Month: March 2024

Walking by the Spirit is hard not because God is hard to walk with, but because we don’t like to follow blindly. Our insatiable need to know before we go, hinders so many of us of walking by faith. In Genesis 12 it says, Abraham set out to a land he did not know, all because God said go. He had no idea where he was going, he did not have a GPS, he did not have a clever marking plan, he did not have a 401K, he did not have anything other than his faith in the voice of God that said, go to a land I will show you.

We have become so calculated in our walk with God that if we do not know where we are going, what He is calling us to do, how much we are going to make, where we are going to live, we don’t step out by faith and just start walking. And we say we are on “fire” for God. Friends, I was reading Proverbs 20 this morning and it says, “Man’s steps are ordained by the LORD, How then can man understand his way?” We don’t know as much as we think we know. But we are so afraid of not knowing, we sit in comfort, rather than walk in the spirit and call it faith, call ourselves believers.

Can I tell you a secret? Walking by faith is hard work, really hard work, because you don’t get to know as much as you want. The security is in the invisible not the visible, the unpredictable not the predictable, the unknown not the known. There are no goals, five year plans, clever marketing strategy when you are walking by faith. It is hard because most people, 90% or more are not walking by faith, so when you are it is literally going against the grain of Christianity as we know it today.

I am proud of you who are walking by faith, I know how hard it is, I know the attacks you are going through, I know the grains you are going against. But can I remind you, He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek HIm and the reward is Him. We know this, so keep walking friend, keep trusting, keep believing, don’t shrink back, many will follow, more than you can see right now. God is honored to call you friend, for you not just say you trust Him you show Him you do. Thank you for walking by faith, it encourages me to keep walking too.

Sitting at the glass round table in a cabin in the Blue Ridge mountains, in a little place called the Meadows of Dan, VA after a historic day in my life while visiting with my mentor, who is a 90 year old prophet. The Holy Spirit prompted me to research where I am sitting. Yesterday I went to the Dan River and salted it according to 2 Kings 2, not realizing this was the headwaters of the Dan River in VA. This alone made me smile as the Lord told me to declare “Let justice roll down like the rivers.” How appropriate since the tribe of Dan is a tribe of judges and are known for justice. What I didn’t know was the history of the very location I was standing on when I salted this river.

Cockram Mill was built in 1885 and is the very place I was standing when I salted the headwaters of the Dan River. I had no idea. As I continued to research I learned this is the same location where an English Colonist named William Byrd stood and I learned, “Byrd was so taken with the beauty of the land, that he prophesied a future settlement in the vicinity, where people would live ‘with much comfort and gaiety of Heart.’ He named the river along which they camped as the ‘Dan’, for Byrd felt he had wandered ‘From Dan to Beersheba.”’ When I read this my heart smiled, for I knew by the spirit this river was connected to justice and the tribe of Dan, but now it is confirmed in the natural. Our forefathers, had an intimate understanding of America’s connection to Israel and I believe God is restoring that in our day.

The Lord told me the Meadows of Dan, the location where I am is the Garden of Justice, then sends me to salt the Dan river and declare, “Let justice roll down like the rivers.” But there is one more piece to this puzzle. This location is on the “Crooked Road” which celebrates the musical heritage of Virginia. This peaked my interest as I live in Nashville, TN which is famously called Music City. I see this coming together but it is not clear until I read Amos 5:23-24 “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Standing at the headwaters of the Dan river in the Meadows of Dan, with salt and a shofar declaring “Let justice roll down like the rivers”, and not knowing all the history of where my feet are standing, but God did.

Friends, God is releasing justice and righteousness upon us for our liberty from so many bondages we did not even realize we were in. He is sending us to places with history in order to speak again the prophetic words that were released there long before we got there. No man can boast, for we are carrying the words, the decrees, the sounds that those who went before us sent forth to heaven. Listen carefully where you find your feet, for others walked that land before you and if you can hear it, the Lord will have you pick up their sound and carry it along into your generation. From Israel to America, the sound of justice is rolling down like waters again!!!!

Confession of faith or actually a conversion to the faith? What a huge question for a Sunday morning. Today is St. Patrick’s Day. We in the United States celebrate it with parades, shamrocks and wearing green. The reason being is because St. Patrick is said to be the apostle of Ireland who brought Christianity to the country. What a powerful statement to be remembered for and what a joy to live in a country that still celebrates the spreading of the gospel, albeit with drinking green beer today as another way of celebrating.

As I was reading about this man today, I learned he went to Ireland originally at the age of 16 as a captive/slave and stayed there for 6 years being a herdman. Once he was released he returned to his home, became a cleric in the Catholic Church and then went as a missionary back to Ireland after a vision he had in which he heard “the voice of Ireland” calling for him to come and walk among them. He went to Ireland and it is said about him, “Patrick was the first bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, and is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, converting a pagan society in the process.”

When I read about the conversion of a nation, I began to ask the question of us as believers, missionaries, people of God. Have we truly be converted to a faith or did we just make a confession of a faith? To be converted is to Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Or did we just Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Many people have said a prayer, that is a confession, but of those who have made a confession, how many have truly had a conversion? On this St. Patricks Day, we are reminded that confession and conversion are not synonymous. Nations were converted at the preaching of the gospel, and we are in need of those who will be converted, so nations can go from death to life again and it starts with me being converted not just confessing. This is what St. Patrick’s message was, conversion that changes culture.

The Word of God has ironies that if you slow down long enough to consider them, speak great amounts of wisdom to us. What is ironic to me is how the “richest man to ever live; Solomon” is the one who writes proverbs like this…

Proverbs 15:17 “Better is a dish of vegetables where love is; Than a fattened ox served with hatred.”

Proverbs 16:8 “Better is a little with righteousness; Than great income with injustice.”

The irony for me is that this man had what most people are pursuing, wealth, abudance, a title, children, women, he had it all and yet he writes Proverbs that speak to us from the apex of what we are pursuing. Here is the man who has more than enough of everything and he says, having less is better than having more, because with more money comes more problems.

Before my husband and I got engaged, we were sitting on my patio on the 14th floor in Malaysia and he said to me, “If it is you and me and a bowl of rice, is that enough for you?” Without hesitatation I said, “If it is me and you, that is enough for me.” I feel like the Lord is asking us the same question, “If it is Me (Yahweh) and you (fill in your name), is that enough for you?” Only you know the answer of your heart to this question, but the apostle Paul said he was content in every situation, whether in plenty or in lack, because he had met the Lord on the road to Damascus and once you have seen Him, nothing else matters.

I pray we have a great awakening of seeing Lord high and lifted up and the train of His robe filling the temple (Isaiah 6), because we have seen and heard enough of all the other things. It is no wonder we are pursuing the seen, because we have not seen the unseen. But there is a great awakening coming upon us and our eyes are going to see the King of Glory and when we do, we will say, “If it is You and me, that is more than enough for me.”

“Before honor comes humility.” (Proverbs 15:33)

How often do we read our bible and assume we know what something means or is saying? I would propose very often. We have presets inside of us that make more assumptions than we care to admit about the word of God, about people, about books we are reading, you name it, we think we know more than we really do. We are all guilty of this assumption issue when it comes to words we read or hear.

I was reading Proverbs 15 this morning and when I read “Before honor come humility”, I read it as a before someone is honored they must be humbled. I heard myself say it as I was reading it, then the Holy Spirit said, “what does humility mean?” I knew if God was asking the question I did not know the answer, so I looked up humility in the Hebrew and what I found was not what I was thinking it meant. Humility in Hebrew is gentleness, meekness, mildness. I was stunned, I thought it meant to be teachable, to be second, to put yourself last, to not think you know it all. Nope, not here, humility is about being gentle, kind, mild. Wow.

Most of us are battle worn, weather torn, emotionally and physically exhausted as life, relationships, finances, are just plain hard work. So we hear “Before honor (abundance, riches, dignity, reputation) comes humility (gentleness, mildness, meekness)” and we can wonder how will we ever measure up. But today, the Lord showed me the reason humility precedes honor is because when we are honored by God and others we must treat people with kindness, we must be gentle with them, for they are already battle worn and weather torn. I love how the word of God is so practical and life speaking. God is softening us so He can honor us. Don’t resist the softening, it is so you can access honor.

I was on a prayer call very early this morning and during our time of prayer I had a vision of a line of Intercessors with sickles in their hands walking the bushes and brush that was blocking the aisle to the altar. I immediately heard the word “bushwhackers.” Being from Kansas City I knew what Jayhawkers are, but had not studies Bushwackers. I came to learn they were an irregular military force that operated during the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War. Yesterday we toured a historic home and were privy to a private tour with a military historian as our guide who told us all about the Civil War and its battles here in Franklin, TN.

Putting these two puzzle pieces together this morning was easy as they happened less than 24 hours apart. What I see in the spirit is Intercessors taking on a military stance in the spirit to whack the bushes that are blocking the aisle to the altar. The aisle is overgrown with bushes and we are being invited to grab our sickles and whack the bushes, the lies, the strongholds, the powers and principalities that are hindering people from accessing the altar of God. Some are coming to repent, others are coming to commune. But many are being hindered because of the thistles, thorns and bushes that are in the way of the altar and have hindered the ability for people to see the aisle that leads to the altar.

2 Corinthians 10 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” Intercessors arise, grab your sickle and whack the bushes so a path is cleared for those how are trying to find the altar of God so they can receive help in their time of need. It is time we become bushwackers in the spirit.

Do you realize it takes no skill to tear down, to destroy, to demolish? Think about it, whenever there is a riot in a city, people who have never built anything are the ones who are destroying, looting and jumping on things. Builders do not destroy things, builders build things. Anyone can be a destroyer, it takes no effort, no strategy, no strength of character, no discipline to destroy. It is easy to destroy what you have not put any effort into building. If you have invested in your family, your friendships, your city, your community, your church, it does not even cross your mind to destroy it, for you are helping build it.

I am reading the book of Ezra right now and it is all about the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The city was destroyed by enemy invaders who had invested nothing in building the city, so had no issue destroying it. But now Ezra, Zerubbabel, Joshua and the Jews were in the process of rebuilding the city. In Ezra 5 it says, “When the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them, then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them supporting them.” The prophets were builders not destroyers of the city, the prophets supported the rebuilding of the city.

When I read this I realized prophets are supposed to be building supporters, not nation destroyers. People who claim to be prophesying what God is saying but are declaring the destruction of our nation, are out of season. We are not in a season of destruction we are in a season of rebuilding. God is raising up voices that are builders of people, because cities, churches, communities, families, they are all different names for people. 1 Corinthians 14 says, prophets are builders, edifiers, exhorters, and encouragers and we all are called to prophesy, which means we are all called to build. Friends, we are in a rebuilding stage, not a destroying stage of families, communities and nations. Grab your hammer, we’ve got work to do.

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and then when you lay back down you cannot fall back to sleep? Does it irritate you that you can’t get comfortable or fall back asleep and therefore, the irritatation just keeps you awake even longer? Do your thoughts go from this to that and that to this while you lay there trying to fall back asleep? Well that is what happened to me last night. Now this is rare for me, but for some reason I sensed the enemy was playing games with me and my mind would not shut off.

I think this is more common than I probably realize for people on a nightly basis. The enemy loves to mess with our sleep for sleep is a weapon of our warfare; rest is a gift from our Father in heaven; and our body resets while we sleep. If this is disturbed for whatever reason, we do not operate by design and it manifests in many areas of our lives. The challenge is the longer we go without sleep, we start to get in a pattern of tolerating this pattern and these thoughts won’t leave us alone, then we accommodate them and don’t realize it. All along knowing the Bible says, “It is in vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, and to eat the bread of hard toil, for He gives sleep to His beloved” (Psalm 127:1).

Last night, while this was happening to me around 3am, I saw a sign in the spirit and heard a loud voice, both saying “STOP!” It was not my voice saying it, it was the voice of an angel declaring “STOP” and as soon as it did, silence happened in my head, my body relaxed and almost immediately I feel asleep and did not wake up until almost 7:30am, which is late for me. One word from heaven silenced all the attacks the enemy was launching at that hour. Friends, you need to sleep, you need rest, it is a weapon of war and I hear in the spirit the Lord saying, “STOP!” Not to you, to the enemy that is against you. It is time for God’s people whom He loves to get the sleep they need for the battle belongs to the Lord. I decree to the enemy “STOP!”

When I lived in Malaysia, my husband and I planted multiple churches and put local pastors over each church to lead it. We knew the best leader of a church was a local pastor for they knew the culture and the people. But we ourselves led a local church as well called The Ambassador’s International Church. Our church had both locals and ex-pats, people living in Malaysia for work. It was a beautiful tapestry of color and cultures because truly the nations were in that room every week as we worshipped and prayed together. I will never forget those days, I was too immature to appreciate what God had given me, but as I reflect on them my gratitude is overwhelming.

I share that with you, because for over a week now the Lord has been having me meditate on Psalm 23. A friend of mine, Sarah even bought me a stone that is quarried from the mountains east of the ancient city Ephesus and it has Psalm 23 etched on it. The Lord was speaking to me this morning about why goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life and it is not so we can experience it and walk away from the Lord, but so we can become dwellers in God’s house. “Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Many people believe we will go through suffering, but I believe we already are suffering; others believe things are getting darker, but I believe we have experienced the pinnacle of darkness already; most have been taught we don’t want to be left behind, but I believe we are supposed to be left behind; and most are pursuing goodness and mercy, prosperity and increase, but I believe if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness all these things we desire will be given to us. So, today, as I meditate on Psalm 23, I believe we are about to find goodness and mercy right on our heels and it is going to cause us to become dwellers in the house of the Lord, not ones who flee His presence and His people.

Past moves of God have focused on one thing, one message, one leader, and with it came an unbalanced view of scripture, an unhealthy focus on a man or woman and a lazy approach to preaching. What we lacked in the past moves of God was the whole counsel of God. The five fold ministry gifts were given so we would see a multifaceted dimension of truth that would liberate us, mature us and invite us into intimacy that develops our identity as sons and daughters of God.

The unraveling, the disentangling from history, doctrines of men and abuses of power has been going on for some time, but the acceleration of this has seemed to increase as of recent. We cannot control anyone but ourselves, so to point fingers, blame or in any way rub people’s nose in their error reveals more about us than it does about them. Their sin is on display, but we are not to cast stones at them but to guard our hearts from deception in the future. Repent of our idolatry of man. Return to our first love who is Jesus. And say in our prayers, search me Oh God and see if there be any wicked way within me.

The Lord is going to untether His people from the doctrines of men which have hindered our enterance into the kingdom life He paid the price for. He is going to take us past elementary teachings; He is going to open up revelation in His word we have never seen before; and we are going to realize what the Psalmist said in Psalm 139 “If I say, Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night, Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.” We are going to lose our fear and be baptized a new in faith, hope and love where we will see and hear the greatest of these is love. Real love, God’s love is about to kiss us in a way that sets us free from all that has entangled us. I see people coming to help us remove our grave clothes.