John Paul Jackson Dies of Cancer: Another General Goes Home to Heaven
My heart broke (again) as I heard about the passing of John Paul Jackson last night. It hadn’t been a very good day. In fact, it’d been one of the worst I’d had in a while. So I logged onto Facebook, looking for a little amusement only to find myself tagged in a post by a friend alerting me to the passing of John Paul Jackson.
UTTER HEARTBREAK.
At times likes this you just have to say, “God PLEASE!!! Not another one; not another father and general gone from the world.” He had such a profound impact on my life. But as Dr. Myles Munroe prophesied before his own death in November 2014, it’s the changing of the guard. The Moses generation is passing and the Joshua generation is rising up.
And the fact that John Paul Jackson succumbed to cancer makes it all the more sad. We wonder, “Did we not pray long enough?” “Did we not pray hard enough or accurate enough?” “Is there something else we could have done or done differently?” We may never know. But it’s at times like this that I remember the words shared by Bishop Tudor Bismark:
I will not go to Hell over a mystery.
God is omniscient. And as the old song says, “We’ll understand it all by and by.”
I don’t remember when exactly I discovered JPJ, but I bless the day I did. He very quickly became one of my favourite ministers and in a time when God had commanded me to “surround myself with the prophetic,” he became one of my foremost teachers. I immersed myself in his teachings.
As someone who has had vivid prophetic and demonic dreams since childhood, I was always seeking for God to show me what those dreams meant. Sometimes I knew, at least bits and pieces, of what they meant. But more often than not, I just had no clue. I’d have dream after dream of being chased down by demons. I’m talking, like, single digit ages: 7, 8, 9. And I couldn’t blame my parents since they were ULTRA STRICT about what we were allowed to watch and who we were allowed to hang around. As I grew older, I took it as a sign that deliverance would be a major component of my ministry. (This is what JPJ would call a fear dream: it tries to scare you out of your purpose, yet if you’re discerning, actually points you to it.) You can see the interest level with my blog series such as the Witchcraft and Deliverance Chronicles.
When I was maybe 7, my mom took us to see the church play “Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames.” It wasn’t so bad seeing it at our own church because I knew all the actors, namely the guy who played Satan, so there were no (real) worries there. But with my overactive imagination, that comfort level shot down to zero when we saw the play at a different church.
Jesus I know, Chuck--the guy who played Jesus at my church--I know, but who the heck are you??
My little brother and I were TERRIFIED by the time we got home. At night. We literally sat on the floor in front of our large rose pink chair in the living room and held hands. And when I went to sleep that night, I had the most terrifying dream.
I was on a tour through Hell. There were other people with me, people I didn’t know. And we came to a cliff that overlooked a dark chasm full of skeletons. And there, in the midst of them, I saw my Gifted and Talented (TAG) teacher on the ground: her upper half in tact, her bottom half a skeleton. And she looked up at me and cried for help.
Then across the chasm, I saw him. Satan--the same one from the play--pointed across the chasm at me and laughing.
22 years later I still remember that dream. Again, I was 7 years old. 8 absolute max.
The demonic taunting dreams continued, as did my hunger to learn about the spirit realm. By the time I was ten, I was attempting to read through He Came to Set the Captives Free by Dr. Rebecca Brown* (which I recommend ONLY with a pail-full of salt). And the dreams continued.
*I don’t recommend this book because I consider it spiritual warfare fiction: I believe everything that is described in that book can happen--just not to the characters in the book. And the storyline is far too close for comfort to Doreen Irvine’s real life story of her escape from Satanism.
As I got older, high school, college age, and after, the game began to change. Authority--authority emanating from me, thanks to Jesus--began to appear. While there was still much warfare, demons began to listen when I commanded them. They stopped when I told them to. They told me who they were and what legal right they had to be in a place when I asked. In one dream I had this past Summer, a witch I prayed against fell down dead mid-attack.
I say all this to describe how desperately I wanted to learn how to interpret my dreams. Some don’t put much stock in dreams and depending on the type of dream, they would be right. But I could almost always tell the difference between “pizza dreams” (dreams had because of something you ate/drank before bed, or some other random reason), demonically inspired dreams a.k.a. fear dreams, and Jesus dreams. But that didn’t mean I entirely knew what they meant. Yet the Bible tells us clearly that God intentionally speaks through dreams.
For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falls upon men,
While slumbering on their beds,
Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.
In order to turn man from his deed,
And conceal pride from man,
He keeps back his soul from the Pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword.
(Job 33:14-18)
In short, when God can’t get through to us during the day, He’ll speak to us in dreams or visions of the night. And if you’re like me, part of your prophetic training and gifting comes through dreams. Both of these are proven in Scripture.
God warned both Abimelech not to touch Abraham’s wife, Sarah through a dream. (Genesis 20)
Jacob dreamt of a ladder (portal) to Heaven and of how to increase his flocks. (Genesis 28:10-22, 31:10-13)
Joseph dreamed of his God-given greatness. (Genesis 37:1-11)
In the story of Gideon, the enemy is given a dream of their destruction. (Judges 7:13-14)
King Nebuchadnezzar was plagued with dreams during his reign (Daniel 2, 4)
Joseph, Jesus’ adopted dad, was warned in a dream twice. (Matthew 1:18-25, 2:13-15)
Peter quoted the Prophet Joel by saying in the last days, God would give [old men] dreams. (Acts 2:16-21)
Daniel was a dreaming prophet (Daniel 1:17) and so on.
Suffice it to say, dream interpretation is a HUGE part of Scripture and for many, the Christian experience. Today, increasing reports are surfacing of Jews and Muslims alike dreaming of Christ and coming to believe in Him.
Growing up, there was a Christian book on dream interpretation in my house. It was positively chocked full of symbols, etc. to help you properly interpret dreams. It was pretty decent, but real talk: if you are a child and have the alphabet presented to you, that doesn’t mean you’ll know what the words mean and certainly not how to form words, sentences, and paragraphs with them. And so it is for dream interpretation.
John Paul Jackson was instrumental in being able to help me sort out dreams from God and it is a model based on Scripture that works every time. These aren’t soulish, foolish, Freudian interpretations that all point to mommy issues, daddy issues, and inner-child issues, but interpretations that actually align with Scripture. And his teachings help you to differentiate between what something may mean for me as opposed to what it may mean for you.
Example 1: I LOVE dogs. So seeing them in a dream is probably not going to be a bad thing for me. But for someone who HATES dogs, it may mean the exact opposite. Perhaps the colour of the dog makes a difference. The behaviour of the dog certainly makes a difference.
Example 2: If you’re involved in witchcraft or another sort of Occultic or [neo]pagan rituals, then likely, you will not be troubled by seeing a snake/dragon, frog, or raven in a dream. But if you’re knowledgeable of the Word of God, then you know serpents/dragons represent Satan, divination, or as one friend put it, “demonic attachments”; frogs represent unclean spirits; and owls are are seen as dark creatures that inhabit cursed places.
Example 3: If you come across an unknown man in a dream it could be good or bad; it could be a heavenly angel or a demon. What is he wearing? What is his demeanor? What is his countenance? And most importantly, what is he saying?
There are certain people you listen to that when you walk away, you feel like you’ve been opened up and had a chest full of treasures emptied into your being. John Paul Jackson was one of those people for me, possibly for you, and I know, for many others. And his wisdom didn’t stop at dream and vision interpretation.
He was a prophetic voice to the nation. Many of the “headline prophecies” (God prophesies through a real or envisioned newspaper headline) he received indicated local, statewide, and national events. His gift of the discerning of spirits and the teaching thereof was powerful. He breaks down spirits like Jezebel, Absalom, rejection, and others in such simple ways that anyone could understand them. His ministry to those in the various outlets of the Occult was phenomenal. And if you haven’t seen his show Dreams and Mysteries, get acquainted! JPJ’s breakdown of the difference between power and authority is also keen to understanding spiritual warfare.
But probably the most phenomenal thing about John Paul Jackson was his emphasis on a relationship with God and His Word as opposed to just getting quick spiritual fixes for your otherworldly curiosities. He wasn’t about preaching to “itching ears,” but rather about introducing people to the One Who loves them most. It’s something that is, very unfortunately, lost on many ministers and laymen these days.
If you keep up with this blog, then you are likely interested in or flowing in intercession and or some level of prophetic ministry. There are many gifted, accurate, reputable prophets in the world to learn from and sit under, but John Paul Jackson was among the best. He will be missed greatly and deeply. Please keep his family, friends, and ministry in your prayers.
SEE ALSO: John Paul Jackson Dies of Cancer
