Lisa Great

Watching children at the zoo or being in the car with them as you go through a Christmas lights park yields insight into who we are invited to be as children of God. Their sense of awe and wonder is contagious. What we view as “been there done that” is brand new to them and their faces reflect their sense of childlike wonder.

Seeing something for the first time is what makes awe and wonder so authentic. Our responses reveal the newness of what we are beholding. When awe and wonder gives way to familiarity, we lose our response, for we have seen it before, done it before and in some ways it becomes a bore.

One of the challenges we face as believers is that we have become too familiar with God. We think we know Him because we go to church every week and we know exactly what to expect. We think God is as routine as the church services we attend. So we have lost our awe and wonder with the one who is Mystery and Majesty.

But what if in the middle of the mundane, we actually can enter into the Mystery and Majesty? If a child can sit in a car and see something with awe and wonder while they look at Christmas lights, we can stand in a row in a church and see something others may not see. Just because the room doesn’t recognize Him in the Spirit doesn’t mean you don’t have to.

We serve a God who never changes, but Who has not revealed all of who He is to us. This means we are invited daily to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). He never gets old, He never looks the same, nor sounds the same. He is not predictable, but He is trustworthy.

I wonder if we are bored because we have lost our awe and wonder of the One who is Mystery and Majesty? It may take focus, it may take a push on your part in worship this morning, but I can tell you as one who sits in a row with you, I see things in the Spirit when others are drinking coffee in the same service and so can you. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I gave my life to Jesus in the back of a youth room in an Evangelical Lutheran Church. The year was 1989. I was wearing a black leather jacket, I had ripped jeans on, my hair was bleached blond and I had a pack of Marlboro’s in my inside pocket. I was angry because I was so wounded.

In that Lutheran Church, in the main sanctuary there is a wooden cross that has an illuminated stained glass window behind it. There is a wooden altar rail and padded kneeling benches for anyone that wants to kneel down and pray at the altar.

One of the special services we did in that church was called a Tenebrae service. This was our Good Friday service. We entered in the sanctuary lit up only by the stained glass window and some candles. The atmosphere was set for Good Friday.

They had seven different people read and briefly speak on the seven last words of Christ. Once the last person spoke the words, “It Is Finished!” Without notice, a book slammed shut, the lights went out and we all sat in the dark, stunned in silence.

We had been given nails to hold onto upon entry, so in the dark, nail in hand, the whole church sat in silence and when ready left in silence. No talking that night, it was a Good Friday, worthy of silence.

I remembered this experience today as I was praying Psalm 7 which says, “Close the book on Evil, GOD, but publish your mandate for us. You get us ready for life: you probe for our soft spots, you knock off our rough edges.”

The Lord spoke to me early Wednesday morning this week and said, “Today is a really Good Friday.” The book on Evil has been closed. The nations are in silence in the spirit. It is dark right now, and we are called to be still and know that He is God. We are invited to embrace the silence for it speaks louder than the voices trying to figure out this really Good Friday we just had.

Remember 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” It is finished! Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I woke up this morning to the word: WHOREDOM. I do not speak King James English and this is not a word I use on the daily, weekly nor monthly. I do not read the King James Version of the Bible, so this word was not one that is common in my life, but when I heard it I knew immediately it was a Bible word, so I began my pursuit into what the Lord could be saying.

The word WHOREDOM, led me to the prophet Hosea. As I was reading this prophetic book, the words “The spirit of whoredom” were spoken and as I kept reading the words, “The spirit of the fear of the Lord” were spoken.

Hosea 4:12-13 “My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good.”

Without notice, the presence of God came into my heart and tears welled up in my eyes as the Lord said, “The spirit of whoredom has rested upon the mountains of the earth and the leaders are operating in this spirit. Pray for a spirit of repentance to come upon the leaders of the land. For I am releasing a spirit of the fear of the Lord to the leaders of the land.”

I immediately began to weep as I saw how the spirit of whoredom had become common place in the land of earth and how it has flown under the radar and even makes people believe they are “good leaders”. I continued to weep and pray and the Lord said, “I am releasing a wind to blow away the spirit of whoredom that has rested on the mountains and I am releasing a wind to blow in the spirit of the fear of the Lord.”

Two winds are being released right now, one will blow away the spirit of whoredom from the lands of earth and the second is going to blow in the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). Being good is not the fear of the Lord. Let the wind blow! Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

For the past week or more I have been sensing the warfare struggle happening in the spirit realm in the wee hours of the night. This is not a battle being lost, but a struggle happening with the removing of an old garment. I keep hearing forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. (Isaiah 43:18)

This struggle in the spirit happened again last night and I personally am not struggling, I believe it is an atmospheric struggle happening in the world right now. But the battle is not good versus evil. The battle is over the removing of what we have always known so we can be dressed in what we have never worn before.

I went to a training last week and I learned our brain is a data center that stores all memory. Our memories are intertwined with the programming we have received by our culture, our religion, our family values, everything is stored in the brain, which is a database.

Our brains are programmed for survival mode, so anything that feels new, or unfamiliar, the brain will remember how to survive and this memory of survival hinders us from moving forward. It sounds a lot like 2 Corinthians 10, “Tearing down strongholds that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.” Survival is a stronghold.

Our need to survive hinders our ability to forget the former things, so we can enter into the new things. I sense the struggle is like trying to take off a garment and we can’t do it alone, so I see God Himself helping us remove the old garment we know so well, but we are resisting Him, due to memory of the need to survive/to know.

Our unwillingness to partner with the call to forget hinders us moving into the new. Our memories are our stronghold. We use the past to predict the future and yet there is something new upon us and we can’t see it because we are blinded by our past as the nations.

Nothing we are witnessing right now is anything we have ever seen or been through before. Memory wants to attach it to something we know, but that is why we are in a struggle. You must forget the former things in order to see the new that is upon you. We have never been this way before, it takes trust to see it. Let God remove the old garment off of you, oh nations. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

When I was growing up in the 70’s, every time we went to the doctor for a check up, they measured my height. Each year, they noted how much I had grown. It was a time of celebration, every time the practitioner would tell me, you grew three inches, you grew six inches.

Now in my 50’s I go to the doctor for an annual check up and they don’t measure my height, they measure my weight. Every year they are comparing my weight to the last year and it is either good news, I lost weight, or bad news I gained weight. I dread that doctor’s scale.

Same doctor, same yearly check up and yet two completely different reactions. But it is also measuring two different things. When I was growing they measured my height. Now that I am grown they measure my weight.

I believe this is what it is like in the spirit. As we are new Christians, new believers in Jesus Christ, people are measuring our growth. They celebrate our growth as each year we get taller and taller in the spirit. We gain confidence, we walk by faith, we speak life. Signs of growth.

But we also measure people’s weight in the spirit. The challenge with the church is the same with the doctor’s visit, the heavier you are the more they tell you to lose weight. Weighty people in the spirit do not know where they fit in a church that prefers to platform lightweights rather than heavyweights.

Matthew 23:23 says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

Paul was a heavyweight; Peter was a heavyweight; Esther was a heavyweight; Deborah was a heavyweight; both John’s were heavyweights; Phillip was a heavyweight. God release the heavyweights back into your church for we need weightier people in leadership roles, so we can have a stronger church on earth. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

The only childhood memories I have connected to correction came with punishment. If I was sassy, the punishment was a bar of soap in my mouth. When I was disobedient to some rule that was laid down, I was put over the knee and the wooden spoon was on my buttocks. If I lied or did some other activity that was unacceptable I was grounded for days.

Correction was tied to punishment for me as a child, but it did not stop in childhood. If I am honest, correction from people has more often than not, had a punishment tied to it. Whether the punishment fit the crime or not is a whole other story.

When correction is tied to punishment, we no longer want to be corrected for what we do wrong. We fear the punishment, that is why we get that knot in our stomach or put up those thick walls of self-protection. If we were honest, correction has been tied to punishment, so now conviction is not something we feel much anymore, for we don’t want to be punished, not by people but by God.

When was the last time you genuinely felt convicted for something you did, by God? When I first got saved, I was so sensitive to conviction, because I was being transformed. I remember altar calls in our church weekly, because people were being convicted by the Holy Spirit. People would run to the altar, kneel, lay face down under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Just this week, the Lord revealed to me, correction from people leads to punishment. If you are convicted of a crime there is a punishment for the crime. However, conviction by the Holy Spirit leads to liberation. I wonder if we are not free because we have stopped being sensitive to conviction by God?

John 16:8-11 says this of the Holy Spirit, “When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

It is time for us to be convicted again, for the sake of liberation not punishment. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I absolutely love the body of Christ, because we all carry something we each need. The challenge I see in the body of Christ is we think we have all we need so we walk in pride, rather than humility. Humility is the access key to increased capacity. When your humble you can learn from others and what God has taught them but has not taught you.

I was told my whole childhood I would never amount to anything. It translated to me, I was dumb. My grades did not reflect I was dumb, I was a B average student, until high school. In high school that narrative caught up with me and I dropped out of school in 10th grade. I ended up taking summer school a couple years in a row and even had to attend classes after graduation in order to receive my high school diploma.

I often wonder if that narrative, is what keeps me humble, hungry, teachable? At the training this past three days, one of my takeaways was the need to tell myself the truth about how I feel, think or believe, in order to ask the right question and obtain the right answer.

When we do not ask the right question, which is rooted in the truth about our beliefs, we will waste other people’s time and never hear what we really need to know. So, I practiced this today with the Lord.

I was discussing with the Lord this morning about His presence in His house and He said to me, “Do I need people to invite Me, for Me to show up?” I said, I have been taught, yes, but Your question is leading me to think the answer is no.

I continued with the Lord and said, I have been taught the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. Immediately, the Lord said, “You have been taught wrong. The Holy Spirit is a bulldog!” Bulldogs are tenacious, courageous, fiercely loyal, protective, strong, determined, devoted and have confidence.

I then realized, my thinking, people can resist the Holy Spirit so He doesn’t show up in His presence in places I wish He did is not true. The Holy Spirit is a bulldog and I sensed He is about to show up in ways and in places whether we invite Him or not. Nothing can stop the Holy Spirit and what He is doing on earth. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Sitting for the past two days listening to a man who is carrying the ability to deconstruct and rebuild simultaneously has been both refreshing and rewarding. He is not selling a program; He is not taking an offering; He is not seeking a following; He is walking with Jesus and inviting us to walk with Him too.

This should not be foreign in a Christian nation, with churches on every corner, but it actually is. This is why it is so refreshing and rewarding at the same time. The fact that this is happening with entrepreneurs, during the work week with people who have come in from a variety of states around the country, just adds value to what is happening in the room.

I was pondering the questions people have been asking at this event. The main theme of the questions is, why did the deliverance program not work for me? Why did the sowing seed program not work for me? Why do I feel like a failure all the time? Why do the programs not help me?

The Holy Spirit dropped a thought in my spirit. The church has made programs the pillars of the church and now those programs have become idols. When programs replace the person of Jesus Christ we operate under the Law of Moses rather than walk with person of Jesus Christ who is grace and truth.

John 1:17 says, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

People are crying out, not for a program, but for the person of Jesus the Christ. They have tried the programs and it is not helping them. They want a person, they want to know: how do I walk with an invisible God? How do I hear the voice of God? Discipleship is walking with Jesus together. Our call is to disciple nations, to walk with people. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

The Lord spoke to me earlier this year and said, “The next move of God is going to be EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY!” I have been saying this over and over again. It is not going to be a platform move of God; it is not going to be a church move of God; it is not going to be solo ministry or person move of God where you have to travel or move to be apart of it. It is going to be EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY.

I was listening to Charlie Shamp this morning and he said, “The next move of God will be God moving through His people.” I smiled for this is what God told me. Why is it important to listen for the echo to what you believe you heard God say? Because the echo establishes the voice you heard and reveals the mind of Christ is saying one thing not many about what He is doing in the earth.

Once a prophetic word is confirmed, we activate it by first believing it and then making preparations for it. If it is true, the next move of God is going to need me, going to need you, what are we doing to prepare ourselves?

Matthew 9:35-38 says, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Laborers are people who know how to work a harvest. If God is saying His next move is EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY, we need to be prepared to harvest what is white and ready. This is why we are doing a training event at Forge called The Making of a Minister (Harvester). This training is to prepare you to do the work of the ministry. It is free financially but will cost you 4 hours of time.

We must be prepared for the next move of God needs us, the everyday people, who work jobs, who raise kids, who watch grandchildren. We are the laborers who are going to be ministering when this move of God begins. So join us on zoom or come in person to FORGE, The Making of a Minister. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Do you know who you are?
Do you realize the Spirit of God lives in you?
This is not theory, this is reality.
The attack of the enemy is on the reality of who you carry.
2 Corinthians 4 says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
Don’t focus on the vessel so much that you miss the treasure you carry.

I received a phone call early this morning from a friend who led me to read 1 Samuel 4-7 about the ark of the covenant. The Lord said, “The presence of God is in the people of God and that puts panic in the enemies of God.”

I had to think about this over and over again, for I do not see or hear many people of God who realize the presence of God in them is putting fear in the enemies of God. What I see, what I hear is the people of God afraid of the enemies of God as though we have no God.

Friends, listen to 1 Samuel 4:6-8 “When the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook. Now when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they understood that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp. So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For such a thing has never happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.”

Do you hear what I hear? You are the carrier of the ark of God inside of you. Everywhere you go, the ark shows up and the enemy panics, that is why the enemy fights you so hard. He is afraid of Christ in you. Let me say it one more time. THE PRESENCE OF GOD IS IN THE PEOPLE OF GOD AND THAT PUTS PANIC IN THE ENEMIES OF GOD.

The enemy is afraid of who you carry! You are the clay jar, but the treasure in you is causing the enemy to flee seven ways. Forward march friends. If God is for us, who can be against us. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org