Month: September 2024

The Hebrew New Year begins this week on Wednesday with their Head of the Year called Rosh Hashannah. As Westerners we start our New Year in January, but theirs begins with many high holy holidays including Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles. These days are significant in history as trumpets make announcements; atonement is a reminder of the power of the blood of Jesus and Tabernacles is a reminder that God is dwelling among us. As this New Year is about to begin and they call it 5785, we are entering into a new season. What will this season hold, many will be sharing their thoughts, their prophetic words and their ideas, but only God knows what He has in store for the nations.

One thing I was sensing in the spirit this morning as I was walking is related to one song and one word. The song I keep hearing in my spirit is Josh Baldwin’s song Made For More. The line I can’t escape is, “I wasn’t made to be tending a grave, I was born and raised back to life again, I was made for more!” It feels like a trumpet going off in my spirit that the days of tending graves are over for we were made for more.

Then this morning Lana Vawser wrote a blog about recompense and she made a statement about prophesying to the dry bones again. I sense we are to not tend a grave but to prophesy to dry bones. Ezekiel 37 is about a graveyard, but the prophet does not go into the graveyard to tend a grave, he went in to prophesy to dry bones. This is a massive shift we must make.

As we enter this New Year with the Hebrew people into 5785, I am announcing we are no longer tending graves, we are prophesying to dry bones and telling them with our voice as a trumpet to come alive, for we were made for more. We have been forgiven of our sins, so we can dwell with Christ and remember Christ is in You. This is a not by power, not by might but by My spirit says the Lord move we are in. If you are in a graveyard of any kind, stop serving the dead and prophesy to them, COME ALIVE and watch dry bones begin to rattle.

There are many layers of seeing. What we see is not the only layer of seeing available. Just as there are many layers of hearing and what we hear is not the only layer available. Most miscommunication between us is because we are not hearing on the layer the person is speaking. But once we are on the same “playing field” we can hear the same and see the same way. This takes time to listen, time to consider what someone else is seeing and time to be patient for someone may see or hear something we don’t, because they are looking at it from a different layer than we are.

1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” This describes the natural layer many people hear and see from and the spiritual layer. One is not superior to the other in the sense of heirarchy, control or domination, but they are two different layers of seeing and hearing.

In the natural we are seeing and hearing of bridges collapsing, roads being flooded, people being stranded in mountain regions, food supply being limited, interstates being closed and cities being cut off from cellular and internet service. We see trees that have fallen, water levels that have risen and cars and houses that are submerged in water. We have heard there are at least 50 casualties and in the natural it is challenging, heartbreaking and in some ways devastating.

In the spirit there is another narrative being declared. Psalm 29 says, “The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters. The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.” What is the voice of the Lord saying? I heard the Lord says, “this hurricane came to cleanse the atmosphere.” A friend arrived from Houston last night and she said, “The Lord told me this rain is cleansing the atmosphere.” For me that was an echo.

It may be hard to hear the voice of the Lord when you are seeing all the images on the news, but this deluge happening the week of Rosh Hashannah, the Hebrew New Year 5785 is not coincidental. The cities being highlighted on the news are not coincidental. God is cleansing the atmosphere and a little research on the cities being named will reveal hidden truths about the spiritual cleansing that is happening in this flood of 2024, much like as in the days of Noah. We on this side of the Mississippi are being cleansed for a mighty move of God that will bless a nation.

One of the challenges of being a lover of truth is that not everyone wants to know the truth. The other challenge is when you speak the truth, people resist it not because it is not truth, but because they are more locked into lies than they realize. Truth stands the test of time, so you do not need to argue with people who do not believe the truth you are speaking, just speak the truth and leave it, for if it is truth it will work on them and they will come to know it as truth, whether they ever give you credit for speaking it to them or not. 

During our Bible study yesterday morning, an 18 year old girl told us her generation is hungry for truth. They are truth seekers. Then a 50 year old mom told us about her son who is speaking at a conference this week on sales and marketing, but the number one question he gets from the attendees who seek him out is, how do you hear the voice of God. She said, he is shocked that they are not asking him how to scale their business, but how to hear the voice of God. 

There is a hunger in people to know the truth, to know the voice of God and it is not church people asking these questions, but all kinds of other people. I was praying Psalm 27 this morning and it says, “Yahweh is my revelation-light and the source of my salvation. I fear no one!” While praying this verse, the Holy Spirit said, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it.” Holy Spirit continued by saying, “The darkness in people cannot comprehend the revelation light of truth they are hearing, so they resist it, because they cannot comprehend it.” 

Truth is light, it shines into our darkness, so we can be light beings. Light bearers carrying revelation truth are speaking out in so many different places and those who don’t know much about the Bible are receiving the revelation truth, but those who think they know so much about the Bible are actually rejecting the truth that will set them free. Light always triumphs over darkness. Welcome to the great awakening.

Have you ever wondered why people in church are more hard hearted than people in the world? Think about it for a minute. When you were an unbeliever, you did not believe in Jesus, you were hurt and angry, but you were not hard hearted toward God. Most unbelievers are not anti-God they just don’t know who He is, but when they hear the truth about Him they melt in His presence. How else did we get saved? But then in church you have people who are divided over theologies of men, colors of carpets, and in the days of Jesus whether or not you could heal on the Sabbath. If you really think about this, it is crazy how hard-hearted believers are.

Mark 3 speaks about Jesus in the synagogue and this is what it says, “Then looking around at everyone, Jesus was moved with indignation and grieved by the hardness of their hearts and said to the man, “Now stretch out your hand!” As he stretched out his hand, it was instantly healed! After this happened, the Pharisees left abruptly and began to plot together with the friends and supporters of Herod Antipas on how they would kill Jesus.” Stop for just a minute, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the synagogue, sought to kill Jesus because He healed a man in the synagogue on the Sabbath. We find that absurd but we can’t forgive someone in the pew next to us, let alone be friends with the people in the church across the street because they speak in tongues.

Friends, if Jesus showed up in our church today, we would see how religious we really are. Paul said, if you have not love you are nothing and I am concerned we are closer to nothing than we are to someone and it is a stench in the nostrils of God. We need a revival, not of the unbelievers, but of people who have said a prayer, but still don’t know how to love their neighbor, their spouse, their children, their friends, their family. We need a revival in the church because we need to learn to love God and love people. Let it not be said of us, that we are more like the Pharisees than the sinners and tax collectors who loved dining with Jesus.

People that pursue God remain humble (teachable) because when you pursue God, you see God, you hear God, you get to know God and you realize there is no end to learning things about God. This is why humility is the fruit of someone who truly is seeking God. Humility is not abasement, it is not thinking low of yourself, it is being teachable, it is not thinking you know so much, it is confidence in God, not in what you know or think you know. Humility is being teachable and consistently pursuing God.

People who are proud, who are religious, who think they are scholars in the things of God, stop learning once they master what they believe about God. Jesus ran into religion consistently and in Mark 2 it says, “When the religious scholars and the Pharisees found out that Jesus was keeping company and dining with sinners and tax collectors, they were indignant. So they approached Jesus’ disciples and said to them, ‘Why is it that someone like Jesus defiles himself by eating with sinners and tax collectors?’ But when Jesus overheard their complaint, he said to them, ‘Who goes to the doctor for a cure? Those who are well or those who are sick? I have not come to call the ‘righteous,’ but those who are sinners and bring them to repentance.”’ Jesus did not speak like this to the crowds He was teaching but to the religious leaders and scholars who were clueless about what He was doing.

I lingered over these verses today as the Holy Spirit revealed to me how repentance was teaching people about the kingdom of God so they could change the way they think about God and His kingdom. The crowds/sinner were “ignorant” in the eyes of the religious leaders, but they were teachable and open to the words of Jesus. The crowds want to know the truth that will set them free, the same was true then and the same is true now. The enemies of the gospel of the kingdom are not the crowds, the sinners, it is the religious who think they know too much.

There are so many things people ask other people to pray for. Healing, prosperity, family, marriage, children, company, church, you name the issue the request has been asked by us and to us. Praying for others is a joy, because when the answer comes God winks at you and you smile as you listen to the testimony of what God did for someone else. The cycle of blessing that comes from praying for people is a joy that is hard to describe it must be experienced.

One of the prayers that many have prayed for our nation is that people would wake up. We as a nation have a history of awakening, revival, healing, deliverance and salvation. We have seen stadiums filled, streets filled, churches filled with people who are hungry to worship, pray and know the word of God. Our history is rich with the desire for God and those seeds are still in the soil of this nation; still in the hearts of people all around you, despite what you see and hear on the news and social media.

I was praying Psalm 24 this morning and the Passion Translation speaks in such a way that it stops me in my reading to enjoy the presence of God. Listen to verse 7 “Wake up, you living gateways! Lift up your heads, you doorways of eternity! Welcome the King of Glory, for he is about to come through you.”

A nation is about to awaken and when it does God is about to come through her in a way that will even shock her. Friends, if you have never experienced God coming through you, it is an experience of the likes nothing can compare. John 4 says, “Rivers of living water will flow from your belly.” God coming through you is because God is in you. He is about to open doors in your belly that is going to water the nations and you will be in awe of what God does through you. You are the living gateway and the King of Glory is about to come through you, because He is living in you.

E-motions are energy in motion. No matter what e-motion you are feeling it is a positive or negative energy in motion. If you are angry, anxious, fearful, lonely, happy, surprised, in love, no matter the e-motion you may experience today, remember it is energy in motion. Now the question is what energy are you releasing into the atmosphere in which you reside? The reason I ask is because our emotions are affecting our atmosphere and the atmosphere of those around us.

Now we all have positive and negative e-motions that affect atmospheres. Nationally we have e-motions and it lingers over our heads and then we wonder what is happening in the atmosphere. Some have even said, there is something in the atmosphere. Not everything you feel is from you or because of you, it can be atmospheric.

Now, the question is how are we not affected by the negative e-motions launched into the atmosphere? Thank God for David who penned Psalm 23 and who Brian Simmons articulated with such poetic truth is causes our hearts to smile. “Fear will never conquer me, for you already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near. So why would I fear the future?
Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life.”

Friends look behind you, what is following you will comfort you, just as the atmosphere is seeking to tell you the future is something to fear. Friends we have been conquered by love, with goodness and mercy following us. We are truly surrounded, now that is an e-motion, that will shift atmospheres. Love of God for us is the most powerful e-motion the nations will ever know.

Only those who are truly powerful do they want to render powerless. If you had no authority, no power, no ability to overthrow them, then why would they even bother trying to deceive you; intimidate you; confuse you; control you? Insecure, fearful people always seek to minimize the powerful in order for them to feel powerful. But truth is a trumpet that sounds an alarm that wakes up those who have been given authority to overcome the darkness with light, and the lies with truth.

The feast of trumpets is happening in the beginning of October and it begins the high holy month for the Hebrew people with Rosh Hashannah, the head of the year; the Feast of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. The month of October 2024 is going to announce the message of being an overcomer and will break the spell of sorcery off of the nations. As the trumpet sounds, it is going to announce the kingdom of God is at hand. The enemy is already anticipating this announcement and is taking cover, for the days of darknesses rule is ending and the day or righteousness ruling is beginning in October.

1 John 5 says, “You see, every child of God overcomes the world, for our faith is the victorious power that triumphs over the world. So who are the world conquerors, defeating its power? Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Faith in Jesus Christ is a power that cannot be overcome. Faith is rising in people’s hearts as God has prepared people for this hour in history in secret and when God goes public, there will be no stopping the rush of righteousness coming into nations around the world. Babylon is falling (Revelation 18); the kingdom of God is rising (Daniel 2); and which kingdom you are aligned with is your choice, but one is coming down and one is rising up. Remember, we still are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.

You know you are standing at a gate when the intimidator is taunting you because you are so close to obtaining access. We are at the gate of abundance, how do we know, for the spirit of intimidation is screaming at many people right now. If we were not at the gate we would not hear this taunting, tormenting, troubling voice of intimidation trying to get us to back off, to quit, to go back to where we came from. But not this time, we have been at this gate before individually, nationally and internationally. Today is a new day, there is courage in the people at the gate, they know this enemy they are not backing off.

In the days of Nehemiah, Sanballat and Tobiah did not arise until Israel began to rebuild the walls; in the days of Elijah, Jezebel did not rant and rave until the altar of God was rebuilt and the people returned to the Lord; in the days of Moses, Pharoh was not concerned until the people started believing the signs God sent through the plagues upon Egypt; in the days of Jesus, the gates of hell were not worried until Peter was given the keys of the kingdom to bind, loose, open and close. Friends, you know you are at a gate when you hear the voice of the intimidator trying to get you to back up.

Money is an intimidator, small amounts taunt you by saying, “Look at how little you have, you are not going to make it, you are broke, you are going under.” Large amounts of money intimidate you by saying, “You can’t afford me, you will never access me, you will use me for the wrong reasons, you will destroy yourself if you gain me.” Money is an intimidator and it starts screaming its taunts when you are at the gate.

The truth is, greater is He that is in you than money, than Sanballat, than Tobiah, than Jezebel, than Pharoh, than the gates of hell. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit; the King of glory lives inside of you; you abide in Christ and Christ abides in you. And Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:6-7 “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” You have nothing to be intimidated about, you are at the gate and this time you are going in, no turning back at the gate, it is time to access abundance.

If we are more used to oppressive leadership than we are benevolent leadership, we will be suspicious of any good news. The challenge is, when we are suspicious, we miss the gift that is being sent to us from heaven. The Pharisees did not see Jesus for who He was, because He came as a different kind of leader. The people and the leaders were used to oppression, so when benevolence showed up, they did not know what to do. They longed for it to be true, but their actions revealed they had a hard time believing Him to be as good as He said He was. They were not afraid to eat the bread and fish he provided or listen to him teach for hours, but follow Him with their whole life, that was not something they were prepared to do, for He seemed too good to be true.

Our history and current reality is oppressive, so when we hear good news we tend to resist it rather than receive it. Not because we don’t want it, but we don’t believe it will last. Reality has trumped faith in our ability to believe what the Bible says is happening. We find verses to match our judgmental, oppressive, nothing is going to change, everything is getting worst end times theology and then wonder why believers are miserable, broke, sick and angry. Last time I checked the Bible is called the gospel which means good news. Not sure how we lost the ability to preach, prophesy and teach good news, but I threw myself overboard off of that ship a long time ago and I will not get back on board there ever again.

John 16:33 says, In this world you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world. The world is hard, it is challenging, we live in the world but are called to not be of the world. Therefore, I remind myself I am the light shining in the darkness and the darkness cannot over the light in me. And when things get hard, I remember what David said in Psalm 20 “May Yahweh give you every desire of your heart and carry out your every plan as you go to battle. When you succeed, we will celebrate and shout for joy. Flags will fly when victory is yours! Yes, God will answer your prayers, and we will praise him!” I don’t know about you, but that is some good news and it is not too good to be true, it is the truth and I am declaring it today for me and for you. He is truly that good, that benevolent, that kind, and that powerful.