Month: February 2025

How you see something determines how you name it. When you name it that is how you will remember it. If we name it based on what we expeienced personally, versus what God did there will be significant. History is the fact about what happened in any given situation. We give names to situations we have experienced and therefore we remember that situation based on the name we gave it. 

Did you know every situation you have been through has had a negative name attached to it and a position name attached to it. How you choose to remember it will determine how you remember it. Just because you name it negative does not mean it was all negative. Just because you name it positive does not negate there were negative or challenging things that happened during it. 

In Exodus 17 there is a story of Israel in the wilderness called Rephadim. They have left Egypt, but they are not yet in their promised land. At this camping location, there is no water. The people are thirsty and they are upset with Moses because he is their leader and they expect him to provide for their basic need for water. Moses agrees, so he cries out to God asking him what to do. 

Exodus 17 says, “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”

Two things happened at this location. One the people quarreled with Moses and they tested the Lord asking is the Lord among us. Two the Lord released water from the rock and declared THE DROUGHT IS OVER! Moses named this place Massah and Meribah for the strife and testing, so every time they revisited that place they were reminded of the strife and testing. 

What if they named that place THE DROUGHT IS OVER or JEHOVAH JIREH the Lord provided? Both happened in that location, but the naming of it is what was linked to the memory of it and throughout the Bible it is called the waters of Meribah, rather than THE DROUGHT IS OVER. Be mindful of how you name things in your past, they will either invoke shame, anger, bitterness and other negative things or they will remind you of the faithfulness of God. How we name historical markers in our life matters.

I was talking with a young couple yesterday as they asked me to blow the shofar and pray for them to have a legacy jubilee. I was honored by the opportunity to do this for them, for I love sowing the sound, so others can reap the substance.

We talked for a little bit before we prayed and I said to them, when abundance breaks into your lives, you are going to have to shake off the dust of survival mode; take off the clothes of poverty thinking; and manifest the abundance God is giving you. They said, that is challenging for we have been struggling for so long. I said, I understand, but a new season requires a new look.

Now this morning I am reading Isaiah 52:1-2 and it says, “Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion; Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no longer come into you. Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”

Friends, we have a responsibility to wake up, get dressed, shake off, loose ourselves and get to manifesting the abundance God is pouring out upon us. God will bring the breakthrough, but we must loose ourselves from the mindsets that limit, the dust that lingers, and we must change our clothes from beggars to royalty. It is time to manifest the goodness of God.

Isaiah 52 tells us why as it says, “How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, They shout joyfully together; For they will see with their own eyes When the LORD restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together, You waste places of Jerusalem; For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared His holy arm In the sight of all the nations, That all the ends of the earth may see The salvation of our God!” Manifest the good news my friends, manifest!

Here is our latest prophetic adventure to Birmingham, AL to deal with the iron and clay kingdom as spoke of in Daniel 2:32-45.

What we meditate on is what we find. Some call it the law of attraction, the Bible calls it sowing and reaping. We may not realize we are sowing negativity in ourselves, but when seeds of the negative get in us, those seeds produce a harvest through us.

Everyone has a past of hurts, trauma, and negative words spoken over them. No one is unique in this history, but the mystery is how we manifest what we have been through. I was listening to Johnny Enlow yesterday and he just returned from a conference of reformers in Europe and he said this, “Survivors identify with their trauma, restorers identify with their assignment.” The whole message is on Elijah Streams, it’s worth a listen.

I have been thinking about that all day long and then when a friend came over yesterday to do my hair, she pulled beauty out of me I did not know was there. She said, it has always been there you just needed someone to bring it out of you. Then when I sent the photo to a friend, she responded, Bee-YOOOO-tiful!!!!

Why does this matter? Because anyone can see the trauma of our history, can hear the stories of our pain, can listen to us share our troubles and many can see where we are still a hot mess. However, we need to surround ourselves with people who can see the beauty in us and pull it out of us. Our assignment as restorers of people is to see the beauty in others and bring it out.

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

I am so thankful I have friends who see past the fruit of the trauma and are pulling me into the beauty that has been hidden there all along. I see in the spirit a speedboat pulling people up and out like a water skier so they can enjoy the ride called life abundantly. I hear people telling the boat driver to “Hit It!” For they are ready to come out of their trauma and get into their assignment. Let’s go!!!!!

Have you ever asked yourself, why do I, why do people, struggle to receive good news? Who programmed us to be bad news magnets, that can handle the worst, but don’t believe the best? We do this with people, with places, with situations, with prophesy, with even the word of God. If something bad is spoken of, we believe it is possible, but if something good is said, we are reluctant to lean into it. Why is this?

I do not know that there is one answer to fit such a big question for a Monday morning, but what I do know is that we have space for information that fits our internal infrastructure. If we are accustomed to abuse, negativity, bad reports, unanswered prayers, struggles, poverty, whatever it is, when we hear bad news it just reinforces what we have already experienced. But God wants to remind us of something today.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only begotten Son…” Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” So…what if I told you the word of the Lord for right now is Isaiah 62:11-12 “Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, “Lo, your salvation comes; Behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.” And they will call them, “The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD”; And you will be called, “Sought out, a city not forsaken.”

Friends, the Lord is not waiting for you to get your act together, He is wanting you to realize you are His son, His daughter and He does not enjoy distance between us and Him. He says in Romans 2:4 “Can’t you see His kindness is intended to turn you from sin?” He is awakening us to His kindness, His goodness, His love for us. It is time to receive the good news, for He is pouring out His love so lavishly on us right now. All you have to do is believe the good news, lean into the nudge of His spirit and watch the shame wash off you in an instant. I hear the song, Oh, how He loves us!

Is anyone familiar with being hotly pursued by enemy voices, enemy circumstances, enemy diagnosis’s? You name the enemy, are you familiar with how it feels like they are in hot pursuit of you daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly? Most people are very familiar with the patterns of the enemy as we feel surrounded by them in a variety of ways.

I was praying Psalm 23 this morning and the Lord spoke to me and said, “I am reversing the roles of who pursues my people from this day on.” I literally heard the words, “Reverse the curse!” The curse of being pursued by the enemy is being reversed to be pursued by the goodness and mercy of God.

Psalm 23:6 says, “Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” I paused to look up the word follow. Follow means, “pursue, chase, hunt down, harass.” It’s the Hebrew word radaph.

We have experienced being negatively pursued by voices, memories, words, experiences, reports, etc. but the Holy Spirit said, “Today, I am reversing the curse.” We are now being pursued hotly, chased, hunted down by goodness and lovingkindness.

We are so familiar with being chased by negative enemies, we have learned to stay one step ahead of them in order to not be completely consumed by them. Now we need to let ourselves be caught by the pursuer, because goodness is trying to catch us, lovingkindness is trying to hunt us down. It’s time to be caught by the Lord who is in hot pursuit of us.

For multiple days I have been lingering in 1 Samuel 17. When a story is familiar, I want to slow down and mine the truths that get missed in the cursory glance because the story is so well known. The Holy Spirit has been hovering over this chapter for days now with me and today another revelation has arisen from this childhood to adulthood story.

The army of Israel went from shouting to standby as David came on the scene with a sling and a stone. The Philistine has fallen face down, not by a sword, but by one smooth stone and one simple sling. David now runs over to the giant who is laying on the ground and secures the victory. Now that the victory is secure and the enemy has been defeated, an army awakens.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, the American army is arising, the armies of nations are standing up. People are going to see a dead, defeated enemy and when they do, dry bones will come alive (Ezekiel 37). An army of people who were once timid, shy, shouting but not pursuing are about to see evidence of the enemies defeat and when they do they will arise, pursue and recover all.

1 Samuel 17 says, “The men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. The sons of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines and plundered their camps.”

The awakening has begun, for the giant has a David who is in the valley, the army is watching. Watching is the first sign of an awakening. But when the army sees the enemy get his head cut off, his voice removed, his narrative killed, the army will arise. Arising is the second sign of an awakening. After arising, the enemy will flee and the army of nations will pursue and plunder. Pursuing and plundering is the third sign of the awakening.

Can you see the signs of the awakening in action in your nation? Friends, we are in the middle of another awakening and we are about to see 1 Samuel 30:8 “And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”

If you have never been in the promised land you may not know how to fight the giants in the land. Promised land giants are very different than wilderness wandering or even Egyptian slavery, but the ways of God are the same.

Yahweh used blood on the doorposts to get Israel out of Egypt. Yahweh used manna from heaven and water from a rock to sustain Israel in the desert. These two ways of God were to be remembered as they came into the promised land. If they forget this, they will not be able to deal with the giants in this new land.

Jericho was the first promised land battle they fought and they won it by marching around a wall and blowing a shofar. David encountered a giant named Goliath and he used a sling and a smooth stone to defeat the giant. 1 Samuel 17 even says, “David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.” No sword in his hand, remember this.

Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” While 1 Samuel 17:47 says, “All this assembly will know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hand.” It is pretty clear how we are to fight.

Finally, Zechariah 4:6 says, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbable (governor of the city): Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit says the Lord of hosts.” We are in a spiritual battle and the church is called to use spiritual weapons to fight. Paul said, “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.”

Friends, we may face different enemies, but the way we fight does not change. Put your sword down and ascend into the spirit in prayer, remember a decree does more than a discussion if we let the Lord fight the battle for us. Our sword is our tongue that we use to defend ourselves, lay it down and pick it up praise and pray, do not defend yourself. I promise the Lord knows how to win word wars.

1 Samuel 17 has a story that has been preached, taught, acted out on so many stages from flannel boards to platforms. It is the story about David and Goliath. Everybody loves to read about a hero, who defeats an enemy, but how many people rightly estimate who they are in this story?

It says, “Saul and the men of Israel gathered, camped and drew up battle array to encounter the Philistines.” This is what the church does every week all over the world. We gather, we camp and we draw up battle array ready to encounter the enemy. However, just like Israel, if we can be shook by a sound, the question is how will we be able to take ground?

We know the story, Goliath comes out, looking all intimidating with bronze from head to toe, but what he said is what greatly terrified them. “I defy the ranks of Israel this day, give me a man that we may fight together.” Israel was shaken by the sound of his voice as it says, “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”

Many people are living afraid of voices they are hearing. They are being shook by a sound, that is why they cannot take ground. This is not new news, but what is also happening is when someone does not get moved by the sound, rather is there to help the team take ground, those who are fearful attack the ones who are not afraid.

David said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that should taunt the armies of the living God?” David was on team Israel, team Saul, but he was not afraid. David’s courage exposed his older brothers who were afraid.

Friends, people are arising who are not afraid, they are on our team, they are not coming to shame us or expose our fear, but to eradicate the Goliath that keeps drawing near. We must stop attacking each other, because when Goliath falls, the whole army rushes in and takes ground together. Guard your heart, so you don’t speak against those who are coming with a different spirit than you have been around, they are for you and not against you. They see Goliath for who he is and they are not spooked by his sound, they are there to help us all take ground.

While in prayer this morning, this is what I heard…”The government of God is invading the government of earth to create a structure that cannot be shaken, subdued or stolen.” Immediately I knew God was saying it is Matthew 16:18 time.

The kingdom of God is a government, it is simplistic in nature and powerful in expression. This government is altar driven, we will be invited to lay down everything that so easily entangles in order to operate by design. Confusion, complexities, contentions none of this is getting past the gate that opens into the kingdom reality. Perversion is not permitted nor permissible in His kingdom. All must be laid on the altar.

The altar is like having your bags checked before you go into a concert or before you can enter the gates in an airport. There are things that are not allowed past certain points and this is where we are right now in the spirit. People who want to keep certain things will not be allowed to enter into the kingdom of God, for the kingdom is such a safe place, we must have the innocence of children to enter.

The invasion is for our benefit not our demise. The kingdom is coming down per Matthew 6, we are not going up as many have taught. It is an on earth as it is in heaven government takeover that we are witnessing right now. Righteousness is exalting nations. Healing is flowing like rivers. Mercy is triumphing over judgment. Mourning is turning into joy. Welcome to the gate of the kingdom of God, where the government of God is established and being built for such a time as this.