Month: December 2022

One of the numbers that prophetic people see quite often is 1111. Many interpretations have been presented by those who do numbers like Troy Brewer and they are fun to listen to and if they apply to the context of what God is speaking to you they can be very helpful to understand what God is saying. Eleven is a number that is usually associate with transition, and as I was reading Mark 11 today, verse 11 stuck out to me. I did not think of it as an 11:11 number, but that is exactly what it is. Here is what Mark 11:11 says, “Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.” I highly doubt anyone knew what Jesus was thinking based on what He was seeing. But it is clear, He came into the Temple and looked around.

I sense the Lord, for the past two years, has been Mark 11:11 ing His people. Paul said, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, but the church is also the Temple of God, so both individually and corporately, I sense Jesus has been doing some observations. The reason I say this is because I sense 2023 is going to be a year where things are going to change dramatically. What exactly is going to change, I cannot tell you that, for I am not privy to that information, but what I am sensing from the Lord is that there are about to be major changes based on the Lord’s past two years of observations of individuals, churches and nations.

Mark 11:15-17 tells us what Jesus did based on what He saw in verse 11, “When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” Jesus brought the Temple back to its original design, to be a house of prayer for the nations. I sense we are about to be brought back to original design as people, churches and nations. The original design was very good, but it has gotten off track and I believe a much needed adjustment is coming and we are going to be so glad the Lord of the Temple loves us enough to adjust us.

Jesus speaks more highly of us than we even realize so we live far below who we are because we don’t know who He says we are. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13). My friends, we have not been told the truth about how valuable we are. We have been taught to do religious works, but we have not been told how valuable we are to God. We have been taught to strive, struggle, strain at the oars, and we have been told God loves us. But we have not been taught our value and because of this we buy into all the religious rhetoric that is not the kingdom of God.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” He said it this way in Mark 9:50 “Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.” YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH…YOU MUST HAVE THE QUALITIES OF SALT AMONG YOURSELVES.

Calling you salt makes many of us think of the $1 table salt, that does not seem to carry much value, then we are told we are preservers, yes great, but still does not really communicate what Jesus is saying here. Jesus understood the value of salt, this is why He called us the salt of the earth, but we don’t understand it’s value that is why we don’t realize how valuable we truly are. I did a study this morning on the history of salt and what I learned blew my mind. Being called SALT is a huge value statement.

1. All life depends on the chemical properties of salt to survive.

2. Salt’s ability to preserve food was a founding contributor to the development of civilization.

3. All through history, availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization.

4. Salt was of high value to Jews, Greeks, Chinese, Tamils, Hittities and other people’s of antiquity.

5. Salt in Chinese history was both a driver of technological development and a stable source of revenue for the imperial government.

6. Salt has played a prominent role in determining the power and location of the world’s great cities.

7. Salt created and destroyed empires.

8. Salt was a form of currency.

(Wikipedia)

Friends do you see how valuable salt is? Do you see how powerful salt is? Do you see why Jesus said “You are the salt of the earth?” We are powerful, we are valuable, we are needed on the earth. You are salt, you are needed on the earth, don’t buy into the idea we are getting yanked out of here, if we are gone, so is the earth and the Bible says, the earth is the Lord’s and all who dwell in it. He left us here to add value, but we must know who we are and realize how valuable we are. This is the truth about why Jesus said we are the salt of the earth and these are the qualities we bring to the earth!

SALVATION IS OUR DECLARTION AND HIS MANIFESTATION!

Romans 10:9 says, “If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Salvation is our declaration! Our salvation comes from what we say. There is no situation we find ourselves in, that we cannot open up our mouth and praise our way out, declare our way out, prophesy our way out. Salvation is our declaration.

I was reading the gospel of Mark yesterday about the story of the Gentile woman in Tyre who had a demon possessed daughter. She begged Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter, but Jesus said, It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs. The woman’s response was but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. This was her salvation declaration. She declared, I realize I am not a Jew, but the Jews even drop crumbs and I am declaring those crumbs as my salvation declaration for my daughters deliverance. Her response, her declaration of salvation, activated His manifestation. Her daughter was free from the demonic spirit immediately.

Our job is to declare salvation, when we do, God activates His manifestation of deliverance. It is all over the Bible, where someone made a salvation declaration and we see a God manifestation. it is not our job to make the manifestation happen, it is our job to speak the salvation declaration. Isaiah 24 says it this way, “In that day the people will proclaim, This is our God!

We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the LORD, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!” We are about to see manifestations based on the salvation declarations we have made. 2023 will be the year of His manifestation!

The voice of God speaks, roars, thunders, and we all hear it, some gather (John 10:3-4) to His voice and others scatter (Psalm 68:1) at the sound of His voice. One voice, the voice of God, heard by all, but two completely different responses to the voice. Psalm 100:3 says, “Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” There is no such thing as a self-made man (woman). We have all been made by God and in that making He put inside of us the sound of His voice. We all hear the voice of God, for God designed us that way. This is why when we hear the voice of God we either gather to Him or scatter far from Him. We all know His voice.

As I was praying Psalm 100 this morning all these thoughts came to me. Praying the Psalms yields so much insight into the word of God, the heart of God and into us the people of God. It is amazing to me that One voice, the voice of God can either cause us to gather to Him or scatter from Him, depending on who we are in relation to Him. While meditating on this thought, John 10 rang in my spirit, because this is where Jesus declares Himself to be the Good Shepherd. What stuck me in John 10 was verse 5 which says, “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” We flee from strangers and gather to those we know. Selah.

We were made with the ability to hear the voice of God, we were taught to trust the voice of a stranger. Now many people trust the voice of a stranger and flee from the voice of God. Psalm 100:3 says, Know that the Lord Himself is God. If we know God we will gather to Him when He speaks, but if we don’t know God we will scatter/flee from Him as though He is a stranger. The voice of God people know, they know it, so it is time to bind the voice of the stranger people believe is trustworthy and loose them in order to hear the voice of God who is a Good Shepherd. We were made to know the voice of God.

Biblical confidence is rooted in humility. Humility is rooted in submission to God. When we are under the authority of God, living in the fear of God, obeying the word of God, we will walk in biblical confidence for we know who we are and whose we are. Biblical confidence is desperately needed in this hour, but it only comes from being in an intimate relationship with God which results in obedience to whatever it is He asks us to do. Most people want to be the ruler of their own life and then wonder why they lack confidence, identity and authority. The key to unlock all we desire is to be one with God.

Psalm 68:1-4 says, “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered, And let those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish before God. But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is the LORD, and exult before Him.”

The Lord spoke to me as I was praying these verses this morning and He said, “Enemies of you will do exactly what they did with me when you walk in the room. They will be scattered, flee and perish. And the righteous will do the same as well, they will rejoice and be glad to see you.” The Lord went on to say, “This happened with Jesus all the time, when He showed up enemies scattered and the righteous rejoiced.” Christ is in you, so when you walk in the room, be confident, do not be afraid, if someone or something is your enemy it will scatter, flee and perish, but if the righteous are there they will rejoice and be glad with you.

This truth establishes in us a confidence to not fear any enemy for Christ is in us. If you are in alignment with God, you have nothing to fear no matter the place you find yourself, because if there are enemies there they will flee, scatter, perish and if there are righteous there they will rejoice. My friends, we need biblical confidence for greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world. He arises in you and the enemy is scattered!

When I lived in MO, there was a field steps away from my house. It was a great place to let the dog run and sleuth out field mice, while I would walk and pray. This field was mowed maybe once every six weeks, so the grass could get very tall, which is a dogs dream, for they think they are on a major adventure but are actually in their own neighborhood. I lived near that field for 8 years, so I would notice changes in the field that I did not understand. There were times when the field would be freshly cut and then we would get rain for days on end, and it would soak the ground. Within a week I would notice “different” things growing. One time I saw a corn stalk growing in this “grass” field. I’m a city girl, so I do not know anything about farm land, but I have friends that do and this inquiring mind wanted to know.

I spoke to a friend of mine and she told me that farmers rotate their crops, so one year they will plant corn and the next year they will plant soy for example. She talked about how this was good for the soil and the seeds to not have the same crops planted year after year. I was fascinated by this, for it explained why I saw what seemed like random things growing in our field that were out of character for this plot of ground. She went on to explain that when there is heavy rain, seeds that have been laying dormant deep in the soil get watered when the land is saturated and this is why they spring up not every time it rains, but only when there is a heavy rain.

In our lives we have seeds that are laying dormant so we don’t realize they are there, until there is a heavy rain. These dormant seeds get watered in the heavy rain. When they spring up we have to decide what to do with these “different” things growing in our lives. It happens to all of us, and when we see them come up it is our job to root them out of our field. Jesus speaks about these seeds in Luke 8:7, 14 He says, “Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” When seeds manifest and look different than the rest of our field, we must pull them out from the root for they were hidden in the soil from a previous planting. If we don’t pull them out, we will not mature and that will prove more problematic. I know it’s winter, but it is time to uproot some seeds that have been manifesting because of all the rain we have been experiencing.

Over 22 years ago I walked into a little country church in Smithton, MO for a Pastors and Leaders conference. It was a town of 532 people and I am convinced more than that was packed in that church for this conference. It was not your typical lights camera action conference, it was the power, presence and preaching of the kingdom of God conference. I had never seen anything like it before and to be honest with you, after the first night, I did not think I was going to go back, for the power of God scared me. Who was I at that time? I was a successful youth pastor in Seattle, WA, I was a tongue talking, bible believing Christian who had been saved for 10 years at that point. I was no novice to the things of God, so I thought. Little did I know walking into that little church was going to change my life forever.

Over the past 22 years, the Lord has been deconstructing and reconstructing my internal infrastructure. He had to tear down all the religious things I was taught and caught by living in a “Christian nation”. The first 14 years the Lord tore some of it down in corporate church settings as I listened to a man preach the gospel of the kingdom and it changed my life. But for the past 8 years the Lord has done it privately. I remember many times where the Lord would reveal to me lies in my infrastructure and then He would rebuild it with truth. All this deconstruction and reconstruction has completely and totally changed the way I hear the word of God and speak the word of God. It has been a painful process, but I would not change it for anything.

I tell you this because I am not the only one who has gone through this process, there is a remnant of people who have gone through it together, even though when going through it we felt all alone. Only truth is what has set us free. Now, as I look out on the landscape of the earth, I see a global deconstructing of lies we have been told being revealed, it is going to be painful to process, because people you thought were speaking the truth actually were covering up lies. Johnny Enlow says we are headed into a Rude Awakening, I would say it is upon us. A couple weeks ago, they opened the “Twitter files” now moments ago they released the “JFK files”. Why now? Because only the truth can set individuals and nations free and it is God’s idea to set us free from bondage we did not even know we were in. I see it nationally, because I went through it personally.

We all have the power of choice and we can choose to “not believe it” whatever the “it” is, but until we come to the knowledge of the truth individually and nationally we will not be free. The Bible says where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Lord God of heaven is hovering over the nations by His spirit and it is for our freedom, but there is no freedom apart from truth. So in the words of a song we sing, “Open up the windows let the light in! Let the light in!” God is doing just that, it is going to be hard on the eyes of those who have been sleeping, but from one who has gone through the process, I can promise you the fruit of the light tastes so much better than the fruit of lies. Nothing can stop what is here and coming!

Jesus was the embodiment of the kingdom of God on earth. He did not strive or struggle to prove who He was, He just manifested what God put inside of Him. He manifested what relational alignment with the Father looks like. Mark 1:21-22 says, “Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.” The first manifestation of relational alignment with the Father is authority. Real authority is not controlling it is liberating.

People heard authority in the way He taught. People have a hunger for God inside of them and relational alignment that releases authority activates the people who look dormant, but are actually just waiting for the authentic authority of God to arise. The first people to wake up when authority was released were the synagogue going Jews. The next person to wake up was the demon possessed one who sat in the synagogue week after week, but dealt with demonic oppression all week long. Mark 1:23-26 “Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God! But Jesus reprimanded him. Be quiet! Come out of the man, he ordered. At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him.” Authority wakes up the sleepers in the synagogue and liberates the demon possessed person.

Finally, authority is the announcement the preaches the good news. Mark 1:27-28 “Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. What sort of new teaching is this? they asked excitedly. It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey his orders! The news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee.” When relationally aligned men and women start to teach, authority will be heard and those who many thought were sleeping, disinterested, not engaged will jump to their feet, for they know what real authority looks like and when they hear it and see it everything is going to change. It’s going to be a great awakening.

In the age of religion there was an acceptance of compartmentailizing things. It seemed as though it was acceptable to act one way at home but project from the pulpit a completely different lifestyle. There was a tolerance of ungodly behavior because they carried a certain title or office in the ministry. Many statements like “touch not my anointed” were tossed around so no one questioned what was being said or done. Even in Israel when Jesus walked the earth they compartmenalized one day as more holy than the other or one building more sacred than the rest. Religion loves to compartmentalize because it is a way to control what is going on. The age of religion is over, the fruit of religion is rotten and the days of compartmentalizing God are done.

The kingdom of God age is here, call it an era, an epoch, an age, but it is here in our midst and we can no longer live a compartmentalized life. The kingdom is synergistic. There is no state line in the kingdom, no city limits, nor are there any territories. Someone in Kansas can receive a dream, share it with someone in Tennessee and it activates a prophetic adventure that is going to change the financial trajectory of a nation. This is what synergy looks like. It is not about the one who had the dream or the one that goes to the destination location that gets the glory, but the Lord who has activated them both to operate synergistically for the liberation of a nation.

The bloodprint of the kingdom is manifesting more and more everyday. As it does we will see a synergy not just of people in various places, but of ministries, families, communities and authorities. When it says one can put a thousand to flight but two can put ten thousand to flight, that is about to be seen as this synergy continues to increase in our midst. There will be synergy between the genders where there has been division; there will be synergy between nations where there once was animosity; there will be synergy between people that will be unbreakable, and there will be synergy between heaven and earth of the likes we have never seen before. The kingdom age is synergistic in nature, it is going to be powerful!

The strategies of God are not the strategies of men. The plans of God are truly higher than the plans of men. The thoughts of God are more creative than the thoughts of men. We look at the natural and think we need strength, power, authority and money to take the land, but the Lord has another plan. When we look through the lens of the world’s way of taking land, we only see the wisdom of men. However, what looks like foolishness to men is actually the strategy of God to take the land.

Men are trying to control the earth’s population; the finances of the earth; the narrative of the nations. Men, flesh and blood, men, who are only breathing because the breath of God is in them. It is long past time that believers starting viewing world events from the vantage point of being seated with Christ in heavenly places. When you look at mere men from that vantage point, you realize no matter the name they have that invokes fear, no matter the title they carry that creates intimidation, no matter the amount of paper money they hold that seeks to be powerful, it is all an illusion in light of the substance that is God.

Killing babies for money, trafficking women and children for money and pleasure, building tunnels, controlling companies, rigging elections, all the works of men trying to outsmart the all knowing God. God’s patience with people makes them think they are getting away with something, but when patience expires and justice is on tap, there is no escaping the truth that is going to set the nations free. So, what is God’s plan…

I think we see it in Deuteronomy 1:37-39 “Moses, not even you will enter the Promised Land! Instead, your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will lead the people into the land. Encourage him, for he will lead Israel as they take possession of it. I will give the land to your little ones—your innocent children. You were afraid they would be captured, but they will be the ones who occupy it.” New leaders and childlike people are going to take the land. Jesus did say, unless you become like a child you cannot enter the kingdom of God. The innocent are about to possess the land, it sounds foolish, but it is the strategy of God.