Month: February 2022

Since around 300AD the church has been taught, symbolically if you will, the baptism of John. We have specialized in evangelism as it pertains to saying a prayer for salvation, and in the words of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles we have learned the elementary teachings of Christ, but it is time to leave those behind and press on to maturity, it’s time for meat (Hebrews 5 – 6). Many have become experts in the baptism of John (the elementary teachings); most of the church leaders and therefore, the church members are elementary in their understanding of Christ. We reverberate and recycle over and over the milk issues of the word. Most leaders in the church, both denominational and Pentecostal are the greatest in the ministry of John the Baptist. But it is a new day, we are in a new era and the revealing of the least in the kingdom are being heard and are about to change the narrative in the church worldwide. Jesus said it this way, “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28).

People who have done ministry and have been successful at it, most only know the gospel of John. What Jesus calls the least it the kingdom are coming with the narrative of the gospel of the kingdom and it won’t look or sound like what is so loud today. Now the question is, when you hear them, meet them, will you be like Apollos and get trained by them or will you be like the Jews who oppossed and persecuted Paul for tellling them and the people something they themselves didn’t know? Acts 18:24-26 says, “Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”

Ready or not, here they are and here they come. Their voice will continue to increase in volume around the world, for they are here with wisdom and revelation not of themselves, but of Jesus Christ. They may be the least in the kingdom, but they are greater than the greatest in the John the Baptist ministry and the demarcation will be obvious. Now will you humble yourself and come into the kingdom or rise up and persecute them? I guess we are about to find out because they are not going to stop preaching the gospel of the kingdom!

The MSM has a way of getting many people to focus on the nation they deem worthy of attention for their own reasons. If you were to look back on your social media sites, you will find when the media says Ukraine, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, France, you name the nation, then many people put pray for _________________. People change their profile picture to match the nation the media highlighted, they get online and prophesy or pray for the nation the MSM highlights. My friends, it reveals who is listened to and it is not God it is the media. The more you follow the media’s lead the more you are going to live a low bar life. Come up higher, come up here is wha was told to John in Revelation 4 and I will show you what is soon to take place. My friends, if God is speaking, you will have insider information ahead of time, but if you are only hearing the media, you are following their lead and they know it for they have all the data on how you respond to what is said, so they keep baiting you with things to do and pray and say.

As believers, we are not to act like this. It shows such low level understanding of anything and make us look ridiculous as believers, especially to those who know things the media is not telling you. We are to be ones who know and hear the voice of God; we are according to John 10 to follow His voice and the voice of a stranger we are not to follow. The challenge is, many believers know the voice of the media better than the voice of God. So, today what is God saying, Psalm 117:1 says, the Lord is saying, “Praise the LORD, all nations; Laud Him, all peoples!” When God says this, you start to call out nations by name to praise the Lord. Praise the Lord Greece; Oman; Switzerland; Columbia; Guam; Dominican Republic; Cambodia; Uzbekisstan; Panama; and so many other nations that never make the news. When you start to see the nations on this Sunday praising the Lord, you see Senegal in praise, Pakistan in worship, UAE with hands raised; New Zealand in celebration of our God. It gives you an international perspective of praise and reminds you that Psalm 2 said, “Ask of me and I will give the nations to you as your inheritance.” Jesus is the inheritor of the nations, so it’s time to call them to praise, because God is saying so. It will change your perspective for God said it not the news.

In the Old Testament it was a requirement to give offerings. Leviticus 1 – 5 tells us the 5 major categories of offerings that were required under the Old Covenant. They are 1)The Burnt Offeings; 2) The Grain Offerings; 3) The Peace Offerings; 4) The Sin Offerings; 5) The Guilt Offerings. These 5 offerings were a requirement under the Old Covenant. But Jesus, who embodied all the offeings required in His body when He died on the cross, made the final offerings God required based on Old Testament Law. Jesus became the final offering of all these requirements. Therefore, under the New Covenant, we are not required to make offerings. Selah.

Jesus fulfilled ALL the Law and the Prophets, therefore, there are no required offerings for us who are under the New Covenant. These are fighting words for those who love to do works. But I am not picking a fight, I am state a truth, the Lord burned in my spirit this morning, Jesus is the all-in-one offering there are no longer offering requirements. What then is the reason for us giving anything under the New Covenant? Are you saying we are not to give anything?

Under the Old Covenant it was a requirement, but when you see what Jesus did in His death on the cross, fulfilling ALL the requirements of the Law, it will produce in you a response based on what you understand. Our level of response is equal to our measure of understanding. We will give more out of response than we ever would of under requirement. You are not required to give anything, but when you understand who Jesus is, your response will reflect your understanding. I worship as a response, I give as a response, I obey as a reponse, for I have seen Him, heard Him and am daily getting to know Him. I can’t help but have a generous response. It’s not a sacrifice, it is a genuine response. We reveal much in our response for it is not a requirement, it’s our heart!

I was invited to a Tribe Night yesterday and it is a gathering of women from a variety of backgrounds, different ages, and vast experiences. We gathered to talk, laugh, eat and we learned new things about one another. The home we were in was peaceful, the people were delightful and the whole experience was such a joy. I will be doing that again with them, for sure. But this one statement was made and it had me thinking. The statement was, what is your favorite Bible verse? I love the word of God so to pick a favorite, or life verse was hard for me, so I was glad they didn’t go around the room and ask us to share ours, because I had no answer. One lady said, Deuteronomy 12:20 and she said, this will tell you a lot about me. Here is what it says, “When the LORD your God extends your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat, whatever you desire.” She is a professed Gentile and her husband is a Jew. We laughed and laughed as she shared her love for meat and is so thankful for that verse.

This morning, the Lord and I found my favorite Bible verse or my life verse if you will. “Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (Psalm 115:3). Yes, this is my favorite verse, because the Lord has allowed me the honor of knowing who He is and I trust Him implicitly. I know without a doubt that He is always doing good; He always wants to heal; He loves to save; and He is always loving and truthful. I have no fear of God being in control; of God deciding what is best for me; of where, when and how He wants me to live, move and have my being. He is God and I am here to serve, love and worship Him and I am honored to do so. As I was praying this verse this morning, my heart swelled with gratitude that He does whatever He pleases with me, with nations, with leaders, with families, with everything. It is so comforting knowing I don’t have to know everything or control anything or anyone, not even God. This is my favorite, life verse, and why, I would love to hear yours and thank you Tammy Smith for inviting me to Tribe Night, I love you fiercely.

Clues, hints, hidden treasures in the midst of everyday reading. They are there hidden in plain sight. We read right past them until the Holy Spirit highlights them. But when the light shines on a verse, a paragraph, a person, it catches our attention for God has something to say about it. I hope this has happened to you, because when God is your teacher, school is so much fun.

Today I was reading Acts 21 and verse 26 caught my attention, “Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.” On first read this verse does not seem worthy of popping out, but because God breathed on it there is something there I never saw before. Maybe you have, but I didn’t until right now.

We are 21 chapters into the book of Acts and this verse tells us the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing and the people were still doing animal sacrifices. This is huge, for the final sacrifice for sin died on a cross before the book began, now 21 chapters later they are still doing animal sacrifices in the Temple? This is huge. There are many things that happen in the world, events, prophetic declarations, prophetic acts, dates, many things and they change everything in that moment, but so often we just go on with life like nothing happened. They did not alter their life according to the death of Jesus Christ, they still sacrificed animals, but what about us? What changes did we make after experiencing revival; revelation in the word; or a relationship? Those moments were markers that said, I am not going back to who I was before that event, that moment, that marker.

I wonder how many of us are still operating, like the Jews did, as though Jesus did not become the final sacrifice for sin and stop making sacrifices? How many people since being touched by the power of God in revival no longer are religious? How many since being married have no longer lived like they are single? Markers in our life are lines we are never to cross back over. I pray you keep moving forward, advancing the kingdom, no going back.

Yesterday was a powerful day, it was Tuesday in the second month on the twenty-second day in the two thousand twenty second year of the Lord. That is seven two’s. For you that know biblical numbers, seven is the number of completion and the Lord spoke to me yesterday and said, today is the end of the works of the flesh and the beginning of the works of the spirit. I saw two doors, one was shutting and the other was being opened. This is a nod to Isaiah 22:22 from the Lord which says, whatever I shut is shut and whatever I open is opened. When God shuts something down, no one can open it back up. In the spirit this happened yesterday and it will manifest in the natural.

God always has an answer for the works of the flesh, but first we must know what works of the flesh He is talking about. The works of the flesh are many but can be summed up in one word, violence. Violence is not a word we would attach to the works of the flesh, but remember Jesus said, “The kingdom of God suffers violence…(Mt. 11:12); the kingdom of God suffers when the works of the flesh are evident. Then in Genesis 6 it says, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them;” Violence is how the Bible describes the works of the flesh, so what is God’s solution for violence?

God answers the works of the flesh with a covenant of peace. In Isaiah 54 it says, “For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I swore that the waters of Noah Would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you Nor will I rebuke you. For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken, Says the LORD who has compassion on you.” When you see or hear of the works of the flesh, open your ears and eyes for God is making a covenant of peace with us to deal with the works of the flesh He calls violence.

The teacher gift that God gave to the church is a blessing in ways words can’t describe. That gift teaches us things we could not know, because of their love for studying the word of God. On Sunday, Tom Trout, the teacher in our church spoke on Acts 3, 4, and 5. He gave us many gems we can ponder for years to come, but one is sticking out to me today. He told us the book of Acts spans 30 years. With 28 chapters, that means each chapter can almost represent one year each plus a few months. When you read the book of Acts, it seems like one year not 30 years. Time is a gift we must cherish when reading the word of God for it puts life in perspective.

The book of Acts is a highlight reel of people in the New Testament. Whether we read about large figures in the book like Peter, John, Paul, Timothy, Barnabbas or Silas, or lesser known figures like Apollos, Aquila, Priscilla, or Lydia. Highlights of moments in their life, snap shots of situations are spoken of in this book with these people. If we think this was day to day life, our life can seem boring, uneventful, even insignificant in light of what these people did, saw, expeienced. But the truth is, this book covers 30 years of life. We all can put together a 30 year highlight reel if we wanted to and it would look like we were skipping from mountain top to mountain top.

The truth is, daily life can feel mundane, boring, and even slow at times. When others are having a highlight moment and we are having a mundane one, frustration can come, hope deferred can flare up, emotions can arise. But we cannot base our moments on other people’s moments, for there are a lot of minutes in a day, hours in a week and days in a year, so we do not all have the same moments at the same time but we all do have moments. I pray we learn to celebrate others moments, and that others celebrate ours. We are not in a race or a competition, we are on an adventure with God and each other and some days are mundane while others are moments we will never forget. Let’s celebrate with each other, it will make the mundane more memorable because we remember what happened for someone else.

Royalty —- Aristocracy —- Kingdom —- Wealth —- Legacy —- History —- these are all words Europeans, Middle Easterns, Africans, Asians are familiar with because they live in a land rich in history, full of mystery and culturally understand these things. These are bible words that most Westerners say but are not familiar with. Even the words the House of David or the House of the Lord which are very biblical words, have such depth but are treated so lightly. There are many benefits to being a young nation like America, but there are many things we miss as well. Youth is passionate, energetic and exciting, but maturity is longevity, history, depth, flavor, stability. One is not better than the other, they are just different, but understanding both is important to truly appreciate the Ancient of Days and the word of God that is eternal.

I was praying Psalm 111 this morning and verse 9 says, “He has ordained His covenant forever; Holy and awesome is His name.” As I prayed this verse the Lord began to speak to me about the House of His Name. In the West we read the word house and think building, but house is actually synonymous biblically with family. I have a friend in Italy who was telling me about the House of Gucci, I knew she was talking about the Gucci family, not the corporate offices. For a house is a family. That is why we are called the House of God, it is synonymous with the family of God. So, when the Lord told David he would build him a house, it was not a building, but a people, a family line. Remember the Messiah came from the house of David, his family line in the natural.

Meditating on these things made me realize the privilege of being called a daughter in the House of Yahweh. This thought is so overwhelming, for the name Yahweh carries history, mystery, power, authority, legacy, intimacy and prosperity. Being a daughter in the House of Yahweh means we are royalty, aristocracy, and it causes me to stand in awe and wonder of the head of this House. Can you hear whose you are? Can you see it? We are the House of God.

I had a dream last night that I was a pregnant. I was pushing on my stomach, saying, that is solid, that is pregnant. When I woke up I began to pray and speak to the Lord about how pregnancy is expectancy, but how we need the expectancy of pregnancy to become a manifestation of reality. If we only remain pregnant but never manifest that which we are pregnant with, what was the point of being pregnant? Pregnancy is not just to say I am pregnant, it is to manifest something.

John 1:1 says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word is seed, that impregnated the earth with an expectancy of a manifestation of the Messiah. In the convergence of the word and time we saw a manifestion. I believe we are in a convergence or an alignment time right now. Planets are alignining, for you that don’t know there is a planetary alignment with Pluto today. Numbers are aligning, the 2’s are wild on the earth right now. And I believe the promise and prophecies that have been proclaimed are aligning with God’s timing.

What does all of this mean? I am sure it means many things, but one thing it means is that we are moving from a season of pregnancy and expectancy to a day of manifestation! We must manifest. The Bible says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire realized is a tree of life.” God did not pregnate us with promises just so we live in a continual expectation which turns to frustration, but rather we are pregnant with promise because it is time for a demonstration of His power.

Acts 2, Pentecost, was a day of Joel 2 prophecy becoming reality. Isaiah 9 prophecy became a manifestation day when Luke 2 happened and Jesus was born. Prophecy is pregnancy but it will manifest in reality. We are in the days of manifestation, demonstration, and celebration. This is the day we have been waiting for. Here come the birth announcements!

There is a new boat pulling up to the dock. There is another option being presented to us in this hour. You have heard the phrase, “don’t miss the boat” that is not just a phrase in this hour, that is a truth. There is a different boat pulling up to the dock and now that I have seen it in prayer I am not going to miss it and I don’t want you to either. However, there is one caviat, you must get out of your “row boat” if you are going to get into the “speed boat” that is pulling up to the dock right now.

People have been sitting in, rowing and floating along in a row boat for so many years. I did not have this language until this morning in prayer when the Lord opened up this vision of the two boats in Psalm 108. The row boat is in verse 12 “Oh give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain.” As I prayed into this verse the Lord immediately showed me a row boat. He said the deliverance of man is very slow. I came to my prophetic dictionary called The Divinity Code and this is what it says about a row boat “ministry or life of self-effort; old or limited thinking; not changing or adapting.” Slow boat, row boat is self-effort.

Then I saw the speed boat as I prayed verse 13 “Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.” When I saw the speed boat I saw the wind blowing in the people’s hair who are on this boat, I saw some smiling and laughing others scared but they were in the boat and they were making waves. The speed boat is defined in The Divinity Code as “accelerating the ministry; accelerating the destiny; powerful ministry; quick or suddenly.” The rate of speed at which things get done in the speed boat is God’s power, so one word heals decades of trauma; one touch heals chronic pain; one check cancels all debt. The speed boat does in a day what the row boat takes years to accomplish.

I’m done settling for the row boat lifestyle, I’m getting on that speed boat I saw and I’m not going to apologize for making waves. I am going to ride on that boat with the wind in my hair and a smile on my face as our God does valiantly and treads down His enemies. If you want to get on the speed boat of God’s power you have to get off the row boat of self-effort, because I see it headed our way right now!

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