"The Nightmare", from chapter Two of "The Gift"

     I recently read an article giving advice on the best ways to promote a book as an author. One of the first items on the list was to share portions of the book in a blog in order to offer people who might be interested in reading it a sneak peek. I think this is an excellent idea and have decided to follow it. So, over the next couple of weeks I will share pieces from my book, The Gift, that others who have already read it believe are interesting or captivating portions and are also their favourites.

This first excerpt is from Chapter Two, pages 10-13 of "The Gift" by Daniel Sweetnam:

     I was seeing things about people that no one had ever told me. Maybe this is what the spirits and creatures were trying to teach me. Somehow they always knew peoples thoughts and secrets and used that information to influence them. Perhaps they gave me the same power, so I could use the knowledge to bring people hope or punish them just the same.

     However, I had another horrible nightmare which changed my opinion of this gift once more. I saw a plane crash into the side of a small mountain. I watched in the dream, as one of the plane’s engines failed and the people inside began to panic.

     Inside the plane I could see a dark haired man leaning over and crying. I saw a mother holding her young daughter tightly, whispering words of comfort into her ear. There were people arguing and others pushing and climbing to the front. Some people just closed their eyes and held the hand of another. Several, one old lady in particular, were desperately praying asking God for help.

     I saw the crippled, smoking plane get closer and closer to a tree filled mountain side. The pilots were doing everything they could to avoid the inevitable destruction awaiting them all. I saw everything as if I was there, part of the horror that was happening; yet just outside of it all, helpless to do anything. The pilot’s couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t stop it. It was hopeless.

     I heard their screams of anguish as the plane plunged against the mountain side. The screams lasted for only a moment, then silence. All that was left from the exploded plane were bits and pieces of burning rubble, debris and bodies spread across the mountain side, and the eerie silence.

     I woke up in a panic, sweat dripping from my body.

     “It was just a dream, wasn’t it? It felt so real, like I was actually there; like I crashed too.” I spoke out loud.

     I was still in my bed, safe and warm. I lied there wondering why I would have such a horrible dream; how could I imagine something that seemed so real, so alive and yet so terrible.

     When I finally calmed down, I got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. My mother was already up and was at the table watching the news.

     She turned to me and said, “This is horrible, so sad. A plane crashed and everyone died. Imagine all those poor families, losing their loved ones like that.”

     I turned nervously towards the television as the news started showing more images of the crash site and pictures of people who had died.

     My heart sank within me, it was the people from my dream, the same plane and the tree filled mountain; I had seen it all happen just a short while before. The pictures of the people they were showing were of the dark haired man, the lady and her young daughter, even the old lady that was praying. I had just seen them all die. This couldn’t be real, it isn’t possible is it?

     My mom’s voice jolted me back to reality. “Are you okay Malachai, maybe you shouldn’t be watching this, I think it’s scaring you a little. Maybe it’s too graphic. How about you get some breakfast and I’ll find something nicer to watch.” She said.

    I started to cry and answered, “No mom, I just had a horrible dream about all of this.” Then I told her about my dream.

     She didn’t know what to say, except, “Maybe you just heard the news off the radio or something like that, which made you have the dream.”

     “But mom, the plane just crashed early this morning and I had the dream this morning; maybe even at the same time it was really crashing. How could I have heard it from anywhere else if it’s only on the news now?” I said.

     She couldn’t answer me. All she could say was, “You better get ready for school or you’ll be late.”

     The dream haunted me; I wondered why I had it? What was the purpose of knowing if I could do nothing about it? The creatures used their knowledge to control others. The spirits used what they knew to help others. But this made no sense; I would never meet those people and could change nothing that happened. I was totally powerless to stop it, so why?

Truth or Fiction?

I find these days that with the every increasing availability of information there is so much knowledge out there right at our finger tips that the question of discerning whether it is fact or fiction becomes the real difference between simple knowledge and true wisdom.

Take the recent Presidential election in the United States between Obama and Romney; during the whole campaign we heard endless tidbits of information about their lives, opinions and believes and their own counter information telling you what the real story and real truth is. Then you had the media and other sources of information countering them yet again, unveiling what the REAL Real truth and facts are. And it continues in a never ending circle.

So how do you figure out what is truth and what is fiction? And more importantly, who gets to decide what information should even be shared and debated. I say this simply because even my spell check on this blog and my Microsoft Word knows the correct spelling of Obama and Romney, but for me to spell my own last name, Sweetnam, it marks it as an error. So someone has enough control over the information on the internet to make sure my spell check is up to date with the important information.

What exactly is my point? Is it just another conspiracy?

Perhaps a little, however in my book "The Gift", one of the important points I felt the need to address is  the issue of what information we as people are hearing and listening to; and whether the source of that information is trustworthy or not.

The main character, "Malachai", continually sees demons speaking to people, whispering in their ears, directing them towards trouble and even possessing people to control them while influencing others. The book itself may be a work of fiction, but does it mean that every thought and word written within it are just a work of fiction as well? Absolutely not. In fact much of what The Gift is about is based on truth, however, in order to make it more acceptable to be read and understood, it needed to be put as fiction. So I, as the author, had to control the information written within the book to make it more appealing to the audience I wish to read it.

Naturally this is nothing unusual or uncommon. Every writer does it. Whether for books, poems, advertising, plays, movies, news programs, Presidential speeches, campaign slamming or even blogging; everyone who writes has a certain opinion, perspective and audience they take into account when they write. The result is the controlling of information in order to gain a desired result by their audience.

So the real questions should be, who is controlling the larger tidbits of information; what is their desired result; and is it truth, fiction or a little of both?

I hear many Christians talk about the end of the world and the battle in the last days before our total destruction. And even though they have much information and research backing up this belief, I have also heard much information and research that says the earth won't be destroyed. So much of what is being said is interpreted by each individual's personal beliefs.

I myself believe that we are very much in the midst of a spiritual war and that this battle is heating up once again to an intense war in the spiritual realm all of which will heavily impact us. However, my caution is with the information that is being spread these days and by whom.

If Malachai's ability is to see the demons influences on others and ultimately their control over people and information; and we as spiritual beings are in the midst of an intense spiritual war, then who or what is influencing those who control the information being spread to the mass populations and what do they want;  is it trustworthy?

There is an old quote that states, "He who controls the information, has the power." This has reigned true throughout the years. What would happen though if all of us could see the spiritual realm like Malachai does and actually see the spirits both good and evil, that are influencing everyone around the world. My personal belief is that those spirits would lose a lot of power because they could no longer work in secret and could be held accountable for what they are really saying and doing. We would each be able to make more informed decisions because we would be able to see what information is actually true and what is being twisted to simply look like truth.

Perhaps this is what Midnight, the main demon in The Gift, is really trying to fight; the thought that Malachai might just discover what these demons really want and then convince others to learn the truth just the same. Then they would lose the control and power.

The Joy in Halloween and Christmas

I am truly amazed sometimes as to just how busy life can be. With all the good intentions of wanting to keep up with all the daily tasks that need to be done, life just seems to slip by quickly and before we know it days and even weeks have passed. There are times that  I long for 48 hour days in order to just catch up a little, but then I would probably just find even more to do. So I guess the answer is to make sure that the things we busy our selves with also add some enjoyment to our lives so we feel that the life we are living is worthwhile.

I adopt this attitude with most of what I do and try hard to find what is good in everything and everyone, and it's not always easy, but it does help me look at every situation with a little more openness.

Take Halloween for example; as a Christian, youth pastor, dad, retail business owner and author of a book discussing demons, angels and the spirit realm; Halloween itself holds many conflicts of beliefs that others feel I should have some big problems with; and yet I don't. My attitude towards Halloween becomes a continual discussion to many of my customers, readers and Christian friends, because they all know that I have a strong faith in God and very much live a life reflecting what Jesus teaches, yet I still sell Halloween stuff, decorate my house in a comedy style and let my family dress up to enjoy the evening.

What's hard to explain to others though is the idea that for me the spiritual world exists every day of the entire year, not just the one night of Halloween. Ghosts, demons, spirits, and all the rest don't simply appear the one night of the year that people dress like them, they exist always. But for the short period before halloween, people get excited about life and have a little fun. Most are not celebrating the day of the dead, they are just trying to find a little enjoyment in life and an excuse to eat some candy.

It's kind of like Christmas and us celebrating Jesus birth; Jesus exists every other day too and the idea of loving one another and sharing hope and joy, should also happen year round. However, people get so busy with their own lives the rest of the year that it takes Christmas to remind us to think of each other and take the time to spend with each other because life is short and we all need to enjoy some of it.

So if the point is take the time to find some true happiness and spend time with others, then does it matter whether we dress up in halloween costumes or in Mary, Joseph, shepherd and wise man costumes. Instead we should be focusing on the things that encourage people to find hope, joy and friendship; all of which looks for what is good in others rather than what is wrong with them. I will admit that I am not a fan of how some of the partying around both holidays leads to drunkeness and excessive behaviors that only cause more separation, problems and loneliness; but most of the time people find some encouragement if they don't give in to such excessiveness.

As I have mentioned before the spiritual world exists all around us whether we believe it or not and every day of the year. And there are certain times of the year like Halloween that this activity seems closer then other times, simply because more people are focusing on it and believing in it. All that really changes is that people turn their focus onto the Joys and expenses of Christmas instead. The same spirits are still there, but they just don't receive the same attention, and perhaps end up working a bit harder to get some of the attention back. Which is often done by reminding people of what they don't have, how lonely their life is or perhaps what things they really deserve. Then of course people become frustrated, angry and bitter rather then taking time to find friendship, happiness and fun.

Perhaps what each of these holiday's come down to can be found in the simple understanding of what we personally choose to allow to influence us. We can allow other people to bring us down and frustrate us with their own expectations and hang-ups; or we can see them as people who are maybe lonely and hurting that may possibly need something to make them laugh and have a little fun. So maybe we can be the one to help them smile by choosing to look for what is good and joyful about every situation.

We can also choose to allow the spirits and demons to influence us negatively, bringing us down, frustrated, jealous and even using us to affect others negatively. Or we can pay attention to the thoughts that seem to be whispered into our ears and planted in our dreams that then frustrate, or make us feel angry, lonely or worthless. Then we can learn to combat those whispers and stop letting them influence us, by looking for what is good and purposefully spending our time and energy to build the friendships we are looking for and find what is good and worthy within ourselves.

Perhaps if we could all look at life this way we could see an incredible change throughout the world.

Just a thought anyways.

My Own Spiritual Journey Part 2: Apples, Spirits and God

One thing I have learned throughout my short time on this earth is that everyone I have met has had some sort of spiritual experience and that each persons experience is just a little bit different or sometimes a lot different then everyone else's. I chalked this up to the idea that each person's spiritual experience is understood from their own unique understanding and perspective.

What I mean by this is simply understood by looking at an ordinary apple. If I placed an apple on a table in the middle of a room of 20 people and asked everyone individually to write down what they saw, I would assume that the common answer among all the descriptions would be that they all saw an apple. However, some people may focus more on the color and shape of the apple; others may notice the markings, dents and bruises. Still a couple may see the patterns in the color itself or even how it sits on the table and what the table itself looks like. Perhaps even one or two may consider what they can't see and describe what the apple might look like inside, according to what they have experienced by eating apples in the past.

Each person will have a slightly or vastly different perspective of the apple mainly due to their own experiences with life itself and how they see the world around them. Well the same idea can be applied to spiritual experiences. Some people may view them as just an apple, maybe a simple answer to prayer or a peaceful feeling when they are thinking of someone special. Or others may view them as the outside and inside of the apple with all the details of what they can see and cannot; perhaps due to seeing spirits themselves, having intense dreams and visions or even premonitions of future events. All are spiritual experiences but just differ in how they might be understood because of who is experiencing them and what they understand the experience should look like.

The more I come to understand these differences, the better I understand how to answer people when they share their own personal experiences; and the deeper I understand the relationship that God intended us to have with Him. Often we view God as just an apple and when we first realize He is there, we admire Him only from our perspective and figure He is only an apple and there are many other apples, so what's so special about Him. Sometimes people even treat God like a precious golden apple that can never be touched or known but only worshiped and revered.

However, God created us as spiritual beings with unique life experiences so that we can view Him and all He created as something special and a little different then everyone else, so when we share our experiences with others they learn and are enriched by gaining a relationship with us. In essence God wants us to notice all the little details there are not only in His surface, but also by looking inside the apple that is God and getting to know all of Him.

Yes, I understand that to some the idea of cutting an apple open to look inside it then comparing that to God may not be the best analogy, but the point is to stop being so afraid of getting close to God and looking at him as an untouchable apple only to be viewed; but to start looking closer at Him and the relationship He wants us to have with Him. If God is a spiritual being and we are created to be spiritual beings and most if not all of us have had spiritual experiences, then wouldn't it make sense to learn why God designed us this way and perhaps build a relationship with Him rather than just a religion?

In my own spiritual journey, I have learned that there is so much more I still need to learn. With seeing angels, spirits and demons; experiencing crazy and intensely spiritual dreams and visions;  dealing with religious ideals; and, seeking to understand who God is, the one thing I know for sure is that God wants me to know Him personally, inside and out. With the parts I can't understand or see yet He wants me to imagine what can be there, just like the inside of the apple, rather then pretend it doesn't exist yet just because I can't understand or see it.

With all the judgement and criticism I have received when trying to ask questions about my own spiritual experiences by some who are religious and some who are not, God has taught me to keep an open mind and listen rather than try to discount what others have been through just because I may not have experienced what they have. After all, maybe their unique spiritual experiences and their own encounters with God can teach me something more about who God is and encourage me to realize just how much we all are connected to one another.

The Spirits of Malachai's

Several people have commented to me about how they can relate so much to the main character, "Malachai", from the book, but wanted to know more details about what the different spirits are that he sees.

In my original drafts I had added much more detail, but due to space limits with the book much had been cut out. So I figure this blog would be a great chance to expand a bit more on some of these subjects.

As a young child Malachai saw three very different types of spirits, the first type was very human like and familiar; the second was more peaceful but purposeful; the third was very direct and intimidating, taking less interest in him and more in their own agenda.

Human Like Spirit

The gentler human like spirits are probably the most controversial ones with Christian realms simply because they do not fit with in angel or demon borders. For Malachai anytime he tried to share about his conversations with these spirits to others, he met with a lot of disbelief. For him they were just other human beings that seemed invisible to everyone else. As he found out over time, they were people others knew that had passed away and had chosen to speak with Malachai to pass messages on to their loved ones. The messages were always ones that tried to help people deal with hurts, guilt, doubts and lies about themselves, in order to help that person find hope and move on to living their lives once again.

Peaceful Spirits

For Malachai, the peaceful spirits were definitely more spiritual in nature. They had a brighter glow surrounding them and an energy of life and hope that seemed to flow from within them. They had an imagine of a human like person with in a brightness but were definitely not like everyone else around Malachai. They always came to Malachai when he was feeling alone and sad or simply tired of the judgement and doubts from others. For Malachai, they became his greatest source of encouragement and belief, because they believed in him. When they had a message for others that they wanted Malachai to deliver, it was always one of hope for that person and to remind them of who they really are inside and that they have a purpose for God if they would only believe. Their words were often direct and to the point helping people get passed their fears, doubts and hurt, if they were willing to listen and choose to follow what they said.

The Intimidating Spirits

The third type of spirit that Malachai encountered became the most dominating one of all. These spirits had a darkness that seemed to surround them, sometimes it was like a fog, other times just a light haze; and as Malachai came to know them better it was often a blackness that flowed from within them. Like the peaceful Spirits some of them had an almost human like image, but these spirits almost seemed to wear this image like a mask to cover up something deeper within them. When they came to speak with Malachai they almost wanted something from him. Sometimes is was Malachai's trust, loyalty, obedience or abilities. Other times it was for Malachai to deliver a message to other people in order to put them in their place or remind them of their past mistakes or hurt. These spirits always seemed to be on Malachai's side and reminded him how much they were there to help him, but something about these spirits made Malachai uneasy inside and concerned about their true intentions. The problem was that they also made Malachai feel important and powerful; like he had a purpose once again. As a result Malachai liked to listen to them and hear what they had to say.

When Malachai was younger each of these types of spirits were there for him and seemed to care about him; but as he grew older he began to see them all more truthfully and that the Intimidating Spirits came in many different forms and varying purposes then what he first understood. However, that can be a discussion for another blog.

My Own Spiritual Journey, Part 1

Being new to blogging I will do my best to learn quickly and I hope those that read it will be patient along the way.

The reason for starting this blog is to share and discuss many of the spiritual events that are written about in my new book, "The Gift". It has only been out for just over a month and of the many positive reviews I have received, the most frequent comment is asking me if I believe that what the main character, "Malachai", has experienced is real. When I say, "yes", then their next comments are sharing their own experiences about spiritual events that they have kept quiet in order to avoid judgements from others and the feeling that what they see and experience might mean they are crazy.

As someone who firmly believes in God and has also experienced many spiritual events throughout my own life, I have come to understand that our grasp on what the spiritual world is really all about, is somewhat limited. Throughout my own experiences with both angels and demons, I seldom found answers to what I saw and went through by traditional religious venues. The bible shares many stories about angels and demons, but we are taught not to pay much attention to those stories and focus only on the good ones or those that encourage the religious principles. So, instead I sought the answers by exploring many different religious beliefs and cultural points of views in a desperate attempt to make some sense of my own dreams, visions and direct experiences with the angels and demons. However, like Malachai in the book, my experiences with the spiritual world around me led me back to God and an understanding of who He is and the relationship He wants with us, not just a religious experience of Him and that we actually have authority of these spirits through Jesus.

My journey has been one that directly dealt with many varying spiritual and supernatural beings and events, most of which I have kept quiet and private because of the judgements and condemnation I received by trying to ask questions and understand what I saw and why. However, I have spent much of my life quietly teaching and helping others that share similar experiences like mine so that we can all understand that God has a purpose for what we see and we are definitely not crazy.

All these events have led to writing the book and now creating a place where I hope others can freely share their own experiences, ask questions, seek answers and learn what incredible Gift's God has given each of us. I welcome your thoughts and opinions but ask that all comments be respectful and understanding of others and I look forward to making some new friends and gaining a larger world perspective of the spiritual war happening around us.