Main Teaching 4: Teach Revelation

Chapter 4

Teach from Revelation

Man’s Ideas are Wood, Hay, Stubble.
The Flesh and the Religious Spirit can be stopped
by teaching only what God has truly spoken to you

I don’t like throwing scriptures around, people often don’t bother even reading them, but this section from 1 Corinthians explains this topic with some important clarity.

I paraphrased it in the previous chapter, but I’m printing the whole section here and just highlighting a few points.

So note, this is after Paul said he came not in eloquent speech but “in a demonstration of the Spirit and Power,” and he then said:

You can read that again and think about this situation. Go ahead, read it again. The light will begin to dawn!

Highlights you should remember are:

We speak … BUT NOT the wisdom of this age … No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom … No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived … but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. … No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. … [We have received] the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. AND THIS IS WHAT WE SPEAK ….

In a nutshell, we need to teach from divine revelation, not ideas from Man’s wisdom, Man’s perspective, the Wisdom of this Age, lower Earthly logic, let alone Man’s cunning schemes, guess work or popular trending opinions. But this is what dominates modern preaching, Man’s Ideas—which means they are building people up … but only with wood, hay and stubble.

Two Enemies Within

To appreciate just how serious this direction is you need to understand the source of the sickness that is afflicting the church, which comes from two main sources: the Religious Spirit … and the Flesh.

Before I explain these two ideas, I’ll just say briefly that the demonic power that masquerades as the Holy Spirit but is a counterfeit, is what we commonly call the Religious Spirit; and the antidote is the Kingdom. The Flesh, or naturally minded people, has no defense to the Religious Spirit so it dominates the Flesh, but again, the Kingdom is the Answer. That’s what Jesus told me.

The flesh dominates the realm of religion, just as the demonic spirit of religion dominates the flesh. It’s a classic co-dependent relationship.

And once you really understand the source of deception and false teaching in our churches you will want to know how to fight it. Hiding your head in the sand won’t work, it never has. The only way to remedy this error is to embrace the true solution head-on, hearing God speak to you. You will be relieved to know that God talks, a lot! He speaks constantly and coherently to all of Creation—not just to the angels heaven, but he especially loves to talk to his children, the saints, and especially to them while they are still on the Earth–that’s when they need his help the most!

The Answer: hear God’s Voice

All in all, what we will come down to is simply this: God speaks, and you can quite easily learn to hear and recognize his voice. Then all he said is simply for you to teach out loud in public what he spoke to you in your private prayer time.

I would cautiously add to please ONLY teach in public what YOU ARE SURE Jesus has spoken to you! You are accountable for this. The more accurate you are, the better the results. Also, by teaching what Jesus told you, and ONLY what Jesus told you, means first you are teaching Truth, not man’s opinions or lies from the Religious Demon. But also it means you are staying within your own choice calling, not copying someone else’s message (often doing so without their anointing and power and so wasting your time) and also making sure YOUR assignment gets accomplished (which probably no one else will do for you if you don’t your own work yourself).

So what I mean to say is Teach in Public what you have heard Jesus tell you in Private is true … and also share the message he has chosen you to speak forth. Fulfill your task, accomplish your calling, each member of the Body has to do their own part. Don’t leave yours undone by trying to copy someone else’s. Really, once you hit your stride, no one will be able to do your part as good as you!

What, you say? God never spoke to you? Are you sure you had a nap—I mean a private prayer time? I know it’s hard to sit quietly and focus on the Lord. I know the distractions, the worries, the burdens, the tiredness … But just know this as a fact: God speaks. Jesus speaks. The Holy Spirit speaks. Just try and stop them! Getting him to speak is not the problem, really it’s trying to keep him silent!

Oh no! But what if I hear a lie!!?

Then you must ask, but what if you are hearing lying spirits? Is it even safe to ask Jesus to openly speak to you?

Well, you hear lying spirits already! And yet you’re still talking and teaching and sharing! Don’t you know EVERYONE can hear lying spirits already! Most people do. Otherwise they wouldn’t be lost, confused, depressed, deceived, or teaching demonic lies and the false wisdom based on on the opinions of Man!

Even Jesus heard Satan talk to him, but he didn’t run and hide his head in the sand because of it, did he? No, he stood his ground and fought back! He used the Scriptures that he knew were written about him, he armed himself with the mindset to resist the lies, and he resisted the Devil, who finally decided his best bet was to flee.

People say they won’t listen to God speak because Satan also speaks. It’s a sad, cowardly excuse. Be nice if someone says this, but it’s just not an honest answer. They eat food, don’t they? Even though there is so much poison out there! They are just careful about what they eat. They drive cars, don’t they? Even though there are so many car accidents everywhere! They just drive carefully. So why not approach this topic with the same wisdom and cautious optimism? I don’t know why, maybe they just don’t want to be close to God. Yet they still want to be teachers of the Bible. Hmmm.

Listen, the best way to STOP listening to deceiving spirits is to face the issue head on, seek to hear Jesus, seek the Holy Spirit, and be unyielding in your desire for personal purity. Purity in heart and soul will help you discern, so demand for purity in your hearing–be careful what you hear! And then be careful what you talk about and so build in the hearts of other people!

Remember, you are accountable. But you are already accountable and just rehashing Facebook gossip in lieu of teaching purified divine revelation already puts you under judgment. Better not to teach than to teach untruths, no matter how much they are trending on social media! And there is only one way to make sure you know the difference! Face the issue head on, dive into ‘communion,’ seek to prophesy, and find the secret place in your own heart where God is waiting to talk to you, as deep calls to deep, at the sound of his waterfalls.

Do you know what ‘sound of his waterfalls’ brings ‘your deep’ spirit into the hearing of the call of ‘His deep’ heart? It’s called speaking in tongues.

Speaking in tongues stirs up the Holy Spirit and jump starts prophecy in you. Speaking in tongues is speaking mysteries straight from Heaven and it releases supernatural power into your mouth, your body, your home, your family and your neighborhood. Paul spoke in tongues as God had led him more than anyone he knew. That’s how important it is. And yes he prophesied to the People when he was with them, but he spoke in tongues for himself so that when he was with them he could!

Mind your own shop

So don’t worry so much about what if some distant person is not careful and hears a lying spirit and speaks lies in some hypothetical sermon, in some hypothetical church. Is that why YOU won’t sit quietly and seek to hear God’s voice for yourself? Because some distant, theoretical person is not doing it right, again theoretically?

How does that imagined situation affect YOUR ability walk right and serve God in accurate spiritual discernment? You see, that’s just Satan putting distracting thoughts into your mind! It’s a formless fear that controls you! Cast it off!

Stay focused on the solution. Face the issue. Find His voice. Expose the lying spirits. Solve the problem! And go out and spread the Kingdom in power. Show us some of that ‘awesome’ you have hidden inside of you!

What? Did you somehow lose your ‘awesome’ along the way? Well, go back and get it!! My life is less awesome because it is lacking the ‘awesome’ you are not ministering in anymore. Do you really want me to have less ‘awesome’ in my life? No! I didn’t think so! Then go and get your awesome back!! Did you forget the way God used to use you? Did you get knocked off course and began to settle for less? Tisk Tisk. But that’s not who you really are, is it? That’s the cowardly version of you Satan sold to you to protect himself from you. It is itself just a lie. That’s not the image you were made in! That’s the false image Satan wants you to take because that’s the version of you Satan does not fear. But I know what’s still in there—the ‘awesome’ Satan has tried to snuff out! And I’m here to tell you, it’s not too late to fan that flame back into a fire. That is basically what this book is all about!

So listen, hiding your head in the sand of man’s ways to avoid deception is not going to undo the grip of deception the Evil One already has on the earth, on pastors, on the community or on you!

Intimacy with Jesus is the answer. That is the key!

‘Hear God’s Word’ or Bust

So seek to hear the word, the whole word, nothing but the word, so help you God.

What? It scares you to set the bar so high? Well, what alternative do you have?

Hear HALF the word? Get a fraction of the idea right? Get other ideas mixed with the word so you can’t tell what Jesus is saying and what is coming from other voices? And then teach that into the hearts of the people around you in your bible study, into your children, into your marriage? Is that the best plan you got?

Well, sorry but that’s not a recipe for success! No, you need to press on and press in until you hear clearly, be a faithful person to Jesus to explain his message correctly, people are relying on you!

And after all, it’s not that hard.

But otherwise, if you just refuse to listen to Jesus and won’t tell us what he told you, then you should simply not be a teacher! Full stop!

Ideas Made of Wood

I remember a tense confrontation by a man who worked in a theological seminary in Hong Kong and when he began to insult me I saw a vision that above his head were so many wooden poles and boards that made a kind of framed wooden structure—these were the ideas of man built into his thinking motivating his behavior. Non-eternal in substance and non-divine in nature, these were the ideas Christian teachers have of God … but are ideas that are not FROM God.

Another time I was going to be shown Satan’s Fortress and boy, was I terrified! But I strengthened myself in faith that no matter what comes at me, God IN me is bigger, stronger, faster. When I was ready … I faced it … and then I BURST OUT LAUGHING.

Satan’s Fortress?? What a TOTAL JOKE! A child’s play fort made of dead sticks and branches, tied together with loose bits of string was stronger than this!! But was it manned by a vast army? Not even close! There was ONE DEMON making tribal chanting sounds to try and sound like a threat. But it was ONLY a threat, there was no substance to back it up! The demon in this great stronghold was alone, fat and stupid. His weapons? A stick with a rock tied to the end, not even a very sharp rock!

I laughed so hard when I saw the reality of what I had been so terrified of and then he said weakly, “Don’t laugh, it’s all I had to build with.“ All Satan has to build his Kingdom with is dry sticks, dead branches, bits of string—But is it strong? Frayed knot!

I was prepping myself for a FULL ONSLAUGHT against SATAN’S FORTRESS! I prayed for God’s Military Grade Firepower at my command with nuclear warheads, army tanks, bombs, guns … I was sure God’s arsenal was mightier than these weapons but that’s how I stretched my faith in God’s army calling for help—but what I was fighting didn’t need a tank or a nuclear bomb to destroy, it needed a stiff kick and it was done for!

Satan was terrifying me with the reputation of this mighty fortress but his greatest strength, his greatest asset BY FAR was the deception of lies he spoke about how powerful he was. His greatest strength is lies.

I waved my hand at this ‘stronghold’—it was not worthy of so much attention and the demon ran away yelling, “Here they come!!” Yet unchallenged this stronghold was guarding a VAST territory of my life keeping me from enjoying so much provision and opportunity that God had not only promised me but also given me, but this ‘fortress’ was stealing it, keeping it from me.

Wanting to plunder his camp I asked Jesus if I could reuse any of the materials he abandoned and he said No, these are not suitable building materials for me to build anything he wanted me to do.

They were sticks, wood, string … symbolically referring to lies, deception no doubt, but this is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:10-20 that people ministering in church in Jesus’ name are also building with: wood, hay, stubble … it’s man’s understanding, man’s ideas, man’s ways essentially.

If the work you build IS IN PEOPLE, the ideas you teach them, the ideas they live by, and this is what is burned up! And it’s YOUR FAULT!!?? Wow, I don’t want to stand in YOUR shoes!! But isn’t this why Paul continues by saying:

Is this why teachers get a greater judgment, because they are touching God’s people and if the light they are putting in them is in fact darkness, they are harming the temple of God they are entrusted with the task of strengthening and building up instead? Makes sense to me!

And what does this great sin stem from? Again as we continue reading we come to the exact same point … the problem … is Man’s Wisdom.

Just listen carefully!

Later, Jesus told me he was going to reach me to train prophets and then he told me the single most important part of being a faithful prophet. The MOST important thing, he said … is to hear the whole word. … Is that it? That’s the big idea? That’s it! It’s not that complicated after all. Just listen, be careful, be quiet, be sincere, don’t add to his words, don’t take away. Be faithful, just like a humble messenger. But the key to success was not more anointing, a greater platform, a private jet … it was to be careful, to listen and make sure we hear the whole word God was speaking. The great power he have is that we can hear the thoughts and ideas of God himself. This cannot, it must not be undervalued.

So we ALL can hear his voice. Jesus told me that. If you would just quiet yourself down and listen. But yes, what you DO with the word depends on your calling. Package it into a sermon if you are a pastor. Share it with tender hearted unsaved people if you are an evangelist. Explain it in great depth on Wednesday night in a bible study if you are a teacher, or scream it with fire and fury to the unrepentant church leaders if you are a prophet.

It’s the exactly same word sometimes, the same revelation, the same idea, but it is delivered to different audiences differently through different types of ministers. What? You‘re not a big 5-fold minister? Well, if you are a mother, tell it to your children; if you are a husband, share it with your wife; if you are a child, share it with your parents; if you are just a normal person living in a quiet, normal small town … then at least share it with your quiet, normal small town neighbors! This is still an important field ripe unto harvest! You don’t need to be a professional minister to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his words of life with your family and friends! In fact, as we will discuss in a later chapter, the 5-fold’s job is to equip YOU to do the daily leg work of the ministry. They never told you that, but in fact EVERY part of the BODY has a role to play and the Body will only come to maturity AS EACH DOES IT’S PART.

Anyway, let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Let’s get back to basics and look at the root of this topic. Why is it so important that we Teach Revelation? What is preventing us from doing this? What is the source of the sickness we now have in the church that Teaching Revelation will cure?

Again, the two main issues we are facing are the Flesh, and the Religious Spirit. Let’s look at them in more depth.

The Flesh

Jesus explained to me, and I share this often so people won’t forget it, that the Flesh is simply the Human Level: Intelligence, Understanding, Perception, Motives and Desires.

It’s what you do, why you do it, how you understand things, how you see things, at least when it’s not the result of God’s Spirit leading you or enlightening you directly. And it’s not just for unsaved or carnal people engaged in secular tasks, it’s Christians in church using their own human level reasoning, motivation, perception in what they teach, how they teach, how they lead, how they administer their work, how they raise funds, what they use those funds for­—it’s how they manage the household of God, what we call the church when it’s based on the human level thinking … and that’s where it’s causing so much trouble.

It’s just the word!

I heard a man explaining all the wonderful ideas he teaches in churches he is invited to speak at across the world. He explained so many of his personal ideas, some of which I heard Jesus previously and specifically teach me were totally false. Other things he said, compared to the tenor of divine wisdom, just rang untrue. These were mostly just the imaginations of Man, Man’s opinions and sometimes Man’s guesses, and were ideas built to populate his very idiosyncratic world view. He had invited me to come all the way out to his home far away on a remote island which I had to take a very infrequent ferry to reach, because he said he wanted to hear what Jesus had been teaching me; he sounded genuinely interested. But when I got there he just spent an hour telling me what he believed. I just listened.

Finally he ended his sharing by saying, more than once, that everything he teaches is absolutely true because its ‘just the word of God.’ He said this over and over, that all he teaches is ‘just the word of God,’ meaning it’s just the bible, all based on bible verses, and so it’s all 100% correct, obviously. He even said at one point, ‘I won’t argue about any of these points because it’s just the word of God.’ End of discussion! Good for him! Don’t even TRY to correct him!

I saw the pride in his eyes melt away when I finally began to share the true revelation of the Holy Spirit, conversations, insights, visions and not so many dreams but some open heavenly visitations I had with Jesus and a few angels too. I wasn’t trying to brag, I really just want to free him from his prison of darkness and share these amazing revelations that Jesus was telling me. And I also did not want to shame him or humble him, but when the Lord revealed himself that just happened naturally.

The Mark of True Prophecy

Jesus said in Jeremiah, how upset he was that ‘prophets’ were stealing words from each other, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ they claimed, but they were just making things up from their own imaginations. If they had the true word of God he said it would have turned the people away from their sin! Then finally he says,

Let me say it this way, just because you read the bible and teach from it, that does not mean what you teach is the true word of God. You may even think it is the full story, but it is still only the version of the word of God that you understand.

You only teach what you understand; you only choose to teach what you believe will achieve your goals; you only decide to act in the ways you think you need to, to get people to do what you want them to, to produce the outcome you desire! Don’t blame any of this on the bible!

Don’t you see that ANYONE can pick up a bible. Just because people read from the bible DOES NOT MEAN what they say is true, or is a correct interpretation or is the proper use of the word of God. The word of God can be used improperly.

Don’t believe me? What about cults that have bibles but still teach Jesus is not the son of God, that he’s not a divine Being? Mormons and JW’s both do this! The have bibles and deny the One who saved them! What about people who have bibles and teach it’s true, but who ALSO teach you have to obey and follow the traditions of Man on equal authority? When the two are in conflict who wins? The traditions of man and their church obviously, or they would not even exist in contradiction to the bible in the first place!

Also Jesus told us that the bible has so many verses in it that you can ALWAYS find a verse to back up what you want to believe, but this does not mean it is the correct word for a situation, a correct interpretation or the right word speaking to the hearts of people at the right time, in the right season. That is not the right way to use God’s word, not the right handing of the Word of Truth! [2 Timothy 2:15]

Solomon even said there is a time to every act under Heaven, a time to heal, a time to kill … you know the song maybe. The problem we have is in understanding what Time God says it is Right Now?! Is it time to heal or time to kill? ONLY the Holy Spirit can tell you this. If you deny the Holy Spirit speaks you still need to make a choice and that means you must instead rely on your own imagination to determine God’s topics, God’s timing, God’s purposes in that day and season, and that means you will surely get it wrong, act wrong, teach people wrong … I think it’s safe to say, wrong practically every time.

When Jesus began talking to me to explain the Flesh I thought Jesus was going to say it was all that sexy stuff, you know. I was a bit, well you know, embarrassed to talk about it. But no, he said the Flesh is simply the Human Level Intelligence, the Human Level Understanding, the Human Level Perception, Human Level Motives and Human Level Desires.

Mixing Flesh and Spirit

When we see the Flesh on display in a traditional church setting, people kind of understand it. They expect it there I think. But when people start to operate in the gifts of the spirit, especially prophecy, people are more skeptical that someone can prophesy and STILL act in the flesh. How can this be?

Or more so, what if you had a spiritual encounter? Isn’t an EXPERIENCE with God an antidote to acting in the Flesh?

You’d hope so but no. Because so very often even afterwards the way you understand an experience, the way you explain your experience and even the conclusions you draw from the experience may all still be filtered through your normal human understanding, perceptions and expressed according to your motives, desires, etc.

What’s True might not be TRUTH

Here’s an example maybe more to the point.

I heard the testimony of a man who went to heaven several times and always passed through the Benjamin Gate. It must have made a deep impression on him because he now teaches that when we get to heaven, you guessed it, we will all have to go through THE BENJAMIN GATE! That was his experience! It was REAL and TRUE, so now he has great confidence that his conclusions based on his true experience, which he now teaches with great enthusiasm are also not only true, but are more like universal Truth!

So yes, I do believe him that it was a true heavenly visitation; I really think it was legit, but his understanding of it and some of the conclusions he has drawn from it are nevertheless highly suspect! It was a true heavenly experience in my opinion, but his Flesh is still at work when he’s trying to make sense of it, explain it, and share about it, risking turning a true experience into what you can only call a harmless but nevertheless false doctrine! Do you see our problem here?

Experience is a great teacher­—some of the time.

Another example I will share more on in the chapter on the Mind of Christ was when I was able to experience this miraculous union with the Lord’s mind and when it came upon me I became able to SEE what the Father was doing in something like x-ray vision. In a crowd I saw a blue color glow around people where the Father was moving but in the places where he was not moving, the places we were more focused on in fact, were just ‘normal.’ It was more than a vision, it was tied into several other senses and I felt his mind and heart come into me to empower this faculty. Anyway, the verse came to mind where Jesus said he only does what he SEES the Father doing.

It makes no sense, right?! Well, not to ‘normal’ people! And I even began to hear people teach on this verse and every single one of them, even up until this very week I’m writing this, have interpreted this verse according to their experience and understanding of prophecy, and even explain it and say Jesus only did what the Farther told him to do.

Not only did Jesus not say this, he did not mean it either. When I experienced the Mind of Christ I suddenly understood this verse more correctly. Yes, do what God tells you to do, but Jesus was operating on a much higher union with the Father than needing to be given verbal instructions—their minds were linked and they shared each others’ thoughts—at least that is how I experienced it. Our thoughts were ONE, there was no distance between us to speak a word between us—there was no distance to cross between him and me; I was thinking his very thoughts—in real time, with no separation from my mind and his—Simply amazing!!

Other times the bible says Jesus ‘knew their thoughts,’ speaking of people he was around; it does not say Jesus WAS TOLD their thoughts; you see the difference? But most people have never experienced anything like the Mind of Christ and so they interpret these verses from their experience and the understanding they have of prophecy mostly. They even teach that ‘having the Mind of Christ’ just means to make yourself have a good attitude, make yourself act humble, and be self-conscious to watch your behavior. How is any of that divine fruit of the Holy Spirit at work within you? Mormons and Hindus can do that too! And are often better at it than many Christians are! But the real meaning of this is so far beyond what you can make yourself do in your own strength, in your own awareness; it’s so far beyond anyone’s ‘normal’ experience that their natural experience leads them to a wrong understanding of this deep mystery and then they teach these wrong things … but normal people can relate to their ideas, and so still accept and believe their teaching!! They are on the same page so to speak … but they are both wrong! Both teacher and church member are only thinking the thoughts of Man from the lower, earthly wisdom. They are both operating in the Flesh, in the carnal mind.

Let me even back up a few verses and notice what Paul just said before this quote. After saying in v.12, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” He says in v.13, and:

People unaccustomed to being taught by God, who instead have been taught by men (who were taught by men (who were taught by men…)) often just don’t even know what he’s talking about! But that does not stop them from teaching on it anyway!

Don’t you do this!!! We must FIRST listen and THEN speak but only speak what we know we heard Jesus tell us!

Now, I don’t think any real harm is being done here teaching a lower earthly take on some of these simple verses. Like telling people the Mind of Christ means people need to ‘put on’ a good attitude. We need to do that more! So there’s no harm in telling people to behave yourself! Watch it! Don’t make God come down here and open a can of whoppin! People do need to be told that sometimes.

This verse does not mean that, but other verses do. It’s a correct point to admonish people on. The problem is when you tell this is what the Mind of Christ means and they stop seeking the actual meaning, and this does harm them, especially as they try to grow into a more mature lifestyle.

But also I’m using this example mostly to illustrate my point that the Flesh is ever-ready to stand in the gap between our spiritual and carnal worlds, always steering the ideas being taught back down into an Earthly realm of Carnal Thinking. And sometimes yes, it’s not academic or mere semantics but the misunderstandings and wrong teachings of sacred secrets, divine truth hidden to the Flesh and only revealed to those walking in the Spirit does cause many real problems and subverts God’s already revealed solutions they are crying out for.

The Great Enemy of God

So now you can see maybe why the bible says the Flesh is the un-reformable enemy of God. It can’t be fixed. It can’t be reformed. It needs to be put to death. It’s not all greed and lusts maybe but yes the flesh lusts, but mostly what it lusts is to always be right! To be the god of it’s own world! To have everything it’s own way.

The Flesh is the human level Intelligence, Understanding, Perception, Motives and Desires. It’s not just sexual impulses and criminal behavior. A scary fact is that it’s just being a normal person! And this is what is the enemy of God! It’s not just your SIN, it’s your fallen mindset. But sadly, there’s more!

Religious Spirit

Worse even than that maybe is something Jesus told me, which is that since the Flesh is un-submitted to God’s Will, it exists outside God’s Control, Power or Protection. This means the Flesh falls under the direct control and power of the Devil. He told this to me in the context of the influence of the Religious Spirit, the counterfeit Holy Spirit.

So the Flesh manifesting is not all willful deception and manipulation to make people give you more money, it’s also often just poor understanding, spiritual ignorance and miscommunication. You may think well, the Flesh is merely ignorance, but it’s certainly not innocent like an unwitting child; no, it’s quite selfish and often devious, scheming, manipulative and dishonest. It can steal, rape and kill, but is still merely the mind and will of Man. But what is maybe much worse than these things is the demonic power at work through the Flesh in a religious environment, what we often call the Religious Spirit, meaning a Demon that pretends to be the Holy Spirit but is a counterfeit, a fake Holy Spirit!

Think about that for a minute: most demons won’t get near a church because they are spotted quite quickly and put down, but this demon works primarily in churches! Yes, it’s mostly un-spiritual ‘traditional’ churches that don’t recognize it because they are unfamiliar with the ways of the Holy Spirit and can’t or won’t or simply don’t cast it out. But anyway this is an evil spirit that pretends to be the Holy Spirit, but is a counterfeit. Let me share some visions I saw.

Books of the Doctrines of Man

One of the early visions I had was of a pile of large, thick books, like text books but they looked old and important; I saw names on them of Ideas and Doctrines of the modern church, yet God said these were false ideas; idols of man’s teaching, theology, and doctrine. They were books that were written by men about God and the Bible based on the carnal mind of man and the deception of the devil; they were books that never should have been written.

These ideas were not simply made up by men humbly trying to understand God, many of them were ideas from the Enemy, literally doctrines of demons. Most times that you hear a sharp argument of doctrine it’s a seed of division planted by the enemy to create strife. It’s a question Satan promotes to make people fight. Be careful not to fall victim to Satan’s trap. But remember, God said these books had become the Idols of Man, books that NEVER should have been written!

The Plastic Jesus

Another time the Lord showed me a vision of what looked like Jesus, but then I realized it was just a cut-out image made of cardboard or plastic that only looked like Him, but was a fake, and hidden behind it was the devil himself, laughing at how easy it was to trick people with his poor disguise.

If people worship a plastic Jesus then the image of God which they sincerely believe in is just a false image—it is in fact an idol, and their worship, their Christianity, is in fact idolatry; but consider also that this is ‘a Jesus other than the one’ whom Paul preached! Usually it is a mere reflection of the things carnal Man already believe in, an idealized view of a carnal person. Even God’s ideas are beyond our imagination, how much more would he himself be?

Three tests to discern the religious spirit

I got to teach a small group of people how to talk with the Holy Spirit one time. They all came from a South American country that is very religious. Preparing for the ministry, the Holy Spirit began to talk to me about the religious spirit and how to help these people free themselves from its culturally reinforced hold.

Primarily, He explained three indications or really tests for the religious spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit said to me:

Wow, I love being taught by God! It’s just on a whole other level! And I could write an entire book on each of those statements. Look for the counterfeit! Pastors preaching the same sermon topic that the Holy Spirit that very day told you was the topic of the week, but some of them are preaching based on demonic insight, demonic motives, a demonic fake Holy Spirit, so their messages sound similar but these will not empower and liberate—but enslave and depress. What insight!

Spiritual life is obedience to the ways of the Holy Spirit, but religion makes people spiritually dead and unable to obey the ways of the Spirit; they become unresponsive, indifferent, unmoved or unmoving—not like a sail or a kite, but like a wet rock stuck in the mud! Genius!!

And the idea that the Son of God ‘flows in the Holy Spirit like a kite in the wind!’ Wow, and I saw a sailboat when he said this and realized later it’s like in John 3:8, Jesus said:

What’s he talking about? The Holy Spirit? No!

He’s talking about US! At least if we are being led by the Spirit as sons of God! We flow in the spirit like a tree blown by the wind!

The best thing was then he showed me that the Holy Spirit IS LIFE and so when He flows He can’t help but bring healing and wholeness and peace and joy, so the ultimate indication of the operation of the religious spirit is bondage, since it is a demonic counterfeit and has no ‘life’ . . . the Holy Spirit on the other hand cannot help but bring life, since He is the very source of life itself. So all you have to really do to walk in these miraculous powers … is just yield to the Holy Spirit! Let HIM manifest and enjoy the fireworks! So simple! So easy!

Who ARE the Pharisees?

When the Holy Spirit first began teaching me, I remember Him asking me this question and it totally baffled me! He asked me one day, “Who ARE the Pharisees?” I was in my home walking through the living room and it stopped me cold in my tracks. That seemed to happen a lot! But, Who ARE the Pharisees? They’re all gone. I know who they WERE, but why on earth would God ask me who they ARE … unless … and then it dawned on me: The Pharisees are still with us!!!

The result of living under the influence of the demonic power of the religious spirit is a lifestyle that begins to resemble that of the Pharisees. I have seen people under this deception quote the Bible, not the sayings of Jesus, but the exact things the Pharisees said in challenging him!! The same taunts, the same accusations, the same criticisms! Sometimes WORD FOR WORD!

If you find yourself quoting the Bible when you are speaking from the heart, that’s good—UNLESS you are quoting someone like Cain, Goliath, King Saul, Jezebel, Judas or Caiaphas. We are not supposed to have the spirit that was typified by any of those people in our hearts!! It will cause you to persecute Christ, and those in whom Christ dwells, to your own detriment, destruction and doom! Now you’re the bully but later, we’re all going to laugh a you!

This is what always happens when you are in the religious spirit’s atmosphere and it infects you. You are trapped and need deliverance. But take heart, if you now know it, just repent, turn away from it, because the good news is that God can simply deliver you—but only if you want to be free! You’ll have to humble yourself, crucify your flesh, and break away from the traditions and attitudes you’ve held so dear, but it will be well worth it to find the freedom of the eternal Kingdom.

Two for One

So the first problem is the Flesh, but second is the demonic power than can control the Flesh in a religious environment, the Religious Spirit. There is much interplay between the religious spirit and man walking in the fallen nature of the flesh. The religious spirit dominates the flesh, and so the flesh in a way of speaking dominates ‘religion.’

These influences are why two people can read the same passage and preach opposing messages based not on the text but on the version of ‘wisdom’ that operates in them.

This is your road map to freedom. Reject the wisdom from below and instead seek the higher wisdom. This is why God told Isaiah:

And if we do this, if we seek and find the higher thoughts of God, what Paul said about the body coming to maturity and casting off this worldly deception will then come to pass:

The effect of the flesh and the religious spirit operating in a church or denomination is disastrous, as Jesus said:

We can easily Teach Revelation because God Speaks … A LOT!!

Jesus said My sheep hear my voice. [John 10:27] And we must not discount how simple and easy this is, how common an experience, how widespread. Jesus DOES NOT only speak to leaders or ‘pastors’ as I heard someone preach. He speaks to all his tender, loving lambs. He speaks to you! I know it as a fact! But here’s an interesting thing that happened to me.

One Sunday I was walking to church from the ferry and was on the very busy elevated walkway which we call a flyover, and I was about to enter the mall. People were going in and out, and it’s a main walkway in the city, but then I just suddenly ‘tuned-in’ to the voice of Jesus like turning a radio dial and finding a radio station and he was talking about EVERYONE and EVERYTHING all around me NON-STOP. People walking by going the other direction, total strangers to me, and he was talking about their lives, their feelings, their struggles; the lady in front of me, people behind me, people I would see soon at church, and others I had never seen before and would never see again, and he knew EVERYONE and every detail of their lives and was just talking non-stop about what they were going through and what he wanted to do for them—so much talking! Then as suddenly as it started I ‘tuned-out’ and could no longer hear his voice. It was overwhelming but now I knew him in a different sense. He’s knows EVERYONE and EVERYTHING about them, and really has so many, many things to say to us! He is the Word of God!

And here’s another one:

Three Visitors at Christmas

And I shared this next experience in a video recently, about having three visitors at Christmas. I was all alone one year, and I mean totally alone, and I heard the voice of God say that he would visit me on Christmas Day. I didn’t know what that meant but then on the 25th he asked if I would rearrange the furniture for visitors. I moved the chairs around facing the small sofa, not knowing who would show up when he asked me to sit down and suddenly the presence of God in Three Persons came and sat with me!!!

Across from me was the Father and I say he was quiet, a little serious. He didn’t talk much, he wasn’t upset, just … serious. To my left side (on the right side of the Father) the presence of Jesus came and he just started talking, talking, talking, and then I looked to my right and the presence of the Holy Spirit was there but when I looked at him he just cracked up in deep laughter like he had heard the funniest joke ever! He never spoke a word, he just laughed and laughed—a deep, honest laugh from him belly!

And I looked back to the Father: silent, serious—Jesus: talk, talk, talk—and Holy Spirit: cracking up in laughter!

Wahhh!!!

So I got my notebook to write it down and he said, ‘No, it’s not like that, just sit with us.’ So I just sat in their company, looking around at my house guests!!! Who would believe me!!! I don’t even care! This is wonderful!!

But hen I turned to the Father and said I wanted to get to know him better. Since I understood Jesus was the Way, but the Father must therefore be the Destination, or that’s what I was thinking about at that time.

But the Father said, gesturing to his right (my left), something like, “Everything you can know about me you can learn about through my son, Jesus; get to know him better.”

I looked at Jesus, he was talking so much … the Holy Spirit was cracking up again, or still. He’s just so happy, that guy!!

But after a very short time I just began to fade—I was losing the strength to sit up in a sofa chair! I began to slide down and had to put my legs over the armrest to try to stay awake and I think it was the Father who said, “You want to rest?”

And I said, “Yeh, I’m falling asleep!”

And he said, “OK, you can sleep,” and then almost instantly … ZZZZzzzzzz … I was out!

I woke up later and they were all gone and I was again alone in my house on Christmas Day.

But all I want to share about this right now is that Jesus is called the Word for a reason. He really talks non-stop. If you can’t hear him talking, it’s not because he’s not speaking!

Everyone can hear his voice

So what I mean to say is if you never heard God’s voice, if you never heard him whisper to you in your prayer closet, there’s still hope.

In fact, mostly we don’t hear because we don’t believe he speaks. Second it’s because we won’t just stop and listen. He told me that while he speaks to everyone differently, EVERYONE can hear his voice, if they would just quiet themselves down and listen. It’s not that complicated. More on this in the chapter on Communion. But the only real secret is that … there is no secret. Stop looking for one. Second, really, all you gotta do is SEEK and YOU WILL find. I always say it, but it’s really that simple.

Feel like you can’t reach the top shelf? Just ask for help!

But if you are beginning to feel inadequate to the task of teaching ‘prophetically,’ don’t. We all start pretty much the same. But what did I say? If you SEEK, you WILL find. Is it important to you to be able to teach the private things Jesus has whispered to you? Seek it! Is it important to you to find the voice of Jesus in your own heart so you can escape the corruption of the Flesh and the carnal thoughts of man? SEEK IT! Is it important to you to overcome the deception of the counterfeit Religious Spirit and again fly like a kite in the wind of the true Holy Spirit? Seek it!

You will find it. This is why after all Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell IN us until the end of the age, well, one of the reasons.

But I like the verse in 1 John 2 the best because it helps to explain what we discovered in learned to hear God speak to us in our own hearts in real time, which we call Communion, but which Jesus just calls having fellowship, and yes, which is the subject of a later chapter.

Here John calls the indwelling Holy Spirit the Anointing, a rare term that most other writers did not use. Do you know what Paul called this power of God from the Holy Spirit flowing to and through us? Paul did not call this the anointing. He called it God’s Grace, which is also a topic of a later chapter!

But ultimately hearing God’s voice is not a matter of doctrine, ancestral lineage, denomination or even gifting. It’s just really a matter of your attitude, not in general, but specifically your attitude towards God. So simply put, consider Psalm 25:14 which reads, in various versions:

and finally NIV:

If as you say God won’t speak to you, meaning you never heard him, well, honestly the issue is really probably 100% on YOUR END. For many they are too busy and distracted—it’s the cares of this world! Some are afraid to face God—they need to turn their hearts back to him! Some have no confidence (faith) that God will talk to them and are self defeated—an orphan spirit! Others simply don’t recognize God’s ‘voice’ and do hear him but just think they don’t!

Take heart, in the bible there is a record of God speaking to the righteous, the ignorant, the unsaved, the evil, the elements, the wind, the planets, angels, demons, Satan … God’s people and even his prophets a few times too. So what I’ve learned about God, especially Jesus, is that he talks … a lot! All you have to really do is listen!

If people argue with you on this point, don’t argue back. I shared in another chapter what Jesus told me. He said:

So no, we can’t so easily convince people to stop teaching false ideas, man’s ideas, doctrines of demons or flesh motivated sermons. But we can stop following and teaching these doctrines of demons ourselves.

We can minister inner healing and deliverance by the power of the Holy Spirit to them to help free them from the trap of the enemy they unfortunately find themselves in.

But moreover we can share what he HAS told us and just blow them away! Demonstrate God’s Spirit, be an Oak Tree that displays God’s splendor! So soak in God’s splendor and then … display it!!

Got an alternative?

Finally, if you do not want to face this issue head on, and grab the horns of the mercy seat and just do all it takes to find the counsel of God in your own heart, and then purify your thoughts and mind, motives and desires and teach the true word of God to HIS PEOPLE, then what is your alternative?

Do you have a better idea? I’d love to hear it! I need a good laugh. God’s way is higher than our way, but his way works! His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, but he knows what he’s talking about! And maybe no eye has seen, no ear has heard or mind has conceived, but he has revealed these things to us by his Spirit!

So are you building with wood, hay, stubble? The ideas and ways of Man and Demons? Or are you going to start building with His ideas and in his ways and start using Gold, Silver, Precious Stones! And nothing else!?

Always remember, we are building a temple for God made up of living stones—people—restored from the broken ruin the world has turned them into. We are restoring the Temple of God, one not made by man or made according to Man’s Ways or with Man’s Ideas, but the temple built by God using God’s tools, God’s Wisdom, God’s Ideas—ultimately it’s done by God’s Spirit manifested in various ways among us for the common good.

Will what you build within people endure the fire of judgment? Will the people you minister to pass the tests? Will you be rewarded or ashamed at the end of it all?

So just as Paul said:

But let each one be careful how he builds.

But if you really can’t figure this out, honestly, its better you just don’t teach.

After finding the Holy Spirit’s voice, I didn’t teach for a very long time because I knew all my years of training by man could have simply been guesses, opinions, hit or miss shots in the dark. I lost all confidence in my English degree, my law degree, my seminary training, all the books I read … all of it!!! People were taking my word for truth and if I was wrong, God would judge ME! This scared me. It should scare you too. I waited a long time until Jesus had told me something I could understand and that was what I spoke about. This has made all the difference. And you can do the same thing!

That is now what I teach about. This is what I am now writing about to you. I hope you have ears to hear! You will be blessed if you hear and also if you then act on what you learn.