Author: lisagreatenebeli

One of the greatest challenges we face here on earth is the thought that God does not hear us when we pray or remember the promises He has made to us. When time enters into the equation it is easy to think we have been forgotten. I was reading Psalm 74 and verse 2 says, “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance.” As I read this verse I heard a cry going up to heaven from the earth, remember us O God, remember us. It wasn’t loud, it was a longing of the hearts of those on earth that God would remember us.

What I did not expect, but heard so clearly is the response from heaven. As the earth lifted up their longing to be remembered heaven responded “I will and I do.” It was like a call and response. In the Lutheran church we would say, “For the Lord is good…” and the congregation would respond saying, “And His mercies endure forever.” A more modern way to explain a call and response is when I say, “God is good…” and you would say, “All the time”; I would then say, “And all the time…” and you would respond with “God is good!” Call and response. This is what I heard earth calling out saying, “Remember us…” and heaven responding, “I will and I do.”

As I continued to listen, heaven began to cry out to earth, “Remember Me…” and the earth responded, “We do and we will.” Back and forth from earth to heaven and heaven to earth was this call and response. It was such a symphony of sound, I was enraptured in it. God is closer to us, more attune to us than we even know. Then as this was fading, I heard one more prophetic word as the Lord said, “I remember what I have promised you; I remember the desires of your heart!” It was beyond words encouraging as I knew heaven wanted us to know, we are not forgotten. The people on earth smiled as they were reassured God is for us, He has not forgotten us and heaven rejoiced knowing we had not forgotten all He has done for us and Who He is to us. He remembers us and we remember Him, it’s a perfect match!!!!

Do you realize we have been given a multiplication mandate? When a multiplication mandate is on something it must multiply. In Genesis 1 God spoke the same thing to the animals and to the male and female man He created. “And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-27). The only difference between these two mandates is man was given dominion, but both have a multiplication mandate on them.

The multiplication mandate means we will never run out of food, for the animals and the plants must multiply. It is a mandate, not a suggestion, not a if you are willing or interested, it is a this is what you are going to do, you are going to multiply. God decreed a multiplication mandate so no man, no media, no narrative can override the multiplication mandate God has placed on us and the animals. We will never run out, we will always have enough. Now can man try to stop the supply chain, yes. Can man try to control the narrative, yes. But the truth is, we are under a multiplication mandate and nothing and no one can change that.

After the flood of Genesis 6, when God and Noah were discussing life in this post flood world, the Lord gave Noah the exact same multiplication mandate He gave the male and female man. “And God spoke to Noah, saying, Go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives with you. Bring forth every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the ground—that they may breed abundantly on the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.” (Genesis 8:15-17)

My friends, no one can change the multiplication mandate God Himself has placed on us. There is nothing to fear, we will always have what we need. No matter what the news says or names who claim to know something say, they are but mere mortals, they cannot change the meta narrative God has spoken and He has decreed a multiplication mandate and He is not changing His mind about this, for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness there of.

Statistics say that anxiety, fear and depression as well as all of the negative behaviors that accompany these things are at a higher than normal level. Some attributed it to C-19, others say it is WW3 looming, still others say it is related to the financial situation in the nations. Whatever the cause may be, it is something our senior leader at Hope UC Nashville has targeted as something we want to squash in our region. One of the ways we do this practically is with what Dustin calls “Friendship Benches”. These benches are available on our property and if anyone sits on one and one of our members notices them there they go up and talk to them. Our church is open 7 days a week, so we host over 250,000 people a year in various ways in hopes of speaking life all week long to those in our community.

People need words of life spoken over them. My husband says all the time, people hear enough negativity and fear on the news, they do not need to hear it in church. I thought of Pastor Dustin’s vision for our church and my husbands words as I read Proverbs 12 this morning when Solomon says, “Anxious fear brings depression, but a life-giving word of encouragement can do wonders to restore joy to the heart.” Moses said it this way, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.” What we hear we speak, what other speak we hear. I want to speak life, I want to hear life. I know there is a lot going on in the “world” but if I am not mistaken I am to be in the world but not of the world. So, I have to take the negativity of the world and turn it into words of encouragement for those who hear what I say.

Isaiah 61 says the spirit of the Lord is upon me to…to do what? To bring good news, to bind up broken hearts, to proclaim liberty to captives, to proclaim freedom to prisoners, to declare the favorable year of the Lord, to comfort all who mourn, to give the mourners hope. Then we will rebuild ancient ruins and repair ruined cities. Friends cities are people not places. Let’s get to work on building lives with our words and our actions, for people are the greatest treasure on earth and they need us to be dispensers of encouragement.

Posture Change!!!!!

The Lord spoke so clearly to me and said, “The time of bowing your head is over and the time of lifting up your head is here. Lift up your heads, lift up your heads, lift up your heads, the King of Glory is at hand.” This word was strong in my spirit, so strong, I knew it was a word for us as the body Christ. It is time for a posture change. The lifting up of our heads precedes the everlasting doors opening. Lifted heads is the prerequisite for opening of doors. Lift up your heads, lift up your heads!!!!

This past summer, while out walking the dog, the Lord spoke so clearly to me and said, “Head down…keep going.” I remember exactly where I was when He said that, I knew at that moment whatever we were walking through was going to demand focus, so I put my head down and I have been plowing through. Now this morning, the word of the Lord was so clear, “Lift up your heads, lift up your heads, the King of Glory is coming in.” God is calling for a posture change from us. The days of head down keep going just gave way to lift up your heads.

Zechariah 8:19 says “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.’” The whole chapter is a call to a posture change, but I found it timely that the Lord is calling for us to not fast but feast, not to bow our head but to lift it up. The church loves to fast in January, but the Lord is not calling for a fast but a time of feasting. He is calling for a posture change.

Psalm 24 is not just a nice Psalm, it is a declaration of a posture change. Come on church, lift up your heads, lift up your heads, the King of Glory is at hand. Those who will lift up their heads will walk through the open doors. Pivot quickly, God is calling for a posture change!

Words are the construct of the thoughts we have. What I am seeing is that the words that consume us daily are creating in us infrastructure for how we think and manifests in what we say and do. For example, those who listen to the news, whether mainstream or alternative, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, what the words do is create an infrastructure that manifests in actions and words.

If you never watched the news, heard the news or knew what was going on in the news, you would not be afraid of what “they” say is going to happen. People are “preppers” both financially and physically because of what they have been told. Other countries don’t have 401K’s, overstocked food closets in their basements, or extra gas cans just in case. The media we listen to dictates the thoughts we have and actions we take. In the West we call it being responsible, in the spirit it is called fear.

What is even more challenging is all the “prophets” who are prophesying the news and calling it the voice of God. When we add religion to the news it establishes a stronghold of fear we struggle to break free from. It’s not about being uninformed it is about what words have created your thought infrastructure. It becomes so normal to you, when someone questions it, you question them. The word of God does not produce fear, ever!!!!

Proverbs 10:21 says, “The teachings of the godly ones are like pure silver, bringing words of redemption to others, but the heart of the wicked is corrupt.” Only you can determine what you listen to. My dad said to me one time, “Until you are done being curious about what a certain person is saying, you will not cease to be filled with their toxic words.” Our curiosity about what is happening is killing us in more ways that we realize. It is way past time to stop listening to the toxic words which are poisoning our creative lives. Abundance comes from hearing the words of God who always opens up wide open spaces for you to live more free not fearful.

Strength we want it yet we resist it; we need it, yet we fear it; what is it about the strong that intimidates us, scares us, causes us to push away the very people we need? When we preach a gospel of salvation, which focuses on the cross and the weakness of Jesus crucified, suffering, dying, we actually create an image of Christianity as weak. We preach in our weakness He is strong. We love the idea of a shepherd carrying the one lost sheep on His shoulders. We picture God as this easy going, laid back, tolerant being in the sky of whom we can just come as we are to. We have been taught He will forgive us so we can live however we want; He loves us so we can do whatever we want; He will never forsake us so we can act however we want. The cross and the crucifixion was not a weak man being nailed to a tree, it was the ultimate sign of strength as God in flesh, who humbled Himself and died for the sins of humanity so they could have a relationship with divinity. It was the ultimate picture of strength, so much so, the Bible says if Satan knew what the death of Christ meant, he would not have incited the leaders to kill Him.

One of the reasons we don’t like strength is because we have seen anger and abuse not righteousness. Psalm 68:30 says it this way, “God, rebuke the beast-life that hides within us! Rebuke those who claim to be “strong ones,” who lurk within the congregation and abuse the people out of their love for money. God scatters the people who are spoiling for a fight.” When our history reveals strength as dictatorship, abuse, violence, rage, we actually repel the idea of strength because it was not presented to us as something safe. The challenge is, our response to strength hinders us as the church. Now we are easily offended, only want soft leaders with pastors hearts and mercy gifts. So, when God wants to release to us Apostles and Prophets, we reject them because we think they will abuse us, hurt us, attack us and we don’t realize they came to help us, rescue us, protect us. Their strength scares us so we reject the ones God sent to rescue us.

Psalm 68:28-29 says “Display your strength, God, and we’ll be strong! For your miracles have made us who we are. Lord, do it again and parade from your temple your mighty power. By your command even kings will bring gifts to you.” Who God is displayed as by the leaders in the church is who the body of Christ resonates with. God is trying to display strength to us, power to us, victory to us, but these only come with strength. We must quit resisting what God is sending to us, or we are not going to be rescued from this mess we are in as the church and the world. We need a strong Savior, who has conquered sin, hell and the grave, and this display of who God is, comes through the gifts called the Apostles and Prophets, then is established by the Teachers. We are long overdue for those who can build us inside strong not just comfort us when we are weak.

Have you ever wondered why the enemy is hell bent on wrestling out of your heart, mouth, head what God has promised you or spoken to you? What bothers him so much about what God speaks to you? Why does he want to get you to doubt what God has told you? In Luke 1, Elizabeth is speaking to Mary and she says in verse 45 “Great favor rests upon you, for you have believed every word spoken to you from the Lord.” The favor of God is what the enemy hates seeing on you, seeing on me.

Luke 2:52 says, “As Jesus grew, so did his wisdom and maturity. The favor of men increased upon his life, for he was greatly loved by God.” The favor of God on your life is evidence of God’s love for you. Satan hates the truth that God is so in love with you, which is why God speaks to you, why God makes promises to you, why the enemy seeks to convince you God is not for you, God does not love you, God does not see you. God loves you so much, He favors you. Favor is an invisible attribute you carry in the earth realm, but is extremely visible to the spirit world. Satan knows you are favored by God, loved deeply by God, henceforth why he tries so hard to convince you otherwise.

Our inability to accept, embrace and dwell in the truth that God loves us, that His favor rests upon us, that He is for us, is all the work of the enemy on us. Satan will do whatever he can to get you to doubt the promises God has given you, for in the fulfillment of those promises you will know God really does love you. The love of God is about to crash in on us in a way that is going to overwhelm us. Promises spoken are going to become realities we live. He is not a God of all talk no action. Job 42:5-6 said it this way, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.” We are about to repent, change the way we think about God, because He is about to show us His love for us!

Did any of you grow up in a location where they had Neighborhood Watch signs? These signs were to tell “intruders” we are a community that watches each others back, property and family, so don’t try and come and do anything in this neighborhood. Now a days we are more familiar with the idea of “see something say something” which is another way of being a neighborhood watch. I love how people who may not know each other look out for each other because they live in the same neighborhood as each other.

I walk through the same neighborhood where I live, every morning. Same route different day. I know the nuisances of the neighborhood because for two years now I have been walking there. Last month, I found that little girl in the pink onesies that belonged to that exact neighborhood, for you who remember that story. Well a couple times I have noticed some circles of rocks that were strategically placed there and other hints of a witchcraft situation happening. I would kick the rocks so the circle was disrupted. I then noticed another time a new circle of rocks with some pine needles and cones in the circle and I knew it was strategically placed there for a witchcraft situation. Once again I disrupted the situation I saw.

Today, I am walking the same neighborhood but I noticed a line of these same rocks that I have seen in the past in a circle, but they are in a line in front of an electrical box in this neighborhood. I then notice a path is marked to the rock line. I look at it for some time then notice some strategically placed tree branches, so I grab the branches and break them, grab the rocks and scatter them and to my left is a circle of old nuts, bolts, a lock and a silver bracket, strategically placed and I grab them all and scatter them. Someone in this same area is doing witchcraft and I am on neighborhood watch so I am having none of it. I am going over there today to blow the shofar for this neighbor must go from this neighborhood because I am on watch.

Psalm 66:7 “In his great and mighty power he rules forever, watching over every movement of every nation. So beware, rebel lands; he knows how to humble you!”

Have you ever been to a butterfly garden? If you have you know that you have to go through one set of doors, stand in this little waiting area, while the door behind you closes until they will open the door into the butterfly garden. The reason for the waiting area between doors is because they do not want any butterflies to escape the garden as they like to attach themselves to you while you are in the garden then they come out with you as you leave the garden. If you have ever been in one of these locations you know exactly what I am talking about.

I was praying Psalm 65 this morning and the Lord spoke to me and said, “Shake off the residue of the wilderness, so your feet can be free to dance in the day of celebration and manifestation.” Immediately after hearing these words I saw that inbetween the doors image of the butterfly garden. We are standing with one door that has let us out, but another door that has not opened just yet, to let us in, because God is removing the residue of the wilderness from us before we enter. Shake it off my friends, shake it off.

The wilderness season was long, it was hard, it tough, but we made it through. In Joshua 5 once they crossed the Jordan and their feet were on the promised land, they stopped at Gilgal to be circumcised again, so they could all go into the promised land together. It was the final removal of the wilderness in order to fully embrace the new land into which they were entering. We are in the inbetween section and the Lord is inviting us to shake off the wilderness so we can celebrate all the manifestations the new season is bringing.

“Your visitations of glory bless the earth; the rivers of God overflow and enrich it. You paint the wheat fields golden as you provide rich harvests. Every field is watered with the abundance of rain— showers soaking the earth and softening its clods, causing seeds to sprout throughout the land. You crown the earth with the fruits of your goodness. Wherever you go, the tracks of your chariot wheels drip with oil. Luxuriant green pastures boast of your bounty as you make every hillside blossom with joy. The grazing meadows are covered with flocks, and the fertile valleys are clothed with grain, each one dancing and shouting for joy, creation’s celebration! They’re all singing their songs of praise to you!” (Psalm 65:8-13). They wilderness days are over, shake them off we have celebrations to join in. Let’s go!!!!

One of the tricks of the enemy is to use patterns in your life to establish a false narrative. If something happens over and over again to you, it is not just the something, it is the narrative attached to it. I sat in a meeting with a leader, I highly respect, yesterday and I shared a narrative I have and he immediately said, that is not the truth. He quickly challenged my narrative and it instantly shifted my perspective on the conversation we were having. We need people in our lives that can challenge our narratives.

Another tactic of the enemy is to shame you so the narrative you are believing is one that is only in your head, where no one can hear it or see it. We live tormented lives in our thinking, not because we are evil, but because we have been lied to. We need people up close and personal to challenge and help us change our narrative, for what we have been believing is not serving us well, it is actually shaming us consistently. The narrative must be changed. Romans 12 says, “Do not allow this world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind.” The devil is the god of this world, his narrative is never for you, it is always against you. He tells us our allies are our enemies and it is a lie, but he is the father of lies so we should not be surprised by this.

This new year is demanding we repent of faulty thought processes, negative narratives, familiar patterns that have not served us well. We are being invited to come up out of lies and into the truth that sets us free. I am thankful for a leader who calls me up, doesn’t put me down. May we do this for each other all day every day, and may we receive people as our ally not treat them as though they are our enemy.