Month: November 2021

A couple weeks ago I was reading Proverbs 25:23 “The north wind brings forth rain…” as I read it the Lord said release the glory from the North. I did a little searching for North in scripture and I found Job 37:22 “Out of the north comes golden splendor; Around God is awesome majesty.” The Lord said agin, “release the glory from the North.”Then I was on prayer mountain with a couple friends and the Lord said, Red River Meeting House is directly North. I knew that is where I was to go and release the glory.

On Saturday, my friend Sharon and I drove up to Red River Meeting House and we released the glory from the North. It was a powerful experience as the Lord had us put and arrow in the ground where the original meeting house sat before it burned down in 1856. The unique thing we noticed is that there was a tree that grew up over a gravestone and the Lord said “death is on the surface but there is life underneath. Push the arrow down deep sonlife can spring up.” We pushed the arrow in and I heard the song Shekinah Glory by Cory Asbury rise in my spirit so I began to sing…Here we are, standing in Your presence Here we are, standing in Your presence Shekinah glory come down, Shekinah glory come down Release the fullness of Your Spirit
Shekinah glory come, Shekinah glory come!

We were sent to release the glory from the North and that is what we did. Prophetic adventures are so much fun and I am honored to be sent on these assignments by God for the sake of His people.

When the Lord is consistently, day after day, saying the same thing, through various voices, and then confirms it in the word, it is hard to deny what is being said. You that know me, know that I am not one that tries to find a scripture to match what I think, but rather what I think is because of what scripture says. Well, for over two weeks now, but intensely and consistently this week, the Lord has been speaking the same message to me, and as I was reading Romans 9 this morning, it summarized it so well. Here is what I am hearing, which I believes confirms what so many other voices are saying.

Romans 9:28 “For the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” Paul is quoting Isaiah 10:22-23 “A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.”

When the Lord keeps saying the same thing over and over again, in rapid succession and then puts an exclamation point on in with Romans 9:23 saying it will be thorough and quick, my friends this day of the sharp sword of the Lord cutting off our invisible enemies is rapidly approaching. Many have known for years, decades, this day was coming, but it is upon us now. It could happen any day now, type of now. This is not a reason to fear, as Lana Vawser said today, it is Psalm 46 time, now!

Psalm 46:1-3 says, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.” God is releasing righteousness and it is shaking all the wickedness, put on your robe of righteousness and watch for the glory of God is about to descend on the lands of earth in a significant way. We are living in historic times of which the world has not seen in a long time. Selah!

Romans 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who is against us?” The immediate answer is a resounding no one, but the reality answer is, there are people, spirits, systems working against us. So, in all truth, we cannot say, no one. Therefore, we have to go a little deeper into the question. “If God is for us, who is against us?” Since God is for us, no one has the power to come against us, unless we allow it.

What I have learned over the years is there will always be powers, people, principalities, that are against me, against us, but the Lord said, He is for us, so who has the audacity to come against us? Well, the enemy is a tresspasser, so he is against us, but James tells us “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” The Lord has decreed He is for us, so no one can be against us, but James says, if the enemy comes against you, here is what you do. One submit yourself to God. Many people when they get attacked rise up to fight and God says, humble yourself before Me. Submit yourself to Me, I, the Lord will fight for you, will show you what to do. Two, resist the devil. Don’t receive the enemies words, reports, ideas, thoughts, plans, resist him. We must learn the power of resisting, rather than always just receiving as though we are powerless.

If God is for us, who is against us? No one can be against us if we submit ourselves to God when someone comes against us and we resist the devil, not receive him and his words. My friends, these tools need to be in your arsenal for victory is yours in Jesus, but you must submit and resist to see tha victory.

The body of Christ is a combination of instruments. Many have spoken on the new sound we are going to hear in this new era, coming out of this new wineskin. No one has been able to put their finger on what it is going to sound like, but the Lord just said to me it is going to sound like righteousness. Righteousness has a sound, wickedness has a sound and mixture has a sound. They are three completely different sounds.

I remember growing up in the 80’s and we had mix tapes, it was a compilation of various songs we recorded off the radio and would listen to in our car’s cassette player. One song would be rock and roll, the next could be jazz, then we would have a cool country song we like and of course there was some R & B in there as well. This MIX tape, did not have one sound, because it was a mixture of sounds and songs. I also had albums of certain bands I used to like which was predominantly heavy metal or rock and roll. The album had the same sound because all the songs were of one band and it was usually dark music. But when I got saved, in 1989, we had a burn bucket and all my posters, albums and T-shirt’s were thrown in there, for I was a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and those old sounds of mixture and sin I no longer wanted to be heard in my ears or coming out of my mouth.

Righteousness has a sound, it is the sound of authority, the sound of victory, the sound of generosity, the sound of joy, it is the sound of purity and it sounds different than anything else I used to hear. Paul said in Romans 6:13 “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” The new sound we are about to hear is an old sound, it is the sound of righteousness that will come out of the instruments called the body of Christ. We are familiar with the sound of mixture, so we may think we know this sound of righteousness, but the longer it plays, the more obvious it will be that the sound of mixture lacks the power to change a life, provoke obedience and instill accountability that the sound of righteousness carries. Can you hear it? It is the sound of righteousness calling you out of darkness and mixture into pure, unadulterated light!

Humanism is a system of thought that focuses on humans and their values, capacities, and worth (MW Dictionary). Humanism is the prevailing system in our culture currently. This system of thought has created a subtle deception that has crept into the sermons we hear in church and has altered our perception of biblical truth. Correcting this error in your own heart is imperative, for there is about to be a seismic cultural shift back to biblical christianity, and a move away from humanistic christianity.

What does humanistic christianity look like? In its simplist terms, we have prioritized people over God. The needs of people take precedence over the truth as spoken in the Word of God. We live with a concern of offending someone, therefore, we cannot speak the truth to them in love. Humanism has elevated ove for humans above love for God. Love for God is obedience to the Word of God even when it may not be pleasant for a human to hear (John 15).

Prophecy has fallen prey to humanism and moved away from being biblical, henceforth, why the “prophetic words” spoken do not carry power. Only biblical prophecy, which is speaking what God is saying, carries power to transform a life. Humanistic prophecy will tell you what you want to hear, in order to not offend you. This is about to change and has already begun to change. Biblical prophets, are arising speaking what God is saying, not fearing how it will offend the hearer, for they know God only says things that will be good for the hearer (Romans 8:28), if they can hear what God is saying and they are willing to obey.

What we as believers need to repent of is placing a higher value on people’s feelings, people’s affirmation, and people in general over God. God alone is to be our highest priority, even when culture is driving us toward humanism. It is subtle, most don’t even realize they have placed a higher value on people than they do God, but it is seen in our acceptance of lifestyles that are clearly contrary to scripture; in our inability to speak truth to people; and our unwillingness to obey God if it costs us someone important to us.

My friends we need to repent for the bible says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). We must get the order right, for currently we are out of order.

Have you ever read a question in scripture and actually answered it? Or do you just read it and keep reading? This morning, I read in Psalm 2:1-3 “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” After I read this question in prayer, sensed the Lord wanted me to answer it and to be honest with you, the answer I gave surprised me for I do not recall thinking about it this way before. Here is what my answer was…Lord, people rise up against You and Your Anointed because they refuse to bow down to You and Your Anointed.

Thinking about this Holy Spirit inspired answer, it is actually true. People, whoever they may be, that refuse to bow down to the Lord and His Anointed will rise up against Him and try to take Him out of culture. Think about all the ways those who refuse to bow down to the Lord and His Anointed have tried to rise up against God in our nation? They do marches, they light up houses, they write laws, all trying to rise up against the Lord and His Anointed. Many times we see the rising up, but we don’t realize it’s because they won’t bow down.

God is strong, He is not moved by people’s unwillingness to bow down. He does not complain, criticize or become fearful because they try to cancel Him out of culture or refuse to bow down to Him. You know what God does? Psalm 2:4-6 “He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” Did you hear that, God tells them that Jesus is King and this terrifies those who refuse to bow down. Instead of being afraid of all you are seeing and hearing about those who are rising up, remember they are refusing to bow down, but Jesus is King of the holy mountain and every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, so God has the last laugh!

Hope has always been an elusive word to me, a bit ethereal if you will. I never could put my finger on what it actually meant. I have heard the psychological and biblical definitions of it, but to really understand what it was, how it worked and what distinguished it from faith was hard for me.

Now I am a member of Hope UC Nashville, and we say a blessing type benediction at the end of our service every Sunday morning and of course it is a verse cloaked in hope. I say the verse, but never was able to grasp its significance. Then this morning, I am reading Romans 5 and it says, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” I can’t deny this word any longer, so I dig into it and what I found as a Hebrew definition of one of the many words translated hope has unlocked understanding for me.

Hope means to stretch out the mind in a straight direction towards an object of hope or expectation. It means strength; standing firm; trust, wait, refuge; it means to live out God’s call to righteousness; and long-term hope is the sense of the arc of history bending toward justice. Now, I have some bones to hang onto when I hear the word hope.

I end my prayer, study time with communion and today with this fresh understanding of this ancient word, rich in meaning, history and mystery, I look at the bread and the wine and realize, it was hope that allowed Jesus to endure the cross. He never thought the cross was His final destination, His hope pulled him in a straight line through the cross, into the grave and up into glory, so now He is seated at the right hand of His Father in heaven. Hope does not allow you to stop at the cross (the painful things in your life) it pulls you through the cross, into the grave and up and out into glory.

Church, we need to stretch out our mind in a straight direction towards an object of hope or expectation. Jesus expected the glory of God to manifest on earth as it is in heaven and He knew the cross was just one thing He had to go through, the grave was another, but He would not stop until He was manifesting glory for us to see, now 2000 years later, because He had hope in God. Let hope pull you through your cross seasons, through your grave seasons, into your manifestation of God’s glory in your life on earth as it is in heaven. Hope is the cord that pulls you toward the goal of glory manifestion and glory demonstration. This my friends is the power of hope!!!