Stigmata and Blood Sign Miracles - Part 2

Last week, we began discussing the supernatural manifestation of blood signs, namely the “stigmata,” which are marks appearing on the hands, feet and sometimes other body parts, corresponding to the wounds experienced by Christ on the cross.

We began writing about this topic, due to some powerful happenings which occurred at our Manifestations of Glory event in the Atlanta area, earlier this spring. There was a radical release of mystical signs and wonders at the event, and it was likely the best conference we have hosted to date.

Not only did we document the blood sign on video, as it appeared on the hands of Lucy Rael during one of the meetings – we also got video footage of supernatural oil flowing from her hands, as well as an enormous amount of gold that began forming on her palms.

I would encourage you to read last week’s post, as I began an in-depth discussion on the stigmata. I would also encourage readers to pick up the DVD series of our Manifestations of Glory event from our online store. Not only does it build our faith to witness these miracles, but there is a tangible impartation for accessing the supernatural as we see God do crazy things before our very eyes.

This week, we pick up the discussion on stigmata by addressing the demonic counterfeit.

Diabolical Stigmata

As with every valid miracle of God, there simultaneously exist demonic counterfeits. Mediums can affect demonic healings. Spiritualists engage unholy trances. Yogis and eastern religions mimic miracles of ascension (floating off the ground). Psychics offer counterfeit prophecies. In the same way, there do exist cases of diabolical stigmata.

There seems to be much warfare, controversy and counterfeit activity over this particular miracle more than any other. For this reason, many true Christian prophets today get spooked out over it, and some even claim stiggy to be produced by seducing spirits. The truth is that some of them are. Levitation, bilocation, gifts of healing – these are all extravagant miracles. But because the visual imagery is so dramatically Christ-centered with stigmata, invoking the emotions with such a direct picture of His passion – the enemy will attempt to confuse it as much as possible.

History shows that stigmatists are intensely prophetic persons by nature. They are almost always seers. In demonic cases, the same is true (the person has a misplaced call to the seer realm) but instead of listening to God, the source of revelation is mixed up. The diabolical stigmatist is open to dark prophetic forces, often channeling demonic spirits in poltergeist-type manifestations.

In cases of godly, divine stigmata, the person nearly always gets revelation from God. Unfortunately, the church has had poor teaching on the prophetic office for the past 2,000 years, so even a valid stigmatist’s revelation has often been delivered in a strange or confusing way. Sometimes the person would speak on behalf of God or angels in a first person type of way, but without good protocol or delivery style. This has led to much confusion. Needless to say, there has been a stigma on stiggy!

Ecstasies, fits and all manner of hysterics tend to accompany the lives of stigmatists. The accounts of many resemble wild, Holy Ghost manifestations. “All true stigmatics have received the wounds of rapture in ecstasy,” writes theologian Montague Summers. Others, quite honestly, resemble cases of multiple personality disorder and demonic agitations. Mystical theologian Herbert Thurston writes, “Many of them were intensely devout … but in others piety was combined with eccentricities and with apparent dissociations of personality which were strange and not exactly edifying.”

These eccentricities are not true for all stigmatists. Capuchin friar Padre Pio, for example, was always “exceptionally calm and composed. There is no bad family history. He himself, with a candid simplicity which evidently made a profound impression upon the rationalist Professor, declared that he had never suffered from any nervous malady. He has never been subject to fainting fits or convulsions or tremors. He sleeps well and is not troubled with dreams.”

Demons can scrawl letters, words and other dermatography on people’s flesh, like something you would see in a horror movie. This sign does not always come as a mark of piety, by any means. Religious devils are so prone to glorify personal suffering; one must discern clearly whether a person’s experience is a valid miracle or a “crucifixion complex” of sorts.

Some critics have claimed that stigmata are produced by the imagination, intense mental concentration or some other naturalistic, physiological phenomenon. There is no need to waste time refuting such an unscientific argument, which is devoid of common sense. The imagination cannot cause the body to perforate itself. Angels and devils can. The body cannot cause such wounds to smell fragrant or glow with light, as many have. This is no routine biological process like digestion, circulation or ordinary tissue mechanics. Unless the stigmata is fraudulently self-inflicted (and a number have been, for attention, money or spiritual pride), then the question remains whether the stigmata is divine or diabolical in origin.

“That the divine stigmata could be produced through the force of the emotions acting upon a lively subject is altogether impossible,” notes Summers. Hemophilia, a tendency to bleed spontaneously or from injury, has no connection whatsoever here. There are only two types of stigmatization: the holy and the profane. You will know the tree by its fruit.

Transverberation of the Heart

Lots of manifestations are grouped under the blanket term “stigmata,” but stigmata generally include the five main wounds of Christ: piercing of the two hands, the feet and side. A number of stigmatists also receive wounds corresponding to the crown of thorns, the lashes on the back and abrasions to the shoulder, where Christ carried the cross (Lucy generally receives all of these around Easter each year). I am including separately the manifestation called the ferita, also known as the heart wound or the transverberation of the heart. In this case, the heart itself is supernaturally pierced, even as the heart of Jesus was pierced on the cross. Teresa of Avila is by far the most famous recipient of this. In her writings, she tells us that an angel approached her and did this with a fiery tipped, golden lance.

“The angel appeared to me to be thrusting the spear of fire into my heart and piercing my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and left me all on fire with a great love of God.”

Some days after her death, Teresa’s body was opened and her heart removed. There on its side was a large puncture wound, with which she had evidently lived for years. The heart was put on display after her death in 1582 and has remained miraculously incorrupt without rotting ever since.

Transverberation is a piercing “under which condition normally the subject would die, since the wound (humanly speaking) ought to be mortal.”

Veronica Giuliani, in the 18th century, somehow believed that her physical heart had hardened into the likeness of certain shapes: a cross, a crown of thorns, a chalice, three nails, a pillar, seven swords and certain letters that represented a number of Christian virtues. These were emblems she had long meditated on. She had such a clear vision of this, that she would draw small pictures of them for her spiritual directors. Years later, upon her death, her heart was extracted; the images of these objects were actually found on the heart, exactly in the manner she described them in her latest drawings. There is little scientific explanation for this. But wait … there are far more fantastic miracles than this.

This may sound unbelievable, but in comparison with Biblical miracles, such wonders are a mere trifle. A more extraordinary case of stigmatization and ferita were faithfully recorded in the 13th century life of Lady Helen of Veszprim by her fellow nuns and contemporaries. From her stigmatized hand, a golden budded thread began to appear, which grew into a stalk. Fragrant lilies began to blossom from the end of this golden stem. And from the ferita on her side, another of these gold filaments appeared with white petaled lily blossoms. Greatly embarrassed and not knowing what to do with these lilies growing from her stiggy, Helen pulled them out, as if by their roots. They remained in tact for years after her death. Furthermore, Helen’s wounds turned to golden circles, and on certain holy days, her stigmata “shone with a soft radiant glow.”

Hope you enjoyed these brief teachings on the stigmata: something you don’t see highlighted in too many Protestant ministries! Here at Sons of Thunder, we are not Catholic, but we are not Protestant either! We are not protesting anything, we are pursuing Someone. Blessings to you on your journeys this week, as you plore the inexhaustible riches of His heart, and the mystical wonders of His Kingdom!