Month: December 2023

We are extremely acquainted with our King coming in on a donkey to die for the sins of the world, but what we are not as comfortable with is the King of glory coming in on a stately chariot loaded with weighty splendor and magnificence. We have been saturated with a meek Savior crucified on a cross for sinners, but we are about to inundated with the truth of our risen King of glory who has all power and authority over the nations. 2024 is not just the turning of the calendar, it is the beginning of the King of glory’s entrance into our atmosphere.

Psalm 24 will be the theme verses for this year, but these verses will lead to other verses as well like fruit on a tree or roots that go very deep. Psalm 24:9 is the decree, “Wake up, you living gateways, and rejoice! Fling wide, you eternal doors! Here he comes; the King of Glory is ready to come in. You ask, “Who is this King of Glory?” He is Yahweh, armed and ready for battle, the Mighty One, the invincible commander of heaven’s hosts! Yes, he is the King of Glory!” He is coming in on a stately carriage and we are about to experience a golden year. His reputation precedes Him and the apostle Paul spoke of him in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

5784/2024 is going to be a golden year. A year of wisdom and revelation; a year of radical transformation; a year of prophetic declaration; the King of glory is here, He is coming in, not to rapture us out of here, but to baptize us in liquid love, golden honey, and we will never the same again. Watch many return to their first love; look for the prodigals to come home; brace for Babylon to fall; and know the first one to come through the door of this year is the King of glory, the Lord strong and mighty. He is coming in on a stately carriage loaded with splendor and magnificence of the likes we have not seen before. The crucified King on a tree was a marker in history, the King of glory is His current reality. Welcome to the golden year of God’s glory!

The ways of God are not human ways, this is why we misunderstand God more often than we care to admit. We are so accustomed to humanity we do not really understand the ways of divinity. Reading Luke 1 this morning it wasn’t just words it was the story of someone’s life. As I listened to the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, I was struck by their humanity and God’s divinity.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are both of priestly lineage, righteous, blameless, following God with their whole hearts, but she is barren and he is without an heir. Barrenness has nothing to do with whether we are righteous or not, God’s ways are not our ways. The enemy tries to tell us our barrenness is due to some sin in our life, some generational curse on our life, or some other issue we can’t seem to shake, but that is not what God says, barrenness will give way to birth, just wait and see.

Zechariah is doing his priestly duties in the temple and he is well along in years. All of the sudden while offering prayers, the angel Gabriel stands next to the altar and gives Zechariah an announcement that his wife is going to have a baby boy and that his prayers have been answered. What an announcement to a couple who has been barren for years, but the announcement was not enough, he wanted a sign. Gabriel says, okay your sign is silence until the appointed time of this child’s birth. But that’s not all, Elizabeth was sent into the seclusion for 5 months once she heard she was pregnant. Silence and seclusion do not sound like humanities way of celebrating such good news after such a long wait.

Many have been barren, but they have heard announcements from God. Now they are pregnant, but God has still kept them secluded and silent. This is confusing to humanity but it is the way of divinity. The appointed time is so close and many are going to rejoice over what God is birthing. Once the birth happens the sound will be restored and the manifestion will be seen. The days of silence and seclusion are ending! Oh my this is going to be a party for the ages as heaven and earth rejoice together.

Hear something once it can be in one ear and out the other, hear something twice and it causes us to at least pause and wonder what is this echo I am hearing and why. Many people miss the voice of God not because they cannot hear God but because they do not lean in to the echo. Pause, ponder, lean in to listen, you might experience the voice of God in the most unusual and unsuspecting places for He is the only God who is living; the only God who speaks; and the only God who hears. Jesus Christ is a living God not a statue, idol or monument to something that was.

I was reading Psalm 59 and Proverbs 29 this morning and a phrase caught my attention in Psalm 59 then was echoed in Proverbs 29. I have been telling people, the Holy Spirit is the perfect point guard for He passes you the word right in front of you as you are going through your day, your devotions, your discussions, your driving, your whatever you are a doing. Here is what I saw in Psalm 59 “Here they come again— prowling, growling like a pack of stray dogs in the city. But as for me, your strength shall be my song of joy. At each and every sunrise, my lyrics of your love will fill the air! For you have been my glory-fortress, a stronghold in my day of distress.” Now for the echo from Proverbs 29, “The wicked always have a trap laid for others, but the lovers of God escape as they sing and shout in joyous triumph!”

Here is what I am sensing, we are going to need to sing, shout and rejoice even when it looks Iike we should be scared, intimidated, and on the run. I sense the enemy is about to release something that will try to spook us, but the Lord is putting a song in us, a shout in us. Emotions are energy in motion, you are going to want to do one thing, but I sense the Lord inviting us to see beyond the smoke and mirrors the enemy wants to release to see the victory God has decreed. It is time to see the walls of Jericho fall, shout, sing my friends for God has given us the victory.

On Christmas Day my 15 year old son gave me a prophetic word with the gift he bought for me. In this prophetic word he said, “Mom, the coming year I find very special because, in the Hebrew calendar, this year is the year of the voice of the Doorkeeper. From what I read about it, it means that this new year new doors will open by the voice of God and old doors will be closed.” He went on to say some personal prophetic things to me, but what I found in this word from him a word for the body of Christ who have been waiting at the threshold as a doorkeeper.

Psalm 84:10 says, “Better is one day in your courts, than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked” (NIV). The word doorkeeper means, to wait at the threshold; to stand at; to guard the threshold. The threshold is a piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door; a door still; either end of an airport runway; the place of point of beginning; the outset. (The American Heritage Dictionary)

There have been many opportunities to leave the threshold, to abandon our post as a doorkeeper, but just like 500 started in the upper room in Acts 1-2 only 120 were there when the fire of God fell. My friends others who began with us standing at the threshold may have walked away to do other things, but for those who are still waiting at the threshold, who are still on the tarmac ready to take off, I believe what my son said, this is the year of the voice of the doorkeeper. New doors are going to open for us, old doors are going to close behind us, and we are going to launch.

Rewards are for those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 13:8); promotions are for those who produce continually; not everyone is going to experience the same thing, but for the waiters at the threshold, it is time for the year of the open double doors. 5784 in Hebrew calendar and 2024 in Gregorian calendar. I see double doors opening for those who decided better was one day in His courts than a thousand elsewhere. Welcome to the year of the open doors.

I went on an early morning walk through the woods with my dog Hunter today and we found this old barn. It caught my attention because I love taking pictures of buildings with character and this one was rich with character, texture and photographs well in both black, white and color. While looking at this barn the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “This is what desolation looks like.” I walked around the barn looked inside it and pondered what the Holy Spirit said.

Desolation means a place that is dark, empty and foreboding; biblically desolation means a state of spiritual emptiness or lonelinesss, a place where we feel cut off from God and His love. In this place of desolation we feel like we have no hope and that we are alone. According to an article I read it is the feeling of being joyless, disconsolate and sorrowful and can be very overwhelming and even debilitating. The article went on to say it can make it hard to function normally and enjoy life (theholyscript.com).

Wondering about this old barn, observing all the character, contemplating what used to happen in it, I began to hear the Lord say, “Desolation happens when life leaves.” Immediately I saw the life coming back into this building as soon as someone living put their hands on it. Boards were strengthened, stain was applied, doors were rehung, and the structure was stabilized. It wouldn’t take a lot to rebuild this desolate place, but it would take someone living to enter into it and bring it back to life.

Friends, when we see someone or something desolate, what is your response? Do you want to bring it back to life or do you walk past it and think too bad, so sad? In this proximity revolution we are going to encounter desolate places, people, and properties, but we who carry life are to enter into the desolation and release words of life. We are being invited to give a hand up to people, places and properties, these opportunities to cause dead things to live is a mark of the proximity revolution. Can you see the beauty in those broken down boards?

A phrase that has been coming out of my mouth lately is, “Protective not possessive.” I have never said this before, so I am pondering what this phrase means because I use it quite often seemingly all of the sudden. I tell people it is critical that we listen to what we say more than what others say, for we are held accountable for the words that come out of our mouth not the ones that come out of theirs. That’s a whole other blog, but I said that because when these words have been coming out of my mouth they are new phraseology to me and I like them but wanted to explore them.

God is protective not possesive and we are called to be the same. We have been subject to possessive people who sought to control us, dominate us, restrict our movement, limit our expression, so we are resistant to the idea of someone being possessive. I think we have such an aversion to possessive because sin is possessive, Satan is possessive and demons are possessive. The Bible says, we were slaves to sin. It was as though we were owned by sin, by Satan and by demonic influences, so when in the same passage in Romans, the apostle Paul says, we are called to be slaves of righteousness, we buck the idea of someone or something possessing us. But God is not possessive, He is protective and we are called to be the same.

1 Corinthians 13 says, “Love protects!” Love protects, it does not possess, it protects. Love protects us from danger, from others who are not safe, from ourselves. Love protects from snares and snipers. We long to be loved but we are afraid of being protected because we think it means possession. God loves us so He protects us by giving us commands in His word; protection creates a sense of safety so people can thrive, live and enjoy life. We have been so accustomed to the counterfeit called possession we must repent for the authentic is here and it is protection. God and others love us so much they want to protect us not take possession of us. They love you that is why they want to protect you.

The key of the kingdom is a sound that comes from God Himself. When we are all in the same key, our sound will be in unison and will penetrate even the hardest hearts, darkest nights, and deepest wounds. The key of the kingdom is a sound of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). The Lord is wanting to tune us to His key, but so often we want to sing in our own key. The keys of self and sin take us out of tune and we do not sound good, nor do we work well with others when we are out of tune.

On this Christmas Day when the word became flesh and tabernacled/dwelt among us (John 1:14) the words of Jesus are ringing like church bells calling us to come together in agreement with the key of the kingdom of God. The prayer of Jesus in John 17 that we would be one as Jesus and His Father are one is still vibrating around the throne of God. To become One with God and each other, we must all be in the same key. We must put away sin and selfishness for there are no solos in the kingdom of God, we are a choir. We must listen to the voices of those around us and watch the direction of the Holy Spirit our conductor in front of us. For there is a sound the Father and Son wants to come from us.

When we sing together in a choral sound, there is power of the likes that will shake the ground. As we stay in tune with the key of the kingdom; as we listen to those around us; as we keep sin and selfishness far away; we will find ourselves surrounded with angels we have heard on high singing in excelsis deo! The goal of this choir is to release the sound of All Hail King Jesus for He is Majesty and we are to worship His Majesty. I hear the Lord wanting His prayer for us to be One answered this Christmas, for this is the gift we give Him together. May the key of kingdom be the key you live in and may we all love being a choir for His voice is like the sound of many waters (Ezekiel 43:2) not just one drop and I hear the sound of the abundance of rain (1 Kings 18:41) and it is in the key of the kingdom.

When I was a child growing up in Minnesota, Christmas was a time of snowsuits, moon boots, mittens, stocking caps with the big ball on top and my plastic sled that I would ride down the little hill in our front yard. We never had much money, but we had great memories. We were a little family of three, me, my brother and my mom. Every Christmas Eve my mom would make cranberry bread and we would eat it warm with “real” butter. I do not remember much about my childhood, but I do remember that little house on 38th and Vincent and those four steps I would climb to go back down that little hill on my sled again.

When I was a teenager, Christmas became about getting gifts. I remember being so mad whenever I would open a new sweater or a pair of jeans, that were much needed but not wanted at all. I wanted an Atari game so I could spend the whole day in front of the television. I remember getting so mad that I did not get what I wanted. Then being from a single parent home, I would go over to my dad’s house and all I cared about was what I was going to get. My step mom would cook the best meal, ham and all the Minnesota fixings, but I did not care that our table was full with my brothers and sisters around it, I just wanted my gift and I wanted to get out of there. Oh the life of a hurting teenager, selfish to the core I was.

Then I moved to Seattle, college life was the best life. I had friends who were closer than family. I was living in the city of my dreams, but Christmas came and everyone would go home to their family and I would stay alone in my dorm room or apartment. No money to fly home and to what home would I go, my mom was in MN and my dad was in MO. Lonely, not married, just me and my little Christmas tree. Oh to have the days of the snowsuit and plastic sled again or the meal my step mom made. Christmas became a hard time of year for me, for many years.

I got married in my late 30’s, I was living in Malaysia and there was no snow on Christmas, so I had to adjust to having Christmas in shorts and a t-shirt. But it still was Christmas because there was the tree, the gifts underneath and my new little family. I was not thinking about what I was getting, I was so excited about what I got for my husband, housemate and son. Oh I could not wait for the look on their faces when they saw what I got them. The delight of Christmas was about giving not receiving now. I remember the look on my husband’s face when he saw the MacBook I bought him. Oh the hugs and kisses I got that morning I will never forget.

Now today it is the morning before Christmas and all through the house my son is not stirring and my dog is asleep in my bed. The tree is lit with gifts underneath that I am so excited for my son to see. We don’t have many gifts, but we are rich because of the people we are going to see. It is Sunday morning the real treasures will greet us as we walk through the doors of Hope UC. The smiles on their faces, the hugs around my neck, remind yet again that I am so blessed. Christmas is hard for many as memories and traditions we want to make, but with the Spirit of God every Christmas is unique. It is the adventure of walking with the Spirit. I have to go get dressed and pictures you will see, not of gifts I received from under a tree but of me with the people who truly love me and my little family. Merry Christmas my friends, and remember love God and love people for these are the gifts that make Christmas truly special for you and me.

In the field of nutritional health, one of the common practices that people employ is called a sugar detox. Detoxing sugar out of your body, removes many of the physical manifestations that come from the consumption of sugar. I am no health expert, but I do know a lot of people that specialize in the area of healthy living, healthy eating, and the benefits that come from it. When people go on a sugar detox, they drink certain what I call concoctions in order to flush the sugar out of their system. The Bible says so goes the natural, so goes the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:46).

We can physically remove ourself from a situation that is toxic to us, emotionally, physically or spiritually. The physical removal is many times a very necessary step, because it is a declaration of moving away from the toxicity of an environment, which is proven to not be healthy for the person that has moved away. However, what most people are not aware of is how much they have been seeded with the toxicity of the words of the situation in which they were immersed. Not only were they seeded many times the children were seeded as well. We as adults understand this more clearly, because we have both been the child and the parent in many occasions.

Proverbs 22:5 says “Twisted and perverse lives are surrounded by demonic influence. If you value your soul, stay far away from them.” As I read this, I realized how much easier it is to physically remove yourself, but if you do not detox, the twisted and perverse things that were seeded in you, you will still be under their influence. Just as people use a liquid drink to detox sugar, we are to use the word of God to detox the words of others that were twisted and perverse and have done great damage to our soul.

My prayer for you as we head in to Christmas week is that you would detox with the Word of God, the twisted and perverse things that you have been seeded with. Your healthy soul, your renewed mind, your ability to tap in to the grace of God will reveal to your friends and family…What a mighty God, we serve. Detox quickly it’ll make you feel better.

We are living in a very strategic season in which wisdom warriors are needed. Anybody can swing a sword and cut off the head of an enemy, but the Lord is calling up those who know how to war with wisdom. The enemy that has been in hiding is being revealed, not to scare us, not to intimidate us, he is being exposed, so that this enemy that we see today we shall never see again.

In the story of Israel exiting Egypt, the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, a prophet and a priest to warn Pharaoh with ten different plagues (Exodus 7-11). Ten is the number of ordinal perfection. It was the perfect grace of God, sent to a king in Egypt, giving him the ability to honor the request to let God’s people go. Unfortunately, like other kings in the word of God, Pharaoh hardened his heart rather than honored what the Lord, told him to do. The day came when God said enough is enough, and He released His people from the oppression of Egypt. Moses and Aaron were wisdom warriors as they walked with God and released the 10 plagues, which were actually 10 acts of grace towards a wicked king.

God is exposing those things that have been hindering the release of His people, and God is inviting His wisdom warriors into action, with very specific instructions. Proverbs 21:22 says, “A warrior filled with wisdom ascends into the high place and releases breakthrough, bringing down the strongholds of the mighty.”

Wisdom warriors this is a call to you. It is time to ascend into the high place the secret place of the Most High. Wisdom warriors, it is time to release breakthrough. The way the Lord spoke to me the other day was “release the reservoir”. Wisdom warriors it is time to bring down the strongholds of the mighty. The giants must come down. The stone must be released from the slingshot. It is time for the people of God to be released from their oppression. This is a call to the wisdom warriors, for the Lord of hosts is at the head of this army, and it is time for the people of God to be set free. Wisdom warriors it’s time to arise.