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A window of opportunity to leave where you are to be in position for where you are called to go and do is still open right now. Many have heard the invitation to make a move, but most have not accepted the invitation, because they like the comfort of where they are. When I lived in Seattle, WA, I was leading a large youth ministry there, I got a call from my dad to come to conference at a church that was in revival in a small (population 532 small) town called Smithton, MO. My dad said, God was moving mightily there and he invited me to come. My first response was God is moving here in Seattle, why do I need to come there? After some more conversations, I decided to attend that Pastor’s and Leaders Conference in September 1999 and my life changed forever from that weekend forward. I was invited to come, and as I look back if I would have not agreed to come, I wonder where I would be today. Needless to say, it was a hard choice, but a life changing one. Three months later I left my church of which we built the youth ministry from 5 students to 250 students in 5 years at a Lutheran Church and moved to another state to follow Jesus.

Why do I tell you that, because Mark 10:28-30 says, “Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”

We have been taught the persecution comes with the 100 fold return, but the Lord said to me, the persecution comes when you try to leave. We take persecution when trying to make a change as a sign we are not to make the change, but the Lord would say, the persecution coming from making the change is your confirmation you are making the right change. You will not be persecuted when you are blessed, you will be persecuted when you try to leave. For you are making others uncomfortable when you no longer choose comfort over obedience.

I am hearing of people making major changes in jobs, where they live, relationships, many things, and they are going through some persecution for it, but they know God has called them to this change and so they are leaving comfort for the sake of the call and I can already see them being blessed 100 fold for it. If you have been invited to make a change, the window of opportunity is still open to do it. We are about to experience God in a measure none of us have ever known, being positioned correctly is for your benefit, not for persecution, but you have to endure the persection from those who don’t want you to change, for that disrupts their comfort. Change anyway, it’s good for them and you!

We have been having prayer on our property at church all month long, Monday through Saturday. Everyday, I can sense the water table rising in the spirit. This morning, we sang “We will make room for you, do whatever you want to, do whatever you want to.” As we sand that song, the Lord spoke to me and said “BREAK OFF THE LAND LOCKS!” Tears filled my eyes and the presence of God hovered over the greenhouse we were praying in and I decreed all land locks to be broken now in Jesus name. I thought it was the land lock on the land, but the Lord said, to me, “The locks are on the land of my people’s lives.” He showed me that people are land locked and He wants them free to make room for Him, so He can do whatever He wants to do. Now I am not only praying for land locks to be broken off the physical land but off of the lives of everyone that walks onto this land and off of you and off of me!

After prayer we came back to the house as I homeschool two teenagers, once that was complete, I sat down in my office to listen to Dutch Sheets Give Him 15 and the Lord said, “It’s coming faster than people know, so they must not be land locked, but they must make room for me. I am coming in a move like you have never experienced before. It’s coming, It’s coming!” My friends, please take a few minutes and listen to this video by Dutch Sheets, it will be well worth your time and know that God is breaking off the land locks on your life so you can make room for Him, for He is coming with a mighty move of His spirit that is going to change everything. It is going to eclipse anything we have ever read about. It’s coming, it’s coming, faster than we realize!

Many of us have clothes, shoes, hats, handbags, briefcases, scarfs, ties in our closets that we have bought or been given but have yet to wear. We even have the tags still on some garments that we have never worn. Closets are a prophetic picture and God is speaking to us this morning about our closets. The Lord spoke to me and said, “When I declare it, you are to wear it!” (Job 22:28 “You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways.”)

How many of us have declarations hanging in our closets that God has spoken about us personally, to us corporately or even to our nation and the world, but we have yet to wear them? The declaration of God is for us to wear. If He declares you are forgiven, you need to wear, with confidence, His forgiveness. If the Lord has declared you are healed, you need to wear your healing. If has declared you alive, you need to live. Whatever He declares you and I are called to wear.

The Lord is calling us into our closets to look around at all He has declared over us but we have yet to wear. The days of I am not worthy, I can’t, I don’t deserve it are over. If God declared it you are called to wear it. But not just wear it, wear it with confidence, wear it with style, wear it well because He made it just for you.

Church it is time to cast off our old garments and put on the garments He’s decreed over us. For if He declared it we are called to wear it! Get ready, I am stepping out in some new shoes you have not seen me wear before, but I am going to walk around with confidence, because God declared it and I am going to wear it.

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I was a youth pastor for many years and even though I am not the first to speak on this tragedy, I do want to share some thoughts about the Travis Scott Concert in Houston, that killed 8 people. If you have not read about this event and what happened, I encouraged you to do so, it will be very eye opening.

After reading articles and having a friend send me other people’s comments on the Scott concert situation, what the Lord highlighted to me is “No one wants to die!” It was so clear in the articles I read that even thought these people went to a demonic concert, and it was demonic literally, in their inner most being when faced with death or the thought that they could die, they all said, “I do not want to die.” Here is one snippet from a New York Post article on the situation, “They got stuck under piles of bodies among the 50,000 concertgoers — eight of whom died in the melee. At that moment, my mind went into full survival mode. All I could hear was people screaming and crying for help, Schmidt told CNN. I lost all hope and thought I was going to die right there because I could not get my legs out. I fought for my life. Another said, I was beginning to go into shock, although I was trying to keep my composure and not panic. It was terrifying. I felt like it was a nightmare, she said. I looked around and just saw people stare and others continuing to enjoy themselves as if these people meant nothing.” No one wants to die, it is build inside of us that we were made for life and not death.

Seeing so clearly that people do not want to die, even though they go to events that are clearly promoting death, what is the call of church, of us as believers? We, the carriers of life are called to tell them about Jesus Christ who is called the Way, the Truth and the Life. They may say they don’t want to hear, but I promise you, for I was one of them when I was an unbeliever attending similar style events, that no one wants to die, but they just don’t know how to live. This is where the church comes in, we are called to be people who teach and show people how to live. We must speak life, manifest life, and proclaim life in every way. No one wants to die and there can be no trace of death in us, for people want to live and we have access to the Living Word of God, in written and spirit form. Friends, we must manifest life, no more compromise, no more I don’t have time, no longer can we partner with death any longer, we must reflect the One in us who is LIFE! This generation does not want to die, so we must show them how to live!

Everyone has been given (figuratively speaking) a plot of land. The number of acres is not the issue here, but the truth that you have been given land is important to understand. What you sow on your land is what you will reap from your land. If you sow wickedness on your land or allow others to sow wickedness into your land this is what you will reap. The Bible is clear in its call that we are to sow righteousness on our land and into the lands of others. The sowing of righteousness on your land is of the utmost importance because it yields such a great crop.

Solomon said it this way in Proverbs 11:18 “He who sows righteousness gets a true reward.” Then the prophet Hosea said it this way in 10:12 “Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.” Finally, James said, “the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (3:18). From the Old Testament to the New Testament the same theme is spoken, a call to sow righteousness in our fields, on our lands.

I pray that you will be a good gardner of the land the Lord has given you. The size of the land is not as important as the stewardship of it. Sow for yourselves righteousness, for in doing so you will reap the fruit of unfailing love. I pray that you will have eyes to see your land clearly and know what to uproot and what to seed into other peoples lives from the abundance of righteousness God has blessed you with on your land. I bless your land my friend with the rain of God to produce righteousness.

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I was just given a very unusual but relevant vision from the Lord. I saw the lukewarm church, which has bowed down to culture and called it Christianity, in the belly of the whale just like Jonah was. Then all of the sudden, the whale the church was in was vomited out and landed on dry ground. I then heard the Lord say, “I am recommissioning them and this time they will obey what I say and go where I send them.” The vision was clear and the voice was identifiable.

The Lord is aware of the state of the church worldwide, we have been in the belly of the whale, but we are about to be launched onto dry ground, given a fresh commissioning and then sent out to preach the gospel of the kingdom. What was once lukewarm and useless to God and man is about to preach and whole cities are going to fall down in repentance before the Lord of heaven and earth. This is going to happen quickly!

Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

Jonah 2:9-3:3 “I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD. Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.”

Two voices crying out, both inviting you to come in here. One is the voice of wisdom, the other is the voice of folly. Just as there were two trees in the garden (Genesis 1); there are always choices. Jesus said, you cannot serve God and mammon, you have to choose whom you are going to serve. Moses said, choose this day whom you are going to serve. The choice is yours, but the options are always there. Proverbs 9 describes two voices both offering the same invitation, but one is wisdom and the other is folly. The choice of the voice is critical, for one leads to life the other to death. Here is the call of the two voices in Proverbs 9 “Calling to those who pass by, Who are making their paths straight: Whoever is naive, let him turn in here, And to him who lacks understanding she says…” Two voices, saying the same thing to those who are making their paths straight. How do you know what voice to follow, both are inviting you to come in, the answer is found in the invitation of the voices.

The voice of wisdom invites you to “Come, eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake your folly and live, And proceed in the way of understanding.” (Proverbs 9:5-6) While the voice of folly’s invitation says, “Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” (Proverbs 9:17). One voice is an invitation to maturity, the other voice is an invitation to pleasure. One voice will grow you up, the other voice will say what you want to hear. Both voices are crying out today, both voices want you to pick them. The choice of the voice is yours. We will know what voice you follow by the fruit of your life. The voice of wisdom will produce maturity, understanding and life, while the voice of folly will keep you naive, lacking understanding and will tell you all your pleasures are good for you, knowing they lead you to death. The choice of the voice is yours, but the fruit of your choice will be obvious and may already be. The good news is, you can always make a new choice, for wisdom never stops calling out, but neither does folly. Choose wisely, your life depends on it.

A couple weeks ago I was reading Proverbs 25:23 “The north wind brings forth rain…” as I read it the Lord said release the glory from the North. I did a little searching for North in scripture and I found Job 37:22 “Out of the north comes golden splendor; Around God is awesome majesty.” The Lord said agin, “release the glory from the North.”Then I was on prayer mountain with a couple friends and the Lord said, Red River Meeting House is directly North. I knew that is where I was to go and release the glory.

On Saturday, my friend Sharon and I drove up to Red River Meeting House and we released the glory from the North. It was a powerful experience as the Lord had us put and arrow in the ground where the original meeting house sat before it burned down in 1856. The unique thing we noticed is that there was a tree that grew up over a gravestone and the Lord said “death is on the surface but there is life underneath. Push the arrow down deep sonlife can spring up.” We pushed the arrow in and I heard the song Shekinah Glory by Cory Asbury rise in my spirit so I began to sing…Here we are, standing in Your presence Here we are, standing in Your presence Shekinah glory come down, Shekinah glory come down Release the fullness of Your Spirit
Shekinah glory come, Shekinah glory come!

We were sent to release the glory from the North and that is what we did. Prophetic adventures are so much fun and I am honored to be sent on these assignments by God for the sake of His people.

When the Lord is consistently, day after day, saying the same thing, through various voices, and then confirms it in the word, it is hard to deny what is being said. You that know me, know that I am not one that tries to find a scripture to match what I think, but rather what I think is because of what scripture says. Well, for over two weeks now, but intensely and consistently this week, the Lord has been speaking the same message to me, and as I was reading Romans 9 this morning, it summarized it so well. Here is what I am hearing, which I believes confirms what so many other voices are saying.

Romans 9:28 “For the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” Paul is quoting Isaiah 10:22-23 “A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.”

When the Lord keeps saying the same thing over and over again, in rapid succession and then puts an exclamation point on in with Romans 9:23 saying it will be thorough and quick, my friends this day of the sharp sword of the Lord cutting off our invisible enemies is rapidly approaching. Many have known for years, decades, this day was coming, but it is upon us now. It could happen any day now, type of now. This is not a reason to fear, as Lana Vawser said today, it is Psalm 46 time, now!

Psalm 46:1-3 says, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.” God is releasing righteousness and it is shaking all the wickedness, put on your robe of righteousness and watch for the glory of God is about to descend on the lands of earth in a significant way. We are living in historic times of which the world has not seen in a long time. Selah!

Romans 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who is against us?” The immediate answer is a resounding no one, but the reality answer is, there are people, spirits, systems working against us. So, in all truth, we cannot say, no one. Therefore, we have to go a little deeper into the question. “If God is for us, who is against us?” Since God is for us, no one has the power to come against us, unless we allow it.

What I have learned over the years is there will always be powers, people, principalities, that are against me, against us, but the Lord said, He is for us, so who has the audacity to come against us? Well, the enemy is a tresspasser, so he is against us, but James tells us “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” The Lord has decreed He is for us, so no one can be against us, but James says, if the enemy comes against you, here is what you do. One submit yourself to God. Many people when they get attacked rise up to fight and God says, humble yourself before Me. Submit yourself to Me, I, the Lord will fight for you, will show you what to do. Two, resist the devil. Don’t receive the enemies words, reports, ideas, thoughts, plans, resist him. We must learn the power of resisting, rather than always just receiving as though we are powerless.

If God is for us, who is against us? No one can be against us if we submit ourselves to God when someone comes against us and we resist the devil, not receive him and his words. My friends, these tools need to be in your arsenal for victory is yours in Jesus, but you must submit and resist to see tha victory.