Lisa Great

Many people are looking for a job, not in the marketplace, but they are trying to figure out where they fit in the kingdom of God. Church job openings are few and far between, yet the number of people seeking to work for the church is plentiful. Pastors are asked consistently, can I do this, can I do that. I know I used to Pastor a church.

The kingdom of God has plenty of job openings, but the applicants are few. Jesus said, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. The challenge with the kingdom is, Yahweh who is the King of this kingdom is not looking for Ephesians 4:11-12 five-fold ministers for He already gave those functions out at His ascension to mature the body of Christ.

What God is looking for is people who want to be valued added kingdom people, not paid on staff church people. Are you interested in working for the kingdom of God? I can tell you as one who has worked in the kingdom since 2013, this is the best job I have ever had. The Psalm 103 benefits package is undeniable, the owner and His son are gracious, and the people are all teachable, humble and helpful.

Here are some of the job openings in the kingdom if you are interested. The Lord is looking for:

1. Counselors of peace who have joy (Proverbs 12:20)
2. Ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-12)
3. Doorkeepers of hope (Hosea 2:15)
4. Gatekeepers of glory (Psalm 24:7-10)
5. Carriers of water (Proverbs 11:25/2 Kings 3:11)

While others are jockeying for the stage, the microphone, the title, the paycheck, the reserved seat, God is looking for those who would enjoy being value added people. These opportunities are available in the kingdom of God, but they work in every area of earth. And if you need a title, the kingdom calls you an Ambassador of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I had an open vision I in which I saw a valley named Achor (muddy, turbid, gloomy, dejected, trouble) and in this valley was water. Still, unmoving, water just sitting in the valley called Achor. The water was pooled in the valley called Achor because there was a dam holding the water back.

As I looked at the dam in this vision, I saw the dam as double doors and on the doors it had the word HOPE written on them. I continued to watch in the vision and the double doors opened and when they did, the water in the valley called Achor rushed out and it became a roaring river called Hope.

The river called HOPE was rapid in its release and its movement, unlike how still the water was behind the dam of double doors. I watched the river called HOPE rush through the riverbed and I heard in the spirit the words of Psalm 46:4-5 “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her at the break of dawn.”

I watched this river of HOPE rush into the city of God and I heard the sound of joy and gladness coming from the city as the river came rushing in. It was so vivid, so vibrant with color and vibrated with sounds like I cannot describe.

Hosea 2:15 says, “There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.” God is opening the doors of hope to release the river of hope into the city of God and gladness is going to be the result. The wilderness, the ache, the hope deferred is being told to open the double doors of hope, for rivers of living water are going to flow out of our bellies and cities are going to be glad. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

When verses are popular, it causes me to pause and ask the question what does this verse actually mean? How did the rabbi’s hear this verse? What did it mean to the ones who heard it originally and how did the author speak it in its original context? In asking these questions it unlocks truths I did not know and puts the scripture in the proper context.

One of those verses is Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.” I asked the above questions about this verse and what I learned was biblically fascinating to me.

Did you know this verse is about the Genesis 3 economy being overturned in our lives by the blessing of the Lord on us? The Genesis 3 economy is what most people live by. “He is saying: there is a kind of wealth that still carries the curse-weight of Genesis 3 with it — acquired through striving, manipulation, human cleverness — and then there is covenant wealth, which is birkat YHWH, that comes without that curse-texture.” (Claude)

The Genesis 3 economy is found in Genesis 3:16-17 and was spoken as a curse. “To Adam he said, …cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.”

We are not people who are to live in the Genesis 3 economy, we are called to live in the blessing of the Lord, not the sorrow of the curse. To switch economies you must switch the way you think. We are not to go from one ditch of striving to the other ditch of lazy, do nothing, we re to walk on the road of partnering with God. Only doing what we see Him doing. Staying in our lane.

God is blessing us, wants to bless us and will bless us, but we must be in the economy of blessing, not the Genesis 3 economy and this takes trusting the Lord with all our heart, leaning not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). I see a people who are blessed without sorrow, they have entered the new economy of God. http://www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

One of the consistent messages of the prophets in scripture was the tearing down of the high places. High places are “what the prophets called high place worship — taking the forms of God’s dwelling and reorienting them around human ascent rather than divine descent”. (Claude)

The exaltation of self in our society has made room for high places in people’s hearts and they do not even recognize it as such. Self-promotion; self-preservation; self-identification; self-help; self-serve; self-self-self. The love of self has caused many high places to be erected and it feels so right, but it produces nothing of substance. It does not bring about transformation.

1 Chronicles 14:2-5 speaks of a king who brought peace to a people, “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God, for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.”

In the midst of all the promoting of self, there has been an increase in competition, division, anxiety, FOMO, betrayal, loss of identity, confusion about sexuality, and the bending of Biblical truth. Promoting self has actually made us weaker, not stronger, sicker not healthier, and many are saying peace, peace but people know they have no peace. Jesus said, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)

God is tearing down high places in our lives. It may feel like you are losing your life, but what is actually happening is you are finding real life. A life that is not self-centered. Once the high place is torn down, once self is dethroned, abundant life will flood your heart and soul. Peace will be your portion and joy will be your reality. Do not resist the removing of the high places, they are for your peace. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

A beginners class in school reveals to us entry level geology. In this class we learn the earth has layers. Not just one layer, but multiple layers. Trees also have layers, or rings, which we have been told reveal the age of the tree. Onions have layers, you peel one only to find another layer. Layers are common in the earth realm, and reveal things go deeper than can be seen on the surface.

If this is true of the planet, the tree and the onion, then it is also true of us as people. People have layers and layers and layers of memories, experiences, narratives that are not revealed but sprinkle what they say and what they do. What we see on the surface or hear on the surface is not the depths of who they are. When we make surface level judgments, we are responding to what we see on the surface, not plummeting the layers of who they are.

Okay, so creation and created ones in the image of God are layered. Therefore, it should not be a big jump for us to realize the word of God is layered as well. We can read the word on the surface and take it literally, or we can plummet the depths of truth in the word of God and discover realities we did not know. Revelation means we see things that are below the surface we did not know existed, and only the Holy Spirit can give you revelation knowledge.

Proverbs 8:22-24 speaks of wisdom saying, “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water.”

The more we traverse the layers of the word of God, the more we find wisdom. Wisdom is a person who is the beginning of everything. We are invited to go deeper, because even though we may pass through many layers of men’s ideas, theologies, blueprints, rituals and covenants, when we hit bedrock, we will find wisdom. Keep digging. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I dropped out of high school in 10th grade, lived at a friends house steps away from the school, but never made it to class. I went back to school in 11th grade and with two years of summer school after 11th and 12th grade, I graduated with my high school diploma. I then got saved in 1989 and went to Bible school in 1991-1997. I received my Bachelor’s degree with a 3.6 GPA. Then I went on to get my Masters Degree and completed that with a 4.0 GPA in 2011.

How did a high school drop out get a Masters Degree? I ask myself this question all the time. The answer is simple, when I got saved, I heard the voice of God say two things to me. I first heard Him say, I love you. Secondly, I heard Him say, I will never lie to you. These two statements have changed my life forever.

I became a lifelong learner, because I know God never lies to me. Therefore, I am willing to pick up and lay down anything I have been taught, think or hear. I hold my hands open when it comes to learning. Always wanting the Lord to speak, to reveal and detox me of anything that is not of Him.

The Church must become learners again. We think we know more than we do and we critize as evil that which we don’t understand. We are quick to resist and slow to respond to what God is doing. We call new things demonic, we live in more fear than faith and we are not willing to admit we are wrong. We think only a certain gender can preach, teach or lead.

God has trained in private mouthpieces that carry wisdom and revelation. They have not gone to seminary, but like the apostles they have been with Jesus. Their narrative will not tickle your ears and may activate your resistor, but their goal is to get you to respond to God not be locked into the doctrines of men.

The book of Proverbs speaks of two women, which are actually two narratives. One woman is called wisdom, the other woman is called the harlot. This language is consistent throughout the word of God. We get to chose what narrative we want to walk in, to believe. One produces life, one ends in death.

Friends, I pray you would open your hands, open your heart, and ask God to make you a lifelong learner. Resistance is hindering your growth, your authority, your ability to walk in freedom. He is not a man that He should lie, (Numbers 23:19) and He is raising up narratives that will set you free if you stop resisting His mouthpieces. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

When you are on the ground level of life happening, moment by moment, second by second, day by day, it can feel like and even look like nothing is happening. When you step back and do a year in review, a month in review, a decade in review, it changes the perspective of our lives significantly. It grants us a view of events, situations and prophetic revelations that are hard to see when you are too close to them.

For a couple weeks now the Lord has been speaking to me about the fast approaching presence of God. It has come in visual form of the ark of the covenant, for this biblically represents the manifest presence of God. Now this is symbolic not literal language I am using with the ark.

What I have been sensing so strongly is that the manifest presence of God is going to so invade us here on earth, we are not going to be able to deny it is God. Signs, wonders and miracles will be normal. Reconciliations will be rapid. Deliverance will be easy. Increase will break the back of lack. Revelation truth will set people free and the narrative war will capitulate to wisdom.

I have sensed this so strongly, that I changed my phone screen saver to a picture of my dog looking out the window in the back seat and me taking a picture of him in the mirror. Then the other day Lorilei Cooley posted a word that said, “I heard the Lord say, Objects are closer than they appear!” I immediately responded to her and said, me too, I am hearing the same thing and sent her the picture of my phone screen saver.

But for the past couple days I cannot get this thought out of my mind, it is the ark that is in the mirror and it is closer than it appears. So, I created an image on Chat of what I am seeing and what Lorilei and I are hearing. Friends, pull back so you can see the bigger picture, the ark is hot on our tail and it should not surprise us.

Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I have a friend named Jana Alcorn who is seasoned in the ministry, but also is a very wise woman. She said one time to a group of us, when you are in the room with a man or woman of God, make sure you come prepared with 2-3 substantive questions for them. She continued, in rooms like that, you will want to hear what they have to say.

I was in a room last night, close proximity, to someone I have learned from through books and conferences from a far. To be feet away from her and to have her come and give me a hug, was proximity I never thought I would have. Then she opened the room up for comments and questions about the subject matter at hand.

In that moment I was grateful for the words of my friend Jana, who prepared me to come with a question to hear from the matriarch in the room. Many were given the microphone, but most missed who was sitting just feet in front of them. As younger woman after younger woman talked about their story, they never asked a question that drew out wisdom from this mighty woman of God.

I realized two things in this moment, one we love to share what we are thinking, feeling or going through, we do not listen well. Multiple people spoke and it was not according to the subject at hand. Secondly, people did not come prepared to ask a question, to draw more out of this very seasoned woman of God and public figure.

Living in Nashville, we do not fan girl over people. People come to our churches, shop in our grocery stores, walk in our malls who you would know by name. But when given the honor of being in a room with them and talking on a microphone to them, it is not the time to tell your story, it is time to learn from theirs.

Jesus was in proximity to the disciples and they did life with Him, but they still asked questions like, how do we pray; how are we going to feed all these people; is that really you? When you are gifted with the presence of someone that has done what you haven’t be a listener and learner, ask questions, at least that is what Jana taught me. So, I asked a question, I asked her why do women shut down the voice of other women, her answer caused many in the room to take notes. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Many of us have heard of a stamp of authenticity. It is a statement that what you are looking at is authentic. Authenticity is a high honor, it reveals the quality of workmanship, the idea of originality and it deems whatever it is as genuine.

In a world of counterfeits, knock-offs and copy cats, the stamp of authenticity is what God gives to those who live authentically. Our writing should be authentic, not second hand smoke. Our songs should be authentic not AI inspired. Our sermons should be from an authentic relationship with God not some Chat GPT conversation shared publicly.

When God puts a stamp of authenticity on your work, it carries a weight that cannot be denied. One of the course corrections Jesus made in the temple was they were using false weights and balances in order to make more money on something that did not have authentic weight.

I see in the spirit the Lord pulling out His stamp of authenticity and marking some words, works, songs, and sermons and others are not carrying that stamp of authenticity. This may explain why transformation is not happening in people’s lives, but crowds are being drawn.

The second stamp I saw in the spirit was the stamp of valuability. God has deemed humanity, all of humanity valuable. Whether you are male or female God says you carry value. He has stamped every human being with the stamp of valuablity.

People may not deem you as valuable based on gender, size, color, or some other issue externally, but God has stamped you as valuable. Our job as people is to see the stamp God has placed on people and agree with God’s stamp not our opinion, cultures demand or any other voice.

Can you see the stamps of authenticity and valuability God has placed on works of His hands? Once you see it, He is inviting us to agree with it and treat it accordingly. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Many of us have heard of a stamp of authenticity. It is a statement that what you are looking at is authentic. Authenticity is a high honor, it reveals the quality of workmanship, the idea of originality and it deems whatever it is as genuine.

In a world of counterfeits, knock-offs and copy cats, the stamp of authenticity is what God gives to those who live authentically. Our writing should be authentic, not second hand smoke. Our songs should be authentic not AI inspired. Our sermons should be from an authentic relationship with God not some Chat GPT conversation shared publicly.

When God puts a stamp of authenticity on your work, it carries a weight that cannot be denied. One of the course corrections Jesus made in the temple was they were using false weights and balances in order to make more money on something that did not have authentic weight.

I see in the spirit the Lord pulling out His stamp of authenticity and marking some words, works, songs, and sermons and others are not carrying that stamp of authenticity. This may explain why transformation is not happening in people’s lives, but crowds are being drawn.

The second stamp I saw in the spirit was the stamp of valuability. God has deemed humanity, all of humanity valuable. Whether you are male or female God says you carry value. He has stamped every human being with the stamp of valuablity.

People may not deem you as valuable based on gender, size, color, or some other issue externally, but God has stamped you as valuable. Our job as people is to see the stamp God has placed on people and agree with God’s stamp not our opinion, cultures demand or any other voice.

Can you see the stamps of authenticity and valuability God has placed on works of His hands? Once you see it, He is inviting us to agree with it and treat it accordingly. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org