Spirit World

By Alan Leonhardt

There is a deep spiritual side to the Christian experience. In this book, Dr. Leonhardt relates his own personal journey with dreams, visions, hearing from God, speaking in tongues, and other powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit. Through his stories, which are sometimes humorous, he teaches what the Bible says about these diverse God encounters. Yo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lionheart Publications
• Release date: Apr 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9780578492476

Alan Leonhardt

Alan Leonhardt has been in ministry for 40 years, 20 years as a senior Pastor. He currently pastors the Hastings Assembly of God church in Hastings, Michigan (www.hastingsaog.org). Doctor of Theology, revivalist, Bible teacher/preacher, author, musician, martial artist, hiker, camper, married for 31 years to an amazing wife (Nicole), and he has 4 beautiful daughters.

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Spirit World

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There is a deep spiritual side to the Christian experience. In this book, Dr. Leonhardt relates his own personal journey with dreams, visions, hearing from God, speaking in tongues, and other powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit. Through his stories, which are sometimes humorous, he teaches what the Bible says about these diverse God encounters. You will grow in your knowledge of the Bible as you learn to hear from God better and discern the language of the spirit world.

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ALAN LEONHARDT D.Th., has over 30 years of ministry experience. He traveled with a Christian Rock group, was a Youth Pastor, Outreach Director and Worship Leader. With 20 years’ experience as a Senior Pastor of two thriving Pentecostal churches, he successfully balances a depth of the Word of God with being Spirit-led.

Alan and his wife of 29 years, Nicole, have four daughters, They currently pastor Hastings Assembly of God in Hastings Michigan,

http://www.hastingsaog.org

SPIRIT WORLD

Copyright © 2019 by Alan F. Leonhardt

Published by Lionheart Publications, a division of Lionheart Ministries

1600 W. State Rd

Hastings, MI 49058

[e-mail]

Printed in the United States of America

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - for example, electronic, photocopy, and recording - without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-0-578-49247-6

Second Edition June 2019

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked AMP is taken from the Amplified Bible. Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Strong’s number references are taken from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, by James Strong.

DEDICATION

I want to dedicate all my books to the next generation.

One generation shall praise Your works to another,

And shall declare Your mighty acts.

– Psalm 145:4

We have an obligation to pass on our wisdom and experience to the next generation. My biggest inspirations are my children. I want my ceiling in life to be their starting place and platform. If we are wise, we will admit that we all stand on the shoulders of great men and women who have mentored us with the sacrifice of their lives. If someone can glean some good thing from this book that will help establish them and give them greater endurance to finish their race, then I will have done my job. This being said, there are some very special people I would like to thank:

• I would like to thank my wife Nicole for being brutally honest when I need it, but also a great inspiration and a constant source of encouragement.

• I would like to thank my four daughters, Bethany, Hannah, Ariel and Gabriella. I want to make you proud of your Dad and leave you a good legacy. I would like to thank my church family at Hastings Assembly of God. I always tell them to sow grace into the lives of others; you never know when you’re going to need some back. Apparently I must have sown some good seed because they continually give grace back to me and my family. They are a great church to pastor.

• I would like to thank my editor, Kathy Mayo. She is such a hard worker and has a servant’s heart. She has challenged me to go beyond being a good writer, to becoming a great writer.

• Lastly, I would like to thank Dr. Leon van Rooyen, the President and founder of Global Ministries and Relief. He has been a great friend and mentor. He has this gift of faith and encouragement about him. When I tell him of my big dreams, he doesn’t scoff or even flinch. He takes me seriously and does everything within his power to encourage me. He truly invests in my life. Some men achieve greatness by their deeds, others by inspiring others to do great things; Dr. van Rooyen is great because he does both.

REVIEWS

In Pastor Alan’s book Spirit World, he speaks from experience about moving successfully in the Holy Spirit. This is a rare teaching. I highly recommend it.

~ Troy Townsend

Gilead Healing Team

Lansing, MI

First, let me say, I love Spirit World. I just received it and read the first chapter. Wow! Every theological doctrine, including eschatology (the study of end times), in just twenty pages! Amazing and brilliant. I didn’t want to stop reading and can’t wait now for chapter two and beyond.

~ Dave Williams

Dave Williams Ministries

Lansing, MI

Rev. Leonhardt’s book, Spirit World, is an essential book for your collection on the Holy Spirit. It is well written, insightful, and full of personal stories that make the content come to life. I appreciate that it is Scriptural and practical. It also comes from a life of experience in walking with the Holy Spirit. Pick a copy up for yourself and a friend, today!

~ Chris Palmer

Light of Today Ministries

Farmington Hill, MI

Alan will take you on a fascinating journey through the spirit world as he weaves his own stories with plenty of scripture to back those stories up. Let him take you to what he calls the God Zone where you will see what a loving God we serve. You will laugh and you will cry as Alan changes your views on what it truly means to be an on fire Christian today.

~ Mark Christensen

Edward Jones Financial Advisor [retired]

Hastings, MI

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Chapter 1

The Spirit Realm is Real

We lived in a little town called Beulah, Michigan. It was located just south of the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore. Winters could be quite challenging with lake effect snow. By mid-winter the accumulated snow on the ground could be three to five feet deep. Make sure your little dog, Fluffy, stays on the shoveled path or you won’t find her until spring.

In early spring, the piney woods of northern-lower Michigan are filled with the fresh smell of wild flowers and the melodious sounds of the red-breasted robin. The beauty of the forests, lakes and sand dunes of the western part of the state are a magnet for tourism. Summers are hot and humid. The cool freshwater lakes are major attractions for sportsmen and swimmers. I used to make a campfire on a secluded evening beach of Lake Michigan and let the soothing rhythm of the surf relax me. Living and pastoring a church in this area of Michigan was a dream come true. Even though this was a vacation paradise, evil lurked.

For several mornings my ten-year-old daughter Hannah woke me up with tears in her eyes. She was being tormented in her sleep with nightmares. (Hannah is our number two daughter of four.) Although nightmares are a somewhat common childhood experience, I suspected that this was more than just my child feeling vulnerable and manifesting her fears in the form of nightmares. As a Christian parent, I was discerning a spiritual attack and knew that I wasn’t powerless to just let this continue. I began to pray for her before she went to sleep at night. I prayed for a peaceful sleep and commanded fear to go. I quoted the verse in 2 Timothy 1:7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Night after night I prayed with her at her bedside, but the nightmares continued.

One night I was up and awake later than usual. Before I went to bed I thought it would be good to go into Hannah’s room and pray over her while she slept. As I came into her room I sensed something evil enter the room; it came right through the outside wall. I didn’t see anything, but I felt its presence; my spiritual senses were on high alert. I felt the indignation of the Holy Spirit rise up in me and I was angry. I spoke to that spirit and commanded it by the Holy name of Jesus to leave that room and never come back! Immediately I sensed that the evil presence was gone, and then I worshiped and thanked God. A great peace came into that room. After that confrontation Hannah was free from those nightmares.

My little girl was being attacked and tormented by a nefarious spirit in the night. I didn’t believe I had done anything to open my home up to evil spirits, so it was then that I came to believe that demonic forces don’t have to have a reason to attack. They will systematically test your defenses to find a way in. If you are ignorant of spiritual warfare or if you don’t know your authority in Christ, the demonic hordes from hell will march right over you. The spirit realm is real. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. There is an invisible kingdom of darkness that unleashes evil and destruction on an unaware mankind. There is also a powerful kingdom of light that can protect us and help us live in victory. God wants to develop our spiritual awareness and discernment so that you and I can navigate successfully through life’s greatest challenges. To be in denial of the invisible spiritual realm is to unwittingly be subject to its deadly influences.

THE INVISIBLE CREATED THE VISIBLE

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

– Hebrews 11:3

As Christians, we must realize that the invisible spirit world exerts tremendous influence on the visible natural world. This isn’t some superstitious mumbo jumbo; the spirit world is real. The root cause for many things that we experience, good and bad, are spiritual in nature. To deny the existence of the spiritual realm is like living in a two-dimensional world.

There are many invisible things that we deal with on a daily basis and none of these can be put into a test tube and evaluated by the scientific method. Take, for example, our emotions. Consider what the world would be like if we weren’t influenced by the invisible force of our emotions. If emotion suddenly ceased to exist, our lives would be very colorless. Also, invisible emotions can be enriching or toxic; so, too, can the spiritual realm be a source of life, or a deceptive place that yields death. The spiritual realm is also something we interact with every day. Reality is not limited to your five senses. The Bible teaches us how to successfully navigate our spiritual lives. The Bible also teaches that God and the spiritual realm existed before the material universe. The spirit world is eternal, and the material universe is temporary and subject to change. The things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. If all that exists came from God Almighty, who is a spiritual being, then we need to take spiritual things seriously. The invisible spirit world influences your life.

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

– 2 Corinthians 4:18

The invisible created all things that are visible. God, who is a spiritual being, created everything from nothing. For our reality to exist there must be a time, space, and mass continuum. There must be space for mass to exist in and there must be a time for it all to occur. This continuum had to come into existence simultaneously. Genesis 1:1 tells us of the creation of the time/space/mass continuum. In the beginning (time) God created the heavens (space) and the earth (mass). The universe is a trinity of trinities. Time is past, present and future. Space is height, width and depth. Mass is solid, liquid and gas. The God of the Bible transcends time, space and mass. By transcends we mean that the God of the Holy Bible is not subject to the laws of this universe. He is eternal and therefore transcends time; time is subject to Him. He is omnipresent so He transcends space. He is above and beyond, and yet the sustainer and glue that holds the universe together. Only an eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent being could have created all that exists. Only the Judeo/Christian God of the Bible fits the description of the logical source of the universe. From the invisible came all that is visible. The spirit world is the source of the entire created order.

For, since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

– Romans 1:20

Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

– Hebrews 1:3

Not only has God, who is a spiritual being (see John 4:24), created all that is out of nothing, but He also is active in sustaining the universe through Jesus Christ. I was in a physics class in college and we were studying the atom and atomic science. As the professor droned on about the protons and neutrons orbiting around the atom a thought occurred to me. So I raised my hand and asked why the protons and electrons didn’t fly off. What kept them in orbit around the atom? His answer made me laugh. He said that no one truly understands why the atom holds together, it’s called Atomic Glue. I immediately thought of a verse in the book of Colossians that speaks of Christ:

And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together).

– Colossians 1:17 AMP

If God, who is spirit, created and sustains all the created order, then the spirit world is even more real than the material world. The spiritual realm holds great sway over our life and world. It’s time we accept the truthful claims of the Bible about spiritual realities.

Some folks have such a hard time with supernatural and spiritual things. There is always an attempt to rationalize, or explain away, any miracle or healing. The Gospel of John records an incident when God spoke in an audible voice to a crowd of people and some rationalized that the sound was thunder (see John 12:29). Let’s face it, supernatural things scare people. It’s just our nature to be afraid of things we don’t understand or can’t control. Another reason we want to rationalize miracles from God is because to acknowledge them means we acknowledge the existence of the God of the Bible. To do so would be to admit that we are accountable to Him. This is a very tenuous situation for someone who is rebelling against God.

Jesus warned us to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees (see Matthew 16:6). Jesus compared the doctrine of the Sadducees to leaven (see Matthew 16:12) or yeast that you work into dough until all of the bread is infected. What was the doctrine of the Sadducees? The Sadducees did not believe in angels or the resurrection (see Acts 23:8). In fact, they did not believe in the supernatural at all. The Sadducee leaven is still trying to infiltrate the church today. This corrupt reasoning goes along these lines: Because it’s impossible for these miraculous stories in the Bible to be true, then the Bible is a book of Jewish mythology that has a moral lesson or truth. The Bible makes no sense when you start surgically removing all supernatural demonstrations. If you take out the supernatural from the Word of God then you are left with a concordance and some maps wrapped in a leather cover.

The leaven of the Sadducees can be more insidious than overtly denying anything spiritual. Churches can begin to suppress any demonstration of the Spirit of God. We can say that we are spiritual and believe all the miracles written in the Bible but deny that God works miracles today! We have just become practical Sadducees, suppressing anything that might stun or convict an unlearned visitor. We are then tempted to think that people are more impressed with an intellectual argument than a demonstration of the power of God.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

– 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

My Grandmother was a wonderful Christian woman, but she prided herself in being an intellectual and was susceptible to the leaven of the Sadducees. I often visited her in an assisted living home, and although she was over ninety years old at the time she was still sharp as a tack. She was very happy and proud that I was studying to be a minister. She would read these crazy things and wait for me to visit so she could astound and stump me. Once she showed me an article that declared they knew where the Children of Israel had crossed the Red Sea. The reason this had to be the spot was because the water there is only SIX INCHES DEEP. I yelled out. Praise the Lord Grandma! She asked, Why are you responding that way? I thought you would be upset that they gave a rational answer that explains one of the greatest miracles of the Bible? To which I responded, No Grandma, I think it’s awesome how God miraculously drowned a whole Egyptian army in just six inches of water! Think of it! It’s a miracle!

I tried to explain to her that when you try to explain away the miraculous of the Bible, you will end up looking foolish. You only have two choices: either you believe in the miraculous, or you don’t. If you choose not to believe in the miraculous then the Bible makes no sense. I would say that you can’t even be a Christian without accepting the miraculous. Without believing in miracles how could the Son of God be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, die vicariously for the sins of the world, rise from the dead, be seated at the right hand of God and come again to rule and judge the world? AND…Jesus is still working signs, wonders and miracles through His church today!

Have we lost touch with our connection to the spirit world? Indigenous tribal peoples and third world peoples are very aware of the interrelations we have with powerful spiritual forces. Although some are ignorant of the true nature of those spiritual forces, they at least are keen about the influence they exert. In today’s Christian world, third world believers have no problem with the spiritual side of Christianity. They have seen the reality of demon possession, witch doctors and curses. They understand and are so appreciative of the protection and deliverance offered in Christ. Many are so grateful to be rescued from real evil spiritual oppression and to be safe under the shadow of God’s wings.

In the western world, Christians who claim that some sicknesses are directly caused by demonic oppression, or that God spoke to them in a dream or by a still small voice, are sometimes viewed as fringe, or somewhat kooky. But what does the Bible say? Are these experiences validated by the Word of God? The Bible is our final authority to validate spiritual experience, not the traditions of men. According to the Bible, the devil and demons are real! Jesus talked about the devil more than anyone in the entire Bible. Jesus was a frontline combatant with malignant spiritual forces. He went about preaching and teaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease, and casting out demons (see Matthew 4:23-24).

Do I have to commit intellectual suicide to be a spiritual person? No. It IS