Beneath the Veil no.20 The Millionaire’s Lair

The second day there, she took us out to an expensive dinner and paid for everything. She wanted to go to the Venice Beach area and since she was driving, we all went. She parked us in front of a psychic bookstore and we went in. She flamboyantly insisted on paying for each of us to have an hour-long session with one of the psychics. Everyone was so impressed except for me. There was no way I was going to see a psychic. I had other ideas.

I walked down to a coffee shop and had a great time by myself and thought about what I’d just experienced. This woman was a millionaire but I could see right through her. She was lonely and not pleasant to be around. She only had friends because she had the money to pay for them. They talked about her behind her back, but if she offered to take them to dinner or anywhere else and pay for it, they went. And whatever philosophies she felt like expounding on, they listened and no one dared confront. It reminded me of dogs sniffing each other’s butts.  

God taught Solomon that most people would tend to listen to a rich person rather than a poor one, “The poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded” (Ecc 5:16). But God wanted Solomon to be smarter and He told him: “The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools” (Ecc 5:17). We have the ability to be wise like Solomon.

Paul tells the body of Christ we are to be “submitting ourselves one to another in the fear [respect] of God” (Eph 5:21). The “one another” has nothing to do with finances. We should be expecting God to speak to us through the people around us. He set it up that way, but if we aren’t looking for it we’ll miss it. If we respect each other as vitally important, we won’t miss what the Lord wants to teach us. We’re probably right in the place God wants us to be, or at least on our way there. It’s not like God doesn’t know where we are! He does and He has people around us that He can work in to get important messages to us.

I believe if we take our focus off the rich and famous and instead expect God to work mightily through ordinary people, we will see more of the extraordinary manifested in our everyday lives.

After escaping the millionaire’s lair, I received tremendous wise counsel from those around me, as well as from people I hadn’t communicated with in a long time. It turned into several months of tremendous discovery and appreciation for the “regular” people I know.

Love, Carolyn

PHANTOM IN THE SEX HOTEL

There’s a casino here in Las Vegas we lovingly and cynically call the “sex hotel.” The young guys come in with hunger and expectation. I watched one guy in a restaurant start flirting with a waitress in a way that he fully expected her to take him in the back room right there on the spot. It was kind of humorous, but sad too. The billboards advertise sex, so the guys come in expecting to get it, but it’s a phantom. They can look all around the main floor of the casino and restaurants and be sorely disappointed. They’re trapped by visions of their imaginations. Dangerous illusions end up in dangerous and destructive behaviors. Phantoms present themselves in all categories of life. I had my own phantom about a vacation.

My ideal vacation was a memory from my younger years—having a great time camping, fishing, and floating down the rapids on an air mattress. The image was pulling at me so much that I was getting really uptight, especially since everything I was planning, failed. What started as a simple desire, turned into lust and idolatry.

Lust, because I became obsessed with it; idolatry because I’d elevated the idea of a perfect vacation above almost everything else. When I realized this, I looked up the word idolatry and found that an idol is defined as a phantom. I told myself I had to let the phantom image go. Previous vacations with my family are great memories, but I couldn’t continue chasing ghosts.

Chasing phantoms doesn’t deliver the results we expect or want. The Bible calls it “vanity.” “Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Eph 4:17). “Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For emptiness will be his reward” (Job 15:31).

I was caught up in chasing the illusion—an emotional feeling I wanted from the perfect vacation. It was making me miserable and I didn’t want it to happen again. Being obsessed by this phantom made me act and feel like I was in a vise grip.

The dictionary defines a vise as a “that which winds, consisting of two jaws opened and closed by a screw, to hold or squeeze with.” That’s exactly how I felt. The vacation mirage had me in its jaws and was squeezing. I felt pressurized and unsatisfied. The word “vise” can also be spelled “vice.”  I realized that a v-i-c-e (defined as a fault or harmful habit) works the same way as a v-i-s-e with people’s minds. The vice gets a grip on the mind and it won’t let go.

God tells us He wants us to be free. Paul tells the Galatians: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal 5:1). A yoke is like a vise grip that keeps us from the freedom that comes with Christ and walking by the Spirit. The yoke that binds us is often merely a false image we’ve somehow believed.

The world is full of phantoms, and we’ve been bombarded with them since we were young—things we were led to believe were okay for us to seek and seize. They were presented to us through all kinds of media including books, magazines, TV, the internet, religion, our parents, teachers, peers, our cultural and ethnic backgrounds, to name a few of the sources of these phantoms. We have even combined what these sources put out, and developed our own versions of certain ideas, or pictures of how we think we’d really like things to be.

My dream was of a specific vacation I was idolizing and obsessing over. Another example comes from when I was twenty-one. I had the idea of having twelve kids. I figured since I really liked teaching Sunday School classes with lots of kids, I would love having twelve of my own. But that was my imagined scenario, and I didn’t check it out with the Lord. I also dreamed of being married by the age of twenty-five and I felt devastated when that didn’t happen.

One of my friends used to envision herself having one perfect job—one that she would absolutely love, and she would do it all her life. Women and men fantasize about their idea of their perfect mate and possibly miss the best one—the one God sends. People get an idea of what they see as their perfect family setup, then end up as a single parent, step-mom or a step-dad, and feel that their dreams have been forever shattered, and they have a hard time coping with the reality of the new family they’ve been given.

I’m sure all of us have had dreams we thought were our own, but sometimes those visions of what we think we want, come not from God, but from the world, and if we continue to pursue those things, our actions can turn very un-Christ-like. Paul says: “I warn you beforehand, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:21 AMP). Up until now, I never really understood that verse, but now I get it.

When we are chasing phantoms we can’t be at the same time enjoying the inheritance of God’s way. Paul doesn’t say if you get trapped by the world’s delusions you’re not going to heaven, you’re a horrible person and doomed forever. Yes, you are definitely doomed now, as long as you continue to seek the illusions, because those things put a yoke on you and they can be tremendously oppressive, and they will never really satisfy. But in contrast to seeking empty illusions, we have another choice.

We can choose the sure promises of God—promises that always deliver. When we have an image in our minds or hearts we can ask God for revelation about it: is it from God, or is it from another source? True visions come from God, not only from His written word, but they are also communicated to us through His Spirit which we have within us. As we endeavor to seek Him and His will for our lives in all our dreams, desires and hopes, He will not fail us.

By the way, that vacation I wanted—when I went to God and asked Him, He lined one up that was entirely different from what I’d imagined and it was the best vacation ever! And concerning the young guys who come to the sex hotel, I pray they wake up to God instead of some stranger.

Love, Carolyn

Beneath the Veil no.19 STONED

There went another chunk of my 2 ½ foot high brick wall. Too many kids sitting on it wiggling and jumping off. And the fact that it’s almost 50 years old. Poor thing had cracks from the top all the way to the bottom, the mortar wasn’t holding any more and several bricks had fallen off or been pulled off to hold up Garage Sale signs. I really wanted to get it repaired but it would cost me quite a bit and it just couldn’t be a priority right now. It was, however, a desire of my heart and sometimes that’s all it takes. God’s love is unconditional.

I didn’t do anything super special, but God did.

Last week my neighbor from Cuba was putting a new fancy façade on his house. The trucks came with huge boxes of beautiful stones and they began to build. Along with putting the stones on the face of the house, they were also building up bricks to make some pillars along his fence line. It looked great and I told him so. Next thing I knew, my roommate was over there talking to the guys doing the work, asking what they would charge for a minimal repair job on our wall. Raul overheard and told her, “Oh, it’s a small job. I’ll do it for nothing.” I was elated! But it didn’t end there.

The next morning we drove around the corner on our way back from the orchard in North Las Vegas and there it was, the entire length of our wall was perfect—new bricks to fill in where the others had gone missing, all the cracks disappeared AND we had a brand new 5 foot tall pillar at the edge, complete with capital and finished off with the same beautiful stones Raul had. It was thrilling and way beyond what I had envisioned. I still can hardly get over it. It’s beautiful and it cost me nothing but friendship with my wonderful neighbor. God gave me the desire of my heart and did it Ephesians 3:20 style, “exceedingly abundantly above what I could ask or think.”

Love, Carolyn

EYES ROLLED BACK IN THEIR HEAD, THEY SPEAK IN A WEIRD LANGUAGE, TOTALLY UNAWARE.....NOT!!

On my walk home from grade school, I would sing songs in a made up language. Later in life I realized this was singing in tongues. Often when children get born again they exhibit the freedom to yield to the Holy Spirit by speaking or singing in their new God-given language. What about teens and adults?

There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about speaking in tongues. People think a spirit takes over and it’s like in the movies where a person’s eyes roll back in their head, they get possessed and then they speak in a different language and are totally unaware of it. NOT! It’s just the opposite. The person speaking or praying in tongues is in complete control of their actions. The spirit from within gives the words (that’s the cool part), but the person does the speaking. They can start or stop anytime, just like speaking in their native language.

So, besides being proof that’s there’s something really different about you now, what’s the point of singing or speaking in tongues?

Everyone instinctively knows there’s more going on than what we see in the natural. Speaking in tongues reveals mysteries that lie behind the scenes (1 Cor 14:2). It makes it so we understand and can rise above the darkness of the world around us. The Lord wants us to know the mysteries. He wants us to know the God side of the paranormal.

The devil is getting a lot bolder with his attacks but we are more easily equipped with a bigger arson of weaponry and skill. Speaking in tongues builds us up in these areas. “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself” (1 Cor 14:4). The Greek word for “edifieth” is oikodomeo and comes from a word meaning “to be a house-builder, build up, embolden.” 

 Praying in tongues also builds up our faith. It’s not good enough to operate in small faith when it comes to caring for ourselves, our families, our friends, our neighborhoods, our world. Bigger faith action is needed. “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 1:20). But what about when we don’t know what to have faith for or what to pray?

Romans 8:26 tells us speaking in tongues is a way to pray perfectly for those things. The Greek translation reads: “The Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us in goanings that cannot be uttered in articulate speech.” Articulate speech refers to our known languages. We just don’t know what God knows, but the Holy Spirit within us does. The Holy Spirit gives us the words to pray the perfect will of God for any person or any situation.

When we speak in tongues we are communicating directly with God (1 Cor 14:2). We are bypassing the limitations of our ever so rational, critical minds. The exact words come from within. Jesus said, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:39). So let it flow.

The Bible has many more things to say about the benefits of speaking in tongues, but I will close with this one, which is precious: “Thou verily givest thanks well” (1 Cor 14:17). We know that being thankful is vital for truly glorious Christian living and speaking or singing in tongues does it well!

Love, Carolyn

Beneath the Veil no.18 Bad Blood

What would make three brothers kidnap three girls, lock them up in ropes and chains, and torture them for ten years?

The devil and bad blood, that’s what. When Adam sinned and turned his back on God, the bloodline of all mankind was affected. The tendency toward sin literally got into his blood and was passed from generation to generation. It’s hard to imagine some of the horrible things we hear about. Many of these evils come about because of generational curses. There are lots of different kinds of generational curses, some more notorious than others. There is a way we can recognize them.

Recognizing a generational curse is the first step to deliverance from it. Deuteronomy 28:15-49 lists many of the generational curses that are still in existence to this day. When reading the Bible we can see certain bad thinking and bad habits passed from father to son, mother to daughter, etc. Sometimes you’ll see that a curse skips a generation and comes roaring back to a grandchild. The book of Judges is full of this kind of thing.

In our own times we see molested children sometimes becoming the molesters when they get older. We see children of alcoholic parents becoming alcoholics themselves. Other examples of generational curses are stealing, uncontrollable lying, drug abuse, eating disorders, other addictions, irrational fears, inexplicable early deaths, mental problems, just to name a few.

But every evil can be overcome. God made a way to supernaturally cleanse bad blood.

The answer is Jesus. Because He shed His perfect blood, we receive redemption when we accept Him into our hearts. Our spiritual blood flow is without the curses that came before. It is up to us to accept it. We have to get strong against the devil’s forces that want us to accept our lives with all the bad we seem to be stuck with.

But we’re not stuck with it; God sent Jesus as a savior for us. He can supernaturally wipe away all generational curses. We have to first read God’s Word to convince ourselves, and then tell the devil and his evil forces what we now believe to be the truth, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse.” And we are “a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Love, Carolyn

HAGAR AND THE MOCKING BIRD

I went out in the back yard and got dive bombed by a mocking bird daddy. He left his perch on the neighbor’s fence and began screeching and flying at me from all directions to get me to back off. The mother bird was catching grasshoppers and risking the flight down to the ground to feed her baby, who couldn’t fly yet. That mother bird was doing what her instincts told her was necessary to take care of that baby. But it takes a lot more than instincts to be a great human mother.

It takes a relationship with God. Let’s look at some of the dilemmas and answers to Hagar from the Old Testament. She was the handmaid to Sarai, Abram’s wife. When Sarai could not get pregnant, she gave Hagar to Abram. After Hagar got pregnant, Sarai was angry and jealous and banished her. But God had other plans. He sent an angel to deliver a hard message to Hagar. God wanted her to go back into the house of Abram and Sarai. It must have seemed so difficult to go back where she was hated. But for the sake of the upbringing of her son, she obeyed God. Here’s the story:

And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.

And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. (Gen 16:7-11)

The word “heard” in verse 11 is shama, which means to listen attentively, carefully, with regard and understanding. The word “affliction” means misery and depression. The angel was telling her that God understood her misery and depression. He cared about her and was listening to her anguish and in spite of what it seemed, she could trust that He still had a good plan for them.

Mothers need to know that they can take their deepest concerns to God and that He will instruct them and they can trust Him. God knows what’s in the future, so obedience must even override instinct at times.

After this encounter with an angel of God, Hagar realized how much God cared about her and her child. She could go back into Sarai and Abram’s home with new courage and a new awareness of how important she was to God no matter how Sarai felt about her. There were important lessons to learn and it was in Abram’s home that she and her son would learn them.

In the wilderness Hagar had poured out her heart to God, but she didn’t stop there. She learned how to listen to Him. She risked her own feelings of human rejection and obeyed when it wasn’t easy. God blessed her because of it and made her son the father of a whole nation.

As for me, I can go out in my yard now without being dive bombed. The baby mocking bird can fly now and maybe next year it’ll teach its own to fly here too.

Love, Carolyn

Workbook and Good Stories

Use it as a workbook or just enjoy the stories of my spiritual discoveries in Las Vegas and beyond: Part 1 of my book WINGS is available FREE on Amazon today thru Monday. Love, Carolyn

Beneath the Veil no.17 Hot Mama Drama

My dog Spike was up all night. First he wanted to get up on my bed awhile and snuggle. Then he wanted to go outside. Then he just had to visit the garage. Next thing I knew he was back in my room and I had a wet black nose pushing my hand as it hung off the side of the bed. I didn’t know what was going on, and then it hit me.

We have a female curly white Bichon living across the street. We call her Hot Mama, and she’s in heat.

Spike could smell her and the poor little guy was tempted unforgivingly. When he went out into the garage he could smell her on the garbage cans. He could smell her on the pants I hung by my bed. I’d never seen him so frantic and bothered. What to do?

The answer to this dilemma came quickly. I took the pants out and put them in the washing machine; I took the garbage cans and put them outside. Problem solved and I slept.

This incident reminded me of the battles we all have with temptations. When I meet people who come here to Las Vegas for vacation and they tell me they’re thinking about coming to live here, I often caution them, “If your marriage isn’t totally solid, don’t come here. Every temptation you could ever imagine is available here.”  In Weight Watchers they call certain food temptations “triggers.” They’re usually things like cookies or chips, where you open the bag and can’t stop until you’ve consumed the last crumb.

One of the simplest yet most difficult solutions to getting rid of temptation is just that—getting rid of it. Take the garbage cans out. Don’t bring the cookies in. Avoid venues where your temptations dwell in abundance. We can do this. We have the Lord Jesus Christ to help us get the victory in every situation.

And, by the way, Spike’s little Hot Mama isn’t in heat anymore and I’m sleeping delightedly.

Love, Carolyn

LAS VEGAS HOME INVADED BY AMALEKITE SPIRITS

I got up at 3:30 a.m., went into the kitchen to make coffee and when I turned on the light, I noticed two small bugs scurrying across the counter.  I smashed them and didn’t think much more about it. The next morning as I turned on the light I saw a couple more.  Then the next morning, more. I opened up the dishwasher and OMG! More than just a couple hiding at the top. I freaked out, called the exterminator, and put some dead ones in a jar for him. I had no idea of what was coming next.

My kitchen was being attacked. They were dropping down by the dog’s dish, coming out of the corners by the oven, going up the wall by the cabinets and even looking right at me from the inside of my beautiful new Keurig coffee pot! It was horrible. I was in a fight but there were times I honestly didn’t know if I would ever win.

Early in the battle I asked God what the heck was going on.  He directed me to start studying the Amalekites in the Bible and He would show me the spiritual background to this attack and what to do about it.

I learned that the Amalekites were a semi-nomadic tribe. They moved around but if they found a cozy place to take over, they would. They were a formidable people. The devil spirits acting through these people were schemers and very shrewd. Their method was to attack in a devious, sneaky way, from behind or from the side or at night – in a way that would not necessarily be noticed until it was too late. They didn’t give up but just kept pestering, badgering and provoking.  They would try to wear the Israelites down by their constant attacks, stealing their peace and anything else they could get away with.

In Exodus God says He will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation. (Ex 17:16). Since our battle is a spiritual one, I call these types of devil spirits “Amalekite spirits.”

In 1 Samuel 15:18 God tells Saul that the only way to get rid of them is to “utterly destroy the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.” Saul apparently thought that it would be okay to keep the king alive and keep the sheep and oxen and some other spoils as well. But God knew the Amalekite spirits could occupy much more than just the warriors, so all were to be destroyed. Saul didn’t obey and the consequences were devastating. He lost his kingship and his kingdom.

From Exodus 17 we learn that it takes vigilance to defeat Amalekites. Joshua was at the head of the battle, but Moses was in charge. When Moses lifted up the rod of God, Israel prevailed. When he got weary and let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Moses had to have two other guys help him to hold up the banner of God to the very end of the battle and to victory.

When it was over, Moses built an altar which he called Jehovah-nissi.  It means “The Lord is my banner.” It is the name of God which puts the enemy to flight. As it says in Isaiah 59:19, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Jehovah-nissi was considered a name under which Israel could rally for victory. The Lord’s name was the battle cry.

The bugs that attacked my kitchen were of the same spiritual ilk as the Amalekites that attacked Israel.

When I realized this, I called on Jehovah-nissi in the name of Jesus Christ, to help me get victory in this horrible attack. It took determination and vigilance for what seemed like forever. Like Moses, I had to get help. My exterminator was awesome.  He ended up leaving the “special spray” with me so I could go after the bugs in between his visits. I had to not only destroy the bugs, but I also had to destroy every item they touched. I didn’t want to end up like Saul. I got rid of the dishwasher, coffee machine, other electrical appliances and much more, but it was totally worth it.

When the very last bug was destroyed, I realized that they had started eating each other and the toxins in the insecticide had utterly consumed them until every last one was dead. Gross, but true. That was several years ago and they have never returned. Thank God!

I hope that you never have to encounter this type of spirit in people, sheep, oxen, bugs or any other creature. But if you ever have that misfortune, you can call on Jehovah-nissi and you will get the final victory.

Love, Carolyn

Beneath the Veil no.16 Every Pimple, Every Mole

I could see a really light tan color as the base underneath the graining on the wood sample I was copying. I tried to make my copy by starting with that color. But no matter what colors I put together, I just couldn’t get my copy to look right.

A few days later as I sat eating lunch across the room from my sample, it hit me: I was looking at it too closely! I needed to back up and see the big picture. When I did, I saw that the overall base color was much darker than I’d originally thought. I started with the new base color, finished my copy and it looks good.

When I lived in Chicago I liked going to the Art Institute and looking at paintings by Ivan Albright. He is “noted for his meticulously detailed, exaggeratedly realistic depictions of decay and corruption” (Encyclopedia Britannica). In his portraits he painted every wrinkle, every pimple, every mole. His paintings were fascinating but ugly.

I’ve noticed that this principle works in real life as well as in paintings. If we start looking too closely, we’re more likely to see flaws and things we don’t like. If we back up to see the bigger picture, and make more of an effort to see people the way God sees them, then we won’t see all the little uglies that get our minds going in the wrong direction.

We only have the right to see others as God sees them. We can’t make ourselves the examiners and judges. We don’t know their whole story. Our job is to be meek to God. If He shows us evil things it’s because He trusts we will pray.

Jesus said, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?  How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye” (Matt 7:1-5).

These are really powerful words. Jesus also told us that heaven is within us. If we can go to that place within and tap into the big picture of how God sees us and others, that’s where we want to be. Our pictures will be true and beautiful.

Love, Carolyn