I recently had an interview with a seer about his seeing gift. On Sunday, I spent time talking and praying with an adult seer about the history of his gift and how he learned nothing was actually wrong with him. His name is Gerry.
Gerry wasn’t oppressed by a demon. He wasn’t possessed. He wasn’t cursed. He has an ability from birth to detect spiritual things with his eyes that most other people could not perceive.
I thought it was some sort of disease or an over-active imagination.
Gerry is in his 40s and is a successful businessman. He walks to the beat of his own drum. I’ve known he’s highly prophetic for many years (meaning, he “hears” what God’s heart is for specific individuals. He can often discern what God’s heart is for someone in whatever stage of their life is.) In addition, God has given him a heart for people who are typically outsiders and outcasts, what he calls, “Misfit Toys,” as in the stop-animation children television program Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.
For years during the month of October, Gerry and his family organized a “haunted house” for a local nonprofit. Lots of Christians and church leaders condemned them for organizing it. I admit I looked at him askew when I first met him. I would privately shake my head. He would just smile at me with a gleam in his eye that made me think he could see something I wasn’t aware of (perhaps the secret sin that I struggled with at the time?). Only later, I learned that by “haunted house”, there was actually nothing supernatural about the “haunts” (the trick to scaring people is misdirection and surprise, not supernatural or horrifying images), although it was rated as one of the top 10 scariest “haunted houses” in Illinois for several years in a row according to “Haunted Illinois.”
A Seer Going into Battle
Last year in my youth group, two teenagers who were not part of my group (and still aren’t) came in seeking deliverance from spirits they empowered through playing with an Ouija board. Gerry was there at the time in an adult class. I took the kids in a separate room at an appointed time. I led one of them into deliverance and to Jesus. The other (who was slumped over shaking violently), I wasn’t having any success and was actually unsure if the kid was truly manifesting or faking. I started getting impatient and distracted because I had other teens who wanted prayer. So I sent for Gerry.
I’m not kidding: Gerry walked in the room like Mel Gibson before battle in Braveheart or something. I don’t see anything in the spirit, but I detected power. It was awesome.
Heading into battle.
He sat down in front of the teen, who was shaking. Gerry sat there a moment looking at the kid. He asked him his name and several other formalities for which he got no response. Then Gerry simply stated, “There’s nothing on you.”
The kid said, “It left when you entered the room.”
Gerry said, “Well stop shaking and sit up then.” Then he ministered to the kid, giving him some prophetic encouragement and prayed with him to seal the portal that he had opened to his soul.
I find a seer’s ability is very useful when my discernment is lacking because it’s there or it’s not. It is very hard for a demon to hide from a person that sees.
These days, Gerry and I are leaders in a small multi-site church plant together. On Sunday we met to pray before service. We were discussing the supernatural realm and some spiritual warfare we had both experienced recently. I mentioned this website and my heart to provide a grid for the supernatural within a Christian/biblical framework.
I had no idea what I was seeing.
He told me for most of his life; he had no idea what he was seeing. Much of his life was on-again, off-again in his walk with Jesus, because none of the churches he attended provided an explanation of the world which he could actually see. When he would discuss it with a pastor or reverend, they would dismiss him, not due to some secret that only the “holiest of holy” know. It was due to their ignorance of God as well as the fear that he may know/see something that could reveal sin in the pastors’ lives.
At one point in his life Gerry struggled with depression. He went to a medical doctor and was prescribed medicine to regulate the brain chemistry. This offset the symptoms. His seeing actually stopped. Somehow, the changes in his brain chemistry cut off his ability to see in the supernatural realm. He said it also affected his ability to “hear from God.” He felt even more distant from God than ever before and went off the medication. His ability to “hear from God” and to see in the supernatural realm returned within two weeks.
He said seeing in the supernatural realm involves more than just his eyes, but other senses, like his nose, ears, tongue and the entire body to “feel”.
“The hardest part in telling people they can hear from God is that it may not be audible. That the person may physically ‘taste’ the will of God,” Gerry said.
That recalled to me when my daughter once told us about the time she smelled Jesus. I’ve also heard of other seers who have smelled sulfur (for instance), and had to determine if the smell came from something physical, like rotten eggs, or something spiritual, like a hidden demon.
High Definition Seeing
He has told me that he sees in the supernatural better with his corrective lenses off (being near sighted). Gerry said, “They (his glasses) are filters. When they are on, I don’t see on that plane. I still have all the other gifts God has given me, however, there are sometimes I myself need an oasis from the spirit world. It is always active. There is always a war. People wrestle against it. Sometimes there are vague shapes. Other times you become awaked from a deep sleep on a park bench to a 1080p high definition demon staring at you. It can be startling, after a while though, I came to realize that who lives in me is greater than those. They can’t touch me without permission. What God has given us is free will or some say, choice.”
I’ve heard other seers tell me they see spiritual things better in dim light. My interpretation of this circumstance is that “normal” physical input can overload the parts of the brain that filter out the natural to pick up the supernatural. When the physical stimulation is reduced, the brain is better able to tune in to the spiritual.
About a year ago, we were having lunch in a restaurant, and a man came in and sat across the room. Gerry looked at him and kind of sighed, and said, “That is an angry man.” Upon questioning, he added the man struggles with spirit of alcoholism and violence, which manifests towards the guy’s family. I asked how Gerry knew, and he shrugged and said that he could see the spirit of wrath and could smell the acrid odor that he associated with alcoholism.
Asking seers to define what they see is like a non-specialist asking a forester to define the kinds of trees and shrubs in a landscape picture of a forest. What I mean is, many times seers see manifestations that are so specific, it’s hard for them to put into qualified words what they see. So they default to vague language, lest they be considered literally insane and absorb ridicule or judgment by others. One teen told me people “stop listening when I go into detail.” So he often doesn’t.
Think of it this way. If there was someone that knew everything about you and they told you about your life, good or bad, every time they were around you. How often would you be in their physical presence? Some would say, “All the time bring it on”! Most people default to feeling violated when some of their deepest secrets are so easily uncovered by just the mere presence of a person that is a seer and therefore push the person as far away as possible.
“He sees.”
This week, I asked Gerry when he discovered he had an ability or gift to see into the spiritual realm; when he realized he wasn’t sick or the ability wasn’t related to his imagination.
Gerry said 4 years ago, he was taking a class teaching people how to pray for someone else regarding a need in their lives. This class was a few hours and involved several modules with different presenters and testimonies from others that had experienced the results of the class.
During one of the modules, he happened to be sitting by two of the church’s pastors (this class was offered in what may be considered a small “mega-church”): the church’s senior pastor and the church’s administrative pastor, Ben.
Gerry remembered how uncomfortable he was from the scene he was watching not in the natural, but the supernatural.
Ben leaned over, asked what was wrong and asked if he was ok. Gerry was very new to the church at the time and so awkwardly said the nicely-dressed speaker was making him uncomfortable.
Ben asked if he saw something.
Gerry admitted he did: “a big hulking mass” with “fleshy pincher gripping hands” that were wrapped around the speaker’s throat. It was at that moment the speaker started uncontrollably coughing.
Ben said, “I’ll confirm what you’re seeing to you. It’s ok, you’re safe.” Then Ben further explained that the gentleman had throat cancer as well as deep anger issues. Gerry experienced a jaw-dropping moment, metaphorically.
Ben then leaned over to the senior pastor, and said, “He sees.”
The senior pastor, a man in his 60s who founded this church in his living room in the early 1980s, looked over at Gerry.
Gerry told me, “So then I’m nervous.”
The senior pastor asked him a few questions about his background, his hometown, and his involvement in the local multi-site of the church. And then the senior pastor welcomed him. Then all three of them began paying attention to the speaker again like nothing had happened.
Today, Gerry is one of the core leaders in a new multi-site plant with this same church, along with me.
In some respects, this sledgehammer to the face experience for Gerry affirmed that his ability wasn’t evil, his imagination, or a disease. Over time, he was given a Biblically Christian grid to interpret what he was seeing. He was invited to learn how to better discern what he was seeing by classifying not only by look but his other senses as well. He’s been growing more in this discernment and how to interpret what he’s seeing through a biblical lens.
As we wrapped up our prayer/interview, I asked him if I could share some of the things that we had talked about. He said transparently, “Of course!”
(Thanks Gerry, for your edits and thoughtful contribution to this post).