The Official Blog of Julia C. Loren

Book Trailer for Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power

2009-10-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

Check this out!!!

A 2-minute video produced by Julia Loren and Seventh Day Media with Jon Mohr providing the voice over. This is a video and a book that you don't want to miss! You may also view it at http://shiftingshadowsofsupernaturalpower.wordpress.com

Experiencing the Spirit of Creativity

2009-07-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

Early morning; coffee in hand, sitting up in bed, eyelids closed while instrumental music slowly lifts me out of the night’s dreamland and into the never-never outback of my subconscious. New ideas take shape out of the shimmering heat of the desert, form, dissipate, come closer, and as I wait patiently, the details emerge. A story, a song-line, walks towards me. I see only in part. Hear it’s whispering yorang-ayang like a didgeridoo announcing the arrival of a foreign concept. It’s a good one. A keeper.

The Spirit of Creativity surprises me morning after morning with ideas, images, sentences, paragraphs. Let the Spirit visit you, too. Come Holy Spirit. Awaken the creativity within your writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians. Listen. Watch. Peer into the never-never. And out of the desert wait patiently until the details emerge from the shimmering sands of the Creative One. Whooshshshshsh....Here He comes. He comes for you.

Julia Loren, Author & Mentor to Aspiring Authors

www.julialoren.net

www.divineinterventionbooks.com

ATTENTION BLOGGERS!! FREE review copy of Divine Intervention

2009-06-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

If you or someone you know has a blog with a circulation of over 200 subscribers, I would like to send you a free copy of Divine Intervention: True Stories of Heaven Invading Earth. The caveat? You must promise to publish a review of the book on your blog. And if you like it, I would also ask you to publish your review on the Amazon book page. Posting your review on Amazon will also help draw attention to your blog.

To receive your copy, send me an email with your blog address so I can take a peek, and give me your mailing address and I’ll have a copy shipped to you.

Email me at juliascribes@yahoo.com.

Writing for the Charismatic Market a manual of practical tips and resources for writers is now available

2009-06-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

The new, expanded version includes how to structure your articles and books to attract a publisher’s attention, where to publish and more. This is an instant access ebook. I sold out of the books at the last writer’s conference but if you would like a hard copy, the second printing of the manual will be available in printed form in another week.

If you would like a copy of the only writer’s manual on the market for Charismatic writers, you may download a copy at www.julialoren.net. See the website for moreinformation about the contents of this book.

Julia Loren’s manual on “Writing for the Charismatic Market”—incredible, very practical!

Soaring Higher – Xperiential workshops with author Julia Loren

2009-06-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

We just hosted 400 fledgling writers in Redding, CA for the annual Bethel Church’s “Write Unto the Glory” conference and their comments just came back … They loved the Revelatory xperience, the Creative awakening, and Practical teaching. If you missed the conference – you can still see us! William Young, author of The Shack, Bethel pastors and myself are all available for viewing live.

To view my sessions live, tune into Bethel tv’s live stream of the May 2009 writing conference at ibethel.tv.

Soaring Higher - Exploring creativity through mind mapping, creative exercises and revelatory sound. Part power point presentation, part ambient music soaking for healing and revelation. (This workshop is not available on mp3 or dvd)

Shifting Shadows of Non-Fiction – Experiencing the Glory and Releasing it (This is available on ibethel.tv livestream)

Shifting Shadows of Fiction – Taking Higher Ground (This is available on ibethel.tv livestream)

Comments from participants who attended my sessions held in Redding, CA at Bethel Church’s “Write Unto the Glory” conference May 2009:

You continue to be one of our favorite speakers! Hands down, your creativity topped the charts this year. (Pam Spinosi, Bethel writer’s conference organizer)

Very helpful. Powerful

Julia Loren (a real encourager), extremely inspirational and prophetic as well as visionary—and very practical!

Wow! Julia Loren! Went on a journey—downloads from heaven!

Julia’s sessions were the best overall in inspiring the writer’s heart within.

Awesome A+++!

Creativity workshop was excellent! A wonderful blend of practical and supernatural experience.

Amazing

Julia Loren’s creativity was a highpoint. The best breakout for me.

Julia helped give me direction for when I feel stuck.

My favorite one was soaring higher. We got equipped to do creative writing exercises.

Valuable and refreshing. Bring her back again

Julia is right on and spoke a beautiful impartation. Spoke to our concerns/issues.

Challenging in a good way

I received the most from Julia Loren. She was fabulous. Her last two sessions [non-fiction and fiction sessions] exceptional and extremely helpful.

Supernatural fiction and non-fiction writers - don't miss this!!!

2009-03-31T11:16:00.001-07:00

This year's Bethel Christian Writer's conference features William Young, author of The Shack! And, once again, I have the wonderful privilege of presenting a couple of workshops at the conference. Join us May 18-20 in Redding, CA for the only spirit-filled, Charismatic writing conference in the US. Aquisitions editors from Destiny Image and Chosen Books (Baker Book house) will also be presenting!!

For details see: www.ibethel.org "Write unto the Glory Conference"

Workshops I will be presenting:

Shifting Shadows in Fiction:

How do you impart heaven’s supernatural themes and adventures in fiction to a culture enamored with the dark side? Competing against Hamlet’s ghost, Harry Potter’s powers, vampires, witches, and supernatural encounters of a wild kind. What works, what doesn’t and the challenges of publishing supernatural fiction today’s children and adult book markets.

Shifting Shadows in Non-Fiction:

How do you impart heaven’s supernatural themes, mystics’ otherworldlyness, and encounters with God in non-fiction to a culture that is either oversaturated with “teaching” or adamantly dispensationalist and anti-sensationalism? What works, what doesn’t and the publishing challenges of releasing God’s glory to today’s market.

Soaring Higher – Exploring Personal Realms of Creativity:

An experiential workshop designed to launch you into higher levels of creativity through short writing exercises, prophetic inspiration, and a release of blockages to creativity.

See you at the conference!

www.julialoren.net

www.divineinterventionbooks.com

When God Says Yes: His promise and provision when you need it most

2009-03-02T22:05:00.000-08:00

It is here! - My latest book will help you soar into unshakeable faith. For detailed info see http://godsaysyes.wordpress.com. Here is a description of the book posted on Amazon where you can order your copy!

"As times are tough, Christians are crying out for God's miraculous provision in every area of their lives. And more than ever before, they are thirsty for encouragement through faith-building testimonies. Seeing these needs, author Julia Loren has combined sound biblical teaching on accessing God's provision with powerful testimonies from everyday Christians and from renowned renewal leaders such as James Goll, Barbara Yoder, Heidi Baker, Mike Bickle, Paul Keith Davis, and Shawn Boltz. Julia encourages believers to focus on God's promises and greater purpose--even in the midst of their problems--and prepares them to both expect and receive his supernatural provision."

Love & Glory - Experience the Reawakening - Stress & Burnout Recovery Retreat is filling up!

2009-03-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

After working in the trenches of war and disasters - inside and outside the church walls - for many years, I’ve been asked repeatedly to present a workshop specifically for those who work intensely with people or are overstressed by current life circumstances. You know who you are!

Pastors, counselors, caregivers, intercessors, healing room ministers, missionaries, medical professionals, couples, singles, those going through bankruptcy and other life stressors. It’s time for you to get refreshed and experience a reawakening of God’s love and glory shining on you.

We fight against the occult influence of culture and the impact of life in a fallen world every day & it kicks back. Meanwhile, we need to prepare to handle more as the ongoing traumatic events in nature, war, and personal and economic upheaval stress our communities beyond belief. How do you maintain faith and a peaceful presence & have enough to impart to others? How do you maintain your own peace and joy?

Come and join us for this interactive & powerful ministry time designed to bring healing, refreshment and reawakening to experience God’s love and glory pouring into your life every day.

You are personally invited to come and join The Reawakening Team in Redding, CA on Saturday, May 9 from 10:00 am to 5 p.m. in a private room at the Redding Public Library (room near the coffee shop). This is limited to 40 participants so that the ministry team may be able to minister more effectively to individuals. We are filling up so register quickly!

Here are the details:

Presenters:

Julia Loren, MS – Julia is a licensed pastor who has been in prophetic ministry for more than 12 years and is a family counselor. She is a Compassion Fatigue / PTSD specialist and consultant to the DOD Military Family Life Programs. She is also the author of several books including Breaking the Spirit of Despair, Dancing in the Fullness of Joy (forward by John Sandford); and Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power (with Bill Johnson and Graham Cooke, regarding the occult influences in culture and the need to reawaken to God’s love and glory). See http://jlministries.wordpress.com or www.divineinterventionbooks.com for more information.

Mary Andersson, together with her husband, pastor Christ the Rock Fellowship in Anderson, California. Her ministry in personal prophecy and teaching impart a deeper desire for intimacy with Christ. She and her husband travel abroad several times per year, bringing prophetic teams with them, to minister encouragement at conferences, churches and Bible colleges. They are affiliated with MorningStar Fellowship of Ministries in Fort Mills, S.C., which was established by Rick Joyner. Mary is the author of “Scrupulous Conformity,” a book that addresses the religious spirit, and has also co-authored with her husband, “For Freedom’s Sake” and “The Sustaining Power of a Seeking Heart.” Their latest work, “The Sustaining Power of a Prosperous Soul” is soon to be released.

Topics:

• Reawakening to love – quick recovery from burnout, PTSD and compassion fatigue

• Spiritual and occult influences on mental and physical health

• Breaking through despair and hopelessness, depression and anxiety

• Releasing God’s glory - Imparting faith, hope and love when the sky is falling all around you

Ministry:

Receive an impartation of God’s presence and power to minister/counsel more effectively. The ministry team will be available for inner healing and prophetic ministry throughout the workshop. You will go home refreshed and reawakened to God’s love for you and re-empowered to minister to others.

Time & Place: May 9 in the Redding Public Library starting at 10:30 a.m. Address: 1100 Parkview Ave. • Redding, CA 96001

Cost: $75 per person - includes lunch!

Contact: Julia Loren 530.209.3225

Register

Finding the Courage to Create

2009-02-21T10:30:00.000-08:00

Ok so the economy is bad and we don’t know if we have enough money to last another month. The world is in flux. And during times of great upheaval, new art forms are birthed that lead the way as artists encounter the holy, vision explodes within them and they find the courage to create. As it was at the beginning, the Creator, the Master Artist, exploded with vision and created the heavens and the earth in all its bizarre wonders. God found the courage to create despite knowing the outcome. And we artists and writers can lead the way into what can be IF we find the courage to create.

I’ve been so challenged to step into a more creative zone in my life that I find myself letting go of what I have accomplished in the past in order to make room for the future; and letting go of the fears released by mass media dooms-dayers in order to focus on living fully and joyfully today. Yet, in the in-between space, a swirling chaos of anxiety clouds my ability to receive the next vision for the next story, the next poem, the next book.

Ah! God to my rescue! While working at my computer in a library last week, I looked up from the keyboard to see Rollo May’s book The Courage to Create, staring me in the face. Compelled by my yearning spirit, I reached up, grabbed the book and started to read.

The opening to his book is just as powerful today as it was in 1975 when it was published.

“We are living in a time when one age is dying and the new age is not yet born. We cannot doubt this as we look about us to see the radical changes in sexual mores, in marriage styles, in family structures, in education, religion, technology and almost every other aspect of modern life. And behind it all is the threat of the atom bomb, which recedes into the distance but never disappears. To live with sensitivity in this age of limbo indeed requires courage.

A choice confronts us. Shall we, as we feel our foundations shaking, withdraw in anxiety and panic? Frightened by the loss of our familiar mooring places, shall we become paralyzed and cover our inaction with apathy? If we do those things, we will have surrendered our chance to participate in the forming of the future. We will have forfeited the distinctive characteristic of human beings – namely, how to influence our evolution through our own awareness. We will have capitulated to the blind juggernaut of history and lost the chance to mold the future into a society more equitable and humane.

We are called upon to do something new, to confront a no man’s land, to push into a forest where there are no well-worn paths and from which no one has returned to guide us. This is what the existentialists call the anxiety of nothingness. To live into that future means to leap into the unknown, and this requires a degree of courage for which there is no immediate precedent and which few people realize.”

Rollo May goes on to define courage as not the absence of despair; it is, rather the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. Breaking through and finding the courage to create despite the anxiety and despair brings joy – the joy of total immersion in the creative process

Creative Courage:

Creativity occurs in an act of encounter with the Holy Spirit bursting new ways of seeing and understanding and imagining what could be.

We have a vision, or a moment of intense illumination and we give birth to it. The painter does not seize a tree…the tree seizes the painter who give birth to something through that tree. And out of the encounter is born the work of art.

And yet there is a tension between the encounter and ideal vision – and the expected outcome.

The degree of intensity is called passion. When you feel this intensity it is time to create. Every artist and writer lives for this moment of passionate flow for this passion is giving birth to the art form that is destined to be created. There is no such thing as passionless art.

Dare to be different:

You need an encounter with the Holy Spirit to conceive the work of art. Otherwise, you run on mere talent and practice well-worn techniques; sacrificing art for mass appeal.
“We worship technique-talent- as a way of evading the anxiety of the direct encounter,” Rollo May points out.

Kierkegaard understood this so well! “The present writer…” he wrote about himself, “can easily foresee his fate in an age when passion has been obliterated in favor of learning, in an age when an author who wants to have readers must take care to write in such a way that the book can be easily perused during the afternoon nap.”

I write for publication but my works seem a little out of the box, confrontational, prosaic. My books are not best sellers. They appeal more to the deep thinkers while most contemporary Christian writers tend towards writing fast reads. What do you write? Who are you writing for?

Will you dare to disclose a reality that was not there before? Will I? Great truths can be told in fiction. Poetry’s razor edge slices deeper still.

Can you be both confrontive and compassionate, call people to account and lift them up to a higher vision of who they could be and how valued they are in the world? Can you pull out of your imagination a work of art that causes the viewer’s spirit to soar? Will you dare to create something that will drive us all upward and onward?

Here is what I feel rumbling around in my spirit and I leave it with you, too: Forget the former things. Behold, it is time to find the courage to create – to encounter the Creator and enter into new vision, dwell in fresh passion, do art for art’s sake.

http://www.julialoren.net

http://www.divineinterventionbooks.com

Get ready to write your book in 2009!

2009-02-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

It’s 2009 – have you started that book you were always wanting to write? Life is short- go for it! In case you need a little inspiration check out this list of authors that I have helped mentor along until they published. Some approached me tentatively, with a whisper of an idea that evolved into a shout in paperback. If you are interested in having me mentor you along your writing project, feel free to contact me at juliascribes@yahoo.com.

Authors I mentored in 2008 as they wrote their books and published or are pending publication (all are available or will be available on Amazon):

Sue Rashotte - Heaven’s Heartbeat, non-fiction inspirational by Canadian author and theologian (Guardian Books, 2008)

Jane Smith - Henley and the Hendersons, series of children’s fiction (Tate Publishing, 2009)

Mary Trask - Written in Stone, non-fiction inspirational (Destiny Image, 2009)

Jill Austin - Flying Lessons, non-fiction, prophetic (Charisma House, 2009)

Rony Reyes - The Apocalyptic Anointing, non-fiction, apostolic book (Emeth Press, 2008)

Authors I am currently mentoring and I have no doubt that they will find conventional publishers for their books in progress:

Tom Steward - Night Soliloquy, beautifully written, non-fiction book about a father, who is a psychotherapist, grappling with his faith in light of his son’s mental illness (in process)

John Kristensen - Moving to the Kingdom: Commissioned to the Supernatural, Canadian Elim Church pastor’s non-fiction, apostolic book (in process)

Francesca Hafner – An untitled, non-fiction women’s book about friendships and healing the obstacles to deeper relationships in the church (in process)

Judy Franklin – An untitled, non-fiction inspirational about how to enter into visions of heaven (in process)

Thoughts on the loss of Jill Austin

2009-01-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

As soon as I received word that Jill was in the hospital, I asked the Lord how I should pray. “Is it her time, Lord?” I timidly asked. Immediately, I felt the answer rise up within me releasing tears of grief. And so I could do nothing but pray for a quick and peaceful resolve to her physical state and enable her to start dancing with the angels and the One she loved most.

I felt like it was her time. For a while now, Jill had been contemplating where to live and eventually settled on a decision to move from Newport Beach, where I grew up, back to the community of Kansas City, her home base for many years. She was in that transition. Itinerant ministry takes a greater toll on women than on men and the stressors on single women are more poignant. I know. I spent 260 days on the road last year – most working a secular consulting job; some travel spent in itinerant ministry. Coming home to an empty house is harder than being on the road sometimes.

Jill needed to settle back into a community and be loved. I heard the words beneath her words during our conversations over the past year and bore witness to them myself. She recognized, and I do believe, that she had walked through a fierce battle in recent years. When I heard that she was in the hospital, I knew that the enemy’s assault was destined to be dealt with once and for all and that God, in His mercy, was bringing her to her ultimate home. The enemy has not won. Our loss is heaven’s gain. And it is Jill’s turn to be loved and ministered to.

What a shock that such a friend and mentor could go so quickly without a time to express how much I loved and valued her. I was looking forward to ministering more collaboratively with her in the coming year and she had even sent me the latest draft of the book I was helping her with – a book that arrived two days before she died. It is called “Flying Lessons”. I guess Jill decided to fly higher.

I thought we had time; that we would be spending more time together. We always think we have more time. And then, when you least expect it, time ends for one and the other is left feeling tremendous loss as a vacancy sign suddenly gets hung on one of the rooms in the heart that once was occupied and no one else could fill. And when I walk around that room I sense the regret that I hadn’t appreciated her more in this life…given her more of my time…blessed her as much as she had blessed me. And in that room, too, is a lesson keenly imprinted on my soul that I should take more time for relationships, become more sensitive to other person present, be less self-focused, travel less, love more and be loved more.

Right around the time Jill passed away, I felt unsettled and left the worship service I was attending for the nearby prayer room where I sat heavily in a chair staring out the window. I felt her departure the moment it occurred. I sensed two angels coming along either side of me; messengers sent to stand beside me while the news sank into my spirit. They kept me company for an hour. The peace and comfort they exuded helped for a while. I was grateful that God had sent them to me.

After awhile, I went home to find out that she had moved to heaven permanently at 9:48 p.m. central time. And I cried. It hit me hard. The church has lost one of the most creative and free, mystic-revolutionaries to hit the modern pulpit. She inspired all of us creative prophetic types to be ourselves and love the freedom of not having to fit into a mainstream way of thinking and being Christianly. Her childlike faith was welcome by some and scorned by a few and seemed to puzzle left-hemisphere-dominated brainiacs. We artists “got” her immediately. I considered her bold and brave to fulfill her calling as a single woman in a male-dominated field of tall poppies. Her presence softened the prophetic movement, enlarged it. I think that God thinks she was the greatest.

The next morning, I picked up my Bible and in true prophetic style said, “What Lord, is the significance of 9:48?”

I flipped through a few books and finally settled on Luke 9:49. I believe this is the message God would say to us all:
Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest."

Jill was the greatest. I, for one, will miss the expression of the Holy Spirit that she released on earth. She was unique. And Christ in her, that creative, free-flowing encouragement into more, is part of the void that we all feel. There will never be another Jill Austin. But there are others who are least among us that need welcoming. Will we let them in? And will we give them flying lessons? Or at least soar alongside?

www.jlministries.wordpress.com

www.julialoren.net

www.divineinterventionbooks.com

Love & Glory: Experience the Reawakening - May 9 - Retreat for ministers, missionaries, caregivers, healers, disaster aid workers, & other helpers

2009-01-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

After working in the trenches of war and disasters - inside and outside the church walls - for many years, I've been asked repeatedly, by military chaplains and pastors, to present a workshop specifically for those who work intensely with people. You know who you are! Pastors, counselors, caregivers, intercessors, healing room ministers, missionaries, medical professionals and disaster aid workers. It's time for you to get refreshed and experience a reawakening of God's love and glory shining on you.

So come and join me and my ministry team in Redding, CA on Saturday, May 9 from 10:30 am to 5 p.m.

Here are the details:

Love & Glory: Experience the Reawakening

Pastors, professional counselors, prayer warriors and caregivers need to continually release healing, faith and hope to others. We fight against the occult influence of culture and the impact of life in a fallen world every day & it kicks back. Meanwhile, we need to prepare to handle more as the ongoing traumatic events in nature, war, and personal and economic upheaval stress our communities beyond belief. How do you maintain faith and a peaceful presence & have enough to impart to others? How does the healer maintain one’s own healing presence?

Based on my work in recent years and continuing referrals from various ministries I see that burnout threatens to overwhelm counselors, pastors, intercessors and caregivers and missionaries. It is time for you to take a break, rest and reawaken to God’s love and glory for you – so that it may flow more powerfully through you. Come and join us for this interactive & powerful ministry time.

Julia Loren, MS – Julia has been in prophetic ministry for more than 12 years, is an ordained minister & a family counselor. She is a Compassion Fatigue / PTSD specialist and consultant to the DOD Military Family Life Programs. She is also the author of several books including Breaking the Spirit of Despair, Dancing in the Fullness of Joy (forward by John Sandford); and Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power (with Bill Johnson and Graham Cooke, regarding the occult influences in culture and the need to reawaken to God’s love and glory). See www.julialoren.net or www.divineinterventionbooks.com for more information.

Topics:

• Reawakening to love – quick recovery from burnout, PTSD and compassion fatigue
• Spiritual and occult influences on mental and physical health
• Breaking through despair and hopelessness, depression and anxiety
• Releasing God’s glory - Imparting faith, hope and love when the sky is falling all around you

Ministry:

Receive an impartation of God’s presence and power to minister/counsel more effectively. The ministry team will be available for inner healing and prophetic ministry throughout the workshop. You will go home refreshed and reawakened to God’s love for you and re-empowered to minister to others.

Cost: $75 per person if you reserve by March 15. After March 15 - $125 per person. Includes handouts, assessments that you will complete ahead of time and afterwards, and ministry. Lunch is on your own.

Contact:

JL Ministries
windsongoutreach@gmail.com

Breakthrough into Joy: Freedom from depression and anxiety is yours today!

2008-10-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

"God is kind, preferring that people be healthy rather than sick." - John Wimber

It is time for your breakthrough. As the healing power of God increases throughout the world, it is time for you to be healed not only of physical but also of emotional problems that manifest in depression and anxiety. The evening news carries dire reports of global economic woes, weather-related devastations, war, doom and gloom. But the good news is this – God is a very present help in time of need and His eye is on you!

What if the Lord walked over to you, took your hand in His, and stared steadily, lovingly into your eyes and said,

“This is the year of My favor. It is the year that I will take vengeance on My enemy who has sought to destroy your beauty and dash all your hopes and dreams. Let Me heal your broken heart. Let Me free you from your prison of darkness. I promise you this – that from this moment on I will comfort you and dry your tears. I will provide people who will listen to you and let you grieve until your tears wash away the hard lines on your face and joy steals the enemy’s plans. I hold out a crown to you, my beautiful one. I anoint you with the oil of joy instead of mourning. And here! A garment of praise that I will drape across your shoulders in exchange for the spirit of despair - for you are the one I admire. My unconditional approval is upon you. I have called you by name. You are Mine. And I am yours. Watch as I do this: I will give you a double portion of prosperity and joy. The time of your suffering is over.”

He is saying exactly that to you in Isaiah 61:1-3. Once you meditate on that scripture, freedom comes quickly. Let’s look at the stories of one particular individual who was healed from what we call depression and anxiety, and what the scriptures call “the spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3).

Elizabeth shuffled into the retreat, accompanied by two other African women, her eyes obviously deadened by a powerful anti-psychotic. She was suicidal. Her whole world shattered when her boyfriend abandoned her and state child protection authorities took her infant daughter away until she could regain her sanity. Her African “sisters” brought her to this retreat held at an ocean-side community near Rome, Italy, in hopes that God would touch her and make her whole.

Only they knew what had really happened to Elizabeth in her past. I could only guess what leads an African woman to leave her country, her family and friends, for a foreign land to earn enough money to send home and sustain perhaps, the whole village. Poverty, sexual abuse, war, the threat of AIDS probably all contributed to her arrival in Italy where she worked as a domestic employee in a land prejudiced against her. The stress of moving to another country is enough to unsettle anyone. Add a string of traumas occurring both before and after the move and that pressure would challenge the coping ability of even the toughest individual. And so, it was no surprise that her ability to cope had shattered into a million pieces.

After her breakdown, doctors on a hospital mental ward told her she was suffering from major depression with psychotic features. They stabilized her with heavy doses of medication and, several weeks later, said she could go home. Once Elizabeth was released from the hospital, her African friends, her sisters, took her in, watched over her, prayed for her, and drew her nearer to the fires of God’s love.

These wonderful women watched and prayed over her night and day, until they brought her to this retreat on the outskirts of Rome by the sea where the pastors of a large Assemblies of God church in Rome had invited me to speak. It was here that I first came to understand the demonic component of depression and despair and watched God shatter the “spirit of despair” in the lives of many, freeing them to dance in the fullness of joy.

Out of the 200 women gathered together, representing many nations, Elizabeth was one of the first to be healed. She stood for prayer, and as I made my way down the line, she stared straight ahead as if completely unaware of what was happening. Either that or she was scared to death. I didn’t even know if she spoke English, but noticed that no one translated for her into either an African or Italian language. I paused before her, raised my hand to her forehead and before I could utter a word, she crumbled to the floor. During both the evening and morning sessions she stood for prayer and each time, immediately fell into a deeper encounter with the presence of God.

The afternoon session was devoted initially to testimonies of what God was doing in individual lives so far. Two women shared freely. Then Elizabeth abruptly shuffled up to me. Many in the audience stiffened, afraid that she would disrupt the meeting with insane chatter. As I held the microphone for her, she testified in fairly clear English, the story of her fall into sin, the trauma of losing her baby to the state, her salvation and her sense of God’s presence healing her that weekend. Her African sisters sat listening, wiping tears from their eyes. For indeed, a change had come over Elizabeth - her eyes were clearer and her speech, though tainted by medication, showed clarity of thought and a logical flow of content as she told her saga.

Her descent into depression originated in loneliness that led her into a relationship with a man who used her sexually – with no thought of love or commitment. As a result, she became
pregnant. And when she gave birth, the authorities took away her child. It sounds similar to what David and Bathsheba experienced in 2 Samuel 11-12. The problems of illicit sex, unresolved relationship issues and unrepentant affairs, almost always open the soul to the spirit of despair. However, God was out to destroy the works of the enemy and redeem her life from the pit, despite having to walk through the consequences of her choices.

I stood beside her and noticed many Europeans squirm in their seats while she spoke. When she finished, I simply prayed, “Father, we hear her story as a confession of how she has sinned and how you are redeeming her. Now we as representatives of the Church forgive her, and You forgive her. Release her into the complete healing You have for her. Destroy the work of the evil one that seeks to rob her of the fullness of life and joy and peace. ” At that, the eyes in her head rolled back until all I could see was solid white. Rustling in the seats drew my attention and I nodded at a couple of her sisters to come up. They took her to a corner of the room and quietly delivered her of the unclean spirit that had attached itself to her during this traumatic phase of grief and loss.

On the following Wednesday night I spoke at a large meeting in Rome and saw Elizabeth waiting at the door looking radiant. “Elizabeth! What has happened? You look so full of joy!”

“Oh, Julia,” she replied, “I got very sick when I left the retreat and had to go to hospital. The doctor told me that they had to get me off all medication quickly. I am healed.”

Indeed, she was. Two years later, I heard reports that she had maintained that healing.

Depression and anxiety are the worst epidemics of our day

You’ve probably experienced a season of depression or anxiety at one time or another throughout your life. So have I. If you were to survey people in your place of work or in your church I can guarantee that at least 2 out of 10 are on some form of anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication. Maybe even more.

Unfortunately, stress, burnout, trauma and daily life in a fallen world tend to weigh us down. No one is immune. At some point, even the strongest individuals can find their ability to cope crumbling; frustration can give way to hopelessness, eventually they can take on the symptoms of either acute depression or acute anxiety.

I’m fed up with it. I hate watching it rob people of life and destiny. It seems to be the most powerful demonic strategy unleashed against the church today. And it is time to fight back.

I got tired of it in my life and decided to fight. Over the years, I tried counseling and prayer. I even became a counselor, studying the cognitive-behavioral roots of depression and medical interventions. What I discovered is that ultimately depression isn’t solely a biological condition, an emotional condition, or way of life. It is also spiritual. In many cases in which a person feels oppressed by depression or anxiety, the spirit of needs to be broken.

It lifted off of Elizabeth in an instant one day. And it lifted off of me one day as well. Nevertheless, there was a process leading up to that breakthrough that lasted for several months in which I actively waited for Him by placing myself in a healing atmosphere and soaking in His presence. As the burnout, despair, and sadness siphoned off, I found myself growing progressively lighter. But it wasn’t until the actual “spirit of despair” lifted off that I was totally free to dance in the fullness of joy on a daily basis. I mention my story (and others’ testimonies of healing) in my book Breaking the Spirit of Despair and it’s sequel Dancing in the Fullness of Joy. However, you need to know that whether you are experiencing a chronic low-level of depression called “dysthymia,” or a season of despair or anxiety that has a defined beginning, God is present to heal.

Healing must occur in all three areas of a person’s life – physical, emotional and spiritual. Since God created you and knows you better than you know yourself, strategy is best left to the direction of the Lord. Some may need medications to stabilize them while others can ride through the worst of physiological symptoms without them and focus on the emotional healing through counseling. Others cannot even begin to heal unless spiritual oppression is taken care of first. God knows what you need. And He will guide you in your healing process if you let Him.

According to the following passage in Psalms 103, Jesus will heal all your diseases, redeem your life from the pit of depression and anxiety, release an overwhelming sense of His love and kindness towards you, and increase your understanding of His compassion. It is part of the package called salvation. Jesus bought it for you He purchased it, not with money, but through a transaction called the atonement. Simply put – He values you. He has truly felt your pain and wants to redeem your life.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your sins;
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit;
Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
so that your youth is renewed like an eagle.
(Psalm 103:2-5)

He is for you – not against you. He has compassion on what you are feeling and thinking. And He is not angry with you. He is angry with the evil one - the one oppressing you. God wants to heal you right now and release you from the spirit of despair. He is as near to you as your own heartbeat. And He invites you to come closer still.

The first step towards breaking the spirit of despair is to move out of isolation and into the presence of God. Most people have a hard time entering into God’s presence at home alone. In the company of others, however, they meet Him…and He meets them. Community, wherever two or more are gathered together, creates a powerful place for God to move. When I speak at retreats or even facilitate a one-meeting focus on healing, God always shows up and healing for anxiety and depression happens in the lives of many.

The second step towards breaking the spirit of despair is to respond to the Lord when He speaks to your heart no matter what He is calling for in private or in public. Elizabeth kept standing up for prayer. Her spirit responded to the Lord when her mind could not. Go where there is an atmosphere of God’s presence! Go expecting! Open your heart up even is no one prays for you; healing happens in the midst of worship…or sometimes even, on the drive home.

The third step is to know that Jesus longs to heal you completely – body, soul and spirit. Despite the dramatic release that comes with experiencing a deliverance of some sort (most harassing spirits are so subtle that we don’t even notice them leave until later, when we discover that our thoughts are no longer trapped in a negative loop), there is more healing and transformation that He wants to do in your life. It is this process of healing that leads you into progressive revelation of how wonderfully aware He is of you and your needs. He knows how to lead you into total transformation and release moments of joy and peace in your heart until you can live in that state –no matter what is going on around you.

Reclaim your life and life it to the fullest!

For more information about how to break the spirit of despair in your life and begin dancing in the fullness of joy, please download one of the books I mentioned from my website at www.julialoren.net . Also, if you would like to come into an atmosphere of God’s healing presence, invite me to come to your church or group and present a Breakthrough for Women!!! or a Breakthrough into Joy!!! workshop for men and women. Get ready to reclaim your life and life it to the fullest! Contact: juliascribes@yahoo.com.

Julia Loren Ministries
215 Lake Blvd. #515
Redding, CA 96003

www.julialoren.net

In respect to Todd Bentley & leaders who crumble

2008-09-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

September 5, 2008

......Since I wrote the book, Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power, that focuses on discerning what is true anointing and who are true power brokers, healers and prophets, people have been asking me what I think of the Lakeland Revival and how it ended with Todd’s crumbling into his own unhealed brokenness. I took a peak at what I wrote in my book and in a previous blog about Todd (“The Glory of God at Lakeland” on http://juliascribe.blogspot.com) and, wow! I think I might have been prophetic! Or maybe its just my counselor training discerning what lies in the hearts of us all.

Here is what I think in a nutshell:

We have this all surpassing power flowing into us, little earthen vessels, and we are bound to crack and leak under prolonged pressure for all to see. We also need to become better stewards of our leaders. And God’s glory will shine through anyone’s darkness…including yours.

Here are the questions I am receiving and will address in the rest of this blog:

1) Was Todd Bentley operating in God’s power or is he a charlatan? What are the marks of God’s true power?
2) Did the “apostolic” leaders make a mistake by endorsing and commissioning Todd?
3) How should we respond?

Todd- Charlatan or the real deal?

How would you handle masses of people coming to pull on you for the healing they desperately need? I know that I, for one, couldn’t sustain that. Not without help. Not without a strong mandate and anointing from God. Not without others coming alongside of me to support me, to step onto the platform and push me aside when I got too full of myself or too tired, friends who would take over, and let the purity of God’s presence minister to the masses as well as myself. Because if there is one thing I have witnessed through the years it is this – God will meet the desperate and the hungry and the pilgrim who travels far to meet with Him regardless of who or what the man or the woman on the platform of ministry is doing. Our loving Father RUSHES to meet us!

Because God rushes to meet us and responds to our faith, many of the healings experienced in Lakeland during the revival were very, very real. And the God-encounters were genuine. Todd is not a charlatan. He is just a man. Like you or me…fully human, not divine. And God’s glory revealed and power manifested did not depend solely on Todd.

The days of the solo minister facilitating a revival are over. We need each other’s gift mix on the platform. Randy Clark understands this best and as one who has a genuine healing anointing, should probably been the one to work with Todd and ensure an ongoing revival. And in fact, I wonder if the healing anointing wasn’t just residing in Steven Strader’s church because that is where I felt God’s presence most strongly during the morning services I attended and it didn’t matter who was speaking and ministering – God was there. Here’s a thought – perhaps Steven Strader was supposed to steward this revival – not Todd.

Leaders like Todd crumble when they start thinking they are the only one who can facilitate a revival because the anointing depends on them…not on God.

Eventually, as we stumble over ourselves on the road to maturity and wholeness, we realize that there are three sources of power that we are all open to – the Holy Spirit, the demonic and our own soulish power. At some point in our lives, we have all been influenced by one of those three sources and spoken or ministered out of the wrong spirit. Todd is no exception & neither are you nor I.

Here is what I wrote in my book about those sources:

“Anyone moving in revelatory, supernatural power will become like the one they behold. The more surrendered a person becomes to the source of the power, the more purely it reveals itself. Testimonies included later in this book reveal that one given over to the demonic will receive and express increasingly destructive power resulting in personalities that fragment under the weight of oppression. One given over to the Holy Spirit will receive and express increasingly authentic power resulting in a personality and life characterized by love, peace, and joy. Soulish power is merely a mixture of shadows originating in a person’s mind.

There are specific marks that characterize the origins or source of supernatural power expressed through individuals. Richard Foster, details seven marks of God’s authentic power in his book The Challenge of the Disciplined Life. They include: love, humility, restraint, joy, vulnerability, submission, and freedom from control.

If that is to be our guide for discerning the source of God’s power, then the marks of power that proceed from the occult and demonic realm would involve the exact opposite characteristics. They would include: hate, pride, unbridled displays of power, depression, jealousy, inability to relate to others or allow others to speak into their lives, and a desire to control others.
Soulish power—that which originates from a person’s state of mind and heart—expresses itself with a variety of mixed markers. Unhealed, unaffirmed people tend to exercise their soulish power to manipulate people and events to compensate for an overwhelming sense of their own powerlessness. Because they have no strong sense of identity or core self rooted in relationship with Jesus Christ, they attempt to acquire an external derivation of significance. As a result, when they express the spiritual gifts, the recipients may feel tainted by the residue of soulish imprints. One receiving a prophetic word originating in another’s soul power may feel more like the word is mere manipulation or flattery, a put down or a power trip. The laying on of hands for healing may also feel like a power trip drawing attention not to the healing power and presence of Jesus Christ and His atonement, but to the presence of the one praying.

For some, expressing soulish power is part of the process of normal spiritual growth and personal healing. A healthy process leads them to become secure in setting boundaries with others rather than attempting to control others and involves repeated encounters with the healing presence of Jesus Christ. An unhealthy process drives them into the occult realm and their minds become playgrounds for the antics of the demonic.

Attempts to harness and express power that originate in the soul are but one extreme. The other extreme involves those who seek power based on narcissistic desire. To obtain spiritual power for the glorification of self is to align oneself with the demonic. Lucifer is the ultimate narcissist.

The marks of power that come from God are the marks of a healthy personality as well as a mature Christian who is secure in God’s love. When authentic power works deeply in the lives of individuals releasing healing into their wounds, they can release it more purely to others through words of knowledge, prophesies, miracles, and healings that relate the heart of a loving God. Since most of us need progressive healing and sanctification and are not free from expressions of hate, pride, jealousy, and depression how can we determine the origins of power that flow through mere humans?

First, we need to recognize that soul power is not entirely bad. Our life experiences (good and bad), personalities and giftedness are given to us for a reason—to co-labor with God as we enter into our destinies. God gives us a vision but we have a role to play in working that out. Soul power rooted in God’s love and understanding of the particular destiny and vision given to each individual, tempers our human nature on any given bad day. Soul power, working under submission to God’s power, also gets the work done. We release the power of God through our soul, or mindful action, and the marks of power will correspondingly bear the marks of our personality. God, having given you a unique personality, loves the way you express Him.
Second, no matter what our state of heart and mind, our level of maturity or brokenness, the imprint of soulish origins fades when overshadowed by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God’s loving presence can move through the youngest child or most immature and unhealed adult to accomplish His will. His power is made perfect in our weakness.”

We all minister in God’s anointing and fall back into our soulish state of mind. Think about it – one minute you’re ministering to someone at work and the next minute you are cussing out your computer. Oooooh…yech…. I believe that Todd has exhibited a genuine anointing at times and that he has not yet come into the fullness of the measure of Christ that will be given him – after he takes some time to submit to a healing process & realizes that he should always partner with other ministers.
__________

How can leaders become influenced by the wrong spirit?

It is quite possible that the weight of glory and demands of people brought Todd to the brink of burnout. It is also quite possible that we all failed Todd – it wasn’t Todd that failed us.

I watched as leaders, one by one, sat on the platform enjoying the visibility afforded them by international television broadcasts. Were any speaking into his life or ministering to Todd? Or were they all needing Todd to minister to them; to infuse them with a fresh jolt of the Holy Ghost? Are all the older, more seasoned, current ministry leaders who have some degree of visibility so busy or tired and burned out that they failed Todd? Or was Todd becoming so enamored with the limelight that he failed to listen and receive them? I venture a guess that it was a little of both. And by the way, where were your prayers for Todd?

How can leaders come under the influence of the demonic or start moving out of their own soulish power? When you are tired, you trip over your own feet. Couple that exhaustion with undealt with emotions, memories and traumas; not taking time to heal from the fragmented and unhealthy family upbringing; and not having mothers and fathers in the faith come alongside of you BEFORE you burnout…and you’re in trouble. It doesn’t mean that you are a charlatan – it means that you are human...and perhaps just a little cracked pot in the midst of a pressure cooker. It doesn’t mean that you are an imposter – it means that you are a little boy or girl clomping around in your daddy’s shoes not quite all grown up, or healed up. But our Father in heaven’s intensely, loving eyes hold our gaze and we come to understand that He delights in us still. Just because you need healing doesn’t mean that you are a false prophet or healer; or an illigitimate son or daughter of the King. It means that you are growing from healing to wholeness; from glory to glory.

Some of the most famous revivalists and church leaders in the past and in the present have struggled with wandering off sexually, depression, insomnia born of anxiety that led them to take drugs, bi-polar episodes, rage issues, and other mental illnesses that often went undiagnosed. The presence and power of God flowed through them and resulted in undeniable miracles. Some of these leaders ended badly or died early because there was no team approach to ministry and no one wanted to “touch the anointing” when that leader desperately needed to be touched by the hand of reason, step aside, rest and get restored until they were grounded enough to continue the work of the ministry. They moved in God’s anointing, tripped over their brokenness and ended up moving in soulish power or demonic power. I an not saying that Todd struggles with mental illness. I am saying that we need to recognize when we are headed for disaster and take time out & the church needs to value the leaders enough to let them rest. No matter how grounded and stable we are, we all need others to speak into our lives and listen to them when they call, “Time out!”

Let’s look at what one seasoned prophet had to say in my book about getting into a mess in public ministry:

“The problem with power that originates in the soul—tainted with undealt with emotions, memories, and traumas—is that it gets in the way of hearing the true voice of the Lord. John Sandford speaks about this jamming of our wavelengths in the Elijah Task: “God will never speak falsely but because of who we are we will hear wrongly…both flesh and satan attack one who draws near to God. Few of us enjoy the honeymoon of God’s love long before the flesh and the enemy begins to jam our wavelengths.”

Sandford knows from personal experience that no one will graduate from the Lord’s school of listening with his pride intact. Most budding prophets and revelatory people will end up looking like a fool but it does not make them a false prophet. The pressures on Sandford as a young pastor at the beginning of his prophetic ministry, coupled with exhaustion, resulted in a strong spiritual delusion. During a progressive series of visions he became completely convinced that God had revealed the exact time of the rapture. It was to occur the afternoon of the day he was preaching at a ministry school involving Agnes Sandford. Agnes, a true mother in the prophetic, promptly urged him to stop talking and sent him to bed. He woke the next day feeling more refreshed and more than a little bit embarrassed. He explained what happened:
“I became caught up in over-serious mysticism, confusing that with true faith...I became overburdened, overtired, carried away with visions and insights, and finally deluded. Satan’s delight is to come to someone who is enjoying a true spiritual experience and then help him go too far.

“I needed that strong spiritual delusion because my confidence had been in my ability to hear God, not in God’s ability to overcome my sinful heart to speak to me.
“And as I saw my idolatry more clearly, I had to die to all such seeing, and be careful not to cherish insight more than the Lord.”
________________

The psychological health of the prophet [or one in healing ministry] determines the impact of his or her state of mind or soul about the gift. A true prophet [or one in healing ministry] will bear the marks of the power of God, the nature of God, and the fruit of the Spirit over time. They will work collaboratively and in accountability to others, learning from their mistakes and growing in humility. Unhealed prophets, will bear the marks of his or her own brokenness. If the church fails to reach out to them, leaving them to smolder in despair, unrepentant sin, and brokenness, they may succumb to the influence of occult power.”

The difference between what John experienced and what Todd experienced is very different in many ways. However, John had the good fortune to be ministering with someone who had authority to speak into his life and boot him off the platform when he needed to step aside. It’s called mentoring. And the church is sadly lacking in mentors who welcome up and coming ministers onto their platforms and offer the platform as sacred training grounds where all have the freedom to fail and succeed.

Did the “apostolic” leaders make a mistake by endorsing and commissioning Todd?

I watched all these ministry leaders on television making apostolic blessings and statements that seemed to want to offer Todd some support and covering but I do not feel like I should comment on the motivations of some or the authority of others. What I did see, to my delight, was that they were finally taking time out from their lives and ministries to stand with Todd. But the gesture was too little, too late.

What we have been seeing throughout the last few decades, is the death of the “Man-of-the-Hour” ministry. The shift to networks and relationships has resulted in platform sharing of itinerant prophets and apostolic leaders and that seems really healthy on the surface. At least they are platform sharing. However, each one is still consumed with their message and ministry and mandate and apparently failing one another. They will criticize one another rather than embrace one another behind the scenes. I’ve heard them. You have, too.

When I hear people criticize others, it makes me feel like that person is not safe…regardless of the fact that they call themselves apostles or prophetic…they are not exhibiting the character of Jesus when they criticize and condemn. When I hear them say that their words are always right and its “my way or the highway”, I can see that they are headed straight into delusion and perpetuating a form of division born of grandious-delusion. None of us are immune from being critical but we must recognize that the God the Father is really, really grieved when we trash his sons and daughters.

I used to criticize and openly mock Todd’s style years ago when I was burned out and living mainly outside of the church. Then God spoke to my heart one day saying, “What if I called you to work for Todd. Would you criticize my son then?” Gulp. My attitude instantly changed from one of critic to prayer warrior – for Todd. I am praying still.

When will we learn that true brothers are ones who lay their lives (and ministries) down for one another? When one starts to burn out, we need to extend the hand of healing and the finances to support the others’ ministry while that person takes time out for rest or time out in a hospital. Whatever happened to releasing gestures of “unconditional love” that include calling someone to step aside for a rest to deal with the sin in their lives? It takes a high degree of humility and the ability to honor one another’s gifts to give and receive in that way. Several of the “apostolic leaders” who stood on the platform exhibit that humility, have called Todd to accunt in a loving, not critical or punishing way, and are ushering Todd right into the healing arms of Jesus. I have no doubt that they will cover him more completely from now on.

What Causes Burnout

It takes a higher degree of humility for a leader with significant momentum and international visability to step aside from the work of the ministry and rest before they crumble under burnout. No leader is there yet. Neither are you or me. I’d rather see the whole body of Christ allow leaders take time out for rest before they end up in a hospital. A month or two off the road and into their prayer chamber will only strengthen their gifts and increase their anointing. Yet it is not the pressures of the ministry that causes burnout. The lack of connectedness with family and others & the undermining critical, lack of support is the main cause of burnout.

Research shows that a perceived lack of support will cause someone to burnout more quickly; and if one is already fragmented by early childhood upbringing and bad daddies and distant mommies [as was the case in Todd’s upbringing] that lack of support will result in rebellion. Rebellion can be an act of crying loudly for help when you think no one cares…or an act of trying to get control over someone or something or just flat out losing control. And how did Jesus talk about a rebellious son? He told a story about a dad who ran to greet the rebel boy and that story led me to believe that the dad realized his part in his son’s rebellion and repented long before the son did. True spiritual fathers and mothers will embrace sons and daughters like Todd and run to meet them, having repented of their own lack of love and support.

Apparently, Todd has some true spiritual dads and moms stepping up to help him. And whatever is going on with Todd’s personal life is really none of my business…nor is it yours. All I know is that every one of us – no matter how mature and whole we are – cannot sustain prolonged ministry on our own. Just because someone went through a season of healing doesn’t mean they are not vulnerable. The more fragmented the upbringing, the more vulnerable you are…and most in need of having healthy people walk alongside you constantly – not intermittently.

Not one of us can go long in work or ministry without support. Rest involves reconnecting and being loved. Not one of us can go the distance without strengthening that deep, intimate connection with the Lord from time to time during a prolonged period of a Sabbath rest and restoring intimate connections with others. I know this personally. I’ve burned out before.

Research shows that once you have burned out, you are more vulnerable to burn out in the future and must learn to recognize the signs and symtoms and redirect yourself – rather than wait until its too late and have someone else embarrasingly, have to step in and redirect you.

The True Marks of God’s Power

As for the marks of true power and anointing, here is what I look for in a person and I believe that Todd, as young as he is, has exhibited some of those marks of power as well and will likely carry them all some day as he matures in life & ministry. I also believe that several people who endorsed Todd’s ministry carry those marks of true power and anointing. These are straight from Richard Foster, who details seven marks of God’s authentic power in his book The Challenge of the Disciplined Life. Read them and think about which leaders exhibit those marks on an ongoing basis. And also consider if you bear those marks as well. Jesus calls us all to take the mote out of our own eye before we try to poke someone else’s eye out…or something like that…

· Power motivated by love and compassion to release salvation, deliverance and healing;
· Power expressed with humility, deferring to one another’s gifts, willing to learn from others, aware that the gifts flow from God as He wills;
· Power expressed with restraint, not under compulsion to the needs and distractions of men or the desire to express flashy revelation or miracles that draw attention to them;
· Power expressed with joy, operating from a basis of rest rather than exhaustion which can lead to delusion, filled with the presence of the Lord;
· Power that does not dominate or control but is revealed in vulnerability rather than bravado;
· Power that is submitted in right relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and to others;
· Power that freely gives and sets people free rather than binding them in some obligation (financial or emotional) to the minister or ministry.

How should we respond?

As a psychotherapist who has dealt with men in the military and in the ministry and many individuals in my former counseling practice, the answer is clear to me. Love and time heals all wounds – Todd’s wounds as well as your own. You may be disappointed, angry, or confused but know this - we heal more quickly if we stop looking to others and start looking up. God has not abandoned you. He has no illusions about you or Todd or anyone in ministry. His true work will survive – the rest will burn up at the end of the day. And Christ in you is the hope of glory – to be revealed both to you and through you.

This issue about the Lakeland Revival ending badly is not about your feelings about Todd. It is now about you and God.

Here is how I try to respond…and it too is straight from my book Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power:

“The more the light of God’s love consumes us the more effortless we extend that light, that atmosphere of Heaven, to the dark lord’s kingdom. Do you bask in the light of God’s presence? Do you adore intimacy with God? Do you only hear the commands of God or can you see His smile? Does the radiance of God shine through your life? There is so much more of His presence to experience, as well as His power.

The challenge of increasing in supernatural power is not to seek to move in power but to move in the presence of God. Rather than praying, “More Power!” cry out, “More of you, Lord!” That prayer enlarges your spirit and increases your spiritual sensitivity to hear the voice of God and act on the revelation that He releases to you. The overflow of His presence is supernatural power. The overflow of your presence is merely an expression of soulish power that is most likely tapping into second heaven revelation…the realm of demonic revelation. Do you want God’s power or do you want Him? You can release the gifts of the Spirit; however, God cannot and will not be used. God desires intimate relationship with you, not overt manipulation.

The more we abandon ourselves to Him, the less we stumble around in the shifting shadows of loyalty and the more we release the manifest presence of God wherever we go. Then, what the world will witness is the power of God being expressed through the hearts of men and women who know their anointing comes from a deep intimate relationship with the Lord. As more individuals and groups of believers grow in faith, we will see a convergence of supernatural power and intimacy. Believers will release not only a sense of God’s presence in their homes, workplaces and in the world, but will discover that they have become super-Natural power brokers as well, imbued with gifts of healing, prophetic and revelatory insights, and miracles.”
_____________________

God is as near to you as your own heartbeat, what does it matter who rises and falls from platforms of ministry? And if it does matter to you, are you throwing stones or tomatoes? Calling for his head on a platter? Or are you going to choose to be like Christ and gaze into his eyes and call him “friend” and “brother” and “son”? Are you going to use your resources and prayer time to bless him into wholeness? Because that is what Christ would do for you.

The more the light of God’s love consumes us the more effortless we extend that light, that atmosphere of Heaven, wherever we go. Let His light consume you – not bitterness. Become the one you wished Todd had been for others.

And if you are still hot and bothered about it all, I encourage you to listen to the sermons on “Grace” where Bill Johnson talks about Todd and Lakeland. He talks about this stuff way mo’bettah than I do. You can download them on the sermon of the week page at www.ibethel.org.

God’s love and presence is always with you.
Julia Loren
www.julialoren.net
http://juliascribe.blogspot.com

What’s God and what’s not?

2008-06-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

What’s God and what’s not?
Author’s book series releases discernment about the origins of common spiritual experiences

...........Signs and wonders from heaven have been reported all over the world in recent years. Angel sightings, near-death experiences, dreams and visions, miracles of healing and other spiritual encounters are captivating the imagination of many through the internet and television shows that support either Christian faith healers or paranormal and occult practitioners. Are they all from God? Can some be constructs of our own mind or even demonic in origin?

Author Julia Loren is fast becoming recognized as one of the Church’s foremost authorities on discerning the origins of the variety of spiritual experiences people are having in our day and age – both within the Church and in the world. As a former journalist and a counselor, she leads readers to discover what is God and what is clearly not in her two recent books about common spiritual experiences reported by both Christians and occultists called Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power and Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Experiences (published by Destiny Image Publishers).

According to Julia, “God is alive and well and knows your name. We should be surprised if we don’t encounter the presence of God in some way throughout our life. After all, God created us for relationship with Him. But there are clear boundaries in Scripture that define how we are to experience God and what encounters are not of God.”

In the Shifting Shadows series, she traces the roots of America’s modern fascination with the paranormal and mediums – roots that lie in Theosophy and ultimately, the Baal worship of Old Testament cults. She also interviews many contemporary leaders of the Charismatic Christian movement whose techniques seem to closely resemble New Age practitioners. By the end of the two-book series, readers come to understand how you can tell if an experience comes from God, or from one’s own imagination or neurobiological make-up, or from a demonic source. She also imparts her thoughts about why there seems to be such an emphasis on miracles of healing and supernatural experiences today and why they play such a valid role in Church history.

According to Julia, “No one who has experienced an authentic encounter with the tangible, sensory awareness of the Presence of God can deny that He exists and that He is the God who is love. All other gods pale in comparison to Him. All other shadows flee. Most people have had at least one God-encounter in their lifetime – either through a near-death experience, a dream or a miracle of some sort. They have no idea what to do with it or go to extremes with it. These books give scripturally-based discernment as well as validation for many who have had spiritual experiences and don’t know what to do with them.”

For more information about Julia Loren and her books see: www.julialoren.net or email her at juliascribes@yahoo.com

Media Arts Boot Camp - For those called to take the media mountain

2008-06-22T03:52:00.000-07:00

Are you interesting in “taking the media mountain”? Global Net Productions (Michael Lineau, producer of Transformations Videos, secular and Christian television production), ZacDezign (Zachery Gudelunas, producer of new media / internet productions) & Tharseo Publishing (Julia Loren, author and publisher) are teaming up to present Media Arts Boot Camps - intensive, practical workshops to help mentor aspiring and professional writers, new media venturists and filmmakers who are serious about their Christian faith and who dream of impacting culture and reaching a global audience.

Whether you are involved with film, writing fiction & non-fiction, or new media (podcasting, videocasting, social networking on the internet), this intensive two-day boot camp will empower your climb up the media, arts & entertainment mountain while focusing on building healthy families & relationships and producing Kingdom-values media.

Several churches and ministries across the nation are currently booking us to come and present these media arts boot camps. If you are interested in hosting us, please contact Julia Loren directly.

If you are interested in attending, know that the workshops are not boring old lectures. Each speaker will involve you directly in a hands-on project that will help you develop the skills you need to release your vision to impact the world.

For a few years now I have listened to the buzz phrase “Taking the 7 Mountains of Influence” in our society –Family, Education, Arts & Entertainment, Business, Government, Media, and Religion. Focusing on revival and societal transformation, church leaders on the conference circuit are sounding the call to action. However, those who are actually out there working in professions, chipping away at the mountains of influence seem unaware or uninterested in attending a Churchy conference. Why? Because the church model is not a practical model – it is theoretical & inspirational yet often fails to reach the “key personnel” who hold the power and influence over these mountains. Church conferences fail to equip the saints who are up and coming and well able to impact culture from their little perch on the mountain. Churches also fail to equip professionals who are working in their respective fields and influencing the overlapping mountains in the range. No mountain stands alone.

I’ve worked as a newspaper reporter and editor and been able to impart Christian values, increase tolerance and affect transformation in the community my newspaper served. I’ve worked in media relations for the government and watched how divine appointments enabled me to release strategic prophetic words that changed the hearts and minds of key federal and state policy makers, splashed all over regional and national newspapers, and brought peace in the midst of chaos during tense situations. As a result, I have come to realize that it is not the great and rich and powerful who are at the top of the mountain who are going to take the mountain…the “key personnel” are those who merely find themselves placed by God in the middle of the mountain for such a time as this or that. Those who influence the mountains with the presence and power of God tend to be prophets in disguise who are wandering in the wilderness, working and praying and waiting and watching for the right time.

So, the vision stirring in my heart is this - It is time to call forth those media artists, equip and train them, give them permission to become prophetic and go for it, and release an impartation of creative ideas and revelatory gifts so that they can take the mountain of media and influence culture locally and globally.

Media artists are today’s prophets (prophets in the sense that they encourage, comfort, strengthen and exhort) called to release the heart of God & the glory of God through print, internet & film.

Are you one of them? Whether you are interested in creating works of edgy exhortation or creative inspiration, attending a Media Arts Boot Camp will give you the boost you need to receive fresh vision, hone the craft and business of becoming a media prophet & give you the confidence to move forward. These two-day seminars are intended to offer a fun, fast-paced overview of developing your media project – from revelation to release date. They are hands –on workshops that will enable you to experience the development of the product.

Speakers

Michael Lineau – Filmmaker, Global Net Productions www.globalnetproductions.com
Julia Loren – Author, Journalist & owner of Tharseo Publisher www.julialoren.net
Zachary Gudelunas – New Media (pod and video cast, social networking) expert www.zacdezign.com

Hosting a Media Arts Boot Camp in your church or community

Contact Julia Loren or Michael Lineau to collaborate on holding a Media Arts Boot Camp in your church or community. We would love to help equip, release & mentor a whole company of media “prophets” emerge nation wide. In addition, we would love to work with the existing leadership of your church & ministry teams to provide prophetic activation and impartation, involve your worship team to bring us into a greater experience of God’s presence, and even expand the Media Arts Boot Camp to incorporate a Worship Arts Boot Camp with music and drama added to the mix. Let’s equip and release the saints to take the media mountain and the arts & entertainment mountain together.

Contact Information:

Julia Loren juliascribes@yahoo.com

Momma Julia's Rough Guide to Glory - How Much Glory can you Handle?

2008-06-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

Virginia Beach, VA
Edgar Cayce Center

Walking onto this infamous psychic property I immediately notice whose heads swivel to glare at me and who merely looks my way. One woman looks up from the receptionist desk and smiles, blinks and a faint, “Ohh,” escapes her lips as she watches me walk towards the stairs. Another sits on a couch reading, looks up expectantly before her face suddenly contorts into a glare. I am used to such reactions when I walk into the Edgar Cayce Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) in Virginia Beach and head upstairs to the library. It is an interesting phenomenon. The light of the world shines through me and some people cannot handle the intensity of His glory while others are attracted to the light. Usually, those I pass merely give me a long, curious stare.

The A.R.E. library is the largest metaphysical library in the world outside of the Vatican. Rows upon rows of books by Christian mystics and occult practitioners fill the place. It is where I am researching my next book on the advanced prophetic – what’s God and what’s not. How is the language and experience similar yet different?

I am here because several recent encounters with the Lord lead me to believe that in the next few years, the Church is going to walk under an open heaven as never before. We are already starting into this new era of Christendom. And many Saints of old have paved the way through their experiences now largely hidden in books that hint of their God encounters. And many Saints of our generation are talking about God encounters that seem occultist and sound New Age. There are distinct differences and they are becoming clearer and clearer to me as I wander the racks of this library…and release the presence of God as I pray on the property.

What will this new season of the Saints look like? Glorious! For we are the carriers of His glory. Here, while I walk among people who are clearly lost in the darkness of their searching, I see their reactions and their reactions testify to His presence and glory within me. Who’s got the light? We do.

So far, my research reveals that of all the historic accounts of wild spiritual experiences, the Catholic saints, with their focus on the redemptive blood of Christ and acute understanding of the Cross, have the edge over any occult practitioner. Their experiences are barely known even in today’s books on the market about them. What made them such carriers of His glory that others took notice as they passed by them on the streets or stood in awe of them as they became enraptured in visions or levitated in the Abby or Convent in which they dwelled?

I believe that those who encountered God most dramatically and entered into life under an open heaven had two things about them that set them apart. The first is that they had an incredible revelation of the Cross and the blood atonement & resurrection of Jesus. And secondly, they had an amazing understanding of His love. The revelation of the Cross broke the ceiling, lifted the veil, or whatever metaphor you want to use. The revelation of His love, kept their motives pure and their hearts and minds and lives focused solely upon Jesus. They were not interested in marketing the glory and setting up a ministry. They were so giddy in love with Jesus that they just went about their ordinary day lost in His presence – walking with one foot in heaven and the other foot on earth, saturated in His glory.

What will enable us to walk as carriers of His glory? How can we break through to living under an open heaven? Seek for a revelation of the cross and the blood of Christ. Ask for ongoing encounters with His love breaking through to you.

And you too, will see that others on the street or in your workplace or in your home will turn their heads and say, “Ohhh…surely the light of the world shines through you.”

Julia Loren
http://www.julialoren.net/
http://www.julialoren.net/index.php

Revelations of Glory

2008-05-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

While I am working on my next book about the Glory of God - His manifest presence and manifestations of His presence - I've decided to invite you along on my journey.

Come with me as I encounter the glory of God's love in the springtime among the gentle mountain streams of Virginia; the glory of Jesus' healing power manifested in healing revivals; the glory of Jesus blessing covenental love and adorning His bride with gems; what it means to be enraptured in the glory of His presence manifest; and all the expressions of glory that come to us and spill out from us to others.

In a sense, this blog is going to become "Momma Julia's Rough Guide to Glory"...a travelogue. I welcome your comments on my postings and cherish your insights as well.

May the glory of God envelop you as you read,

"momma" Julia
http://www.julialoren.net/

Momma Julia’s Rough Guide to Glory - #2 The Glory of Healing at Lakeland, FL

2008-05-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

May 10-11, Lakeland, FL:

I went into the central, land-filled swamps of Florida over the weekend to see a reed swayed by the wind.

I went to see the tattooed and pierced holy man, Todd Bentley, a raving young man, moving counter culturally to the religious, well-dressed church goers of the day. Born centuries after John the Baptist, this Canadian evangelist epitomizes one whom Jesus called the least in the kingdom of heaven who is greater than John the Baptist. He is one reported to release the glory of God through the manifestation of healing in his meetings.

I went to see the crowds; to be able to say, “I was there” in case it becomes recorded as a historic event on the timeline of revival history.

I went to see what Jesus had to say about the ravings of the lunatic John the Baptist; to see what Matthew 11 is all about and undeniably saw that the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing since the times of John the Baptist. The crowds who heard the music of the hour and rejoiced in the miracles mixed with those who did not dance or rejoice in the miracles of healing taking place all around them.

I had heard the reports about this 32 year old Todd - some good, some bad. Like John the Baptist, the wild man, young evangelist faced accusers who claimed, “He has a demon.” He was quite the teenage sinner and openly admits a prison record. Like John the Baptist, Todd was in prison. He is also like Jesus in that he attracts the gluttons and drunkards, and is a friend of tax collectors, drug addicts, ex-cons, prostitutes and perverts, and all variety of “sinners.” Jesus moved in the spirit, amazed the crowds by what He did and offended the minds of others by what He said.

I went out to see the reed swaying in the wind of the Holy Spirit - having heard about the instability of the reed and the strength of the wind.

Todd’s past was dealt with early on before he was launched into ministry…and even later on. After being in international ministry for some years, Todd faced an emotional meltdown on a platform in England that was likely brought on by the haunting wounds of his youth that forced their way to the surface. His inner core being unable to withstand the pressures of constantly moving under the anointing of God and the scrutiny of men, begged for healing. At the urging of his board and fathers in the faith, Todd stepped aside for a full year to move deeply and willingly into the healing presence of Jesus. He embraced the ministry of many counselors to deal with root issues in his life – before they could manifest in sinful reactions. He is now more emotionally solid and equipped and healed than many men in ministry who have never taken time out to sit at the feet of Jesus and submit to His loving power to heal the deep inner wounds. And he has a multitude of counselors who watch over him, ready to catch him should he even hint at stumbling or should others call out for his head on a platter.

I went out to see the reed swaying in the wind of the Holy Spirit and his skin.

Thank God, our skin is no longer under the condemning old covenant of Biblical, religious law. I had read the internet accounts from those offended by the music of the hour – the worship and the joy – whose orphan spirit caused them to shy away from the glory of God to scream out old covenant accusations against a brother like, “Todd has tattoos that may mean satanic things and writing on skin is expressly forbidden in the Bible.” I had peeked at his skin and saw the markings of a bond slave of Jesus Christ and the New Covenant covering the scars that slashed deeply into his wrists and arms and soul during his tumultuous Baal-worshipping youth. I saw the kanji lettering that gives honor to the Great King, and calls for equilibrium to be found in the middle of Him. I saw the Lion of Judah, the scriptures and scenes spread out haphazardly all over his body as if graffiti artists spray painted the outer walls of the temple. But it is this graffiti that is the street art of the day and tells a story on the walls of a city and calls forth the people of the street to join the gang…the gang of Christ. The least in the kingdom has become greater than John the Baptist who focused on repentance…The least focuses on grace. The least releases the glory of Jesus and manifestations of Jesus’ presence through His healing power. The least may not look presentable or wise.

But wisdom is proved right by her actions.

The actions of Todd challenged me. Indeed, I could not help but examine my own unbelief under the microscope of Jesus, who after commenting on John the Baptist in Matthew 11, began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. Apparently, the cities that embrace the miracles are the ones that position themselves to receive a lasting revival and ongoing urban transformation.

"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

The actions of Todd challenged me to enter into childlike faith - for my own healing...and for an increase in the presence and power of Christ to move in me and through me to touch other lives. If revival doesn't last in my city, I at least want childlike faith and trust in Jesus to last in me.

... At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure

I've gone home from Lakeland, yet Todd's actions still stir me to drop the critical nature about things that are beyond my experience and reach up and out for an increase in childlike faith. Only the children can truly receive the hidden things of Jesus and believe the outrageous manifestations of His glory released through healing – Christians and unbelievers alike…freely given without condition for this is the father’s pleasure that His children be healed. Healing is scriptural. Power evangelism is scriptural. Seeing angels is scriptural. The strangest insights into the heavenly realm are reserved for little children. The wise and the learned usually miss out.

I went to see a reed swaying in the wind and the glory of God expressed in healing revivals. And I was not disappointed.

I saw the glory captured on the expression of a single face that tells the story of a hundred, perhaps a thousand others who have attended the meetings.

Todd stood in the middle of two lines of people flowing past him to receive a touch of anointing oil and impartation for power; joy and passion sparkled in evident delight in his eyes as he prayed for thousands of people moving past. I walked by him and felt the presence of God as his oil-smeared palm lightly touched my forehead. Then I lingered off to the side to watch the others walk by and move back towards their seats.

One elderly man practically skipped through the end of the anointing line pushing a wheelchair with a small crowd of family members trailing behind him. The sheer joy on his face told the whole story as it suddenly dawned on me that the man was pushing the wheelchair that his relatives has brought him in. It held nothing now but a couple of folding chairs that his relatives had been sitting in. Just that one healing, that one glimpse of sheer joy mingling with the glory of God on his elderly face as he pushed his old chair along, was enough for me to believe.

I had seen more than a reed swaying in the wind. I had seen man, one of hundreds, undeniably healed as a manifestation of the presence of God’s love moving during a meeting facilitated by a tattooed and pierced, young holy man.

I had glimpsed the glory of God awakening hearts to a Father who loves us enough to heal us…for He forgives all of our sins and heals all of our diseases…

Even yours!

From “Momma Julia’s Rough Guide to Glory”
Blog #2
http://www.julialoren.net/
http://www.julialoren.net/index.php

Momma Julia's Rough Guide to Glory - #1 The Glory of His Love

2008-05-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Allegheny Mountains, Virginia May 3, 2008:

I heard the news that Lakeland Florida was experiencing a healing revival. Weeks later, I grew curious as internet reports and television generated an extraordinary amount of excitement. Was it hype or revival?

I had some need of physical healing that I was sure a doctor could heal but why not go? I had been crying out for a year – show me your glory. Release to me a deeper revelation of your glory….your manifest presence within and manifestations of your presence surrounding me. Perhaps this place of present outpouring of a healing revival also contained some of the expressions of glory that I longed to see. If not, it would be great fun to see an old fashioned open air revival reminiscent of the 1940’s and 1950’s with Pentecostal preachers shouting and people swooning into the arms of healing angels.

So, I decided to go. After all I was working on the east coast for awhile. It would be an easy flight down to Tampa. I thought I would book a flight for the following weekend and meet some friends who would be there too. But the Lord had other plans. He called me to go north to the wilderness instead…not south to the revival.

I’ve known the Lord long enough to know that His ways are not our ways. When people are flying south, He calls some of us north and others to remain home. He meets us everywhere for where we are, there He is with us. But when He speaks a specific direction to us, we’d best heed His voice or miss out on an intended blessing. Especially when He whispers something as soft and sweet as this,

Come away with me beloved. See the winter has passed…

You would think that I would respond to the romantic overture but instead I said, “But Lord the revival is south and you are calling me to come up to the mountains of Virginia and be with you. Have you got your directions mixed up?”

And there in the wilderness I will show you my love. Come away with me. And there I will reveal my glory.

So I thought about what to pack. I thought to bring a couple novels…but felt the Lord say leave them. I thought to bring a movie or two. Come be with me. Should I bring my laptop? Just with me. How about my cell phone? You won’t have reception where I am taking you. Suddenly I became anxious. What would I do with nothing but Jesus for company? Hmmm…how about my flute? Fine. I’d love to hear it. What if it rains and I am housebound? Should I at least bring a Bible? If you must. As for food, am I fasting? No one fasts when the bridegroom is among them. Come and be with me. Just me and you alone in the spring.

And so I went to a place a friend recommended in the Allegheny Mountains about four hours away from where I was working.

Grumbling about the long drive I found myself a little lost despite the printed directions and the ever present NeverLost gps system attached to the rental car…a system that I have learned to distrust over the years. Whining my way along the drive I said, “Lord I think I am lost”. And heard him reply, How can you be sure you’re lost if you’ve never been this way before?

Good point.

Trust me.

Finally, the map and the gps got into sync and I knew I was on the right road so I started to relax. After awhile of driving in silence I said, “Lord what am I doing here? Once again I am taking off for a weekend alone instead of being with friends in the middle of a revival.”

You are in the right place at exactly the right time. Trust me.

Trust seemed to be the emerging theme of the weekend. After a few hours of windy roads, the mountains gave way to rushing streams and outbursts of the aching green of early spring intermittingly spotted by the snowy white dogwoods in bloom. Surrounded by beauty my spirits rose. Eventually, I found my place of residence and settled in for the weekend. Wide lawns greeted me and a little stream sang and laughed its way alongside the little condo that was to be mine for a couple of days. I felt overjoyed to be in such a beautiful place. But the joy was not to last long.

As soon as I pulled out my beach chair to sit beside the stream coursing alongside my patio a neighbor pulled out the pressure washer and went about his noisy task. So, more than a little miffed at the assault on my privacy, I fled to the local hot spring for a good long soak. Driving back up to the place I noticed that the riding lawnmowers were now out in force, crawling over the estate like giant bees humming an obnoxious sound. Now I was angry. I stormed into the house and threw an ugly rant out loud knowing that the no one could hear me above the noise. I was surprised at the heat in my fury and let it rage unchecked for awhile, venting all the pent up stress and anger that had been building for months. How good it felt to throw a tantrum…the beloved turned into a momentary shrew. Then I fled into the quiet of my car, sped down the hill for an early dinner of pizza and wine.

Subdued, I tentatively returned to find my place again a peaceful oasis. So I went inside, sat on the couch, stared at the walls for an hour or so and finally whispered, “Here I am. Where are you?”

The following day, I walked up the hill to a large estate and wandered about freely, enjoying the views of the hills in the distance, the valley below. Well, what do I do with myself now?

Come away with me beloved. Let me lead you beside still waters and restore your soul.

So I drove along a river road and pulled off where I thought there might be a fisherman’s trail along the river and was right. I walked until my thoughts finally faded away. No longer tuned into my noisy inner chatter, I began to see the tiny lavender flowers and mini-white wild flower bouquets along the path nestled in baby ferns. For you my beloved.

I smiled at the thought of God romancing me. Suddenly a little lavender flower took flight and my eyes drifted upwards until I noticed all the butterflies in soft pastels of yellow, blue and feathery blacks and browns flitting all around me like flowers in flight. The scent of dusky roses wafted past on a gentle breeze from some tree in bloom I had yet to see. Almost heaven. There, a fingerling trout leapt upstream as I wandered to a little rapids walking gingerly out to mid-stream stepping on stones placed there just for my feet and sat in the middle of the white water roar untouched by even a droplet of water. I sat there a long while letting the stress and cares of the world lift off of me and drop carelessly into the waters rushing past. But rocks lack cushion and after a while I moved on walking unsteadily from rock to rock, downstream until I reached the shore again.

I came to a path marked by a No Trespassing sign and could not resist treading on someone’s sacred hunting grounds. I saw no hunters or fisherman on this stretch and as I had neither gun nor reel, what could happen? The southern gentlemen of these parts would probably just give a nod to this old nature girl. With childhood glee at breaking the rules, sliding down the path to the river’s edge I saw the most beautiful spot imagined - a deep pool with water flooding in and round flat stones waiting for me at the water’s edge. It was time to reclaim the lost childhood art of skipping stones across a river. After a dozen or more attempts to skip one completely across, I finally found the perfect stone, a crystalline white flat stone, light but broad and gave it a hurl…skipped it three, four, six times straight across to the other side. “Whuhuu!” I shouted! I felt like Huck Finn’s cohort and Jesus was the instigator of a day playing hookey, advocating laziness and lounging by a southern stream on a warm spring day giving my winterized flesh a chance to begin its slow roast into a summer-colored skin.

I was in glory and wheeled to face the creator standing all around as I heard Him say, This is my glory revealed to you today.

The glory of romping like a child with the Creator in the midst of His creation, not a care in the world, this moment, in this day, the most exquisite sense of delight in God’s manifest presence that I had felt in a very long time, years even… sad but true.

That night I played my flute for Him. I had not played it in a year. I felt like my song had just been restored in the woods and my flute now harmonized with their sounds – nature and I in worship.

Yet by morning my thoughts and cares rumbled up before breakfast and so I rose hastily and turned on some worship music wondering what I should do that day. Where should we go, Lord? What do you want to do today?

Let’s climb a mountain.

Climb we did until I felt spent, my thoughts trampled upon with every step until all my unbelief and anxieties were pulverized into nonexistence, and sweat dripped down my back and a little blood trickled down from my kneecap where a stick had jumped out and bit me. A couple hours of up then down, I returned to the car. What now?

I will lead you beside still waters and restore your soul.

And so I drove to the lake side where I unfolded my beach chair in the shelter of some thick-trunked trees that offered a wind break and sat down for a little rest.

We sat in silence until the wind came up stronger. And I asked, “Should we leave?”

No. You can rest in the midst of a little windstorm. Trust me.

The wind blew stronger but the air still felt warm enough to face the wind and sit there watching a stealth muskrat, his nose plowing the waters, his body hidden in the wind-stirred murk of the nearby banks heading straight for a goose who alerted his friends and then the geese all wisely deciding to jump out of the water and head for more sheltered space on land.

Should we go?

No, rest.

Rest in the midst of the winds blowing and shifting and watch the beauty of the ripples on the water. Watch the action of the incoming boats, one towing three huge men in a small skiff who had ventured out with only a tiny electric trolling motor. A comical sight, I could not help but laugh. While the wind blew I simply sat and watched the world in all its glory in motion – trees waving, water rippling into whitecaps, crows pretending to be hawks circling overhead and diving into oblivion. Finally, I felt like it was time to go back and see what Jesus had in store for the evening.

I spent the evening in worship. I felt His presence so near, so present, so peaceful that I thought it could not get any better than that. But it did. I felt the breath of His spirit blow into my spirit expanding like a balloon within me. Breathing life into my spirit, expanding my spirit. Some new sense of unity filling me. And I knew that I knew, that I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine. That no matter where I am or think I should be - we are there together.

And then I felt a shift as soon as I lay back on the couch. It was like lying back into a pool of water, full submersion, floating face up about a foot beneath the surface. I could see the dark water sparkle like wind rippling the surface of the water into white just inches above me. Fully engulfed in His glory I felt like I was now seeing through His eyes, feeling the realm of His presence all around me, under me, over me, full immersion, wonderfully drowning in Him. I lingered there in the deep waters, lying there in my baptism of total abandonment, absolute trust. It was a mikvah of sorts, a commissioning to carry the glory of His love. And rising from the waters, the air expanding in my spirit once again, I heard Him say,

Welcome to the resurrection of the glory of my love.

The glory of His love – isn't that what we are all looking for in our private worship times and in the midst of powerful meetings? I felt not the first love giddiness of an adolescent or the sparkly adorning glory of bridal love, but the mature essence of His presence resurrecting an old love and causing me to fall in love with Him all over again, full immersion, a unity that I had not felt before. The relationship had changed. I understood more fully now, that the glory of His love is the beginning and the end of all the manifestations of His glory.

I prayed that weekend, this simple prayer:

Lord, write your glory upon my life. Show me the many facets of your glory until I become a display of your glory. Show me the glory of your love, your glory manifested in healing revival, your glory manifestations of bridal love, Christ in me the hope of glory, Christ in the world today in all His glory, the river of glory carrying us all away, all the glory I have never even imagined or seen.

And I felt like I already had the beginning of my answer imparted with the previous night’s revelation of the resurrection of my awareness of the glory of His love for me. It is a glory that begins with trusting Jesus and submerging into the depths of His love. It is a glory that breathes His breath of love deep within our spirit, expanding our capacity to receive His love. It is the beginning of understanding His glory and our final destination – into His arms of love. So when I talk about glory in all its various expressions, what I am really talking about is His love revealed in many ways.

Yet it takes a profound trust in Jesus to let go of the critical thoughts of what glory should look like. It takes trust to step closer to Jesus and let yourself go deeper into intimacy with Him. Trust enables us to flow in the directions He carries us rather than fight against the current. Trust that Jesus will make an excellent guide on this rough journey to discover His glory enables us to stumble along at His side. Only a taste of His love enables us to trust. And so this weekend that resurrected the glory of His love revealed was an apt beginning to this journey of discovering the many facets of God’s glory manifest on the earth today.

All too soon, my deep, restful retreat in nature ended and I packed up for the long drive back to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, got in the car and started down the country road towards the freeway feeling a little sorry for myself that the wonderful weekend had come to a close. But God decided to add a little humor to the end of this great weekend away.

Passing the Lickety Split ice cream parlor I got a sudden craving, abruptly pulled a u-turn and stopped in just in time to hear old, blind Joe sitting on the cement porch playing his country songs on a weathered guitar. So I ordered and licked a cone alongside a group of local women sitting at a picnic table nodding to me as if I were kinfolk, each one looking as if they had eaten so much ice cream that they had become a two-for-one special in a muumuu dress. After a song or three I resumed my journey. Passing a lone house with two life-sized dummies, ma and pa, sitting high up on the front porch for the tourists to gawk at – after all, that is what we tourists expect to see in the south – people just sitting on their porches hour after hour, doin’ nothin’ but watching the world go by like a couple of dummies. And gawk I did until I laughed out loud and didn’t stop laughing until a sign nailed on a tree caught my eye like a wink from God. It simply read,

“Trust Jesus”.

From "Momma Julia's Rough Guide to Glory"
blog #1
http://www.julialoren.net/
http://www.julialoren.net/index.php

Shifting Shadows of Darkness increasing in March

2008-03-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

The Power of Now
New Age Guru Challenges Christians to Release the Power of God

By Julia Loren

The days of taking a neutral stance towards the New Age and the supernatural are over. Christians who have experienced the presence and power of God personally need to rise up in boldness and release the power of their testimony – or others will use their counterfeit experiences to lure the world into the dark lord’s kingdom. In fact, television is already shifting the shadows of darkness over the land and this month will see the darkness increasing as never before.

Let go of fear, forget about the past, stop thinking, God is not love, practice the presence of yourself and offer no resistance to the pain of life. Then, according to Eckhart Tolly, you will find true peace and happiness. His message is nothing new. His rise to stardom in recent years is phenomenal; helped along by Oprah Winfrey whose endorsement has catapulted him to the attention of her massive audience. The German-born Tolly who now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia is becoming hotter than Deepak Chopra.

New Age guru Eckhart Tolly is being whole-heartedly endorsed and his books (The Power of Now & A New Earth) promoted by one of televisions most popular talk show hosts, Oprah Winfrey, who will be co-leading an online class with Tolly this March appeals to those who seek a new spiritual path. His teachings are unleashing a whole new wave of an old age movement rooted in Theosophy, an occult-based society popularized in the 1800s that incorporated eastern religions and is the root of the New Age movement. And America is gobbling it up like starving children.

His popularity challenges Christians to take a stand – not against Tolly – but to stand in the brilliance of God’s presence and shine ever brighter to a world that is apparently having trouble seeing the light.

Where did Tolly gain such power to influence? Surely not from God. He claims to have been on the brink of suicide when he awoke one night to hear an inner voice say, “Resist nothing”. His spiritual encounter became the key that miraculously healed his depression and set him on the well worn path of seeking enlightenment through eastern religions.

His teachings are merely a retread of Theosophy that seems to be filling a spiritual void evident in America. His timing is as perfect as Madame Blavatsky’s was in the aftermath of the Great Awakening. [I write about this current explosion of occult activity and its origins in my book Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power. I encourage you to read it.]

Into the spiritual void left in the waning fervor of the Great Awakening, stepped
Madame Helen Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, the first of the US New Age movements. The Russian born guru, is known as the “mother of the modern spiritualist movement,” who popularized mediumistic and psychic powers and the merging of world religions into what would become the foundation upon which the modern New Age movement rests in America.

She, like Tolly, claims to have been launched into guru stardom after receiving a powerful spiritual experience. Hers included childhood visions of a tall Hindu who eventually materialized in Hyde Park and became her guru and advisor. Traveling throughout the world, Blavatsky picked up on the Eastern teachings and philosophies of India and the Himalayas, eventually making her way back to the US in 1873, at the height of the spiritualist fad that swept the nation at that time. Spiritualism, which owes its beginnings to Emmanuel Swedenborg’s writings on the spirit world, originally focused on the belief that the dead communicate with the living and can be contacted through mediums and séances.

She and newspaper correspondent Henry Steel Olcott founded the Theosophical Society in New York City in September 1875, after they attended a lecture on pyramids and their use in conjuring spirits.

The term “Theosophy” is derived from the Greek words ‘theos,’ meaning God, and ‘sophia,’ meaning wisdom. True Theosophists hold that the divine higher self of every mortal man is of the same essence of the gods. Prove the soul of man by its wondrous powers and you have proved God. In short, man can not only be god but is god. Karma and reincarnation are part of their foundational beliefs but they believe we do not regress back into animals after we die. Instead, we review our past and rest for awhile before reincarnating into successive lives. Pagan religions and worship of the earth, the sun, solstices and nature rites are also included in her writings. To Theosophists, the religions of the world are branches on the tree whose trunk is the one ancient – once universal – wisdom religion. According to them, periodically, great teachers (Buddha, Jesus, Dali Lama, etc.) come amongst us to help us in our evolutionary path. They all created another branch on the tree. This idea also seems to be the root teaching of all current New Age gurus.

Tapping into the higher self and reaching into other places of existence seemed to attract those who sought to develop their paranormal faculties or to “bliss out” in trance-like detachment to avoid life’s pain and suffering. Suddenly the quest for power and control over life became accessible to those who would be gods. It is this Theosophical foundation that under girds today’s New Age teachings, Wiccan and pagan religions, and even Tolly’s teachings.

Oddly enough, the Theosophical Society was founded in the same area of New York City where Christian revivalist Charles Finney lived in 1830-1831, the peak years of The Second Great Awakening. Prayer meetings were crowded almost every night. Conversions and confessions of sin were frequent. Demonstrations of the power of the Holy Spirit amazed those who attended the meetings.

By the 1850s, the Great Awakening religious fervor had died down. Many Victorians began rejecting conventional religion and spiritualism flowed into the spiritual void of America and Europe. The religious climate of America had been primed to experience increasing spiritual power but lacked a cohesive structure to sustain either a revival of Christianity or a revival of occult mysticism.

Eventually, criticism made Blavatsky realize that she needed to soften her approach and so she tried to disentangle herself from occult labels that connoted an anti-Christian bias. In writing her voluminous works, she offered to the world a systematic, quasi-academic approach to the study of paranormal phenomena and made spiritualism intellectually appealing. She established the foundation upon which all occult mysticism and 20th century expressions of New Age practices have built their particular kingdoms.

And so now we have Tolly stepping into the current spiritual void, appealing to middle and upper class Americans who are burned out by materialism and exciting a culture that seeks paranormal power and is titillated by the occult. He eliminates the anti-Christian bias and all bias against religions and so appeals to everyone –at least those who have not encountered a personal revelation of Jesus Christ.

The central teachings of Tolly are that there is no presence of God; God is not love because there is no lover and beloved; true salvation is to be who you are; the goal of life is to free yourself from fear and enter into the blissful state of detachment from life and others. He offers his followers a respite from thinking and encourages a meditative state that includes a letting go into the Now – no past, no future, no thinking, a relinquishment of all thoughts.

Despite the fact that he espouses letting go of fear, it is fear that drives people to sit at his feet. Those who feel like God has abandoned the world, or perhaps never existed, are turning towards anyone who offers freedom from fear and suffering. And Tolly offers a pleasant escape from existential despair in a world where there seems to be no compassionate, loving God.

It is this meditation on nothingness that induces a trancelike state that opens the door to occult spirits and prevents people from knowing the true fulfillment in experiencing the overwhelming spiritual experience of being drenched in the true love of Jesus Christ.

Yet, it is not only what he is teaching through Oprah’s vast audience and beyond, that should concern Christians, but why society is embracing Tolly at this point in history.

The spiritual void left by past moves of God’s Spirit seem to be waning and non-Christians as well as marginal Christians who haven’t stepped into past and present moves of God, are increasingly fearful of the future. Scripture speaks of a time of darkness coming on the world characterized by spiritual apostasy, natural and technological disasters, and increasing fear. Many people believe that those days are upon us now and will increase in intensity in the years to come. Fear drives individuals to fight or flee. Tolly appeals to those who long to flee into a detached state of self-induced bliss.

Scripture also speaks of the light of God increasing in this darkness as the people of God become carriers of His light and Presence into the world. The world, apparently, is having a little trouble seeing the light. Anyone with a glittering image of a message that shimmers with promise seems to be a good enough substitute and so they flock to Tolly’s paradoxical, Zen-like doublespeak that serves to open peoples’ minds to “doctrines of demons” that are older than Theosophy.

The days of taking a neutral stance towards the New Age and the supernatural are over. Those who do not know the true presence and power of God’s Spirit will become increasingly subject to the power of the evil one. Those whose fears or doctrines have led them to avoid even the Lord’s supernatural power will soon find themselves and their children easy prey for evil supernatural powers.

Tolly’s popularity speaks clearly of a need for Christians to become who Jesus intended them to become – carriers of His light, His presence and power into a dark and desperate world. It is imperative that we as Christians draw so close to the Lord that we offer the world the power of His love – releasing prophetic words, demonstrating His power through healing the sick and casting out demons, combating fear through words of hope and encouragement, calling forth peoples’ destiny, and releasing miracles to those who are hungry to experience the incredible love and power of God in our day.

It is equally imperative that we increase in faith and decrease in fear. Fear-based theology has nothing to offer the world. And so the world flits away into the teachings of those like Tolly’s, who offer respite from fear.

Rather than rise up against Tolly’s teachings in a negative way, and risk alienating non-Christians, those who consider themselves true Christians should challenge themselves to dwell deeper in the light of God’s overwhelmingly loving presence and radiate His glory outwardly.

If we are not overwhelmed by the love of God, locked away in the heart of God’s affection looking to Him with radiant faces, how can the light of the world shine through us? Become the light of the world that Jesus says you are and then you will push back the darkness. Making God radiant to everyone you meet is part of the plan for your life and the key strategy for defeating the dark lord who is shifting his shadows of darkness over the land.

We have the “power of now”. We owe the individuals we encounter on a daily basis an encounter with God. Christ has commissioned us and empowered us to go into all the world. We will win them over if we take the power of now – the power of the Holy Spirit today – to release the brilliance of God’s glory shining through us to all we meet.

____________________________

Julia Loren is the author of Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power with contributing authors Bill Johnson and Mahesh Chavda (Destiny Image, 2006). www.julialoren.net.

Bethel workshop becomes a holy convocation of scribal prophets

2008-02-04T17:03:00.000-08:00

As I stood to address the crowd assembled for the Revelatory Writing workshop during the February 2008 Bethel Church's "Write unto the Glory" conference, the atmosphere seemed fused with God’s presence. Suddenly, I became aware that this was not just another workshop filled with ordinary wanna-be writers.

This was a Holy Convocation of Scribal Prophets.

I felt like the Lord wanted to release specific prophetic words en masse! Waves of the presence of the Holy Spirit flowed through the room and we were soon awash in revelation of the new books, articles and visions God released to individuals packed into the room. It was as if we could touch heaven, grab hold of the scrolls the angels brought into the room and pull into our reality, the words that God was speaking to us individually.

As I spoke, people raised their hands into the air, grabbed hold of the prophetic message flowing through the sound waves and pulled them down and into themselves.

Heaven invaded out little patch of earth that hour.

The scribal prophets have gone home. Hopefully, with fresh vision, fire, direction, and prophetic words that will release them into deeper encounters with the Lord – and release to us, what they have seen and heard.

Habakkuk 2:2 became the theme throughout the Bethel Write unto the Glory conference – “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.”

Many entered into a personal awareness of what that means to them as God released personal revelation and insights.

Sorry that you missed it? I am too. Perhaps you might find a little personal revelation and inspiration rubbing off on you is you watch the DVD. Hopefully, the presence of the Lord will come as you watch and you, too, can enter into the Holy Convocation of Scribal Prophets.

To order see http://www.julialoren.net/ and go to the store page.

Be blessed as you watch!

Julia

Tasting the Goodness of the Father in the Pacific NW

2008-01-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

I've spent the past few days speaking in Bellevue and Tacoma, basking in the love of the Father and leading others into a renewed season of remembering the goodness of God. On Tuesday night, I'll be speaking at Revival Town in Olympia - releasing more of the same.

What a privilege to be the first speaker of the new year in these churches pastored by old friends & new. The Word of the Lord for the Pacific NW seems to be emerging on one singular theme - 2008 is the year to practice childlike faith, keep the goodness of the Father within sight, and drop old expectations and false notions about a negative and stingy God, so that you have room to receive the new.

How quickly we forget that the Father is good, wants the best for us, provides for us, offers us a refuge of security and strength and longs for us to draw nearer every day. The rocky road of rational adulthood must give way to us becomming like children so that we may inherit all the Father longs to reveal to us of His kingdom. It is the child who embraces revelation most easily. It is the one who is trusting and secure in his Father's love who goes forth into the day without depression, anxiety or worry. Confidence and trust comes through abiding in the Father's love.

As I've ministered, the keyboardist plays in the background so that worship never stops. And in that atmosphere of worship, I pause from my speaking to release people into a deeper presence of the Lord, praying over them and giving them opportunity to hear the Lord speaking directly to them. And then I go on into another segment of the message. As a result, people open up more easily to the ever present love of the Father; let go of past hurts, shame and guilt; embrace His words of love and acceptance; and come into a true experience of God. Prophetic words and healing come forth naturally in such an atmosphere of His presence where listeners are attuned to the the voice of the Lord more than the voice of the speaker.

We are having a blast and the best is yet to be in 2008!!! Depression has lifted from several people, anxiety gives way to peace, and a couple of people who have PTSD have suddenly found themselves lifted into the presence of the Lord and healed!! The spirit of God had saturated many people who once thought they would never, ever be able to experience His presence so intimately. Intimacy seems to the key healing factor in everyone's lives. And as I've ministered, obstacles to intimacy have fallen away allowing people to embrace the goodness and love of the Father for the first time or for the first time in a long time.

The kingdom of God is about relationship.

2008 is the year of new beginnings of intimacy with a good and loving Father. So forget New Year's resolutions, come to the Father like a child, lay your weary head upon His shoulder and snuggle in for awhile. Everything else will fall into place from there.

Many blessings on your new year!!!

Julia
http://www.julialoren.net/

Supernatural Experiences—It’s Here

2007-11-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

As you read the pages of Shifting Shadows of Spiritual Experiences, Julia Loren and I want you to be stretched and challenged, grounded and guided. Yes, for some of you, the contents of this book will be outside of your current comfort zone. For others--it will but whet your appetite and leave you hungering for even more. We have attempted to bring you truths from various schools of thought and wed them together. But ultimately our goal is to point you to Christ Jesus Himself and He, in turn, to our Father God.
- James Goll

Excerpt from introduction to

Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Experiences

You are His child. And He delights to show you the kingdom of your inheritance. His supernatural kingdom of angels and spiritual entities, like cherubim and seraphim, are just a little slice of Heaven that He gives you a glimpse of--to show you that there is more beyond the realm of your senses, that Heaven is real, and He is Lord of all. His power transcends our understanding.

Many of the spiritual experiences we encounter in this life are given to us so that we may know Jesus Christ, the depths of His compassion and love that longs to save the lost, heal the sick, knows how fragile we are, and treats us gently. It comes in the form of a God encounter that corrects our misguided and warped images of Jesus and unveils Him in all His glory. It heals our wounds and awakens our destinies. The God encounter releases the gift of knowing Jesus and deepening our relationship with Him.

I am convinced that all authentic spiritual experiences are given for two reasons only--to increase revelation of who Jesus Christ really is to us individually and to impart faith. The combination releases a demonstration of His Presence and power to us and through us. Those who see visions of Christ, talk with angels, become entranced by the bizarre appearance of heavenly creatures, catch glimpses of Heaven, hear music from nowhere, or find themselves transported by the Holy Spirit from place to place, discover how easy it is to become captivated by the experience rather than the Person and purpose that underlies the experience.

Examined under the light of God’s love and scriptural examples, many spiritual experiences are given to impart faith and the understanding that He wants you to release a demonstration of His power. A vision or a dream, a visitation or teleportation, is just the packaging that surrounds the gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12--the word of wisdom; the word of knowledge; faith; gifts of healing; the working of miracles; prophecy; the discerning of spirits; tongues; interpretation of tongues. They are gifts that He wants to give you, not for yourself, but to give away to a specific person or groups of people so that they, too, may catch a glimpse of Jesus and enter into salvation. The meaning within spiritual experiences all too often fall by the wayside as people focus on the glitter of the package they come wrapped in. It takes spiritual maturity to know what to do with the things God shows to you. It also takes maturity to discern when an experience may not be from God.

In this book we are going to focus on answering the three questions commonly asked by Christians who encounter God through spiritual experiences. The questions are:

- What are the types of spiritual experiences that are common to humankind?

- How can you tell if an experience comes from the Holy Spirit or from somewhere else? In other words, what is a figment of our imagination? What arises from our minds and psychological or emotional states? Or what, perhaps, may originate in the demonic realm?

- What do I do with that experience?

So, come along with us on our journeys and know this: it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. You just may find that some of our experiences have also been your own.
As you read, open your heart to God as He delights in revealing Himself to you through such spiritual experiences such as:

Encountering Angels
Dreams, Visions & Miracles
Near-death Experiences
Transcending the natural realm
& entering the revelatory realms
Discerning the origin of the experience
Testing the Spirits
Insights into Things to Come
How to Keep Jesus Central

Preface to Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power

2007-10-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

The shifting shadows blurring the lines between light and darkness, good and evil, are creating a twilight zone of spiritual awareness, especially in North America. It results in confusion and apathy on one hand, or an inordinate desire for power at the other extreme. These shadows lead many to call evil “good” and good “evil” not only in society but within the walls of many churches. We must chase the shadows of confusion out of our minds.

Unless we purpose to dwell in the realms of God’s glory—His love and light—we will easily be led astray into shifting shadows of loyalty and fail to reflect His magnificent radiance. He is the light that overcomes the darkness. In Him there is no shifting shadow, no shadow of turning. The intent of this book is to reveal the realms of God’s glory and power increasing on the earth today. It is an increase that heralds the end of darkness, the end of the dark lord’s power, and the beginning of the brilliant, majestic beauty of the second coming of Christ.

This book contains interviews and excerpts from many well-known prophetic voices who call people to step out of the shifting shadows of loyalties and into a passionate pursuit of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, His glory and the power inherent in His kingdom. It is a call to take your place in the plan unfolding…a plan that heralds the close of this age.

By the end of the book, you will discover a measure of discernment about the origins of revelatory and supernatural spiritual power and the shadows of deception in the world and in the church, to equip you to receive and express the fullness of the kingdom of God. It is an unabashed attempt to move you into a greater measure of faith and power so you will stand in the fullness of awe, captivated by God’s passionate love. Then, as bearers of light, the shadows will flee before you and the showdown of the clash of powers to come at the end of the age will give way to the eternal joys of His Kingdom come.