Month: December 2023

Footie Pajamas And A Pink Blanket

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

I am learning to share more personal stories because I have a friends who are story tellers and they are teaching me the power of stories. Well today I have waited to write this blog, because I have a story to tell you and it has taken me all day to process it. I grab my dog Hunter for our morning routine, a walk through the neighborhood across the street. No phone, I like the silence of the morning and it is a great time to hear the Lord and enjoy the crisp morning air. This morning, same route different story.

I come around the corner and I see walking up the road toward me a toddler. She is wearing pink footie pajamas and is carrying a pink blanket, in the middle of the road as calm as can be. I am shocked by the sight but I take my dog and we approach the little girl. My dog greets her with sniffs and lite kisses, she smiles and I am looking around like where are her parents? No one, I mean no one is in sight. I ask the little girl who is all of two years old, can I pick you up, so I lift her into my arms and we start walking the neighborhood looking for her parents. There is literally not a soul in sight, not a door open, not a garage propped, not a car running. Nothing.

Who is this girl? Where is her family? Where does she live? How did she get out in the street? So many questions as I am walking carrying her along. Other thoughts were this is someone’s child? What if they think I stole her? What if someone shoots at me? So many questions. What do I do with her? Where do I take her? I walk the neighborhood and then decide I will bring her home and call the police. I get to my house, tell my housemate I found a child and she is like you what? I was like I know, I have found dogs, cats, but never a child that needed rescue. I was in shock but moving, so my housemate called the police and within 10 minutes they were at our house.

After I handed her over to the police, who had the mom’s friend in the backseat of the car. The tears fell down my face, I sat in my room for hours speechless, staring at the wall, not sure what just happened and what it meant. As a mom, so many thoughts, wondering what the little girls mom was felling, thinking, and then the absolute peace the little girl displayed the whole time was stunning. It has been quite a morning, one I will never forget, but this I know for sure, my life has been marked by this moment forever. I watched the lost be found and I not only watched it, I was apart of it and it has marked me in a way I cannot yet communicate.

Season of Celebration

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

The season of holidays is in full swing. We celebrated Thanksgiving in America with our friends and families. Now we are starting the celebration of Hanukkah with our Jewish friends all over the world; Boxing Day with our Canadian friends; and even Christmas with believers worldwide. The holidays are a time of celebration and declarations of joy. I find it fascinating that some people want to say because these holidays are “pagan” in origin they are not relevant. What I always smile at is how the enemy, who cannot create, but can only copy has tried to hijack all things enjoyable and make us miserable. I am not giving up celebrations for they all point to Jesus for me.

Thanksgiving is very biblical, Psalm 136, line after line says, “Give thanks to the Lord…” for me thanksgiving is about giving thanks to God first and then it is about the Mayflower landing, the Pilgrims progressing. Hanukkah is all about Jesus as well for in John 8 He said of Himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Hanukkah is called the Festival of Lights and means to dedicate. Today is the first day of Hanukkah, no I am not Jewish by blood, but my Savior is Jewish by earthly lineage and He is the light of the world, so I am dedicating myself to Him again after a long season of enemy occupation for that is what this holiday is about. Christmas and Boxing Day (second day of Christmas) is earmarked as the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I know He was probably born in September/October during Feast of Tabernacles, but He is the reason for the season, so I celebrate.

My friends, we will always find what we are looking for. I just pray we find what we are for and celebrate that not what we are against. It is Hanukkah, why do we celebrate it, not because we are Jewish, but because it is about dedication after a long season of enemy occupation. I don’t know about you, but I have been set free from the enemy and I am going to dedicate my life again every day during Hanukkah and give thanks to the Lord for He has set me free. Then I am going to give and receive gifts because I have received the greatest gift of all, Jesus the Christ. I do not have time to be anything but joyful, for we are in a season of celebration and the party is just getting started. Tis the season and we have so many reasons to rejoice. Happy Hanukkah!

Hunger Pains

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

You know that feeling when you are hungry, I mean really hungry. It is as though you could chew through the walls just to eat something. Most people do not fast, let alone miss a meal, but there are people who are so busy they forget to eat. Hunger is a force that drives us to get what we need which in many cases is food. There is an internal mechanism that says, I am hungry inside of us and we answer its call by going into a drive through, throwing something into the microwave or preheating the oven for. Our natural hunger for food is satisfied with putting something in our mouth. Most of us do not need anyone else to satisfy our hunger for food, so we just eat when we are hungry.

There is another hunger in us that needs other people and God to satisfy. People are manifesting their hunger, but most people do not see or can not hear the cry of a hungry person. It is not because we are deaf to their cry, it is because they are not speaking it out, they are acting it out. I was with some friends yesterday shopping and while walking around the mall I could see the hunger for attention coming from people. They were not hungry for physical food, they were hungry for attention. Hungry for people to enjoy what they enjoy, hear what they were saying, take an interest in what interested them. The hunger for attention was obvious to me and all they wanted was some focused attention.

When people are hungry for love, attention, time, touch, whatever it may be they act differently that they are designed to because they are hungry. Think about when you are physically hungry how your attitude changes, your energy wanes, your thoughts wander. The same is true for people who are hungry for time, touch, talk, attention, they act not according to design, but from a place of being hungry. When they are fed they smile big smiles, laugh, play, enjoy life, respect people and obey instructions. It is amazing to me how many times we have used behavior modification techniques when people were just trying to tell us they are hungry and we had the food they needed.

Church may we be the people who are connected to abundance so when we are doing life with hungry people we are not distracted by behavior but feed the hungry soul. They may need attention, time, physical touch or someone that enjoys them. It is amazing how something so simple can take a hungry person and fill them up in a way nothing else can. As we tap into the unlimited resources of God’s love we become distributors of that love to others who are hungry in ways they can not communicate but desperately want us to see.

You Are New

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

We are victims of identity theft! I know some of you have a hard time with the idea that we are victims, but Church, we have had our identity stolen not by the devil, but by deception in the church. We have been told our identity is sinner saved by grace. If you ask most believers who they are they will tell you they are a sinner. The idea of being a sinner is engrained in us as the church it is no wonder we are not living the life of an overcomer. We are victims of identity theft, but the thief has been caught and we are taking back the truth of who we are.

I love how The Passion Translation says it in Romans 6, “Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deprived of its power? For we were co-crucified with him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within us, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin’s power.” We are not sinners we are a new creation, the old identity of sinner is gone the new identity of new creation is upon us. This is not a future identity, this is a present reality. If we understood who we were, we would not want to live in any sin, tolerate any sin, or submit to sin in any way. You are not a sinner you are a new creation!!!!

Paul doesn’t stop he keeps exhorting us knowing we need to hear it again and again. Listen to this as he continues in Romans 6 “Sin is a dethroned monarch; so you must no longer give it an opportunity to rule over your life, controlling how you live and compelling you to obey its desires and cravings. So then, refuse to answer its call to surrender your body as a tool for wickedness. Instead, passionately answer God’s call to keep yielding your body to him as one who has now experienced resurrection life! You live now for his pleasure, ready to be used for his noble purpose.”

I am shouting I am rejoicing for we have been victims of identity theft, but the truth is here and you are not a sinner, you are a new creation. Preachers of righteousness; speakers of the kingdom of God must remind us we are a new creation, the old identity sinner is gone the new identity new creation is upon on us. Wear your new identity, show off your new creation status, live as though you know who you are, for you are a new creation I can see it in you, can you see it in you?

Sudden Shalom

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

What is your default reaction when something arises? Everyone of us has a default setting we go to. When we are tired it is really obvious what the default is, if we are willing to look at ourself and not blame someone else. External situations and circumstances rise all the time. External situations come and go to reveal to us what our default go to setting is. For some it is worry; for others it is anger; still for others it is something to medicate them (food, drugs, alcohol, pornography). We do whatever it takes to get out of the external situation that just disrupted our internal world. We all do it.

If we are willing to listen to ourselves, watch ourselves and truly pay attention to ourselves, this is the first step in being discerning, discerning ourself, not someone else. I always smile when someone tells me they are discerning, because I want to ask, are you self-aware? Do you have self-control? Do you hear what you say more than what anyone else says? This is what we are called to do, discern ourselves or as Jesus said, “Take the plank out of our own eye so we can see the speck in our brothers eye.”

The reason I bring this up today is because I found myself praying out of anxiety this morning. Nothing happened, no one said anything, it was just a spirit that wafted into the room and tried to attach to my soul and cause me to panic pray about something that is actually nothing. I felt the anxiety, I could hear it in the sound of my voice. Then I opened to Psalm 35 my prayer partner this morning and the Lord calmed the storm immediately. “Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield And rise up for my help. Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.” My issue was a spirit not a person and when I prayed “Say to my soul, I Am your salvation”, swoosh, peace came rushing in like a river and all anxiety flushed out in an instant.

We cannot control what comes into the room, whether a physical person or a spirit, but whatever alters our peace is an enemy and we must say to our soul, “I AM is my salvation!” David encouraged himself in the Lord, this is how we do that, we tell our soul “I Am is your salvation!” Peace was restored in a suddenly second and tears fell from my eyes as I leaned into the arms of the One who has been saving my soul for years now. He is Savior every moment of every day, say to your soul, “I Am is your salvation!”

Joy Is Manifesting

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

It is not coming, it is here! There is a move of God happening in our midst of the likes we have not heard or seen before. It is not a weeping revival; it is not a you and Jesus only revolution; it is not an evangelistic crusade; it is not a wave your hands and people fall down situation; no this is a move of proximity to God and people. He is not coming, He is here. It is not on the horizon, it is upon us. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you feel it? The change has happened. The manifestation of the new is here and oh my my my it is filled with joy, celebration and liberation.

We sang a song yesterday in church called Give Me Jesus. The bridge says, “I don’t want anyone else, I don’t need anyone else, You are my one thing, You are my one thing.” I was struggling to sing that line, because I do need other people, I do need other things. As the Lord and I were discussing this song, He said, “If you have Me, you get all those other things.” I knew He was saying remember Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” I leaned over to my friend Lauren, who was standing next to me at church and I said, “When we get Jesus we get all the other people and things as well. He just has to be priority one.” She smiled a huge smile and we both shouted, “Give me Jesus! Give me Jesus! You can have all this world, you can have all this world.”

Psalm 34 says, “Join me, everyone! Let’s praise the Lord together. Let’s make him famous! Let’s make his name glorious to all.” My friends, this is a corporate-body move. This is about proximity to God and to people. This is not a me and Jesus move, this is an us and Jesus move of God and it is coming with joy unspeakable. We were not meant to do life alone, we were meant to do life together. One final thing happened at church yesterday, for the first time, we literally had a conga line happening all around the building as joy broke out in the house. It was kids and parents, friends and families, it was old and young, it was a whole string of people singing, dancing, waving their scarfs, it was joy unspeakable. This has not happened before but I am sure it will happen again for this proximity revolution is here with joy, praise and healing and it has already begun to manifest.

Success Pillars

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

People are in pursuit of the key to success. The myriad of books written on how to be successful will make your head spin. Success is such a value in every culture, yet it alludes so many people. Instead of success many a people deal with shame, loss, anger, hurt, and other maladies of which there are many names and symptoms. We were born with a desire to be great, to be successful, to make our lives count for something. The fire to pursue a dream, a goal, a career, is inside of us, but the training, the truth on how to obtain what we want to gain alludes us.

Solomon is said to have been the wisest man who lived, his proverbs speak to us today, and the truth he exudes is undeniable. Proverbs 3:3-4 says “Hold on to loyal love and don’t let go, and be faithful to all that you’ve been taught. Let your life be shaped by integrity, with truth written upon your heart. That’s how you will find favor and understanding with both God and men— you will gain the reputation of living life well.” Can you hear it, can you see it, this is the key to success. Love, faithfulness, integrity and truth. The four pillars that make you successful with both God and man.

We are given a simple understanding of how to be successful, but because these four pillars are not four numbers for a lottery ticket that will give us something for doing nothing, we discount what God says are the four pillars of success. From Genesis to Revelation, love is the first ingredient in everything. Paul even said, if you have not love you are nothing. Love is a life laid down for others, it is a selfless life, but love is not a priority ingredient in many people’s lives then they wonder why they are not successful. Faithful can also be stated as consistent. To be successful you must be consistent. Integrity is a building term, something that is structurally sound is said to have integrity. Oh how we as people need to be inside strong if we are going to be successful. Finally, truth. Truth is foundational to any success.

There you have it, so simple yet so hard for so many. If you want to be successful, these are the four ingredients, the four pillars that will give you favor with God and man. God wants you to successful that is why He put a desire for greatness inside of you, but you much develop the four pillars of success inside of you, if you are going to fulfill the desire you can’t deny. It is so simple and yet so hard, unless you have love for God and love for people.

Clean Slate Club

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

Growing up in the Midwest we heard often at mealtime it was important that we “cleaned our plate” for there were people who had nothing to eat. When I think back to those days I realize there was no connection between me finishing my vegetables and someone who had no food to eat. What were we going to do send my uneaten broccoli to another country? 🙂 I still smile with a chuckle as I think about this. I was a member of the “clean plate club” not because I liked brocolli but because it was a value in my home that we eat all we put on our plate.

I was praying Psalm 32 this morning and the Lord said, “I have a clean slate club and you are a member!” I love how the Passion Translation says it, “What bliss belongs to those who have confessed their corruption to God! For he wipes their slates clean and removes hypocrisy from their hearts. Before I confessed my sins, I kept it all inside; my dishonesty devastated my inner life, causing my life to be filled with frustration, irrepressible anguish, and misery.” You and I, when we confess our sins are members of the clean slate club. Now this is a club I want to be and remain a member of.

A friend of mine and I have been digging into some new areas of life together. In doing so what I have discovered is when you let someone else into your shame, your history, your ornaments on the back of your tree that you think no one can see, it eradicates the lies that are lingering in the shadows. It sheds light on what was dark; it removes shame from what felt so daunting; it truly brings bliss in a way only authenticity and integrity can. The Lord has been showing me how individualism and isolation have been like termites hindering us from the abundant life found when intimacy and community connect.

Friends we are members of the “clean slate club” our sins are forgiven by God and when we share our stuff with others it takes the residue out of the shadows and it is swept away when someone else knows what we wanted no one else to know. Then intimacy becomes accountability not to avoid sin, but to live the abundant life together. The freedom is palatable, the laughter is audible and the coconut milk ice cream is delightful. Intimacy and community is the proximity that is enjoyed in the “clean slate club!”

It’s Time To Feast

Published on by lisagreatenebeliLeave a comment

Famine is giving way to feasting at such a fast pace we don’t have time to analyze it, we are being invited to embrace it and let it wrap itself around us like a heated blanket on a cold and rainy morning. Famines in the word of God were seasonal not eternal. The longer the famine the harder it was to transition into the feasting. Yahweh set up a cycle of feasts that His people would attend throughout different times of the year to remind them famines are seasonal and feasts are continual. The three main feasts of God are Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, but there are other feasts they celebrated as well.

Every nation has a cycle of feasts that break the famines in our nations. For America we have Easter, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know there are many more but those are the big four. In Malaysia they have many feasts because they had three main religions in the country. We had Merdeka Day, Chinese New Year, Deepavali. It was a time of feasting and it broke any famine off of the people. Feasting and famine are experiences we all have had. The famine or lean times are not fun but they are endurable, they are educational if you can hear what the famine is saying.

Feasting is the norm in the kingdom culture. When we live in submission, in obedience to, in honor of the God who is abundance we find ourselves in a feast everyday for His word and His presence never run out. Psalm 31:8 says “You have kept me from being conquered by my enemy; you broke open the way to bring me to freedom, into a beautiful, broad place.” (TPT) As I prayed this the Lord glanced at me and said, “This is what I do! This is who I Am!” Friends, we have been pressed but not conquered by the enemy; we have been given a way to freedom and now we are entering into beautiful broad places. Grab His hand, He has so much He wants to show us and so many places He wants to take us. The feast is upon us!!!!