Month: December 2024

What if I told you most of the body of Christ has only undergone one of the two baptisms required in the word of God? Would you call me a heretic? Would you tell me I don’t know my Bible? Or would you be able to take an honest look at the body of Christ and agree we need a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, not just water? Matthew 3:11 says, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” There are two baptisms we are to undergo or if there is only one, then it is the Holy Spirit and fire, for that is the baptism of Jesus Christ. Baptism in water was John’s baptism.

I was in prayer this morning and the Lord showed me the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire we all need to go through. This baptism will shape us into His image, for we have been molded into the image of the world and it is not working for us as His body. Paul said in Romans 12 we are not to be conformed, we are not to enter into the mold of the world, but we have, so God is about to give us, as a body of Christ, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.

In prayer I saw men like iron rods going into the Holy Spirit, who was a blacksmith, they were being forged in the fire so they could be bent and shaped into the image Christ had for them. The fire is what softened them so they could be shaped. There is a new shape, image, God is doing with men. They must go into this forging furnace in order to be shaped into the image God wants them made in. This will be their baptism of fire.

I saw women like glass, they were going into the fire and the Holy Spirit was going to be a glassblower to them. Women were going to be heated up in fire so the Holy Spirit could free-blow on them and fashion them into the shape and structure God designed them to be. The fire made them flexible in order to become fashionable. This will be women’s baptism of fire.

The images of the Holy Spirit as blacksmith and glassblower were so obvious and the call to a baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire was what was next on God’s agenda for His body. We may be wet with the waters of baptism for repentance, but we are about to put in the furnace for the sake of shaping, so we can be a display of God’s glory on earth. We need a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire!!!!

The Bible is filled with words of encouragement, stories of victory, unusual miracles, signs and wonders, it is an epic adventure of God and people. No matter what book you choose to read, there is going to be fascinating finds that will bless you in a variety of ways. I think people get bored reading the Bible because they read the same stories over and over again, or they only stay in the New Testament. The Bible is the Old Testament, the New Testament, it is the book of Enoch, the Apocrypha, and the lost letters to the Corinthians. There are books written we have never seen or even heard about, there are stories we have never been told. At least that is what John said, “Now there are also many other things Jesus did. Were everyone of them to be written, I suppose that the whole world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

Reading 1 Samuel 14 today yielded a story I want to share with you, I think it will encourage you. “Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land. And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled, the earth quaked, and it became a very great panic.” Jonathan is the kings son and he is climbing on his hands and knees before the enemy, but God decided on the victory, so no matter what approach he took before the enemy, victory was already decided by God Himself.

Friends, I believe some of you are ending this year, this season and you feel like you are climbing up hill on your hands and knees. The enemy looks like he is in a power position over you, but God has already declared your victory. When you get to the end of this year, this season, you are going to find the enemy has turned on themselves and God has already declared your victory. Rejoice my friends!!!! I say it again, rejoice!!!!

Do you listen to what you say, to how you respond, to what comes out of your mouth? Or do you only remember what someone else says? Or for those who think it but don’t say it, are you paying attention to what you are thinking?

Proverbs 16:1 says, “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.” How we respond to things matters to the Lord, whether that is verbal or thought response. Are you listening to yourself, so you can know what is inside of you?

We think we know what we believe, what we love, who we are, but if we really listen to ourselves, we will discover things about ourselves we may not like or things we may absolutely love about ourselves. I have a friend who is a great listener and she is so good at listening and gives me so much grace, I hear things I say. When I hear things I say, I evaluate where that came from and then make the appropriate adjustments in the way of forgiveness, understanding or even a sharp course correction.

I was in a conversation with her yesterday and I realized I was shadow boxing with old voices in a new conversation. I was saddened by my response to the love that was being shown me, because I could not get past the old voices that were assaulting me. I share this because during this season there is a lot of shadow boxing we do as people and we need to listen carefully to what comes out of our mouth, for the answer/response of the tongue is from the Lord. Meaning the Lord wants us to pay attention to our responses.

If you don’t like what is coming out of your mouth, ask the Lord what is inside your heart that you cannot see. Self-evaluation is a gift we need to give ourselves this Christmas, for we all need to listen to what we say more than what others are saying, for our response reveals more about us than them. Adjustments always make us feel better.

The body of Christ is going to have a renewing of the mind, an upgrade of our spiritual operating system of the likes that is going to allow us to operate by design. There have been theological viruses that have slowed down our processing, our comprehension and our authority as His body. This upgrade is going to take some time to take root, but it is going to be such a powerful change that happens in us, that we are long overdue for.

Many prophetic voices have been declaring, new wineskins, new blueprints, new new new, yes it will be new, but it is an upgrade that is going to fix bugs, remove bad theologies and gives us new ways of thinking, processing and effectively advancing the kingdom of God on earth. There will be new teachers arising with fresh revelation; there will be new defintions of terms that we have been taught, and there will be an ease of breathing for the body of Christ. God has sent an anti-virus to the body of Christ who has been bogged down by an anti-Christ virus.

Psalm 115 says, “The heavens are the LORD’S heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.” God is in charge of the heavens and man is in charge of the earth. It is a co-governing relationship. Is it any wonder Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are called to co-govern with God, He is governing the heavens and we are called to govern the earth. The idea of being governors is going to be a new idea for most of the body of Christ. This is not a call for certain people to govern, but for the body of Christ to govern the earth.

Remember Matthew 16:18 says, Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Then Proverbs 14:19 says, “The evil will bow down before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.” Earth is not going to surrender to the wicked any more, the wicked are bowing down before the righteous for righteousness is exalting the nations (Proverbs 14:34). This is all part of the body of Christ governing the earth, as God Himself governs the heavens. This co-governing is going to cause earth to live in the order of God just like heaven does, but it is going to take a mindset change in the body of Christ.

A brief word of warning as the year draws to an end and great things are about to begin. God has spoken powerful promises to so many in the body of Christ, hope is rising again, joy is being restored, anticipation is arising and the tide is turning. We are stepping into possibly the best days of our lives individually, as a family, as a community, as a nation and as the nations. The air is ripe with anticipation and it is not the Christmas Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit releasing good news in so many ways. I, like so many of you, are so ready for the last era, season, epoch, decade to come to a close and the new to commence.

Just like in giving birth, the excitement that this nine months of carrying this baby to term gives way to a final push, a final stage of contractions, a final stage or rushing to hospital, a final stage or tests, epidurals, c-section preparations or natural birth breathing, the final stage must happen before the sound of birth is heard. This is where we are. In this final stage, many circumstances are going to surround us, scream for our attention and try to get us to make bad decisions, say stupid things and they are coming to squeeze us so we don’t exit the old and enter the new well.

We must not deviate from the word of the Lord in this hour. It is the final hour before a glorious day, but we must remain faithful to the word of the Lord in order to end the last season well and enter the new season well. In 1 Samuel 13, circumstances got the best of King Saul and it cost him greatly, “Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you.”

The opportunity through surrounding circumstances may come over the the next month to get us to act foolishly, but this is a preemptive warning this may come and when it does, hang on with both hands to the word of the Lord no matter what the circumstances scream at you. Don’t let go, push my friends, press, endure, we are about to be birthed into the new and we are going to see and be all God has promised, but we must make it through this final push. Don’t deviate from what God has spoke to you in the secret now, for the circumstances are going to scream, the word of God is late, do it your way, but the Lord of heaven and earth is still whispering I Am Yahweh! I do not lie, wait just one more minute. Everything is about to change.

We have been told we are to lay our crowns down at the feet of Jesus. This idea comes from a scene described in Revelation 4 where it says, “Around the throne were twenty four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty four elders, clothed in white garment, with golden crowns on their heads.” The scene continues with a view of majesty that culminates with “The twenty four elders falling down before Him who is seated on the throne and worshipping Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” I don’t know about you, but I have been taught those crowns are something on my head that I take off and lay at his feet.

I am not here to tell you what to think or believe, but this morning while reading Proverbs 12, which I read every month on the twelfth day of each month and have done this for years. Today, this chapter unlocked for me a revelation I will never forget. Verse four says, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.” While I have always thought I was taking off some crown in worship to lay it at the feet of Jesus, the Lord showed me this morning that we are the crown, it is not some object on our head, it is us, I am the crown, you are the crown on His head.

Crown in both Revelation which is Greek and Proverbs which is Hebrew means a symbol of power and authority. This means, we, the wife of God, the bride of Christ are the crown, we are His authority and power. When we operate in a spirit of excellence, which means financial, military and numerical influence, we are the crown on His head. So, when Revelation 4 says we cast our crowns down at His feet for He is worthy to receive, we are actually laying ourselves down at His feet for He is the only King and we are His crown. What an honor to be the crown of God, an excellent wife!

I sat down to pray today and immediately I sensed the pull of the Hebrew year 5785 waiting on the Gregorian year 2025. I thought this was an odd unction, but I leaned into it and the numbers began to prophesy to me. The good news began to flood my spirit as I listened to the heart of God for this coming convergence of the two years, 5785 and 2025. It reminded me of what it says in Hebrews 11:39-40 speaking of those who died in faith before us, “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” God is perfecting something in the convergence of these two years.

2025 as a Strongs Concordance number in Hebrew means “mountain of God” and in Greek means “to anoint, to smear”. Immediately I hear the Holy Spirit whisper, Isaiah 2. Verse 2 says, “It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it.” The whole chapter is powerful, the good news is beyond and the Lord is declaring this is going to be a mountain of God year for us. We can see it in the hunger of people already crying out to know the word of God, but it is going to build and build and build like a swelling wave this year.

Isaiah 2 leads to Daniel 2 which says, “As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Oh yes, this is what we are going to see as these two years converge.

But there is one more piece to this beautiful, exciting, rejoicable puzzle. I leaned in again and the Holy Spirit said, “20 + 2 + 5 =27, Isaiah 27”. I wrote this down and then looked it up, you can’t make this stuff up friends, listen to Isaiah 27 says “In that day” is spoken five times, here is the first one, “In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” And here is the fifth one, “In that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.” Judgment on Babylon and restoration of exiles, it doesn’t get any better than this.

5785 is converging very soon with 2025 and when they do, it is going to release a mountain of God, kingdom of God, move of God, of the likes that is going to remove wickedness, exalt righteousness and no stone will be left unturned as the presence and power of God sweeps through the nations and heals lands and peoples in a way we have never seen before. This is not local, this is global and it is beyond all we can ask, think or imagine.

When we pray without an agenda, a list, or a problem, the Lord will begin to show us things we could not know about Himself, us and others. The Lord never speaks to us in a way that tears us down, He is always correcting us up. The enemy wants to push our face in the mud, criticize us for our mistakes and have us sit in the muck and mire of madness. Knowing whose voice is speaking to us will help us resist the voice or submit to the voice. The voice we resist is to be the voice of the enemy that is out to destroy us, the voice we should submit to is the voice that is out to build us. When both voices are vying for our attention, it is important to slow down, be still and let God sift out the truth from the lies, so we can move forward not sink back into half-truths, or bold faced lies.

In light of this, the Lord went on to speak to me about us being the temple of the Holy Spirit and how just Iike Nehemiah 3 said, there are twelve gates around our temple. The Lord highlighted two of those gates to me today. One is the dung gate. This is not a popular gate for people to discuss, but it is a needed gate in our lives. The dung gate was a place of waste disposal and it was located in a concealed location. This gate is where we take out the trash in our lives. We dispose of the lies spoken over us, about us. But we don’t do it publicly we do it privately. Everyone has a dung gate, everyone has trash that needs to be taken out of their temple. When we are privy to other people’s trash we need to help them find the dung gate so they can get rid of it, for it is stinking up their temple.

The second gate the Lord highlighted to me is the East gate. This is the gate we need to open in our lives and in other people’s lives. This is the gate where the king of glory comes in. This is also known as the Gate Beautiful where the lame man was healed in Acts 4. This is the gate where the presence and glory of God comes into our lives. We need to open the east gate of our life, so the presence of God can fill the temple of our Iives with glory. We need to pray this gate open in the lives of people we love, for only the presence of God can heal us. It is time to open up the gates so the waste can be taken out and the glory can come in.

Walking the dog in our neighborhood park this morning yielded a truth I had not considered before. It rained last night, not just a mist or a drizzle but a lot of water fell from the sky. The sound of the wind blowing, the tree branches snapping and the drops hitting the window made it clear this was not a gentle spring rain. When the night ended and the sun began to rise, the evidence of the night before was on the ground all around us at the park. Puddles on the path and in the pasture both yielded an understanding of how much it actually rained. The sound of the creek to my right, which is normally a trickle was rushing water heard even though not seen.

The birds were singing, the squirrels were scampering, the sun was rising and the dog and I were just absorbing all that was around us in great delight. It is the simple things of creation that calibrate the soul to a reality that is not seen. Creation does not sin, so the pace it keeps and the consistency it demonstrates is identifiable. The reason humanity is chaotic, inconsistent and in conflict rather than rest is because of sin. Sin distorts our view of others, sin strangles us in the grip of fear, sin causes us to miss truth in order to hang on to a lie. Sin is exhausting.

Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” The truth is, when we let creation recalibrate us, we find rest we long for, we hear sounds that bring us back to truth that sets us free, and we are invited into the consistency and vibrancy that creation is declaring all around us. What we need is a walk in the park alone in order to recalibrate who we are in Christ, the sinless Lamb of God.

The Bible is like a treasure hunt, you read and read and read, then all of the sudden a jewel begins to shine and as you lean into the shining, it opens up a revelation that brings clarification to a situation. Bill Johnson says it this way, “I read until I get a revelation.” I think we as people limit our reading to how long a devotional says we should read, a bible plan says we should read, or even our schedule says we should read. Unfortunately, these do not produce the fruit that revelation produces in us and then eventually we lose the desire to read our bibles. What if we tried to read until we got a revelation? I wonder how that would change our love for the word of God.

This morning I was reading 1 Samuel 5 and it speaks of how the ark of God was captured by the enemies of God and taken into the house of their god. It says, “The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.” While reading this the Holy Spirit showed me, one how there is no competition between the living God and the dead idols. No matter where the ark was placed, it remained superior to any other idol, even in that idols own temple. Yahweh is alive and He is powerful.

The second thought the Holy Spirit shared with me is how when we worship idols, dead things, we must serve them, maintain them, pick them up, put them back in their place. Living people serving dead idols sounds absurd, but we do this all the time. We realize Yahweh is knocking over our idols, but we pick them up and put them right back in the place they fell from and continue to serve them. Idols can’t serve us, they can’t love us, they can’t help us, yet we continue to pick them up and put them back in their place.

God is knocking over idols in our hearts, churches, cities, and nation. From household idols to national idols, God is knocking them over. Our job is to recognize what God is doing and not go in behind God and set back in place what God is knocking down, because if we set it back up, God will knock it down again but this time it is going to be broken beyond repair. “So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.”

May we not pick up the idols God is knocking over. May we recognize what God is knocking over and realize that God is raising up the living and dealing with the dead things in our lives, so we can truly live. He is the God of the living not the dead and He is offering us life and life abundantly.