Month: December 2021

Culture has created an increase in mental health issues in the nations. People are being inundated with information (bad news) coming at them from every direction. From youth to adults, bad news is no respector of persons. It is as though there is a cultural storm sitting over the nations and many feel lost, hopeless and anxious by all they are hearing and seeing. It is easy to say turn off the television, but that can create more fear, for people think being in the know helps their anxiety, not realizing it actually fuels it. This epidemic has landed on both Christians and non-Christians alike. Some people have chosen to medicate themselves in one way or another to try and deal with the feelings of anxiety and fear. However, all medication does, whether with alcohol, sex, drugs or some pharmaceutical all medication does is mask the manifestation. Remove the mask of medication and the manifestation is still there. Does this sound familiar for you or someone you know?

The word of God is not just a book for theologians to study, Pastors to preach from, or people to use for their desire to prosper, the Word of God is medicine that heals (Proverbs 17:22); the Word of God is a weapon that protects (Hebrews 4:12); and the Word of God is a Person that understands (John 1:1). The Word of God is also the answer to our problems for it deals with the root issue not just the fruit issue. Psalm 38:18 says, “For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin.” The Word of God connect anxiety to sin, but what sin? If sin is the root of anxiety, if we want to uproot the sin, so we no longer feel the fruit of anxiety we need to know what the root sin is. The root sin of anxiety is unbelief. Our lack of trust in God, that He is Lord of the nations, King of all creation, Ruler of every king, and Father of lights, our sin is our unbelief, our trust in God. When we don’t trust God, we get anxious. Believers and unbelievers alike struggle with anxiety, because of the sin of unbelief.

Jeremiah 1 says, the Lord called Jeremiah a prophet to the nations and he was uproot, tear down and destroy, as well as build and plant. Prophets are mouthpieces for God, prophets are town criers that relay messages from God, prophets are to speak the truth of the words of God. For truth is what sets us free and the truth about anxiety is found in the need to uproot unbelief. If you are struggling with anxiety, the answer is not to medicate, but to meditate on the Word of God, for faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God (Romans 10). If you want to be free from anxiety, practice trusting the Lord, spend time in His word, and never forget, He is not a man tha He should lie (Numbers 23:19), you can trust Him. Your trusting God will uproot the sin of unbelief that is producing the fruity of anxiety in your life. I promise this works, for Paul said, we are to be anxious for nothing, trust God and anxiety will no longer be a bad fruit that you have in your life.

Have you ever been in a traffic jam and you waited and waited and though you moved slowly, the wait was long and all you wanted to know is what is the hold up? Then that moment happened when you saw the accident that was making you wait, you saw the stalled car that was creating the jam. There is something about knowing the what that helps with the wait.

In prayer this morning, I was asking the Lord, how long until we see a demonstration from this period of gestation? I was crying out for understanding as to what is taking so long, what is the hold up, what else can we do in order to get this breakthrough of the promises you have spoken to me, to us? The wait has felt so long, the what is the hold up has felt elusive, I was seeking to understand and the Lord answered as He always does for me through His word.

Today is the 7th of December and I was praying Psalm 37, while praying that Psalm the answer to what are You doing came in verses 9-11 “For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.” The Lord is eradicating wickedness in our land so the righteous can inherit it. The Lord is removing the chaff, so we can harvest the wheat. The Lord is doing this and it is marvelous in our eyes. I was elated by what I saw, what I heard, it changed everything.

Knowing what God is doing, releases praise in the waiting, removes the wondering, and activates faith. The Lord has not forgotten us, this gestation will lead to a manifestation, it seems to be taking a long time, but God is removing evildoers from our midst, so we can delight in the abundance of everything. When David’s enemies were defeated the land had peace for many years. God is doing it again, He is defeating His enemies and our enemies and we are about to inherit the land again. It is worth the wait when you know what is going on.

A low hum has been happening in the atmosphere, it is a sound of an attack. If you have been sensing it, you know what I mean. It was not obvious or overt, but it was there, like a nuance. I could not put my finger on it, was it personal, was it regional, national, invidual, or corporate. I could not tell, but it was there. Maybe you sensed it the past week or so. Could it have been because of the Supreme Court case happening; the Ghislane Maxwell trial going on; the Jussie Smollet case being heard; the new variant being pushed; none of the above, all of the above, I was not sure, I just knew it was there. Then this morning in prayer, I could still sense it in the air, so began to inquire of the Lord specifically about it. No response from the Lord, so I began to pray Psalm 36.

Praying the word of God unlocks answers, puts cracks in dams of resistance and opens up fountains of living water that only the word can do. In verses 5-6 the character qualities of the Lord are identified: lovingkindness, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgments. As I begin to declare who God is, cracks start showing the in the wall of resistance I have sensed in the spirit. Crack, crack, crack, crack with every decree of who God is. Then in verse 8 the psalmist says, “They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.” Now a bubbling is happening as the Lord reminds me we have access to abundance and rivers of delight. First cracks now bubbling, something is moving, something is changing.

Verse 9 “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” Life and light are revelation of truth and truth is freedom. It is a journey we are walking right now, cracks, bubbling and now truth, it is about to break, I can sense it, I can see it, I am prophesying it, You are light, You are life! Whatever was heavy is now light; whatever was weighty is now wafting away. Then the dam of resistance breaks wide open with the truth of verse 11 “Let not the foot of pride come upon me and let not the hand of wickedness drive me away.” That’s it, pride is anything to do with self, it seeks to come upon us, so we do things in our own strength, our own way. Let it not come upon me. What a prayer. What a decree. And let not wickedness drive me away, there is no retreat, no matter how wicked people act. Once that truth broke open the atmospheric issue left.

The word of God is the answer to every question we have. The voice of God as heard in the word of God, changes atmospheres as we seek Him. We are not under the foot of the enemy and his ideas of how to do things, and we are not going to retreat, no matter what wickedness he makes up. We will feast on the abundance of God’s, drink from His rivers of delight, and we will know truth that will set us and others free. This my friends is the truth that sets us free.

The clock, the calendar, the seasons, do not detour the promises of God on your life. Time is your ally not your enemy. Knowing this truth is imperative as you wait fo the promises of God over your life to come to pass. Never forgetting the truth that time is your ally and not your enemy is the weapon you need to ward off the enemy for the devil loves to speak about your age, how long you have been waiting, or he even uses seasons and holidays to make your heart sick. He uses these things to get you to stop waiting, stop believing, stop trusting in what God promised you. The enemy does this, for he knows your faith in what God said tortures him. The waiting is actually doing more damage to the kingdom of darkness than any of us realize, for our waiting is communicating God is trustworthy, God is a promise keeper, God is faithful, God is good!

Now that we know what is happening to the enemy while we wait, what is happening to our promise. Our promise is in a time capsule that has been stamped with a date that is invisible to us, but visible to God. If you have ever seen a time capsule, they are stamped with a date that the capsule cannot be opened until that date. The contents inside the capsule are unknown until the date stamped on it arrives. I have been sensing for a few days now, that the Lord has date stamped our promises in a time capsule. They are there, but cannot be opened, actualized, until the stamped date.

Think of the many men and women of God in scripture who were given a promise, were attacked by the enemy with time, and who saw the fulfillment of the the promise. Abraham/Sarah; Hannah; Gideon; Israel; Peter; Paul; and yes even Jesus. Hebrews 11 has names I have not listed and even says, some died not seeing their promise fulfilled, for they were to have it fulfilled with us. What? Yes, the invisible date only God knows, but when He opens it, we will rejoice greatly in the promise God fulfilled. Even when we don’t see it, He’s working, He never stops working. Time is your ally not your enemy.

The greatest gift you can give to yourself is to stay in your lane. If this phrase is new to you, the idea of staying in your lane is not trying to be someone else, but remaining true to who God has called you to be. To stay in your lane is to remove any competition; any need to be involved in something that is not for you; it is a singleness of focus that produces great results. If you think of stay in your lane as a race track, you realize when people, cars or even horses get out of their lane, they get tangled up with whatever is in another lane. The safest place to be is in your lane.

Proverbs 4:18-19 speaks to every person, saying there are two lanes, once you know your lane stay in it, no matter what you may hear or see in the other lane. Listen to how Solomon describes the two lanes, “The lovers of God walk on the highway of light, and their way shines brighter and brighter until they bring forth the perfect day. But the wicked walk in thick darkness, like those who travel in fog, and yet don’t have a clue why they keep stumbling” (The Passion Translation).

We are in a two lane race, Paul even said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). The two lanes are light that is bright and keeps on getting brighter or darkness which keeps on getting darker. The challenge we face is staying in our lane. The enemy wants to tell you to look at how dark it is, but that is only in his lane. The lane the lovers of God are in, is getting brighter every day. Don’t doubt for a minute that things are getting darker, they are not if you are a lover of God, but you must stay in your lane. The word is a lamp unto our feet a light unto our path (Ps. 119); Jesus is the light of the world (John 9); in the beginning God created light (Genesis 1). Our lane is light that keeps on getting brighter. Stay in your lane and you will not be shaken by the darkness, because you are in the kingdom of light!

Creation is waiting for us because creation is in obedience to the word of God. Creation does not argue with nor rebel against God. Creation hears the word of the Lord and obeys without question. Psalm 33:8-9 says, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Creation is modeling for us what obedience looks like and what obedience produces. Jesus said it this way, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them… Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin” (Matthew 6:26, 28). Obedience to God produces rest.

Romans 8:19 says, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” Creation is waiting for us, for people, for believers, to obey God. Our manifestation as sons of God is our obedience to the voice and word of God. When we the people of God obey the word and voice of God, creation will rejoice with us, for creation is already in obedience to God. Everything we are wanting as a generation is available to us, but we must obey the voice and word of God for it to manifest. There are no shortcuts.

The reason believers do not obey God is twofold. One they do not see God as an authority they are to obey, or they are in rebellion to His authority; two they do not know God. Many people have said a prayer, but do not know God. For if you knew Him you would gladly obey Him. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Lawlessness is disobedience to the voice and word of God. My friends, obedience to God is the manifestion of the kingdom of God on earth. Our obedience to His voice and His word is what we are waiting for.

The Apostle Paul addresses an issue in his letter to the Corinthians that is very rarely discussed in the church, but is critical for us to really think about. The reason it is so often not an important subject, is because there is a corporate belief it is a non-issue among us, but I would propose it is more prevalent that most are willing to admit. Paul says, “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise… For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.” We have heard of self-condemnation, but what we rarely here about, yet see often is self-commendation.

It does not take very many minutes having the television on before you hear on a talk show, reality show or even game show someone commending themself for what they have done, what they are doing, or who they are. Self-commendation is prevelant in the world and unfortunately in the church. Titles are free in many churches, so free they make up new titles to try and distinguish themselves from the “typical” titles. It does not stop with titles, it goes on to accomplishments, possibly the most hard to swallow is the self-commendation of souls won, baptisms done, miracles performed or number of people in attendance on a Sunday morning or Saturday night conference or concert. All signs of self-commendation. Paul says, “He who boast is to boast in the Lord” (2 Corinthians 10:17).

The question the Lord asked me while reading 2 Corinthians 10 today is “How many people are looking for a high approval rating from other people, but have no idea what their approval rating is with Me?” This question caused me to pause, ponder and wonder, what approval rating is God giving us? How pleased is He with how we live our lives, how we love our neighbors, how we make our choices, what we do with our time, and how we obey His word? What, honestly, is our approval rating with God? It is probably not as high as most of us unconsciously would like to believe. The approval rating of men is inconsequential if we have a low approval rating with God. It is time to seek the Lord, adjust our lives and align ourselves with His word, so our approval rating can rise based on God’s standard.