Posted on

Taming the Soul

by Del Hungerford

Taming the soul – what a title! You’re probably thinking “what does that mean?” 

For quite some time, I’ve been releasing Perfect Love into the spirit, soul, and body gateways. The gateways involve opening them up and exercising them by allowing the life, light, and glory of God to flow through them into the soul and body gates. Huh? If you’re not familiar with your gateways, I suggest that you purchase my self-paced course, Mountains, Gates, and Castles. When I first began the process of "cleaning" the gateways, I didn't use this gentle approach. What I've discovered is that because Perfect Love is the strongest possible frequency, it can take out some pretty nasty stuff when we infuse that frequency into our gates. Perfect Love is like a weed killer with a lot more strength. That then allows for a more gentle approach with issues that feel so hard. Hmmmm....

Our goal as kingdom-minded believers is to function out of who we are meant to be by developing an intimate relationship with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. There’s only one problem… we all have junk to deal with. And, that junk clouds our ability to function “in Him.” This is where starting with the gateways comes in. Think of a gate as an opening that allows things in and out. Look at all the scriptural references in the Old Testament about the purpose of each gate in the city. Remember that everything in the natural is a mirror of what’s in the supernatural so by studying the gateways in and out of the city of Jerusalem, we can learn a lot about our own gateways.

I’ll give a quick synopsis so I can introduce you to the gateways concept. Basically, we have four sets of gates: First love, spirit, soul, and body. First love is our direct communion with the Father where we truly function in Him. We allow the life, light, and glory of the Father to come into us from the Throne of Grace. It’s in the first love gate that we are infused with all that we need to function as a spirit being.

From the top of our mountain, we're seated on the throne of our life where we govern "in Him" all that's below Perfect Love. Your seat of rest is on that throne. Whatever we allow into the gates of our lives is what dictates our behavior. 

The spirit gates are prayer, reverence, faith, hope, intuition, revelation, fear of God, and worship. We are to allow the life, light, and glory of the Father to flow from the position of first love into our spirit gates. In reality, we are to be governed by our spirit instead of our soul. However, for most of us, it’s the other way around. And, that’s why we run into issues.

The soul gates are conscience, reason, imagination, mind, will, emotions, and choice. Notice that our emotions are a soul gateway instead of a spirit gate? When we let our imaginations and emotions run wild, we are functioning out of our soul. The soul is to bow down to the dictates of the spirit. In other words, the soul has to take orders from the spirit once we are “born again.”

The final set of gateways are the body gates: seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. I see the gates like a mountain with First Love being at the top where I sit in my seat of rest and rule my life from that position. As I function out of my spirit, those gates open and the life, light, and glory of the Father flows down the mountain into the spirit gates, then to the soul gates, and finally to the body gates at the bottom of the mountain. Everything is governed from the top down. Or, from inside out since we are spirit beings first.

Houston! We have a problem!!! This is where it gets very tricky. We are too often ruled by our emotions, our mind where we reason everything out (oh how busy the mind can be), our choices, and our will. The conscience feeds into all the others. We have these things called “familiar spirits” that whisper sweet nothings into our ears. Many times, we don’t even realize it’s a familiar spirit talking and we actually think it’s God.

Time out! Yes, familiar spirits are even around Christians. What renders those nasty little familiars useless is our UNwillingness to listen to them and heed their whisperings. It’s a choice despite how you feel. When we allow our soul to rule, we entertain familiar spirits on a regular basis. The mind of Christ comes directly from Father, into our place of first love with Him and then through through the spirit gates (prayer, reverence, worship, faith, hope, intuition, revelation, and the fear of God). As we allow the spirit to govern the soul, our emotions and thought life begin to line up with who we are in Christ.

Need an example of a soul in control? You’re at a social event. Everyone is talking and having a great time but it appears as though people are leaving you out of the conversation or… you make eye contact with someone who quickly glances the other direction. You have a choice here… If you start thinking and the pondering on thoughts like, “why are people ignoring me?,” you’re actually entertaining a familiar spirit. Or, how about one of my favorite examples… You’re talking with friends and joking around with one another when someone pipes up with a comment such as “You might look better in that outfit if you were twenty years younger.” Again, you have a choice. Will you be offended? Trust me, the moment those words hit the atmosphere, we are given the opportunity whether to listen to a familiar spirit that sits by the soul gates just waiting for us to engage it or, turn into our spirit and let it make the decision on how to respond. Yeah, people who say such dumb things have their own issues but you have a CHOICE in how you want to deal with any stupidity that comes your way. 

Hear me out for a minute. I’m willing to put my neck out on a limb to say that many of the issues we face with our emotional state could be rectified IF we allow the spirit gates to rule over the soul gates. What do I mean by this? Another example should help explain. As many who’ve read my blogs know, I left an abusive marriage. There were some physical ramifications from that marriage that lasted for nearly 20 years. In all honesty, it was easier to stay in that place because it was more comfortable. And, I didn’t know a way out. The unknown was scary. I was fearful and didn’t know how to move forward, especially since the physical issues lingered for so long. For that to change, I had to make some conscious decisions and then then practice (yep… PRACTICE) a new way of thinking (renew the mind). I also had to carefully watch the words out of my mouth (Proverbs 18:21). Words are a huge creative force. It was with words (and possibly song) that God created the universe. But, that’s a topic for another blog post.

Kingdom Principle break! I really believe that there are many physical illnesses that are directly caused by our emotional state of mind. Check out the “Emotional Roots of Physical Symptoms” chart that I assembled with my friends Alice and Seneca. Once we deal with our emotions, our bodies tend to heal. We should be under the governance of the spirit gates. That in turn trickles down through the soul and into our body. What does that mean? When you have a symptom on your body, don’t immediately bow down to it. Watch what comes out of your mouth and don’t immediately go into Facebook and say “Please pray for me! I woke up this morning feeling ______” In a sense, that’s bowing down to it and acknowledging that it has a place in your body. Instead, step into the presence of God and allow Papa to speak to you on what needs to be done to bring your body back into health. This doesn't negate going to the doctor is you need to do that. But... be careful who you ask to pray for you  Choose people who will align with God's thoughts about you, not their personal opinions. 

Please note, I do ask people to pray for me. I see no problem with that and we should come alongside those we consider to be part of our inner circle. Outside of my circle, I tend not to tell everyone else what’s going on in my personal life. Why not? Because words ARE a creative force, I want prayers to be brought from heaven to earth and not the other way around. I want people praying for and with me that know how to function from that intimate place with the Trinity. And, I need to be able to take care of my junk on my own, seeking Father for answers. Often times when we ask others to pray for us, we rely on those prayers more than our own. In order to grow out of the baby Christian mentality, we need to learn how to take care of our own stuff. This has been a huge lesson for me. I wasn’t called “motor mouth” for nothing. Ask my dad. He’ll enlighten you on that subject. Just saying…

Back to my example… I eventually figured out how to put my emotions and imagination into their proper place. First off, I had to make a conscious decision not to live out of the fatigue that seemed to plague my body. It was a mindset that I needed to change. When a familiar spirit would come and whisper “But, you know how tired you feel? It’s OK to ________,” I had to get onto my seat of rest and imagine being in that place of intimacy with Father. I then focused on letting the love, light, and glory of the Father flow through a spirit gates and into my emotions or another soul gateway (depended on what Father was showing me at the time). I asked Jesus to show me where I needed healing (emotionally). I then spent a lot of time repenting for wrong mindsets and emotional traumas that I “fed” and hung on to. In case you’re not aware, fear is almost always going to be feeding an emotional trauma.

News flash!!! Things didn’t change right away! I had to practice and practice and practice new thought patterns despite how I physically felt. At first, the more I practiced, the more familiar spirits would try to entice me with some new and twisted theory of staying stuck in that place of emotional pain, which led to physical pain.

I hated spending many years of my life so fatigued that I could barely function. They say when you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, you finally do something about it. As I became whole emotionally, my body healed.

I went through a lot of Inner healing, which may be necessary to help get over the issues that we tend to have. That being said, I think it’s also important that we don’t get stuck there. Look to see if you’re doing what you’ve been asked. To me, emotional healing should start with making sure we’re functioning out of our spirit first. We aren’t supposed to be led by our emotions or how we physically feel. What does that look like? Have you ever said, “That’s just the way I am…” or “I’ve had ______ happen to me” or “All my parts and pieces aren’t liking this.” We’re told that we have the mind of Christ and that we are a new creation. Well, in order to function as a new creation IN HIM, we must put our focus on Him instead of what negative thoughts and emotions run rampant in our minds.

The hardest part of not having dinner with the familiar spirits? They are ever-so-willing to whisper if I give them a sliver of a listen. They can be like vultures waiting to pounce on their prey. I had to look past the physical symptoms and see myself soaking in the River of Life where I allowed the very essence of God's Love to flow through me, changing me into His image. I will also note here that worshiping, praying in tongues, and spending quality time with Father makes a HUGE difference with everything in my life. It starts from the inside out.

What HAS changed through this is my attitude. What other people think should have no affect on what I do or don’t do. Really, it all began with me stepping into who I am in Christ. Out of that I am learning to function as a spirit being first. Then, my spirit governs the soul which in turn pounds out “Yankee Doodle” on my body. And you know what? My body eventually gave up the extreme fatigue. But, it required me governing my life from heaven down to earth - from the top to the bottom of my personal mountain. Everything takes time and PRACTICE in learning new mindsets.

As the familiar spirits try to tempt your ears and eyes, focus on being in Him and choose a response that comes directly from your place of rest in Christ, even if your body continues to be in physical and/or emotional pain. Things that stop the flow are constant complaining/whining, being pessimistic, doing the hypochondriac bit (where you always have to tell others what’s wrong with you), dwelling on the past horrible things that happened to you, unforgiveness, fear, anxiety, and lack of hope. The list could go on but you get the idea.

As I often share, I’m speaking out of experience here because I’ve done every negative item on the list above. It wasn’t until I chose to change my mindset and then practice the new mindset before things started to change. And, I took every small change as a step in the right direction. Little changes are better than no changes.

Lastly, if you need some assistance in walking through healing from trauma, get the Mountains, Gates, and Castles course. Take your time and enjoy the journey!

My declaration over anyone who reads this… May you come into that intimate relationship with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. May you be healed in your soul and body as you function out of who you are in Christ. I speak blessings over and above all that you could ask or think! May you be physically pain free, emotionally whole, and spiritually sensitive to all the Father has for you. May you walk here on earth in what you’ve been called to do and that’s mandated for you life! In the Mighty Name of Jeshua – AMEN!

Blessings!

Del

Posted on

Your Seat of Rest

by Del Hungerford

Your seat of rest sits on top of the "mountain of your life." Jesus taught using parables. In a sense, that's exactly what I'm doing with the various "kingdom concepts." I'm using every day things that you understand that others are also using. I do this so we have a cohesiveness between what's being spoken so there's less confusion. With that, let me continue painting a picture, which you can imagine...

Your life is like a mountain where you're seated at the top. That view gives you a perspective of seeing everything below you and anything that comes toward you. It's "high level" viewing from a strategic place. On this mountain, seated in Perfect Love (with Christ) is your seat of rest - or the throne of your life. You'll see the picture above gives you a starting point. However, your throne will be unique to you and may look nothing like this one. Your surroundings may be different, too. Why? It's all unique to you and your individual process of engaging with God. 

The more you "rule and reign" over your life from this elevated position, the better your life will be. If you look at the picture below, you'll notice that the inner self is where your heart resides - the castle of your heart (as the children's song says so sing along now...). This is your inner self where you meet with the Trinity in the garden of your heart. This is your temple and dwelling place in the kingdom realms. You'll hear many people speak about getting on your seat of rest when things go haywire around you. Well, this is what they're talking about. It's a visual to help you understand your positioning of ruling and reigning. 

Notice that the throne is sitting in Perfect Love. The Bible says God is Love (1 John 4:8-16) so this is where you're seated "IN HIM." The more we learn to function from this position, the more at rest we'll be despite the circumstances around us. 

What I’m seeing is that when we’re on our seat of rest, we’re in the presence of God. And, we’re operating out of First Love (our first gateway) because in that place, we are “in Him.” Basically, one touches the other with our throne (our seat of rest) between the two. When we’re “in Him,” what’s in First Love then flows directly into the spirit. Then, from the spirit, it flows down the mountain in and through the soul and body gateways. What others see in us should come directly from the Throne of Grace that flows in and through all our gateways.

When we function out of soul, we’ve essentially cut off the top portion of the mountain. The closer we are to the bottom of the mountain, the further we are away from the presence of God. But, when we function from that position of rest, it allows the golry of God to completely envelope everything below it. At any time, we can move around IN that position of rest and walk down the mountain bringing the Glory and Light of God with us or… IF we’re functioning out of soul, our function only goes at the level we’re behaving out of. Example – let’s say someone says something to totally torque you (make you super mad). You decide to gripe about it and hurl some interesting words towards that person. At that moment, you’ve just gone down to the soul level and aren’t giving the First Love and Spirit Gateways any say. That’s where the griping and interesting words come from… a soul that’s in control. But… when we bring our seat of rest with us, our reactions to these types of things are different. I think that’s one way we know where we’re at. Our first response to the crap that goes on around us generally tells us which set of gateways we’re functioning out of.

As we learn to walk in that place of rest, I think that it’s much easier to actually divide the soul from the spirit because we’re doing it from being in the presence of God rather than trying to do it on our own (soul). Through the above picture, I’m getting a better visual of how functioning from the spirit works. When the soul bows down to the dictates of the spirit, our spirit is in control. When we function out of our spirit, the soul and body come under that alignment and are then subject to the dictates of the spirit. A meme that I made recently says “a soul in control stops the flow of the spirit.” I find this very true because the human DNA part of us rules by feelings, emotions, and actions. If you look at the soul and spirit gateways, you’ll see the difference between the two.

In “The Final Quest” by Rick Joyner, he talks about going up a mountain and the closer he gets to the top, the further away the attacks are. He can see them from the top but they can’t reach him because of his position. As long as he stays at the top of the mountain, he’s good to go. What I’ve learned from this is that if we constantly look at what the enemy is doing, it takes our eyes off Papa. As we stay in that place of rest IN HIM, what the enemy does is irrelevant. The enemy truly is under our feet!

Conclusion and Activation!

This “exercise” for the Mountains, Gates, and Castles course is about functioning from a place of rest no matter what goes on around us. Practicing the presence of God is all about pursuing God with all our strength and might. Our flesh (soul) doesn’t like that because it’s been allowed to rule and reign for as long as we’ve been alive. Like anything else, it takes practice to weed out the “stinkin’ thinkin” that tends to clog our minds. In a sense, it’s like weeding a garden so what’s going to produce fruit will overtake the non-fruit-bearing growth. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have beautiful roses in my garden than dandelions!

Here's a short version of the activation to get you started until you can purchase the course:

  • Print off this page so you have a copy of the gateways (see picture below).
  • Find a quiet place away from distractions.
  • Grab a journal and be prepared to write what you see, hear, sense, and feel during your quiet time. In case a negative memory comes up, write it down. This will help you identify situations to work through. 
  • See yourself go into your heart garden, which is at the top of your mountain. That's where your seat of rest resides. It's sitting in Perfect Love so in this place, you're seated "in Christ." 
  • Feel the emotions of Love and gratitude. Once you feel those emotions, continue to the next step.
  • See Perfect Love flow down the mountain into EACH spirit gate. Visualize what that looks like. Write what you see, hear, sense, and feel, especially if something sticks out to you.
  • Allow Perfect Love to flow from the spirit into EACH of the soul gates. Visualize each gate and see Love flowing into it. Write what you see, hear, sense, and feel, especially if something sticks out to you.
  • Allow Perfect Love to flow from the soul into EACH body gate. Visualize each gate and see Love flowing into it. Write what you see, hear, sense, and feel, especially if something sticks out to you.
  • Repeat for at least 60 days straight. The more you do this, the more revelation you'll receive concerning things that need adjustment so the gates that need more cleaning can be dealt with. "Dealing" with a gate often means some trauma is stuck there. As the Lord shows you the trauma, ask Him how you're to deal with it.
  • In the Mountains, Gates, and Castles course, I walk you through a more detailed and longer version of this activation. 


Seat of Rest Declaration

Here is another practice opportunity! As I've said throughout these articles, I created my own exercises based on teachings I'd listened to. After all, why listen to something and not put it into practice? That's how we mature - by find a way to practice what we're learning. With that, here's my declaration that I spoke (and continue to do so as I feel led) about the seat of rest. Feel free to say this often...

Jesus, I choose to have you seated on the throne of my life. I take my place of being in your in that place of rest on the throne of my life. I rule and judge from my spirit in you and say that my body and soul gateways are subject to the dictates of the spirit as I function in you out of that seat of rest. I choose to lean on you, Jesus, despite what may be going on around me. I take my seat on my throne and govern my life to bring governmental authority into and around my life. In you, I command everything to be subject to the realm of God's kingdom. I say that the kingdom of God is manifested in my life as I function out of rest. 

Blessings and happy practicing!

Del

Posted on

Seeing in the Spirit

by Del Hungerford

The term "seeing in the spirit" seems to be fairly new but in reality, it's all over the Bible. We've just never called it that until recently. Think of all the times people were taken to heaven and saw some pretty weird stuff. Somehow, we've believed it's no longer for us. Who told us that and why did we believe it? There are a myriad of other questions that we could ask as well. The knee jerk reaction to "seeing in the spirit" from some in the Christian community is to think it's something new age. Again, we go back to the Bible. The entire book of Revelation is about seeing in the spirit where God invited John to "come up here" in chapter 4 so He could show John "many things." Think about Ezekiel and the wheel or Jacob watching angels go up and down a ladder. These are only three of the many stories about seeing in the spirit. I ask this question... we were given an imagination so why do we not realize that we can use it for Godly purposes?

We are a three-part being - spirit, soul, and body. We were given an imagination to use it! However, some religions have taught that our imagination could get us into trouble. Well, if they're going to say that, then they might as well tell us to never pick up a knife because we could do something bad with it. Sorry, but my meat cuts much better with a knife than with a fork. We are given "tools of the spirit" to function in our spiritual capacity as Sons of God to do the work of the kingdom. It's just like eating food. Spoons, forks, and knives all have different purposes. ANY of them could be used with a wrong intention that could be harmful for someone. But, why focus on the negative? Any religion that gets you to focus more on the devil than on what God has for you is teaching you how to function from a position of fear. Quite literally, they "fear" you into behaving a certain way. This is how cults work and honestly, many religions today act like cults because they don't function in Perfect Love. But... that's for another blog post. Back to seeing in the spirit...

What does "seeing in the spirit" actually mean? The short definition is literaly what it says - you're seeing things with the eyes of your heart rather than your intellectual brain of knowledge. This involves the imagination. For those concerned, simply sanctify the imagination before beginning the process, inviting Jesus into your vision. When someone tells you a story, most of the time, you get a visual in your head of what is being described. In this case, you're seeing with the eyes of your brain. Seeing with the eyes of the spirit (in your heart) comes from within the spiritual portion of your being that's tied directly to the heart of God.

The question I always ask is... if Jesus did what he saw his Father do, shouldn’t we do the same? By learning HOW to see into the kingdom realms of God, we are able to develop relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s no different than spending time with a spouse or best friend. You learn about that person by spending time with them. God wants the same for us; to spend time with Him in His realm. He’s already here on earth so now, all we have to do is see what he does, learn about it, and then do what we’ve learned.

Many are walking on the face of the earth today who have learned to function out of heaven as a daily protocol. How do people do it? Instead of seeing things from an emotional perspective, we step into the eyes of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Visualize sitting "in Him" every day. The Bible says we're seated with Him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) and it's FROM THAT PLACE where we do everything. After we get the thoughts of God on any subject, we then release the revelation of what we've seen from heaven into earth. In a sense, we bring that revelation back to our present moment and begin to funciton out of that.

We all know that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are as close as the air we breathe. However, why is it we think that everything has to happen here, on earth? In the book of Revelations, John was given the invitation to “come up here.” When he did, he got a lot more than he expected, I’m sure! It was from his heavenly position that he learned of the coming things that ended the age. Just to clarify, I believe (like many others do at this point) that the Lord was talking about the end of the Old Testament age as they entered the Church age, which began after Jesus ascended into heaven. We are now transitioning from the church age into what some call the "Age of God" or "Kingdom Age." But, that topic is for a future blog post. You'll see snippets of this topic throughout this entire website.

The whole point behind the pracitce of seeing in the spirit is to understand that our spiritual eyes are just as important as our physical eyes and that we need to learn to use both. This is different than prophecy or words of knowledge because you actually see stuff in the spirit and eventually have understanding of what it all means. Many times when people give prophetic words or words of knowledge, they don't have an understanding of what stuff means. With seeing in the spirit, we might not have the understanding right away but the more we practice this stuff, the better we "see" and then understand. People think prophecy, tongues, and other spiritual "gifts" are only given to some people. I believed that lie for quite some time until I began to practice seeing in the spirit. 

Throughout this website, you'll hear us talk about visions and  encounters with the Trinity. That may come in the form of dreams, visions, or general engagements with the godhead. I sit and often journal during this time, writing down what I see, hear, sense, and feel even if it doesn't make sense. I may be in my heart garden or some other places in the heavenlies while having a conversation with a member of the Trinity. As we converse, I write it all down. 

You learn to peruse the lay of the land wherever you are and sometimes, it just doesn't make sense. We have to learn to get beyond ourselves and see a situation through God's eyes - not ours. The problem? We too often put expectations on what we're supposed to see, hear, sense, or feel. That's a vision killer for sure so... learn to let go of any preconceived ideas first. 

How does one learn to see in the spirit? It takes practice, just like a musician has to practice scales over and over and over.... (you get the point) to understand that patterns found within music relate to all musical works. The more we practice something, the better we get at it. This is how I learned to see in the spirit.

  • I started with purifying my imagination where I envisioned being with Jesus. This was a step of faith for me because I didn't see anything at first. 
  • A good starting point is to look around a room (your house, work, coffee shop, etc.). Then, close your eyes and picture in your mind where everything is located that you just looked at. Then, do the same thing with a specific object. Look it over, close your eyes, and see it in your imagination. Repeat this process several times because it's exercising your imagination. 
  • Next, I would go into my bedroom at night and turn all the lights off and stare up at the ceiling with it totally black in the room. Eventually I closed my eyes and continued practicing. Of course, I could see nothing with my natural eyes. I did this for at least half an hour. If I fell asleep, fine. Then, I activated my dreams.
  • I focused on seeing with my spiritual eyes by turning inward to my heart. It took a couple weeks before I saw anything, which could be discouraging so... don't be discouraged if it seems to take you a long time.
  • Eventually, I began to see flashes of light, stars, streaks, and other things. I'd then close my eyes and visualize a peaceful garden and see myself in that place. I'd look around and try to describe the flowers, the sky, and other things.
  • If something didn't make sense or I saw something weird, I didn't judge it. I simply noted it.
  • The key to this? Stay rooted in Love and gratitude. If love and gratitude are your focus, negative stuff (including the enemy himself) can't stand to be in that place so they have no power to do anything.
  • I then began to journal what I sensed, saw, heard, and felt. I didn't judge anything but simply wrote stuff down. I believe journaling is a major key to this. Why? If you don't, you second guess yourself. Write now, judge later. 
  • Practice, practice, practice! If I didn't say practice, then practice some more!

Side note here... The enemy comes AS a roaring lion. He's only that IF you give him the power to do so. The enemy becomes what you make him. That's why it's important NOT to pay attention to him. Turn and look at God, wrap yourself in His Perfect Love, and go about your business. Escort fear out the door and stay cloaked in Perfect Love. What you put your attention toward, that's your focus. If you want to see in the spirit, put your eyes toward God, not the enemy. 

I will conclude here that seeing in the spirit is just like anything else in life. If you don't put your attention to it, "it ain't gonna happen." How bad do you want something? How much do you want to move past blockages in your life? When you're ready, you'll let go of any fear wrapped around your thoughts. If you've been told that seeing in the spirit is new age, then there's a lot to unengage with. Some paradigm shifts are needed. Go and read Bible stories of people who saw things in the heavens. I then ask you, if they could do it, why can't you? 

With that, if you'd like some resources, there are some items listed in the sources section below. Click on the title that will take you to a link for the appropriate book or class. All include information about seeing in the spirit and understanding how the spirit, soul, and body must work together as a 3-stranded cord that functions in complete harmony. This includes using your spiritual eyes and other senses (hear, smell, taste, touch). 

Enjoy the journey!

Del

Resources