically felt it. I felt strength and freedom and confidence. I felt confidence in God’s deliverance, not in myself. It was really something.

Yesterday was a fast day. Ordinarily I try to keep quiet about fast days, but sometimes it’s best to disclose things. Usually, when I fast, I feel like God is a million miles away. I get a horrible headache, and I have no energy. When I pray, I feel like I’m on a basketball court, shooting free throws with a medicine ball.

Yesterday, during the fast, I was praying in the Garage of Blues, and I was using the [prayer] tools I had been given. I prayed in tongues and used praise and thanksgiving to get into the Spirit. I asked for things that would advance God’s kingdom. I waited for God’s faith after each request, and I thanked God profusely when I felt it come. And whenever I felt unbelief, I said, “I won’t entertain it!”

I felt faith rushing through me so hard, it hurt. I had pains in my jaw and behind one ear. I found myself gaping, as though vomiting out something invisible.

I know how nutty it sounds, but I would not make it up. And it shouldn’t sound nutty. God is a supernatural being, and he does supernatural things. His work is the pure, righteous reflection of the fetid, pus-oozing magic performed by ungodly people like santeros and voodoo priests. God is the original; Satan is the copy. If a witch can experience the supernatural, it’s only because he or she is aping the tools God gave his people. It should not amaze us if a Christian raises a dead person or reads someone’s mind. The amazing thing is that it doesn’t happen as a matter of course.

I felt prayers being answered, forcefully.

I find that there are different levels of faith. When I ask God where my car keys are, I don’t get down on my knees and spend an hour getting into the Spirit. I just ask, and there they are. That’s one level. Then there are times when I get close to God and ask for things, and I feel powerful faith shooting through me. Then there are times when I get such a blast of faith, I know the thing is settled, even if I never pray about it again. I think of this as God putting his seal on a prayer. When I refuse to entertain hindering thoughts, I spend much more of my time in the two higher levels of prayer.

On top of that, it’s useful when you’re going about your business. Problems pop up, and you think about the prayers you’ve prayed, and you say, “Don’t entertain it.” And the faith gushes up inside you again. At times like this, I feel as though God is lifting me by the shoulders and propelling me through life, as a tailwind would. And again, I feel that physically, not just in my mind.

The sensation I get is that there are two openings inside me, down in my stomach. Faith comes in through one, and the other things enter through the other. When I refuse to entertain hindering thoughts, the second opening is capped, and the flow from the other one goes crazy.

State of mind is important. Some Christians don’t think believing matters, but Jesus clearly stated that it does. If you believe, you will receive. Assuming you’re not doing something stupid, like praying for cocaine or some good lottery numbers.

God continues to confirm the things he told me back in the Eighties. Prayer in tongues is the foundation of real power. If you don’t pray in tongues, you should not expect to grow much in faith and virtue. I’m sure God has done miraculous things through non-charismatics, but they took the hard route. The kingdom of God is like a tree, and it needs water. Jesus and Paul made it clear that prayer in tongues is the living water.

The Bible tells us faith is accounted unto us as righteousness. It tells us our faith is not our own, but God’s. It tells us praying in tongues builds our faith. If we automatically received all the blessings of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, there would have been no reason for Paul to tell us to pray in tongues and build ourselves up. And Paul never said tongues had ceased. He said they would cease in the future, but that time has not come, because the need for tongues is still with us.

Again, Satan copies God. Satan sends spirits to influence, empower, and even control people. He got the idea from God, who sends his ministering spirits and the Holy Spirit to help and improve but not to control. God believes in free will; he won’t possess you the way a demon or a fallen angel would. But he wants to inhabit you and exert great influence.

The thief comes in through any entrance he can find, like a burglar. He offers you pleasures, like drugs or promiscuity, and then spirits enter you and control you to the point where you can lose your free will. Jesus comes in through the front door. He tells you that you’ll have to serve him and abandon self-interest, and that you may be martyred. Then the Holy Spirit comes in and governs us by consent, leaving free will intact.

God and Satan want flesh in the earth. Satan wants slaves whom he can use and discard. God wants a volunteer army of people he can promote into positions of great power and honor. Satan has principalities and powers. So does God. And we are supposed to be among them. The Psalms refer to us as the kings of the earth.

This brings me to one of the reasons my old church annoyed me. The leadership treated us the way Satan treats his people. They sought self-promotion. They did not share promotion with the people under them. Not to any appreciable extent. In my opinion, they did not want us to grow and have powerful ministries of our own. They saw us as potential competition. New Dawn is different. The pastor teaches that he needs to help us become greater than he is. Jesus taught the same thing. He said we would do greater works than he did.

If you want the Holy Spirit to rise up inside you and stengthen you every day, even when you’re not expecting it, take the path I’ve taken. Pray in tongues for at least half an hour in the morning. Try to go at least an hour a day. Try to pray in tongues whenever you have a minute of free time. You will change, and you will know God personally. Christianity won’t be all struggle and toil, the way the modern scribes and Sadducees would have it. It will be full of supernatural power and success.

God dealt with Adam face to face, and Adam rejected him and ruined his own life. God appeared to the Jews in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and he slew all their enemies and kept them prosperous, and they rejected him. Now God wants to live inside you and give you power and knowledge every day. If you reject this, there is nothing left, so you will have to be satisfied with enjoying your pride.