A thousand steps led to one step.... Christ

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Adventure, part 2.....

On that initial visit to Montana, when I was in crisis, when I got to one particular town, I bound the principalities and powers that hovered over it. It was a nice town. It just had those characteristics of some small towns in Montana – immobilized, afraid, no change for a long time, lack of resources.

I had this enormous peace entering it, knowing that I had dealt with the enemy, and I was still in crisis. I hung out at a bar to get to know the locals (well, Jesus did it!)

Later, when I embarked on my real adventure, and with no mania, I passed through that town. It was Sunday and a pastor invited me to his church that morning. I was visiting with the pastor after the service and he confided in me: “I have just started seeing God really move in this town, since the end of 2003.” That was when I had come and bound the principalities.

I’m not saying anything, but I’m just sayin’ – you never know…..

I didn’t say anything to the pastor.

That was when I was on my way to camp out in western Montana. I had put my house on interest only, had put it up for sale and was living off the equity. Don’t try this at home. I knew that I would get my house sold in time to pay it off, and I did. I got it sold before housing prices plummeted. I got a good price and just in time. They had just told me I couldn’t live off my credit anymore.

I trusted God every step of the way.

In western Montana, I found an area west of Bozeman that was spiritually “light” and naturally beautiful and just camped out there for most of the summer, enjoying the locals.

I was off medication.

I kept returning home to take care of the house, sometimes having to do more repairs and decorating to improve it for selling, then set out again, heading for another part of the United States, traveling everywhere with my two cats.

We went to the Grand Canyon, where my one cat, Tubby attracted so much attention as I walked him on a leash that people were oogling him instead of looking at the Grand Canyon!

At one point we went to Mexico, briefly, where I got lost coming back. God helped me find my way back without knowing Spanish.

I visited family and friends I hadn’t seen in twenty years!

In Arizona I was camping out alone, because it was January, and discovered at 3:00 AM that I had accidentally pitched my tent over a sprinkler that went off. God wanted me to have a cold shower!

The desert winds also blew everything so my tent and my belongings practically blew away!

There was a sign at an Arizona rest area that warned against “Serpents and Scorpions” and I thought about that verse that says “nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

In Arizona I also met a lady who invited me to stay at her place in Phoenix, which was beautiful! It was next to an orange orchard and had a pool. She was nice and an opportunity to share my faith.

Whenever I returned to Minneapolis, the heavy principalities over it were so evident, and I would brace myself. But I began to see it as a challenge to embrace.

My adventure came to an abrupt end when I had another manic episode! I was completely off medication and not using wisdom. I wasn’t having a solid quiet time with God every day, getting into the Word. I wasn’t in a constant fellowship with believers. Duh!

Those are the Basic Maintenance 101 for every Christian. I was relying on prophetic “knowing” and not on other ways of knowing. Besides, that kind of prophetic knowing may just as well be shut off.

When I got manic, I was promptly sent back home, to Minneapolis. Since then, I’ve been operating just fine without thinking much about the powers that be, and that’s just fine with me!

When God Let Me Go On An Adventure!

I finally let loose and went on an adventure after asking God if it was OK. I hemmed and hawed and tried to argue against it, but really argued for it, until I finally just went for it. I finally realized that God put the desires I had within me, and that my desires were good.

I realize now that the truth that was inspiring me is actually found in the bible. I have to admit that I went wild with it and that it got out of hand. I lost balanced wisdom and my adventure ended up in tragedy. But between the pain that preceded embarking on my adventure, and the not so happy end was a lot of fun! Here is the story….

I took off for Montana when things got intense in Minneapolis, a rather large city. I was aware that the city was heavy with demonic forces within, and as I got closer to God and dealt with the roots of the mental illness that plagued me, the city grew more and more oppressive.

As soon as I had a problem with mental illness, the police in Minneapolis would promptly hand me over to a hospital, where the atmosphere was unbearably intense, with other sick people to contend with. The "care" was sometimes not so careful.

When I didn't want to take extra sleep medication one night, but chose to sing and pray, the night nurse called the guards, who came and pinned me down, and stabbed me in the butt with a needle.

The next time I had trouble with my mind, it seemed like a good idea to avoid doctors and hospitals, so I took off in a car into the country west of Minnesota. I went all the way to Montana and there encountered the people of small towns – some small towns, not the freaky ones. I found that they dealt with me in a crisis mode much more patiently. Some police sat down and talked with me, and listened. They didn’t take me to a hospital.

They recommended I talk to some health care workers, who sat and talked with me rationally, and then sent me on my way.

The treatment I received in small towns was so compassionate. Also, the atmosphere in the small towns was so much better. There I felt released from the oppression of the city, and I started to feel better mentally and emotionally. I didn’t need to go to a hospital. I overcame fear and got over my bout with mania.

This taught me that there are spiritual forces over a city, especially certain cities, because of the type of people living in them. These forces can be heavy and demonic. This exists because the people in those cities collectively choose death. Some cities are more life oriented because the people have collectively moved more toward the light.

A certain Samaritan town that Jesus visited was collectively given over to unbelief. His disciples’ idea was that he should rain fire and brimstone on the city like Sodom and Gomorrah, after they tried to perform miracles there, and Jesus rebuked them and said He had come to bring life and not death. It shows how a whole town or city can be taken over by either good or evil. (See Luke 9: 51-56)

Notice also that Jesus pronounced judgment on whole cities – Chorazin and Bethsaida, because of their unbelief, in Luke 10: 13-15.

I became aware of this phenomenon (not the passages at that time) as I took off and went traveling, out of desperation, away from my city. I noticed how some towns had a certain peace about them, and there was light there, and others had a feeling of oppression.

After this initial experience, I was dying to go traveling and find the places in America where people were living in the light. I was more interested in the small towns, not the cities, after that good experience in Montana.

There are many things I observed in my travels: how just driving through a town late at night, there would be a light fragrance blanketing a city that was living in the light; how as I left my city, the spiritual forces lifted off me as I drove away, like mosquitoes lifting off a body.

Positive Cities:

Chicago (surprisingly enough!)
Dallas
Kansas City

Negative:

Lincoln, Nebraska
Fargo

To be continued….