Author: lisagreatenebeli

Last night I was invited to a worship and prayer night with some women, some I knew some I did not know. The woman leading worship is a friend of mine and she brought out a song I have known for years, but it carried so much more depth of meaning for me last night. It is amazing how our lives change day by day as we spend time in the word of God and prayer, for Lord is the one that changes us into His image daily. We don’t recognize the changes He has made in us until there are moments where if we will listen we will her our hearts singing a song we know but with a different depth than we have had before.

The line in the song was “You provide the fire…I’ll provide the sacrifice. You pour out Your spirit…I will open up inside.” Even thought the rest of the room kept going on in the song I was stuck on these words. You see these words used to sound good in a song, but now they are the cry of my heart, the desire of my innner most being. Songs can be prophetic words we speak, not realizing we are seeding our own souls while we sing them. As I was meditating on these words, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Fire only falls on sacrifice, it does not rest on flesh.” I saw myself laying on the altar as a living sacrifice, singing, “You provide the fire…I will be the sacrifice.” Romans 12:1 says, “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service fo worship.”

I laid on the altar last night as a living sacrifice, and I let the fire of God consume me again. I don’t want to become familiar with God, I don’t want to think I know every move He is going to make, I want to remain flexible at all times and last night, He provided the fire and I became the sacrifice, right there in that home when everyone else was onto the next line of the song. The more time we spend alone with God, just like with people, the more intimate the relationship gets and the more trust is developed, so when the invitation to be a living sacrifice in worship comes, we do not hesitate, we lay on the altar, for He provides the fire, we are the sacrifice. He pours out His spirit, we open up inside. Thank you Misty Meeker for choosing that song.

I got saved in a charismatic Lutheran Church in January 1989. This month it is going to be 34 years I have been a Christian. I still remember the day I sat in the back row of that youth group with my black leather jacket on, my Marlboros in my inside pocket, lost as can be and as they sang the song Sold Out and Radical, I heard the voice of God say, “I love you and I will never lie to you.” Those words have been the foundation on which I have stood for 34 years and still keep standing to this day. I love the word of God because I know He will never lie to me (numbers 23:19). People lie to me, people lied to me, but God never has and never will lie to me, that is why I trust Him with everything in my life. Withholding nothing.

One of the hymns we used to sing in that Lutheran Church on Sunday morning was What A Friend We Have In Jesus. I would sing it from the bottom of my heart, hands raised, not caring what others thought. I still sing with passion but now I alter the volume so as to not hinder whoever is next to me’s worship, for I can get loud when I get passionate. This morning, I was praying Psalm 24 and the song What a Friend We Have in Jesus came into my spirit, here is one line from the third verse: “Are we weak and heavy-laden, Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge— Take it to the Lord in prayer.” For you that know the song, it makes you want to sing along and oh the memories that return when we sing those songs we sang when we got saved.

Psalm 24 sparked these thoughts today, because the Lord reminded me that it is our responsibility to open our lives for Him to come in. He is not going to force Himself in, just like when I first gave my life to Him, it is still the same today. We have to “Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle.” He will even announce Himself, but we still must open the way for Him to enter.

34 years later, I am still saying yes to the King of glory. I still want to live with lifted heads, open gates and open doors for I want the Lord to lead my life, tell me what to do, show me where to go and have complete control of me. I don’t want to be in charge of my life, I want God in charge, just like I prayed when I got saved all those years ago, Here is my life, it belongs to you. Every anniversary of being saved, I make sure I am still saying the same thing in my heart, I give my life to you, do whatever you want to, I belong to you. This is how you stay Sold Out and Radical even after 34 years together.

Humanism is earthly wisdom. It has a form of godliness but it denies the power of God to transform a life. Humanism is what James 3 says is earthly wisdom. “If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.” (James 3:14-16). Humanism is what sparked the “self-help” revolution of which still is in the hearts of many humans. Not only is it is a multi-billion dollar industry, the fruit of it is exactly what James said, earthly, sensual, demonic, it is self-seeking, henceforth why it is called self-help. It does not benefit the person trapped in humanism and it does not help anyone who is the connected to the one who is self-helping.

This weekend I met a man named Robert and he is the brother of my friend Sharon Ward Shirley. We were discussing the root of all roots in our lives and Robert said, he believes it is selfishness. Both Sharon and I said, that’s it. Selfishness is the root of pride, fear, anger, a whole host of issues in our life. It was a powerful Saturday morning conversation and so when I read this in James 3 this morning, it actually was spurred from John 3. Listen to what John says about Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” (John 3:30-31). Humanism is earth speak and it is not the wisdom of God, just look at the fruitof it.

If humanism stayed in its lane called the world, we would not have a problem, but humanism has invaded the church and brought confusion to believers about biblical wisdom, which is selfless, not selfish. Many in the church lack wisdom, not because they are stupid, but because they are selfish. We must repent of our humanism if we are going to operate in the kingdom. All kingdom activity is selfless, it is others focused and it is about laying our lives down. If that makes you nervous it is because of the humanism in you that God wants to detox out of you. It is time I to decrease so He can increase.

I love the fact that Sunday morning is baked into many cultures as the day we go to church. Some could see this as religious, but it is actually a sign of a culture that belongs to God. Even people that don’t go to church for whatever reason, know Sunday morning is the day we go to church. It matters not your spiritual status in life, men, women, children all over the world get up, get dressed and go to church on Sunday morning. The thought of this alone is so powerful.

I was talking to my friends brother yesterday morning and he spoke about the majority of the people in the church he goes to are middle of the road believers. He said it more than once and even those people, who may not have a lot of faith, who may not be “on fire” are still going to church on Sunday morning. Sunday morning is a powerful day of the week and we should not underestimate what really goes on during this time of the week.

When we understand the power of church, we treat people kindly. Many people who are lovers of God, worshippers of God and friends of God do not go to church on Sunday morning. Not because they don’t love God, but because leaders in church have not created a safe place for the people of God. God’s house is supposed to be a safe place for God’s people and when it is not, people choose to stay home rather than come to church.

Now there are others who used to go to church and don’t anymore, because of many reasons. I met some girls on Thursday who have soft hearts, but you wouldn’t have known it because they are tattoo’d from head to toe, literally. They know who God is, but something happened in their life and they walked away from church and God, but their hearts are so soft and it was obvious.

My fellow church leaders and friends, we must realize who we are, the influence we carry and the house we represent. God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son…we are called to love God and love people, to do this we must die to ourself, so we can truly see others around us. People are hurting, people are seeking, people are wanting to come to God’s house, but they don’t feel safe and that is on us as leaders of His house. We must repent for not creating a safe place for people to come and meet God. This does not mean we comprimise the truth of the gospel, but we represent Jesus Christ well by loving others as He loved us. We need them and they need us, and we all need Jesus!

We all have a sphere of influence. For some it is their immediate family, for others it is their intimidate group of friends, for others it is a team they lead at work, still for others it is a group they pastor at church. Everyone is in a sphere of influence and most of us are in more than one. Therefore, what we do, known or unknown to us, affects those around us, depending on how much influence we yield in which sphere.

When we allow the Lord to unlock us, it unlocks others around us that we have influence over in our sphere. When we remain bound, we either lose our influence in our sphere or those in our sphere remain bound as well. The more free we are, the more influence we carry, because people want to be free, so they gravitate to people who are free. Free to what? Free to be generous on all occasions. Freedom looks like generosity. We are free to smile, laugh, joke around, play, sing, shout, dance, cry, pray, grieve. Freedom is the ability to live in the now, so whatever that moment presents you are free to engage in it.

Yesterday, I went to an appointment that unlocked 47 years of shame in me. There were many things that led to this moment, but this moment unlocked me from 47 years of shame. While this unlocking was manifesting there were 8-10 other women in the room and I shared with them how Jesus has healed me internally and now it was time for a manifestation of that healing. With tears in many people’s eyes including my own, 47 years of shame was unlocked for me and those who I had momentary influence over saw the transformation and were able to partake in the unlocking.

As we get more and more unlocked, we will see others unlocked as well. In Psalm 20, David made 8 statements saying to his people, May God…when David saw, God did for them what he asked, he said, “Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.” David became unlocked when he saw God unlock Israel by answering their prayers. My friends, I hear the chains falling! I hear the doors unlocking!

I went to a Presbyterian Church last night to listen to a Pastor speak on Church and Culture. I pulled into a field to park, thinking are these cars for the townhomes or the church? I walked through a packed parking lot, into a little country church and it was wall to wall people. I took a seat right inside the back door as there was nowhere else to sit. As I sat there and listened to this man speak, I was thrilled the whole time. His intellectual understanding of culture not just today but historically, tied with his biblical understanding made for a refreshing time of learning of the likes I have not had in years. His words were filled with fire, passion, life and theological depth. His delivery was at a pace that demanded a biblical worldview to grasp all the truth he was espousing. It was exhilarating for me on many levels.

When I left I was thinking about how the Charismatic church needs the denominational churches, and how the denominational churches need the charismatic churches. Not because of worship style, but because each brings something to the table we need for wholeness as believers. Charismatic preaching can be very life coachy and lack depth, while Denominational preaching can be dry and lack the fire of God. Oh if the two would merge it would set this nation on fire again. Depth of truth with fire is what the circuit riders brought and many of them were Methodist ministers. Many of the revivals we love like Cane Ridge and Azusa Street were Denominational preachers that God set on fire.

Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;” The word of God is an architectural structure in our soul that creates the infrastructure we need to be inside strong. When we do not have the word of God inside of us, we are weak, like a beautiful house of cards but lacking structural soundness. Just like developers who throw up houses fast, if we don’t have the word of God inside of us, we lack the craftsmanship that is needed to build a high quality life. I pray the word of God becomes desirable again to us as the Church, for without the word we are a house of cards.

Are you one who was born, conceived not by choice? Meaning, you were not planned? I was. My parents were young, they were dating and they were in a moment of passion not for the sake of having a child, but for other reasons. Have you ever thought about how many times you acted in a way that could create a child, but you didn’t and you are thankful for it, for you were not ready? And for those who did get pregnant in an unplanned way, can I share something the Lord has taught me about this? Did you know God chooses us to be born, not our mom, not our dad? It was God’s will for you to be born. John says it this way, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” You were born because of the will of God!

I spent a lot of years feeling like I was not wanted because I was not planned, I was created out of passion. But when the Lord showed me, many people have moments of passion but they do not produce a child, I realized, I was born because it was God’s will not man’s. Talk about liberating. When you know God created you, because He wanted you, it is a game changer. My parents love me, provided for me, protected me, all the stuff, but God was the one who chose me to be born, it was His will that I was born and the same is true of you. It is God’s will that you were born, no matter what man was thinking or wanting at the time. God wanted you born, so you were born.

I tell you this, because John goes on to say, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We have talked a lot about grace, but grace cannot be separated from truth in order for it to truly be grace. The truth is offensive to people when it is not spoken with grace, but grace is powerless to people when it is not coupled with truth. Only the truth can set us free and freedom is what we need, what we want, but to receive truth, it is going to have to come with grace and when it does freedom is going to ring out in a way that gathers people together again. Grace and truth are the tracks the glory train of God is running on, I can hear the whistle blowing even now.

There are “rest stops” in the word of God and if we are willing to pullover and “rest” for a minute in those locations they will yield a harvest of righteousness of the likes that words can’t explain. Today, I was praying Psalm 17 and the very last verse was a “rest stop” today and I wanted to share it with you. Park your heart for just a minute, stretch your spiritual legs, and get out of the “car” and smell the fresh air as the Lord is giving us a “rest stop” in His word this morning.

Psalm 17:15 says, “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness;

I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.”

Many of us have spoken about the Great Awakening that is happening worldwide, but today, the Lord stopped on this verse and said, “Read it again.” AS FOR ME, I WILL SEE YOUR FACE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS; I SHALL BE SATISFIED WHEN I AWAKE IN YOUR LIKENESS. As we are awakened, we are satisfied, because we are waking up to the truth that we have been created in the image of God.

Knowledge and awakening are not synonymous. We can have knowledge of something and not be awakened to it. It can be truth, we can have heard it, quote it, know it, and not be awakened to it. Awakening is the aha moment, the revelation, the illumination of something we know. We know so much more than we are awakened to. Which is why there is still an ache; a desire; a sense of incompleteness. We need to have what we know be awakened inside of us, so we embody what we know.

Song of Songs 2:10-15 “Arise, my dearest. Hurry, my darling. I have come as you have asked to draw you to My heart and lead you out. For now is the time My beautiful one. The season has changed, the bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone. Can you discern the new day of destiny breaking forth around you? the early signs of My purpose and plans bursting forth. The budding vines of new life are now blooming everywhere. The fragrance of their flowers whisper, there is change in the air.”

Puzzle pieces come through people and when you have ears to hear the Lord will put the puzzle pieces people speak together to create a picture He wants us to see. This is why the body of Christ needs every member, for we each carry something that makes the picture visible and accessible. Aaron Kolb had the puzzle piece Isaiah 35 this morning that he showed me in a picture he presented to me and as I looked at it this chapter Isaiah 35 caught my attention. Listen to these verses from Isaiah 35…

“Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.”

As I was reading this I remembered a word my dear friend Autumn Hope Darden spoke early last year as the Lord said to her, “Recompense!” Isaiah 35 says, Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. Recompense in the Hebrew means reward, benefit, to treat well, to ripen, deal bountifully, repay, ripe almonds. Immediately to ripen and ripe almonds caught my attention because that is a nod to Jeremiah 1:11-12 which says, “Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond tree. Then the LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.” When God does what He said He is going to do that is repcompense. Romans 2:4 says, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” This too is recompense.

Here is what I sense the Lord saying to us, God is releasing recompense and when He does it will be a reward, benefit, Him treating us well, for two reasons, one His kindness leads us to repentance and two because He is watching over His word to perform it. This recompense will result in blind eyes seeing, deaf ears hearing, lame leaping, tongues singing, water bursting, streams flowing, pools filling, springs erupting and a highway of holiness being seen in the nations. God’s recompense results in His kindness leading us to repentance. He is not going to whack us, He is about to kiss us with His kindness and it is going to catch so many people off guard because they are bracing for a whacking, they are not prepared for a kissing.

Did you know we are called to be supernaturally natural so we can be naturally supernatural? Being supernatural in our thinking, working, seeing, talking is not supposed to be now and then but who we are. Signs, wonders and miracles are not supposed to surprise us when they happen, we are to be surprised when they don’t happen. Now this supernaturally natural life does not mean we get instant results on anything we say or pray, but it does mean we are spirit beings, who are called to live a supernatural lifestyle.

When we live supernaturally natural we have a distinct demarcation between us and those who only live naturally. Paul told the Corinthians, “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:13-14) This demarcation is heard in what we say. Our words reveal if we are living naturally or supernaturally.

The invitation from the Lord is to live a supernatural life so we are supernaturally natural. It will not make us weird, but it will make us powerful. When we live by faith and not by sight, when we understand the supernatural, we do not fear what we see and hear in the natural. It does not mean we do not notice it, but we do not live under the fear of what is speaking. We rise above the natural ways of thinking to access the mind of Christ about all these “natural” issues we see around us. My friends, you are called to live supernaturally natural so you are naturally supernatural. Don’t settle for a lesser reality, stand up it will change your viewpoint.