Author: lisagreatenebeli

The gospel of salvation is a message of the cross which invites sinners into the gate of salvation. This message is heard on the radio through songs that are sung, on stickers that declare God loves you, from pulpits all around the world. It is truly the greatest love story we have ever been told. This story of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for the salvation of my soul radically changed my life 34 years ago and is still changing my life today. The message of the cross is not a one sided message though, it is a message of what Jesus did for me, but it is also a message about how I am called to live for Him.

When only one side of a story is told, we do not get the whole picture, we do not experience all the benefits, we do not understand the why behind the what. The story of the cross has been told over and over again about all that Jesus did for us, but He did not do all that for us so we can just sit and reap all the benefits of His death, burial and resurrection. He did it so we could do something in return for Him. Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 5 what our responsibility is, Paul actually gives the whole picture of the cross. “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

Jesus died for all, so that they (we) who live might no longer live for ourselves. The work on the cross that Jesus did is so that we will no longer live for ourselves. This message of the cross is not preached much at all, so we wonder why the power of the gospel does not manifest in our lives, it is highly possible, because we never stopped living for ourselves. Jesus modeled what it looks like to live for Yahweh even unto death, it was a model He set so we would live the same way. You can’t do what Jesus did if you don’t want to live how Jesus lived. The message of the cross is about living for someone other than yourself. Oh the liberty of living for another. Oh the freedom of living for God. Oh that we would hear and obey the message of the cross as a Church!

If you could take out one aspect of the enemy which one would you take out? Many would say they would take out the hand of the enemy; others would say they would take out the feet of the enemy; still others would want to take off the head of the enemy, like David did to Goliath. Before my prayer time this morning, I would have said one of the above three things as well, but God, who is all knowing, taught the psalmist in Psalm 3, to pray, “Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God! For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked.” Take out the enemies cheek and teeth? On first glance that doesn’t sound very powerful, but in true God fashion, He invites us to look again.

For God to smite the cheek of the enemy is not to slap him across the face, it is actually to break his jaw. Then for God to shatter the teeth of the enemy sounds like it makes him toothless, and many believers would say the enemy is a toothless lion, but it is so much more powerful than that. When the psalmist asked God to smite the cheek and shatter the teeth, the psalmist understood the greatest weapon of the enemy is his mouth. Selah! The weapon of the enemy used against us the most, is not his hand, not his foot, not his head, but his mouth. His voice utters lies, destruction, division, torment, you name it, the number one issue we deal with is the voice of the enemy. Everyone of us battles the voice of the enemy.

Therefore, to pray God smite the cheek of the enemy is to break the jaw of the enemy so he cannot open his mouth, and to shatter the teeth of the enemy is so the enemy cannot release sounds or cannot consume us with his mouth. Oh my friends, this is a powerful prayer not just for ourselves personally, but for our nation. We need God to arise and smite the cheek of the enemy in our families, media, businesses; shatter the teeth of the enemy in our schools, churches, government. God has a strategic strike against His enemy who is our enemy and it is to smite the cheek and shatter the teeth.

Church culture is set by the narrative of the pulpits that gain influence over a nation. Hillsong Music set church culture worship in America even though they were located in Australia. Church culture shifts and turns more often than we realize, we very rarely know when it starts, but we see its affects on sermons, songs and the speech of Christians. A church culture theme has been identity, which is why it is not surprising to me that we have an identity crisis in American culture. If believers knew their identity, we could take authority over the identity crisis facing people in America. Notice how God sent the solution about identity even before the major push of the identity issue in America became a problem.

Jonathan Cahn wrote a book called Return of the Gods, this book I believe is the narrative the church needs to understand, for we are in a war with spirits who want to be the gods of our nation. While the “gods” of history have sought access into our current reality, the narrative of the church has been to see God as casual. The Lord spoke to me this morning very clearly and said, we, as believers, need to repent for viewing Jesus the Christ as causal rather than as King. When we have a causal view of Jesus the Christ, we don’t have the authority to be engaged in the war of the gods we are in as a nation. Psalm 2 says, “I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.” Jesus the Christ is not to be treated as casual but as King.

We have a nation of believers who are 1 Kings 18 wavering between two opinions, but the LORD would say, if Yahweh is God worship Him, if Baal is god worship him. Silence is an answer. For Elijah fire fell from heaven and proved who was King and it brought the fear of the Lord so Israel would not treat God casually. My friends, we serve a King, we are not to treat Jesus the Christ casually, we are to obey His voice, worship at His feet and stand ready to do His commands. We are long overdue to repent of treating Jesus the Christ as casual and to return to Him being our King. This is how we fight this battle.

In July of 2013 I had an open vision I will never forget. I was wearing gardening gloves and was doing some weeding outside of this huge castle, when all of the sudden the butler opens one of the two huge wooden doors to the castle and says, “Lisa, come in here, the Father wants to see you.” I immediately stood to my feet, brushed off my clothes and took off my garden gloves and followed the butler into the castle. There is much more to this open vision I had, but I will stop here because what is relevant about the vision is that I had a view of myself as a servant, gardening outside of the castle, but the Father was calling me by name and inviting me into the castle to meet with Him. This was revolutionary for me, now almost 10 years ago.

This vision was brought back to my rememberance today as I was reading Hebrews 1, “When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.” The writer of Hebrews tells us Jesus was given the name Son and that name is a more excellent name than angel. Angel in Greek means messenger. The name Son is more excellent than the name angel or messanger. Think about that for a minute. God is inviting us into sonship and we want to be ministers, messengers, angels.

People love giving themselves titles, they love receiving titles, they get a sense of importance from whatever title they are given, Pastor, Apostle, Prophet, Ambassador, Doctor, Reverend, Bishop, Manager, CEO, Director, and the list goes on and on. But Hebrews 1 tells us we are not called employees who work for God, we are called sons who are family with God. The greatest name you have been given by God is son, you are family, you are invited into the house, to sit at His table, there is no higher honor. Don’t fight for, put your trust in, get your identity from any employee title, no matter how exalted it sounds, feels, pays, for you are family, you and I are sons of God. There is no greater title than to be called a son of God.

Years on earth has a way of revealing patterns that unlock understanding in order to not be moved when situations arise. If you understand something you are less likely to be spooked when it arises. It is no wonder Proverbs highly values pursuing wisdom, knowledge, insight and understanding. Solomon even says there is great reward in these things. What is the reward? It is peace of mind, it is rest, it is being settled in a storm. We do not need to be tossed to and fro, if we know what is happening and we understand it has happened before and will happen again.

I was reading Ecclesiastes 10 this morning and verse 4 jumped off the page at me. Listen to what Solomon says, “If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because composure allays great offenses.” We are living in a day when the rulers temper is rising against sound judgement, rising against Christian values, rising against definitions we know to be true, but they say are false. Oh my friends, the ruler’s temper is rising against our Judeo Christian culture and country. This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last, so what are we supposed to do?

Wars, rumors of wars, inflation, confusion, earthquakes, fires, chaos all around. You see it, I see it. The church says, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, we are about to be raptured out of here. This to me is abandoning our position, the very thing Solomon tells us not to do. I remember in the late 80’s early 90’s and at Y2K, the world was ending then as well. But friends, the world is not ending, Jesus is not coming, not yet, so we must not abandon our position when the ruler’s temper rises against us. Church we must learn how to settle into our position as salt and light no matter what we see and hear. We cannot abandon our position, we are the light the pierces the darkness, the wisdom that speaks into the foolishness. If you can do nothig else, stand and keep on standing, but do not abandon your position.

Driving home to Nashville on Pentecost Sunday was more enjoyable than I anticipated it would be. I really wanted to be in church somewhere yesterday morning, but that did not mean I did not have church while I drove for 8 hours. Sometimes, we have to sacrifice the traditional for the spontaneous only to find God is in both. With the sunroof open, the worship playing and my hands in the air, we joined a crew of drivers who all were going the same speed in the same direction and the flow of us three cars was seamless for miles and miles.

When I recognized what was happening with the cars I was flowing with, the Lord spoke to me and said, this is what the body of Christ is to be like. Same speed, same direction. Our cars did not know each other, but there was synergy that took place as we chose a speed together and deferred to one another as other cars were going a different pace. It happened all day long with larger and larger groups of cars. In many ways, it felt prophetic on Pentecost Sunday.

I was praying in tongues for much of the drive, and when I got to Wentzville, MO, 30 miles from St. Louis, the Lord spoke to me to cleanse the East Gate of Missouri. I knew the East Gate was in St. Louis and was going to be the Arch, so I was driving along, praying in tongues, cleansing the East Gate and then there was the arch in sight. Immediately the Lord had me release fire angels to stand in the East gate of Missouri, so no unclean thing could come in or go out of that gate. I sensed these fiery angels were with flaming swords protecting the East gate, similar to those placed in front of the tree of life in Genesis 2.

What a Pentecost Sunday it was. I wanted to be at my home church in Nashville, but I was able to have church with Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the car, then I attended Dr. Greg Hood’s church in Franklin, TN last night, for I wanted to worship with people on Pentecost and I am so glad I did. His message was fire and worship was powerful, thank you Hannah McDonald. Now it’s Memorial Day and I am thankful for all those who put on a uniform to defend the freedom of this country in which I live. I am so thankful for the angelic military and the human military. Freedom is costly, and I am grateful.

Everyone ages but not everyone is wise. I was sitting with a woman of wisdom yesterday and I knew it, so I listened closely to what she said. She is 87 years old, but age is not what made her wise, for wisdom is not an age thing, it is a listening thing. Wisdom comes to those who have ears to hear. Many people think they are wise, but as my mom would say, they are just know it alls. You can’t teach a know it all anything, because they think they know everything already. It was such an honor to sit with this woman, for she espoused wisdom with every word she spoke and every word she chose not to speak.

One of the losses in culture today is the loss of generations sitting together, learning from one another. One generation is technology savvy and we need to learn from them about technology, another generation is relationship savvy and we need to learn from them, but there is a generation that does not always get acknowledged and that is those 70 and older who grew up in a completely different culture than the one we are immersed in right now and they carry a wisdom other generations need to hear. My 87 year old friend said to us yesterday, “The difference between my generation and this generation is that my generation was taught to think and this generation is taught to feel.” (Drop the mic)

Her statement caused me to pause, caused me to consider, caused me to hear what she was not saying, for that is all she said. One generation was taught to think, another generation was taught to feel. This statement is loaded with wisdom, loaded with insight and loaded with truth if we can stop and hear what my 87 year old friend said. Feelings are based on circumstances and our interpretation of that situation. Thinking is taking in data, contemplating it, comporting it to other information and then formulating a conclusion. Thinking and feeling are two different ways of doing life. One is not better or worst, but they do produce very distinctly different fruit and I hope we can agree today’s feeling culture has fruit that truly distinct from the generation my friend comes from. Something to ponder this Saturday.

My favorite sport to watch and my favorite sport to play is American football. When I was child growing up in Minneapolis, MN, I would play football in the street with the boys almost every day. We used the curbs as our out of bounds and trees as our first down markers. I was quarterback much of the time and the boys on my team would run routes that led to touchdowns. Oh the fun we had on those streets in North Minneapolis.

Being in Kansas City, one cannot escape the reality of the Kansas City Chiefs and their presence in this place. From grocery stores with Chiefs gear to signs that proudly display the arrowhead logo. Then today when I walked into the kitchen at my friends house, on the counter was a KC Star newspaper from when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl again last January. I grabbed the paper and immediately the Holy Spirit spoke to me about the power of the right combination. You see, Andy Reid was a great coach when he led the Philadelphia Eagles before coming to Kansas City and Patrick Mahones was a great quarterback when he played college ball in Texas, but when these two men met in Kansas City, it has proven to be a combination tha produces the highest results. Then add Travis Kelce the best tight end in the league and these three are a triple threat. They were all good individually but they are champions together.

Many of us have been told one person can change the world, but that is just not true, we love the power of one, but God loves the power of us. We value independence, but God values teamwork. We value the self-made millionaire, but God values the village. Solomon even said in Ecclessiastes 4:9 “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.” My friends, The days of the one man show are out the door, it is the day of the team, the community, the us, the village, the we. God is putting together combinations of people for a powerful move of God of likes we can’t even imagine. It’s not about you, it is about us and we are going to overcome, we are going to arise and shine, we are going to be victorious.

Sitting on the back porch drinking tea with my friends in Warsaw, MO brought out a conversation about the land that is directly adjacent to their property. It is a beautiful piece of land with wheat that is thigh high. In the distance you can see an old dilapatated barn and a horse trailer. From a distance it looks like someone had a farming situation that brought them great enjoyment in years past. At least that is what I thought as I gazed out over the field on which I was looking.

Little did I know that the story I was creating in my head was true in the past but the reality behind the story was quite different. My friends told me that the man who owned this land, barn and horse trailer died rather abruptly of a heart attack and ever since his death this land has just remained in its current state. No one has come to do anything with the many pieces of farm equipment in the barn nor the what was once a brand new horse trailer. I was informed the wife will not allow anyone to do anything with this property or these possessions. Not the children, not the city, no one, she herself is doing nothing with it, just sitting on it.

I listened to this story and I sensed a root of bitterness is in operation here. I am not saying I am correct, I have no idea who the woman is, but hearing the story triggered Hebrews 12:14-15 inside of me. “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many are defiled.” I was thinking about this early this morning while out walking and the Holy Spirit said, the devil is a destroyer. The devil destroys relationships, destroys us, destroy our property and our prosperity.

I may never meet this woman or the children who may inherit this beautiful land and the possessions on it, but what I do know is that I never want to let any root of bitterness grow in me, so I sit on something because it has taken root in me and now I can’t let it go, whatever it may be. My friends, Let it go, so no root may grow that causes you to hang on to something you don’t want.

Spontaneous trips tend to unlock treasures untold as they unfold right before your eyes and are heard in your ears. I think the Lord loves the spontaneous, for there is adventure in it, there is joy in it and there is a sense of the unknown in it. I wonder if many people are bored because their life is too controlled, organized, planned out, routine if you will. I wonder if walking by the spirit is our invitation to an adventure we cannot plan, we cannot see, we cannot prepare for, because it carries with it an air of mystery that is enjoyable not scary. Just some things I wonder on this Tuesday morning.

Yesterday I was with friends who haven’t seen me in a year, but watch my journey on this platform. They see pictures, they read blogs, they watch videos, and in their own words they have said in one way or another, Tennessee has been so good to you. Tennessee is evidence of the harvesters, and Missouri is the sowers. You see while I lived in MO people watched me sow, sow and sow some mo, but with very little fruit. Now I know it was because Missouri and my life in this state was for sowing. Sowing the secret place, sowing into the soil, the rivers, the atmospheres here, and then when I got to Tennessee it was time to reap. God placed me with sowers in MO and placed me with reapers in TN.

Last night after a great day of seeing people I loved, the Lord revealed to me an understanding of John 4 I had not seen before. “He who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.” My MO friends love seeing how much fun my TN friends and I have, my TN friends love seeing pictures of all my MO friends. One group sowed with me, another group is reaping with me, but all are rejoicing together and they have never met each other except on this platform. Our God is truly an awesome God. Thank you MO sowers and TN reapers, we are all rejoicing together in what our God is doing!