We need to talk about a pattern that I’ve experienced many times and in fact, I’m going through it again right now as I type this out. The pattern I speak about is the one that got me to where I’m at today and it’s one you need to adopt yourself if you are ever going to get anywhere with God. That pattern however is not one that the church overall accepts, but it is 100% Biblical. If you’re wondering what that is, it’s got everything to do with those ‘inconvenient’ verses where Jesus said things that most people run away from and even deny outright. Let’s talk about this today and when we’re done, I’m going to show you how to get results with God in areas where you are totally stagnating. In the process, I’m also going to put something into context that will prove to you why you must do what I’m saying here.

From Spiritual Death To A Life Changing Revelation

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew 11:12 (KJV)

The year was 2011 and I was deployed to Iraq with the US Air Force. Just before I got there, I had been chatting with someone from South America who God sent to me to help me learn things I had been falsely led to believe were no longer in existence. We are talking about the supernatural as is clearly seen in the Bible — dreams, healing miracles, speaking in tongues, and all the rest. The girl (young woman in her 20’s) I had been chatting with online was telling me things I had never heard before in any of the churches I had spent my entire previous 40 years of life in.

The thing is… I knew for a fact that what she was telling me was true and I knew it because of her heart and spirit. She did not come across as all the others I knew from my decades of churches. She was not a religious robot telling me some dead textual script with no inspiration from the Holy Spirit (like everyone else I had met before that). NO. She had a pure heart and she was humble. I did not just “hear” what she was saying and make some intellectual agreement with it — I could actually “feel” what she said deep inside. In fact, at one point she told me about an experience she had that I still remember to this day.

One day, she saw an injured animal in the backyard of her family’s house. It was a young chicken that had been stepped on by accident by someone at the house. She saw that injured bird barely moving around and she felt very sorry for it. She touched it and prayed that it be healed and later that day, she saw it was perfectly normal again. Her prayer caused that young injured chicken to be healed. When I heard that story, it hit me in ways I cannot put into words. It was the humility and pureness of how she told me that, like an innocent child that stopped me. I got all choked up and I could not even speak. I started crying and I knew for a fact God had just proved to me that healing miracles are just as true today as they were in the Bible 2,000 years ago.

Now that I’m writing about this story from 16 years ago, it’s hitting me again and here I am, wiping tears away. I still remember exactly where I was when she told me that.

So God used that girl to change my entire life but that was just the beginning of my transformation. For longtime readers, do you remember how many times I’ve told my analogy where I compared myself to the Marvel movie, Doctor Strange? That’s the ugly part of the story but it’s where I draw out the main point of this episode.

Status Quo Rejected (now the war begins)

Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

Luke 13:24 (KJV)

Now that I knew miracles were still true today, I had a major problem on my hands. I had been lied to by many churches of all kinds for 40 years and now I was done with their dead religious crap. I was no longer going to accept status quo (like everyone else does) and I was not going to waste any more of my life in spiritual darkness as I had been.

The problem was, I had to go from 40 years of spiritual death to learning how to make the supernatural show up in my life. I quickly realized that just because I now believed in miracles, that did not mean they were instantly going to happen through me. One of my starting points was speaking in tongues — I wanted the ability to do that but I had a major mental block about it. I could not figure out how such a thing could happen. I read books about the experiences of others and I chatted more with that girl from South America but still, I could not get it to happen.

This caused a major problem for me because God had just proven to me that miracles were real and yet I was up against a brick wall, unable to get them to happen for me. And now we get to the main point of this episode — how did I get from a life of no miracles and no supernatural to progressively seeing them happen in and through me. That is where I tell you how I did it.

There’s something about my personality that can be a double edged sword. I like to be friendly and mild mannered and all that, but don’t let that fool you. I also have a very strong willed side that comes out as often as it’s needed. Truth be told, I’m not always that easy to get along with. There’s a side of me that will put up quite a fight when it has do, especially when there’s something I know I must have and there are circumstances very strongly resisting me in my pursuit.

The Unpopular Truth (that separates them all)

For many are called, but few are chosen.

Matthew 22:14 (KJV)

That’s what I encountered when I knew I wanted to be a pilot. As a teenager, I wanted to fly more than anything and I had two problems — I was terrified of heights and I got motion sickness easily. Neither of those stopped me. I fought through my fear and tendency to get sick but it wasn’t easy. I had to be ruthless about it and I overcame both problems. Ultimately, I went on to earn 5 FAA pilot licenses, including to become a certified flight instructor (CFI).

And it was that same ruthless and aggressive approach I had to use when I made up my mind I was going to have the supernatural and miracles operating in my life. My mental block was as severe as my fear of heights and motion sickness as a student pilot and I had a major fight on my hands. But, just as before, I got very aggressive and I worked through the many trials and failures until I got things to start happening.

First, it was speaking in tongues. I tried everything on my own to get it to happen and nothing worked. Months went by with no success until I finally began to realize I had to go to a prophetic conference in Tennessee in hopes I would get it there. About nine months after I started this pursuit, I got what I was after. April, 2012 at a Perry Stone conference at the TL Lowery building in Cleveland, Tennessee, I got the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I spoke in tongues for the first time.

I cannot understate the war I had to fight to get to that point. No matter how many times I tell that story, it will not do justice to what that was really like. But, ask the girl from South America what it was like chatting with me about this. Truthfully, she got worn out with my fighting with the concept of how to get supernatural manifestations operating in my life. Go back to the Marvel movie, Doctor Strange. What was he like when he finally realized the supernatural was real and then he tried to get it to work. VERY FRUSTRATING — for him as well as for those around him.

I have to tell you that I am exactly like that in real life, exactly like Steven Strange. When I’m in a fight to get something that is being strongly held back from me, I’m not really the kind of person you want to be around. Things get brutal with me and I have a way of saying exactly what’s going on in my head.

Based on how many times I’ve had to go through this process, I can say that this is the one single trait that often separates those who achieve something unusual from those who do not. You have to be willing to put aside your care about how people perceive you and make up your mind that there’s only one thing you care about. Either you are going to get what God says we all should have or you are going to quit and be like everyone else out there who has nothing.

Unpopular & Ruthlessly Victorious

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:14 (KJV)

Sorry but I’m telling you the truth. Look at the examples of those who got major miraculous results. They all had this in common — Kathryn Kulhman, Maria Woodworth Etter, Smith Wigglesworth, Aimee Semple McPherson, and a few others.

What was their life like? Did it look nice and convenient and popular? Did everyone just love them and speak so highly of them? NO.

They all had one thing in common: ruthlessness. They only cared about getting what God had for them. They did not care what others said about them and they did not make compromises with those who refused to do the same hard work.

Today’s “Christians” are too weak and care too much about their personal comforts and the opinions of their go-nowhere-friends. They will never accomplish anything because they are unwilling to fight the war. They won’t fight it for themselves and they won’t fight it for the good of others around them. They just plain won’t do anything God requires to get results.

Well… lest you think I don’t have my days when I’d rather have done something else, I have to admit I have been quite a prickly cactus on many days. I did not always enjoy what God required of me and He’s gotten an earful from me on many of my worst days. How He didn’t strike me with lightning a few times, I have no idea.

If you’re really going to fight these wars with the intent that there’s only one outcome you will accept, then you need to settle this right now. You cannot get to the kind of places I’m talking about by playing it safe and wanting everyone to like you. You are going to have to do things and make choices that make you very hard to be around. Most people will not like you because of that.

I have a very small number of real friends who are on the same page as me. We have quite a number of rough edges on many days and that’s just how it is. We have a calling that came from God and we have chosen to go through with it, even when it seemed we were never going to make it (and we severely doubted ourselves).

I think you get my point by now. I’m not always that great to be around. But I have obtained many things most church people never will. And I’m nowhere near where I want to be. I have much yet to obtain. The same manner I got what I have now is the same manner I will use to get what I have yet to receive. It’s an ugly process but I’m not going to waste my life living like far too many others do. Pick your side. There’s not many over here where I’m standing.

To be continued…

Contact!

Send requests for dream interpretation using the contact form at this page:

---