Lisa Great

It’s still very dark outside, but I am wide awake, ninety minutes before my alarm. I get dressed for my morning walk with the dog and the morning air is starting to cool just a little bit. It is still shorts weather, sweat is still dripping down my back and face as I am walking, but you can sense in the air the season is changing, ever so slowly.

It has been a hot summer, really hot, unusually hot. The slight temperature change is a relief from the heat of summer and gives hope that summer is not going to stay, for fall is knocking on the door. Pumpkin spice lattes do not change the temperature, we are still in summer clothes. Watching the men sweat at various stadiums yesterday while watching football was evidence, football games do not change the season either.

Genesis 1:14-15 says, “God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” Those lights not our calendar determine the seasons.

As I was walking the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “The kingdom of God has a cadence.” Once I got home I looked up the word cadence. Cadence means rhythmic flow; pattern; regular recurring beat or sequence; in music it resolves a phrase and moves you into the next one; in speech it means movement, seasons, discernible pattern of rise and rest, movement and pause, repeat and build.

“The kingdom of God has a cadence.” Not everyone is on the same cadence, for some are in a cadence of movement and now their cadence is changing to rest; others have been in a cadence of pause and now they are entering into movement. But everyone of us is in a rhythmic flow with the Spirit of God if we are surrendered to His timing.

I pray you catch the cadence of the Kingdom of God, it is for your health, your wealth, your freedom, your deliverance. Don’t rush it and don’t resist it, just follow the pattern for in it is life abundantly. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Good morning,

I am so thankful for you that choose to read the posts I write on the daily. It is my way of encouraging you, exhorting you, inviting you into what I am hearing and saying. I am not the only voice, I am actually only one voice. But as our one voices join together we create a symphony of sound that declares the glory of God in the land of the living. Thank you for listening to my voice and releasing your voice.

This morning I decided to do this blog in letter format. I love doing handwritten letters, putting them in an envelope and sending them in the mail. It is the personal touch that speaks value to the one who receives what was sent. So this is my personal letter to you this morning, I hope you sense how valuable you are to the kingdom of God through these words.

The Bible is very clear there are things we are called to forget. Isaiah 43 says, forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. Paul says in Philippians 3, Forgetting what is behind, I press on. The invitation to forget things is a prominent theme in scripture. Jesus said, I cast your sins as far as the east is from the west. For the wages of sin is death. We are to forget the things that produce death. Don’t dwell on those things.

However, the Bible is also very clear about what we are to remember. Genesis 8 says, God remembered Noah and the flood waters seceded. The Psalmist says in 103, Forget not all His benefits. And Jesus said at the communion/Passover table, Every time you do this, remember Me. What we are invited to remember are things that produce life.

I pray this morning, you forget what God says to forget and you remember what the Lord tells us to remember. Life is a gift and what we are forget and what we remember are truly a matter of life and death, so choose life and remember all you have been forgiven of; remember God never ghosted you; remember while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Have a great Sunday.

I woke up this morning hearing clear as day, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

The words rang in my spirit all morning long, other thoughts added value as I pondered how remembering clouds our ability to see the new thing. It is not that we have not forgiven, nor is it we have not been healed, it is the memory that causes us to think it will be that way again.

I saw a geyser and a volcano in the spirit. Both of them spew liquid, but geysers spew water and volcanos spew fire, lava, ash. Both are releasing what has been hidden in the earth beneath them, but the liquids they release are very different.

I wonder how often we see a geyser bursting forth and call it a volcano because of our history, our memory of some other event that happened in our past. What once hurt us, burned us, transformed our landscape like a volcano is not what God is doing right now.

There is a bursting forth, a gushing happening in the spirit like that of a geyser. It is a new thing God is doing, but can we perceive it for what it is or are we remembering what was, how much it hurt, how much it changed our world for the worst, not the best?

On this day of remembrance, that is etched in the minds of all Americans and many Internationals, can we see that what is happening in our day today is not volcanic but rather gushing? Can you perceive the new that God is doing in the earth or are you still holding on for dear life waiting to fly out of here at any moment?

Friends, God is doing. a new thing. A, we have never been this way before, we must stay fifteen steps behind the ark, let the Lord lead the way, it is all new (Joshua 3:4).Let’s go!!!

David is one of the hero’s of the Old and New Testament. Both Jews and Gentiles love this man for a variety of reasons. God loves this man and calls him a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14/Acts 13:22). While reading Psalm 89 this morning, the Holy Spirit taught me something about David I had not considered before.

David was a man. We read about him in 1 Samuel as he was tending the sheep; he was anointed to be next king of Israel by Samuel; he worked as a minstrel for king Saul; he brought bread and cheese to the battle line for his brothers; he confronted Goliath. David was a man.

David was also a city. 2 Samuel 5 calls the city of David a fortress of Zion; 1 Kings 2 speaks of how David was buried in this city; 2 Samuel 7 speaks of the city of David as a covenant made with David; Micah 5 links the city to Messianic prophesies. David was a city.

David was a nation. In 2 Samuel 2 we read of how David rose to lead the kingdom of Israel and united them as one nation under one king. 1 Chronicles 11-22 speaks of how David became king, how he united Israel and how he ruled over the nation. David was a nation.

David is a legacy. Psalm 89 says, “I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever And build up your throne to all generations. …My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven. …My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever
And his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful.”

David is a man; David is a city; David is a nation; David is a legacy. David is in the lineage of Christ, who is our forever David. If God did this for the man named David, why can He not do this for you? Do you know who you are to God? Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I have been reading my Bible for over 35 years. Not now and then, but almost every day. I have read the statement by Jesus, “Take up your cross and follow Me”, more times than I can count. I thought I knew what it meant, until this morning the Lord revealed something I had never seen before.

The cross was where Jesus died for the sins of the world. His body was nailed to a cross because of sin. Romans 6:23 says, for the wages of sin is death. That means the cross is the place where we die. We all understand this if we believe in Jesus.

I am not Jesus, I am not being asked to die for the sins of the world, so what is this take up your cross comment all about? Reading Romans 6 this morning yielded the answer for me.

Romans 6:11 says, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

Okay call me late to the party, but to take up your cross and follow Jesus is to die to sin and live for God. Once we die to sin, sin no longer has dominion over us, for we are dead to it. But we are fully alive to God, so now we do not obey sin, but we obey God.

This is huge, for Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) The invitation is not to stop dreaming, but to stop sinning; it’s not to stop desiring, it’s to realize sin does not have dominion over you.

The abundant life is truly found in denying ourself (flesh), taking up our cross (dying to sin) and following Him (obedience to His word). Then Paul says it best this way, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, the abundant life.” (Romans 6:23) It’s time to die to sin so we can truly live for God and each other. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Can you prepare for a suddenly? I do not think so, but when you experience them, respond to them. Our first response to a suddenly reveals residue God wants to remove in our heart, so we do not carry old ashes into new situations.

We can get so accustomed to waiting that when a suddenly comes, we do not know how to respond. Our heart wants to run and hide thinking it is too good to be true, or run ahead and plan out what it is going to look like.

The Lord is releasing suddenly moments and when they come, don’t resist it and don’t run ahead of it. Remain in the moment. Let it unfold before you. This takes courage, for our hearts have been wounded and healed; our dreams have been dashed and are coming to pass. Shalom.

Amos 9:13-14 says, “Yes indeed, it won’t be long now.” GOD’s Decree.
“Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills. I’ll make everything right again for my people.”

This is not a pie in the sky prophesy being pulled out to pump you up, this is a reality happening in my life and I believe is or will be happening in many of your lives. As it happens, walk with it, don’t resist it and don’t try to set the speed of it.

In our excitement we speed things up and in our disappointment we try to slow things down. But suddenly moments demand our living in NOW time. Be present in the moment, do not dwell on the past, do not rush into the future. Enjoy the suddenly moment one moment at a time.

I can’t explain it, but what was once just words prophesying what I sensed in the spirit is manifesting on earth in NOW time. Not just for me for many and you will be included. When it comes, suddenly, just walk with it; sit in it; enjoy the moments. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

If you have been barren for quite some time, you have already been processed through the disappointment fatigue and may even be in the place where it seems as though it will never happen. But there is a promise in the atmosphere you cannot shake. You know what God said. Even though no one else truly understands why you keep hanging on, you are in good company with Abraham.

Romans 4:17-19 says, “I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”

When you have waited and waited and waited but kept hanging on and you become pregnant. You know it, even if others don’t. You see it, even if others can’t. Then as the due date approaches you feel the shift from pregnant to birthing promise.

One would think you would have no worries, no concerns, only elated joy, but there is this voice that wonders, what if it doesn’t live, what if it doesn’t happen, what if this is not as real as I know it is?

The voice of Isaiah 66:9 then comes and says, “Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the LORD. “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.”

Friends who know this process I speak of. You know where we are. You know the voice that has come to deny what is truth. Hear the words of Isaiah, hear the voice of the prophet of old speaking for the Lord Himself. You will give birth, you will deliver, your promise is here!!!! Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

A cat sauntered across the street this morning in front of Hunter (my dachshund) and I this morning on our walk. Hunter began to pick up speed at the sight of this four legged furry animal crossing the street. The cat just continued its pace into a garden bed and jumped up on a slightly elevated utility box in the yard.

The cat then laid down and just looked at Hunter with this, “Can I help you” look that only a cat can give. Hunter barked at the cat a couple of times and thought about putting his front paws on the elevated platform where the cat was, but refrained. Hunter turned and walked away and the cat never moved.

Watching this play out this morning, made me realize cats are truly of the lion kingdom, just in a much smaller body. The way that cat laid there, without any fear, as though the cat knew who he was and who was in his lineage. This cat was a lion just smaller.

I also noticed how mature the cat was, it did not flinch, run, raise its back when it saw Hunter coming. This cat had seen dogs before and was not moved by mine, not one moment this morning.

I thought bout the role of the Ephesians 4 gifts Jesus gave to the church. The apostle gift, the prophet gift, the evangelist gift, the pastor gift, the teacher gift. I thought about how they are gifted to mature the body of Christ, so the body of Christ can do the work of the ministry.

I then realized the reason we, the body of Christ, individually and corporately, panic at the sight of dogs on leashes that come moving toward us, is because we have not been discipled into maturity. We have been discipled in fear based theologies of raptures, horns, dragons, beasts, and every other creature in the book of Revelation, but not in maturity.

Wisdom is a sign of maturity; staying in an elevated position is maturity; remaining laying down is maturity. When you know the barking dog is on a leash, there is no reason to be moved, but that takes maturity.

We need to maturity in the body of Christ so we stop allowing every barking dog to get us moved from our elevated, lounging position. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Are you a giver or a taker?
Do you go to church for what you can give or what you can get?
Are you in a marriage where you bring something to offer every day or do you just want it your way?
In friendship, what is your motive, what you can impart or what you can extract?

I was reading Romans 1 this morning and Paul says to the saints in Rome, “I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established —- that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”

Reciprocal relationships are the best relationships. Where both parties are coming to add value to the other person. When a relationship is one sided it gets out of balance and people get frustrated, irritated, hurt, because one giving but the other is only taking.

This works in everyday relationships and it works in our relationship with God. We know He is God and needs nothing, but what if our relationship with Him is either distant or close because of what we invest in Him? He has invested His Son into our lives, He has given us His Holy Spirit as a deposit/guarantee of a future with Him forever. We can’t out give Him.

Relationships are not a competition of who can give more, rather they are a response to the one we say we love. If we say we love God how are we responding to God in worship, in giving, in time spent with Him?

Paul was a giver. He sought to impart a gift to the people of Rome. Next time you go to church or go to coffee with a friend or come home to your spouse, what gift can you impart to them? It is truly more blessed to give than receive, so be a giver and watch how much you receive in return. Our God is reciprocal. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

A change has taken place, a seismic shift of the likes that no one will be able to miss. It will be a gradual roll out, for it is so massive that if it was all revealed at once we would not be able to handle it. The kingdom of God is not in word but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20).

The days of intellectual arguments, being afraid of the dark, seeking to escape because things are getting so bad, will give way to the Truth that has set us free. Truth is a reality but until we see it we cannot appropriate it in our lives.

Authority is a reality, but until you understand what you have been given you cannot access it. No wonder the Bible says, the god of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4). This is not about salvation only, this is about Christians who do not know what they have access to in Truth and in Authority.

The word of God spoke to me this morning, as a voice that was coming from my physical Bible. It was almost audible, it was so clear, so obvious, so undeniable. As I was reading, the voice of God spoke the words on the page in sound, not just in sight as I read.

He spoke with sound Psalm 92:6-7 “A senseless man does not know; nor does a fool understand this. When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever.”

Why this verse, why this morning? For me those are not questions that need to be answered. All I know is that I heard as I was reading, I heard the Lord speak with sound these verses.

Because of the sound I heard, the voice I heard, I know it is done. Not it will be done, it is done. The wicked rulers have been destroyed forever. How do I know, for I heard the voice of God in sound say it this morning. This Truth cannot be unheard for me. It is done! Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org