Testimony: He shall cover you with His feathers

Among several significant signs in our ministry, feathers have been a re-occurring one which always serves to validate whatever is happening at the moment and increase the level of faith in the room.

Here is a recent story of a string of feather appearances.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a young friend over a Mexican meal while showing him pictures in my phone of my personal experiences with feather signs.  As I was telling the stories that accompany the pictures, a feather softly drifted down between us and landed on the edge of my glass.  I pointed it out and we kept talking about feathers and what they meant.  Shortly another feather about 1/4″ long drifted down between us, at which I licked my finger and caught it.  He was impressed, to say the least.  We continued talking about this type of ‘sign’, when not more than 5 minutes later a third feather about 1/2″ long drifted down between us.  Again, I whet my finger and gave it to him.  We were both amazed and delighted at the confirmation of Heaven’s approval.

Bear in mind that I want to be able to firmly believe what I’m seeing and saying, so I looked around the room and could not find any other feathers in the room, nor was there any evidence of birds or down-filled coats.

Well, less than a week later I was with Tim Nelson (director of Wilderness Prayer Center in Wells, MN) and we were driving in his pickup truck through the frigid cold and blowing snow.  At the moment that we were talking about the supernatural breaking into the natural, a feather drifted down from his truck cab ceiling.  We were both amazed at the timeliness of God.

Three days later I was speaking at the Upper Midwest Global Legacy Leaders Advance at Destiny Church in Rochester, MN where Rod Marquette is pastor.  I began to ‘water’ the atmosphere with the testimonies of various signs manifestations… and exhort the leaders that we should have an expectation to see supernatural signs take place in these very gatherings.  While I was speaking, several signs were observed and shared with those around.

– A gold colored flake appeared on a man’s hand.

– A feather floated down in front of a lady during worship.

– Gold dust covered both hands of a lady.  She showed everyone.

– A feather appeared on the sleeve of a lady’s sweater.  She showed many.

– A feather fell onto the sleeve of a man’s coat.  He showed it to others.

– Several physical healings occurred during the meetings.

Needless to say, faith for the supernatural experienced a significant boost.

After the ‘Advance’ one of the leaders texted me saying that while they were driving home, when they ejected a CD from their player, a feather came out with the CD.  Now, that is pretty cool because I’m not sure how that is even physically possible.

Then a few days later, when they cleaned the room where the ‘Advance’ meetings were held, they found over a dozen more feathers.  Here’s the Facebook post from an elder of that church.

“Wendy was cleaning the church sanctuary and found these little white feathers from all over the room. The same ones that were appearing last Tuesday during the UMGL meetings. Papa God is so fun!” – Cecil Calvert

As you might guess somebody commented asking if they were from a down-filled coat… and honestly I would ask the same question.  But Cecil commented that the feathers were from all over the room, not just in one place.  There had been NO birds in this room.  Here is a picture of the actual feathers.

And it doesn’t stop there.  (Remember the room has now been cleaned)  That following week during their school of ministry in the same room, three feathers were spotted as they fell near people during ministry time.

And… one of the students had a feather fall from the ceiling of his car while he was driving home from the ministry school that very evening.

Now I’m sure that for those who have never heard of feathers as a sign, you’ll likely have some legitimate and sincere questions.  But in my history, feathers are a bonafide manifestation through which God encourages His people.

What do they mean?  Well, Ps 91 says, “He will cover you with His feathers”.  So… He is here!  Or it could be an indicator that angelic help is present.  But in the very least, it means Father wants us to know that His manifest presence is among us.  And I’ll say Amen to that!

Thank You God, for the many times You break out of the unseen realm into the seen realm and use it to secure our hearts and our ways in You! 

— MLH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Signs: Do they still happen? Why?

Someone asked me recently, “What’s the deal with signs?”

A short response to that might be summed up by Bill Johnson’s quote: “If you’re not going anywhere new, then you don’t need signs.”

I think any conscientious self-respecting saint aspires to grow into new places in God.  And if we’re growing into new places then ‘signs’ become a road-sign to help us know that we’re on the right road.  This is no different from our dependence upon a map or GPS in our travels to a new destination.  Signs help secure our hearts in confidence that we’re being led by His presence. 

Here are a few reasons that I like signs.

1)  They give indication of Heaven’s involvement and favor.
2)  They help convince the doubting mind of God’s reality and nearness. 
3)  They serve to surround our lives with frequent expressions of Father’s love.

And what does (perfect) love do?  It drives fear away! (I John 4:18)  So if we’re having fear/insecurity issues, maybe we’re not having enough evidence of Father’s love expressed in our life.  

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God explains His ‘gold standard’ of authenticating His word, by requiring “two or three witnesses” to establish a thing (II Cor 13:1; Deut 19:15; Matt 18:16, etc).  

Some believers say that we shouldn’t use signs or fleeces now-a-days because Holy Spirit abides in us and he gave us a good brain to use.  To that I would ask, “So how is your track record when it comes to making decisions?”  If you’re satisfied with your percentage of success, then stick with your method.  If you’re disappointed occasionally, then you may want to try another option.”  I’ve presented my tried and tested method here and some tools here.

Here’s a side-bar question that deserves some serious consideration: In our walk with God, when does He get the opportunity to exercise His sovereignty in our decision-making?  Do we invite Him… or does He have to invade… or do we end up paying the consequences of doing it ourselves?  And what commentary does our answer say about our relationship with Him?

Others say that a believer shouldn’t ask for signs… we shouldn’t seek God for his hand (gifts/things/signs), we should only seek His face (His heart/presence).  But if we get His hand, then just look up a little higher and we’ll see His face.  They come together, if we want them.  

But God so wants to establish us in His love that He’ll use any method to confirm His love to us.  He even asks us to ask Him for a sign!  It’s true!

“Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” – Isa 7:11

Ahaz the king, responds with, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”  But God is so committed to establish us that He responds, in essence, “Do you think you are going to weary Me?  I’m going to give you a sign anyway…”

I’m confident that the mindset that shuns signs, robs us of more opportunities to hear God’s voice and see His love demonstrated around us.

Jesus said that signs would follow those who believe.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will 1) drive out demons; they will 2) speak in new tongues; they will 3) pick up snakes with their hands, and if they 4) drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will 5) lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.” – Mark 16:18

But it goes without saying that these five signs are not the total scope of signs available to believers.  Just look around in our modern times and we can see many other signs attesting to the “believing” saints.

So what signs are acceptable on our list?  Is our list ever-growing?  Could creator God create a sign that we have never heard of?  Would that be okay with us?  Are we looking for more signs… or trying to disprove the signs?  Here’s a list of a few current ones:

Gold dust/gold flakes/gold teeth
Feathers –
Angel appearances/lights – Acts 20:8
Gem stones – cut/uncut
Meteorites –
Pennies –
Manna –
Fleeces –
Glory cloud – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQrTjbzbByA
Rain without clouds… or inside buildings –
Laughter/tears –
Shivers/chicken skin/goosebumps –
Oil flowing out of a Bible, walls, pulpits, palms of hands –

Are we multi-lingual?  How many ‘languages’/signs occur in our life?  Are we fluent in these languages?  Are we familiar enough to understand what they mean when these signs show up?  Think of it; if God can only speak to us through the Bible, then we can only hear from Him when we’re reading it.  Wouldn’t it be awesome for Him to be able to speak through anything at anytime?  And if we’re familiar with the unique ‘language’ that He’s speaking at the time, then our lives can get fortified accordingly. 

This is normal part of life for the believing believer (Mk 16:18).  So, let’s say it together, “Lord, we invite Your voice and presence to manifest in any way You would like.  Amen!”

Soon, I’ll post some personal stories of signs.

— MLH

What if: Ye are gods?

Someone asked me this question:

If someone in explaining our co-heir status with Christ and children of God and they used the term “little gods”, but qualified it by stating that apart from Jesus we are nothing, would you say it was okay?  If not, can you explain?

Good question…  let’s take a stab at it.

For the easy part of the question “apart from Jesus we are nothing”… the answer is, Yes!   Jesus said, “I can do nothing apart from my Father.” – John 5:30 and other similar verses.  We have “no good thing” (Romans 7:18) in us apart from Christ.  And “the wages of sin is death”.  So I’m toast without Him.

Now the rest is going to be a wild ride and potentially messy… and there is sure to be kickback from this subject.  But let’s dive in, anyway.  🙂

Mormons believe that after we die we become gods and procreate other gods… eventually ruling over other worlds, etc.  (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-23 and Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.2, p.48)   That’s a stretch for me.

Even though I don’t intend to validate the Mormon persuasion, there are some verses in the Bible that give some latitude in that direction.  For instance, Paul says, “Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!” –  I Cor 6:3   (I just wish there was even a morsel more to help us understand this!!)

So let’s start with some Scripture to stir things up!  Does the Bible say anything about us being gods?  In the beginning… remember, we were made in the likeness and image of God.  

“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule…” – Gen 1:26

In the Old Covenant, Adam’s sin robbed us of our ability to see our true identity.  We “fell” a long way.  But then in the New Covenant, our original identity is revealed and offered to us, through the righteousness of Jesus.  We’re asked to believe, by faith, that we were “raised” back up to our original place of being seated with Christ.

“For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.” – Rms 8:20

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” – II Cor 3:18

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” – Rms 12:2

So how do we get there……..?????  Our minds have to be renewed!

And Daniel says, “Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.” – Dan 7:27

It looks like we end up having a great deal of authority and rulership… even “sovereignty” over angels and kingdoms, etc.

Wow!  This is heady stuff… something that most saints are not capable of handling wisely… because we’re either 1)  too insecure in our own identity and position of favor in God to even acknowledge it… so we just choose to ignore it… or worse yet, disbelieve it.  Or we’re 2) too arrogant, self-centered and shallow in our relationship with God and so we grasp for authority and power which ends up shipwrecking us.

Neither of those options is good.  But at the same time, neither of those responses negate the truth of the previous verses.

But here’s the kicker when it comes to your specific question regarding ‘little gods’… the Holy Bible actually calls us gods.

“I said, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” – Psa 82:6

Did we hear that correctly?  Did the Psalmist just call us gods?  Yes!!  But it gets even more ‘troublesome’ when Jesus quotes this same verse to the Pharisees:

The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”

Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’?  “If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? – John 10:34-36

As we can see, this causes a lot of consternation to the religious mind.   None of us wants to call ourselves gods.  But Jesus called us gods!  And he even used it as a ‘courtroom’ tactic to rebuttal the religious theologians of His day.  He quoted their own theology back to them.  And notice, He says, “Scripture cannot be broken”… in other words when the Psalmist said, “Ye are gods”, then it’s true!

I am confident that our status in God is SO MUCH MORE than we can even come close to comprehending right now.  Our sin consciousness has compromised our ability to think and see clearly.  God sees us as sovereign rulers over all the kingdoms under all the heavens (Dan 7).  He sees us as capable… or at least destined… to judge angels (I Cor 6).  He calls us gods… not so we will get a big head or arrogant… or start wars with it.  He wants us to feel the invitation into freedom from our earth-bound and sin-conscious false identity… He wants us to come into our true identity… this true identity which will satisfy Creation’s groan.

“All creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal who his children are.” – Rms 8:19

New Century Version (NCV) says it this way; “Everything God made is waiting with excitement for God to show his children’s glory completely.”  Sadly, Creation knows more about us than we do.  Creation can hardly wait until we’ve discovered that we are the rightful authorities to adjudicate righteousness in the earth.  Creation will breathe so much easier when we exercise our righteous sovereignty over all the earth.  And it can hardly wait for God to unveil our stunning glory to us and to the world.

Then Jesus further ‘compounds our problems’ of trying to come to terms with this ‘god-likeness’ subject, when he said,

“May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.  May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.  I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one.” – John 17:21-22

Whoa, Jesus!!!  You want us to be homogenized into oneness with You just as You and Father are homogenized as one??  That’s HUGE!!!  And You say that You’ve given us the same glory that Father gave You?  Wow!!!  You must really see something in us that we can’t see with our current religious lens!!

Now listen to Paul in II Cor 6:13, “Be not unequally yoked.”   Now if humans are supposed to only marry equals, then wouldn’t it be a matter of God’s integrity that He would require Jesus to only marry someone who is equal to Him?  Hmmm… think on that.

Then Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, states in Eph 1 and 3 that he wants us to “be filled with ALL the fullness of God”.  O my!!!  That just about blows a fuse in my brain!!

“… now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” – I John 3:2

This sounds like Col 3:4, “When (as often as) Christ who is our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with Him in (that same) glory.”  (parenthesis mine)  The revealing of Christ has the overwhelming power to transform the beholder into His same glory… each time we behold.

It just gets ‘messier’ (or awesome-er, depending on your perspective) the more we look into this subject.

A few years ago, I heard someone say that when they were pondering this issue they heard Jesus say, “You and I are one.  I am you and you are me… the only difference is, I am God.”  In light of our previous conversation, this insight begins to make sense for me.  Of course, we’ll never believe that we replace God, nor compromise His Divinity or Deity… but doggonit, there are just too many pregnant Scriptures to simply write-off this ‘gods’ idea.  I know I don’t feel like it in my soul man and natural thinking… but we must remember that the only way we get anywhere in the Spirit realm, is by FAITH… by just believing what He says!

Listen to what Jesus’ best friend John, said in I John 4:17, “We are as He is in this world.”

They say that true humility isn’t trying to be ‘super humble’ by self-effacement, self-abasement or belittling the grand-ness of what God says about us.  Rather, it’s saying, “God you know me better than I know me… So I believe and agree with You.”  That’s humility.

Most of the body of Christ is not ready to handle the magnitude of this.  We’re too fallen in our perspective of ourselves.  And since we’re admonished to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3), when asked this question, I would probably try to dodge and skirt the issue right now unless I’m talking to people who are genuinely interested.  Jesus was good about dodging the brunt of a question, by asking another question, at times.  He knew there were truths that the audience couldn’t handle yet (John 3:12; John 16:12).

Knowing that Jesus can’t tell us certain things yet, truly saddens me.  And of course, it saddens Him… “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem….  How I would have gathered you unto me… but you wouldn’t” (Matt 23:27).

So we’re in a very awkward in-between stage in history.  We’re not happily ignorant saintlets any longer.  We’ve been partially enlightened enough to know that there is more.   But we’re not fully enlightened yet… and most of Christianity is not even as far as we are.   So it’s not likely that we can enjoy the widespread celebration of these exciting revelations for quite some time.

I guess that means we’re going to have to be “be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves” when we talk about these matters.

I’m sorry this is not as clean and tidy as one might have hoped.  But we’re carrying many other revelations that haven’t come fully ‘of age’ yet, so you’ll know how to carry this one too.  That’s part of what’s unique about pioneers, they see things… and carry things from the future that are ‘before their time’.  Pioneers must walk carefully before God and man until these things can be fully revealed and released ‘wholesale’.  In the meantime, we pray into them and share these revelations as the Lord gives us opportunities.

More grace to you!

— MLH

SP True Stories: Bill rings up Zero!

(From a friend)

Two nights ago I picked up a ministry friend from the airport and gave him a ride home as a way of sowing into the Kingdom of God.

Afterwards I stopped at Denny’s restaurant for some hot tea and an English muffin.  When I went to pay my bill, the cashier kept ringing it up and even though the items were listed here, it kept coming up with a Zero balance.

She said, “Well, God must to want to bless you because this has never happened before.” I say, “Yay God! YOU ARE GOOD ALL THE TIME!”  🙂 

It was ‘one of those signs’, as Bill Johnson says, ‘that makes you wonder!!’

It wasn’t the amount that was important to me.. it was that it even happened at all!!

THANK YOU, LORD!

— TJ/CA