Endorsements

Do you want to only arrive at a destination, or do you enjoy the sights

along the way? For some, the goal is the final destination; for others, the goal
is the journey along the way. Do you want to read a unique book about “seeing
in the Holy Spirit?” Using a storyboard style delivery, Ana Werner depicts a
journey of a seer from point A to point Z with many amazing stops along the
way. You will learn the A, B C’s of the Starting Gate, and you will also be given
a prophetic glimpse of the finished word of the Cross of Jesus in this
captivating read.

DR . JAMES W. GOLL
Bestselling author of The Seer, Dream Language, and Lifestyle of a Prophet
Founder of God Encounters
International Author and Minister
Life Language Communications Trainer

I like the way Ana writes. She is a visionary, and yet has a practical writing
style that makes the invisible, spiritual world something a sincere believer can
experience. I recommend The Seer’s Path and look forward to future books as
the Lord further instructs her.

Hal Linhardt
Director
Kansas City Evangelists’ Fellowship

I highly recommend this book. It will challenge you and put a desire in your
heart to draw closer to God. I picked it up to read a few chapters, and it so
captivated me that I read the whole book! I loved it!”

CAROL KOCH
Children on the Frontlines Director
 It is my pleasure to recommend to you Ana Werner’s book The Seer’s Path.
Reading through the pages, I had one word that kept coming to me as
descriptive of the heart of this book and the major impact that it will have on
you, the reader. That word is “practical.” Seeing is practical, and this book
gives practical insights into how you can see! You will come to grips with just
how important the whole area of seeing into the spiritual realm is. Seeing
what God is doing is biblical, it is real. Seeing is how our Bible heroes
functioned, and how they could do all that they did. Jesus has purposed,
destined, and equipped us to see in this arena. Ana gives insights into how
this has influenced her daily life. Then she provides applications and help for
us to flow in this area as well. Finally, each chapter concludes with powerful
prayers of release that as you agree with them, will literally happen! You will
experience a release, an unlocking to be a seer!
There is another reason that I can recommend this book so highly. I know
the Werners. They are a vital part of the church I pastor and I know their
character. I not only recommend the content of the book, I recommend the
author! The Seer’s path is a great read and even better application.

ALAN KOCH
Founding pastor of Christ Triumphant Church

It is with certainty of character and giftings that I recommend Ana Werner

to you! Seeing in the Spirit comes with revelation and responsibility, Ana
knows and understands “to whom much is given, much is required” (Luke
12:48). Her book does a remarkable job of helping others understand and grow
in revelatory ways. Thank you Ana!

LAURIE DITTO
Evangelist, Seer, Author, Producer, Director & Founder of My Father’s
Reputation

The Holy Spirit gives gifts as He desires, and Ana Werner is gifted as a
seer. You will enjoy Ana’s experiences with the angelic and the Lord; she will
convince you that there is more to this Christian life then you are experiencing
now. Maybe you didn’t meet your guardian angel when you were five years
old; she did. Maybe you have never been interrupted while doing dishes and
have an angel knock on your door and make an appointment with you for later
when your little daughter was taking her nap; she has. We know and love Ana,
her husband, and her children. She is as real as your next door neighbor, but
she experiences the supernatural in a way that will challenge and change your
life. We heartily recommend this enriching book that will help you on your own
supernatural journey with the Lord.

DORIS AND LEE HARMS

Heartland Healing Rooms
© Copyright 2017–Ana Werner

All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of
America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of
short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and
encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture
quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright ©
1960,1962,1963,1968 ,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used
by permission. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are
taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by
permission. All rights reserved. All emphasis within Scripture quotations is the author’s own.
Please note that Destiny Image’s publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture
that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some publishers’ styles.

DESTINY IMAGE® PUBLISHERS, INC.

P.O. Box 310, Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310
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ISBN 13 TP: 978-0-7684-1070-9

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 Dedication

This book is dedicated to my loving husband—for always believing in me and

cheering me on. To my parents, family and friends: thank you for all your
support, prayers, and encouragement.
 Contents

Chapter 1  What’s a Seer?

Chapter 2  Chasing Angels

Chapter 3  Spiritual Armor: The Garment of Praise

Chapter 4  Making War Against the Enemy

Chapter 5  Sitting at the Father’s Table

Chapter 6  Open and Closed Visions

Chapter 7  Choosing Faith or Fear

Chapter 8  Three Other Rooms in Heaven

Chapter 9  Healing with the Seer Anointing

Chapter 10  Facing the Spirit of Death

Chapter 11  The Glorious Cross

Chapter 12  Tips and Training

Chapter 13  Frequent Questions When Starting

Chapter 14  What to Expect

Chapter 15  Room of His Lavishing Love

 Chapter 1

What’s a Seer?

“What’s a seer?” my husband asked me on one of our very first dates.

“Well, I’m a seer. It’s like a person who sees in the spiritual realm with
Jesus. Kind of like a prophet. I see angels; in fact, one has been with us from
the beginning of our relationship and is sitting in the back seat right now.”
“Like, now?” my husband responded in shock.
“Yes, now.”
“Well, what’s he saying?” my husband asked with curiosity.
Five years ago, the Lord took me on a journey of giving me a language for
explaining what seer anointing truly is. Back then, when I first met my
husband, I didn’t really have the clear understanding or the courage to explain
or teach on it that I do now. For years, I just had all these incredible
encounters and experiences with the Lord in ministry and in heaven, but never
did I have clear biblical understanding of what this gift from God truly was.
My husband’s question that day actually launched me into discovering
what this “seer anointing” really was and how I could explain it and teach on it
in a simplified way for people to understand.

What Does the Bible Say?

 Examining the Scriptures, I found that a seer is actually in the Bible. In fact,
it’s actually many times in the Bible. Look it up yourself! In this day and age,
we have the amazing ability to type a word into the computer and do a search.
Always cross reference what you will find online, though, with the actual Word
of God.
In 1 Samuel 9, Saul’s father is in distress because his donkeys have gone
missing. Saul and one of his servants go searching everywhere for them. After
a long time of looking without success, they decide to try one last thing.
“Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor;
all that he says surely comes true. Now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us
about our journey on which we have set out” (1 Sam. 9:6 NASB). “Come, and
let us go to the seer” (1 Sam. 9:9 NASB).
So they go to meet Samuel with the intention to receive some wisdom
about how to find these donkeys, but God actually has set up a divine
appointment for Saul in this meeting. The seer Samuel sees Saul in the
distance and God tells him, “Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you! This one
shall rule over My people” (1 Sam. 9:17 NASB).
Saul approaches Samuel, and before he can even explain the donkeys
Samuel invites him to come and get refreshed, eat some food with him, and
get some rest. Then Samuel the seer says, “Oh and by the way, those donkeys
that you are looking for—don’t worry about them, they’ve been found.”
Imagine Saul’s shock at the prophetic anointing on this guy! Later on, Samuel
anoints Saul as King of Israel.
God uses seers like Samuel to speak prophetically into people’s lives.
Seers see and then prophesy. People sought out seers in the Bible for wisdom
and counsel. Often, though, seers came uninvited to prophesy into a powerful
person’s life. God uses a bold seer named Gad to speak strong words to King
David that radically change Israel (see 2 Sam. 24). Seers were used in the
Bible to radically bring about shift and change.
Seers hear from the Lord primarily through the gift of seeing and then
declare things to come.

He then stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with

cymbals, with harps and with lyres, according to the command of
David and of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for
the command was from the Lord through his prophets (2
 Chronicles 29:25 NASB).
Here, there is a distinction between seers and prophets. As confusing as
this sounds, all seers can prophesy, but not all prophets can see. Out of the
five fold ministry that is mentioned in the Bible, a seer falls under the office of
a prophet (see Eph. 4). It’s a prophet with the ability or gift of seeing in the
spiritual realm.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some

as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the
equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up
of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12 NASB).

The Start
The scripture that was prophesied over my life was, “He had a dream, and
behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and
behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Gen. 28:12
NASB). Jacob falls into a deep sleep at a place that he later names Bethel. In
his dream, heaven is opened to him and he has the ability to see angels
ascending and descending upon the earth, and he sees the Lord. So this was
the word prophesied over me—essentially, that I would be able to see the
supernatural things of God.
At five years old, I saw my first angel. He just showed up one day in my
room while I was playing. From what I remember, I didn’t feel threatened or
scared by this random angel in my room but felt incredible peace with him. He
was dressed in white, had a warm glow about him, and had four wings. I
remember asking him if I could touch his wings, and he let me. After we played
together for a bit, he told me before he left that he was my guardian angel and
that God sent him to always protect me.
After that one encounter, I never saw into the supernatural again until I
was 22 and living in Brazil as a missionary. I don’t know why; for years seeing
was locked for me. However, once it did open for me to see the things of God
again, I trained in it.

God doesn’t just give us a gift like seeing,

 prophesying, or evangelizing and then not
call us to train in it. Like any profession,
we have to keep training in the things of
God. It’s training to reign with Him!

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul exhorts the body of Christ to pursue all the gifts:
“earnestly desire the greater gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31 NASB). Maybe you’re thinking,
Wow this all sounds great, but the gift of seeing in the spirit is just not for me! I
encourage you, you’re wrong! We are all called to pursue all the gifts, and this
includes seeing.
God doesn’t just give us a gift like seeing, prophesying, or evangelizing
and then not call us to train in it. Like any profession, we have to keep training
in the things of God. It’s training to reign with Him! Doctors are constantly
having to refocus, brush up on their skills, better their abilities, and learn new
techniques. It’s how they stay challenged, fresh at their skill, and capable to
assist others. In just the same way, we need to train in the gift God has given
each of us.

Tips to Seeing in the Spirit

Get into His Presence
Often I get asked if it’s important to be focusing on the Lord, or in a
worship mode, to be able to see in the Spirit. My answer is always the same—
no and yes. While it helps to hear and see with the Lord if you are in a quiet,
contemplative state, sometimes He likes to surprise me, and I’ll randomly be
allowed to see something in the spiritual realm when I am not thinking about
God at all.
Just the other day, I was doing dishes from the morning’s breakfast and
was thinking about how I wished I could have more personal time and hoped
my daughter would take her nap without a fight that day. I heard a random
knock at the door. I opened the door, and there before me was an angel
standing in a top hat carrying a briefcase. He told me that he wanted to meet
with me that day but that he would come back once my daughter went down
for her nap! And he did!
So yes, God shows seers things sometimes when we are not even
expecting it, but more often than not it helps to be focusing on the Lord and
getting into His presence to see into the supernatural.

Keep Your Eyes Pure

Keeping our eyes pure is so important to walking in the supernatural.
Especially as a seer, we have to keep a careful watch on what we allow
ourselves to see. The enemy can really strike down our gifting by
unwholesome things entering our eye gates. I have to be very careful what I
watch in movies or on television, so I make sure that I keep my eyes pure. If
you think of your eyes like literal gates, what you allow them to see or open up
to is also what you are allowing into your temple. Violence, sexual perversion,
jealousy, and lust have no place in the temple of God, and our bodies are His
temple.
Often we are victims of the sinful world around us. Accidents happen, and
we just end up seeing something that we did not intend to. When our team
from the International House of Prayer went down to Mardi Gras to do
ministry, often the guys came back feeling victimized by sights they did not
want to open themselves up to. We would all gather together and pray for the
Lord to cleanse our minds, thoughts, emotions, and eyes after ministry times.
As we go out and minister, we are covered by the blood of the Lamb and do
not walk in fear. It is always good, though, to be aware of areas the enemy
might try to assault us with, and our eyes are the number-one place the enemy
will try.
However, it is ridiculous to believe that someone cannot see in the
supernatural because their eyes have fallen into sin. While I do think that it is
very difficult to be flowing in the gifts of the Spirit while walking in sin, I would
never argue that this is an explanation for why someone cannot see. The
flowing of the gifts does come easier to those who are trying to live their lives
more in touch with Father and more like His very nature. As believers, we need
to keep our eyes pure and focused on Him.

Lord, I want to repent for any time I have allowed my eyes to see
something that is impure. Anything that I watched, willingly or
unwillingly, that was not of You, I want to repent for it right now. I
want to repent for any time my eyes have desired something
 before they desired You. Please forgive me for any time I had an
idol in my life that I pursued with my time and energy before I
pursued You. Cleanse my eyes, God, so that they may be pure and
pleasing to You. Amen.

Get Intimate
Currently, how to do you relate to God? Do you see Him as the Father? Do
you see Him as Jesus? Do you see Him as Holy Spirit? Often, the seer realm
will be opened to you by one person of the Trinity coming to invade your life.
In Brazil when my eyes were first opened, at the time I was relating mostly to
God as Jesus. I was needing a friendship with God more than anything, and
Jesus came to me often as my friend. I would start having visions in broad
daylight of Jesus and me hanging out at a shoreline. From those split-second
impressions or visions, my eyes opened up further as God continued to
encounter me there. Slowly, Jesus would not only take me into a vision, but I
would also be able to interact with Him and then smell the seashore.
Often, people are seeking crazy encounters or life-changing visions (which
are incredibly awesome), but seeing in the spiritual realm doesn’t always
happen like that for everyone. Sometimes it just starts with seeing Father God
come and hug you, and that’s it—the same vision over and over. From that, as
you progress further in seeing in the Spirit, God will take you to more places
and open your eyesight into the supernatural. God is not after having a
supernatural mind-blowing experience with you; He’s after intimacy!

Keep Asking
Ask to see more each time! In the Bible, Daniel was a seer. In Daniel 7,
God takes Daniel up into the most incredible vision of his lifetime, ever! The
Lord shows Daniel what will happen in the end times, and he also sees the
archangel Gabriel!
Seers are always curious people by nature. In Daniel 7, it says “I kept
looking” repeatedly. So it’s not like God just gives Daniel the full vision and
explanation at once! God gives him little bits and pieces with explanation, and
then God meets Daniel’s curiosity and shows him a little more and a little
more as Daniel steps out in faith.
Every time I have seen new things in heaven or in the spiritual realm, I
always ask to see more! I also ask if I can come back again! When I’ve been in
rooms of heaven, I not only try and see what’s there to see, but I try to use all
my senses to experience what God has for me. I smell if there is any fragrance
in the room; I hear what noises are in the room; I touch whatever I can and
also pay attention to my inward senses—what emotion I am feeling in the
room.

Glimpses
Finally, don’t look down on small beginnings. Not everyone starts seeing a
full battlefield in the spiritual realm right away! (Occasionally, there are a few
rare people who do.) After my second angelic encounter in Brazil, I didn’t see
angels with real clarity again for quite some time. I would see just brief
instances of them. During worship at church, I would just see a quick image of
a wing brushing by, or I would see a glowing blue light standing behind
someone. Sometimes I would just see a small flash of light fluttering through
the air. I continued to look though! Every time I sensed the Lord’s presence
falling in a place, I would first pray and ask the Lord to open my eyes, and then
I would look around the room and see if I could catch a small glimpse of His
presence. The more and more I looked for Him and the more I came with
expectation in my heart to see something, the more the Lord would reveal to
me. This is how we train our spiritual eyes to see. Come with expectation and
curiosity.

Write It Down
Write it down! Everything, everything you see, write down. Sometimes God
would show me something, and I would have no idea or revelation of what that
was about. I’d write it down though. Two months later or sometimes even a
year later, I would be at a conference or a meeting, and the main speaker
would share about a crazy experience they had with the Lord, and lo and
behold it was my same experience. They would then explain the revelation
God gave them about that, and then I would have understanding. So write it all
down!
Don’t feel discouraged if, when you start seeing, you don’t understand the
vision or encounter. Also, don’t be quick to label your experience as not of God
because you don’t understand it. God often gives revelation to me later after
an encounter.

Activation Prayer
 God, we are in love with You. Jesus, I just pray that You would show me
more of who You are. I want to know You, God. Would You show me Your
nature? Please, Lord, open my spiritual eyes to see You more. God, I long to
see what it is You see! I long to feel what You feel! Lord, help all my senses
come alive to You. There is no one like You, God. How magnificent You are!
Holy Spirit, I pray that You would come into this time right now and rest
upon me. Thank You, God, that You will only show me what I am supposed
to see. Thank You, Lord. Amen.

(Now, wait on the Lord to show you something. Don’t forget to ask the Lord
to take you or show you this again, and a little bit more next time!)

Discussion Question
1. Do you relate to God as a Father, Jesus a friend, or as Holy Spirit? Ask
Him to open your eyes and encounter you this week as one of these
and write it down!
 Chapter 2

Chasing Angels

Often I get asked when I first started really seeing more into the spirit.
Besides seeing my first angel at the age of five, I don’t really remember seeing
more after that until I lived in Brazil. At the age of 22 and fresh out of college, I
felt the Lord calling me to move to the country of Brazil with Youth With a
Mission and work with street children in the drug trafficking slums of Belo
Horizonte. I remember how most colleagues of mine I graduated with voiced
how they thought I was absolutely crazy. Most of them (actually, maybe all of
them) had plans post-college to reenter the world of school to further their
degrees in PhD programs or go for a Masters. I remember at my cum laude
dinner for the graduates making a speech about how it was better to follow
God’s plans for my life than follow the ways of the world. (Pretty bold for a 22-
year-old!)
So, fearlessly I went! Well, not exactly fearlessly, but I liked to tell myself
that I was! Little did I know how flipped upside down my world would become.
I found myself in a vivacious culture, unable to understand any of the language
and people around me, working with tough street children who had probably
seen more violence than I had ever seen in my life. Here I thought that I was
going to change the world! In reality, Brazil changed me! The kids I worked
with forever transformed my life. As I learned the language, I was able to work
with the children—counseling them, and speaking truth and love into their
lives. I learned the hard reality of what love truly looks like sometimes. My life
was transformed by the two years I spent there. To this day, I have such a
heart for street children.
 It was in this place of being a single, young, Caucasian woman working
and living in the drug trafficking slums that Jesus opened my eyes in a deeper
way! Just to paint a picture of what it was like living there, I will share a story.
One day I was waiting at the top of a hill to catch a bus that would take me to
the church I attended. Naïvely, I thought that because I had lived in the country
for a year already, spoke the language, and knew the slum, there would be no
need to worry about waiting alone for a bus. A lady came and sat down next to
me and began to chat. I talked with her for a while, but she was pretty
intoxicated and reeked of alcohol, so I didn’t chat long. The lady crossed the
street and sat down near a group and started talking to them. That side of the
street marked the beginning of a more dangerous slum known in the area. I
knew that but still didn’t feel any fear. (I know the Lord has protected me with
angels so many times as I’ve walked away from many dangerous situations
unharmed!)
Anyway, as I sat curiously watching this lady flaunt her body about and talk
loudly to a group of men, suddenly something shocking happened. Another
group of men came from around the corner, one carrying a huge ice block. The
group held her against the cement and beat her head in with the ice block! I’d
never seen anything like it! As I ran all the way back to my house, I just kept
telling myself, That doesn’t just happen! Things like this don’t just happen!
That lady was just murdered right in front of my eyes! I just talked to her!
Obviously, I had heard stories and knew that murder and violence are so
common in the slums, but seeing it made it a reality. This was the environment
I lived in as a single missionary.
It was when I first arrived, though, that my spiritual eyes were opened
more. (I won’t share any more violent stories! I promise.) I had been there only
two weeks. I hardly spoke the language. In my broken Portuguese I could say,
“Hello, my name is Ana. How are you?” One day, I spent that night at a
friend’s house. A couple of us girls had a get-together. Everyone else was
sleeping in the next morning, but I really couldn’t sleep, so I naïvely (again)
thought, I’ll just walk home.
About five blocks into walking home, I was completely lost! Not only was I
lost, but I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t have the street address of
where I lived, a phone number to contact, or even a phone to use. So I kept
walking and walking and walking. Eventually, I ended up in a neighborhood
that didn’t look too friendly. Boys who looked only eight or nine years old were
carrying huge guns and staring at me with hatred in their eyes. Even though
they were just kids, I was terrified of them. So I started praying! Boy did I pray!
I kept walking, desperately hoping that something familiar would catch my
eye, but it didn’t. I turned a corner and got to a street where men carrying guns
now were making drug deals. I prayed, “God make me invisible! God make me
invisible!” Well, He didn’t! The men turned and looked at me curiously, like,
What doesn’t belong in this picture? One started to approach me, and at that
point I just ran! I ran and ran until I got six blocks away where I found a street
with no people.
At this point, I just sat down and cried! Yep, I admit it! There I was, this
brave (or so I thought) 22-year-old college graduate, in all my glory, sitting on
a cement street corner crying. “Oh, Lord,” I cried, “You’ve got to save me! I’m
so lost. I’m so stupid, and I’m so lost! Please help me get home! I don’t even
know where home is, but please, Lord, help me! Where are You?”
Then, once I stopped my sobbing, I heard Him. It was nothing profound,
just one simple phrase. “Look up!” I heard the Lord say.
So I did. To my surprise, I saw an angel at the end of block smiling at me.
People always ask me, What did it look like? The angel I saw that day was
probably seven feet tall, was dressed in a glowing robe, and had huge wings
that went high about his head and touched the floor. I never could see his face
distinctly, but just could make out his smile. The angel looked at me, laughed,
and did the oddest thing. He dropped the flower he was carrying in his hand at
the end of the block and ran off.
In that moment, all I knew to do was to chase the angel. Anywhere he’s
going has got to better than here! I thought. I ran to the spot where the flower
was and picked it up. I turned the corner and saw my angel ahead of me quite
far at the next corner. He dropped another flower. “Follow him,” was all I
heard the Lord say in that moment. So I did! This kept going on and on for what
seemed like an hour. I would run, catch up to him enough to pick up a flower,
and then he would disappear around the next corner and I would chase after
him. Eventually, the last flower dropped was on my doorstep! An hour later, I
was safely at home. Imagine everyone’s surprise when they asked me how I
managed to find my way home and I responded, “I followed an angel.” I still
have those flowers pressed in my journal from Brazil today.

Why Study Biblical Angels

 I find it appalling that the modern-day church doesn’t discuss angels more
often. The Bible gives us a record of encounters when angels showed up
before Jesus’ birth, during His years on this earth, and after His ascension. If
the Bible is the holy written Word of God and if angels are in it, then they must
be a point of interest God wants us to study. Of course, the study of angels
should never precede our study of Jesus. Just as there are recoded in the Bible
an archangel and a messenger angel, I believe angels hold different jobs and
offices. Here are some of the different types of angels I have encountered.

Warning Angels
Warning angels are simply that! They are angels sent by God to warn His
people. In Genesis 19, two angels show up to warn Lot of the terrible
destruction that is about to fall on Sodom and Gomorrah. “Get them out of
here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord
against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it” (Gen. 19:12-13
NIV).
Now, why would the Lord care to warn Lot? If He was planning on wiping
out an entire city anyway, why would He send angels to warn a specific family
to leave before the devastation hit? In His mercy, because of His relationship
with Abraham (Lot’s brother), he saved Lot and his family (see Gen. 19:29).
Another well-known angel that comes with warning is Joseph’s angel. The
King Herod had been on a rampage to find and destroy Jesus, the child who
was prophesied about who would rule the people of Israel. An angel comes to
Joseph in a dream. “‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and
escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the
child to kill him’” (Matt. 2:13 NIV). So once again we see God intercepting and
sending a warning angel to change the course of history.
I myself have never encountered a warning angel. I like to think, though,
that the first angel I saw in Brazil protected me and kept me from danger.

Messenger Angels
God also sent angels that carried a message in the Bible. Gabriel the
archangel comes to Mary at a pivotal time in her life.

Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will
conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He
 will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord
God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign
over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end (Luke
1:30-33 NIV).
Wasn’t that wonderful of God to send an angel to Mary at what could have
been the scariest time in her whole life! Gabriel came and delivered a
message of hope and encouragement to Mary. The Lord so lovingly knew she
would need hope and encouragement to face carrying the Son of God in her
womb, not to mention having to go back and explain her pregnancy to her
family and Joseph.

Warring Angels
The Bible also describes angels that fight or war on our behalf. In a
despairing time and at the end of a twenty-one day fast, Daniel has a crazy
vision and encounters a brilliant angel. In Daniel 10, the angel tells him:

Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind
to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God,
your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But
the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days.
Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because
I was detained there with the king of Persia (Daniel 10:12-13 NIV).
This scripture brings so much comfort. Its contents show us that God hears
our prayers even if we can’t see His answer to them yet. God hears our
prayers! Isn’t that awesome?
Michael is described as an angel that came and helped Daniel’s angels
fight off a demonic power. This was no little demon either! It was so strong
that it kept Daniel’s angel detained for a twenty-one day battle. The archangel
Michael must have been one giant angel! Thankfully, the Lord sends us angels
to battle for us when we are weak!

Explanation Angels
Then there are those angels that show up in the Bible just to give
revelation to people. You can imagine the disciples of Christ scratching their
heads, thinking, “Huh? What just happened?” as Jesus leaves in a cloud up to
heaven. Jesus ascends and the disciples are standing there “looking intently
up into the sky as he was going” (Acts 1:10 NIV). They are still staring up into
the sky when two angels show up behind them to explain it all. Isn’t it
refreshing that even the disciples, who spent all their time with Jesus, often
just didn’t get it! It brings us hope as we sometimes miss all that God has for
us in the Scriptures.

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into
the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into
heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go
into heaven” (Acts 1:11 NIV).
“Ahhh!” they responded. (No, I just added that in.) It’s like revelation sunk
in! The Lord was so gracious to send them angels to explain everything. I
wonder if He was sitting in heaven watching them staring at the clouds, and
He looked at His angels and said, “Geez! Would you guys go down there and
explain it to them?”

Personal Testimony of Encountering an

Explanation Angel
When my husband and I were dating, as you can imagine I had a fun time
describing the seer anointing to him. Now although my husband walks in a
strong gifting of discernment and teaching, he doesn’t see in the spiritual
realm. So just imagine what it was like on our first dates together, as we’d be
driving in the car, and I would tell him that an angel just showed up in the
backseat! (I think at first he thought I was a little crazy, although he’ll never
admit that now.)
Right before we got engaged, I kept having these weird encounters with
God. I kept seeing old-fashioned looking keys everywhere. During worship, I
saw them fall into my hands; I saw them on buildings; I had a real one show up
in my drawer and even in my Bible one day! God was definitely trying to teach
me something during this time about unlocking my heart.
The day he proposed, Sam took me to my favorite beach in the whole
world. I’ll never forget the scene of the ocean and beach that day. It was
beautiful! The sunset was magnificent; the waves were perfect. We sat
praying together and squishing the sand between our toes. Then, I looked up
into the sky and saw keys falling. Hundreds and hundreds of keys! “Sam,
there’s keys falling everywhere,” I yelled in glee at him.
“That’s awesome!” he responded. “I’m gonna set the camera up to take a
picture of our silhouettes in the sunset with the ocean in front of us, OK?” he
said. “So stay right there so I can focus the camera.”
So I sat just enamored, looking at the hundreds of keys falling while he
was behind me fidgeting with the camera. What in the world, God! I thought.
Then suddenly, a huge angel, at least 20 feet tall, approached me carrying an
enormous key in his hand! He offered it to me.
“Sam, there’s a huge angel in front of me. He just gave me the biggest key
I’ve ever seen!” I said.
“That’s great, Ana! Can you turn around and look at me now?” he said. I
turned around and there he was holding a ring proposing to marry me! Flash!
Just then the camera behind us took the picture and captured our special
moment.

Unless it provokes us to desire to see the

same gifts, signs, and wonders manifesting
in our lives, it’s just an inspirational story
without carrying any impartation.

To this day, I think that angel was a gift from the Lord. The Lord was
definitely trying to explain to me that my heart was about to be fully opened to
my future husband. The Lord and my husband alone carry that key to my heart.
It was so precious of the Lord to send an angel to explain it to me that day!

I Want to See Angels Too!

Often my friends ask me, “How do I see angels? I want to see angels too,
but I’m not a seer!” First Corinthians 14:1 says, “Follow the way of love and
eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy” (NIV). It says that we are
to desire the gifts—plural. This means that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are
available to us and we are supposed to eagerly go after them! Although it’s
encouraging to hear stories and testimonies of God doing amazing signs and
wonders through others’ lives, unless it provokes us to desire to see the same
gifts, signs, and wonders manifesting in our lives it’s just an inspirational story
without carrying any impartation.
So I always encourage people to go after seeing angels! Sometimes angels
don’t just show up like, “Boom! Here I am!” There have been times when I’ve
just seen glimpses of angels dancing or moving through the room during a
church service or during worship. I may just see flashes of light moving about
the room. Other times, I’ve seen glimpses of their wing tips fluttering, and
then it’s gone. Also, sometimes I have seen an appearance of a glowing
shadow behind speakers, and I know that is an angelic presence.
Angelic encounters can also be in closed visions and dreams. Many times,
with my eyes shut during worship I’ll see an image of an angel moving toward
me or planted somewhere in the room on guard. Or, with my eyes closed, I’ll
have a vision of an angelic presence walking by me or coming up behind me.

What Do I Do Now?
If by reading this you are realizing that perhaps you are starting to see
angels, what do you do now? It’s been my experience that God doesn’t just
open our spiritual eyes to see into the supernatural unless there is a purpose.
Often when I’ve seen warring angels who are dressed in full armor, it
causes me to start praying stronger because I know the enemy is on the move.
I also always try to ask angels their names. There is significance in names—
we can see that biblically! In some encounters, the angel will share with me
its name, and it usually has significance to what God is trying to teach me
through the encounter; other times the angel doesn’t.

Angelic presence should always cause us

to worship and glorify God more. Let’s not
get so fascinated with the supernatural
that we miss the purpose of it!
 I also have some pretty crazy testimonies of interesting experiences I’ve
had with angels. Once I was praying over this lady during a prophetic
conference, and an angel showed up behind her carrying a large trumpet in
one hand. A crazy idea came to my mind—I grabbed her right hand, and with
my other hand I reached out and touched the wing of the angel. Instantly, the
power of God fell on her in a mighty way and she was thrown across the room
five feet onto the floor. The angel then winked at me, walked over to where
she lay, and blew the trumpet over her. As it blew the trumpet, the lady shared
with me later, she was instantly taken up into a vision of heaven through a
wind tunnel with the Lord. The angel was clearly sent to release and usher her
into the presence of God in a powerful way.
It was during my time as a missionary in Brazil that my eyes were opened
to see a whole battlefield of war occurring. I would see angels and demons
warring over a whole favela (slum) and could see the demonic strongholds
that were holding authority in certain areas on the mountaintop.
Whenever God opened my eyes to see these war fields, I was provoked to
pray and ask God to release more warring angels. First Corinthians 6:3 says
“Do you not know that we will judge angels?” (NIV). We have the ability in
Jesus’ name to ask for the release of ministering angels into any situation!
Angelic presence should always cause us to worship and glorify God more.
Let’s not get so fascinated with the supernatural that we miss the purpose of
it! Worship and praise should be the result every time we experience an
angelic encounter. Revelation 4 describes how in heaven there are actual
seraphim that surround the throne and just worship the Lord day and night.
How much more should we be led to worship Him, who is the only one worthy,
after having an angelic encounter!

Activation
There are certain steps to having an angelic encounter that I recommend.

1. Try personalizing and praying the following activation prayer daily,

and also ask a mentor to be praying for you to have angelic
encounters.

2. If you can find someone who has been known to see angels, ask them
 to pray over you and impart to you this gift. It says in the Bible to go
after the gifts, right? Well then, get courageous and boldly go and ask
that person to pray for you. (I recommend this for desiring any of the
different gifts.)

3. Angelic activity is often present during powerful worship. I can’t tell

you how many times I have seen angels dancing around when worship
is present! Worship ushers us into the presence of the King, so either
start worshiping and praising or play some strong worship music.

4. Begin to get curious! Close your eyes. Once you’ve been able to get
into a meditative state, ask the Lord to show you a vision of an angel.
If you have a hard time getting away from your own thoughts and are
feeling distracted, turn off the lights in the room. Note down if you
sense any presence. Often people have shared with me that they
could sense angelic presence before they could see it. This might be
your starting point also. Now, try opening your eyes, wherever you
are, and see if you can see or sense anything in the room. Even if it’s
a small start, note it down. Great things come from small beginnings!
Next time you try to encounter an angel, see if you can see the same
thing and ask the Lord to reveal to you a little more. Note down
anything you sense or encounter, including visions or dreams you may
have. Ask God also for angelic encounters in your dreams too!

5. If you have an angelic encounter, ask the angel his/her name. Often
the names have meaning and might give insight. My angel that was
with my husband and me during our dating relationship was named
Timothy, which meant honoring God.

Activation Prayer
Precious Lord, right now I just ask You to fill the reader with wonderment,
curiosity, and childlike faith to begin to see and encounter angels. As You
have opened my eyes time and time again to see into the supernatural and
witness angels, I pray that there would be an impartation that happens right
now in the spirit of the person reading this book. I pray for a release of
angelic activity around the reader.
Lord, increase their dream life also. I pray for supernatural surprises for the
reader. Lord, release Your angels to come and encounter this person.
Even now I pray against and bind any form of warfare that may be presently
blocking their senses from experiencing the supernatural in the blood of the
Lamb. Father, increase their sensitivity to Your presence. Open their spiritual
eyes to see more right now in the name of Jesus Christ. We love You and
thank You, God. Amen.
 Chapter 3

Spiritual Armor: The Garment of

Praise

I want to preface this chapter by admitting my own insecurity to share my

thoughts on spiritual armor. If you were to walk into a Christian bookstore, you
could find a whole section devoted to this subject, as there have already been
so many marvelous books written on this topic. In all honesty though, no
matter how many times I read on the topic of spiritual armor, it wasn’t until I
found myself in situations where I really needed to live out the concepts, that I
learned anything. So I am writing from what I’ve personally been challenged
with and had to pursue and add to my lifestyle. Hopefully my own story won’t
be just another piece of writing on the subject matter for you.
In 2011, my husband and I went to Mozambique, Africa to be missionaries
and learn under Heidi and Rolland Baker. We had been married just one year
and were already both experienced missionaries, but little did we know just
how challenged we would be. Pemba, Mozambique was unlike any other place
I had ever been to. Besides the lack of living space and constant dirt and bugs,
the heat of Africa in October seemed to drain our ability to do much but just
lay in the presence of the Almighty—which was wonderful! I would
recommend anyone go and work with the Bakers if you get a chance. Although
challenging in every possible way, we grew so much spiritually, individually,
and as a couple.
Halfway through the school was when everyone started to get really sick.
Fatigue, lack of running water sometimes, and blistering heat seemed to be
the perfect equation for sickness to breed. A few students found themselves
sweating in their bunks with sickness, my husband Sam included. Sam became
the sickest I had ever seen him. He developed such a strong form of bronchitis
that his stomach was bleeding. On top of that, he had caught a staph infection
from a soccer wound and was running a fever of 104 Fahrenheit. There we
were in Africa! With Internet access being little or mostly extinct and phone
calls back home rarely reaching, we were feeling pretty stretched and isolated
to say the least!
The staff there was amazing, constantly coming to our hut and checking on
him. Unfortunately, the medicine wasn’t working, and his fever wasn’t ceasing.
“If he doesn’t get better soon, you might have to go home,” doctors pulled me
aside and relayed to me. Reality then hit! It was then that I felt the danger and
reality of the situation.
I remember going into the kitchen next to our room, just to escape the
sight of my husband and sounds of him moaning. It was then that I cried out to
God:

Lord. Where are You?! Here I am Lord! Remember me—your

daughter. Why is this happening, God? We’ve seen countless
people healed of diseases as we pray for them, and yet Sam keeps
getting worse! We can’t go home, God. That’s not Your plan and I
know it. That’s just the enemy trying to discourage us. But Lord, I
can’t go on seeing him like this. God, where are You? Won’t You
come help?
It was then, at my breaking point after days of prayer and being unable to
hear the Lord, that I heard Him. “Go and worship Me! Praise My name. Sing My
name over him.”
“OK, Lord,” was my response, but honestly I was in disbelief that that
would change the situation at all.
I went back into our room and sat on the bed next to my husband. “Sam,
I’m gonna do something kind of weird, but Jesus told me to do it. He told me to
lay my hands on you and just start praising His name, so that’s what I am
going to do, OK?”
“Mmmmm OK,” he moaned back.
 So I did exactly that. I placed my hands on his chest first. At this point, his
entire body was soaked with sweat from the fever. I placed my hands on his
chest and started singing out the name of Jesus. I just began to worship the
Lord with my eyes closed and sing out His name. After about three minutes,
something happened. His chest felt cooler! The fever was breaking! Next, I
touched his forehead, which was still on fire. I did the same thing—praising
the name of Jesus and singing Him worship songs over Sam. Slowly, the fever
completely broke over his entire body!
This was a first for me, but I learned so much through that lesson with Holy
Spirit. First, I was able to take my eyes off the sickness by just shutting them
and singing to the Lord. Second, the power of praise shifts the atmosphere and
loosens the enemy’s grip over us! That day Sam’s fever completely broke, and
in a few days he regained his full strength.
Now I want to fast forward a couple of months to our experience in India.
We were living in Calcutta, India and working as missionaries. It was in India
that I truly learned to make war on the enemy! In Africa with the Bakers, we
were constantly surrounded by witch doctors and demonic presence as we
would go out and minister the gospel. However, there was a sweet covering
being under the Bakers! They are seasoned missionaries who clearly know
how to deal with assaults of the enemy. But it was in India, when we were on
our own, that we really learned how to fight against spiritual warfare.
We were living in an area where there were Hindu temples all around us.
In India, especially in Calcutta, the spiritual oppression is so prevalent and
strong that you can feel it immediately as you get off the plane. The time that
we spent there was one of the hardest on our marriage that we have ever
experienced. Missions has a way of bringing out the worst and best in all of us
as we are stretched beyond our limits in every way possible. Sam and I were
constantly fighting, projecting our frustrations with day-to-day life there in
Calcutta onto each other. We were quite isolated and were picking up all the
warfare around us as we would do ministry.
It was there that, for the first time in my life, I couldn’t hear God’s voice. I
would pray and ask Him questions, and it would feel like there was a glass
ceiling there blocking my prayers from reaching Him and His answers from
reaching me. (This is also another form of warfare we were against but didn’t
realize it at the time.) It was one of the loneliest and scariest feelings.
 Friction causes sacrificial praise!

One day I went into a separate room, got down on my knees, and begged
the Lord to speak to me and help me through all the tensions in our marriage.
Suddenly, I found myself up in heaven. Call it what you will—an open vision, a
closed vision, an encounter, whatever it was—I wasn’t in that room anymore
but in a completely different location. I walked down a large corridor with the
Lord until we got to a specific door. Jesus took the handle in His hand, looked
at me, smiled, and pushed it open.
I walked in and the door shut. I found myself completely alone in this new
room but able to hear the Father speaking to me clearly. What I saw still to
this day amazes me. All around the great room I saw armor of all different
types. There were swords, axe-like tools with large handles, shoulder guards,
wrist guards, guards of all different types. There were musical instruments—
shofars, trumpets, harps, drums, etc. There were bows and arrows, helmets,
breastplates, and swords. In one corner I saw huge, full-body suits that looked
immensely strong in bronze and golden colors. I also saw special shoes that
looked unbreakable but light as a feather. “Pick whatever you want, Ana,” I
heard the Father say. “This is My room of spiritual armor.”
It was then that I saw angels come in and bustle all about the room. For
some reason, I had the knowledge at that moment that they were picking
armor out for the specific people they were assigned to bring them to.
I glanced back around the room and was drawn to all the strong, huge-
looking armor. Hmm, I thought. That’s not a bad place to start! As I
approached the large armor, though, nothing really stuck out to me as my
armor. So I started riffling through the armor.
There amidst the big bronze armor, I found mine. I don’t know how to
explain it, except that in the moment I just knew it was made for me. It was a
beautiful and light-looking dress. Almost similar to the chainmail knights wore
under their armor, except this one looked glorious. It glimmered in the light all
the different colors of the rainbow and almost looked translucent. Along the
edges of the dress, I was astonished as I saw all kinds of different pearls
inlaid in the pattern. There was something enticing about the pearls; I just
couldn’t peel my eyes away from them.
“This, Ana, is the garment of praise,” I heard the Lord say. “You have
chosen well!” the Lord smiled back at me. I looked at Him questioningly. It was
like He read my mind in that moment and answered the question that had
been daunting me. “The pearls represent sacrificial praise—for all the times
you will have to turn to praising Me, even when you don’t feel like it, to break
the enemy’s hold.”
I put on the garment, which felt amazingly light and warm, and just like
that I was back in India—now with my face on the floor and tears running
down from my eyes.

Pearls and Sacrificial Praise

I researched how pearls are formed after this experience with God and
discovered something wild. Without boring you with too much scientific
mumbo-jumbo, to summarize—pearls are created out of friction. When a
muscle or mollusk feels threatened by a foreign object, it creates a pearl as a
defense mechanism. It dawned on me—friction causes sacrificial praise!
It’s one thing to praise God when our lives are going great—we receive a
blessing, finances are flowing, and our family life and ministry is bearing fruit.
But will we praise Him when this life is rough? Will we praise Him when we
can’t see beyond our own sorrow, problems, or pain? Will we even praise Him
when we can’t see the fruit of our labor?
Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His
name” (NASB). Psalms 50:14 says, “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and pay your vows to the Most High” (NASB).
I was looking up sacrifice in the dictionary the other day, and guess what it
means? Sacrifice! It is an offering of something or a surrendering. Look it up!
Go on, I dare you! It might actually hit you with revelation as it did me. So
when the Scriptures talk about making an offering of sacrificial praise, it’s
referring to praising the King who is worthy of praise even when we don’t feel
like it and it’s difficult. It’s the simple act of saying, “God, I will praise You
even though I don’t understand what is going on right now. I will surrender my
trust to You. You are a good God, and You are so worthy of all my love and
devotion, even right now amidst all of this chaos in my life! I set my eyes on
You, Father! Thank You, God, for this chastening!”
 Will we praise Him when this life is rough?

Why Praise
When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who
sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they
went out before the army and said, “Give thanks to the Lord, for
His lovingkindness is everlasting.” When they began singing and
praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab
and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed
(2 Chronicles 20:21-22).
This specific scripture shows the power of praise. Jehoshaphat was in
trouble. A group of men had rounded up a whole army to come fight against all
of Judah and Jerusalem, so Jehoshaphat declared a fast throughout the nation
to seek out the Lord’s wisdom. Strategically, Jehoshaphat places the
worshipers on the very front of the battlefield. Not the strongest warriors, but
perhaps the strongest warriors in the spirit! They go out and start singing
praise songs to the Lord, and then the Lord fights the battle for them. The key
to look at here is the fact that they go! They engage in worship and then we
see God responding. Worship, praise, and thanksgiving shifts the atmosphere
in times of spiritual warfare.
Now I realize as I’m writing this some of you are thinking, OK, easier said
than done! In all honesty, as I’ve been writing this chapter I’ve been hit with
one spiritual warfare attack after another. It’s like the enemy has been
challenging me, “Do you really believe and do what you say to do in hard
times?”
There are days when I don’t feel like praising God at all because things
feel so tough. There are days when, selfishly, I would rather focus on my
problems than focus on Him. I have to come back though to what I know, and
that is that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
God” (Rom. 8:28 NASB). He is a good Father despite what I can see in front of
me right now. Despite all my problems and all the spiritual warfare I am
experiencing now, He is still worthy of all my praise. I have to trust Him!
 Activation Prayer
God, I come to You now and confess my own lack of understanding. I am
helplessly surrendered to You, Father, and it’s a good place to be. I can’t
control my situation. All I can do is change my heart’s attitude. It’s hard,
God, and You know where I am today as I am sitting here before You. I just
pour out my heart to You because I know You care. I trust You, God. I choose
now to just praise You and declare that I will not be overwhelmed! Your
blood covers me and washes over me. I am Your beloved! Thank You, Father,
for being a good Dad who takes care of me despite what I can see! Amen.

Application

Now spend some time praising Him. Go into your room, shut the door, and just
begin praising Him. If you are struggling with this, just begin thanking Him.
Thank Him as long as you can. Now go for a little more, and then begin to sing
praise to Him. Sing whatever comes to mind or put on some worship music to
sing along with. As silly as this might feel the first time you do it, remember
you are shifting the atmosphere and God loves our praise! So take it seriously.
Praise is weaponry!

Discussion Questions
1. What do you think your armor is? Besides praise, take time and ask
the Lord to show you what armor He has specifically assigned to you.
 Chapter 4

Making War Against the Enemy

One night, I faced an increased amount of what I would call “spiritual

warfare.” Spiritual warfare can look different to each person, but to me this
was war! My husband and I had just announced to his parents our return from
missions in Nepal. At this time, we had been overseas working with Iris
Ministries for a year and a half, first in Mozambique, Africa and then in India
and Nepal. It’s amazing how sometimes the enemy tries to strike right after we
make steps out in faith. What’s even more amazing is that I didn’t see this
coming. You would think that after dealing with warfare out in the mission
field, I would be an expert at how to fight against it by now, but nope! We
made our announcement, and then it showered down. At first I didn’t even
think, Hey this is warfare! Maybe we should start to pray! Instead, I was
bombarded by thoughts of doubt. My faith was decreasing rapidly.
What if people don’t understand our transition from missions right now?
What if people don’t understand that we are not leaving ministry and that it is
just morphing into something different for us? What if we completely lose our
support even though we are following God? What then, God? Why, God, are
You calling us to leave Nepal and head back to Kansas City? What if we’ll be up
against a closed door for us there? What if nothing opens like You say it will,
God? God, can’t You start opening things now so that we really know that
You’re in this? The fear ran deeper and deeper in me as all these thoughts kept
flooding my mind. Sometimes the hardest and largest battle zone can be in our
own minds.
 So we went to sleep—sort of. I woke up about two hours later to the hot
breath of something breathing on my face. It smelled repulsive! At first I
wanted to toss a pillow at my husband, thinking, Can that really be him
breathing on me? Then my hair stood up on the back of my neck as I realized
the hot breath was coming from the other side of the room. It’s something
else! Eek, I thought. I opened my eyes, and there he was. I like to call this
demon my Ogre of Discouragement. I have never seen something quite like
him, and this wasn’t the first time I’d seen a demon. He was from floor to
ceiling in height and about five times my width. Now, maybe you’re thinking
here, That’s not so bad. Let me assure you, if you wake up to anything of that
size, repulsive smell, and scary-looking build with red eyes glaring at you—
yep, that’s bad! Just about when I felt like I wanted to scream, I heard Holy
Spirit say, “It’s time to war!”

Sometimes the hardest and largest battle

zone can be in our own minds.

Making War
Even though I felt so terrified that I was forgetting to breathe, I went out of
the bedroom, into the living room with the demonic presence following closely
behind me, and I shut the door. With my eyes shut, filled with terror, I began to
praise the Lord. I began singing whatever worship songs would come to my
mind. Then I began to just thank Him for the amazing things He had done in
my life. “I will praise You despite my fear. I will rise to this challenge. The
enemy can never and will never tear my love and devotion to You, no matter
the cost!” I found myself saying.
Something amazing happened. At first when I started to sing worship
songs, the demonic presence grew more intense and came closer to me. My
fear intensified, but I kept praising the Lord. The demon started to shriek, then
said things to me like, “You’ll always be alone. God will not take care of you.
Are you sure God really loves you?” That’s when I knew God and I were
winning the battle. When the enemy desperately increases the attack, there is
breakthrough coming just around the corner. So rather than agree with that
discouraging voice, it only fueled my fire of love and desire to praise the Lord
more.
Something interesting and totally amazing happened then. Just like a
balloon letting out its air, this big demonic ogre began to shrink in size and
width. The more I praised God and cried out to Him, the more the demonic
presence lost his power or authority to be there. As I repented for ever
agreeing with fear, discouragement, or doubt, I saw my sword, the one the
Lord had given me in Africa, shine right in front of my face. “Thank You, Holy
Spirit!” I cried out. I grabbed my sword, which was hot, and continued to praise
the Lord.
Then something shifted in the atmosphere, and I felt faith arise in me to
start making prophetic declarations. I began saying back the promises I had
heard from the Father over my life and my husband’s. “I praise You, Father,
that I will never be alone. You go before me and are behind me always. You
have prepared a way for our future. Thank You that you have said You will
always take care of us, that we will always have enough, that as we lavishly
give our lives to serve You, You will lavishly love upon us and bless us. God, I
just want to spend my life washing Your feet. Nothing can separate my love
and devotion to You! Thank You that You have promised us that our children
will be blessed. Thank You that You are calling us back to the International
House of Prayer. Thank You that there will be a role for us and direction for us
there. Thank You that we will find support there. I prophetically declare now, in
the name of Jesus, that fear and discouragement must leave this house now!”
As I said all this, my sword grew larger and hotter. As it grew hotter in my
hand, the demonic presence grew smaller and smaller. Finally, when my sword
was so hot that I could barely hold on to it without burning my hand, I took it
and stabbed that demon! “You must leave now in the name of Jesus and not
come back!” I yelled. Guess what! It did. Immediately, the battle was over.
That demonic presence retreated out our front door knowing it had been
defeated.

When the enemy desperately increases

the attack, there is breakthrough
coming just around the corner.
 Replenished
Then the most glorious thing happened. There in my little living room, a
glory cloud came. What did it look like? It was a thick cloud that filled the
room completely. Flashes of colors moved through it, looking almost like a
moving body of water. It seemed like the cloud was alive. Gold, purple, hues of
blue, crimson red were mostly the colors I saw. There were also colors I cannot
even describe. I’ve never seen them here on earth. The living presence of God
was so thick that I just fell down, face flat on the floor. All I could say through
tears was just, “I love You, Lord! I love You, Lord.” It brought a whole new
meaning of “the fear of the Lord.”
Then the most marvelous and odd thing happened. The cloud began to
speak back. I heard a song from the Father. “How I love you. My daughter, how
proud I am of you. I am always with you, and I am preparing the way for you.
You will always carry My presence wherever you go, for I am with you.” Then
He went on to sing to me more promises for my future. As I cried out to the
Father how much I loved Him in that moment, He would sing back His love
over me!
This circle continued and continued for what seemed like hours; then
suddenly, it just stopped. The cloud was gone, and I got off the floor. Before I
had felt completely exhausted from my previous battle, but now I felt
completely replenished, energized, and full from the glorious presence of the
Father. My husband woke up the next morning, and as I told him everything
that had happened and all the future promises the Lord had said, angelic
presence filled our living room. My husband is not a seer but is incredibly
prophetic and carries a strong gift of discernment. So there we sat in complete
silence and awe of God as Sam felt the presence of the Lord and I watched the
angels dancing throughout our room. Afterward, we praised the Lord for His
goodness and faithfulness to us.

The living presence of God was so thick

that I just fell down, face flat on the floor.
All I could say through tears was just,
“I love You, Lord! I love You, Lord.”
 Why Prophetic Declarations Work
James 3:10 says “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing”
(NKJV). Also in Luke 6:45 it says, “For out of the abundance of the heart his
mouth speaks” (NKJV). We as believers, who have the living Christ dwelling
inside of us, have so much power and authority in our tongue. That’s why God
takes it very seriously when we sinfully curse another, speak harshly, or
gossip. Likewise, we have the power to unleash promises of God over
ourselves or unleash negativity and fear.
I once met this woman who would constantly make statements to me like,
“Just pray for me that my doctor’s appointment doesn’t go bad,” or “Just pray
for me that the family dinner won’t be a disaster.” It took me years to pinpoint
exactly what bothered me about this lady’s prayer requests. She was speaking
forth the negative without even realizing it, instead of making statements like,
“Pray for me that my doctor appointment will be excellent,” or “Pray that my
family get together will be a wonderful experience.” Do you see the
difference? It’s like she was already agreeing with the enemy that the
outcomes would be negative.
This is why it is so important that as we face our battles our mind-sets are
first renewed by the thoughts of Christ. When I recognized that my thoughts
and emotions were not aligned with the Lord’s thoughts and emotions, I
battled that demon by first entering into His presence through praise and
worship and then started declaring the promises of God. This is a great way to
get your thoughts and emotions transformed even when it doesn’t come
naturally. Then, as I began to declare these truths out loud, I noticed that the
attack of fear and discouragement began to quickly dissipate. I took on the
thoughts of Christ, and everything else had to leave!
Revelation 19:10 says, “It is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to
Jesus” (NIV). It always amazes me to watch how, when people share their
healing testimonies, other people in the same room who need that same
miracle get touched by God and receive healing. There is power when we align
our tongue with heaven and what the Father says, thinks, and wants to do.
Making prophetic declarations also activates faith. It is declaring what is
unseen into possibility. If anyone has heard me speak, they quickly learn that
one of my favorite scriptures is 1 Samuel 17:45-47. David is about to fight
Goliath, and with all odds against him he declares “This day the Lord will
deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. … For
the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give all of you into our hands” (NIV). Talk
about facing your enemy! As David makes this prophetic declaration, he is
taking up the posture of a victorious one, not a defeated one.
This scripture shows David partnering with Heaven. In a sense he is
saying, “My God is bigger, and you don’t stand a chance buddy!” John 10:10
says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they
may have life, and have it to the full” (NIV). Isn’t it nice to know that as we
prophetically declare what the Lord has shown us, we are agreeing with the
Father on our own behalf? He wants us to have life and not live under the
accusations and oppression of the accuser. We shift the atmosphere of the
battlefield by agreeing with the Father through our declarations, and we put
the enemy in the position of retreat.

We enter into His very presence through our

unreserved worship, praise, and thanksgiving.

Prophetic declarations also change our perspective into a heavenly one. As

I fought that demonic presence and began to declare the promises the Lord
had spoken over my husband and me, I could see the enemy losing his power
and shrinking. What seemed so scary at first became actually rather small and
easy to conquer. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil.
4:13 NKJV).

Entering His Gates

Psalms 100:4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with
praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (NIV). I’ve already written in
Chapter 3 of this book about praise, but I feel it necessary here to reemphasize
a few points. When I faced that demonic presence, what defueled its authority
to be there was my praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. As soon as I started
praising the Lord, the demonic presence had to shrink. We enter into His very
presence through our unreserved worship, praise, and thanksgiving.
 Activation
Step 1
If you are finding yourself in a battle right now, no matter the size, ask the
Lord to show you what you might be up against. Ephesians 6:12 says, “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.” Not everything is a spiritual battle!
Some struggles we bring upon ourselves through our own free will and sinful
nature. Ask yourself this right now: This situation I am in right now that is
proving to be difficult—could it be warfare or something else? If this struggle
is something you could be going through because the Lord is chastening you
and equipping you through it, praise the Lord! He’s training you! If it is a
struggle you’ve brought on yourself, meet with someone in the church you
know and trust to carry wisdom, and repent and get clean from whatever sin
you need to. We are all unclean vessels struggling to keep our hearts pure
before the Lord, so don’t allow yourself to feel shame in asking for help.
If it is warfare, ask yourself, “Are any of my emotions right now different
than the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Gal. 5:22) or outside of Christ’s
nature?” This might help pinpoint demonic activity that is present. A few
examples of this are fear, depression, self-hatred, jealousy, defeat, anxiety,
offense.
Last, ask yourself, “Is there any lie I am believing here?” If there is one,
God will reveal it. If you don’t hear anything, don’t press it until you hear
something.

Lord, I pray that You would reveal if there is any demonic activity
involved right now for the person reading this. Holy Spirit, come.
Are there any lies that have been believed that are fueling the
enemy’s power? Lord, thank You that we as believers are cleansed
in Your blood. Thank You for whatever You have revealed right
now to the reader, and thank You that You have power over every
demonic activity or principality.

Step 2
 As you prayed through step 1 of the activation, don’t feel discouraged if
you didn’t hear anything! Move on to step 3 then. If Holy Spirit did reveal
anything to you in step 1, then get ready to do some battle! Ephesians 6:14-17
says, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with
the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up
the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the
evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God.” Go ahead and walk yourself through putting on your spiritual
armor. If you’ve never done this before, sometimes it helps me to say, “I put to
my belt of truth,” etc. to visually help me engage with the Lord in the act of
putting on my armor.

Step 3
Now go ahead and move into a time of worship, praise, and thanking the
Lord. If the Lord hasn’t gifted you with a great singing voice or hands that play
an instrument, that’s OK. Put on some worship music and worship at the top of
your lungs anyway! God loves it! Start giving thanks to the Lord for His
goodness and all that He has done for you.

Step 4
Now, once you start to sense the presence of the Lord in the room, start to
make declarations counter to what you are up against, which you discovered in
step 1. Speak out the promises that God has shown you about your life. Now,
maybe you’re thinking, But I don’t know the promises God has for my life!
Well, this might be a good time to start asking Him. As you hear the Lord
speak them to you, start declaring them out. A simple, practical way to do this
is, “God thank You that You have shown me and told me ____________.” Keep
making as many declarations as you can, and even say them a few times to
dismantle the enemy’s power. If there is a lie you discovered that you may
have been believing, ask the Lord to reveal to you truth, and then begin
declaring that out.
If you don’t feel a shift happening, call on the name of Jesus to come help
you. Keep doing steps 3 and 4 until you feel a shift happen. If you are sensitive
to Holy Spirit, you might feel a literal shift in the atmosphere. If you are a seer,
you might see that demon shrink and leave. If you love the Lord, a shift might
look like feeling encouraged, a change until you are not feeling those arrows
of the enemy that you were feeling in step 1.

Activation Prayer
Lord, I seal everything that You have done here today in the blood of Christ.
Father, I ask You to place a seal of protection around them and close any
back door that the enemy might try and sneak back in through. Thank You,
Father, for breakthrough! Amen.

Discussion Questions
1. What declarations do you want to make over yourself this week?

2. How can you keep yourself accountable to make them?

3. Where can you place them so you have a visual reminder?

 Chapter 5

Sitting at the Father’s Table

Once, I was invited up to the Father’s table. I was sitting in a worship set in
the prayer room at International House of Prayer when suddenly I heard Holy
Spirit’s voice. “Come up here, I want to give you something!” I shut my eyes
and suddenly saw a strong vision.
There I was in a large room. The room seemed to be endless, full of
activity, and glowing with warmth. There was Jesus, sitting down at a huge
table. I’ll never forget His face in that moment! He was so full of joy; invitation
and acceptance were in his eyes, and He seemed to be bubbling with laughter.
“Come sit down,” He said. I sat down and then began to take in the
scrumptious display before me. The table was laid bountifully with a multitude
of food. Many of the foods I did not recognize. There were new fruits of bright
colors. On the table lay a few choice foods that I loved, and my eyes lit up with
excitement. Looking at me, Jesus laughed and said “Take and eat whatever
you desire.” So I did! I filled my plate with all kinds of different varieties of
delicious foods and ate with Jesus. He slurped on a bowl of soup. Looking back
on this vision, I just have to laugh. To think that the majestic and glorious God
Himself would take the time to humbly slurp soup with me! It just makes me
realize more and more how deep His love runs for me.
After I ate a little, I looked at Jesus sheepishly and wanted to ask, “So,
Lord, why I am here?” but feeling embarrassed and still in shock that I was
eating with Jesus, I said nothing.
 He laughed back at me with excitement and a twinkle in his eyes and said,
“I thought you would never ask! I want to show you something.” That’s when
the reality hit me that God is all-knowing and that He knows my innermost
thoughts.
I then noticed before me a huge golden bowl filled to the brim with
pomegranates. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed it before. Perhaps my eyes
were blind to it before. I looked at Jesus a little perplexed. Pomegranates have
always been my favorite fruit and smell. “Are those for me?” I asked.
“Of course,” he laughed joyously back. “I want you to look up
pomegranates in the Bible. See, they were for the royal. For those who knew
their royalty.” So, I took one and bit into it. It was the most delicious
pomegranate I have ever tasted in my life. Eating in heaven is divine!
As I was thoroughly enjoying myself eating my pomegranate, suddenly I
heard movement coming from under the table. “Lord, what’s that?” I thought.
Immediately, I heard him respond back, “Come have a look with me.” It’s
odd to describe, but many times during my heaven encounters people just
seem to communicate without ever opening their mouths. I guess everything is
just laid bare and transparent, so there’s often no need for words.
I got off my chair and so did Jesus. We went to crawl down under the table.
Suddenly, I was looking at the most horrific sight. I was standing with the Lord
before a barren land. Mal-nourished looking people were scrounging around
on the dirt floor, searching in desperation for crumbs. They were barely
surviving. I could see that a survivor mentality had set in, and each person
barely even recognized the other people around them. Then, just as sudden as
it was when I was taken up in this vision, I was back in the prayer room. A
whole hour and a half had passed. I’ve experienced this before—often
heaven’s time is different from earthly time.
I will never forget the experience above and below the table that day.
Those poor people who were scavenging for the Father’s crumbs didn’t know
what scrumptious food was available to them. They were living under a broken
identity and understanding of the Father’s love. How wonderful it is to know
His heart. By knowing His heart we step into the realization and acceptance
that His heart is for us! It’s time for the body of Christ to break away from the
degradation of who God has made us to be.
I have sat with many believers who at their core have believed a lie that
they are not good enough. They see the world through a lens of inferiority and
don’t even realize it. If we look back to satan falling from heaven (see Isa.
14:12-15), we can observe that jealousy and comparison were two of the main
sins ruling lucifer’s heart. If we fall into the trap of comparing with others’
abilities or thinking less of ourselves than the way the Lord sees us, we are
playing with fire. That fire is fueled and comes from hell. Literally! Satan
comes to steal us from walking in the fullness of Christ (see John 10:10).
Walking in the fullness of Christ means walking in our own identities. The
Creator of heaven and earth created you to be unique and desires for you to
walk in who He made you to be. No more trying to put on others’ mantles. Just
start walking in your own. If we are trying to mirror someone else’s gifting or
are stuck falling up short because we are always comparing ourselves to
others, we have fallen into the trap of satan.

Maturity comes with proper nourishment. To

have a healthy diet, they must know their
identity in Me,

The encounter I had in heaven revealed not only the state some believers
are in today but also the very nature of Christ—to pull us up from under the
table and crown us with honor and with a place at the Father’s table. The
second part of John 10:10 says, “I have come that they may have life, and
have it to the full” (NIV).
I work with this group of youth who are between the ages of ten and
fifteen. The neighborhood they live in is poor, full of violence and drug dealing.
Just this past week, a group of us leaders spent time talking to the kids about
their royalty in Christ. We asked them how they would change their
neighborhood if they were the Queen or King of it. Slowly but surely, we are
working to instill in them their value in the Lord. Every day they get bombarded
with defeat, put-downs, and lies from the rest of their world. Every time they
come to Bible study, we try to treat them and teach them according to their
value and royalty in Jesus. Last week after our meeting, I actually witnessed
the kids trying on fake crowns we had. Sometimes, I wonder if they are
listening! It’s a battle just to get them to put away their phones for 10 minutes
and listen. I know, though, that something from last week had sunk in.
After my encounter at the Father’s table, I went and researched
pomegranates in the Bible. I found in Exodus 39:24-26 that pomegranates
were sewn into the hems of the robes that the priests wore when ministering
in the sanctuary of Moses’ tabernacle. I got the message! I heard later, “Enter
in, knowing that you are royal! No longer can you settle for just the crumbs.
You have a responsibility to sit at this table and partake in the Father’s
goodness and pleasure for you. Also, you have a responsibility to bring others
up here. Gather My children who are starving because they don’t know. Then
don’t know how pleased I am with them! I want them to eat my solid food. I
want them to mature! Maturity comes with proper nourishment. To have a
healthy diet, they must know their identity in Me, which comes from eating
from this table I’ve set before you.”
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen what a malnourished person looks like, but
in all my travels overseas I have seen quite a few examples of
malnourishment. In Africa especially, when my husband and I worked with Iris
Ministries, we would go out to far, remote villages to preach the gospel. There
we would see children with huge, bloated bellies. We saw this in the streets of
India too. Bloated bellies are one of the sure signs of malnourishment. The
bellies look full, but they are swollen because of the lack of good nutrition and
being filled with foods that just leave them starving. Often, it’s also a sign of
parasites. Think about how this relates to what I saw under the Father’s table!
I saw people starving, with similar bloated bellies, fighting for just the leftover
crumbs. Those tummies were getting full with other substances that were not
of nutritional value but just a temporary fix for their hunger pains.
As I read deeper into Scripture about the priestly roles and duties, I
became intrigued. In the Word, it says that the priest would have a lottery to
see who would get to enter into the very temple of the Lord and make an
offering of incense (see Luke 1:9). Of all the priestly duties, that’s where I’d
want to be! I’d want to be the one chosen who gets to enter into His very
presence. Oh, what that would be like! Can you just imagine? It would be like
winning the ultimate and only lottery worth winning!
Matthew 27:51 shows us that the veil was torn. That very presence, which
only one chosen priest a year could experience, was let loose that day when
Jesus took back the keys of hell from the enemy. Often, it’s easy to look past
the power behind Jesus’ resurrection from the cross. It’s our very hope!
We are living now under a new covenant. Jesus made a way for us to enter
in. What a contrast between the Old Testament picture—only one priest being
able to experience His presence—and the disciples getting to take communion
with the living God. Even more so is the vision I had where Jesus Himself
invited me to sit with Him at His table and experience His pleasure over me.
“But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head
high” (Ps. 3:3 NIV).

Activation
Let’s go back to the Father’s table. Can you see yourself sitting there?
Right now, pray and ask Holy Spirit to come. Try to quiet down your mind.
Remove anything that might distract you from the room. I recommend going to
the Father’s table in a room where you can shut the door and shut out outside
noises. Play worship music gently in the background if this helps you enter into
His presence. Meditate on the scripture, “You prepare a table before me in the
presence of my enemies” (Ps. 23:5 NIV). Now try and see a picture of what
being at that table would look like. Are you there?

Holy Spirit, I pray and I ask You to come fill this reader’s room right
now. Lord, lead them up to Your table. I speak and pray against
any warfare that may come to distract or discourage them from
being able to receive visions from You. Thank You, Father, that
visions of heaven are for all of us. I pray that You would enter into
this time, Lord, and put an angelic wall of defense up around
anything else entering into this vision or time that is not from You.
Thank You, Abba. Amen
If you haven’t been able to see a clear vision of the Father’s table yet,
don’t get discouraged. Receiving visions from the Lord is truly a gift, and
sometimes it takes time and practice. Whether or not you can see yourself at
the Father’s table, where do you picture yourself? Are you under the table or
sitting at it?

The Lord has given you authority to

cast out demonic oppression.
 Under the Table: Activation
First off, if you find yourself underneath the Father’s table and find yourself
relating to the vision God gave me of the mal-nourished and starving church of
today, don’t feel ashamed. God desperately wants to bring you up to a new
level.
If you find yourself relating to the words I wrote earlier—always feeling
like you come up short when you compare yourself to other people—I have a
specific prayer for you. This self-belittling inferiority complex has to stop now!
This literally is the enemy trying to rob you of your own destiny and royal
identity that the Lord has given you. The Lord takes serious offense to His
bride thinking less of herself and moving in jealousy toward others. Breaking
this comparison cycle starts first with self-acceptance. If, as you’re reading
this, the word self-acceptance resonates with you at all, even if you don’t
understand why yet, and you are realizing that you need a deeper level of it
(as I think we all do at times), go ahead and read the following prayer out loud
if you can.

Lord. Here I am, God. Father, I need more of You. I need to know
Your love for me deeper so that I may love myself better. I’m
sorry, Lord, for sometimes comparing myself to other people or
thinking less of myself than the way you see me. Father, today I
just choose to say—I love myself. I love the way You made me. I
love and cherish everything about the way I am. I am like no one
else, and that makes me special. Today I just choose to embrace
the way I am. Forgive me, Lord, for falling into the sin of
comparison. Please come and wash me clean of this pattern. I also
renounce any area of self-rejection. I renounce any bit of self-
hatred I’ve felt. I also renounce being too critical of myself
sometimes. Lord, please show me if there are any roots to these
issues. (Pause here and wait on Holy Spirit to reveal anything to
you if there are roots.) God, reveal Your truth and light in each of
these situations. Help me rip out any of these roots. Today I
choose to walk in light, in love for myself, and in freedom from
comparison. Amen.
As I am writing this, I have a picture that I think is from the Lord for some
of the readers. I see a vision of a little bird with its wings tied down. Years of
being restrained have made you discredit yourself and your own abilities. This
is causing you to think that you don’t belong at the Father’s table. That is such
a lie!
I also hear that someone reading this has experienced years of having
their voice oppressed. If that’s you, place your hand over your throat. The Lord
has given you authority to cast out demonic oppression. “I have given you
authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of
the enemy” (Luke 10:19 NIV). Say:

I rebuke the enemy’s hand; it cannot be on me any longer in the

name of Jesus. I call out my own voice now and say it’s time to be
heard. The Lord has given me a sound mind, a strong voice, and a
powerful testimony that needs to be heard! I renounced any lies I
have come to believe about being powerless. God, show me if
there are any other lies I need to renounce now. (Pause here and
ask Holy Spirit to reveal anything.) Thank You, Father. Amen.
Guilt is also a strong way the oppressor can keep us from fully receiving
the goodness of God. Repentance is a wonderful thing, and it is also biblical.
“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over
one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not
need to repent” (Luke 15:7 NIV). To repent means to admit your wrongs, ask
for forgiveness, and then to literally turn away from the sin and not keep
looking back at it with guilt or shame. You are not the judge! Someone reading
this needs to say “Amen!” after reading that! I’m serious! You are not the
judge. Right now, if you find yourself struggling with self-condemnation or
realizing that you tend to be critical of others, renounce a critical spirit.

Thank You, Father, that You are my Judge. Father, one day we will
each have to stand before You in all Your holiness, perfection, and
pureness, and You will judge us each individually. Thank You that
You give me grace, Lord. Father, thank You that Jesus has paid the
price for me. Forgive me, Father, for ____________ Today, I
choose to receive Your forgiveness and choose to forgive myself.
Now I’m going to walk in freedom from this sin and the power it’s
had in my life. Your Word says that Your blood has cleansed me
from my sins. I receive Your forgiveness and what you did for me
on the cross (see Heb. 10:22). I choose to stand in this today.
Amen.
 Finally, I hear that someone reading this right now has been overlooked in
ministry. You’ve humbly served for years in a position that does not draw
attention to yourself, nor do you receive promotion from others for it. Perhaps
it’s being an intercessor in a prayer closet or somewhere hidden from the
people’s attention. Health issues or family issues may have kept you there. I
have great news for you! Jesus wasn’t released into His ministry until He was
thirty; He had a ministry that lasted for only three years but radically changed
the world forever! Don’t discredit yourself because you haven’t been released
yet into the ministry that you know is coming. Come on! Hang on to His
promises! You, who have spent so much time hanging out with the Beloved,
must know that your position is to sit at the table and dine with the King.
I met this little 80-year-old lady once at Bethel Church. For years she sat in
the place of intercession for countless people in her house. She truly was an
Anna (see Luke 2:36-38). As I met her, the Lord shared with me, “This little
lady has done more for Me in her rocker than you have done in your short time
in ministry. Don’t discredit her, because she is one of My precious gems.”
Don’t ever limit, discredit, or think less of yourself, for these are the plans of
the enemy.

Sitting at Our Rightful Place

Are we there now? Can you imagine yourself sitting at the Father’s table?
Now if you can envision Jesus sitting there, what do you see in His eyes when
He looks at you? If you see anything that counters love, acceptance,
gentleness, goodness, warmth—such as condemnation, anger, sadness,
disappointment—please ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you why you are seeing or
feeling this.
Sometimes, the revelation of sin in our lives might cause us to see the
Father’s eyes looking at us this way. At this point, before reading further you
might need to take some time to do some heart examination and repent and
come clean before the Father.
Also, there may be a separation in your relationship with the Father. Our
own broken relationships with our earthly fathers can do this, or perhaps a
broken relationship with a person who held authority in your life. Our own
undealt-with pain can sometimes lead us to project it into our relationship
with the Lord. Before you go digging into a journey of inner healing, ask the
Holy Spirit to reveal to you what still needs to come to the surface and be
healed. There’s no need to keep going over and over the same things that you
have already received breakthrough on. I pray that, as the Lord reveals areas
to you that need His healing touch, you can stay in a place of feeling the
goodness and pleasure of the Father for you.

Heavenly Room: Goodness and Pleasure

One day, I experienced walking through a part of heaven with Jesus. I am
in no way claiming to be an expert on heaven, nor am I claiming to have seen
it all. Being allowed to see portions of it, though, have made me definitely
curious and craving to see more!
In a vision, the Lord approached me one day. “Come with Me. I want to
show you something new.” Just as simply as that, suddenly I found myself
walking down a long hallway with Jesus. There were many different rooms I
saw. Angels also bustled about joyfully, worshiping as they went about their
tasks.
We came to a closed door, and immediately my heart started to pound and
I felt my face get really hot. I was hit with fear and anticipation. What is
behind that door? I thought. Jesus opened the door for me, but didn’t enter in
behind me. The realization that I had to face whatever was behind that door
alone made me feel even more nervous.

“You are more comfortable sitting in a glory

cloud and experiencing the power and might
of My character than you are with being
here and experiencing the depth of My love
and joy I feel over you. It’s time for your
old, rejected self to be washed anew.”

Suddenly, I was blinded by such bright light. It’s all I could really make out.
My skin felt warmth on it too. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I was able to
glance around the room, and something caught my attention. Besides the door
where I had entered, the room seemed endless and without boundaries. I
could see nothing that defined the edges of the room. I was intrigued by
something else I saw, though. It looked like a flowing river mixed with vapor. It
radiated colors that were like no colors I have ever seen on earth. Whatever it
was, it was alive and moving and coming quickly toward me. I anticipated
what would happen if it touched me. Suddenly, the river/vapor, turned sharply
and passed right through me. As it passed through me, I felt the most amazing
rush. I felt warmth, joy, peace, and a tangible love.
Then He spoke. I couldn’t see Him, but His voice was unmistakable.
“That’s Holy Spirit. This is the room of my goodness and pleasure! It’s here I’ve
brought you to be filled in My love and feel the pride I feel for you. Don’t you
know how proud I am of you? Ana, you are more comfortable sitting in a glory
cloud and experiencing the power and might of My character than you are with
being here and experiencing the depth of My love and joy I feel over you. It’s
time for your old, rejected self to be washed anew.”
I felt wave after wave of His love and pleasure wash over me. It was so
strong; I couldn’t do anything to resist it but just submit to its current. The
current of God—ah, it’s so wonderful! Finally, after what seemed like hours of
being here, Jesus suddenly appeared beside me. “It’s time to go now,” He said
and smiled back at me.
“Can I…” but I couldn’t seem to get the words out. The question seemed
stupid to ask at the moment.
“Yes, of course you can come back here!” He lovingly laughed and
responded to me. “As often as you like!” And suddenly the vision was over. I
was sitting back in my bedroom. Nothing had changed or been moved—except
for me, of course! The Lord has graciously allowed me to go back to this room
many times, whenever I need a refreshing touch. k‘12
Maintaining that refreshed feeling after leaving that room is the challenge.
We live in such a broken world with broken people and also so many things to
distract us from what we truly seek and need—the Father’s love. This is what I
mean by “try to stay in that place of feeling the goodness and pleasure of the
Father for you.” The enemy’s number-one strategy is to steal our security in
the love of the Father.
 Activation: At the Father’s Table
If you are able to see yourself now sitting at the table with the Father, can
you feel the Lord’s love, warmth, happiness, and delight over you? What can
you see on the table? Between the Lord and me, pomegranates became my
special food. At random times during meetings or during times of speaking, I
would see in the spiritual realm pomegranates in the room. It was like a
sweet, secret way for the Father to remind me of my royalty in Him.

The enemy’s number-one strategy is to steal

our security in the love of the Father.

What is the food you see? For different seasons, the Lord has also brought
me to the table to eat different foods that always had a lesson tied with them
for me at the time. I’ve spoken with other friends of mine who have shared
with me that they too have had the similar experience of going to the Father’s
table and being offered different, special kinds of food. If God presents you a
food that you’ve never seen before, research it. See if you can find out where it
may grow, the germination pattern of it, and what it may be used for. Often,
though, the food I’ve seen is unearthly, and then I just have to ask the Lord to
give me revelation about what He is trying to teach me through it.
As you grow more accustomed to eating from the Father’s table, you can
try looking around the room as you are with Him and see what else there is!
You might be able to ask Him questions about other things He may reveal to
you. God wants to raise up His bride who is confident in her position at His
table!

Discussion Questions
1. Where do you see yourself seated at the Father’s table? Are you
sitting at it or under it?

2. What area of your life has the enemy recently been trying to steal
your identity in?
3. Do you have a hard time receiving love, joy, or acceptance? Why do
you think that is?
 Chapter 6

Open and Closed Visions

People ask me all the time what it is like to see angels. Often people will
come up to me who know I am a seer and put me on the spot, saying, “What
do you see right now?” Sometimes in those moments I will have a picture for
them or see something in the spiritual realm, but often for me it doesn’t work
like that. It would be like the equivalent of someone coming up to you in the
grocery store line, saying, “What do you hear from God right now?” Granted,
we should be a people who can prophesy on the spot like that, but I do believe
it takes being in a certain mind-set or focusing in with the Lord to hear from
Him or see with Him. That’s the ultimate goal for every believer, though—to be
so in tune with the Lord that we are constantly hearing and in touch with what
is on His mind no matter where we are.
Also, quite often seers will see something, but they aren’t released to
share it now. Some visions are for the future or maybe even just keys for
helping us minister, not meant for public knowledge. There are those
moments, though, when I’ll be doing something and at random catch a glimpse
of something in the Spirit on someone and feel released to share.
One day, I was outside of the International House of Prayer just finishing
up a conversation with my mom on the phone. My friend Sean came out of the
prayer room just then, and randomly I saw in an open vision (just like I could
see the next person in front of me) a monkey sitting on his shoulder, picking
furiously at his hair. “Hold on one second, Mom,” I said. “Hey Sean! You’ve got
a monkey sitting on your shoulder, and I get the impression he’s here to pester
you. He’s not a good monkey. Are you by any chance experiencing any sort of
backlash right now?”
“In fact, I am!” he said. “I just got back from a ministry trip that was real
rough, and I’ve been sick ever since I got back with a head cold.” So I prayed
for him then.
I would describe this vision as an open vision with God. Open visions are
seeing something in the spiritual realm with your eyes open. It is just as if you
can see that person sitting right across the room from you. Plain as day, I’ll
see an angel walk in the room. Sometimes open visions also will seem like a
movie screen where a whole scene is just flashed on display right there in the
middle of wherever you are.
Other visions can be closed visions, or seeing in your mind’s eye. This may
be like an impression or picture you get from the Lord while praying for
someone. In a time of prayer or meditating on the Lord, He’ll give you a picture
that you can see with your eyes closed. Sometimes, I think it is easier to start
walking in the seer anointing by asking the Lord for closed visions. That way
you can close your eyes, shut off all other distractions, and focus on Him.
One time, I was ministering to a lady at Bethel Church in Redding,
California. She had come to the healing conference that weekend, and I was
on a team doing healing ministry. Now this is a very rare account, but it is a
very good example of a closed vision. Our team prayed and prayed for her
healing, and in all honesty we weren’t getting any breakthrough. I decided to
lay hands on her and ask the Lord why she wasn’t getting freedom. Instantly,
with my eyes closed I saw a picture of the woman, except I saw her as a young
child. I saw a picture of a child cowering in a corner as an angry man
approached her. I didn’t see the exact interaction of the abuse, but it was
enough to greatly disturb me.
Now this was one of those instances when I had to really ask the Lord, Am
I free to talk to her about this, Lord? I was treading on dangerous waters. If the
lady wasn’t ready to face this, I surely didn’t want to stir up the past and bring
her more pain. So I waited. I waited on the Lord, and finally I heard Him say,
“Just ask.” So I asked her if there had ever been an instance of abuse in her
childhood from an older man, and I apologized ahead of time just in case I was
hearing this wrong from the Lord. Instantly, tears and sobbing started to erupt
from the lady. She told us her story, and our team was able to minister inner
healing to the lady. After we got done walking her through some grieving,
forgiveness, and asking the Lord to replace some of the pain with new truths,
the lady’s physical affliction lifted. Just like that she was physically healed!
Often, I’ve found that inner healing releases breakthrough for the physical
problems we are experiencing.
God also speaks to us through our dream life. It’s very similar to a closed
vision, but we are in a dream like state. I have had countless times when I’ve
woken up from a dream thinking, Man, what was that about? I write down all
my dreams, though, so I can revisit them later. Truthfully, not all dreams are
from God, but in reality some are!

It takes hunger, appetite for Him, and curiosity

for the seer realm to be released!

Once, I had a strong recurring dream. (If you start having a recurring dream
or theme to your dreams—pay attention to it! God may be trying really hard to
get your attention.) I had a dream that I was on a train ride. Suddenly, the train
veered off the normal track and started speeding up at a dangerous rate.
People in the train started panicking and screaming like crazy. In that moment,
I had the fearful feeling of desperately needing to get off this train. Then,
suddenly the train slowed down enough to where I could jump off onto a
platform it passed along the way. A group of us jumped off to safety, and then
the train started speeding up and took off again at a chaotic pace. The group
of us climbed up a grassy hill to a park we found to sit down. We sat in the
most gorgeous park; it had lush, green, rolling hills. There we ate and rested a
bit from our crazy adventure. The girl sitting next to me who had crazy hair—
who I now know represented Holy Spirit—then said to me, “OK. I think it’s time
for us to go now. That’s where you’ll find your ministry next.” She pointed
across the distance to a city far away where I could see lights from a night
skyline. The place she was pointing to was clearly in a different time zone. We
climbed the hill and left.
When I woke up from that dream, at the time I had no idea what God
meant by it. It started to recur over the course of six months, so I knew it was
important for me to understand. Later on, we were in India ministering to
street children at a place where there were lots of trains. We were in a totally
chaotic environment, and this dream helped us agree with God to go to Nepal
and jump off that train. A ministry opportunity opened for us, so blindly but
trusting in the Lord, we went to Nepal. When we drove up to our living
quarters, to our shock we were overlooking the most gorgeous rolling hills of
lush, green rice fields. Just like the grass hill in my dream, they literally
surrounded our house! We stayed in Nepal for four and a half months until
God eventually led us back to Kansas City, Missouri—the city from the dream
—to be back working with the International House of Prayer and our church.
We should all desire to see more visions or have dreams from the Lord. I
believe hunger is what truly creates response from heaven. In Daniel 7, Daniel
is given an incredible vision and dream of things yet to come. What interests
me about this chapter is how many times Daniel says “then I kept looking.” It’s
like the Lord would reveal one part of the vision to him, but his curiosity and
initiative is what unlocked the next part of the vision. Wouldn’t it be truly
amazing if everyone was walking around seeing visions from the Lord? It takes
hunger, appetite for Him, and curiosity for the seer realm to be released!

Activation
I want to lead you into a closed vision with the Lord. To prepare for this,
you might want to go somewhere quiet where there will be no interruptions.
First, how to do you relate to God? Do you relate to—and by relate I mean
talk to—God the Father, Jesus, or Holy Spirit? Which form does God speak to
you the most in this season of your life? Right now, for me it’s Holy Spirit.
Before we begin, I want to pray.

Lord, I just pray right now that Your presence would show up.
Thank You that You are already here and resting on the person
reading this. I pray that all distractions would be silenced right
now in the blood of the Lamb. I just pray that You, Lord, would
open our eyes to see and hear from You today. I bind the enemy
from trying to come into this time or room and bring confusion.
Thank You, Abba. Amen.

Now, I want you to invite whoever you relate to the most right now into
this vision. The Lord’s going to show you a place first. What is in that place?
What do you see? This might be a time to stop and take note of what you see.
For me, I see right now a waterfall and a bird. Now take a moment to engage
all your senses. Do you smell anything in this place? Can you taste anything in
the air? What is the temperature like in this place? Try and engage your body
as well. How do your feet feel? Are they resting in soft sand, or are they
standing on hard ground? What about your arms? Do you feel water droplets
on your arms or the warmth of the sun on them?
Now where is God in this vision? You might be surprised. He might
approach you as Jesus or show up as a gentle dove. You might see the Lion of
Judah approach you or see His presence in a whirlwind. What does He want to
say to you or share with you? Now, does this seem contrary to Scriptures or
seem to line up with His very nature? If you are the slightest bit unsure, take
the time to stop here and pray, rebuking the enemy. Sometimes, the enemy
will try and show up as a counterfeit in visions, and he needs to be rebuked.
Now, go back to where you are in His presence.
Stay here until you feel like the vision is complete. Now ask the Lord to
bring you back here next time and maybe show you more.

Thank You, Lord, for the way You gently guide us. Even though this
might seem like new territory to some of us, I pray that You would
show us more. God, I pray for the reader to experience open
visions regularly. I pray that they would catch glimpses of Your
presence showing up throughout their day. Open up our dream life
to receive from You even in the night. Thank You, Lord, for what
You showed and spoke to us today. I pray and seal everything up
now in the blood of the Lamb. Amen.
 Chapter 7

Choosing Faith or Fear

Some of us are just born with incredible faith to see the impossible. Most of
us, though, are not naturally born with that level of faith. We long to be! We
look at others’ lives jealously; they seem to have incredible journeys because
of the level of risk they take with God over and over again.
Maybe as children we have faith that unwaveringly will believe the
unbelievable. I myself believed in Santa Claus until sixth grade, and also in my
leprechaun friend who mysteriously had similar handwriting to my parents! As
we grow up, though, our faith tends to dwindle off.
We may look at great heroes of the faith like Billy Graham, Kathryn
Kuhlman, George Mueller, or Heidi Baker and think, Wow! Why wasn’t I given
that measure of faith? God must have made a mistake when He created my
weak, doubting little self! Granted, those people are truly heroes of the faith,
but what we don’t always see is the great amount of sacrifice they have made
to attain that faith level.
Faith is developed out of great and extreme difficult situations. A trauma
hits and boom—your faith level will hit you in the face right there. That is
when we are all faced with the reality of what we truly believe, what we’re
going to listen to, and what we’ll stand on.
One of my favorite faith stories in the Bible is the one about Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego found in Daniel 3. How many of us can relate to
being thrown into the fire at one point in our lives? Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego are essentially set up for a cruel ending. They refuse to bow down
to a golden image, and King Nebuchadnezzar becomes enraged with them. He
gives them one last chance to bow down to his image, or he threatens to
throw them into a fiery furnace and cook them alive. Their response is
amazing!

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the

furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O
king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that
we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image
that you have set up (Daniel 3:17 NASB).
Even if God does not come through for them, they will still not waiver in
their faith. This is a hard question I think many of us face. We want to believe
that God is the God of the impossible, but then we all have those moments
when we end up asking, But God, where were You then? Will we still choose to
serve and believe in His faithfulness even when life doesn’t work out
according to how we planned?

Do we choose faith or fear in that moment?

In 2010 when we were in Mozambique with the Bakers, toward the end of
our time there tragedy hit. I’ll never forget that day. It was pouring rain, and
my phone, which hardly ever worked, surprisingly rang, so I answered it. It was
my aunt calling from the States—it was a miracle that she could even reach
us. She broke the news to us. My father, a doctor who ran every day and was
in perfect health, was in the emergency room of the hospital with blood clots
found throughout his body. He apparently had a hidden gene unknown to us
that caused him to be susceptible to blood clots. His leg was completely
swollen with blood clots and artery damage, and his lungs also had clots in
them. Things did not look so good.
So there we were. Do we choose faith or fear in that moment? Or a little
bit of both! I remember having that horrible prayer, “Even if You take him, God,
I will still love You.” I found faith that I didn’t even know I had. I remember
days of hard conversations with family members back home as things got
worse and worse, and I just had to keep declaring, “He will live!” Meanwhile,
we were trying to find flights to get back home as quickly as possible.
 We miraculously made it back home, and by that time my father was out of
the hospital and at home with my mother and nurses caring for him. I have
never seen my father that afraid in my life. The one person I knew to always
be the steady rock in our family suddenly was a person awake at four in the
morning, eyes bug-eyed with fear, talking like he’d had six shots of espresso.
Fear gripped him. So Sam and I began to pray for his healing. We would share
stories of miracles that we had been a part of in Africa to increase faith in the
house. I walked through some hard doctor’s appointments with my dad, when
more fear was spoken into the situation.
A long story shortened—my dad did live! A combination of natural blood
thinners (not the blood thinners the doctors wanted my dad to take) and prayer
healed his body. He’s now happily able to work out again and exercise with no
problems. Blood clots are something he will probably always have to watch
out for, but other than that his life is back to how it was before they
discovered the gene.
That was years ago, but the story does swing back around. When I was six
months pregnant, I had the thought, Why not check for the gene? Maybe I
carry it too. I highly doubted it. Surely with all the flying I’d done to all these
foreign countries and being in my 30s, doctors would have caught it by now
and warned me if I had it. I was wrong! I remember the flood of emotion
hitting me full on in the face as the doctor told me that test results came back
positive, and that I am a carrier of the gene. Images flashed through my mind
of my dad’s leg swollen. Conversations I had had with my dad’s doctors
instantly came back to my mind, of him facing possibly the worst-case
scenario of never having a fully functioning leg again.
And there we were again! Faith or fear? I had to meet with specialists who
all encouraged me to start blood thinners instantly and continue them through
my entire pregnancy. No matter how much I prayed, no matter how much
research and outside input I received, I did not feel peace about going ahead
with the injections. I am not encouraging people to go against the doctor’s
wisdom. I am encouraging people to do what they feel peace on and what they
feel God has confirmed for them to do. In our case, it was to not take the
injections. We also had already lost one child in a miscarriage, so suddenly I
was considered a very high-risk case. However, there was an experience I had
with the Lord, back before my dad’s health issues, that had built my faith
muscles and prepared me for these moments.
 Fear or faith? Which one will you build
your life on? You will have to make
this choice over and over again.

Grand Canyon
Anyone who visits the Grand Canyon and takes in its beauty gains
incredible respect for life. Standing on the cliff’s edge there, time suddenly
feels endless. The air seems still, and the quiet swallows you. Personally, I
don’t know how anyone can experience it without leaving wondering if there is
a God. Its extraordinary sights are breathless. It is here, at the Grand Canyon,
that I have had many encounters with God and angels.
Back when I first started having visions, I had never been to the Grand
Canyon before. I remember being in a prayer meeting, and with my eyes
closed suddenly I would be on the edge of the cliffs of the Grand Canyon.
There Jesus would approach me Himself. The first time He took me there,
that’s all I saw. I just saw Jesus Himself smile at me, and I was undone. Just
seeing that smile, my heart felt tickled with the joy and love of the Father.
One of my favorite visions at the Grand Canyon happened before I got
married. I was back at the Grand Canyon, and I could see Jesus ahead of me
standing at the edge of a cliff. I approached Him timidly because I had a sense
that He was about to teach me a lesson that would be challenging. “Ana, what
do you see?” He asked me as I approached Him.
“Well, Lord, I see the beautiful canyon and rock patterns created by the
river that used to once be here. I see people down below trying to hike. I see a
small cave across the way that looks like a tiny dot. It’s beautiful up here!”
“Look closer,” He said. “Quiet your mind first. What else do you see?”
I strained my eyes to try and see what He was focusing on. I couldn’t see
anything. So I closed my eyes and inwardly asked Holy Spirit to help me. Then I
felt it. It wasn’t something I could see at first but just sense. Just as when you
can stand in a crowded area and then suddenly feel like someone is staring at
you and you turn around and catch that person’s eye, I felt something
approaching me. Glancing down, I saw it. Way off in the distance, a small dot
approached. As it got closer, I saw that it was a huge eagle—not a regular
eagle that you would see out in the wild, but an eagle whose body from head
to tail was at least eight feet long. Fear instantly pulsed through my body. I
wasn’t sure if I wanted to get too close to this huge creature, but it just kept
coming closer and closer. Finally, it was soaring back and forth just under the
cliff. Jesus looked at me as if to answer my question of, What am I supposed
to do here? “Jump off the ledge and onto that eagle,” He told me.
Panic overwhelmed me. What? No way! You know that I have a major fear
of heights. Just me standing here on the cliff’s edge with You is a miracle in
itself, I thought.
As if He could read my thoughts, He turned to me and smiled. “Ana. It’s
now that you have to choose. Fear or faith? Which one will you build your life
on? You will have to make this choice over and over again, but I promise you,
you can always trust Me. You may not understand them, but My ways are
always best. Do you really trust me? Or do you trust yourself more? In your
lifetime here on earth, I will call you to do things sometimes that you’re not
comfortable with or feel unprepared to do. In those moments, will you trust
Me? Will you choose faith instead of fear? Today, you make your decision.”
And with that, He was gone. I was left standing on the edge of this
enormous cliff. Looking downward, my head started to buzz, and my heart felt
like it was going to pound out of my chest. “But, God! It’s so far! Couldn’t we
start this faith thing with like a five-foot drop instead of the Grand Canyon?” I
cried out loud.
Then, His words rang in my head. “I will call you to do things sometimes
that you’re not always comfortable with.”
The eagle just kept soaring underneath the ledge—back and forth, back
and forth. It was like he was waiting for me. Back and forth he went, as I just
kept looking on in terror. Images of my life just kept flashing through my head
—people I had had my last conversations with. I truly thought that maybe this
would be my end. Back and forth. Back and forth.
“OK, God. Here’s the deal. I’m not some big shot faith healer! I’m just
little, small Ana! Why would You want me to do this?” I yelled into the thin air.
Back and forth. Back and forth the eagle soared.
Then a phrase popped into my head. “I am for you, not against you. I will
be with you!”
Well, that’s true, I thought. I suppose it is better to do crazy things with God
than be totally void of Him. I guess if I die, I get to see Him anyway! I wasn’t
displaying the hugest amount of faith in this moment that I would be just fine.
So with that, I closed my eyes, yelled “I choose faith!” and jumped. Then, I
fell! I fell and fell for what seemed like forever but was probably only a few
seconds. Terror pulsed through my body, as all I could see was the whirling
ground below. Then suddenly, I landed on something really hard. “Ouch!”
To my surprise, I was on the back of that giant eagle. Big and brown, from
my viewpoint his body also resembled a giant cross. I was wrong about his
size! What looked like eight feet in stature was actually more like twenty once
I was actually riding on him. I gripped his feathers, holding on for dear life! We
soared so quickly that I felt like my cheeks were being pushed into the back of
my throat. Then the eagle did something surprising. It turned its head to look
back at me and seemed to smile.
Did that eagle just smile at me? I wondered.
Then I heard His voice. “I told you I would be with you!” It was then that I
realized I was riding on Holy Spirit.
Just like that, I was back in the prayer meeting. My body was covered with
sweat. My clothes were soaked from the adrenaline. I looked at the time and
at least an hour had passed.
One of my favorite biblical examples of someone who moved in incredible
signs and wonders and had enormous faith in God is Moses. You know why I
love him? He didn’t start out with incredible faith. It’s like we can follow his
maturing in faith in Exodus. See, God had a mark on his life for great things
even before he believed in himself. That encourages me immensely! We all
know the story of Moses starting out as a Hebrew, hidden from Pharaoh’s
slaughter by floating down a river as a baby and being rescued by Pharaoh’s
own daughter, then growing up in the palace as Pharaoh’s son. Follow the
story in Exodus and eventually Moses meets his destiny with God. The
presence of God shows up in the desert in a mighty way that rocks Moses’
sandals off, and God asks him to do something that seems totally impossible
to Moses. “I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the
sons of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exod. 3:10 NASB).
 Now here’s the part of the story I love. Moses’ response! “Who am I, that I
should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
(Exod. 3:11 NASB). Moses, who is known as one of the great heroes of faith,
starts off a little shaky. I am so encouraged by this! Then God’s response is
just perfect, of course. He says, “Certainly I will be with you” (Exod. 3:12
NASB). My paraphrase: “Get your eyes off of yourself and set them on Me! I
am the Living God who is capable of the impossible!”
I can’t tell you how many times I am reminded of this by the Lord. Just
when I allow fear to creep in the back door, God will take me back to that
encounter with the eagle I had in the Grand Canyon, His voice ringing through
my head, “Will you choose faith or fear?” Then He will lovingly nudge me by
reminding me of Moses. If we only look toward ourselves and our own strength
to accomplish something great, I think the majority of us would stop at that—
just looking and never accomplishing anything at all. Our focus has to be
cleared of our inward capabilities, fixated on Him. I think great heroes of the
faith aren’t automatically born with it.

“Get your eyes off of yourself and set

them on Me! I am the Living God who
is capable of the impossible!”

I think it takes a daily choice of deciding to trust in Him. It’s funny how
although I chose to jump off that cliff in the Grand Canyon, Holy Spirit didn’t
catch me right away. He could have, but He didn’t. Now every time I am faced
with a hard decision where I have to choose to trust God beyond what I’m
comfortable with, and maybe things don’t work out right away how I would
have wanted, I still have to choose to trust in Him. He will catch me!
I heard a message once preached by Bob Jones that I love to quote. He
said something like, “There is something greater than faith, and that is trust.
There is something greater than trust, and that is rest. It’s not just about going
across Niagara Falls in a wheelbarrow eating peanuts. It’s about taking a nap
while in that wheelbarrow!”

Activation Prayer
God, right now I pray for more faith. I confess my own lack of faith
 sometimes—a lot of times! Especially when things are hard. God, I trust you
with my health, with my finances, with my future, with my dreams, with my
family and friends, and with my safety. I choose faith today and command
fear to leave. I will not partner with fear any longer but partner with the
Living God who is capable of the impossible. You have great things for me!
You have not left me, and never will! You see great potential in me. Along
with choosing faith, I let go of fear, which has become my safety net.
Choosing fear seems safer at times, but the safest place I can be is in Your
arms, in Your will for my life. I break my agreement right now with fear in
the name of Jesus. I will do as the worship song says and “climb this
mountain with my hands wide open. I lean not on my own understanding.
My life is in the hands of the Maker of heaven.” Amen.

What’s God asking you to do right now? Something He’s asking will
demand faith. Holy Spirit, come. Take a moment here and pause and ask the
Lord to show you a picture or speak to you.

Thank You, Father. Now God, I pray that You would show us what
might be standing in the way of us accomplishing this. (Take a
moment and pause here and ask Holy Spirit to show you if there is
anything hindering or blocking you to stand in faith with this.) God,
give us wisdom if there is anything You are asking us to do to
remove this hindrance.

I pray for an increase and impartation of faith to fall right now.

Thank You, God, for the great things You are going to accomplish
with our lives! Amen.

Discussion Questions
1. What’s your cliff that will take a leap of faith?

2. What image comes to mind when you think of Holy Spirit?

 Chapter 8

Three Other Rooms in Heaven

I’m no expert on heaven. I’ve heard and read the testimonies from different
people who have all claimed to have been there, and they all sound amazing.
All I can do is just write and share from a firsthand perspective the different
rooms the Lord has taken me to in heaven.

Mailer Room
It’s one of the busiest places to visit! It’s one of the craziest rooms and
also the most intriguing places I’ve ever been to. I call this room “the giant
mailer room.”
I think previously, before I had ever experienced heaven, I would have
thought that all the rooms in heaven are super peaceful. You know, like with
fat angel babies floating on clouds, strumming their instruments. Although I’m
sure there are some fat babies in heaven, now I know that my expectation of
what heaven would be like was so far from how glorious and magnificent it
really is.
One day, I had been praying and asking the Lord to show me new places in
heaven, and He took me to a new room. We walked first, hand in hand down a
large hallway—that glorious hallway I’ve learned to love. The place felt warm.
Not just a warm temperature measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit, but an
internal warmth and joy filled me. Like a kid waiting at the top of the stairs
Christmas morning in anticipation for everyone to wake up as he sees all the
presents waiting for him under the tree—that’s how I felt as I walked hand in
hand with my Savior down this hallway.
There were many huge doors I saw, and I’m sure there are many more that
I didn’t see—the hallway seemed to have no end. Then we came to a door and
Jesus stopped me in front of it. In all my times traveling with the Lord in
heaven and going to different rooms with Him, He always does the same
thing. He will show me a door that leads to a room in which He wants to teach
me something, but He will always stop and give me the choice to open the
door. There have been times when I just dive right in and it seems I cannot get
the door open quick enough; then there are other times when I feel a
hesitation—like maybe what’s behind that door might be hard for me to face
or require something of me that will cause my faith to be stretched!
This time, though, I opened the door with excitement and eagerness to see
what was inside. To my surprise, I was suddenly caught up in a whoosh of Holy
Spirit activity. We entered the room and entered what looked like chaos, but it
was beautiful, organized chaos! Angels bustled back and forth, to and fro,
going to shelves and carrying different parcels in their arms. The parcels were
of all different sizes and colors. The angels would go to the giant shelves and
search for a specific package. Once they found it, they would then drop down
to the earth below with the package in arm like they were on a mission. I could
see them drop down because the room had no floor, nor could I see the
ceiling.
Never give up partnering with Me and asking!
I just stood mesmerized, watching the angels busily work. “What are they
doing?” I asked the Lord.
“Well, they are taking answers to the prayers of saints down below. Each
one is specifically assigned for the delivery of these special packages.”
Then I looked around more. I noticed something peculiar. There were some
angels frantically moving quickly to deliver, but there were others who were
just standing by the shelf not moving.
“Why are those ones not delivering the packages?” I asked the Lord.
“They are waiting,” He smiled back at me.
 I looked back at Him puzzled. I clearly did not understand what was going
on here.
“They are waiting for my saints down below to pray and ask for what it is
they need. For you see, these are the answer to their prayers, yet some are
afraid to ask. Ask, and it will be given to you; knock, and it will be opened (see
Matt. 7:7). Some of these packages are timely too. The angels are waiting for
my permission to carry out their mission. My timing is always good and always
perfect, for I am the Author and Creator of the universe. But Ana, you must
always ask. Never give up partnering with Me and asking! I want you to look
up and forever remember this sight.”
I looked up. As far as my eyes could see, these shelves reached up and up
into the heavens, and thousands and thousands of parcels were waiting and
lining the shelves. There the most beautiful angels just stood waiting, looking
toward Jesus for direction, never taking their eyes off Him.
Spending time with Jesus in this room has forever marked me. I used to
think, Do my prayers really matter to God? Does He really hear them? Now the
scripture has meaning: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”
(Phil. 4:6 NASB). I remember that mailer room and the shelves upon shelves of
answers just waiting to be released. Our God is a God who cares for His
children.

Worship Leader
Then another time, I was taken up in the Spirit to heaven. It was
prophesied over my life that I would be able to see up Jacob’s ladder and see
the angels of heaven (see Gen. 28:12). Some of my visions with God have been
like that. I will see a giant, fiery, golden ladder fall down from the sky or
ceiling, if I am inside a building at the time. On it I will see angels moving up
and down. There is always an invitation for me to go up the ladder if I want. I
use to be afraid of going up, but now I beg God for more ladder experiences.

The Lord was orchestrating the release of His

presence in response to the worship of His
 saints.

So this vision started with a stairway from heaven coming down. At the
time, I was in my room just listening to some worship music. I saw the ladder
and saw an angel motion for me to come up with him. So I went. Once I
reached what seemed like the top of the ladder, I found myself in that giant
hallway again. This time one of the doors was highlighted. It seemed to have a
glow coming from behind the door because I could see light streaming in the
hallway from the cracks around the door.
I opened the door with excitement. What I saw amazed me! There was a
room with no floor or ceiling. The room seemed to travel up forever. At first my
eyes had to adjust because the multi-colored lights streaming from the center
of that room were too much for my eyes to handle at first.
Then I saw Him. My eyes fixed on the center of the room, on the one I love.
Jesus was there with His back turned to me. I could see Him frantically but
beautifully waving his arms around. It looked really odd at first. Lord, what are
you doing? I thought. Then, as if God had heard my question, my spiritual ears
were opened to hear the sounds of the room.
It was glorious! I could hear the most beautiful worship and music that I
have ever heard in my lifetime. I could hear what seemed like millions and
millions of people singing. And there was my Lord, orchestrating with His arms
the beams of light.
What are you doing with the light? I raised a question again.
Just then He turned around and looked at me smiling. “Come and see!”
I was kind of hesitant then to approach Him because there was no floor to
the room, and I am used to gravity. I seriously thought that I was going to just
drop through the room and fall out of heaven! Then I heard the word “Trust” in
my head, so I decided to just run toward Him.
That is where I saw what the King was seeing. Looking down below our
feet, I could see the earth! It seemed so small compared to where we were.
“Look closer,” Jesus implored me.
So I did. I saw different parts of the earth being highlighted. Many different
parts were giving off a light at different times. As they would illuminate, the
Lord would wave His arms and I could then see the light beams of heaven
being released down from the room to those very locations. It was incredible!
The Lord was orchestrating the release of His presence in response to the
worship of His saints.

Strategy Room
There is one room that the Father has taken me to several times at
different periods of my life. Usually it is in a time of great transition or shift. I
call this the “strategy room.” It is a room like no other. Always when I
approach this door, I feel a little hesitancy in my spirit and anticipation for
what the Lord is going to show me.
One time I went here in a vision. Jesus was there waiting for me at the
entrance to a giant, oak-looking door. As my hand reached for the door knob, I
suddenly had the revelation that waiting on the other side of that door was a
lot of commotion.
I turned the knob and the door threw itself open. There I saw angels like I
had never seen before. Up until this point in my walk with seeing in the
spiritual realm, I had never seen angels that looked so large, scary, and
warrior-like. Jesus led me in and showed me around the room. I saw angels
dressed in all sorts of different armor. They all looked huge and fiercely
intimidating. There was one exceptionally large one I could see standing in the
center of the room. It looked as if he was chief commander, showing the other
angels where to go and what to do. That is, of course, until Jesus walked in the
room, and all the angels stopped to take commands from Him.
Jesus asked for something from the chief commanding angel of operations,
and that angel returned carrying a large rolled-up scroll. The paper looked
worn but yet had gold lacing the edges. Jesus then motioned for me to follow
Him.
Intimidated, I followed closely behind Him, trying to not make eye contact
with any of the warrior angels. There was a large, oak-looking table on one
side of the room. Jesus led me to it and then spread out the scroll. The scroll
unraveled and covered the entire table.
Intrigued, I first looked at Jesus, questioning in my head, Am I allowed to
look at this?
“It’s OK. Come take a look,” Jesus responded out loud.
I peered over the table and looked at the paper. At first I saw…nothing.
Literally, nothing! Then I remembered to pray. So I closed my eyes and in my
head said, Lord, please open my spiritual eyes.
When I opened my eyes, there before me I saw the paper come alive.
Images were moving and it took me a while to be able to decipher what they
were. Then one set of images really grabbed my attention. I saw a glimpse of
myself except I looked a little different than I currently looked. The next image
I saw was a picture of a man with me. Then following was a picture of the two
of us in Africa with Heidi and Rolland Baker. Following that picture was a
moving picture of a plane taking off. Following that was a picture of us holding
a child. Lastly after that, I saw a picture of another plane taking off.
That was it. The vision was over. At the time, I just wrote it all down and
said, “Um…thanks God.” Now I know why He showed all those images to me.
Years later I was struggling with wanting to go to Africa to work with the
Bakers, but I knew the timing just wasn’t right. It was then, in that moment,
that I remembered this specific vision I had from the strategy room. I
remembered that it wasn’t until I was married that I would be going to Africa. I
am 100 percent sure now, after having been to Africa, that this was wisdom
from the Lord. Now that my husband and I have a child, I’m wondering where
that next image of us going off in a plane will lead.
A few other times I’ve been allowed back to this room. I call this room the
“strategy room” because I am always taken to the large table where a scroll is
laid out, and I am shown heaven’s blueprints.

Conclusion
God’s such a complex personhood to understand. The Trinity is one of the
most complex yet beautiful relationships I have ever known. Every time the
Lord takes me to heaven, I feel like I am getting the privilege to know more of
His nature—the authority that He carries, the way He always gives me a
choice to pursue Him and yet He will always pursue me, the way He answers
my prayers and shares life with me, the wild worshiper and creator He is!
There are just too many facets of the One we love to be grasped, but I love the
ways He slowly shows Himself to me in a new glimpse. Hopefully you have
been shown something new about His character and nature also by reading
about heaven.

Activation Prayer
Lord God, first I thank You for the gift of heaven. Thank You that You have
saved us all from a lifetime of suffering and that one day we will have the
choice to come dwell with You in eternal glory! Father, right now I just pray
for every person reading this book, that You will open their spiritual eyes to
see a glimpse of Your glory. Lord, I pray that You would open a facet of
heaven to them. Encounter them, Lord, not so that they could have an
awesome experience from You and get a rush out of it, but encounter them
so that they could know You are near and pursing them. Encounter us all so
we can fall more in love with You. Amen.

Discussion Questions
1. Which of the three rooms is most intriguing to you and why?

2. In that room, go back and look at my interaction with Jesus. What

does it show about His nature?
 Chapter 9

Healing with the Seer Anointing

God’s creativity never ceases to amaze me! Looking at the life of Jesus, we
can see many different ways Jesus healed the sick. So I pose the question—if
there was a set formula, A+B+C=healing, would we keep pressing in to the
Father for healing? In all the different ways I have seen God move and heal
people, every time I have learned to lean into Holy Spirit and ask Holy Spirit
how He wants to heal today, and almost every time proves to be different.
Biblically speaking, Jesus heals people differently each time. From the
healing of a blind man by spitting on the ground and smearing clay over his
eyes (see John 9:6), to touching a coffin and bringing the dead back to life (see
Luke 7:14), to healing a man’s withered hand by commanding him to stretch it
out (see Mark 3:5), God displays His creativity. By examining the Scriptures,
you can discover even more examples of the creativity of God in the way He
heals people.

If there was a set formula, A + B + C = healing,

would we keep pressing in to the Father for
healing?

Unto His Glory: Testimonies

 There we were in South Africa, visiting family, fresh out of leaving the
mission field of the “bush-bush” of Mozambique. (Technically, we ended up
stranded there because of flight complications and had the privilege to stay
with my husband’s family for a short respite.) On Sunday, we all gathered up
to go to a friend’s church. What a shocker it was going from the bush-bush
church of Mozambique, where there are no chairs but dirt floors and no air
conditioning, to this church with pews and projector screens. Halfway through
the message, I leaned into my husband and said, “Sam, I really feel like there
is someone here who needs healing prayer that we are supposed to pray for.
What should we do? I don’t know if they even believe in healing prayer here.”
He immediately responded to me, “I just had the same feeling! I don’t
know. Let’s just wait until the end of the service and see what God says to
do.”
So we waited. At the very end the minister said, “And if anyone needs
healing prayer, come on forward and we have teams of people who would love
to bless you with prayer.”
And there he was. We watched a guy painfully and slowly walk from the
back of the church all the way up to the front. It took a lady helping him walk
for him to make it up there. “That’s him,” I said to my husband.
“Yep,” he agreed. So we approached him and the team that was praying
over him and asked if we could join.
To make a long story short, the rest of the team took off, and we were left
with just the man and his friend who helped him walk up to the front. It turns
out that he had nerve damage all the way throughout his entire body and was
in constant excruciating pain. So we began to pray. My hands started to feel
warm to touch, so I placed them on his back and began to pray. “Oooooo,” he
suddenly said. “Something feels different. I feel a tingling happening.”
“Tingling is good,” we responded excitedly.
We continued to pray. Honestly though, tingling was the only change
happening for this gentleman, and we didn’t want to just leave him like that.
So as we continued to pray, I felt Holy Spirit urge me to start singing over him.
So I did! I started to just sing a worship song over him as my husband
continued to pray. Together we ushered this guy into the presence of the Lord.
By worshiping, the presence of the Lord fell in the room thick. Even this guy,
who had never experienced a presence like this, responded, “You guys…you
guys carry something. You really do walk with God!”
“Yes, we love Him. Now how’s your neck? Test it out,” I responded. He
began to move his neck and slowly but gradually it loosened up. Then we
continued to worship together and have him keep testing out his back, knees,
arms, and toes. Eventually, that man walked out of that chapel completely
healed proclaiming the name of Jesus! It turns out it was his birthday that day.
God is so good!
This is a wonderful example of gradual healing. Just like in Mark 8:22-26
where Jesus heals a blind man but He heals gradually instead of
instantaneously, so was the gentleman’s healing that day in South Africa. Why
didn’t Jesus just heal that blind man right away? He could. He is God, after all.
Maybe it is to encourage us believers to keep pressing in for healing even
when we are not seeing instant results.
Another time, my husband and I were walking with our ministry team
trekking through the foothills of the Himalayas. As we came up a path close to
a local village, suddenly a tiny crowd of eyes started popping up over the
mountainside. As you can imagine, a group of Caucasian foreigners drew the
interest of the local village. Right then I heard Holy Spirit say “stomachs.” This
is an example of how to use the gift of the word of knowledge that is talked
about in the Bible. That’s all I heard! Nothing more than that—just
“stomachs.” So through our translators I asked the crowd if anyone had
stomach problems and needed healing. Almost every person raised their
hands! Our team immediately started praying for them and people were
completely healed that day. Then we invited them to come and bring their
entire village to our event that night where we would be showing the Jesus
film and preaching. Many people came to know the Lord through this event. It
started with just a simple word from Holy Spirit. It was a snowball effect. By
taking that simple word from Holy Spirit, “stomachs,” and getting over my own
fear to ask, people got touched, were ministered to, and then later brought the
rest of their village to meet the foreigners and hear about Jesus. We never
know what the outcome will be to our simple response to the Holy Spirit.
Using the gift of seeing in the Spirit also helps tremendously when doing
healing ministry. I used to be on the healing teams of Bethel Church in
Redding, California. Conference mode for the healing rooms is a crazy time!
Hundreds upon hundreds of people from all over the world come through the
healing rooms in just a short amount of time. It’s exhilarating and exciting to
watch what Jesus does around the room. During conferences, we moved the
healing rooms into the large auditorium where church is usually held. There,
you can just scan around the room and watch God’s presence touching people
in different ways. You can feel excitement and expectation in the air. People in
one corner that day were dancing; in another part of the room I could hear
people laughing hysterically as God touched them with joy. I was running
around the back of the room with one lady as God completely healed her ankle
and we felt like running for joy! If you close your eyes and just listen, you can
hear Jesus touching people all throughout the room. It’s glorious!
So there I was, put on a ministry team. As we were looking around the
room, asking the Lord who to pray for next, a giant angel caught my attention.
He was huge! I am not the best at guessing height or distances, but I would
say this angel was at least 20 feet tall. He looked amazing! His clothes
seemed to be on fire, and a blinding light was coming from behind him—so
much that it was hard to even keep watching him. I did make out, though, that
he was carrying a spine. (My dad’s a chiropractor, so I grew up used to seeing
spinal cords, and I think I even owned a spine keychain at one point!) The
angel saw me, looked at me, winked, and smiled. Hm, I thought. What’s he up
to? I told my team, “Um…I think we should go follow that angel!” So we did!
We followed him to a lady who was sitting in a wheelchair. I witnessed the
angel put the new spine in her back, and then he was gone.
What is interesting is that this lady didn’t feel healed right then. My team
and I told her, “We just saw an angel put a new spine in your back. I think
God’s healing you! You should test it out.” She looked at us pretty skeptically.
So we gently held her hands, and asked her to try standing up. She did! Then
we asked her to try stretching from side to side. She did, reluctantly. Years of
chronic pain had left this lady pretty doubtful and hopeless that God could just
touch her just like that, without anyone even praying over her. Eventually,
through us telling her what we had seen and convincing her to test it out, her
faith grew and she began to believe that God truly had touched her. As her
faith grew, so did the increase of healing being released over her body, and
eventually this lady left that day without needing her wheelchair anymore.
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your
affliction” (Mark 5:34 NASB).
There is another type of healing that is amazing to watch the power of God
work through. Whole books have been written on inner healing and its
incredible effects on freeing our body, soul, and mind. I have witnessed
firsthand the effects of the power of God moving through someone as they are
walked through breaking off lies and agreements they have made with the
enemy.
When my husband and I were in India with Iris Ministries, we had the
privilege of getting to work with a Youth with a Mission base. Friends of ours
are the leaders, so they asked us to come and speak on the healing power of
God to a team that was visiting and also to their base staff. After we gave a
short talk on the healing, we broke up and began praying over the staff. That
day many people received healing, but one particular story stays locked in my
memory.
As I laid hands on one of the visiting staff, I immediately heard the words
“inner healing, deep-rooted lies.” So I began to just pray in tongues and ask
Holy Spirit to either show me what some of those lies were or to show the lady
I was ministering to. Soon after, I began hearing lies. “She believes she’s not
valuable; she believes she has no voice; she suffers from night terrors.” So
instead of just saying, “Hey, so you have this…” I asked her, “I was just
wondering, do you suffer from nightmares ever?” This broke the lock that
seemed to be keeping her in isolation. Fear of vulnerability had locked her into
suffering, pain, and insecurity for years, but through Holy Spirit’s help we were
able to pull out some of those lies and break off wrong agreements that day. It
was beautiful to witness the whole team, coming around her as she walked
toward her healing of old wounds and lies, and giving her the support and love
she was truly needing. The church body has to be careful that we do not ever
shame people with their pain. It’s important when walking someone through
inner healing to step back and think, Hey, if I was in their shoes right now
dealing with all this, how would I want to be treated?

Healing Cross
Let’s go back to the cross! Without the power of the death and resurrection
of the One we love, our prayers for healing would be useless. When our King
cried out “It is finished!” it is in this we can place our hope (John 19:30). If our
hope is in man or our own capabilities, then we have lost sight of the cross
and are lining ourselves up for failure and disappointment.
 Healing the sick equals staying in touch
and intimate with the Father.

Never do I go into ministry thinking that I know how to do everything. Don’t

misunderstand what I am saying here. Through Christ I can do everything. The
Word says in Mark 11:23 and Philippians 4:13 that if I have no doubt in my
heart and my faith is in Him I can do all things. I believe this is where many
people moving in healing ministry often slip up and stumble. Once their
ministry gains some momentum and perhaps recognition, they slip up and
start believing in their own capabilities rather than their utmost dependence
on Him. Without intimacy with the One who is worthy of all our adoration and
love, our sinful nature has a way of taking over. There are many people with a
strong anointing who have never been able to rise to the calling on their lives
and fall short of all that God called them to do for this exact reason. Intimacy
with Him and dependence on Him is everything. That’s probably why God’s
first commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all you soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37 NASB).
So what can we learn about healing the sick? There’s a formula that
always worked for our greatest example, Jesus. Healing the sick equals
staying in touch and intimate with the Father. Whenever I lay hands on people
to pray for them, I always first ask the Father what He wants to do in that
moment. There have been numerous times when a person came up to me
asking for healing prayer for a specific part of their body and I heard the Father
say something different. I usually then just say, “I know you’ve asked for
prayer for _____________, and I’m going to pray for that too, but here’s what I
hear the Lord saying _____________. Does that mean anything to you?” That
usually unlocks something much deeper that the Lord wants to heal first, and
then the other healing comes next.
I love partnering with what the Lord wants to do when His healing
presence shows up.

Activation Prayer
God, I pray that You would make our ears ever so sensitive to hear from the
Spirit what You are up to when we pray for people. God, help us to move
with the compassion of the Father first as we lay hands on and pray to heal
 the sick. Your Word says “It is finished” on the cross, so we claim this now
over ourselves and over the people we will pray for.
Lord, I pray right now that You would train us to hear Your voice with clarity.
I pray the gift of words of knowledge and prophecy would fall on the readers
right now. I pray that You would open our spiritual eyes to see what You are
doing in the room during ministry times. Amen.

Practicalities
Practically, now, there are a few things that I think might help encourage
your gift of healing. We are all called to heal the sick. In Matthew 10:8 Jesus
commands His disciples to go out and “heal the sick…. Freely you received,
freely give” (NASB).
As a way to practice hearing the voice of God with clarity while praying for
people, start paying attention to the little ideas or thoughts that may randomly
come into your mind as you lay hands on them. Then find a simple yet humble
way to phrase what you’re sensing, such as, “I’m learning to hear from God. I
just keep sensing this _____________,” or, “The phrase _____________
keeps coming into my mind, and I’m wondering if that means anything to
you?” You are stepping out in faith, but still maintaining a teachable spirit.
Close your eyes if it helps. When I first started praying for people, I would
get so distracted by seeing what was happening in the physical realm that I
would struggle to see in the spiritual realm or even hear from God clearly.
Staying connected with the Father and dependent on Him unlocks His very
nature. There is no sickness in heaven! His desire is for everyone to walk in
freedom and wholeness.

Discussion Questions
1. When praying for people, how do you hear from God? Is it primarily
through seeing, hearing, or sensing?

2. What way of hearing from God do you wish to grow in?

 Chapter 10

Facing the Spirit of Death

There are many different seasons the Lord carries us through as believers.
There is a time to rest, a time to run, a time to press and persevere, a time to
fast, etc. I believe there is also a time to stand and make war on the enemy!
Scripture says, “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper” (Isa. 54:17
NASB). Yes, God fights our victories, but He also equips us to partner with Him
and make war on the enemy.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this
darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will
be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to
stand firm (Ephesians 6:12-13 NASB).
If there is anything I have learned the most from being overseas as a
missionary in some really dark places, it is how to worship Jesus despite the
darkness and make war on the enemy. There are many testimonies I could
share here about warring against the enemy, but specifically I want to share
about the time he almost took life from me.
I was on a ministry trip with a team from the International House of Prayer
to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. As a seer, walking down Bourbon Street during
Mardi Gras was a pretty intense experience. Demonic worship, sexual
perversion, alcoholism, jealousy—the list could go on of what spirits are
present during Mardi Gras. Just before we left for New Orleans, I found out I
was pregnant. Like every mother’s natural instinct, I immediately felt a little
fear about my protection while doing ministry on those crowded, crazy streets
without my husband with me. I prayed about it and heard the Lord say, “I will
be with you,” so I went anyway.
Once we got there, the ministry time on the streets wasn’t actually where I
came up against the most attack from the enemy. Through a line of
connections I ended up getting to work with a young church girl who actually
had attempted suicide a couple of times right before our team arrived. We met
together a few times, and I was able to counsel her through some deep
wounds. She wasn’t open to receiving prayer, so I was only able to counsel
her.
One specific time when the enemy came at me strong was when I first met
her. I had just come back to the church to rest after ministering on the streets
with my team for a couple of hours. When I walked in through the doors of the
church, I saw it immediately. The spirit of death was looming around the
corner in the chapel. Eeekk! It was hideous! I don’t know how I knew it was the
spirit of death; I just instantly did. I feel like Holy Spirit just told me in that
moment, so I knew what I was up against. I looked around the chapel, and
there was one of the teams just getting back from being out doing ministry,
talking and laughing together, totally oblivious to what was in the room. And
then I spotted her. There, all folded up into one of the couches sleeping, was a
young girl who looked about fifteen. I could see that the spirit of death had his
eyes fixated on her, but then he would also scarily glance at me.

“You have no authority to be here tormenting

me!
I am covered in the blood of the Lamb! You
have
no authority against the power of my God!”

Not knowing what to do at the moment, I just walked as quietly as I could

(as if that would make a difference!) past the demonic spirit and went in my
room to lie down. I felt exhausted and just wanted to rest. After only five
minutes of shutting my eyes, I woke up feeling complete panic. A cold wind
had whisked through the room, and suddenly the room felt dark, cold, and
scary. I felt terror shoot through my body, causing my heart to pound quickly.
There he was in the corner. The spirit of death had followed me back to my
place of rest.
Instantly, I began hemorrhaging and started getting contractions! I had
already lost my first baby, and these symptoms were all too familiar to me.
Fear and pain surged through my body.
The spirit of death looked at me furiously.
Pain increased, and hemorrhaging continued.
He moved closer to me.
“No, God,” I shouted out, wincing in pain. “You promised me this baby
would live! Where are You?”
It moved closer to me. Fear pulsated through my body. I could hardly
breathe. Fear and pain were taking over.
Then suddenly, I felt angry. I went from total fear to complete rage at this
spirit of death. These literally were the words out of my mouth toward that
demonic spirit: “How dare you!” I shouted out. “You have no authority to be
here tormenting me! I am covered in the blood of the Lamb! You have no
authority against the power of my God!”
The spirit of death took one step back at that point. The pain eased up a
bit. And then he laughed. One of the most scary, disgusting sounds I have ever
heard came out of his mouth. His eyes shot back at me, glowing red like blood.
“You can’t do anything! Your baby will die! Where’s your God now!” he
responded back.
He took a much larger step toward me, and pain shot deep down into my
abdomen. Contractions and hemorrhaging began to increase. The pain literally
knocked me to my knees. Crumbled over on the ground, I began to pray in
tongues.
“Worship Me,” I heard God say. “Remember the promises.”
In that moment my worship wasn’t this booming voice. No, no! I pitifully
started singing worship songs in pain.
“How great is my God! Sing with me how great is my God, and you shall
see how great, how great are You God!”
The demonic power started shrieking and shrinking. He backed away, and
then I could stand up again.
Whoa! What a shift happened in my spirit when I saw the power that my
little worship had against the spirit of death! Then suddenly my voice became
awesome! Or at least I like to think so. I started belting out at the top of my
lungs, “Death you have no hold on me! God you have the victory! Death you
have no hold on me! God you have the victory!”
I probably sang that over and over for ten minutes, and something
happened. The atmosphere changed. No longer did I feel fear. I was in pain
and still hemorrhaging, but seeing that spirit of death loose his power gave me
courage to war!
Then I began to declare, “I declare right now that you have no authority
here. God has promised me that this baby will live! I have seen this baby
already, and I know that it is a warrior in the spirit like its momma! You are
messing with the wrong family right now!” The spirit of death began to shrink.
He now looked smaller than me—and I’m only 5 feet 4 inches.
“This baby will live a life where it walks in tremendous faith. This baby is
mighty and carries an anointing of joy! It shall live in the name of the Lord. I
will teach this baby to see in the spirit, and it will wreak havoc on you and all
your friends!” Shrinking more, the demon moved as far away from me as he
could into the corner of the room.
“Oh, get ready, because this is a child who is protected by God and will be
a tremendous warrior for the Kingdom! And you, you must leave now! This
battles is done, and God has won! Get out now in the name of Jesus!”
A prophet in Africa had given me a sword in the spirit to use in battlefields,
and I waved my sword at him now. With that, the spirit of death shrieked and
left the room.
Right then, the hemorrhaging and contractions completely stopped!
Exhausted, I crashed into my bed for a nap. When I woke up a couple of hours
later and I pulled back the covers, my body was entirely covered in angelic
feathers!
 The atmosphere changed. No longer did I
feel fear. I was in pain and still hemorrhaging,
but seeing that spirit of death loose his
power gave me courage to war!

I went and took a pregnancy test right then, just to make sure after all that
hemorrhaging that I was still pregnant. Sure enough, I was! After that day, the
rest of my pregnancy was supernatural, and I now have a beautiful, healthy
baby girl—Veera. She is currently only six months old, but I know she can see
in the spirit already. One day an angel walked in the room when I was nursing
her. Veera stopped eating, looked at the angel, and then began chatting and
laughing with it.

Making War: Application

What’s your posture in the spirit? When the enemy comes at you and tries
to wreak havoc on your life, what do you want your position to look like? Have
discouragement and disappointment become the crutches you fall back on?
What about fear? It’s so hard not to sink into fear when the enemy strikes
hard. I write from personal experience. Trust me! My husband and I have had
many encounters with the enemy’s attacks. The more we step out in ministry
and faith, the more he comes to discourage us.
But God is bigger. Simple as that! Let’s get back to the simplicity of the
gospel. The devil wants to be like God, but he is not. So many times, especially
when we are under attack, our focus can be fixated on the power of the
enemy. Spiritual warfare is real! The enemy’s attacks are real and strong at
times. I do believe, though, that the more our focus lies on his power to strike
us down, the more power and authority he is given to be there. Our God is
powerful. With a word He spoke Creation into being. When a horrible storm
came to destroy the disciples of Jesus, “He got up and rebuked the winds and
the sea, and it became perfectly calm” (Matt. 8:26 NASB).
The next time you find yourself in a battlefield with the enemy, shift your
focus! When I battled the spirit of death for my daughter’s life, one thing I did
not do but I know helps in overcoming the enemy is reading Scripture or saying
scriptures from memory. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper
than any two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12 NASB).
The enemy’s battle plan is always to come “steal and kill and destroy”
(John 10:10). So remember the promises the Lord has spoken over you! It’s
always the enemy’s tactic to discourage us from fulfilling our destinies and the
plans God has for our future. When I felt most afraid and at my lowest point
battling the spirit of death, the Lord reminded me, “Remember the promises.” I
feel like that’s when my focus shifted. I shifted from only seeing the pain and
fear, or the enemy’s power, to, Oh, but here’s what my God says! This
encouraged my faith.

The power of our worship, faith in

Him, and declaration looses the power
of darkness off of our lives.

Faith is the strongest weapon we have against the enemy. Scriptures

reveal that many times Christ says, “Go, your faith has healed you,” or a
different way of looking at it, “Go, your faith has caused the enemy to lose his
grip over you.” The enemy comes to steal your faith that God is who He says
He is and that He will do what He says he will do. So in times of war, declare
it! The power of our worship, faith in Him, and declaration looses the power of
darkness off of our lives.

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the
joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews
12:1-2).

Discussion Questions
1. When spiritual warfare is strong, how can you war against the enemy
differently than you’ve been doing?

2. Of the different ways I warred with the spirit of death, what struck
you the most?
 Chapter 11

The Glorious Cross

Recently, as a new mom one day I found myself struggling to keep my peace
and joy. It had been an extremely difficult day with my daughter. She was in a
pattern of only going down for two 45-minute naps, which was allowing me no
personal time to get refreshed or get anything done!
I put her down, and then I found myself frantically grabbing my Bible for a
moment of refreshment with the Father. Flipping open to the Psalms, I began
speed reading, trying to ingest as much of the Scriptures as I could because I
knew my time was limited.
Putting down my Bible, realizing this wasn’t refreshing me at all, I cried out
to the Father in desperation. “Lord, would You just take me up to heaven? It’s
been a while since I’ve been there, and I need to be refreshed by You!”
Bam! Just like that, I found myself no longer sitting folded up in the corner
of my living room couch but suddenly walking through a ginormous hallway in
heaven with the Lord.
Hand in hand we walked down the hallway that seemed to go on forever.
The air felt warm; there was an expression of love in the air. We walked past
wooden door after wooden door.

“Lord, would You just take me up to heaven?”

Suddenly, we stopped in front of a door. This door was unlike any other
door I had seen before in heaven. It was a worn looking door, it’s wood
deteriorating and peeling off. An old brass knob hug on it, looking like it was
barely hanging on. At first I thought, If I touch it, the knob will surely fall off.
Holes in the creases around the edge of the door revealed light from the other
side. The appearance of this door proved its well-use.
Something always happens when I approach doors in heaven that Jesus
has led me to. The first is that as I approach the door I can often feel what is
on the other side. Sometimes I have to just look with my spiritual eyes through
the door, to see what’s on the other side. There have been rooms I have been
led to where the presence of the King is so strong that I cannot enter, so I just
get a glance from the outside of the room. Often, I can feel the emotion of
what’s on the other side of that door—peace, excitement, joy, laughter, etc.
Second, I always wonder if Jesus will go with me into that room. Sometimes He
does; sometimes He doesn’t.
This time when I approached the door, I felt fear. I don’t know how to
explain it other than that. I know that there is no fear in heaven, but I truly felt
afraid. I could feel that whatever the Lord was allowing me to see on the other
side of the door was going to be intense. The closer I got to the door, the
intensity weighed heavier and heavier.
Finally, I approached the knob. I looked at the Lord and thought, Aren’t You
going to go in there with me? He shook His head—no.
I reached out and grabbed for the doorknob, and immediately I felt a
powerful rush hit my entire body. The presence of God was so thick, so strong,
that I barely hung on. But I hung on! I hung on, because it’s all I knew to do. I
truly felt the fear of the Lord in such a strong way that it felt like the wind had
been knocked out of me. My body went limp, but I still clung to that brass
doorknob with all my strength.
It was then that I was allowed to see through the door to what was on the
other side. I don’t understand why I saw what I did in heaven, but there He
was. I saw the cross. It was glorious—horrific and glorious! My King, the one I
love, hung on that cross. The cross dripped with blood. It was gruesome and
yet beautiful. The power of God was so strong.
“Lord, I want to go in there!” through my tears I cried out to God. I wanted
to be as close to Him as I could.
The Father shook his head, No.
 No matter how much I tried to turn the knob I couldn’t. My own strength
was nothing compared to the tangible power of God coming through that door,
through that old doorknob. Wave after wave of power and love hit me. It
pulsated through my body, causing me to shrink lower and lower to the ground
until I was on my knees, just reaching up, hanging on to His presence through
that doorknob.
His love was too much! It was more than I had ever felt in my life. The
reality of the cross had me undone. I was wrecked by His love and presence.
Sweat dripped from my body as it took all my strength to hang on.
Then, He looked at me. Tears filled the creases of his eyes.
Why can’t I go in there, God? I mean, I’m a Christian! I’m in love with You,
and You love me. I know Your forgiveness that took place on the cross. I know
Your love! I thought.
Hearing my thoughts and looking at me through those pools in His eyes,
He replied, “Ana, you don’t know My love!”
The weight of it hit me like bricks on my chest. It still does!
“What! I don’t know Your love? Of course I do!” This felt like Christianity
101.
“You don’t know,” was His response.
With that, I melted. I couldn’t hold on any longer. All my strength was
gone. The reality of the cross left me lying on the floor sobbing. I wept and
wept. Tear after tear mixed with snot poured down my nose, leaving a messy
pool on the floor. I stayed there, unable to lift myself off the ground, for what
seemed like forever.
Then He came to me. The King. He picked me up and held me like a child.
He rocked me as I continued to cry into His shoulder. I was a mess, but He did
not seem to mind.
“I love You, I love You, I love You,” was all I could mutter through my tears.
Finally, He spoke. “My daughter, come, let’s get up off the floor now. You
don’t have to stay like this.”
He helped me stand up. Taking my hands as He pulled me up, suddenly I
felt invigorated. I felt a renewed rush of strength. I laughed! I don’t know why I
laughed, but suddenly I just laughed.
“There! There’s your joy! In My presence is fullness of joy!” He said.
Together we laughed at that, because Jesus knew it was my favorite
scripture.
Just like that, I was suddenly back on my couch in my living room. My body
was drenched with sweat. Any amount of makeup I had managed to put on
that morning was now washed away. And all I could do was smile. “Wow, God!
Wow! Take me back there again, please,” I said out loud.

Wave after wave of power and love hit me.

It pulsated through my body, causing me to
shrink lower and lower to the ground until I
was on my knees, just reaching up, hanging on
to His presence through that doorknob.

The Vine
Never have I experienced a room in heaven that left me as shaken up as
this one. For a week, it’s all I could think about whenever I tried to pray. When
my husband came home from work that night, I cried as I relayed to him the
story. I still cry when I share this story. I can never look at the cross the same.
It gets so watered down in the gospel that is preached today. The heaviness of
what our King went through for us is often long forgotten in today’s message.
Later that week, I flipped open to John 15:5. “I am the vine, you are the
branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart
from Me you can do nothing” (NASB). I now have new understanding of this
scripture. I remember hanging on to that brass doorknob, hanging on to the
reality of the cross like my life depended on it. And then His very hands, the
One I love lifting me off the ground when I couldn’t stand up, replenishing me
with fullness of life.
 Application
“Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4 NASB). Are we after intimacy, really?
It seems easy to get caught up in the whirlwind and excitement of the “I in
you” part. Of course we all want more of God to be flowing in us and through
us, but are we after the heart of God first? Signs, power, and wonders are
great, but even Pharaoh’s sorcerers did that. We worship a King who desires
intimacy with us, and that is what sets Him apart from the rest.
The cross. Oh, the glorious cross! God always had it in His mind when He
created us. The trinity always had it in mind when creation was formed. In the
very moment that God breathed life into man and molded woman into a
perfect helper, He knew what would be His incarnate very last breath of life
here on earth. He knew the sacrifice. He always knew the cross was the price
for us. It was always part of God’s plan. And that, that’s what our King died
and rose again for. Intimacy.

Of course we all want more of God to be

flowing
in us and through us, but are we after the
heart
of God first? Signs, power, and wonders are
great, but even Pharaoh’s sorcerers did that.

Will you abide in Him? Abide means stay, remain, dwell in. In our fast-
paced society, just staying fully devoted and focused on one thing nearly
seems impossible sometimes. Returning a text while visiting with a friend and
also planning our grocery list at the same time seems to be the normal speed
of this generation. Our focus is always pulled away by other distractions.
But will you slow down for Jesus? Will you dial down everything else that
comes as a distraction and give your full devotion to the One who gave it all
for you? Apart from Him, we are nothing. Will you come back to the cross and
fall in love with Him again?
 Prayer
God, forgive me. Lord, forgive me for everything that gets in the way of me
spending time with You. God, You deserve my everything. You deserve my
full attention. I’m so sorry that I’m too busy some days to stop and make
time for You. I need more of You in my life. I need to know the reality of the
cross more. God, I need Your love in a much deeper way. A much, much
deeper way. I don’t know it enough. I may think I do, but I don’t. Would You
show me more of Your love? I desire intimacy with You, Father. I need to
come back to You, Lord, and make You number one in my life. Thank You so
much, Jesus. Thank You so much for the cross. What You went through there
I will never fully grasp. God, You are worth it all. Thank You that You always
had me in mind. I love You, Father. Amen.

Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think God told me I didn’t know His love in heaven?
 Chapter 12

Tips and Training

So now begins your journey of learning to see in the supernatural. You may
have started reading this book having already had a few experiences with
seeing into the spiritual realm, or you may have had none at all. Regardless of
your previous experience, I hope you are now walking more encouraged and
with more confidence that this gift of seeing is for you too.
Here are some tips I give people who often ask me, “How do I start
seeing?”

Get a Journal
Even if you don’t currently enjoy writing in a journal, go and buy one. It will
help to be able to go back and see your own progress by looking through your
journals. Often we forget details of events, such as where we were when we
saw that or had that encounter or what was the feeling when we walked into
that room, etc. I have years of journals that have words circled like I felt, I
heard, I saw, angelic encounter, in heaven today, He said, Holy Spirit showed
me, I touched, healing, I smelled, prophetic words, I dreamed, and I sensed.
After those words I always write down the details of the experience.
This helps easily track my own journey with seeing in the supernatural and
track what Holy Spirit is up to daily. Sometimes God releases promises for
events or times in the future, so it’s great to have those written down to later
refer to.
Recently, I stepped into a new role as the associate director of our Healing
Rooms here at our church. During a time when our team was worshiping
before we were going to minister, I had an angelic encounter. With my eyes
closed during worship, I saw a huge angel come up to me carrying what looked
like a large rubber stamp. He stamped my head, and I felt the weighty
presence of the Lord come over me—so much that I couldn’t move. As he
stamped my head, he told me, “I’ve stamped you with the mark of authority
and leadership.”
Following that, I heard the Lord’s voice say, “Let no man stop what I have
set in place.” Then the angel was gone. It took me a while to even be able to
move from my seat. Immediately, I picked up my journal and frantically
scribbled everything down from that encounter.
This was the week that we were relaunching the Healing Rooms and
ministry and changing a few ways the Healing Rooms operated. Have you ever
heard the expression, “If you step out in the Kingdom, be prepared for a
battle?” Well, that week I felt like I was in a battlefield. Complaints about the
new changes being made rained down on me and began to suck away my joy
and faith that these changes were truly what God wanted for the ministry.
As I went to the Lord about it in prayer, He reminded me to look back over
my journal. Believe it or not, I had totally forgotten about this encounter during
the week. Reading over it not only encouraged me to keep pressing forward
with the changes as God had directed me, but also helped me to remain
grounded when more complaints came.

Meet with Jesus, the Father, and Holy Spirit

It’s comical that I even have to write this here, but I find that in our fast-
paced society we often need the reminder to carve out time in our schedule to
meet with the Lord.
Daily, set aside a time to meet God. Take one of the characters of the
Trinity, such as Holy Spirit, and ask Him to meet with you today. (Get your
journal ready, of course.) Then the next day, ask the Father to meet with you,
etc. It’s funny, but often even my experiences with seeing can be different
based on what character of the Trinity meets with me. Yes, they are three in
One, but it is often interesting how we can relate differently to each one
based on our own personal walk in life.
So carve out a time when you are meeting the Lord solely through asking
for God to encounter you and experiencing Him through your senses. I’m not
advising to stop reading your Bible or worshiping Jesus or however else you
encounter God. What I am advising here, is to be intentional with your time as
you start training in the gift of seeing. Take even ten minutes a day where you
solely encounter one of the characters of the Trinity through using your senses
alone.

Receive Impartation
When I was first starting out in the gift of seeing, I did not have anyone to
help instruct me. No one I knew in the church was walking in seer anointing
and could explain to me the encounters I was having. My mother is a seer but
only sees the angelic light and heavenly experiences, and she could not really
help me understand the demonic stuff I was seeing on people or when doing
ministry. Also, the words of knowledge I would get for people or see on
people’s foreheads as I was praying for them were pretty unheard of in the
church at the time. So I trudged through learning about seer anointing on my
own for many years. Any book that I could get my hands on that had
explanation of seer anointing I read over and over, hoping to ingest
understanding. As I trained more in the gift of seeing, the Lord would
graciously send me people who were prophetic and also could see in the Spirit
to pray over me and encourage me.
This is why I encourage anyone who is a seer or starting to walk in the gift
to get prayed for and imparted to by like-spirited people! Seers can often feel
alone, which the enemy uses to isolate and discourage them from using this
powerful gift. So read everything you can about the seer anointing and the
prophetic, and then search for a mentor or find mentors at conferences who
can pray and impart to you.

Remove Distractions
 If you’re like me, it’s hard to get my mind to just settle sometimes. I am a
busy mom of two, and I find myself juggling many things just on a daily basis.
When I finally do get a moment to myself, I am still often making lists in my
head of things I’m needing to get done once the kids get up from their naps,
etc.
So, try this as a simple practice. Close your eyes, let out a deep breath, and
ask Holy Spirit to come help you quiet your mind. When I first started trying
this, I often would find myself still thinking of other things I could be doing. So
I carried a pad of paper next to me so that I could jot down whatever random
thought floated through my mind and then jump back into quieting my mind to
meet with Jesus.
Hearing God’s voice is often the battle of learning to just quiet our minds.
It’s not necessary to get into a quiet, meditative state to start seeing in the
supernatural. Often, it does help people when they are first starting out,
though.

Release Creativity
For this next tip, I have no clear explanation of why it helps and is a tool to
seeing in the supernatural. Do something that is a creative expression of art.
Whether that be dance, draw, paint, play with sand, etc. Ask Holy Spirit to
come into this time between you and the Lord, put on some worship music,
and create.
Once you’ve done that for a while, stop and quiet your mind and ask the
Lord to open your seer’s eyes and show you something in the Spirit. For
whatever reason, I have found that releasing creativity often helps people who
otherwise felt a block when trying to see.

Seer Training
Imagine you are beginning to lift weights for the first time. At first the
repetitions of lifting weights might seem pointless. After time, though, as your
muscles grow stronger and you are able to increase the weight you are lifting,
those repetitions don’t seem as pointless.
It’s the same with training in the gift of seeing. Not all of us start out
having full-on visions of angels and heaven from the Lord, but rather what I
like to call “glances.” It’s like the Lord allows us to get just a small glance at
His presence. In Exodus 33, the Lord passes by Moses in the cleft of a rock and
shows him a small ounce of His glory. These types of encounters are often
what we experience when we first start out training with the gift of seeing.
When I first started seeing angels at the age of five, they were as real and
present to me as any other person standing right next to me talking. But then
the gift of seeing just all together stopped for me until I was in my twenties.
Some days I saw full angels walking around, but most of the time I would see
small impressions from the Lord. I would notice a glow or light behind
someone and know that the Lord’s presence was resting on them at the time. I
would see just a quick impression of the shadow of a lion walking through the
room, and then quickly it would be gone. Occasionally I would see a dark cloud
over someone’s head or around them if they were sick. Often I would also see
color changes in a room—like suddenly I would see a beam of bright blue
move throughout the room, and then it would be gone. I give these examples
not to say this is exactly what it will be like for you when you start training in
seer anointing. It’s meant rather to encourage you, in case you have had
similar experiences and thought you were alone in this, that you are on the
right track. You are beginning to see in the Spirit.

Not all of us start out having full-on visions

of angels and heaven from the Lord, but
rather what I like to call “glances.”

Take time weekly to practice seeing in the Spirit. If you attend church,
during worship is a great time to practice. Holy Spirit’s presence and angels
usually come during our heartfelt praise, so this is a perfect training ground.
Look around the room and ask yourself, What do I see right now? Ask Holy
Spirit to open your spiritual eyes and then just wait.
Another concept to keep in mind is that you might not see with your literal
eyes but see through another one of your senses. I mentioned a little bit about
this in the first chapter already. Humans have six senses—seeing, smelling,
hearing, tasting, touching, and sensing being the sixth. So often when we think
of seeing in the Spirit, we primarily associate the gift with using our eyes only.
I want to challenge your notion of that. Sometimes I see things in the spirit
using a sense other than my actual eyes—such as my nose. I usually smell
witchcraft before I see it. (It has a distinct smell to me.) Or, when praying for
someone, my hand begins to feel hot to the touch when I know the Lord’s
presence is moving there, healing. These are just other ways the Lord allows
me to “see” Him. I have also had the experience where I’ll suddenly taste a
sweetness that comes so randomly that I know it has to Jesus’ presence.
So when you are training in the gift of seeing, don’t forget to practice using
all your senses. If I go to heaven with God, often I will ask Him to take me back
next time to the same place and allow me to see more. As an example, God
used to take me to a certain place in heaven that looked like an open grass
field and had a large oak tree that I would sit under and meet with Jesus. The
first couple of times God took me there, all I could do was see the grass. As I
asked Him to open my spiritual eyes more, though, I began to feel the literal
blades and dampness of the grass beneath my feet. Then I began to also smell
the fresh, wet grass. Finally, I was able to feel the temperature of the air.
Sensing all of this didn’t happen overnight for me. It was as I asked God for
more ability to see with all my senses that He opened that up for me.
At an early age, I recognized that my firstborn child is a seer. As I
mentioned in a previous chapter, I was busy nursing her one day when an
angel walked into the room. She pulled off nursing from me, looked right at the
angel, and the two of them began to giggle together. It was the most
beautiful, mysterious moment for me as a new mom. Other times, if we are
out in public with her and she sees someone who is carrying something
demonic on them, she immediately looks at them and shies away from them,
even to the point of throwing a fit if they try to come up and touch her or talk
to her. Once when we had an outpouring of His presence fall in our living
room, my daughter was actually the first one to see it. She kept walking into
our hallway by our living room and looking up. She did it so much, I finally
stopped what I was doing and went over to investigate what it was she was
seeing. Immediately, I saw an open hole leading up to heaven on the top of
the ceiling.
Often we forget just how sensitive children can be. So I try to play “I spy”
with her from a seer’s perspective. We’ll sit or lay on a blanket, ask Holy Spirit
to come, and then I ask her to point and tell me what she sees. Sometimes
she’ll pretend she sees a hippo or elephant in the sky, but other times she’ll
look in the exact same area I see an angel, point at it, and smile. Just as I
make it a goal of mine to practice “seeing” with my daughter, so should we in
the same simple, childlike manner.

Creativity Prayer
One thing I have discovered the more I have taught on seer anointing is
that there is often a common link between people who cannot see in the spirit
but want to and their creativity being blocked. Sounds confusing, right? Well,
let me explain. Creative expression and the ability to see in the spirit often go
hand and hand. Perhaps the link is the use of the right side of our brain.
Often, our natural creative abilities get squashed down early on in our
childhood or sometimes also later on in life. Perhaps as a boy you enjoyed
drawing or dancing but were discouraged from pursuing these passions.
Perhaps as a young girl you found yourself loving painting or singing but were
encouraged to be more like your other sibling who was heady or book smart.
Often, the discouragement of creative gifts, or even encouragement or
pushing in the direction of more left-brained ways of thinking or being, shuts
down our own ability to see in the spirit without our realization.
I was teaching on this very subject one time, and a man who was in his
mid-40s had one of those “ah-hah!” moments. It’s like I could see a light bulb
go on or a switch being turned on for him. He explained to me that as a young
boy he was categorized by other peers and his own parents as being “brainy.”
In a way, he took this on as his identity and pursued his books and studying
very seriously. He later worked for years in an environment and job that was
very left-brained, linear thinking. So we prayed together for the creative side of
his brain to be renewed, called to life, and restored to him. He shared with me
then that when he was a child he actually remembered liking to sketch. I
encouraged him to pick up sketching again and then ask Holy Spirit to meet
him there in those moments and open his eyes. Through tapping into his
creative side again, the Lord opened his eyes to see in the spiritual realm.
As you read this, if you feel like what I am writing here resonates with you
and that perhaps there was once a time in your life when your creative mind or
gifting was squashed or not encouraged, I have the following prayer for you to
read:

Holy Spirit, I ask You right now to come. Lord, You are a creative
God, and You like creativity. I remember a time and believe my
own creativity ceased or lessened at this point. So right now, God, I
ask You to restore and renew my creative mind. Lord, give me the
ability to create again using the right side of my brain.

Right now, pause and ask the Lord to show you a picture or give you
insight into one thing you can do that is creative to begin again with.

Thank You, Father. I am going to start doing, and no matter the

result or what I do or make I thank You because I know You are in
it. I release myself from a performance spirit right now, and even
if I do art and make a mess it will be glorious because it is for You!
Even if I try dancing or singing and it turns out funny looking or
slightly hideous sounding, I thank You, Lord, because You love it
and are in it.

I encourage everyone who is pursing the gift of seeing to incorporate a

time for a creative outlet as well. Drawing often helps me to turn off the
worries of the day. If I am having one of those days when I am finding it hard
to really lock in with the Lord and hear clearly or see clearly, I’ll spend ten
minutes drawing whatever comes to mind and then ask the Lord to open my
eyes and speak to me.
 Chapter 13

Frequent Questions When Starting

What If I Don’t Understand What I Am

Seeing?
I will be the first to admit that quite often I don’t know what it is I am
seeing. Sometimes, the Lord will speak to me by showing me something and
then later giving me the revelation on it. I always write down what I see. There
have been many times when I will come across a book and an author is
speaking directly about something I have seen in the past and gives
explanation on it that I would otherwise not have. (Rick Joyner is one who
comes to mind as an example of this.) Or I’ll be at a church and a guest
prophetic speaker will come and give a word that is a total explanation of
something I saw previously.
Also, occasionally I have had a vision that is for a regional area and not
just for a specific person. I love road trips, and often as I’m driving with my
husband and we enter into a new city I will see what feels like a random
picture to me, but actually makes sense once I learn the city’s history. Once
when I lived in Brazil as a missionary, I went sightseeing with friends. As we
walked around the city of Ouro Preto, I saw this random impression of what
looked like a large cement block and a person standing on top of it. Later on, I
discovered that where I saw that vision was an old slavery trading block. As
the Lord allows us to see what is over a regional area, it reveals to us
strongholds that may still exist, how to pray for an area, and insight into how
to minister there.
Once when I was in Nepal, the Lord gave me a vision as our team was
praying before we left for ministry time. I saw what looked like an open
square. There was demonic presence in every corner of the square. One large
demon looked right at me and had the word depression written across his
chest. There was also a small girl I saw hiding in a corner, but when I looked at
the child her face actually looked back at me as an old woman. I had
absolutely no idea what this vision was about when I had it at the time. So I
just asked God for revelation, wrote it down, and went on to minister with my
team.
That day, we went to Durbar square to minister, which was a large temple
area. Idolatry and spiritual witchcraft was a strong presence there. Through a
crazy alignment of things that only the Lord could do, we actually got invited
into a sacred temple to pray for an uncle of a princess. Turns out once we
went through his little store front, we were inside that exact square I had seen
in my vision the previous day. As I looked up at a window up above, I saw the
young girl, who was a mere child, looking down at me. This girl was a princess
whom people worshiped as a god. Taken and raised in the palace at a young
age, she was never allowed to be outside of the temple, never allowed to be
without spot, never allowed to really be a child. That day, I was so thankful
that the Lord had allowed me to see that vision ahead of time, because then I
really knew how to minister and how to intercede when our team was in there.
Finally, do not feel afraid of what you see if you don’t have clear
understanding of it. Not everything is a demon, and we should be more
concerned with what the Lord is up to than focused on what the devil is up to.
It gets dangerous when new seers step into the habit of wondering if
everything they are seeing is a demonic presence. They become inundated
with fear and center their attention on the devil instead of where it should be,
which is on God.

How Do I Know If This Is From God or My

Own Soul?
Often, I get asked this question. How can we know for sure if what we are
seeing isn’t just a random fabrication of our imagination and this is really from
the Lord?
My answer isn’t the most straightforward one. I would pose this question
back, “How can you know for sure if you are hearing the Lord’s voice?” You
can’t. It’s something learned. There are times that I know that I know that I
heard Lord’s voice clearly, and other times just take faith. The more you
develop your gifting, the more you will be able to discern what is from the Lord
and what is not, just as you learn to hear His voice with accuracy.
Since the whole new age movement took off, people are understandably a
bit shy about using their imagination for the Kingdom. The enemy wrapped his
talons around something that is supposed to be beautiful, something that the
Lord put in us to use. Think about it—if God created man and woman, do you
think He wouldn’t want us to use our own creativity and imagination to get in
touch with Him? Let’s take fear out of the picture when coming to meet with
the King and let go and let God! I’ve seen, more often than not, that our actual
fear of not truly seeing clearly from the Lord stifles people from even trying.
Pray before you start that the enemy would not enter into this time
between you and the Lord. Also, let go of any fear you might have to just make
mistakes. It’s a learning curve, and you can give yourself grace in the process.
Always test what you are seeing with Scripture to make sure it lines up
with the nature of Christ. It’s not uncommon for the enemy at first to try and
step into your times of seeing with the Lord. If you are questioning it, ask
yourself, How does this make me feel right now? If you are feeling something
that is outside of the nature of Christ—such as fear, pain, discomfort, even
confusion sometimes—it’s probably not the Lord and possibly your own flesh.
Then some pose the question, “But what if I see something demonic?” It’s
true. You might see something demonic on a person or even a demon walking
around the room during a ministry time. If you do see a demon, it’s not your
chance to point at a person and critically tell them, “I see you are carrying
such and such a spirit!” The Lord reveals demonic presence to us in His loving
kindness. We gain direction in ministering by seeing them and also ability to
see the spiritual warfare that might be present. It’s always been my
experience that the Lord shows me demonic presence to bring about freedom.
Let’s not be quick to judge someone else because you might see a demonic
something on them. Let’s get real. Our battle is not of flesh and blood but
against principalities. As long as we are here on earth, we’ve all at some point
probably had a demonic something on us. We all need to be cleansed in the
blood and need the grace and forgiveness of God in our lives. k`1‘2
So don’t be afraid when or if you see something demonic. The Lord’s the
one allowing you to see it for a specific reason. Place your focus on Him, and
ask Him what He wants you to do with that vision. And always remember, that
demon is secretly intimidated by you because you are made in the image of
Christ and you carry the very power and authority of the cross!
I always tell people—check back with Scripture and make sure what you
are hearing or seeing lines up with the very nature of Christ. Would Christ
want to show you this? Why is Christ allowing you to see this?

I See This. Now What?

Hopefully by now, after reading this book, the Lord’s beginning to open
your spiritual eyes more and is talking to you through the gift of seeing. Not all
visions are for you to act on. Granted, some images you will see are just a
private message between you and the Lord. In ministry though, the Lord might
show you a picture or image for someone else. Just as every prophetic word
has a season, it is the same with the seer anointing. Not all images or pictures
I see are for now. The Lord might be giving me prophetic knowledge about a
person, but I always ask Him if the vision is for me to share now, before I
share it. Even if the Lord shows me I can share it, I always tread carefully with
the person in front of me. Something I might say is, “The Lord was just
showing me a picture of this…. I’m not sure if this relates to you but what I
think the Lord was showing me about that is…. Do you relate to that at all, or
does that resonate anything inside of you?” I find this model or way of talking
about a vision tends to take the weirdness out of it and allows the person you
are ministering to to feel like your heart is for them, not against them. Also, it
helps them feel like they are in control and you are not coming at them with a
“Thus sayeth the Lord” type attitude.

By staying afraid, we aren’t able to step

out in our gifting, and so we cannot make
war on the enemy of this world.
 So as you step out in your seer anointing and begin to experience more,
pray and ask the Lord for wisdom with each encounter. Is this something for
you to share right now, or is it for later? How should you share it? Could this
possibly be just wisdom from the Lord that gives you direction as to how to
pray or minister? As you lean into Holy Spirit, He will show you what to do.

What If I’m Afraid?

First, I cast no judgment on you. When I first started seeing in the spirit, I
didn’t have anyone to help me navigate through the visions I was seeing or
what I was sensing. I often felt isolated and alone in it all. Especially when I
would see things and have no understanding or way to explain it to friends, I
struggled a little with fear.
The more I learn about the Lord and about the seer anointing, the more I
learn that the enemy tries to make believers get stuck in our fear. By staying
afraid, we aren’t able to step out in our gifting, and so we cannot make war on
the enemy of this world.
John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as
the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be
fearful.”
Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but
of power and love and discipline.”
So remember, you are covered in the blood of Christ. No weapon formed
against you shall prosper. You are not alone in seeing, but the enemy would
like you to believe you are. Fear is not in heaven. I know, I’ve been there! So
where is this fear coming from right now? If you are experiencing any form of
fear or anxiety when seeing something, break the power of fear in Jesus’
name. Then ask the Lord to only allow you to see what you are ready for or
what He wants you to grow in.
 Chapter 14

What to Expect

After reading through this book and doing all the applications and prayers at
the end of the chapters, you should gain more sensitivity to Holy Spirit and be
able to start seeing into the supernatural with the Lord. Here are a few things
you can expect.
Expect to sense what’s in the atmosphere as well. The more the Lord
started to open my seer anointing, the more often I would walk into an
environment and start picking up what was in the room. Sadness or anxiety
would come on me as I walked into a coffee shop, whereas previously I had
been feeling completely happy. For a while, I didn’t realize what was going on,
but later it helped me to realize that I was sensing what was in the
atmosphere and that it wasn’t my own to claim.
Expect to see glimpses and not always full angels or pictures. As I train
more and more (and I’m always learning), the Lord sometimes would just show
me part of an image or a glimpse, as I mentioned previously. So don’t get
discouraged if you are not seeing full images or visions yet. Just keep
watching and always asking for more.
Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you…knock, and it will be
opened.” God wants us to participate with Him! God always surprises me, but
that doesn’t mean I am to not participate and sit back and just allow God to
show up. I want more of the giftings; I want more of Him! So I am always
asking for more. As you align yourself with the Lord, pray, worship Him, read
your Bible, and set aside time to meet with Him, expect Him to show up. The
time you are willing to devote and practice seeing will determine the spiritual
muscles you will gain. Expect the Lord to meet your desire and hunger to see.

The time you are willing to devote and

practice seeing will determine the spiritual
muscles you will gain. Expect the Lord to
meet your desire and hunger to see.

Everyone goes through a dry season with the gift of seeing. I have yet to
meet a seer who doesn’t admit to this. Our own flesh might get in the way, our
own sin, or our own busyness and lack of ability to recognize Him amidst our
schedules. But then there are also dry seasons seers go through simply just
because. The Lord might be trying to take you in a different direction—like a
season of simply rest, or a season to just focus on your family, etc. It doesn’t
mean that the gift of seeing won’t return. With the gift of seeing, I’ve noticed
a pattern in my own life of dry seasons, explosion seasons, and then steady
seasons. I just do my part to make sure there is nothing I personally have done
to cause the dry season, and I press into Him. But we all go through it. Don’t
worry. You will go through an explosion season or steady season with seeing
again.
People may not understand you. I advise every seer to find Spirit-filled
mentors who are prophetic. Also, pray for the Lord to show you who you can
share with about seer anointing. If you can find another seer to run alongside
you as you learn, do it! It’s the best thing you can do to grow in the gift.
I mentioned this previously, but I feel like it’s an important point to
reiterate. Often, you may have a vision that is not for an individual or for
yourself, but rather a corporate vision or picture for a region. So always ask the
Lord to give you revelation on what you are seeing before you jump to try and
come up with your own understanding.
Expect the Lord to speak to you more through your dream life. Dreaming is
a way of seeing too. I always record in my journal all my dreams that I feel are
from the Lord, even if I don’t understand them at the time. You’ve asked the
Lord to open your eyes, so now expect Him to also begin to start helping you
see even through your dream life.
 With spiritual growth might come spiritual attack as well. I remember
having a vision where the Lord would be confirming a direction for me, and
then directly after that or the next day something would happen to make me
question if I was seeing or hearing the Lord correctly. Sometimes also the Lord
may show you something so that when you are in a rougher season when
warfare is intense, you can look back on what He showed you and be
encouraged. As you step out and ask for more, don’t be surprised if there
might be spiritual attack. Claim it all as victory, and keep going after the gift!
Know that you are on the right track, put on the full armor of Christ, and keep
asking for more.
This should go without saying, but expect glory! Expect to encounter the
Lord in new ways that reveal more about Him to you, get you more excited to
meet with Him, and help you feel closer to the Lord. Every time I get to
experience part of heaven, I never get tired of it. I am always asking for more
and am more in awe of Jesus every time.
 Chapter 15

Room of His Lavishing Love

It’s one of my favorite rooms. It’s one of those that I just cannot get enough of!
Don’t get me wrong—all rooms in heaven are amazing. This one, though, holds
a special place in my heart. It is one of the first places God ever took me to in
heaven. I call this room the room of lavishing love. It’s where I go most
frequently with the Lord when I need to replenish, when I need a touch from
Him.
So there I was, back in Brazil doing ministry with the ex-street children
from the slums. Often, I would find myself drained—literally drained!
Emotionally, spiritually, and physically I would feel at my end. (Now, I know
that putting ministry before everything else is not God’s way, but I was a lot
younger then and more naïve.) So I asked the Lord one day to take me
somewhere new. I asked him to open my eyes to see Him more because I
desperately needed to see Him.
Then it happened. I was suddenly not in my room anymore but in a
different room. At first, it scared me because I didn’t know what had just
happened. But then I saw Him. Jesus was standing in the middle of the room
smiling at me, shin deep in water. He motioned for me to come walk out
toward Him, so I trudged through the water to where He was standing. He
smiled and then was gone. Just like that!

“You can’t turn that faucet off! That’s

 My overflowing love pouring out of
there, and it can’t be turned off.”

There I was in this new and exciting place in heaven. Water was
everywhere! That was the first thing I noticed when I came to this room. Water
came up to my shins, and at some points when I walked around it came up to
my knees. The water was constantly moving, but there never seemed to be a
source for the current. It moved, but I could stand my ground without toppling
over. This water was unlike any other current I have ever seen here on earth. It
was warm to touch—just the right temperature, actually. The color of the
water was like a swirling rainbow. Hues of blue, turquoise, green, gold, and at
times purple all swirled around. Water also climbed the walls and dripped
from the entire ceiling like honey. As it dripped down on my head and back, I
didn’t feel wet, but as each drop touched my body I felt a zing of energy and
warmth. Truly, it was unlike anything I have ever seen or experienced before.
The room felt warm in temperature. Not too hot and yet not too cold. Just
perfect, actually! When I breathed in, I smelled something super sweet.
Almost like pomegranates, honey, and flowers mixed together. The smell was
unlike any other scent I had ever smelled before. I could feel Holy Spirit
buzzing about the room. It is hard to describe. Although there was just me in
the room, I could sense someone else’s presence, and the room felt busy. The
constant movement of the water, colors, and air made the room feel alive with
excitement.
On the right side of the room, I could see something that sat up about
three and a half feet out of the water. As I trudged through the waters to get
closer to it, I could see that it came up to my chest level. There sat a porcelain
sink. It wasn’t beautiful by any means, but was just a traditional square
looking wash sink. I saw that the spigot had been left on, so I went to try and
turn it off. I turned as hard as I could. “Agh!” I sighed out loud. The spigot
could not be turned off. Water was overfilling the sink and overflowing onto
the ground. So, I tried again. No success! I tried a third time, and that’s when I
heard His voice.
“Ana, you can’t turn that faucet off! That’s My overflowing love pouring out
of there, and it can’t be turned off. You are stepping in it, breathing it in, and
covered in it. You won’t ever be able to turn My love off!”
 Whoa! I was undone by that. That is when I realized how amazing I felt in
that room. Ever since I got there I had felt so energized, so full of life, joy,
happiness, and peace that I hadn’t felt before. So, I decided to go for a swim!
Why not? I thought. Let’s soak up all the love of God I can while I’m here!

Just like that, I forgot the reason I had asked

God to take me to heaven in the first place.

So, I swam, I splashed, I skipped, I even washed my hair in it, and it felt
amazing. I was having the time of my life when suddenly something else
caught my eye in the room. There in the far left corner I saw something I
hadn’t seen before. I saw a giant mirror.
I went as fast as I could—running, which is nearly impossible in shin-deep
water. The mirror was a long, oval mirror with gold trim. I sat before it in the
water and dared to peer in. At first all I saw was my own reflection. I thought,
What is this Lord? You are showing me this in heaven when it’s something I
could see any day on earth? Thankfully, God is patient with me.
Then I heard, “Look deeper.”
So I kept looking, and that’s when I saw the image start changing. Like a
watercolor painting at first, my face started transforming, and then suddenly I
saw Jesus smiling back at me. Those eyes! There’s nothing in the whole world
like those eyes. Nothing more beautiful, more joyous, and more alive than
those eyes.
I smiled back at Him with tears in my own eyes. The very sight of Him
smiling at me left my heart melted. The worries of that day were gone in that
second. Just like that, I forgot the reason I had asked God to take me to
heaven in the first place. All I wanted to do was sit before that mirror forever
and look into those eyes smiling at me. It was breathtaking. Words fail me
right now to describe how it felt. It lasted only a few seconds but seemed like
eternity.
Then, the image started to change again. Hues of red and orange and fiery
amber came through, and then suddenly I was looking at the Lion of Judah. At
first I felt afraid, but then when I looked into His eyes I could see the Father
coming through them, and so I felt loved and safe. The Lion smiled at me and
then roared! The strength of that roar shook my entire being. The busyness of
the room seemed to stop in that moment. I felt stress completely leave my
body in that moment. It’s hard to describe, but it felt almost like I came into
that room of heaven carrying a heavy load on my back, and after the Lion of
Judah roared something broke off of me in the spiritual realm. I felt light and
free and so happy.
And then, just like that, I was back in my room in Brazil.

You are privileged that the Lord has chosen

you
to do that, but it’s never really about you.

Conclusion
There is nothing like His presence. The greatness of Him, His love, and the
power of God is enough to stop any ambition we have. A room in heaven
stopped for the King; how much more should we!
From the beginning of time, on the sixth day God looked into man’s face
He had just formed and smiled and said, “It is good.” From the very beginning,
God has desired intimacy with us. Was He lonely? No! Did He need us? No.
Often, we get confused about the order of things. “But God, if I don’t build
this house for these children, no one will care about them! But God, You are
calling me to speak to this church. If I don’t go, what will happen to the people
there?” Don’t get me wrong. God speaks to each one of us and often calls us
to do great things for His Kingdom. But when our motive moves us to a place
where we are trying to do things for pleasing Him or because we feel like He
needs us, we have accidentally bumped into partnering with a spirit that is not
Jesus’ heart.
His heart from the beginning was intimacy. That’s it! Intimacy! “But God, I
have to do this!” No, you don’t! You are privileged that the Lord has chosen
you to do that, but it’s never really about you. Let’s get our hearts in check.
My husband and I went to India with all the wrong thoughts at first. Our
intentions were great, but our hearts were not. OK, so we truly felt like God
had called us to go and start up a ministry working in the sex trafficking, red-
light area in that city—a great and worthy call. We met with countless
ministries there that had been working there for years. We researched a bunch
of different areas to begin our ministry. Nothing would open up for us, though!
It was frustrating, taxing, and felt hopeless. What are we doing wrong? we
thought. Our hearts weren’t right. We were still operating out of that place of
doing things for the King, instead of being with the King. So He shut the doors.
It took many hopeless months of trying before we finally got it. And guess
what? Jesus actually was calling us to go to Nepal to just be with Him. There
we partnered alongside Iris Ministries. Yes, we did miracles and saw people
healed and come to Jesus weekly, but more than that we learned to just be.
And you know what? My heart came alive. More alive than it’s probably ever
felt. I wasn’t looking for the ministry to fulfill my heart, which was good
because every ministry has it’s up and down days, but the King was meeting
me daily.

We do because we feel like it connects us to

Him when all He ever wanted was intimacy.

It was always interesting watching the tourists who would come into
Calcutta when we lived there. Around the areas that Mother Theresa’s homes
are set up and still operating, there you can always find lots of tourists.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists come through there yearly, seeking to have
some heightened spiritual experience or connectivity to the universe. No
matter what their religious background, whether they are looking for God or
not, in some way they are looking! People everywhere are looking, looking for
purpose—an answer to the questions, Do I really matter? What was I created
for? Does anyone truly know me and see me? Disconnectedness with the
Father breeds an empty and purposeless feeling. Sadly, many people operate
still out of this place in ministry. Doing instead of being with the King becomes
a norm. We do because we feel like it connects us to Him when all He ever
wanted was intimacy. A crisis hits and suddenly identity issues get stirred up
for us. Nothing we do can make Him love us any less or more. That reality
always hits me afresh every time the Father takes me back to the room in
heaven of lavishing love.
It is the same with the gift of seeing in the spirit or anything supernatural.
If our motive for seeing in the spirit is for self-promotion or to gain an amazing
story, then our hearts are in the wrong place. Our motives are impure. All He
ever wants is to connect with us. All the King requires is our heart—our whole
heart. Not fragments of it, nor our perfect heart. All He wants is our weak little
heart to be completely surrendered to Him. And then He comes. He interrupts
our little lives, our little imperfect lives, just to build relationship with us. For
this, and for this alone, we pursue the gift of seeing.
When was the last time you sat with the King? When was the last time you
sat with Jesus and asked Him what He thought of you? When was the last time
you sat completely still with Holy Spirit and asked Him to show you new
things? Our society is constantly pressing for things now! The repercussion of
this in the body is a generation of lovers who can’t just sit still with the Lord—
a generation that can’t just empty themselves completely to be filled up
completely by Him.

He interrupts our little lives, our little

imperfect
lives, just to build relationship with us. For this,
and for this alone, we pursue the gift of
seeing.

The more I see in the supernatural with God, the more I desire. I have gone
through dry seasons of not seeing also. These seasons are usually because I
am not connecting enough with Him. I am distracted from my one true
purpose. It is out of our love for Him that we must seek to see Him. It’s out of
our desire to draw near the King that we should run after the supernatural. “As
the deer pants…so my soul pants for You” (Ps. 42:1). It’s out of our desire to
know Him and make Him known that we must press into the gift of seeing.
Three simple questions are worthy to ponder on. When is the last time you
truly sat with Him and listened? Are you really desperate? What’s standing in
the way of you accomplishing these first two questions?

Prayer Application
God, make us hungry for You. God, mark me as one who is desperate to
know You more. The more I learn You, the more I want to know more about
You. I want nothing else to stand in the way of getting to know You. I am
thirsty for You, Lord.
Forgive me, Lord, for any time I pursued my own selfish motives above
Yours. How great are Your ways, God. Your ways are so much better than
mine ever could be. God, I want to surrender my will to You right now. I
want to empty myself completely so that You can fill me up. I want to be so
full of You that I can’t help splashing onto others with Your love. God, I
desire intimacy with You.
Lord, I want to see You more. Open my eyes right now to see into the spirit.
Come invade my times with You. Please come and interrupt my life over and
over again! I want to see more of You, God. I want to see what’s on Your
heart for today. Would You trust me with that? Right now, I place my own
hands over my own eyes and call them forth to see in the supernatural with
God. Eyes, in the name of Jesus, I say open! God, I’m here, laying my heart
bare before You, asking You to move in it in a new way. Move in my life,
God. Draw closer to me so that I may draw closer to You. I love You, Lord.
Amen.

Discussion Questions
1. Do you ever find yourself caught up in operating out of a performance
spirit—doing instead of being?

2. In what way do you need to slow down and just be?

 About Ana Werner

Ana Werner and her husband Sam, are the Associate Directors of the
Heartland Healing Rooms in Lees Summit, Missouri, and also founders of
Acacia Ministries International. Ana travels and equips people internationally
on seeing in the Spirit, moving in the prophetic, and healing ministry. Her
transparency as she shares on the realities and experiences she has in
heaven, bring Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and the power of God into the
room when she speaks. Ana is passionate about leading people into
encountering Jesus’ heart. To learn more about Ana’s ministry, please visit
anawerner.org.