Removing the Veil, Coming Face-to-Face with Jesus, Receiving His Power, and Living in His Presence
I have struggled with how to put up this post – do I break it into parts or put the whole thing up at one time. It is long, but I think very important. In it I describe the process that we have been using to heal and deliver people in the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Brazil. I share the insight God has given me about how, through this process, He removes a spiritual veil around our hearts made up of negative emotions, fears, sins, and occultic activities that prevents us from coming into His presence and hearing His voice – especially the voice that says, “I am with you. I love you.” In the end I decided to put it up as a single post. I read it in about 20 minutes. I hope you will take the time to read what I have written. I pray God blesses you through these words. This post is a continuation of my previous post titled ‘Face to Face with Jesus in Campinas’.
During the last 45 days or so I have prayed for emotional healing and spiritual deliverance for about 25 people. Add this to the ones I have prayed for over the last 2 years and the total comes to somewhere between 75 and 100 people. I have seen God do amazing things. On this trip to Brazil I saw a woman get set free from extreme depression, insomnia, and fear. When I asked her if she had fear, she answered, “Yes”. When I asked her what she was afraid of, she answered, “Everything”. She was crippled by fear. After about 2 hours of prayer she was free from depression, slept through the night each night that we were at her church, and was peaceful and trusting God. But the most amazing transformation was her face. Before prayer her face was pinched and drawn. After prayer she looked like a different woman – she was smiling and her face was alive with light and joy. This is a common occurrence for the people who receive prayer.
Almost everyone who receives prayer, if they are willing to connect with their emotions and fears and confess their sins, including the sin of witchcraft and occultic activities, which is much more common than you think, gets freedom – almost 100 % of the time. But not everyone can feel their emotions or is willing to bring their sin before God. In this case, they will receive very little freedom.
The work is done by Jesus, but we have a role to play. We facilitate or escort them into the presence of the Lord, who transforms them and sets them free. They must be willing to feel and let go of their emotions.
I had an amazing experience in Japan. While we were in Tsuda, a Japanese woman came up to me on the third or fourth day of our teaching. She looked familiar but I couldn’t recall why. She called me her ‘spiritual father’. “How can that be?”, I thought. “I don’t think I know her and she hasn’t been part of our training here”. She was there for the first time. And then I remembered. I prayed for her in Nagoya about 15 months earlier. She is a pastor and at the time I prayed for her she was filled with shame, struggling with depression, and had suicidal thoughts. She was not able to hear from God and wondered how she could continue to pastor her small church. After we prayed in Nagoya her shame was gone and she was free from depression. At the end of our prayer time I prayed for her to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the power and presence of God. And she was! She felt heat on her hands and over her body.
While we were in Tsuda she heard via the church network (I suppose) that I was back in Japan. She drove at least several hours to come to the church where we were teaching just to tell me that 15 months later, she is still spirit filled and still excited about serving in her church. And then she left. Wow!! She blessed me! And her freedom was not temporary.
How We Pray
In our prayer sessions people receive so much freedom. “Ok”, you say, “But freedom from what?” “And what process do you use to set them free?” The answer to the first question is they are set free from bondage in 4 areas of their lives:
Freedom from negative emotions including anger and the related emotions of frustration, disappointment, resentment, hatred, and bitterness; and other negative and hurtful emotions like shame, guilt, fear (of a person), and depression. The negative emotions can be directed toward self, someone else, or God. Christians are not immune to these emotions.
Freedom from fear of something, like fear of the future, finances, the dark, ghosts, heights, snakes, etc.
Freedom from sin including sexual sins like adultery, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, and pornography; the sin of abortions, addictions, suicidal thoughts or attempts, cutting, pride, and any other sins they can identify.
Freedom from the participation in the occult. The occult includes witchcraft and wicca, books and movies about witchcraft and magic (even Harry Potter and many Disney cartoons!), worship of other gods, participation in eastern religions, other forms of religious practices such as transcendental meditation and yoga (a big one, but often met with resistance in the US where yoga is very popular and people deceive themselves with the title ‘Christian yoga’), Ouija boards and fortune-telling, New Age crystals, occultic games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pokémon (which means ‘pocket monster’), horror movies; and pacts, curses (made by them or made against them), or vows with any occultic powers.
Scripture instructs us to get rid of anger and other negative emotions, to not fear, (obviously) do not sin, and not to be involved in the occult or witchcraft.
To answer the second question, here is an outline of the process we lead them through:
I begin by asking them (the prayer recipient) the questions, “Do you want to be free?” “A little or a lot?” Some people are strongly attached to their negative emotions and sins because of hurt and pain. This question attempts to assess their willingness to release them to God.
If they answer in the affirmative (which does not necessarily mean they will be able to release the negative emotions and sin, but at least lets them know where we are heading), I pray. In my prayer I commit this time to the Holy Spirit, ask Him to direct the prayer session, and protect our time together from any outside influences.
I divide a piece of paper into 4 vertical columns. At the top of the first column I write, “Negative Emotions”; the second, “Fear”, which is fear of something; the third, “Sin”; and the last, “Occult”. Then, usually with some questions from me, they name all of the ‘issues’ they have in each category. For example, for the first column I ask, “Have you ever been angry of disappointed with anyone now or in the past”. If they say, “Yes, I was angry with my Dad” I make a note and move on. I do this for every column.
Once we have worked through each column, I use the following process for each negative emotion and sin: I ask them to renounce the issue – for example, I ask them to say, “I renounce the anger I have toward my Dad”. Then they say, “I am (or ‘was’) angry with my Dad because ____” and then they speak the reasons why they are angry. Then I ask them to say, “I forgive and bless my Dad” or “Lord forgive me”, or “Lord forgive me, I forgive myself” as appropriate. This is how unforgiveness is released. Finally, I ask them to say, “Lord, with your help I choose today to give this anger I have for my Dad to you.”
Then I tell them to close their eyes and, in their mind, give this anger to Jesus. I tell them, “Some put it in a bag or a box, but however you choose to do it, give the anger to Jesus.” For most it takes a few minutes – some more and some less – but almost everyone has a mental image of Jesus removing the anger, hear words of comfort or peace, or just have an overwhelming sense of peace and freedom. Some of the images or visions are truly creative. One woman saw herself kneeling at the foot of the cross. From the corner of her eye she saw a person walking toward her. As he got closer, she saw it was her Dad. He knelt beside her and put his arm around her. I asked her how she felt. She said, “I have compassion for my Dad and the anger is gone.” Often, they ask, “Was that my mind, just me imagining something?” I ask them, “How do you feel?” Almost always they say, I feel good.” That was God entering into their hearts and minds and doing what they asked – releasing them from their negative emotions or sins.
The skeptic will say, “What about satan? Can’t he enter into their minds?” I suppose he can, but he will never leave them peaceful, free, light, and joyful. If they see darkness in their mind or feel fear, I start over, asking Jesus to help them. Invariably, they see the darkness replaced by light and peace. I am guessing that most of the time the person who uses a concern about demonic influence to reject this process is operating in a spirit of fear. But for what it is worth, in the 100s of training sessions that have been taught using this method (and the 15 or so I have participated in) I have yet to hear anyone raising this concern.
After we work through the four columns I say, “I break all ties and authorities given through the negative emotions and sins, including soul ties, in the name of Jesus”. This takes a few minutes. Finally, I say, “In the name of Jesus, I command all impure spirits leave”. This is the sum of spiritual deliverance. Often, when I command, in the name of Jesus, “all impure spirits leave”, the person takes a deep breath and lets it out in a long sigh. Free! Rarely do we see any demonic manifestations. They can occur but are generally more mild than they would be if we confronted the demons head-on.
During the prayer session I listen for the three lies satan uses to discourage, deceive, and accuse each of us: “You are not good enough”, “You are helpless or powerless”, and “You and your situation are hopeless”. If they identify with one or more of these lies, I ask the Lord two questions at this point in the prayer time: “Lord, is it true that ____ is not good enough?”, “What do you want them to know?” If all of the negative emotions and sins have been addressed, they will hear very easily from the Lord. He always affirms them and promises to be their strength, shield, power, provision, or words like these.
We wrap up the prayer time by encouraging them to take any questions about current situations to Jesus for answers, meditating on Scripture, getting into a fellowship if they are not in one now, and entering a discipleship relationship. We share Jesus with them if they are not believers (this process works for nonbelievers also. In fact, it is a powerful evangelism tool).
Finally, I pray over the recipient to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the power and presence of God, and the love, joy, peace, hope, and faith of Jesus. Every time I prayed this over a recipient in Japan and Brazil, they have felt warmth, a kind of electricity, or some other expression of infilling. After the prayer they open their eyes in amazement. Some begin to laugh, others worship. Several women began to pray in tongues and would have gone on for a long time if I didn’t gently stop them. Everyone receives great release from hurt and pain. Their faces are full of light. They laugh, hug, and often tell me they feel lighter. They have had a true, undeniable encounter with Jesus – they have seen Him face-to-face and most of them will never be the same. Almost every time, sitting across the table from them, I feel like I am on Holy ground.
Also, at this time I pray for physical healing if that is needed.
Sometimes it takes 2 or even 3 sessions for them to get complete freedom. And later as more emotions or sins surface, they can pray this prayer over themselves.
That is the process. I have explained it in some detail because it is the way we bring a person into the presence of God, allowing Him to remove the veil around their heart. It is not the only path to emotional healing and spiritual deliverance. But it is relatively simple, straightforward, and it works most of the time.
What Prayer Accomplishes – Removing the Veil
But now I want to share something deeper. The last prayer session I had in Brazil was really powerful. On Saturday evening I prayed for an older woman who had a very hard life. She received so much freedom in about 2 hours of prayer. (I saw her the next day in worship and she was filled with joy and peace.)
At 4 am on Sunday morning the AC unit in my hotel room made a terrible clanging noise, which woke me up from a deep sleep. I turned the unit off, and rolled over to go back to sleep. But I was awake. Sleep was now out of the question. And then the Lord spoke to me. He reminded me of Moses approaching the burning bush in Exodus 3.
As you know, Moses was tending sheep in the wilderness near Horeb, the mountain of God. “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So, Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up”. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!”. And Moses said, “Here I am” (Exodus 3: 2 – 4 NIV).
Moses was standing in His presence. God was audibly speaking to Moses, calling him by name, and telling him to take off his sandals because Moses was standing on Holy Ground.
It was this image that God put in my mind. He told me, “John, when you pray for someone to release their negative emotions and sin, and I (God) remove all of that ‘junk’, they are enabled to come directly into My presence the way Moses did in the desert near mount Horeb – they enter into the Holy of Holies. It is in My presence that they find real life, real joy and peace, and real power. In My presence they hear My voice, receive My love, and are set free.”
God reminded me of Psalm 16: 11, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (NKJV).
The next day God took me even deeper (at least for me). He reminded me of one of my favorite Scripture passages – 2 Corinthians 3: 16 – 18. In this passage Paul writes about the veil over Moses’ face and the veil that covers our hearts. Here is the passage from the NIV translation:
“But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3: 14 – 18 NIV).
I think Eugene Peterson has done a good job of capturing the poetry and significance of this passage, while preserving the original meaning. Here is the same passage from the Message:
“Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are – face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of His face. And so, we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him” (2 Corinthians 3: 16 – 18 MSG).
When I went back and reread this passage, I was amazed. This is exactly what the people I pray for experience. As they renounce, forgive and bless, and ask God to remove their negative emotions and sins, a veil is removed from their hearts and they find themselves face-to-face with Jesus in a way they never had before. That is why their faces become brighter and more joyful, that is why they experience freedom, that is why they often worship, and that is why, when I pray for them to be filled, they experience the Holy Spirit in so many different ways. The veil that covered their hearts, for some of them for decades, has been removed by Jesus.
But what is this veil? I think A.W. Tozer writing in “The Pursuit of God” is partly right about the veil.
First, he captures a fundamental principle of the Christian faith: “God made us for Himself . . . God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we, as well as He, can, in divine communion, enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile” (Tozer, pg. 32). God meant for us to live in His presence; to see Him and draw our life from Him. Tozer adds, “Though the worshiper had enjoyed so much, still he had not yet entered the presence of God. Another veil separated from the Holy of Holies where above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in awful and glorious manifestation . . . It was this last veil which was rent . . . this rending of the veil opened the way for every worshiper in the world to come by the new and living way into the divine Presence” (Tozer, pg. 34).
Of course, Tozer is referring to the tightly woven veil that separated the Holy place in the Temple from the Holy of Holies. This veil was torn from top to bottom the moment Jesus died on the cross, allowing all of us access into the presence of God.
So why does not every Christian enter the Holy of Holies and live with God in His presence? The world is dying for the lack of the Shekinah Fire, His presence. Why, if the way has been opened by the death of Jesus, are we not all living with God in His presence? Because there is another veil. Tozer again, “What is it? What but the presence of a veil in our hearts. A veil not taken away as the first veil was, but which remains there still shutting out the light and hiding the face of God from us. It is the veil of our fleshly, fallen nature living on, unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated. It is the close-woven veil of the self-life” (Tozer, pg. 41).
Scripture tells us to get rid of anger, to ‘fear not’, to confess our sins, to stay away from the occult, and to cast all our anxiety on Him. Why? Because all of our negative emotions (anger, shame, frustration, disappointment, hatred), fear, anxiety, sin, and occultic activities over the years slowly, thread by thread, weave themselves into a veil that surrounds our hearts and prevents us from clearly seeing and hearing from God. It is this veil around our hearts that Paul is referring to in 2 Corinthians 3. When we “turn to face God”, which we do when we renounce our negative emotions and sin, forgive, and tell God that we choose to give the negative emotions and sin to Him, “God removes the veil”. He takes it away thread by thread. And “there they are – face-to-face” with God, standing in His presence, their faces becoming brighter and more beautiful as they reflect His Shekinah glory.
That, God told me, is what happens when I lead someone through the prayer for emotional healing and spiritual deliverance. When they are willing, God removes the veil and brings them into His presence. I have the honor of facilitating or hosting this coming-into-His-presence. It is as if I lead them into the throne room, directly before God, and then step aside while God transforms them. They are changed, but each time I do this I come into His presence I am also changed.
I think Tozer is basically correct. But I disagree with him on one essential point. He claims the veil is woven from our self-sins – our pride. And that is true, but it is not the whole truth. Much of the veil is woven from our negative emotions, especially anger, resentment, and hatred. And these emotions arise from abuse, betrayal, hurt, and pain – in a word ‘devaluing’ – that we all experience in this fallen and evil world. For sure, sin is a part of this veil, but in my experience not the only part; and for some not the major part. The Church is very good at preaching about sin. Every worship service I have ever attended has a part in the liturgy where we confess our sins. But the Church is very poor at helping us release our negative emotions. And until we do that, the veil remains and people cannot come into the presence of God, or will only come into the Presence sporadically and with difficulty. And so, the Church is weak, lacking the power of His presence; unable to carry out its fundamental mission – releasing and advancing the Kingdom of God.
I think Paul is referring to this veil around the human heart when he wrote, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1: 18, 19 NIV). The “eyes of our heart” are opened when the veil is removed from our heart by Jesus and we can clearly see His hope, our inheritance, which is incredible; and the power He has made available to us who know Him intimately – the same power that raised Jesus from the dead!
Why We Pray
How can we release the Kingdom of God or make disciples if the hearts of the people are separated from God – if they are still living outside of the Holy of Holies? Prayer that is powerful flows from our connection with God. Apart from His presence and power, our prayers will always be less effective. How can we be the Church that Christ died for us to become if we are not face-to-face with God in His presence, hearing His voice, and operating in His power? With difficulty. As I said above, the emotional healing and spiritual deliverance prayer that I am describing is not the only way to remove the veil, but it is a simple and effective way. I have prayed for many people who serve in their churches, who love Jesus, but who have never been face-to-face in His presence until they prayed for the veil to be removed. And for most of them it took only two hours to remove a veil that had been accreted around their hearts over 40 or 50 years of, too often, a hard life!
Are born-again believers immune from the veil around their hearts? If there is a veil, are they still saved. No Christian is immune from life’s hurts and pain. Many Christians carry anger, resentment, and bitterness in their hearts, and still sin. And yes, we are saved if we “confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead” (Romans 10:9 NIV). Nothing can separate us from the love of God. But the veil can separate us from the fullness of His presence. It is by grace we have been saved, through faith (Ephesians 2: 8 NIV). But there is a reason Paul writes these words to the Christians in Colosse:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry . . . But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3: 5 — 11 NIV).
Paul is describing a process of being renewed continuously. We are saved, we are justified, but we continue to need sanctification. The author of Hebrews writes, “Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10: 14 NIV). Paul tells the Roman Christians, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its evil desires” (Romans 6: 12 NIV). We have work to do after we are justified. The process I describe here is a way for the believer to be sanctified and set free from the effects of negative emotions, sin, and devaluing.
He made us to live in intimacy with Him. Every person yearns for a life lived in His presence, even if they are not conscious of God, because it is wired into our human DNA — we are all created in His image. Most Christians believe, because this is what they were taught, that it is sin that separates us from God; which is true, but only partly true. So, they ‘work’ at living better lives, yet continue to be frustrated because God seems so distant most of the time. But the problem is the veil around their hearts – a veil they often do not know exists – is woven not just from sins, but from anger, anxiety, resentment, bitterness, frustration, fear, disappointment, and hatred resulting not from what they have done, but from what has been done to them! Ultimately, we are responsible for our reactions to devaluing. But, if you ask them, “Have you ever been angry with anyone”, the most common answer is, “Yes, but I have forgiven them.” That may be true, but usually the anger is still there, woven tightly around their heart. They push against the veil with more prayer, Bible study, doctrine, church activities, more service, and perhaps counseling; or they get frustrated and give up. Jesus is very clear: “I have come to set the captive free and release the prisoner from darkness.” I believe it is the spiritual veil or the veil of spiritual flesh as Tozer calls it, that holds us in prison and keeps us in the dark. And often we are unaware that the veil even exists.
How God peels back the veil is important. But so is the order in which it is done. Too often the church ‘attacks’ the sin first. Until the negative emotions, like anger, are released, the person will not readily admit to or release the sin. For example, addiction to pornography is difficult to overcome if we make sin of pornography the central issue. But if we address the hurt, pain, and negative emotions that are at the root of the addiction, then getting set free from pornography is relatively easy for most people. The same is true for sexual addiction.
I should end here, but there is one more important point I need to make. Paul tells us to get rid of our anger and bitterness (e.g. Ephesians 4: 26; Ephesians 4: 31; Colossians 3: 8), and Jesus tells us to get rid of resentment, but they do not tell us how. The process I describe here releases us from those emotions most of the time. Similarly, Jesus calls us to repent but He does not tell us how. The other day I realized that this entire process, from start to finish is the process of repentance. This is how we repent because repentance is more than confession. We do not just repent of what we have done, we repent of who we are. When we renounce our negative emotions and sins, forgive and bless others, and choose to give all of this ‘junk’ to God, we are telling God, “Change me. Make me whole. I want to be free! I want to come into Your presence.” That is true repentance. In fact, 2 Corinthians 3: 16 in the Amplified Bible reads, “But whenever a person turns (in repentance) to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away”.
Finally, the veil that covers our hearts and prevents us from clearly seeing God and hearing from Him, also separates us from other people. Until our negative emotions and sins are stripped away, until the veil is removed, we cannot love one another, receive love, or even know each other in the ways God intended. Until the veil is removed, we continue to live in fear of being exposed, with hearts that continually turn to other gods for fulfillment and affirmation, struggle with addictions or negative emotions, or walk everyday with offendable hearts that react negatively to the slightest critical or devaluing comment. This is not the life of freedom that Jesus meant when He said, “He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty (freedom) to the captives” (Luke 4: 18 NKJV). Healthy, life-giving relationships are difficult while we are hiding behind a tightly woven veil of negative emotions and sins around our heart.
The revival and reformation of culture that many of us desire can only come through the Church. But the Church cannot usher in revival and reformation apart from the power and presence of God. And we will not be able to operate in His presence and with His power until our veils are removed. But when we turn to face Jesus, by His amazing grace, He will remove the veil and there we are – face-to-face with Him. There is no better place to be. Our faces shining with the glory of His face. After all, we are called to be the “Light of the world” – His glory shining through us.
Hallelujah,
John