More on Stigmata & Blood Sign Miracles

Last week, we began discussing the supernatural manifestation of blood signs, namely the “stigmata,” which are marks appearing on the hands, feet and sometimes other body parts, corresponding to the wounds experienced by Christ on the cross.

We began writing about this topic, due to some powerful happenings which occurred at our Manifestations of Glory event in the Atlanta area, earlier this spring. There was a radical release of mystical signs and wonders at the event, and it was likely the best conference we have hosted to date.

Not only did we document the blood sign on video, as it appeared on the hands of Lucy Rael during one of the meetings – we also got video footage of supernatural oil flowing from her hands, as well as an enormous amount of gold that began forming on her palms.

I would encourage you to read last week’s post, as I began an in-depth discussion on the stigmata. I would also encourage readers to pick up the DVD series of our Manifestations of Glory event from our online store. Not only does it build our faith to witness these miracles, but there is a tangible impartation for accessing the supernatural as we see God do crazy things before our very eyes.

This week, we pick up the discussion on stigmata by addressing the demonic counterfeit.

Diabolical Stigmata

As with every valid miracle of God, there simultaneously exist demonic counterfeits. Mediums can affect demonic healings. Spiritualists engage unholy trances. Yogis and eastern religions mimic miracles of ascension (floating off the ground). Psychics offer counterfeit prophecies. In the same way, there do exist cases of diabolical stigmata.

There seems to be much warfare, controversy and counterfeit activity over this particular miracle more than any other. For this reason, many true Christian prophets today get spooked out over it, and some even claim stiggy to be produced by seducing spirits. The truth is that some of them are. Levitation, bilocation, gifts of healing – these are all extravagant miracles. But because the visual imagery is so dramatically Christ-centered with stigmata, invoking the emotions with such a direct picture of His passion – the enemy will attempt to confuse it as much as possible.

History shows that stigmatists are intensely prophetic persons by nature. They are almost always seers. In demonic cases, the same is true (the person has a misplaced call to the seer realm) but instead of listening to God, the source of revelation is mixed up. The diabolical stigmatist is open to dark prophetic forces, often channeling demonic spirits in poltergeist-type manifestations.

In cases of godly, divine stigmata, the person nearly always gets revelation from God. Unfortunately, the church has had poor teaching on the prophetic office for the past 2,000 years, so even a valid stigmatist’s revelation has often been delivered in a strange or confusing way. Sometimes the person would speak on behalf of God or angels in a first person type of way, but without good protocol or delivery style. This has led to much confusion. Needless to say, there has been a stigma on stiggy!

Ecstasies, fits and all manner of hysterics tend to accompany the lives of stigmatists. The accounts of many resemble wild, Holy Ghost manifestations. “All true stigmatics have received the wounds of rapture in ecstasy,” writes theologian Montague Summers. Others, quite honestly, resemble cases of multiple personality disorder and demonic agitations. Mystical theologian Herbert Thurston writes, “Many of them were intensely devout … but in others piety was combined with eccentricities and with apparent dissociations of personality which were strange and not exactly edifying.”

These eccentricities are not true for all stigmatists. Capuchin friar Padre Pio, for example, was always “exceptionally calm and composed. There is no bad family history. He himself, with a candid simplicity which evidently made a profound impression upon the rationalist Professor, declared that he had never suffered from any nervous malady. He has never been subject to fainting fits or convulsions or tremors. He sleeps well and is not troubled with dreams.”

Demons can scrawl letters, words and other dermatography on people’s flesh, like something you would see in a horror movie. This sign does not always come as a mark of piety, by any means. Religious devils are so prone to glorify personal suffering; one must discern clearly whether a person’s experience is a valid miracle or a “crucifixion complex” of sorts.

Some critics have claimed that stigmata are produced by the imagination, intense mental concentration or some other naturalistic, physiological phenomenon. There is no need to waste time refuting such an unscientific argument, which is devoid of common sense. The imagination cannot cause the body to perforate itself. Angels and devils can. The body cannot cause such wounds to smell fragrant or glow with light, as many have. This is no routine biological process like digestion, circulation or ordinary tissue mechanics. Unless the stigmata is fraudulently self-inflicted (and a number have been, for attention, money or spiritual pride), then the question remains whether the stigmata is divine or diabolical in origin.

“That the divine stigmata could be produced through the force of the emotions acting upon a lively subject is altogether impossible,” notes Summers. Hemophilia, a tendency to bleed spontaneously or from injury, has no connection whatsoever here. There are only two types of stigmatization: the holy and the profane. You will know the tree by its fruit.

Transverberation of the Heart

Lots of manifestations are grouped under the blanket term “stigmata,” but stigmata generally include the five main wounds of Christ: piercing of the two hands, the feet and side. A number of stigmatists also receive wounds corresponding to the crown of thorns, the lashes on the back and abrasions to the shoulder, where Christ carried the cross (Lucy generally receives all of these around Easter each year). I am including separately the manifestation called the ferita, also known as the heart wound or the transverberation of the heart. In this case, the heart itself is supernaturally pierced, even as the heart of Jesus was pierced on the cross. Teresa of Avila is by far the most famous recipient of this. In her writings, she tells us that an angel approached her and did this with a fiery tipped, golden lance.

“The angel appeared to me to be thrusting the spear of fire into my heart and piercing my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and left me all on fire with a great love of God.”

Some days after her death, Teresa’s body was opened and her heart removed. There on its side was a large puncture wound, with which she had evidently lived for years. The heart was put on display after her death in 1582 and has remained miraculously incorrupt without rotting ever since.

Transverberation is a piercing “under which condition normally the subject would die, since the wound (humanly speaking) ought to be mortal.”

Veronica Giuliani, in the 18th century, somehow believed that her physical heart had hardened into the likeness of certain shapes: a cross, a crown of thorns, a chalice, three nails, a pillar, seven swords and certain letters that represented a number of Christian virtues. These were emblems she had long meditated on. She had such a clear vision of this, that she would draw small pictures of them for her spiritual directors. Years later, upon her death, her heart was extracted; the images of these objects were actually found on the heart, exactly in the manner she described them in her latest drawings. There is little scientific explanation for this. But wait … there are far more fantastic miracles than this.

This may sound unbelievable, but in comparison with Biblical miracles, such wonders are a mere trifle. A more extraordinary case of stigmatization and ferita were faithfully recorded in the 13th century life of Lady Helen of Veszprim by her fellow nuns and contemporaries. From her stigmatized hand, a golden budded thread began to appear, which grew into a stalk. Fragrant lilies began to blossom from the end of this golden stem. And from the ferita on her side, another of these gold filaments appeared with white petaled lily blossoms. Greatly embarrassed and not knowing what to do with these lilies growing from her stiggy, Helen pulled them out, as if by their roots. They remained in tact for years after her death. Furthermore, Helen’s wounds turned to golden circles, and on certain holy days, her stigmata “shone with a soft radiant glow.”

Hope you enjoyed these brief teachings on the stigmata: something you don’t see highlighted in too many Protestant ministries! Here at Sons of Thunder, we are not Catholic, but we are not Protestant either! We are not protesting anything, we are pursuing Someone. Blessings to you on your journeys this week, as you plore the inexhaustible riches of His heart, and the mystical wonders of His Kingdom!

Stigmata Appears at Manifestations of Glory Event

Although we have been quite slow in posting an email bulletin, we would like to share with you some powerful happenings which occurred at our Manifestations of Glory event in the Atlanta area, earlier this spring. There was such a weighty Glory and an open Heaven for the release of mystical signs and wonders. It would be difficult to compare this with any other conference we have hosted to date.

We invited guest speaker Lucy Rael, a woman of utmost integrity who has for decades manifested the “blood sign,” or stigmata, on her physical body. Lucy has long worked under the helm of the renowned healing revivalist T.L. Osborne. Not only did the blood sign appear before the gathered crowd in south Atlanta. Also, there were dramatic manifestations of thick, supernatural gold flakes and copious amounts of supernatural oil that flowed from Lucy’s hands as she ministered. Georgian Banov released a powerful message on evil-free existence, with a weighty impartation of joy and power. We also had some Glory-packed ministry from Joshua Mills and Kaye Beyer. I ministered on the physical phenomena of mysticism and discussed some of the unusual manifestations we are now experiencing and will continue to see as we press into new ground in the Spirit.

Also at the event, we saw quite a number of healings, weight loss miracles and accurate words of knowledge. I would encourage folks to pick up the DVD series from our online store, as there is really a powerful impartation on this media resource –we captured nearly all of the most dramatic miracles on film, including the stigmata. I have found that watching such dramatic, unusual miracles is a catalyst for increasing my own faith. This series has a great series of teachings, but there are also the visible, tangible signs and wonders (beyond mere healings) that will build your faith and get you extremely whacked in the love of God!

I would like to spend a little time here over the next two weeks discussing the manifestation of stigmata, as this is a peculiar miracle that causes much curiosity as well as much misunderstanding.

The Stigmata

Stigmata is a supernatural phenomenon that accompanies states of divine ecstasy, but garners significant controversy in Protestant circles. Stigmata is something we at Sons of Thunder tenderly refer to as “stiggy!” There have been more stigmatists over the past century than any other on record. Theologian R.P. Poulan estimates that as of 1907, there had been conservatively 321 known stigmatists. Now, a century later, that number has grown to 500. Despite common misperceptions, these occur as much among Protestant believers as Catholic.

Francis of Assisi in the 13th century was the first believer known to carry the stigmata, and there are a number around today, including Lucy, a charismatic Protestant minister . Fr. Elias is a young Catholic stigmatist in Italy today, and even the great revivalist A.A. Allen would highlight the miracle in his own tent revivals in the 1960s. In addition to the stigmata appearing on some in Allen’s miracle services, many people would receive a supernatural mark in the shape of a cross on their foreheads.

Although not a stigmatist, our friend, Joshua Mills, was recently in a meeting in New Zealand when warm blood dropped into his hand out of thin air. After a while, it turned into deep crimson “Glory dust.” Many people were physically healed and converted to Christianity at the meeting. Joshua said he received more persecution from critics for this one sign than perhaps any other to date!

There are many “blood miracles” throughout church history. The great miracle worker Francis of Paola once refused to take a chest of gold coins from a wicked king who had exploited the poor for the money. To show that this was literally blood money, Francis picked up a gold coin and was able to snap it in half between his fingers. Blood dripped out of the coin miraculously, and the king was instantly repentant.

Without a doubt, blood miracles are simply taboo in Western Protestantism. A lot of misinformation is fed to us by Hollywood – there is even a movie titled Stigmata, which incessantly portrays the experience to be demonic and cultish. There should not be pointless division over such a trivial issue. However, I do believe that as we honor the miracles God releases, He is prone to bring more blessing. Why must we always drop the gavel and make a judgment call on things we don’t understand? Don’t slap a demonic label on everything inexplicable. The bottom line is that miracles are from God when He is glorified, and thousands of people have come to faith through the manifestation of stiggy.

The reason stigmata is controversial is simple: there is always warfare over the blood.

In the case of stigmatists, history shows that all of them were ecstatics, meaning they all experienced trances, deep sensations of divine pleasure and the general bliss of Heaven. Most of them had visions of Christ, revealing Himself to them in His blood-stained garments. There are some stigmatists who did not even receive pain from their wounds (such as Lucy). Often, a stigmatist’s wounds will open and then close again miraculously. Gemma Galgani, who died in 1903, is an example of a modern recipient of these marks of Christ whose wounds would open and close again each week after her ecstasy was over on Friday.

In the case of the 1873 stigmata of Louise Lateau, documented by medical doctors (as are nearly all modern examples), there were no actual wounds per se. The blood would flow from unbroken skin. Other stigmatists’ hands and feet have been completely perforated all the way through the flesh. This is what occurred with 18th century stigmatist Maria Francesca delle Cinque Piaghe. Her confessor, Don Paschal Nitti gives this testimony:

“I have seen them, I have touched them, and to say the truth I, as the apostle St. Thomas did, have put in my finger into the wounds through her hands and I have seen that the hole extended right through, for in inserting my finger into the wound it met the thumb which I held underneath on the other side of the hand”

Some have received an invisible stiggy. That is, their hands felt the pain of the stigmata, but they never received the actual blood sign. As in the case of Catherine of Siena, some had visible bleeding stigmata, but after requesting the Lord to make the sign invisible, He did so.

I have never encountered an instance of valid stiggy in my studies where there was no choice made by the recipient to willingly endure this mark. That is, it has always been a grace gift that could be received or rejected without condemnation. In those cases where stigmatists asked the Lord to remove it, time and again He has obliged.

On a deeper level, stigmata is an outward manifestation of ecstasy that comes from a spiritual condition called the wounds of love, or the anguish of love. Jesus sweat blood in Gethsemane. Jacob wrestled with an angel until his leg was injured. Just because a manifestation hurts does not mean it is not from God. And on the same token, not everyone is called to carry stiggy. It is not a superior mark of piety.

In the anguish of love, states of pleasure and suffering come in near equal strength. It is possible to experience bliss and suffering both simultaneously, and with great intensity. Most stigmatists have meditated long hours on Christ’s passion, and they have been graced with a condition of deep heart-sickness:

“Something of the same kind is experienced in human love when it is violent. A great sweetness is felt, the lover does not wish to quit the thought of the beloved; he enjoys it. But at the same time he feels his heart torn because of his absence from her, or because of the difficulty of conversing with her freely. There is thus a mingling of joy and of sorrow. So, too, it is possible to have delicious experiences of God and of His love, and to feel at the same time a secret anguish which is nothing else than the thirst for God, kindled by Himself,” writes Poulan.

Common questions need to be answered to arrive at proper discernment in such cases. Does the subject feel drawn closer to God in these experiences? Does the person want the manifestation to continue, despite the obvious pain, or is it solely an oppressive experience? Remember that any ecstasy can be intense, but generally it is very welcome because it is an intensity of bliss. Perhaps the guiding factor is this: is there an essence of God’s presence and peace in the midst of perceived suffering?

“The ecstatic suffers, and he not only accepts his pain, but he dominates it, he triumphs over it, he accepts it with enthusiasm. These joyful sentiments are not of the Earth,” writes mystical Christian theologian Fr. Hamon in 1906. “He interests himself, as though he were in complete health, in the joys and sorrows of others.”

Overall, I believe we can accept stigmata as a valid miracle of Jesus, without having to embrace a depressed theology of suffering. The best stigmatist is a happy one!

Of those contemplatives who suffer in some supernatural way, Teresa of Avila says:

“They have need that His Majesty should afford them some refreshment, and this not of water, but wine; that so, inebriated with this celestial wine, they may not consider that they suffer, and may be able to endure it.”

I have determined in my heart that, if there is a heavier hit of Glory on something, I want it – no matter how much it hurts!

Next week, we will continue our discussion, touching on the subject of demonic counterfeit and discernment with bizarre miracles of this nature …

Toking the Ghost: Why Christians Must Redeem Drug Culture, Part II

The past few decades, with moves such as Toronto and others, people are truly beginning to grasp that the New Wine of God’s Spirit is not just to be discussed or analyzed, but to be drunk. The Lord has always sought, throughout the scriptures, to relay the concept that we are to be entranced on Him. God has always used wine as a typology of His celebratory nature. He says in Ephesians 5:18:

“And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit …” (NKJV).

Obviously, most believers know we are not to be drunk with natural wine. But nevertheless, the Lord correlates a spiritual experience to the buzz derived from alcohol. Why would God make such a comparison? Alcoholic drunkenness is off limits – yet God uses it as an analogy, to point us to the real drunkenness He desires. His goal is to turn us away from the false, in order to turn us toward the true. Just as God correlates the real to the illegal counterfeit in the passage above, so do we correlate drug use (also off limits) in a similar analogy. Realize that the issue has nothing to do with drugs, alcohol or pink elephants. It has to do with spiritual intoxication. The package is irrelevant here, so we may as well get over it. God is going to be ripping up a lot of religious packages in these days, in order to express Himself to a generation.

Don’t let religion feed you water, when God offers to turn it into wine. We have found that using street drug language has a great shock effect, because people will instantly make the correlation to how extreme and radical God wants us to experience Him, to be reliant on Him (abandoned addiction to Him), and to be pulled into exotic spiritual experiences with Him daily. Maybe you have never had daily encounter with God. Maybe you’ve been a Christian for decades, but never believed He was so close as to intersect your daily life on a regular basis. Don’t let your past experience dictate the standard God has for you. Take a puff. He died so that you can encounter Heaven continually in unbroken communion. How do we access this? By simply believing – by faith. How do we drink of Him? How do we toke Him up? By faith. Need more faith? Take a puff.

Addicts Set Free from Drugs and Prostitution!

I am always excited to see the fruit of “Toking the Ghost” in the lives of ordinary people, who get freed up by encountering Jesus this way. We get simple testimonies like this one emailed to us all the time:

“It was awesome you came to me and asked me if I wanted to get high and then you blew on me and I passed out. I have not been the same since thank you.” – Ricky S., Cave City, Kentucky.

If that testimony sounds tame, consider this one: after an outreach we did in Canada, multiple prostitutes gave their lives to Jesus. What impacted their decision? Oddly enough, it was largely influenced by getting high on the Most High:

“Two young female prostitutes/addicts are safely in a Christian detox center in another city and after 28 days will be in Montreal at Safe Haven for 2-3 years. A third female is being looked after. A male escort is now at Harvest House and a pimp is on the verge of salvation. One of the persons was native. … Confidentiality must be strictly observed. All of our lives at risk and there are many (illicit sex) clients who go to church. Church is not always a safe place for testimonies. One (prostitute) had 12 clients at one of the largest spirit-filled churches in the Maritimes. A deaf ear popped open and a woman who had internal damage during childbirth, bone problems and great pain was instantly healed (at the meetings). (One of the) things that brought tears to all the prostitutes and touched them the most were … when John Crowder took some arms on front row and pretended he was shooting them up but it was with the Holy Ghost not a substance – they all went wild when they saw how much fun Christianity could be!” – Anonymous, Nova Scotia, Canada

We also hear regularly of people whose drug addictions were broken – not by going into a program, but by finding a better substance! They encountered the substance of Heaven:

“One year ago I was asked to leave the only church I ever felt like I fit because I confessed that I was struggling to stay free from pot smoking. … Then I attended a conference in Harrisburg where John Crowder whacked me on my head and later (Yes, I went back for more) injected me in the arm with the Holy Ghost. I have been wasted since. I realized ...Oh Lord! There is no way I can ever go back to smoking now. This is so much better and free! Thank you for your peculiar example. (I have) been enlightened. … Suddenly joy is oozing out of my pores! The wonderful thing is Holy Spirit said I caught it – I am infected with a move beyond any move. There is a wide spread epidemic of joy being released. People are going to catch a joy buzz everywhere I go … and lately I seem to be walking around just on the brink of laughter. … The epidemic is spreading! People are filled with joy every where you go there are smiling faces. It becomes common to be standing in the check-out line and hear spontaneous laughter. Wow! Life is good! The whole region is now being transformed. We are having street parties shouting “Jesus is Lord and oh so good!” … Put down your needle! Intoxication is free! And better than any concoction ever put together by man. Whoooohooo! People are getting saved all over the country because these courageous, infected-beyond-repair victims are completely caught up in love with Jesus. Suddenly everyone wants Him!” – Sharon C., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Drunkenness Sets School in Chaos

One of my favorite testimonies we have received was from a young, 17-year-old Dutch girl who reports that her drunken behavior set her entire school in a glorious uproar. Persecuted by teachers, counselors and peers, she stayed faithful to the whack of God, and thus set everyone talking and being exposed to the workings of God:

“I’m a 17-year old girl from the Netherlands and me and my friends are experiencing 'strange' things at our school. That Friday that John had a conference in Holland, I was at school and suddenly I felt the Holy Spirit come upon me. … I went out of the classroom and sat down somewhere in the hall. … My whole body shook and I fell to the floor, God was really doing something. After a while (my friend) Samantha would go and tell the teacher what was happening, because we were away for a long time already. So the class didn't know what to think and when Samantha went back to us again, another Christian began to explain to the people what was going on. At the moment she began to speak a wind was going trough the classroom, when she stopped the wind was gone. When she began again the wind was there again. A girl who doesn't believe in God felt the wind at first and she said that that wasn't just normal. I was still on the ground shaking when the class was over and then the teacher and two other Christians came to have a look. He asked if we would like to explain it all to the class in one of his lessons.

“After he was gone another teacher came (I don't know how you call it in English but they both teach in religion and stuff). He wanted us to come into his office. So they had to pick me up from the floor and help me get into his office. But when we were there he began saying that I should 'get out of it' and that I had to do this in my own time, because we were at school. … I was still shaking at the front of the school, where all the people were because it was lunch break.

“After that I went home and that night I was in the conference where John was speaking and it was just so cool, because he was acting as weird as I had done that day! And again God was doing something in me. That whole weekend God was there and I was really drunk all the time, it was so funny! I have learned much from John, and I can't even count the number of how many times I fell on the floor because God was doing something so powerful. But the Monday after that weekend God hadn't stopped his work, so I was drunk all the time even in classes! As a result of that teachers now worry about me; my mentor phoned home and my parents have to come to school and talk with her. … Students and people who aren't even at this school talk about it. … So there really is chaos and we're at a point where we don't know what to do next.” – Chayah V., Netherlands

All it takes are a few drunken warriors with a boldness to let God break out in their midst, even when it is unexplainable. A few people like this in His hands can awaken entire regions.

Maybe you have gone to church for years, but have never been floored by the immediate, tangible presence of the Holy Spirit. I would like to encourage you that God can swoop right into your circumstance and bring you a radical, addictive overhaul in one moment of your life. He did it for me, and He does it for many others. I will share one more testimony of someone who was altered by a heavy-duty Jesus fix:

“I just want you to know that I have acquired a brand new Holy Spirit addiction. I got all the prayer at the conference and then stayed for Sunday service. … I was a Holy Spirit seeker and now am a Holy Spirit addict. … They scraped me off the floor and I was so drunk in the Spirit. That has never happened to me before. I had a 3-hour drive ahead of me and they put me in the car and I laughed and prayed (yelled/warred) in tongues for more than an hour of it. Thank God I made it because I was so completely fried. I even acquired new tongues, either a new language or more of the one I already had. I went straight from Kenosha to a meeting at my own church and since it is pretty much a seeker friendly church, I was not sure how my condition was going to go over, but I didn't really care that much. I got a lot of favor and one man told me today that when he saw me on Sunday, I was glowing. … It's great! You were so right. In that condition, I don't care about anything. I can do so much more this way because I don't care what people think of me. It's awesome! All I want is God and more God! Nothing else matters. Hey I even came home feeling love for my son-in-law who has been quite a thorn in my side. Today I took a prayer drive around the perimeter of my town and heard God directing my prayer for this town really clearly. Thank you for sharing! This is amazing!” – Paulette M., Kenosha, Wisconsin

Prepare to be stretched, because God is releasing His kingdom in some radical new expressions in this hour. Let us trust Him and enjoy the flow of this new move!