In Creative Cahoots with God

Pupil and Iris

Creating with God is like the eye’s pupil and iris collaborating together so that we can see. They are a smaller circle within the larger; scanning in unison for the new and perhaps, as yet, unseen.

One of the ways we sense our creative union with Christ is that ideas and actions will feel like us, but beyond us. There’s an energetic pulse that arises from us, but is more than we’d generate alone—like being in creative cahoots with someone much more powerful; but One who whispers rather than shouts.

As Dallas Willard suggests in Hearing God, we can have “thoughts that are our thoughts, though these thoughts are not from us. In this way… the human spirit becomes the ‘candle of the LORD.’” However, this outside influence often defers to us, never overriding us. In other words, a partnership of mature persons who respect each other.

How this shows up in my own process:

• When I listen to some of my solo piano recordings, it’s often as if I’m listening to someone else; though I know it was I who wrote and performed them.

• The same is true when just the right turn of phrase shows up in my writing.

• Or when I find that singular image that complements the text.

  It is I performing those actions; but with a capacity that includes, but enlarges, my own.

I’m also often aware when this is not happening; or when I’m forcing something into being that is serving a reflexive purpose rather than a redemptive one.

Creative Cahoots with Outsized Results

As we’re in creative cahoots with God, there is mutual energetic input, with a creative output of outsized proportion to what the human spirit alone could accomplish. While our will matters to God more than we might think, the divine enabling of our human capacity provides rocket thrusters—empowering the already powerful “ignition system” of the human spirit.

Samuel Shoemaker, writing in 1960, says:

“Something comes into our own energies and capacities and expands them. We are laid hold of by Something greater than ourselves. We can… create things, accomplish things, that in our own strength would have been impossible… The Holy Spirit seems to mix and mingle His power with our own, so that what happens is both a heightening of our own powers, and a gift to us from outside.”

“He’s gifted them with the know-how needed for carving, designing, weaving, and embroidering in blue, purple, and scarlet fabrics, and in fine linen. They can make anything and design anything.
”

— Exodus 35:35; The Message

In creative cahoots with God, we can make anything and design anything—lifting burdens and leaving an easier yoke.

What Is Blocking Healing?

Longing for healing

We’ve hurt people. Many awful and destructive reasons have been offered to explain why people sometimes don’t experience the healing (especially physical healing) they’ve longed for. Among them is the “blame the sick person” explanation, under the assumption that the sick person didn’t have enough faith.

Or, that absolute certainty is required for results; and if you don’t have psychological certainty, you don’t get the results you want. Both are non-biblical assumptions. I, myself, have been on the receiving end of this shameful approach, and will not return to places that blame the sick for a lack of faith.

Not only does this accusation lay a terrible additional burden on the sick person, but Jesus often will heal in spite of our lack of faith; substituting his own faith for our lack. This is one of the ways Christ’s power is “made perfect in our weakness.”

A secondary version of “blame the sick person” is telling the sick to “declare their healing,” despite clear evidence that they are not yet healed, indicating something more needs to be done to assist the sick one.

Possible blockages to healing

So I offer you a list of potential blockages to healing, compiled from several intelligent, instructive, well-grounded books on healing the sick. This is not an exhaustive list, but one that I think will bring you hope.

1. Unknowlingly missing the core problem. We may be praying in the wrong direction, or missing the lever that will lift the burden that results in a more rapid recovery. For example, the root issue may be inner healing, but we’re focused on praying for the physical affliction: So once the inner healing issue is addressed, physical healing can take place.
   
   We may also assume that the problem is an afflicting or tormenting spirit sent from Evil itself, when the true need is for inner healing; or vice-versa. This is why asking God how to pray in any given situation is so important. We don’t assume we know; we ask the Counselor.
   
   

2. Healing comes in layers. Because healing is usually a process, we may have stopped praying too soon, when more restoration was available. This is a hard pill to swallow, but given the complexity of sickness and of humans themselves, why would we think a quick fix prayer would be sufficient in most cases? Staying with a problem allows us to work through the layers.
   
   

3. Someone is missing. There may be an additional healthcare professional, or a person or group, that God wishes to get involved in our healing. Perhaps there is a person who is particularly good at praying for the particular thing that afflicts you. Ask God if there is anything or anyone missing in your healing journey.
   
   

4. Refusal to use healthcare resources available to us. Having said this, some truly helpful resources lie outside of our conventional medicine’s view. Conventional medicine is often quite good at acute care, but sometimes ineffective at healing chronic conditions. And some conventional medical practices are downright destructive, ushering in the likelihood of more disease.
   
   On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are also practices that lie outside of conventional medicine that aren’t always effective either; so seeking God for guidance is essential.
   
   

5. Failure to care for one’s own body. A body that is healthy means as much to Jesus as a soul that is well. Jesus saves whole persons; not parts of persons. How do we know this? Because Jesus was raised with a healed resurrected body. Michael Green has said:
   
   "The Christian church has sometimes behaved as though only the spiritual element in man was the subject of God’s concern. The actions of Jesus…show that God’s salvation concerns the whole man (Mark 3:4) Indeed the word [salvation] is used most frequently in the Gospels with reference to the healing of disease.” (Michael Green, The Meaning of Salvation)
   
   

6. Generational wounding. What isn’t healed gets passed on. This is true of generational sin and sickness, often passed down to unsuspecting future generations who don’t understand that it didn’t begin with them; rather, the precipitating event or pattern began multiple generations ago.
   
   

7. Our church tribe doesn’t expect healing. Without any expectation for healing, even frail and floundering expectation, little may happen. We’re not talking about doubt and a normal struggle with the messy issues of healing prayer—we’re talking about a stubborn refusal, an entrenched disbelief. Jesus could not perform miracles in his home town because their hearts were set against such things.

RESOURCES:

• A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles, by J.P. Moreland

• Authority to Heal, by Ken Blue

• Healing, by Francis MacNutt, PhD

• Healing Prayer, by Chotka and Dunnam

• Follow the Healer, by Stephen Seamands

Why Our Reliance on Emojis Creates Disconnection

“We expect more from technology and less from each other.”

— "Alone Together," Sherry Turkle

An offended reader

Last week, I had a "discussion" with an offended reader who attempted to justify her use of a single emoji as a response to suffering. The post was about my own attempt to find treatment for post-cancer pain. She left a single emoji as a response: clicking took her two seconds. (Note: She raised the issue because she was offended; though I never called her out in my post. Public shaming of an individual isn’t something I can abide.)

The woman claimed that the medium (Facebook) was the problem because it didn't allow her to know whether an emoji, or words, was a more appropriate response. Huh? This wasn’t a post about someone’s cat, or a pic of their meal at a swanky restaurant. The issue was clearly more serious.

So according to her, it was the platform's fault. I guess if you can blame it on technology, you’re off the hook.

“Using only an emoji to respond to suffering is like offering a squirt gun to a person whose house is on fire. The response is grossly inadequate.”

— Instagram Post (jim.robbins.creative)

Mixed Meanings

My response to the reader was that emojis (alone) are too non-specific to communicate anything meaningful. For example:

what does this mean?

Does this mean “angry,” or “disappointed?” Or does it mean, “I’m angry at you,” vs. “The issue itself peaves me.”?

what does this mean?

Does this mean “I’m praying for you,” or “Thank you for sharing,” or “I appreciate what you’re saying.”?

what does this mean?

Does this mean, “I’m laughing with you,” or “at you?” Is it mocking or playful?

what does this mean?

Does this mean “I agree with your post,” “I love this idea,” or “I care about you.”?

See the confusion?

Using specific words, perhaps in conjunction with an emoji, helps clears up confusion —more than emojis alone can. Words are better at creating relational connection as well, because they can dial-in our meaning and intent.

Lowering our standard of care

Perhaps the most troubling use of emojis is that they undercut a sense of commitment to each other. Dropping a single emoji with no further action says, “What’s the bare minimum response that doesn’t require much of me?” I clicked; now I can move on. As M.I.T. researcher and author, Sherry Turkle, suggests in her book, Alone Together, “We expect more from technology and less from each other.”

Words, even a short phrase, take only seconds longer to compose yet communicate a higher level of care and concern: “I’m taking the extra time to compose something thoughtful because I care about you;” or “I care about this issue enough to put it into words that clarify my intent.”

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”

— Blaise Pascal

further exploration

For an insightful discussion on our use of emojis, and emotional intelligence in general, here’s a podcast episode from The Huberman Lab, with guest, Dr. Marc Brackett. Listen here.

The Bleeding Woman Who Needed Belonging

Jesus always wants to bring more healing than we’re asking for.

“He didn’t call her “woman,” but “daughter”—an intensely personal term of endearment, a term that conferred dignity and belonging on her, that implied family and community.”

— Stephen Seamands, "Follow the Healer"

Jesus wanted more for her.

Jesus wasn’t satisfied with healing her chronic bleeding alone, though that was part of the plan: He wanted to heal the terrain in which the disease emerged.

Every disease has a causal terrain, or context (1). For example: systemic dysfunction in the body, emotional wounding, trauma, relational loss, and mental perspective. All shape the development and growth (or inhibition) of disease. As Ken Blue, author of Authority to Heal suggests, “A human being is a kind of ecosystem, a complex and interdependent whole. Pollution in one part contaminates all, and dealing with the pollution at its source heals all.” (Note: “pollution” does not have to imply “sin.”)

Shame, isolation, and dis-favoring likely perpetuated the bleeding woman’s continued hemorrhaging. The woman’s unchecked and messy blood flow was a red warning to others: “I am unsafe.” Why, because disease is in the blood; and blood that smears surfaces makes it communicable.

Her blood blocked her belonging.

My own chronic hemorrhaging

When cancer recurred in my own body, I sensed God saying, “Jim, I want to heal more than your cancer: I want you to be disease-resistant.” The cancer left, but the conditions that gave rise to it remained: severe inflammation left behind a chronic flow of blood and and bundles of nerves set afire. So I don’t merely want to get my old body back; I want a body flowing with resilient resistance to disease.

What he Gave Back to her

As Jesus did for the woman, he will do for me: heal the conditions that inflamed the disease in the first place. For the woman, he gave her back belonging. For me, the means for re-entry are multifold—getting my life back will mean healing the terrain, sector by sector; all of which Jesus (and I) will carefully attend to. He always wants more healing than I’m asking for.

(1) Dr. Nasha Winters introduced the idea of Terrain Theory in the healing and prevention of cancer.

Forward Anchor of Hope

Severe pain creates tunnel vision, stripping us of peripheral perception and all the truth that lies beyond the constriction.

As I currently endure a season of blinding post-cancer pain, I am sometimes aware of its conclusions: 

• “This won’t end.”

• “You’re not strong enough.”

• “God has turned a callous back to you.”

Answering the pain

So God answered with kindness: he gave me something from my closet to hang onto—a place holder in the pain—a reminder that what is now will not be what is then. I will heal, and he’ll talk me through it until I get there.  So he proposed this:

“I want you to get your smoking pipe out of the closet.” 

So I did; then cleaned and oiled its exquisite briarwood bowl. But the wood remains unlit. As yet unkindled. It’s not time. There’s a pacing to this.

My Peterson Aran Pipe/ “Author”

As I attend to divine timing, I clench the dormant pipe in my teeth while I work; admiring the Birdseye grain in the wood, holding an anchor in my hand.

The Sacred Slow: Pipe Smoking

Though my health precludes me from igniting my amber-grained Peterson of Ireland pipe, there is often a therapy in the practice: a slowing of breath and body. Every veteran pipe smoker knows this. If you smoke too quickly and don’t submit to the slow pace, the pipe will get too hot and your sweet aromatic tobacco will taste like chimney ash.

And I suspect that my quite seldom use of the pipe had little to do with any decline in health; precisely because in order to draw the embers properly, one must give in to the sacred slowness. 

Pipe smoking is an embodied calming, a meditative fugue that deters anxious scanning and toxic overwhelm. My guess is that it acts like a balm to sooth the sympathetic nervous system—braking, slowing—much like the smoker canister a beekeeper uses to pacify the hive.

A forward anchor of hope

But for the moment, the pipe’s flame will remain unlit until God says, “Now.” I will let this wooden vessel of fire—that will soon again cast light upon my face—serve as a forward anchor of hope. At once present, yet drawing me into the promised future.

My Brother Vanished In Front Of Me.

“In the first-century world of the New Testament, the most important societal bond was between siblings.””

— Jay Kim, "Analog Community"

The brother who vanished in front of me

There is a growing awareness of a phenomenon called, “Vanished Twin Syndrome.” During a pregnancy, a twin — either fraternal or identical — dies because it is unable to receive the nutrients it needs. It literally shrinks and vanishes. The twin that survives leaves the womb psychologically imprinted with guilt, fear and longing.

As womb-twin survivor expert, Althea Hayton tells us, womb twin survivors are constantly looking for “wholeness in others.” You can guess why. Imagine playing with, sleeping next to, and eating with your sibling who is only inches across from you; then watching them — feeling them — die in front of you. Taken by malnutrition. You are helpless to do anything while the one person who would implicitly “get you” and understand your experience, is wasting away. Then they are no more.

Unexplainable Absence

Unaware of what happened in the womb, you spend your years unconsciously searching for a twin who you have only a fuzzy sense of; an ache that haunts you beyond your conscious awareness. You seek your departed sibling — who felt so much like you —while suffering from an unexplainable Absence.

What I discovered

Through multiple people, over multiple years, I discovered that I indeed have an identical twin (a brother) who vanished while we were both in-utero. Ongoing prayer, therapy, and healthy connections have begun to help; but I am missing the carbon-copy of myself, the mirrored-soul who left me behind.

“...but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

— Proverbs 18:24

Closer than my Twin

The reason Jesus becomes that “friend who sticks closer than a brother” is because space and distance are non-factors for him. Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, isn’t encumbered by time, space or distance. This makes Jesus immediately accessible to us. Within us. A permanently-secured Sibling. In union with Christ, I gain a relentlessly present Brother; one who cannot be absent from me. As I bond with him, I retrieve my own sense of “myself” — finding “wholeness in another.”

You have new siblings

The phrase, “brother and sisters,” describing Jesus’ followers, occurs over 100 times in the New Testament; indicating that God takes quite seriously this idea of shared-life as sacred siblings. Siblings who, as Jay Kim indicates, were “saved into,” not opted-in to this shared bond — A familial bond secured by placement in Jesus’ bloodline.

As sacred siblings, not spiritual consumers, compassion and connection are driven by uncommon loyalty.

“We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.”

— Chesterton

Why Creatives Can Become Scapegoats

“I could not ask forgiveness for something I had not done.
As scapegoat, I could only bear the fault.””

— Daphne du Maurier, The Scapegoat

The very thing that makes them great creatives — their perceptiveness, emotional sensitivity, and attunement is the very thing that makes them a target: “It has been my observation that the {scapegoat} is often the most psychologically-minded, emotionally sensitive, intuitive, and ‘aware’ person.” (1)

Wounded but not weak

However, this doesn’t mean the scapegoat is a weak target. On the contrary, scapegoat researcher, Rebecca Mandeville, reminds us that on the Day of Atonement, Aaron had to choose a goat that was strong enough to carry the sins of the people into the harsh, unforgiving wilderness; and survive its mission. “It is therefore very important that I emphasize that the scapegoat in this story was the most robust, strongest goat in the herd. That’s why it was chosen.” (2)

Mini Podcast:

(3 minutes, 19 seconds)

Recommendations:

• Rebecca Mandeville, LMFT CCTP; YouTube Channel

• Jay Reid, LPCC; YouTube Channel
  

Sources:

(1) Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed; by Rebecca Mandeville

(2) ibid

In the Forest of Giants: “Sentinel”

Standing in a forest of giants

“Sentinel” Tree rises above the canopy, standing sentry as the 26th largest tree in Giant Forest, within Sequoia National Park. The Giant Sequoia, the world’s largest tree, displays a massive trunk. “Sentinel,” one of those giants, is 2,174 years old; which means that it started growing around 150 A.D.. (1)

A.D. 150 was the same year that Ptolemy’s Geography, the earliest atlas, was created. Only thirty years later, Emperor Marcus Aurelius dies. Twenty-four years earlier, the Roman Pantheon was built. Only fifty years earlier, the Gospel of John was written.

“Super Trees: Climbing a Giant Sequoia”

Visionary Sentinels

Like the Giant Sequoias, there are visionary “Sentinels” —people who see differently because of certain unique features:

1. The reach of a Sentinel is expansive. A Giant Sequoia’s reach extends out and up due to its colossal growth. The actual tree, “Sentinel,” has a girth of 25.1 feet across, which is two African elephants stacked on top of one another. The height of Sentinel Tree is 257 ft. tall—the length of five and a half semi-trailers.
   
   People who function like Sentinels have “reach” because their diverse experience and broad knowledge-base allow them to think more expansively. They grow their capacity by exploring widely. Their learning integrates various disciplines and perspectives, so that they don’t get trapped in narrow thinking or short-sightedness.
   

2. The view of a Sentinel is panoramic. Because Sentinel Tree’s very top exits the canopy at 257 ft high, it enjoys an unobstructed view. Shorter trees, stuck below the canopy, can only “see” what’s immediately around them. People who function as “Sentinels” develop a more panoramic vision because they’re willing to lift their focus out of their immediate surroundings, inviting a change of view.
   

3. Endangered Species. As a Giant Sequoia, The Sentinel Tree is listed as an Endangered Species. People who think broadly, who are able to “dance across disciplines” (David Epstein, Range), and develop expansive reach are also an endangered species. Experts are often favored over broad-minded synthesizers; but experts are often like those shorter trees stuck below the canopy, unable to see anything but their own little corner of the forest.

Are you a “Sentinel?”

In a world where experts and specialists are favored over those with expansive vision, Sentinels can rise above the narrow and short-sighted view of the expert to see above the canopy. Every team, ministry and entrepreneur needs a Sentinel to provide a corrective to the Cult of Expertise.

You can buy ($3.99) my PDF called, Become a Sentinel: Boost Your Discernment to discover more here.

Sources:

(1) http://famousredwoods.com/sentinel

"Let God Use Your Face."

“There’s nothing more interesting than the landscape of the human face.”

— Irvin Kershner

Facial Recognition

I asked my barber to do a complete shave-off this week. Beard, gone. ‘Stache, gone. Security, gone.

So I documented the change by trying on a couple of my favorite hats to see how the new guy would look in them. I felt like I’d just come out of the Makeup and Wardrobe Department, transformed into a character I’d never seen before. It was jarring and exhilarating all at once. Here are the before and afters:

Attached to a version of myself

Part of my cancer treatment was (and still is) using a ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting to heal the terrain that sprouted cancer’s growth. A side-benefit was that I lost some weight; and I knew that as I thinned-out, I could become more comfortable changing up my appearance.

It’s telling how attached I had become to a particular version of myself, and the struggle to come to terms with the new guy in the mirror. (Now that a few days have passed, I’m feeling more comfortable with the new guy. Even beginning to appreciate the change: It’s an option I didn’t think I had.)

Reading faces

Our faces are the primary way others experience us. They transmit joy, anger, disgust. We “read” each other for cues; scanning for safety and acceptance. And our faces will either befriend or betray us: They are the outward expression of the inner experience.

The face is significant, biblically, as well. Consider the following from Easton’s Bible Dictionary:

• Adam and Eve hid from the “face of the Lord” (or his “presence”).

• Jews prayed with their face toward the temple and Jerusalem.

• To ‘see God’s face’ is to have access to him and to enjoy his favour. (Psalm 17:15; 27:8)

Seek My Face

Jesus directs our attention to his own face: “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’” (Psalm 27:8) What is it about Jesus’ face? What are we convinced we’d “read” there? Disappointment? Judgement? Ambivalence?

Or favor. Fondness. Fidelity?

““Let God use your face.””

— Dr. Jim Wilder

“Let God use your face.”

What if Jesus is the “Lifter of our heads” because he wants to see our face? Because there’s goodness there. Because shame dissolves as he gently tilts our head upwards. Because that’s where the unveiled glory is? Our faces are sacramental—a means of grace for others: Our countenance is a refuge for those looking for some light on the path.

Why discernment is about empathy.

Empathy is the path from the heart to the eye. We see better; our perception improves. We discern through empathy.

Empathy lifts burdens and offers an easier yoke. Why? Because problems involve people who want to be seen, heard and understood. We can either push people towards an outcome, or move them forward by attuning to them. By feeling with them, we lead rather than push.

When we miss empathy

• Hospitals with a labyrinth of icy grey corridors and antiseptic smells miss the role of empathy.

• Parents who get the win, and lose the child, miss the role of empathy.

• Ministries that empathize content without connection miss the role of empathy.

Empathy even drives connection with God: We feel with our people so that they can feel God.

Jesus is “Empathy Made Flesh.”

We might rephrase Jesus’ statement, “We love because he first loved us” to read, “We understand because he first understood us.” He is good at reading us. Sensing what we need. His incarnation is all about creating resonance with people: “I am binding myself to your experience,” he says. Jesus is “Empathy Made Flesh.”

Connect using an “Empathy Map.”

from Gamestorming; by Gray, Brown and Macanufo

How to create an Empathy Map

Here’s a technique called, The Empathy Map. It helps you understand the person or people you want to connect with. This exercise comes from the book, Gamestorming, by Gray, Brown, and Macanufo. Here’s how creating an Empathy Map works:

1. Draw a large face on paper or a whiteboard.

2. Give your person a name.

3. Around the face, like spokes of a wheel, write the following questions:

What are they experiencing?

• Emotions?

• Pains, losses?

• Motivations?

• What problem are they trying to solve?

• What are their five senses telling them?
  

Fill in your answers around the face on your Empathy Map.

“The God Who Sees Me”

Your recipient is longing for the God who sees them. Now you have a more accurate picture of the typical person you want to connect with. You have an empathy map you can use to make them feel seen, heard and understood. By using empathy to discern, you just got a glimpse of how Jesus attunes to that person.

“Follow Jesus: Go off trail:” jimrobbinsofficial.com

Healing Beyond Healing

“The world is waiting to hear an authentic voice, a voice from God—not an echo of what others are doing and saying, but an authentic voice.”

— A.W. Tozer

“His sheep hear his voice, but I must be deaf to it.”

For most of my life, I’ve had to rely on other people hearing the voice of God for me. It was rare that I would ever hear God’s voice outside of the Scriptures. No amount of books on prayer, journaling exercises or formulaic approaches to prayer had worked. I was stuck in an echo chamber and the only voice bouncing back was mine.

Developing shared Thoughts with God

Then my cancer returned and I turned to stories for hope. As I read accounts of verifiable miraculous healings and God-encounters, my spiritual sonar opened up. Stories became possibilities. As I prayed out of desperate hope, I began to experience what Dr. Jim Wilder calls, “Mutual Mind,” or shared thoughts with God. But it was subtle. I had to pay attention to my internal dialogue for the cues.

Honoring the subtle

What I really wanted to hear was a loud voice, an obvious voice, an unmistakable voice. Revelatory dreams or dramatic encounters with angels would have been reassuring. What I got was subtle impressions.

Throughout the last five months, I have received a series of what I’d call “divine impressions” from God. The specific message was often posed as a question, “What if the cancer cells are no longer malignant?” What if things are not as they seem?

How did I know this wasn’t wishful thinking? Or a psychological projection of my deepest needs? Here’s how I sensed something different was happening:

• The thoughts were in my own head, but came from outside of me.

• I couldn’t trace the thoughts back to a logical starting point: they simply materialized.

These impressions came five different times, over a period of months. Confirmation was built through continuity. I also knew that it was important to ask someone else to pray with me to see if they received confirmation of the word I was hearing. This would be someone whose discernment I trusted. So my mentor and friend, Doug, took several days to pray and came to the same conclusion: This was God speaking.

Confidence Level?

It’s important to note that at no time did I have 100% confidence that I was hearing the voice of God. At best, I had 65-75% confidence that these impressions were authentic messages from his Spirit. Some days, a 50-50 percentage was all I could hold onto.

“Flimsy Impressions”

The final impression I received came through a story told by Jack Deere, a seasoned pioneer in prayer for the sick. In an interview, Jack Deere, a younger apprentice at the time, recounted a conversation with John Wimber — “the most loved and hated pastor in America”—because Wimber was despised by conservative evangelicals for his ability to train people in the gifts of the Spirit.

During a conference, Wimber sensed there was a woman in the audience with cancer; a woman unknown to him. From the platform he said, “You flew in on Tuesday. You’re wearing a pink dress, sitting in the back of the room. Would you please come down so we can pray for you.” How did Wimber know this?!

A woman with cancer in a pink dress came forward from the back of the room.

Bewildered, Jack Deere later approached Wimber; “That word of God must have sounded like a loud foghorn in your mind.” To which Wimber replied, “Oh no; if I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed it.” So Jack, unconvinced, peppered Wimber with questions:

Deere: “How did you know she came in on Tuesday?”

Wimber: “I saw Tuesday float past my mind, and a lot of people come early to conferences to visit our beautiful Southern California.”

Deere: “But, Pink dress; sitting in the back?!”

Wimber: “When she didn’t come down intitially, I saw a pink splotch floating over the back of the room; and I just thought that meant she must be wearing a pink dress, sitting in the back of the room.”

Deere: “John, you just called out that woman to come forward in front of 3,500 people, based on those flimsy impressions?!”

Wimber: “Yeah, I do it all the time. That’s just the way the Lord speaks to me; and I’ve had better success learning to pay attention to these impressions than trying to get God to speak to me the way I want him to.” (1)

Trusting my “flimsy impressions”

To be clear, my own “flimsy impressions” came over a period of months, stacking upon each other, building my confidence in their veracity. I also asked someone else to verify those impressions by their own prayers. But at no time did I have 100% confidence in what I was hearing…until last week’s biopsy report came back and found “no cancer present.” At that point I knew God had spoken. The recurring series of impressions indicating “The cells are no longer malignant” was trustworthy divine counsel.

Most importantly, for the first time in 58 years, I could trust my own ability to directly hear God’s counsel. Though I will continue seeking the confirmation of others, testing what I am hearing, I am no longer suffering the shame of being the sheep who couldn’t hear his Shepherd. His voice is getting through.

This is the healing-beyond-healing. Curing the cancer was only part of the miracle: curing the man was the unexpected surprise.

Source:

(1) YouTube: “Training in the Gifts: Panel Discussion with Matt Chandler, Jack Deere, Sam Storms, and Jeff Wells”

Invitation: The Eucharist for Healing

The Eucharist is one of God’s best-kept secrets. As a means of concrete grace, it can deliver healing and connection, because Jesus shows up there in a way he doesn’t anywhere else.

A forgotten means of attachment

For me and many, Communion used to be a guilt-fest—a heavy, dark reminder of all I’d done to put Jesus on the Cross. Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty as hell. But what got discarded was the idea that the Eucharist could be a bonding experience. Even a healing experience. If what we’re all looking for is secure attachment—what the bible calls, “hesed” love—then the Lord’s Table is the perfect vehicle for it.

food bonding

Did you know that we bond to the person who feeds us? 1. Food and attachment are linked in the brain. What if the Eucharist meal is an opportunity to receive attachment love; to strengthen our felt-sense of security in God? The “hesed” (loyal commitment) of God is nowhere more present than at the Table.

“In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” —Luke 22:20

“New Covenant” means:

• New Belonging.

• New Security.

• New Bonding.

Remembering vs. Re-membering Jesus

“Every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master.”

— Apostle Paul, "The Message"

Every breaking of bread is an incarnation. A reenactment. An Emmaus Road. Jesus’ body is re-membered, re-created, re-produced each time we “eat his flesh and drink his blood.” It is an ingesting of Jesus that allows us to irrefutably bond with him; a mutual indwelling.

Where metaphor fails

We must be careful not to be too metaphorical about this. Incarnation isn’t metaphor; it’s embodied power and personhood. This efficacy occurs on at least three levels:

• Our bodies are rejoined to the physical body of Jesus on the Cross, and out of the Tomb. Mind, spirit, and emotion are joined there as well. The Eucharist is a shared experience with Jesus.

• Attachment bonds are reformed and solidified because we take up our union with him afresh.

• Out of this shared union with Jesus comes healing: He ingests and overtakes our wounds, pain and separation.
  
  

Invitation to “Zoomcharist?”

My mentor and I have been using the Eucharist weekly, for over three years. We meet via Zoom and bring to Jesus my cancer, my dread, my losses, my family…everything that needs hope. It has been a profound attachment experience for me; increasing my felt sense of security and connection. The Eucharist is one of the most practical things I’ve done for healing.

Invitation: If you’re interested in using the Eucharist for healing—one-on-one with me—send me a note. To date, I’ve used this 173 times in my own journey. Discover what role the Eucharist can play in your healing.

P.S. I’m tempted to call these Eucharist Zoom calls, “Zoomcharists.” We’ll see. ;)

Source:
1. Dr. Jim Wilder, neurobiologist and theologian

Apprenticing for Resiliency

“A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success.”

— Chet Atkins, Guitar Icon

Apprenticeship is the path to spiritual strength. An apprentice receives impartation more than information:

• The willing gain a perspective the watchers don’t.

• A trainee learns to lift the same weight the trainer does.

• Pupils share power while admirers share detached principles.

I have been more apprenticed by Jesus while fighting cancer than at any other time in my story. Desperation is a powerful motivator: “I need to hear. I need to sense. I need to trust!” I don’t want to be broken by this anymore. When there’s something at stake, admirers become apprentices.

Simply agreeing with Jesus isn’t the same as aligning our movements with him. Much of the church is stuck in believism—applauding Jesus and getting our convictions “right”—without being tutored in the things he actually did.

Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing.
—John 14:12

principles without power

Just one example where believism and detached assent have weakened the Body:

• Bible study: Yes.

• Praying: Sure.

• Healing the sick: “Not in these parts.”

Rhetoric and right teaching might raise the roof, but it doesn’t raise the dead. It reframes but can’t resurrect. We love to teach but forget to train. Teaching is to training as hope is to habit: It’s the right foundation but needs “legs.”

Apprenticing into Uniqueness

Copying a master isn’t copy-catting your identity: You can still be a unicorn and follow Jesus. In fact, you’re likely to become more rare and individuated as an apprentice. Jesus imparts values, practices and power; while allowing our unique expression of those values, practices and power.

Increasing resilience

Jesus is interested in imparting capacity and agency. We observe, then do. We become more resilient and rebound more quickly; increasingly unbroken by the things that used to break us. Apprenticing is the way of his easy yoke.

Contending with God for Healing

God has given us permission to contend with him.
Yes; fight. Argue.

After aggressive prayer for a sick friend, Martin Luther wrote,

"I besought the Almighty with great vigor," he wrote. "I attacked Him with His own weapons, quoting from Scripture all the promises I could remember, that prayers should be granted, and said that He must grant my prayer, if I was henceforth to put faith in His promises." (1)

diagnosis and reversal

Before you suggest that Luther’s approach is an immature form of prayer—suited for rebels and spiritual insubordinates—let’s look at King Hezekiah’s health scare story. Suffering from incurable infection, he received the diagnosis no one wants: You will not recover; put your affairs in order.

King Hezekiah doesn’t take the news lying down; he immediately grapples with God. We can imagine him pounding the wall with his fists:

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

See what Hezekiah does here:  he contends with God.  He engages God passionately and grapples with his will.  He doesn’t simply succumb to the bad news.   

Then something unexpected happens: Within minutes, the diagnosis is lifted and the grieving king becomes the grateful king. How? Following God’s prompt, the prophet Isaiah goes back to Hezekiah and gives the king a death sentence reversal: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you.” (2 Kings 20)

my will could be god’s will.

Could it be that while Hezekiah contended with God—fighting for his own will—this was God’s way of giving Hezekiah what both Hezekiah and God most wanted?  “Don’t just give up, Hezekiah.  Don’t surrender to the diagnosis.  Contend for your life!  Ask me to give you what you most want; what I already wanted to give you.”

”come at me, bro!”

Our will was marred and misdirected by The Fall, and its restoration was purchased at the Cross. But part of restoring our will is using our will; we exercise our agency—our capacity to grapple, to push back, to contend. “Will you fight for this?” Even fight with Me?” asks God. God is interested in our participation, not our subjugation.

Wrestling with God is not an indictment of God’s heart, but an affirmation of it. Archbishop Richard Trent declared, “We must not conceive prayer as an overcoming of God’s reluctance, but a laying hold of God’s highest willingness.”  We’re holding God to his heart for healing.

Contending is not an act of disobedience; it reflects a relationship.

Sources:

(1) The Struggle of Prayer, Donald G. Bloesch

Quieting the Body's Firestorm

“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure.”

— Psalm 16:9

My body has been a house-on-fire for half a decade. Alarms have been ringing at the internal firehouse in response to peril and pitfall nearly non-stop. From what I can tell, the last five years have been a compounding sequence of hyper-inflammatory responses. A healthy, normal inflammatory response has gone off the rails.

My body (and emotions) have experienced in succession:

1. Stroke

2. Cancer

3. Pulmonary Embolism

4. Septic Shock

5. Cancer again.

Each disease produced an internal sense of alarm, and a cellular memory under siege. The authors of Designed to Heal indicate,

“Our immune system…is all about memory…It stores molecular and cellular memories of past infections, as well as encounters with hostile intruders such as foreign blood type or protein. When it experiences those a second time, it is ready with a much stronger inflammatory response.” (1)

Cancer can be associated with an inflammatory response that is outsized and disordered.

The joyful antidote

This is why I am learning to practice both joy and quieting. I am also praying to bring shalom to disordered inflammation.

“Shalom is a Hebrew word that carries multiple meanings, the most common of which is “peace.” However, its meanings go beyond that, encompassing concepts like harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare, and tranquility. ”

— 7esl.com

Creating shalom in the body

McLauren and Culiat suggest that, “positivity assists healing rates from surgeries and serious diseases. It is an essential component of a healthy defense system.” (2) To be clear, “positivity” isn’t denial. We notice and name our emotions; then practice ways to return to joy and peace.

Creating shalom in your body can be done simply, over time, by any or all of the following:

• Spending time in appreciation. As I scan my environment, what or who do I appreciate? What positive memories can I recall, then feel? Appreciation (especially feeling the positive emotions associated with a good memory) moves our noticing from rational thought to increased internal security.
  
  Appreciation increases our sense of positive bonding with God and others. The more moments I spend in appreciation mode, the more my brain looks for the positive.
  
  
  

• Learning how to quiet from difficult emotions. The organization “THRIVE today” teaches skills for returning to peace after big emotions.
  
  
  

• Exploring resources like, Building Bounce, by Warner and Hinman. Or, The Joy Switch, by Coursey.

Your body wants to heal. It is designed to heal. Building joy and quiet is a proven way to help us get there.

Sources:

1. Designed to Heal, by McLauren and Culiat

2. Ibid

“Thunderheart” and Divine Protection

“Thunderheart” and Val Kilmer

The movie Thunderheart, starring Val Kilmer and Graham Greene, is about a series of murders on a Native American reservation, and a young mixed-blood FBI agent (Kilmer) who doesn’t realize he’s the hero of the story.

(Spoiler Alert) In the final scene of the movie, Kilmer and Greene are pinned down inside a dead-end canyon by a corrupt FBI agent and his thugs—there is no escape and they can’t fight their way out. Kilmer and Greene are trapped against their “Red Sea” — hemmed in by a ring of pickup trucks, rifles and shotguns ready to end their story; and unscalable canyon walls behind them. This is their “no way out” moment; their impossible situation. Their dead-end.

Then the chanting begins, as Kilmer and Greene look upwards to the heights of the canyon walls. A host of armed protectors materializes out of nowhere; row upon row of tribal warriors gazing down upon Kilmer’s pursuers, dwarfing their numbers. Impossible help has arrived. It is a scene remarkably similar to the one Elisha’s servant faced in 2 Kings 6:17:

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

— 2 Kings 6:17

Invisible protective detail

You have been assigned a protective detail—a divine defense force—”ministering spirits, sent out to provide service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation.” (Hebrews 1:14)

Author and philosophy professor, Dr. J.P. Moreland, has been told on several occasions that three peculiar angels have appeared behind him while speaking publicly. There were always two shorter angels—one on either side of him—and a taller one standing directly behind him. Dr. Moreland himself has never seen these divine emissaries; but different observers, on different occasions in different places have approached him and told him so. (1)

angels under a semi truck

While Bruce Van Natta was pinned under the steel axel of a collapsed six-ton semi truck, he saw two broad-shouldered angels on either side of his crushed torso—appearing to stabilize his body until fire department volunteers could arrive. He estimated that the two angelic assistants must have been at least eight feet tall each. (2)

Accompanied

Judith MacNutt, an authority on the biblical and modern reality of angels, suggests that we can ask God to thank the angels he has assigned to us. There are countless authentic accounts of those who were mysteriously defended or cared for by angels. You, too, are in good company. Or, rather, you are accompanied.

Trust the invisible.

Sources:

1. A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles, by Dr. J.P. Moreland

2. Real Life, Real Miracles, by Garlow & Wall

Creatives Are Force-Multipliers

Creatives are “Force Multipliers”—a military term for “a factor or a combination of factors that gives personnel or weapons (or other hardware) the ability to accomplish greater feats than without it.” 1

Why it matters

In other words, because you create, others are able to live with greater power and capacity.

• One example: According to Ted Esler, author of the book, The Innovation Crisis, modern healthcare “owes its beginning to hospital systems launched by Christians,” originating in the third and fourth centuries.” The Church became a “force multiplier” for healing—those inside and outside the walls found healing increasing because the Church provided them greater capacity for health and wholeness.

Burdens and Breakthrough

Truly disruptive innovation is an affront to Darkness. Why? Because innovation lifts burdens and creates breakthrough. Needs get met; the yoke gets easier for the heavy-laden. And the Enemy of our souls is offended.

notice your context.

Your context is war.

• “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” — Ephesians 6:12

• Innovation isn’t just about breaking ground; it’s about taking ground.

If you are an innovator, you’ve broken through Enemy lines to bring help. You’ve slayed Goliath, provided Manna from heaven, and ignited a burning bush for those waiting for God to show up. He did, because you did.

Final words

Consider yourself a target. Pray for covering. Find your shield-bearers. Push into the fray.

1. “Force Multipliers,” Wikipedia