Can we test the spirits of people who’ve died?  I discovered its quite simple, but we are often held in unnecessary fear on this subject. I had quite a bit of it until Father pointed out that the fear was keeping me from experiencing Him without limits.  I often asked Him not to scare me and He showed me that asking this was based on fear.

Besides the fact that we have all kinds of scary ghost tales built into our cultures, I had my own peculiar version.

When I was 5 years old, my sister died.  She was my playmate and constant companion.  Being older than me, she also annoyed me by bossing me around quite a bit.  But that’s what big sisters are for.

One night as we were tucked into bed almost asleep, she asked me if I ever thought about death.  Of course I didn’t, but apparently she did.

At the time, I didn’t know she had already died a couple times and Daddy, along with a couple other believers, had brought her back through prayer and commanding death to leave.

I don’t know if she remembered it, but a few months after she asked me that question, she died, for good.  This time Daddy didn’t pray over her.  He let her go.  I never knew if he simply got tired of battling for her life, or if he began to wonder whether he was delaying something that was meant to be.

Anyway, it was a traumatic year for my family.  My sister was 10 years old when she died.

After the hub-bub of the funeral and family was finished, and the quiet of normal life returned, I faced a new, lonely kind of playtime.

One afternoon as I sat in the grass looking at the iris patch, I heard “What if she likes where she is now, and wants you to come with her?’

Suddenly I was afraid and ran into the house to shadow Momma, until she sent me to school.

Now, in middle-age, I was compelled to return to that moment and answer that voice the way I would now.  It took a bit of contemplation, but I closed my eyes and imagined the scene in front of the iris patch once again.  Suddenly I knew what to say.

“You’re a liar.  My sister did not want me to go with her and I have nothing to fear from her or anyone else in that world.  I am filled with the Holy Spirit, in all power and truth.”

After that moment, I noticed a change in my reaction to my home at night.  I’d always battled wispy, dark shapes and the fear they caused.  Now that was gone, leaving only a sweet, comforting atmosphere.

I wasn’t afraid.  Father was everywhere and I was safe.  This sense of safety went everywhere with me and made me feel rather invincible.  I saw nothing to fear.

There might be a boundary somewhere,  but I haven’t found it yet.  Freedom in Father seems complete and without exception.

During that same year, my best friend got cancer and had only weeks to live.  We packed up the motor-home and began the trek to California where she lived, but the first night on the road was in an RV park in Wyoming where a ferocious wind began blowing.  It rocked the motor-home so severely that I wondered if we would end up toppling over.

As I laid in the jiggling bed, I asked Father what was going on and how I should pray.  Suddenly I saw a fierce warrior demon 50 feet tall standing over us causing the ruckus.  He didn’t want me to go on this trip.

My choice was to go home, or fight him, and the moment I decided to go onward, he lost his power.  The wind died and I realized the only rights demons have, are the ones we give them.

We went on our journey and I visited with my friend, but she resisted my agenda to get her healed, which I couldn’t understand.

The following week her kids made arrangements for a family weekend at a beach house in Oregon.  We had a previous engagement in Durango.  So we agreed to come back and see her in a week.

She cried that we were leaving, but was immediately happy when we agreed to come back.  She hugged and kissed me and we said “In a week!”

However, when her family weekend was over, she went home, took a nap, and left her body.  It was the morning of the last leg of our journey to Durango when her daughter called to let me know.

I was in shock.   Why would she leave before I could come back?  We had an agreement.

As I piloted the motor-home over the mountains, I felt thwarted and heartbroken in the worst kind of way.

Then I heard her voice softly in my ear.  “Oh knock it off, and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

It was exactly the kind of thing she would have said to me, and I pondered whether I believed it was her.  After several long moments I asked, “Is that you?”

“Of course it’s me.” She answered.

“Well, OK, but why are you here?”

“Because I saw you tormenting yourself, and you need to knock it off.  You know I’m happier here than anywhere.”

“But WHY?  Why did you leave now?  We had an agreement and you didn’t keep up your end of it.  As a matter of fact, I’m thinking you purposely tricked me, and left when I couldn’t be there!”

“Of course I did.  I had to.  You wouldn’t have let me go and I had to go.”

“WHY?  Why wouldn’t you fight this?”

“Oh quit blustering.  I had to go because Gordon (her husband, who had cancer for the 9th time) wanted to go, but I wouldn’t let him.  The only way he could go is if I went first.  Simple.  See?”

Suddenly it all came together.  She’d described their arguments about his medications.  He wanted her to let him go and she simply wouldn’t.  She couldn’t live without him.  So when she suddenly got cancer, it was her perfect solution.

Her Doctor was shocked at how quickly it came and spread throughout her body.  He’d seen her only a few weeks before and she’d been completely healthy.

I drove in silence as I processed this truth.  It was simple and honest, and her perfect solution.

She stayed with me that morning for a couple hours as I drove.  Eventually my heart calmed and we simply enjoyed each other’s company again.

Finally, she said I would be OK and that she was going now.  I felt her presence leave me alone at the wheel, and I drove again in silence, contemplating how much I was going to miss her, but also knowing that she was easily accessible.

The passionate turmoil in my spirit had called to her through the love we shared, and just because she’d left the earth,  she hadn’t stopped feeling my love.  It called to her.

I was honored to have her attention for so long immediately after she’d left earth, but I’m sure she hovered over her family as well.  They simply weren’t engaging her in conversation.

It was an amazingly loving thing she did for me, and now as I mourned my friend, I knew her heart was truly bigger than the ocean.

Love is the greatest power in all of creation and it surpasses the boundaries of dimensions and spirit realms.  Love is the only thing that gives us the keys to mysteries, power and eternity.

When Robin Williams died, my heart broke because I’d always felt a sweet connection to him, his heart, and his work.  I couldn’t explain it but when I said “I love Robin Williams” it wasn’t idol worship.  It was loving a friend I’d never met.

At the news of his death, I was once again deeply troubled.  He shouldn’t have gone.  And once again I experienced a powerful mix of anger and mourning.

Several hours later I felt his presence hovering around me, and I asked the question I always ask. “Is that you?”

“Yes, it is.” He stated simply.

“OK, so why are you here?”  I asked.

“I don’t know.  I felt you.  Your heart is strong.”

“I love you, and you shouldn’t have done this!” I cried.  “You shouldn’t have left!”

“You’re right.  I know that now.  But here I am.”  He paused a moment.  “I didn’t have anyone near me that understood this stuff.  I still don’t understand it exactly, but I’m learning.”

We talked a couple hours about society’s blind search into the darkness of depression.  How we’ve ignored the dark side of the spirit world, and evil’s insidious plans to “take us out”.   Many people die in ignorance, relying solely on medication to help them.

We also talked about the eternal consequences of his decision and he said there was no condemnation on him where he was.  Not from anyone except himself, and that was the hardest to bear.  However, he was learning to forgive himself.  He said it was easy because the love around him was so strong.  He was growing and would gradually lift into higher levels, but he didn’t have a concept of time so he didn’t know how long it would take.  It could be forever, or it could be a minute.  Time simply didn’t apply there.

He told me that I probably understood more about what was happening to him, than he did, because he’d maintained such ignorance about spiritual things while on the earth.  However, his spirit knew things that his mind had never conceived so, not everything was completely foreign.

Robin’s heart was full of love and sweetness, and now there was peace.  It was obvious that he wasn’t in hell as we’ve always conceived of hell, however his own self-condemnation was keeping him from the best of heaven.  He knew he was loved, not only here, but also there.

I could see there were many more levels of existence in the spirit realm than just two or three, or ten.  And I had the sense that the truly beautiful heavenly realms were the ones where people had come to completely receive Jesus’s loving sacrifice for them – which in Robin’s case, he hadn’t received quite yet.  Jesus has already paid the price of Robin’s self-condemnation, but he had to learn to forgive himself.

His level of existence wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t where anyone should stay either, because there were levels of perfect love.  They are paradise, and the ultimate goal for everyone.  They can only be accessed through receiving Jesus’s loving sacrifice.

The question remains, can we achieve that change of mind after we’ve died?  According to this experience, we can.  Apparently we still grow and learn and progress.  So does that mean our doctrine is wrong?  Does it mean the decision to believe in Jesus isn’t isolated to this life on earth?

I simply let that defend itself on it’s own merits.  I don’t engage the biblical battle because I learned a long time ago that Father and Holy Spirit are pure truth, and that our understanding of scripture is so often badly skewed.  I’ve also learned how little of our doctrine is actually important to Father.  I’ve seen Him engage us in that arena simply because it is so important to us, not because it was very important to Him.  I saw His demeanor during those conversations, as being patient, but desiring to be past it.   So I’ve learned to let it go and simply spend time with Him in whatever adventure He chooses to send me.  I let the details of doctrine stand on their own, or fall on their own.  I’m not concerned with them much.  I’m simply sharing my experiences.

It was comforting to visit with Robin.  I recognized peace in him regarding his death, and peace in his knowing that he would progress to live in more love as he gradually received it.

I’ve never searched for a way to talk to the dead.  I had no intentions of talking to Robin Williams, or my best friend, or my niece, or Prince.  I simply loved these people in a way that touched their spirit’s and when I felt their presence, I could tell it was them. That resulted in conversation which was as simple as daily life.  There was no conjuring.  No machinations through tools meant to manipulate the spirits.  These interactions were simply love.  Lots of love.

So, for this reason, I don’t believe that I am using some strange power or ability.  My only source is love and its great power that touches spirit wherever it dwells.  Love beckons our spirit and spirit knows it’s calling.   Love is life, it is eternal and it holds all of life inside itself.

Evil wants to destroy life because it cannot have what Love creates.  It cannot have eternity, or freedom, or life.  And it certainly cannot fake Love to get them.

As I said earlier, we are a spirit who is able to see other spirit and we’ve been doing it most of our lives.  Some of us are more aware of it than others.

I’m not going to conjure the dead to know the mysteries of God.  That would be like asking my neighbor what the President means.  I’m sure my neighbor has lots of opinions about it, but the complete truth is in President Obama, himself.   Father God is perfectly able to talk to me Himself.

He simply showed me that people continue in the realm of spiritual awareness they were in when they died.  Then they continue to learn, just as we do.  They may learn a few more insights, or they may formulate more opinions like my neighbor.  My level of trust depends on my level of relationship with them and the test.

For me, testing a spirit is simple.  It’s about the Love.  There is no impostor for Father’s Love.  When we know Father, we are attracted to His Love and repelled by evil.  It’s easy to recognize and easy to see what a spirit consists of in the spirit realm where nothing can be hidden or concealed.

I cannot know the truth except through the Spirit.  And since Father is Spirit, I won’t hesitate to know anything that lives and breathes inside of Him.

Being dead in the body means being alive in Father.  So if my dead niece wants to say she loves me, I’m probably going to listen and accept it.  If the Apostle Paul comes to speak to me, I won’t immediately assume he is a demon wearing a mask.

I’ll test the spirit and see it’s Love, plain and simple through my own spirit.  And I’ll recognize Father’s Love or the lack thereof based on that test.  Then I’ll receive the message, or resist it.

If you’re not sure whether you can tell a good spirit from a bad one, then I completely understand your decision to leave them alone.  But I urge you to spend a lot of time with Father and come to know the difference.   Boundaries may be appropriate for a season, but eventually they not only keep the bad out, but they keep the good out as well.  After all, a wall is a wall.

For a community of people who’s biggest message is God’s Spirit, we seem to have little understanding about the spirit realm.  And we seem to be afraid of the spiritual realm and carry quite a huge satchel of “Don’t Touch” post-it notes we stick on everything we don’t understand.

Walking with Father is like taking the safety net away, and flying the trapeze with nothing but trust in Him.  Who knows if the rope will break or a companion will drop you?  Will you fall?  Maybe.  And while you’re free falling, who can save you?  Only He can.

Salvation under any circumstance, earthly or heavenly, is solely inside Father’s hand.  His great Love is the most powerful force that exists.

Thank you for sharing this experience with me.

Blessings on your journey,

Faith