How to Shift the Atmosphere Spiritually

Last updated on May 14th, 2023 at 10:44 pm

How to Shift the Atmosphere Spiritually

Shifting the atmosphere is definitely something that we have all experienced either for good or for bad. Some Christians believe it is a personality type or a gifting, but actually, it is a learned skill that everyone with the Holy Spirit can learn.

WHEREVER YOU ARE, SHIFTING THE ATMOSPHERE SPIRITUALLY IS AN INTENTIONAL ACT.

Let me ask you a question…

How often do you pay attention to the atmosphere of the environment that you are in? 

How many times are you intentionally aware of what is happening in the spirit?

Changing the atmosphere is all about being intentional.  Instead of letting the atmosphere happen to us, we impose our spirit and shift the atmosphere.

So often it seems like we respond to the atmosphere rather than interpret it and intentionally shift it.

  You walk into a room and you sense something in the room and the typical response is wrapped around how it feels.  What if we could interpret space and time and then dictate how the room will feel because we are there and the spirit of the living God is inside us?  What if we could prepare ourselves spiritually for being in environments that needed shifting, and deliver that shifting?

I truly believe that we live way too much on defence.  We spend way more time in recovery from something happening to us. We need to act as the agent of change, the way we were designed to be.  The intention is everything, and when it comes to the spiritual atmosphere we are either on the defence, or we are intentionally using our spirits to shift the space.

Identity is Everything

Being Spiritually aware starts with knowing your identity. It is extremely important that you know who you are and what God says about you.

My name is Lucas Duxbury. I am a son of the King, annointed and appointed to create atmosphere where people can experience the Holy Spirit and discover their true identity, so that they become worshippers and agents of change for the kingdom.

That’s my identity. It took me a while to get there and to really truly believe it. I also needed some help getting their with my home group and mentors.

Its a model that we use to help people find their identity, and you can definitely use it. Just change the name and the words.

What God says about You

God has a lot to say about us. He did not create us so that we just meander through life and then salvation takes us to heaven. We are here to build the kingdom of Light and tear down the kingdom of darkness. We are players in the game. We are soldiers in the army. We are empowered and we are anointed.

He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

Ephesians 1:5

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

Colossians 2:9-10

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

1 Peter 2:9

Identity is the Anchor for Changing the Atmosphere

You identity not only provides a road map for your call and your destiny it also provides an anchor. It becomes the stability when things above the surface are not as stable as we would like. It’s the moments when the atmosphere is spiritually dark when we can rely on it the most.

Encouragement for yourself and for others can significantly help in overcoming spiritual distractions.

Your Identity Means Jesus Can Stay Asleep

In Mark Chapter 4 Jesus and the disciples are crossing the lake and a storm rises and scares the disciples.

The interesting part of this story is that these men were on the water a lot. They would have known whether or not it was safe to travel across based on the weather. They would have also known how to navigate a storm in a boat.

They were fishermen.

The storm must have been significant enough that it scared even these men who knew the waters.

Have you ever experienced a situation where you were out of your depth? Even in your strength something happens that makes you think you need to “wake up Jesus?”

I know I have been. I have also found that the more my identity sinks into my spirit the better I am at letting Him sleep before I need to “wake him up”

Demonic Encounter

Recently I was setting up a sound system for a local band that I help do sound for. As I was setting up a large man came over and started to do his own “mic check.”

As I was about to mute the mic he started to curse the room through the microphone. I could tell right away that I was dealing with demonic activity. It became abundantly clear as I started breaking off his curses with the name of Jesus. As I was reclaiming the territory that I had been given authority over he started getting more upset.

He ended up smashing a number of glasses behind the bar and was escorted out of the building by three cooks, two managers and a security guard while another waitress was on the phone with the police.

Knowing my identity and my authority in that situation meant that I could stop him from spiritually trying to take over the atmosphere in that room. Even though he became physical, it was abundantly clear that his intention was spiritual. I prayed off everything and broke his spiritual curse.

I shifted the atmosphere back.

I was intentional.

The Discipline of Atmosphere

Have you ever really stopped to think about the atmosphere of the room that you are in.  What about now?

Often we enter and exit places and take no notice of what is going on around us, no awareness of what the atmosphere is of the place that we are in.   Sometimes we are so concerned with the thing that we are doing we miss the subtleties of our environment, the foreground consumes so much of our perspective that we miss important realities in the background.

As a worshiper and a former worship pastor, I am very aware of the atmosphere that is around me…most of the time.  I would say that I definitely pay more attention to it now than I ever have.  The biggest reason is because as a worship leader I have become an atmosphere creator, so now I am not only aware of the atmosphere I am trying to shift it.  My role is to create a space where people can connect with God, where the “feel in the room” is such that people are drawn into his presence.

But it’s more than just a Sunday service thing…

As I have learned more about rooms and atmosphere I have been able to really take note of the atmosphere in a place as I enter it.  I have also taken note of how I feel while I am in different kinds of atmosphere, and more importantly how my spirit responds to what is happening.

I have heard a lot of people say things like, “I just felt great in that place.” Or “I don’t know, it just felt dark in there.”  We can generally attribute a feeling or description to a place but it’s not always active recognition, and/or intentional.  Taking it a step further would be to engage with the atmosphere and shift it so that we create something where God can move, and heaven can come to earth.

Of course the more important question is what is the spiritual atmosphere?

It may not be in the be attitudes…but a continual atmosphere of worship is something that we need to not only create but maintain and fight for.  How many times have you been at a conference, summer camp or some retreat and made significant steps forward in your relationship with Jesus only to retreat from those steps in the weeks and months to come.  We all have the story where we have had an encounter with God and then find ourselves right back where we started a little while later wondering what happened.

So what can we do to Cultivate an Atmosphere of the Holy Spirit in our Lives?

I have found a number of keys that will help with this.

• His Majesty
  • Find new ways of seeing God.  Find out things about Him that you did not know.
    • One such example is in the post a fascination with smell. God designed our brains to respond a certain way to things when we smell them.  We attach emotion and memory to them before we know what the smell actually is.  The smell of something will produce emotion and memory.  A simple application of this would be to have things in your home, office or car that create a better smell, therefore creating a better atmosphere.  This is just a simple thought, but profound.  The more you look for His Majesty in your life the more you will find it, an the more it will connect you to Him every day.

• Your Biology
  • Much like the thought above, the way that God made you is so that you can be in a relationship with him and respond to what he is doing in your life.  The more I found out about science and biology the more I find Jesus because He made it.
  • The other side of this idea is that you need to figure out what makes your body tick.  When is the best time during the day for you to intentionally connect with Jesus?
    • Yes, we should look for Him all day, but taking intentional moments to connect with Him is critical.  It’s not about when do you have time, it’s about when is the best time for your focus, attention and engagement.
  • The atmosphere that you create profoundly impacts how you feel.  And how you feel profoundly impacts the depth of worship…good or bad our emotions play a big part in our worship life.  Worship is still a choice, but if we can help our emotions by creating a great atmosphere of worship in our home…the experience will be so much richer.

• Rest
  • This is a big topic.  We were created with rest and sleep as an assumption, meaning that it was not part of the maybe…it is part of the always.  Even God rested, every seven days…why do we think we can have some other way of doing life.
    • When you are stressed and busy, it’s really hard to connect relationally to anyone let alone God, and this is our main downfall after a big corporate event or breakthrough.  We come home with lists of changes, only to be complete of course within weeks.  Adding in new pieces to our routines or ways of life is awesome, but we must also add in adequate rest to ensure that we can maximize our effectiveness.

• Space
  • You need a physical space or a trigger…something that will elicit an emotional and spiritual response.  We sit down on the couch with the mess of life right in front of us (kids toys, papers, remote control, dishes…ect) and expect to be un-distracted and connect with God.  This will not work, you need something better than this.  preparation is everything, we need to make sure that our space is prepared so when we enter it we have a response to the atmosphere.