Posture Change

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!

Thought Infrastructure

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.

We Need The Strong

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.

The Message of Manifestation

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!

Eyes Wide Open

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!”

Shake It Off

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!!!!

Ally Not Enemy

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.

Mannequin Message

In prayer this morning the Holy Spirit highlighted the mannequin in the spare bedroom of our house to me. It has been in this same room for over two years, I pray in the same place every day, but today the Holy Spirit had me take notice of this mannequin and said to me, “Either the head is neglecting the body so it is breaking down or the body is rejecting the head, which is why it is breaking down.” Immediately I knew this was a nod to Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5:25-30 says “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.”

If a husband neglects his wife she will break down and not operate by design. He as the head sends messages to her that either cause her to be built up, cherished, nourished or the neglect causes a breakdown in her and the marriage. The same is true with the church, Christ is the perfect head sending messages of life, hope, joy, peace, grace, mercy, all the things to us as His body, but if we reject the messages He is sending to us, we as the body of Christ will break down.

Neglect causes a breakdown in the marriage and reject causes a breakdown in the church. Both neglect and reject breakdown what the Lord intended to be built up. It is fun to be called the head of something, but it is a whole other thing to actually take the responsibility of being the head. And we as the church are the body of Christ, we must stop rejecting the messages our head, Christ is sending to us, for He is trying to build us up, make us inside strong, establish us in truth, so we can operate by design, but we must receive not reject what He is saying to us. #morningmusings

Wisdom Is At The Door

The holidays are officially over but the effects of them will linger into the first quarter of this year. Credit card bills will arrive, sugar will need to be detoxed, those ten pounds of carbs you picked up this past season will need to be shed. I am thinking by late March early April we will be ready to really run this race that is set before us. The gym is filled with people today, the stores are having long lines at the return desk and the restaurants are doing their deep cleaning because no one is coming in. The after effect of over indulgence is real and many people are feeling it as they head back to work today. Yet for others, the holidays being over is a welcome relief, for they are ready to get back to work.

Natural things have always been ways of sharing spiritual realities. Jesus spoke in parables to people all the time, using natural things like sheep, goats, coins, sons, oil and bread to describe spiritual truths. It helps the message stick when the natural is tied to the spiritual. Naturally we just came off a season of indulgence and now we are wanting to return to being fit. I believe the same is true in the spirit, we have been in a long winter season of lethargy, grief, loss, loneliness, and all the symptoms that come with a desert time, but we have entered a new day, a new year, a new way of doing life. To fully embrace the new we must leave behind the old. The days are behind us but it is the memories of the old we bring with us and it hinders our ability to see the new. We must repent of brining old memories into new realities, if those memories hinder what God is doing now.

Proverbs 2 says “When wisdom wins your heart and revelation breaks in, true pleasure enters your soul.” The new we are entering into is a time of wisdom and revelation that is going to bring such pleasure to us without negative after effects like sugar leaves behind. Wisdom and revelation are going to infect us in a way that causes our faces to shine, our spirits to soar, our hearts to love again. Wisdom is the new we need as a body. Wisdom is superior even to gold and silver, precious jewels and stones. Here is the call coming from wisdom at the door of this new year “Follow those who follow wisdom and stay on the right path. For all my godly lovers will enjoy life to the fullest and will inherit their destinies.” (Proverbs 2:20-21) I pray this year is a year of wisdom and revelation for the benefits of these two are beautiful.

Jubilee Jamboree

2024/5784 The year of the open door! The sound of the shofar has been released, the prophetic words are pouring in, the fireworks have been going off, and here we are on earth in a new kairos time in history. Yahweh is so personal and present in our life on earth, He actually works in our time to help us understand what He is doing on earth as it is in heaven. One of the greatest challenges we as believers face is the truth that God shows us the end from the beginning.

In 2013 I began a journey with the Lord of the likes I did not see coming. It began with prophetic words, commissioning declarations, visions, dreams and thoughts that I was going to take off that moment into this major life changing time, now 10 years have passed and the journey though the wilderness was hard, but we made it and here we are. What I didn’t realize in 2013, but I do now, is that God showed me things in 2013 which were a new beginning, for what He is about to do now in 2024. It is hard to hear promises but not see them manifest, but the promise is not for that moment, it is for the journey. When I wanted to quit, the Lord reminded me of the promises. The gift of promises are for the sake of perseverance.

Yesterday as I was reading my bible, the Holy Spirit spoke two words to me, “JUBILEE JAMBOREE”. I am a city girl, I have never used the word jamboree before in my life. I did not even know what a jamboree is, but I do live in Nashville, so it is fitting. Jamboree means, a large organized event that many people go to, or a busy, noisy occasion; a noisy celebration; a large assembly often international; a mass gathering. Now it makes sense. We are about to enter into a “JUBILEE JAMBOREE” and we will see debt cancellation, land restoration and family reconciliation (Lev. 25). This jubilee will be an international jamboree in which it is going to get really busy and very loud. The days of silence, seclusion, and suffering are over, we are now entering into a “JUBILEE JAMBOREE!”