Month: December 2024

On this final day of 2024, the year of the open door, I woke up hearing the Lord say, “On this last day of the year, there are some doors that need to be closed.” I jumped out of bed and began writing what I was hearing the Lord saying, the excitement about the doors He wants to shut is equally as exciting as the doors He said at the beginning of the year He wanted to open. My first sense was to think of Noah and how God shut the door behind him when he and his family were in the ark. God is about to shut some doors in our lives and He wants us to partner with Him in doing it on this last day of 2024.

One door we need to shut is death’s door. I was praying for a friend who has cancer, the other day, and the Lord told me to shut the door to death in her life. That is exactly what I did. I shut death’s door, that is not a door she will walk through as she goes though this cancer journey. Our decree is from Psalm 118:17-18 “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.” We shut the door of death with a decree we shall live and not die!

Another door we need to shut is the debt’s door. We shut the door of debt by declaring Matthew 6:12 “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” We must not go into the new year with any debts of unforgiveness in our lives. The debt door must be shut, declaring no man owes me anything, I have forgiven everyone of everything. Sin is a debt we keep a hold of and the Lord is wanting us to shut debt’s door on this last day of 2024.

A third door we need to shut is destruction’s door. We shut this door by declaring Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” We must shut the door to destructive speech, our words are powerful and we must close this door.

The side door to destruction’s door is the door of anger. This door must be shut and shut immediately. We shut this door by declaring Ephesians 4:26-27 “Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” We have to shut the door to anger as it is not our friend, it is an opportunity for the devil to come in and wreak havoc on our relationships. This door needs to be shut today.

Friends, as we leave the year of the open door, 2024, we need to shut some doors. These doors have not done anything to bless our lives and God has things planned for us in the coming year that our beyond all we can ask, think or imagine, so shut some doors as you leave the year of the open door, and then tomorrow we will walk into a New Year free from those doors that sought to hold us back not propel us forward.

When we stand in line for something, we are waiting for a specific reason. We are waiting for a show to start; we are waiting to buy something we found we want, need or just like. We wait at the doctors office to be seen. We wait for the traffic light to turn green or the car in front of us to turn left. When we wait it is for something specific, we are wanting to see, hear or obtain. What are you waiting for? What specific reason is behind your waiting?

Psalm 130 says, “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.”

The watchmen in scripture are usually waiting to see an incoming enemy in order to warn the leaders of the city. This is the most common use of watchmen in scripture, so when I read this today, it caused me to pause, for these watchmen were waiting for, watching for the morning. They were waiting for the new day to break, the first sign of a new day, a new moon, a new season. At the time of Jesus birth, the wise men were waiting for the star in the East to announce the birth of the new born king. Waiting, watching, but for what?

Friends, waiting is hard, but when you know what you are waiting for, it makes the waiting worth the wait. We are all called to be watchmen, but what is God asking you to watch for, to wait for? Do you know specifically what you are waiting for? The father in the story in John 15 was waiting, watching for the return of his son back home. Once he saw his son coming his way, he took off running.

Many have been waiting, watching and the Lord is putting it in many people’s hearts to get ready for we are about to see, hear and experience what we have been waiting for, watching for. When you see us take of running, it is because what we have been waiting for has come into sight, been heard in a sound. We know what we are looking for, what we are waiting for, you may not, but we do and when we see it, we will take off running. What are you specifically waiting for, watching for? Will you know it when you see it? I hope so, because when I see you take off running, I will know you have seen or heard what you have been waiting for and you will know the same about me.

Identifying wickedness in its many forms is easy. People in the church and the prophetic point it out to us daily. I just received a prophetic word from Australia telling me how America is doomed due to her wickedness. If identifying wickedness changed anything we would be the most transformed people in the world. Christians are great at identifying wickedness, because for them to get saved they had to admit they were wicked, then say a prayer, come down to an altar and live happily every after. Is this where we learned to be experts in wickedness and how evil nations, people and cities are?

Every time the Bible speaks about wickedness it is not to state the obvious, it is to identity the solution. Proverbs is filled with a contrast as to what wickedness looks like and what righteousness looks like. The demarcation is there so we can know where we are and repent or continue to build. Our identity in Christ is declared as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Yet many believe they are dirty rotten sinners. Who you believe you are is what you will speak about others and places around you.

Reading Psalm 129 this morning it says, “The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.” Immediately the Holy Spirit says, righteousness is what what cuts the cords of wickedness. Cords are strings and when I read that, I saw the wicked as puppets with strings being cut so they can no longer perform their wicked acts that are harming themselves and others. Friends, no one is born wicked, they are programmed that way and God, who is righteous is cutting the strings of their wickedness.

Hollywood is having its wicked strings cut and actors are getting baptized in water, ordained into the ministry, preaching about Jesus Christ. Can you see the strings of wickedness being cut by the righteous God? I can and I rejoice. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, so instead of talking about all the wickedness we see and hear, what if we cut the strings of wickedness off of people, industries and nations? I got my scissors of the spirit and I am cutting their strings, for righteousness is exalting the nation.

Whenever a story is happening it is very challenging to see what God is doing. But once a story has been written, the signature of God is clearly visible. We live out our story everyday and the day to day can give the impression nothing is happening, no significant story is being written. But just like looking at one frame of a movie strip, what is going to be displayed is not the one frame, not the one moment of the story. The big picture, the whole narrative and when it is seen, when it is heard, will make sense to the moments that seemed insignificant at that time.

In 1 Samuel 22 there is a blip on the timeline of David’s story that taken just in these two verses makes little sense, “David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.” Here is a man who was anointed as the next king of Israel, in a cave and 400 men who are in distress, debt and bitterness of soul gather to him. This is not highlight reel material at the moment.

The joy of this moment in David’s life is that it is just a moment. A king in a cave took the men God gathered to him and made them into an elite company of warriors. In the moment of their arrival, it did not make sense for it was only one frame of a whole script. But once the movie played on the big screen, this moment carried great significance.

I do not know what frame you are seeing in your story today, but know that God has given you His Holy Spirit and you are only in a frame, which may not make sense right now, but when the movie plays it will make total sense. Whether you are David, an anointed one, who has been placed among distressed, in debt, bitter ones or you are one of the ones who has been placed with David. Fear not, it is only a frame in a whole storyline.

God has gathered people together in a frame for He is writing a story for the whole world to hear and you are in the story. Your frame may not make sense right now, but the story is going to be epic and the producer, God, knows what role you are playing even if you can’t see its significance as of yet.

We talk a lot in the church about saving the lost, seeking out what has been lost, we even celebrate the prodigal son and his return. All of which are needed and necessary but there is one other group the Lord is going after and we will add to our pursuit of in this coming year and that is those who have been cast away.

The cast aways are not always talked about or even remembered, but there they are cast out into depression, isolation, loneliness due to reasons most of us have no understanding of. Going after a cast away is a task not for the faint of heart, for they have been cast away so are not easily brought back into fellowship.

The pain of being cast away is a pain that is hard to describe but is of the likes of abandonment. The cast away learns self-preservation to the point of looking like they have not been cast off in order to survive alone in the world while others are celebrating connection.

Ecclessiastes 3 speaks of the cast away saying, “God seeks what has been driven away.” Reading this today, the Holy Spirit said, I am sending people to pursue those who have been cast away, driven away. God is seeking out and sending people to pursue those who have been cast away.

The challenge for the one who has been cast away is that God is using people to come find you and to bring you back, but it is people who have cast you away, driven you away. Isolation has not been helpful to you, but the sight of someone coming for you is not desired either, for the ones who hurt you were people too.

To the cast aways, to the ones who have been driven away, God is sending people to come for you, do not push them away. They are coming to bring you back with them to do life again. You were never meant to do life alone, forgive those who drove you away, because there are coming for you those who won’t cast you away, drive you away or send you away, they are coming to knit you in with them and others. God is coming for those who have been driven away.

We have heard an abudance of prophetic decrees telling us of something that is coming, but the Lord has a prophetic reality He is releasing today to let us know what has happened and continues to happen. A prophetic reality is truth that has set us free whether we recognize it or not. It is prophetic because not everyone sees it yet, but it has happened that is why it is reality. Trickles of this reality are being seen and heard, but a tsunami of this prophetic reality is going to hit the globe in a way that will bring glory to God in the highest and good will to men on earth.

Psalm 124 is our prophetic reality says the Lord, “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters. Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

This is our reality, says the Lord, we have escaped the trap the enemy laid for us as the nations; we have been set free from the desire of our enemies. The snare is broken and the name of the Lord has done this. Rejoice my friends and I say it again, rejoice, Emmanuel, ransomed captive Israel. He has set the nations free from the fowlers snare. This is a huge prophetic reality that is manifesting globally and will continue to manifest. Wipe your eyes, put away your tissues, for the days of weeping under the weight of worry, fear and doubt are leaving and the days of dancing, delighting and doing the work of the kingdom are here. It’s time for an outfit change for He has turned our mourning into dancing. Merry Christmas friends, Merry Christmas.

What has been will be again; what we have not known was already known but has become unknown; the days in which we live are new to us but old to the earth; the things we have learned have been subdued in order to keep us from liberation; but there is a sound coming out of heaven that is breaking through the veil of deception, opening wide the windows of truth and setting free the captives of psychological battle.

The fog of war is being removed by the winds of God. The skies are blue with the authority of God ruling over us. The songs of the birds will become the sounds of salvation as we as a people experience true liberation. Earth was always meant to look like heaven and we are the ambassadors on earth who are going to make God’s design a reality. This is not pie in the sky thinking, this is kingdom reality and we are seeing it manifest in ways we never dreamed possible. All things are truly become new.

I was reading Proverbs 23 this morning when the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “The word of God is multidimensional messaging. What is read on the surface is truth, but when listening to those with wisdom there is multidimensional messaging. Drill down and keep drilling you will discover oil for the living.”

On the surface Proverbs 23:1 says one thing, but when you drill down there is more to this message from Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived before Jesus. “When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.” To the naked eye this sounds like physical food, but it has multiple dimensions to it and one of those dimensions is understanding food is a narrative that people are consuming and it is deceptive.

We are living in a day and time when our food is in question and the damage it has done to us. Yes it is real food and all the chemicals in it, but it is also the narrative we have been consuming that has deceived us into believing things that are not true. Friends, God is making us healthy again with what we consume in actual food and in narratives we have swallowed. It is a great day to be alive.

How many times have we read or heard the story of David and Goliath? Possibly one of the most read Old Testament stories in the Bible. For young boys it is a story of valor, a story of conquerining. It pulls out the warrior in all of us, but what if I told you this war was psychological in nature more so than physical?

The Bible says in 1 Samual 17, two armies, one Philistine and one Israeli, stood on two mountains and shouted war cries to each other for 40 days and and 40 nights. The Philistines sent out one man, Goliath of Gath to fight one man from Israel, but for 40 days and nights, Israel sent out no one. 40 days and night of psychological warfare is exhausting. I know it is just words, but the word defy means to taunt, defame, blaspheme, reproach, unbraid, agitate. Psychological warfare is harder to wage than physical warfare, because emotional exhaustion is like shadow boxing, you never know where it is coming from, but you keep getting hit.

After 40 days and nights of psychological warfare, David shows up and says, enough is enough. I will go deal with this enemy of ours, the Philistines. One man shows up on the psychological battlefield and the war is over. They were there for 40 days and nights, David was there for less than 40 hours and everything changed. Where are the David’s who see the enemy for who he is and brings an end to the psychological warfare many are engaged in?

The word of God is David! The word of God stops the psychological warfare, but you must sit down and read your bible. The word of God is the table prepared in the presence of your enemies (Psalm 23). The word of God is Jesus Christ in the flesh. The word of God is the stone and the sling that takes out the enemy. The psychological warfare ends when the word of God comes onto the battlefield in your situation. Grab your bible, which is a double edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) and watch God bring an end to your psychological warfare. Truth is what sets you free (John 8:32).

Welcome to the threshing floor church. Jesus Himself has brought His church onto the threshing floor and His winnowing fork is in His hand (Matthew 3:12). The threshing floor is an agricultural term for a building in which the wheat was separated from the chaff. Traditionally we have seen the seperation of the wheat from the chaff as an evangelistic idea, but right now the Lord has harvested the church and both wheat and chaff are on the threshing floor. The winnowing fork is in the hand of Jesus and we have seen the very slight beginnings of the threshing floor, but it is about to significantly increase in days ahead.

The two groups on the threshing floor right now are the sages and the astrologers. In the BC era there were Sages of Israel and Babylonian Astrologers, we have the same in the church today. The marriage of the Babylonian Astrologers to the Bible has produced a church with so much mixture we do not even recognize we are dipped in Babylonian Astrology but God does and henceforth that winnowing fork in His hand.

Intellectual accent looks and sounds like biblical wisdom to the untrained ear, but upon closer inspection, it is at its core a man sitting on a throne of judgment not God. A new measure of discernment is being given to dissect the difference between the spirit of wisdom and revelation biblically and Babylonian astrology.

There is a winnowing fork on the threshing floor of the church that is separating the sage from the astrologer; the Divine from the deceiver. I see a very sharp knife cutting off the one from the other. This will be noticed by those with a keen eye and a discerning ear.

The marriage between the Babylon and the Bible has produced a Babylonian church structure which sees the symptoms but does not know what the problem is. This is because the astrologers of Babylon have deceived effectively the body of Christ. Proverbs 20 says “Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.” We taste the gravel but don’t understand where it came from. Yahweh knows this and is now holding His winnowing fork.

The church can see how to separate light from darkness, but this threshing floor is seperating Light from light; Glory from glory; Prophets from prophets; Truth from truth; Love from love; Power from power; just like what happened when Moses and Aaron stood before the astrologers of Egypt in Exodus 8-10.

Jesus Himself is holding the winnowing fork in His hand and the winds have already begun to blow on the threshing floor, but there is more, much much more coming. Matthew 3:12 is where are for this transition, “His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with fire.” Babylonian church is burning with all of its astrologers and diviners, while Biblical church is being gathered into the barn to be deployed to the nations with the gospel of the kingdom.

The Christmas season is charged with emotions. This holiday will reveal to you how healed you are or how hurt you still are in the area of relationships. But not only you, others as well. Pain is palpable in this time of the year. Humanity longs to be loved by divinity and other people. It is the reason Jesus said there are only two commandments, love the Lord your God and love your neighbor. He went on to say this sums up all the law and the prophets. Why? Because love is the way of the kingdom of God. Honor is its culture. And hope is the air we breathe as kingdom citizens.

Entering into family dynamics, company lay offs, credit card debt, pressure to buy, buy, buy is hard on people. We as kingdom citizens need to remove stress not add to it as we navigate the airwaves of this next week. People are in a battle, many of their own making, by the choices they have made, the unforgiveness they carry and the stubbornness of their own hearts which refuse to bend before the Lord of heaven and earth. However, we still must employ grace, mercy and add a spoon full of sugar when we speak truth in love.

We will run into people who are mad at God for a variety of reasons. We will meet people who are wounded by loneliness due to brokenness in their family. We will hear people who are needing a word of encouragement, who have walls thicker than Jericho or Fort Knox and those who are flat out angry. Kingdom friends, this is where we remember Isaiah 61 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor.”

Isaiah 61 is who you are and what you are anointed to do. So go and be the gospel of the kingdom this season, for many people need the anointing on you to bring healing to them. Whether while out shopping or eating dinner at a family table. You are anointed to bring, to bind up, to proclaim, and to open. Go be the gospel of the kingdom, this season is what you are anointed for.