Author: lisagreatenebeli

Do you remember those pictures we used to stare at to see the picture within the picture? We used to stare at it and see nothing, but then when you saw the hidden picture, you could not unsee it. I remember when others would see the picture within the picture before me and they would say, can’t you see it and they would describe it to me, but I couldn’t see it as quickly as them. This is the same thing that happens with the word of God, we can all be reading the same words, but not see the picture hidden within the words. When others try to share it with us, we just can’t see it, the challenge is many people don’t keep looking into the Word until they see the picture in the words.

In the days when Jesus was born, magi from the east who saw the picture within the picture came to Bethlehem to see the Child that was born. This spooked the Herod, the king, by their arrival in his country. Here is what Matthew 2:3-5 says, “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea;” Herod, the chief priests, and the scribes, knew the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea, they read the prophetic words, but they missed the picture of the Child, the Messiah that was born. These were biblical scholars, not causal readers. It’s not that they didn’t want to see the Messiah, the Jews were waiting for the Messiah, expectantly. They just couldn’t see the picture within the prophetic words.

My friends, God is amplifying voices that are showing us the picture within the words. Once you see it you can’t unsee it. The kingdom of God is highly active on earth as it is in heaven right now. The news is trying to show you the picture, prophets are trying to show you the picture, friends are trying to show you the picture. If you can’t see it yet, ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see the picture within the Words of God, for we are living in the most exciting days we may ever live in. Once you see it, you won’t be able to unsee it. It’s that captivating and exhilarating.

One city of mystery is mentioned from Genesis to Revelation and various places in between. The name of that city is Babylon. It is first mentioned in Genesis 11 by the name the Tower of Babel. The word Babylon is usually associated with confusion by mixing because God said in Genesis 11:7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, sot that they will not understand one another’s speech.” They built the city, they built the tower, but God named it Babel, confusion. Even the most wicked things man does, God is still in control, He is still sovereign, which is why we never need to fear. Back to Babylon.

I am reading Matthew 1 this morning and even though I knew Babylon was in the book of Revelation, I did not remember it being in Matthew 1, in the very genealogy of Jesus. Here is what verse 17 says, “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.” When I looked at what Babylon means here in this passage, I was shocked, it means “Gate of gods.” Of course that sends me to Matthew 16 where Jesus says, “And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against the ekklesia.” Hades is the abode of the dead or of departed spirits. Hades is the gate of gods and they cannot prevail against the ekklesia, the church.

My friends, we have been given keys (power and authority) to bind the spirits that are trying to rule in the earth and loose the kingdom of God on earth. What we are going through is nothing new to history, but Who is in you is new. Christ in you is power and authority, not you individually only but you corporately. We as the ekklesia must stand up, identify the god or spirit that is seeking control on earth, bind them and loose the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. We must excercise the power and authority we have been given over the gate of the gods (Babylon). Jesus sent them to Hades, then planted His church at the gate of the gods so we can bind their words at inception. This is huge! Stand up Ekklesia, stand up!

No one has a 360 degree view of themselves, that is why we need each other. There are literally places on your physical body you cannot see with your own eyes if you do not have a mirror. This weekend, I had something on the end of my nose, I could not see it, but one of my friends could and she said, there is something on the end of your nose, scratch it off. She did not scratch it off for me, she told me it was there and said I needed to scratch it off. I was not offended by her words, I was grateful for them. Lord knows I don’t want to be walking around with something on the end of my nose that others can see and I can’t. (Thank you Misty Meeker)

The same is true in the spirit, there are things in ourselves we cannot see but others can. It takes humility to hear what others see in you and not get offended by what they said. If someone points something out in you, it is not to shame you, embarrass you or condemn you, it is to make you aware so you can do something about it. I was reading Revelation 22 this morning and it identifies two locations, one is inside the city and one is outside the city. As I read it, I realized, we have a choice about where we want to live and we have a responsibility in order to live in the city. Listen to the apostle John’s words, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”

It is our responsibility to wash our robes, to make a choice where we want to live. No one else can do this for us, it is our choice and our choice will yield certain benefits or challenges. Do we want everyone to wash their robes and come in, absolutely, but when you share with someone something you see on them or in them, if they resist you, get offended by you, there is nothing you can do, for they have to wash their robe, make their choice and then come into the city. I am a city dweller, I have no desire to be outside, but I also invite people in all the time, but many don’t want to be told their robe needs to be washed, not by me, but by them and so they remain outside the city. It breaks my heart, but I can’t make anyone wash their robe and come in the city. The invitation is there, but the choice is still yours/mine.

Late last night after a formal event at our church, a group of 10 girls packed into two cars and headed on a 2 hour drive down to Smith Lake in Alabama. It’s a trip that has been planned for over a month now. Last night it was so dark that even as we stood on the dock, we couldn’t see anything other than the water. Then this morning after a short night sleep, I went back down to the dock, and began to pray. The fog was dense, sitting on top of the lake. As I walk the dock, and began to pray, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and said, “the sun burns off the fog, and so does the fire of God burn off the fog of war, so the people of God can see clearly what the kingdom of God is doing“.

Immediately, after hearing what the Holy Spirit said, a song came into my heart, and I began to sing, pray fire and wind. Come and do it again, open up the gates, let heaven on in, come rest on us. As I continue to pray, sing this song, I could see the wind gently blowing the fog away, and the sun burning it away. The Lord began to reveal to me that we are a sight and sound people. What we hear affects how we see and how we see affects what we hear. When we cannot see the kingdom of God, because of the fog of war, we need the son of God, who is the fire of God to burn off the fog of war, so that we can see the kingdom of God.

We do not want to create a theology based on the fog of war, for Revelation 1 says this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelations is not a book about beasts, woes, seals, dragons, or any other mystical, parabolic creature. It is a book about the revelation of Jesus Christ and his manifestation throughout history. We have been living in the fog of war, and it is very easy to mess with the kingdom of God is doing because when the fog descends, it’s hard to see. But when the son of God, who is the fire of God burns off the fog of war you see the kingdom of God, and you begin to sing just like I did, I can see clearly now the fog is gone. And what you will find on the other side of the fog of war is bright, blue skies and beautiful landscape.

Spiritual warfare is just that spiritual. We know our battle is not against flesh and blood, rather it is against spirits attached to flesh and blood. If we cannot identify the spirit that is coming out of the person, we will fight the flesh and blood, not physically, but in our minds. This is what the enemy wants, a flesh and blood battle not a spiritual one. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 “One whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” Unforgiveness is a scheme of the enemy and therefore, one of our weapons is forgiveness.

The Lord has been teaching me precision warfare. He has shown me that we shoot a lot of bullets, but don’t hit a lot of targets because we are not precise. If we do not know precisely what we are dealing with, we cannot do spiritual warfare with that specific spirit. One of the spirits that is rampant in the body of Christ, and in many people’s heads is the accusing of the brethren. The devil loves to attack our minds with accusations about other people, both people we have forgiven and have not forgiven. This accusing of the brethren brings division and division is what keeps us corporately less effective. For the enemy knows the authority there is in unity, so he fights it in us individually to keep us from being unified corporately.

Revelation 12:9-11 says, “the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”

My friends, take note, take captive and take authority over the accuser of the brethren in your head. When it comes out of your mouth, repent quickly, for God is building a collective body to do great exploits, and we must cooperate with God not the enemy for God is building us up and the enemy is seeking to divide us. It’s time to quit making room in our head for the accuser of the brethren.

The word of God gives us creative ways to see who people really are, so we can love them well without even knowing them very well. We know Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Therefore, if you are a good listener, you will be able to hear what is happening in the heart of another person. People speak what is in their heart, but you do have to make the time to listen if you want to know what is in their heart. In marriage this is why women long to be listened to by their husband, because they want to share their heart and they do it by speaking. Many marriage classes, retreats and seminars focus on listening, but very few focus on seeing.

Women want to be listened to, for in the speaking they are revealing their heart, but men, typically, want to be seen, for they reveal their heart in what they show you on their face. Proverbs 27:19 says, “As in water face reflects face, So the heart of man reflects man.” Women if you can learn to read a man’s face, you will be able to hear what is in his heart. I am not saying men should not speak or that men do not speak, I am suggesting, there is another way to listen to him and it is by looking at him. His face reflects his heart. How many women are studying their husband’s face to see what is going on in his heart? This is not marriage counseling, but I believe it applies to that. Words and faces are the two ways we can know what is going on in someone’s heart, but we must be open to hearing from both places.

I wonder how much we miss because we are not listening or seeing? This works with your children, your friends, your community. If we will listen they will reveal their heart and if we will look they will show it on their face. People are always communicating, but many times in a language we are not trained to hear. Look at their face, it will tell you a lot, then once you can see, once you can hear, then you know how to pray for them. God is the best cardiologist, so when we see and hear people, we know how to pray for people and then we become the Great Physician’s assistant.

When God created you, He put a passion in you to pursue something with excellence that would benefit humanity and society. Israel was made up of tribes and each tribe had a unique characteristic about them that was given to them to bless the rest of the nation. We are no different. God created you for something that would bless the rest of us. When people Are created with a passion for business, build business, work in corporations, rise in companies, their gifts, talents, passions make business a place of excellence in which all of us who are not passionate about that can benefit from.

No one is able to be excellent in everything, we are created to be dependent on one another. Paul said it this way when describing the body of Christ, “For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be?” (1 Cor. 12) Whatever God has created you to be excellent in, do that, be that, produce that, for we need that.

To be excellent in what you do takes time, energy, effort, intentionality. I am not going to Wal Mart to buy a phone, I am going to Apple or Samsung, for they produce a quality product. What God created you to produce was by design, but it is not for you, it is for us. We need what God put in you, but we want a high quality product coming out of you. I pray you are intentional about who God created you to be, for we need what God put in you. Freely we have received, freely give us who you are and what you were made to produce. This is why I write everyday, I want to give you a quality blog. It’s my gift to you, but I also need who you are, for we are a body!

Barrenness, wilderness, places where nothing grows, where nothing is produced, nothing is exported. We so often wonder why someone or some place is barren. If you are the one that has lived with barrenness or wilderness, you know how painful it is. The enemy loves to remind us we are barren, we are in a wilderness. Many times the promises of God can seem like a mirage, we hear it, we see it, but we never seem to be able to access it. I don’t know the why about the what when it comes to barrenness and wilderness, but I do know I have exprienced it. There is a nearness of God in the barrenness and wilderness, but there is always an ache as well. It is a beautiful contradiction that those who are in it understand.

Today I was reading Proverbs 25 and it starts out by saying, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” God gets glory when things are hidden, that alone is ponderable, and kings get glory when they discover what has been hidden. I continued reading and it says, “Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, That you not have it in excess and vomit it.” Honey is a common theme in the Torah, so I wanted to know what the Rabbi’s say about honey, and what I learned blew my mind.

Israel was and still is a barren land, a wilderness if you will. Yet, God continually told them they were a land of milk and honey. I learned the land of milk and honey is a land of abundant fertility. God decreed about Israel that though they looked like a wilderness and they were barren, God was decreeing them to be abundant fertility. When I read that the Lord spoke so clearly, to all those who are barren, to all the wilderness people, God is decreeing you are a land of milk and honey, you are abundant fertility! I know it doesn’t look like it, but we must receive the decree abundant fertility, land of milk and honey. God has concealed your milk and honey land, for it brought Him glory, but today He is revealing who you are so you can decree I am the land of milk and honey, I am abundant fertility.

Building something to last takes time, effort, intentionality. Building a physical house takes effort, building a family takes intentionality, building a church takes time. Everyone one of us has the currency called time, but how we spend the currency called time is seen in what we are building or not building. Just like with actually currency, there are people who are spenders with nothing to show for it and there are people who are hoarders but nothing to show for it. Time is a currency that is meant to be invested in building something that lasts. What are you building with your time?

Proverbs 24:3-4 says, “By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.” There are three notable stages in this passage, building, establishing and filling. Everyone loves the filling stage, but who is willing to invest in the building and establishing stage?

While I was listening to “Bob” on the Jack Daniel’s Distillery tour last Friday, he said, “Here at Jack Daniel’s we do not age our whiskey, we mature it. That is why we use the process we do.” I wrote that phrase down, knowing I did not want to forget it. Most people fear aging, but how many people are actually maturing? It takes maturity to build a house, establish a family, fill a life with precious things. The apostle Paul says in Hebrews 5:14, “Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” Maturity is not based on age, it is based on discernment.

I see us moving into a time of maturity for the body of Christ. God is restoring the five-fold ministry to the church for the very purpose of maturing the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:13 says, God gives us leaders to mature us, not entertain us. Our call is to mature so we are a perfect match for Jesus the Christ our head. God is changing the narrative in order to mature the body of Christ, for our God is a builder, establisher, filler and we are the corporate temple He is building.

Do you know why I love going to church? It’s not because there is not a a multitude of people to hear a sermon from online; nor is it because I don’t have people to pray with; I go to church for three reasons. One is because there is nowhere else that I can get corporate worship on a weekly basis with the same people; two because this community has become my family; and three because I am reminded of who I am in Christ. Church is not a community center, it is not a social club, church is a place where the people of God gather with the presence of God and experience the power of God. This is why I go to church and why I am very selective and protective when it comes to what church I go to.

I say all that because I was reading Deuteronomy 28:27-29 this morning and it brought tears to my eyes as I remembered how blessed we are that we are saved; it reminded me of who God is; and it exhorted me to continue to remind us that we have been given authority over the enemy. Listen to how Moses said it, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms; And He drove out the enemy from before you, And said, ‘Destroy!’ So Israel dwells in security, The fountain of Jacob secluded, In a land of grain and new wine; His heavens also drop down dew. Blessed are you, O Israel; Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, Who is the shield of your help And the sword of your majesty! So your enemies will cringe before you, And you will tread upon their high places.”

Going to church this morning, we will hug a lot of necks, say a lot of hello’s, sing some great songs, and hear a powerful message, and it is all to remind us of how blessed we are that God saved us! He not only saved us from the enemy, He gave us power over the enemy. Going to church is a statement of who we belong to, what we value, and where our treasure is. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and today we are ready and excited to go to church. I hope you feel the same way, for there is nothing more satisfying than being in the presence of God with the people of God.