We can all shift atmospheres. It is not only for the spiritual elite. I think God keeps it simple, and I think it is important to keep it simple too. For most of us, it should be a matter of simply releasing what Heaven is doing in the moment. Rather than tear down, we displace darkness with the Kingdom of Heaven. I say, let’s send in the angels to do the work, while we enjoy tranquility and peace.

We were walking through a beautiful little French town when I noticed a man setting up in an area to busk. A check in my spirit told me something was not right. I checked in with God, and did not feel any prompt to release or pray anything, so I ignored what I sensed and continued to walk down the cobbled streets with my family.

As we walked, we found a small, quaint restaurant to have dinner. Hungry, we checked the menu and discussed whether we would go in. As we did, the man began to play.

My irritation grew.

“We’ll need to eat inside,” I said to my husband.

“Yes, I know,” he replied.

He could feel it too, although not as intensely as myself.

We were on a family holiday in France, staying in a beautiful village. Both our children were also a little on edge with the noise and we knew we needed to sit inside to avoid what was being released on the street.

I knew most of the trip was purely a holiday. I had stopped for one or two people to offer prayer, or prophesy, but I understood Europe was outside my sphere of influence, so I did not feel a need to engage. Even so, I checked in with God and received the confirmation that this was not my territory – there was no assignment here.

Andrew came out of the restaurant.

“There are no tables inside. We can sit outside, or we can find somewhere else to eat.”

While he could feel it, he was not as sensitive, and could easily ignore the atmosphere. He was happy to look further afield, but we were all tired and hungry.

“No, it’s ok,” I said. “Let’s eat here. The kids are hungry. None of us want to walk any further and this place looks beautiful. I refuse to give in to it. Let’s stay.”

We were shown our table and handed some menus as the music droned on in the background.

We were all chatting away and exchanging our thoughts about what to eat, when I suddenly could stand it no more. Throwing my hands in the general direction of the noise, I declared,

“I release the Kingdom of Heaven in the name of Jesus!”

I looked at Andrew. He looked at me.

“I know I said I would not do anything, but it was irritating!”

We got on with placing our orders and chatted between ourselves when Andrew suddenly motioned to me.

“Listen. Look. He’s packing up.”

I listened, heard nothing and I realized I had completely forgotten the man was there. The noise had ceased completely, and the man was packing up, preparing to leave.

“Oh gosh, thank you God!” I said and as I turned back to Andrew, I grinned a little sheepishly, “Well, it was really irritating.”

We can all feel spiritual atmospheres around us, just as we can discern, see, and hear them. Some feel more profoundly than others, just as some see in the spirit more clearly than others. As someone who feels quite a lot, I often feel great joy, great love, simple, profound peace, but I also feel the yucky stuff too. It’s taken time to learn and grow in this “feeling gift” and indeed, I am still learning and growing. I have noticed that with every upgrade in my gift, I require greater amounts of God’s wisdom to know what to do with what I feel. It takes time to stop and check in with the Holy Spirit, to process what is going on.

The feeling aspect of my gifts overlays aspects of the prophetic gift and the gift of discernment. It leans into other aspects too. For highly sensitive people, it can be overwhelming. However, rather than shutting the gift down (which we can want to do as people who feel) we need to learn how to steward our sensitivity gift.

We can see Paul utilising his feeling gift set in Scriptures. It took him a few days of feeling irritated before he discerned a spirit in the slave-girl at Acts 16. She was declaring all the right stuff – her words were accurate, but there was clearly something off about her. Paul could feel it. He felt irritated or troubled for a time, but once he discerned what was going on, he dealt with it. The Scripture reads,

One day as we were going to the place to pray, we met a servant-girl who could tell what was going to happen in the future by a demon she had. Her owner made much money from her power. She followed Paul and us crying out, “These are servants of the Highest God. They are telling you how to be saved from the punishment of sin.” She did this many days. Paul was troubled. Then he turned and said to the demon in her, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I speak to you. Come out of her!” At once it left her.

– Acts 16:16-18 [emphasis added].

That irritation Paul felt about the girl and what she was doing was a sign something was off. The girl was not the issue; the spirit influencing her was, and so Paul dealt with it with a simple declaration.

We can learn to manage our senses, and practice asking God what to do with what we discern. In this way, we will grow in our gifts. I think the biggest take away I have learnt is to catch the feelings before I own them as my own. I ask God what He has to say about what I am feeling, and then, ask, “What do you want me to do with what I am feeling right now?” Sometimes, I just simply need to turn my eyes towards Jesus and focus with all my might on Him, because not everything is for me to clean up. Not everything is something I must take on. But when I do have a responsibility, I have found the best method is to ask Him, “What do you have to say about this?” I then simply release His thoughts, ideas and plans through my words, actions, and declarations.

I think this is the most effective and valuable thing we can do, simply because God always has a brilliant plan and simply because,

God is Good!

© Beth Kennedy 2024

Join me in my Free Workshop, Shifting Atmospheres

November 13-15, 6PM Central

https://kingdom-mentoring.com/shifting-atmospheres-nov