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

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

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://juliascribe.blogspot.com/