Month: March 2018

The Rooster Is About to Crow 3.28.18

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Do you remember when Jesus was in a discussion with His disciples about the prophecy in Zechariah 13:7 that says, “Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones”? It was after Peter had confessed that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God in Matthew 16:18. It was the same time when Peter told Jesus, after Jesus told all the disciples that they would ALL desert Him, Peter said, they may all desert you, but I will never desert you. Well, it was here in Matthew 26:31-35, in the heart of The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), that this story is presented. Jesus tells all the disciples, that He see’s something in them that they do not see in themselves, but they don’t believe and Peter flat out denies it.

Do you realize that God sees things in you, that you can’t see in yourself and He is actually trying to get you to see it, so He can protect you, not reject you? We live in a culture that is so easily offended, because people are so internally weak, that they cannot handle anyone seeing anything in them that is not positive, based on what they consider positive, so they get offended and deny the truth, just like Peter did. You see insecure people are weak people, arrogant people are weak people, only humble, teachable people are strong people. It takes internal strength to be humble, to accept criticism, to let others share with you what they see in you because they love you. Strong people, don’t try to make the Bible fit their lifestyle, they make their lifestyle fit the Bible. It takes strength to bend your life to the will of another.

Peter, could not see what Jesus saw, so he told Jesus, who is Truth, that He did not know what He was talking about. Peter thought he knew more about Himself than Jesus did and as we know both of them cannot be right, one of them is going to have a wakeup call happen, one of them is going to hear the rooster crow. Flip a couple of pages in your bible to Matthew 26:69-75 where we find the account of Peter’s triple denial of Jesus. His first denial happens in the courtyard, his second denial happens in the gateway and his third denial happens emphatically. What Jesus knew that Peter didn’t is that denial is evidence of blindness. Denial, is a refusal to acknowledge the truth, even when it is presented to you. Peter could not see what Jesus saw, Peter was blind, but he was also proud, because He could not respond to Jesus’ warning that he would deny Him.

Warning after warning after warning has went out from many people around the body of Christ, from Veronika West in Ireland to Jeremiah Johnson in the USA. We have men and women, known and unknown telling people the truth, but our refusal to acknowledge the truth, to adjust our lives, to agree with God has caused us to deny the very truth that could set us free. I can even hear in the spirit, some denying what is being said right now. If people believe they can be gay and Christian, that is a blatant denial of truth; if someone thinks they can verbally, physically or spiritually abuse another person, that is a blatant denial of truth; if someone thinks God winks at our sin, that is denial of the truth and all these, along with many more denials has created a blindness in the body of Christ that is evident, possibly more so to the world than it even is to us.

The days of getting away with behaviors that are contrary to the word of God are over, for the rooster is about to crow. When the rooster crows, it is going to announce the breaking of a new day; it is going to remind many of the vows they broke, the people they have mistreated, the sins they have committed. When the rooster crowed in Matthew 26 and Peter heard it, the Bible says, Peter remembered the words of Jesus…and he wept bitterly. When the rooster crows, there is going to be bitter weeping, but this weeping is going to be tears of repentance that will lead to restoration and redemption. When the rooster crows, the great awakening will break forth like the sun cracking the morning horizon; when the rooster crows our eyes will be opened to see Jesus and we, like Peter will say, He is God, He is God!

The rooster is about to crow and when it does many will be weeping out of repentance and others will be weeping out of amazement, for all are going to see Jesus only, the Passover lamb, who takes away the sins of the world. This is not going to be the rapture of the church, this is going to be the next great awakening, when the rooster crows!

Quantum Shift 3.15.18

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I had a dream the other night in which I saw a woman sitting in a car that was parked in a garage, with the garage door open. In the driver’s seat was a teacher, who was teaching the woman to drive, but the car was in the garage, the car was not turned on, and the woman was in the passenger’s seat. As soon as the woman got out of the car, to come out and sing the song she had learned while sitting in the car, there was another person (a coach figure) who was standing in the entry way of the open garage door. As soon as the woman got out of the car to sing, the other person cued the choir, who backed her up in the singing of the song, she thought no one else had learned. To her surprise there was a whole choir of people who knew the same song she learned while in that garage. The next scene in the dream was exactly as the first, but this time the woman got out of the car in order to play her instrument and when she did, the coach figure, cued the orchestra to join the woman in the song.

When I woke up I was so excited, because I knew this was another piece in the puzzle that is presenting the picture of the quantum shift God is doing in the church right now. While in prayer about this dream, the Lord revealed to me that the woman is the body of Christ and that the body of Christ is moving from teacher-student relationships that happen in a classroom in which the student sits and listens in order to learn, to coach-player relationships in which the player is on the field or the court engaged in the game. This dream confirmed to me what I have been hearing and saying, along with many others, that the Pastor/Teacher classroom church is over and the Apostolic/Prophetic field church is here.

Many are wondering what this will look like and the Lord has given me some insight and language to this, but as with any parable, it is in picture form. We are moving from covered churches, where a man is your “covering”, to convertible Christianity and topless Tabernacles, where wide open spaces are holy places. Consider this with me, is there anywhere in the world that you cannot look up, when outside and see wide open spaces? But, everywhere on this earth sphere we see boundaries. Water has boundaries, land has boundaries, countries have boundaries, even the Bible tells us, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed my heritage is beautiful to me” (Psalm 16:6).

Having wide open spaces above our head is by God’s design, this is why God is putting a crown on the head of His church, because she is going to have boundaries, for her safety, but wide open spaces over her head, so she can see Him and Him alone. A biblical crown, is open on the top, because our God is sovereign, but He is not controlling. The days of being under someone’s covering is over and when the people come out of the system of religion, into wide open spaces, they are going to find holy places, because there will be boundaries, but there will not be a covering. Think of what God is doing as a football stadium, it is a place that has boundaries, but is open to the sky.

May I propose to you, that the heavens are open to us, but in order for us to see them, we need to come out from under the covering of man and get under the covering of God. This does not mean we don’t honor men, we don’t honor titles, positions, or places we enter, we absolutely do. This is not a call to rebellion or anarchy, this is a call to freedom, for who the son sets free is free indeed (John 8:32). This is not an invitation to be a renegade or a lone ranger, this is a call to community, to relationships, to biblical authority. When we come into wide open spaces that are holy places, we will begin to hear the voice of God, walk in the authority of God and love the people of God. This quantum shift is not for our destruction it is for our restoration.

Just like on any team that operates in a field or on a court, there will be many coaches needed, henceforth, why the fivefold ministry model (Ephesians 4:12) is never out of date, but we need all five coaches, not just one. The team that God is putting together that He calls church, will be a team that the world will want to come and see play and some will even want to join this team. When Jesus walked the earth, people left their covered tabernacles to come into wide open spaces with Jesus. He led a team of men and women and when the people saw this team playing, they wanted to come and see.

While some even left everything and followed them. This quantum shift is not something new, it is something old, but it is new to us, because we have been locked down in religion, both denominational and Pentecostal (charismatic), but the shift is here and it is a shift that God is doing. Therefore, you can either surrender to it or resist it, but you can’t stop it.

I believe the song for this shift is Come Alive by Hugh Jackman from the Greatest Showman soundtrack:

Come alive, come alive

Go and ride your light

Let it burn so bright

Reaching up

To the sky

And it’s open wide

You’re electrified

When the world becomes a fantasy

And you’re more than you could ever be

‘Cause you’re dreaming with your eyes wide open

And you know you can’t go back again

To the world that you were living in

‘Cause you’re dreaming with your eyes wide open

So, come alive!

I see it in your eyes

You believe that lie

That you need to hide your face

Afraid to step outside

So you lock the door

But don’t you stay that way

No more living in those shadows

You and me we know how that goes

‘Cause once you see it, oh you’ll never, never be the same

We’ll be the light that’s shining

Bottle up and keep on trying

You can prove there’s more to you

You cannot be afraid

Limits, you know those things you believe that tell you…you can’t? Limits, those self or others-imposed beliefs that stop you at a certain point for one reason or another? Limits or as in the story we are about to look at lids, that keep you from doing what needs to be done, because someone somewhere said, that’s now how it is supposed to be done. Limits or lids are ways to stop you from being who God made you to be, which is limitless.

Did you know that you are without limits, but you are with boundaries? There is a difference between limits or lids and boundaries. Limits are like lids that are forms of control that keep you contained, restrained and maintained, whether you recognize it or not, but boundaries are what keep you safe. Lids put a ceiling over your head, while boundaries, put a safety line around your life. Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors”; Proverbs 23:10 says, “Don’t move the ancient boundary stone or encroach on the land of the fatherless.”

From Genesis to Revelation there are boundaries, God has established for people. Rivers and mountains used to be boundaries that marked out land for certain people groups or tribes, so God is pro-boundaries, but He is anti-lids. Because lids have to do with control, lids have to do with putting limits on people.

Genesis 29:1-3 says, “So Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the East. And he looked and saw a well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well’s mouth. Now all the flocks would be gathered there; and they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well’s mouth”.

Jacob came to a well, there were three flocks of sheep, that is about 300-600 sheep all waiting at the well, but there was a lid on it, so they could not drink any water, yet. Why did they not roll the stone away and let the 3 flocks of sheep drink? Because it was customary to not remove the stone from the well, until…until what, the right shepherd showed up, until the correct number of sheep were ready to be watered? What were they waiting for? Someone put a limit on these flocks of sheep and told them they could not remove the stone, until….

Genesis 29:7- 8 says, “Then he (Jacob) said, “Look, it is still high day; it is not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go and feed them.” But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and they have rolled the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.”

Can you hear the limits put on those at the well? Jacob is like, it is hot out here, the sheep are thirsty and hungry, what are you people waiting for? They say, we can’t, we won’t, we were told not to, its protocol. Can you hear the limits? But what’s ironic, is not only can we hear the lid in their language, we can see the lid, for they are standing right there at the well that has water in it, but none of them is willing to roll the stone away so the sheep can drink. Jacob, is stupefied by this. Maybe it was because he was not a member of the flock or he wasn’t a shepherd, that is why he did not understand.

Genesis 29:9-10 says, “ Now while he (Jacob) was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother”.

Jacob, when he saw Rachel, who was a shepherdess, come with her flocks, he rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, he lifted the lid off the well, so ALL the sheep could drink. Jacob’s love for Rachel lifted the lid for all the flocks waiting around the well that had a lid on it. While the other shepherds would not remove the lid, because of some protocol, love came in and lifted the lid, removed the stone and did not care what anyone thought.

There is a group of people on the face of the earth, who are so in love with Jesus, that they are lifting the lids off of people’s lives, not out of rebellion, as though they have no boundaries, but out of love, because they have no lid. Love is lifting the lid off of people’s lives. Love is revealing to the sheep that there is no limit, no lid, no stopping how deep they can go into the presence of God, how wide open the spaces in God are.

Just like in John 4 when Jesus rolled the stone away from the Samaritan woman’s heart at Jacob’s well, she ran into town and told everybody, come meet a Man, come meet a Man. Love is lifting the lid, removing the stone from the well of living water inside of people, it is giving the sheep water to drink. Love lifts the lid, so people can come and see the Man, Jesus the Christ.