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Words are powerful, but when we understand words we are speaking or words we are hearing, they are even more powerful. Understanding brings depth to the power of words. I was speaking to a friend in the UK the other day and we got on the subject of blessings and curses. She is originally from Rwanda, and her understanding of these words and their operations is significant. Witch doctors are real in Africa, charms are not a small matter and the desire to be blessed is real for them. I love learning from other cultures and merging it with the reality of the kingdom culture and God’s word.

Our conversation went to the subject of blessings and curses and I said to her, blessings are like God is using everything to work for you, it is the rhythm of His roar, the cadence of His call, we are in stride with what He is doing and everything is working for us. While a curse is things are working against you. It feels like you are facing resistance at every turn, what should be clear is confusing, what should be simple is complicated. She shouted, yes, that is it. Once we recognize where God is blessing and get in it, we find things flowing freely, and when we recognize continual resistance we look for the curse and we deal with it accordingly.

Deuteronomy 28 is a great chapter about blessings and cursing and how they are tied to our obedience to the word and voice of God. But we are not individuals, we are a community of people and we are families. Therefore, someone else’s obedience can be blessing us and someone else’s disobedience can be working against us. Words are powerful and blessings and curses are real. One is working for you and one is working against you. I hope this understanding gives you insight that sets you free. Be blessed my friends and speak blessings over people, it propels them into the flow of God working for them.

When I lived in Seattle, WA many years ago, I was a youth pastor at a Lutheran Church in that area. We had a saying in our youth ministry as a point of accountability. When we heard people speaking things that were not nice or not true, we would say, “What time is it?” And everyone would reply, “It’s 4:29!” 429 time is a reference to Ephesians 4:29 that says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” It was a great way to curb the negative voices in our youth ministry.

Now that I am much older, the Lord has matured the word edification in my life, for the people I am around do not need me to ask them what time is it. However, the word edification has not lost its power in my life, it has actually gained power, for the source of destructive voices then is the same source of those voices now, SATAN. I have been hearing of many attacks our enemy has launched against people. The voices of the enemy may come in a low hum or a loud roar, but it does the same damage, it eats away at us and like trying to swat a swarm of flies, it is exhausting trying to swat away the attack of the enemy.

This morning in prayer the Lord spoke to me and said, put a dome over this home. I immediately saw a dome being placed over our home, it was an oikodome, which is a Greek word for edification as found in Ephesians 4:29. The dome over our home is likened to a hyperbaric chamber, so the air we breath in here is the breath of God; it shields us from the atmospheric attacks of the enemy; it pumps in medicine from heaven for healing; and gives much needed rest to those in the oikodome, the house of edification. I put this dome over our house this morning in prayer and thought you might want to do the same over your house. The attacks of the enemy are relentless, the oikodome, over our house and your house will protect us from them. Yes, we are living in a bubble and it is so peaceful! Don’t jealous us, join us.

Right before I woke up this morning, I saw a number 2. The first thing I said in my sleep was “double”? The Holy Spirit replied, no not double, “squared’. I looked at the 2 again and realized it was a raised 2, so yes it was meant to represent squared not double. The verse that came with this image of the 2 was, Daniel 11:32 “the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”

Now I am awake and pondering this 2 the Lord showed me and the Lord starts exhorting me saying, “You have heard it said, double, but I say unto you squared.” My friends, what we thought was going to be double for our trouble, double return, double, double, double is not what God is about to do. In this year of the 2, Hebrew year 5782, Gregorian year 2022, this month February is known for the 2, we are not getting double, we are about see God square things.

Squared is a mathematical term and is stated as such, “The “square” of a number is the product of the number and itself. Multiplying a number by itself is called “squaring” the number. Squaring a number is a more specific instance of the general exponentiation operation, exponentiation when the exponent is 2. …Modeled phenomena often takes the mathematical form of a square function, particularly equations involving velocity and acceleration” (Science Trends dot com). God is about to do exponentially more and it will involve velocity and acceleration. That sounds like Ephesians 3:20-21 ‘Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

My friends, God is about to square us! I finish writing this and the Lord says “Look up the number you saw squared in your sleep.” The number I saw was 31 squared. 31 squared is 961, 961 in Hebrew is booty or spoil, I am telling you we are about to be squared!

The Lord has a history of victory that is worthy of loud praise. May we be a people that remember and rehearse the victories of our God. May His history of victory be our meditation and our continued celebration. When we meditate on the history of God’s victories in our lives, in the lives of our friends, in our nation, and especially in the nation of Israel as stated in the word of God, it builds a defense against the enemy. The Lord has a history of victory that brings life, salvation, deliverance, healing, peace, just to name a few. When we meditate on this history, we are not as easily moved by the history of death and destruction the enemy has flaunted.

Psalm 98:1-2 reminds us of God’s history of victory, “His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him. The LORD has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.” The history of God’s victories were known by the nations, long before the World Wide Web. God has a way of announcing what He has done God’s history of victory makes the enemy nations tremble. Remember how the people of Jericho heard the history of God’s victory with Israel and Rahab told the spies, the whole city was living in fear of them. Or with Gideon, the dream the enemy had was of God’s right arm of salvation with Gideon and how the Lord was coming to defeat them, it says in Judges 7 the enemy trembled.

The history of God’s victory puts fear in the enemy, meditate on God’s history of victory, recite it, celebrate it, for it is a shield about you when the enemy comes with his history of death, debt, defeat and destruction. The enemy does not stand a chance, for the history of God’s victory is our current reality. Our God still heals, saves, delivers and He is going to put His history into our reality and the nations will know that Yahweh is God.

During worship yesterday at church the call for healing went forth and the Lord spoke to me and said, “Words have become familiar to my people so they do not say or hear them as though they have power.” An exhortation about healing was given, communion was taken, the song I Speak Jesus by Here Be Lions was sung, but the words of God were piercing my soul. As we sung I Speak Jesus, the Lord said, “The name of Jesus has power!” I listened, knowing this was not a dialogue but a correction and the Lord said again, “Every word I speak has power and My name has power!” It was a strong correction that He wanted deep in my soul. I thought about it all night and woke up praying about it this morning.

We are inundated with words, so much so, we read words and we like, share or even subscribe, but we do not let the words we read, the words we hear penetrate, transform, affect us in a deep way. We just scroll on to the next prophetic word, the next funny meme, the next testimony. We have become so familiar with words, they no longer carry power in our lives to transform us. The same is true with words we speak. We know the right thing to say, so we say it, but it carries no weight, no authority, no anointing. People may call us wise or witty, funny or fierce, but words have become so commonplace they no longer impact us the way they used to. Remember the first time you said the name of Jesus, it carried a reverence and sense of awe with it, it had power, now it is just a tag line on the end of a prayer.

The Lord is calling us back to the weightiness of words. Especially to God’s words and God’s names. They are to be sacred to us, holy, set apart, valuable. With all of this on my heart, I opened to Psalm 97 to pray and the first line stopped me and I let the weight of these words penetrate me and I pray you do the same, “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad!” The Lord reigns and because He does I am glad. There is so much weight in those words, they consume my thoughts and direct my prayers, I want the Lord to reign over me, I pray you feel the same way. Let His words regain weight in your life, for this correction is going to change everything.

No agenda just a love for the Lord my God and His word. When we approach the word of God to hear the voice of God we then can speak the words of God. This morning the Lord reveled to me that we as the nations have been under the oppression of a Midianite spirit. This spirit has released emotional, physical and spiritual oppression upon the nations, but God has plans for the spirit of the Midianites.

The spirit of the Midianites is a spirit of robbery and thievery. It robs you of joy, steals your faith, takes your harvest, plunders your peace and so many other things. The oppression of this spirit is all encompassing and very difficult to get out from under. People can’t explain it in words, they just know they are under the weight of oppression and it manifests in a variety of ways. This my friends is the spirit of the Midianites and God is dealing with this spirit of oppression that has been sitting on the nations.

If you want to do a Bible study on this spirit, it begins in Judges 6, then is traced to Joel 1. Once you reach Joel 2 the answer to this spirit is revealed, the sound of the shofar in Joel 2 points us back to Judges 7 where we have the sound of 300 shofars and this sound breaks the power of the spirit of Midian and sets the people free. The freedom manifests in rain which is a sign of God’s presence over the nations and this leads us to Zechariah 10:1.

Now, this is what I hear the Lord saying, “It’s about to rain! The spring rains will come early and they will be a sign of the spirit of Midian being broken off of the nations. Get ready for a downpour of God’s reign in the nations.” We don’t like the idea of someone ruling over us only because we have never been under the reign of King Jesus, but we are about to be under His reign in the nations and we are going to love His leadership style. It will be evident in so many ways, get ready, get ready, the enemy has been defeated and the sound of the shofar is bring the early rain of this reality.

Praying the Psalms yields many truths that reading it alone does not release. Prayer is a different way of reading and releases another way of receiving. This morning Psalm 95 was my prayer partner for the day, verses 3-7 unlocked truth I never put into words before. “For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”

God knows everything; He sees it all. Whether in the heights of the expanse or the depths of the earth, He sees and He knows all that is going on. If I know God and God knows me, I don’t need to know it all, I just need to know God. Sounds so elementary right? Yes it should be, but we love to be in the know about stuff. That’s why people watch the news everyday, scroll social media continually, follow the stock market or read magazines about people they will never meet.

One reason we like to know so much is so we can self-protect; self-prepare; self-preserve; and then we don’t have to depend on or trust God. Knowledge becomes a way to “feel” like we are in control; not caught off guard; or ready for whatever might come. But if I know the One who knows it all, I can trust Him to tell me what I need to know and where I need to go. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, didn’t have access to excess knowledge so he could protect his little family from big Pharoh and his decree to kill all babies two and under, but God knew, so God gave Joseph a dream and said go to Egypt until further notice. God is still in the business of letting those who trust Him know what to do and where to go. But to hear these things you must depend on God not on your need to be in the know.

The enemy is stealthy in his strategy against us individually; against us corporately; and against us nationally. One of his stealthy strategies is that of silencing us. Most people do not see silence as a strategy of the enemy, but if he can steal your voice and get you to be silent he can work his plan in your life, in a corporate bodies life or in a nations life. Yahweh does not shut you up, He encourages you to speak up, speak out, sing, shout, praise, decree, pray, prophesy, all words the Lord uses to say, speak my child, speak.

Psalm 94:16-17 says, “Who will stand up for me against evildoers? Who will take his stand for me against those who do wickedness? If the LORD had not been my help, My soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.”

One of the evidences of God moving in your life, in your corporate setting, in your nation is the breaking of the silence. The sounds that come out of nations reveals the Lord working in that nation. In Canada we hear the sound of trucks and truckers; in Australia we see the signs people are carrying; wherever you hear a sound, you are seeing God helping that nation. While the enemy will use silence to control, the Lord will use sound to liberate. Listen for the sound coming out of your life, out of your corporate setting, out of your nation. The sound is evidence of the Lord’s help.

I lived in Malaysia for nine years, I am married to an African and I am American. I learned very quickly while living in Malaysia that going to visit another country is fun, but living in another country is work. My American culture was not identifiable to me when I lived in America, but when I married an African and lived in Malaysia my culture that felt so normal was now evident to me in ways I never saw before. The challenge I went through was my unwillingness to lay down my culture in order to live in another culture. Malaysia was not going to become American for me, so I had to either submit to their culture of live frustrated. Honestly, I lived frustrated for at least three of the nine years I lived there, because I did not want to conform to their culture.

I look back on this and laugh at my unwillingness to budge, for I created for myself unnecessary challenges, but once I surrendered to their culture I began to enjoy the people, the foods, the smells, the culture, I even enjoyed and benefited from that which used to frustrate me. The same is true in the kingdom of God, we try to bring our culture, American culture, African culture, Australian culture, Asian culture, European Culture, Canadian culture, into the kingdom of God and we get frustrated because God will not change His culture to fit us. If we are going to live in the kingdom we must submit to its culture. Once you do, you will enjoy the benefits of that culture. The kingdom culture is the best culture I have ever lived in by far, I hope you will submit to it and then you can benefit from it.

Proverbs 2:21-22 “For those who live right will remain in the land and those with integrity will endure here. But not the wicked they will be forced out and banned from this promised land, and those who deal in deceit will be plucked up like the weeds.” The Bible is filled with the culture of the kingdom, today in Proverbs we learn the kingdom is a culture of integrity. I love the kingdom culture because I have conformed to it.

Today is the first day of February on the Gregorian calendar, at sundown today is the first day of Adar on the Hebrew calendar. The aligning of the calendars on the same day is significant, because it speaks of an alignment of time that is happening in the spirit which is manifesting in the natural. We are living in the days of divine timing and in order to understand these days in which we live, we must be worshippers of Yahweh, Yeshua, the only true God.

Proverbs 1:7 says, “Let us begin. The worship of the Eternal One, the one True God, is the first step toward knowledge. Fools however, do not fear God and cannot stand wisdom and guidance.” If we want to be people that understand the times in which we live, we must be worshippers of God. Worship includes but is not limited to singing on Sunday morning in church. Worship is hearing and obeying the voice of God. Worship is spending time in the Word of God and ministering to God. Worship is prayer and praise. Worship is investing in our relationship with God, every day.

Christians have been taught the importance of ministering to people, but how many Christians are ministering to God? Ministering to God is our first call as a royal priesthood. Priests first call is to minister to God and out of that ministry we minister to people at work, school, church, the marketplace, anywhere we go. It all starts with worshipping God, ministering to God. The reason we lack wisdom is not because we are not intelligent, but because wisdom comes from ministering to God, worshipping God.

Worship God and you will learn wisdom, worship God and you will understand the times, worship God and you will come alive and stay alive. The key is to be a worshipper of God.