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Expecting people to commit to something they do not see the value of is a hard sell. If people did not see the value of the IPhone, the IPad, the MacBook, they would not have paid the price they paid to have it. If people do not see the value of the presence of God, the power of God, the name of God, they will not pay the price to protect it. When we don’t reveal the value of the precious, people will settle for the vile.

If people don’t value healing it may not be because they do not believe in healing, but because they have not seen healing happen. If people don’t value the presence of God, it may be because they have not ever experienced His presence. If people don’t value the sanctity of marriage, it is possible they have never seen what a healthy covenant keeping marriage looks like.

When value is not just spoken but visible, tangible, experienceable, it changes what people are willing to pay to pursue it. When a man sees the value in a woman, he will pursue her, it is in his nature to do so. When a woman sees the value of the child she gives birth to, it is natural for her to do whatever it takes to protect that which she deems valuable. We are people who know how to value what we see as valuable.

I see the presence, power and glory of God being made valuable again. I see the name of Jesus Christ being restored to a place of value in people’s lives. I see the word of God being heard as valuable truth again. I see a sight and sound experience emerging around us in various places, revealing the value of Yahweh as God.

As His value is seen, heard and felt, we will find Matthew 13:45-46 happening, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” He is the pearl of great price and when people see His value they will hotly pursue Him again.

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Post modernism has taught us to be a culture that wants our own truth. We love the idea of our truth, but the truth is, we are not lovers of truth. If we loved the truth we would hear truth when it was spoken to us. We love our opinions, we love our ideas, we love our way of doing things, but we don’t really love truth.

Yesterday I spoke about the phrase, love is love, and we dissected what that really means. We determined that love is personal responsibility and personal accountability, love is not legalistic and love is not liberal. Now today, I would like to add, truth is not truth. If everyone of us has our own truth, of if we truly loved truth, when we heard truth we would welcome it, adjust our lives to it. Opinions are not truth.

Reading John 18 today, verse 37 jumped off the page at me, “Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Jesus was having a talk with Pilate, the governor of Judea at the time. This conversation was all about truth, to the point where Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?”

What struck me in this dialogue was that Jesus said, I have been born and for this I have come into the world, TO TESTIFY TO THE TRUTH. He continues by saying, everyone who is of the truth, hears my voice. This would have been shocking to them for the religous leaders were experts in what they thought was truth, but they could not hear the truth about Jesus or the kingdom of God.

When we love truth, when we speak truth to ourselves, we can hear the truth coming through other people who are speaking the truth to us. It all starts with us loving truth, but not just any truth, the truth about Jesus Christ, the truth as it is stated in the Bible and then truth allows us to hear the voice of God as it comes through others and comes to us personally. Truth is powerful, may we all be loves of God, who is the way, the truth and the life.

Have you seen the sign or heard the phrase “Love is love”? Ever since I saw this sign in someone’s yard years ago, I have struggled with this phrase because I knew it was not true, but I did not know how to explain what I knew in my spirit. I have asked the Lord for years, why does this not resonate with me?

I walk in a neighborhood by my house and there is a sign in the yard with this exact phrase on it and every morning I read it and struggle to explain why this is not true, so I have kept quiet on the subject. The Lord has finallly revealed to me what this sign is saying and why it is not true, but He has also shown me the truth about love and I would like to share with you what the Lord has shown me.

Love is love means, we have been shown legalistic love, which came with a bunch of does and dont’s; it came across mean, hurtful, condemning even at times, so people flipped to the other ditch and decided love is liberal. The idea is love is without boundaries, we can love whoever we want, however we want. Love is love is a statement made in the alphabet community and describes how we are to love everyone and not question the behaviors they are displaying.

Love is not love. Love is not legalistic and love is not liberal. These two ditches are not love. Biblical love is personal accounability and personal responsibility. Love holds myself accountable and responsible to not harm you in any way. If I say I love you, I am saying I am not going to do anything to harm you. Love is me doing no harm to you.

John 15 says “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Biblical love is obeying the commands of God to love God, and love people. Love is not liberal, you, nor I, do not get to do whatever we want, love has boundaries, but love is also not legalistic, it is not confining, restricting, condemning.

Love is light, love is truth, love is hope, love is joy, love is peace, love is a person named Jesus Christ and when we love Him and do what He says, we love each other the way He loves us and His love is neither legalistic nor liberal, it is obedience to His Father who so loved the world He gave Jesus His son, so whoever believes in Jesus will never perish. Love is personal accountability and personal responsibility to not do anything that would harm another person. This is what love is.

The kingdom of God can feel elusive, hard to understand and even so massive we cannot grasp the practical realities of what it brings to earth. But the kingdom of God is for children, for Jesus said, “Unless you become like a little child you cannot enter the kingdom.” This is a statement that speaks of kingdom characteristics we need to be looking for as the kingdom is manifesting on earth.

Children are trusting. They trust people, they trust each other. Children are soft, they are easily hurt, they get over things quickly. Children don’t know or care what day or time it is, they live in the moment. Children are simple. Children are learners. In the first year of a child’s life they learn more than we even recognize or realize. The kingdom of God is for children, that is why we must become like children.

One of the features of the kingdom of God is going to be safety. People are going to feel safe. Fear has paralyzed us as humanity more than we even comprehend. Religion promotes fear, the news promotes fear, marketing uses fear, fear is a powerful weapon, for it is used to control us not liberate us.

I had a first yesterday, when I was helping a friend move. We were given an address to bring the U-Haul to, so I arrived first and then a car of teenagers followed. Our goal was to unload the truck into the new house, so I go up to the door, knock, knock, knock and knock some more. I was told they knew we were coming. But no answer, then all of sudden I hear from inside the house a woman say, “Go away!” I called the name of the person we were meeting, but the woman said again, “Go away!”

I was clueless what the problem was, because I was coming to bring something, but was being refused entry. I knocked some more and then the woman pulls back the curtain on the door and waves a gun at me. Not just any gun, a 9mm handgun. She was making it clear you better back away. I tell the boys who are here to help me unload the truck to get back in the car and I back away (quickly).

There is so much more to say about this story, but in this context, I want to say, I was there to bring something to the house and she thought I was coming to take something from her, so in fear she showed a sign of force to get me to back off. I was at the wrong address, honest mistake, but fear caused her to think I was coming to do something to harm her, not that I was just at the wrong address.

The kingdom of God is coming with safety. Safety is going to break off the spirit of fear people are living with. Psalm 125 says, “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.” We are surrounded by the Lord, and His kingdom on earth is going to cast out all fear in humanity.

The Lord has called us as humanity into a time of relearning. The church wants revival, the government wants reform, but the Lord is calling for a relearning. Pride is the inability to be teachable and pride is the end of our learning. Humility keeps us teachable, flexible and relatable, for we are always learning something new about God and His kingdom.

When a narrative is echoed over and over again it gets established. The narrative can become so entrenched in us that it actually becomes culture. Once a narrative is culture it is baked into our foundation and we believe it is truth that cannot be uprooted. The Pharisees were so baked in the Law of Moses, that Judaism became cultural, so when Jesus showed up, they rejected Him and His narrative of the kingdom of God.

A narrative that has become cultural for much of the church in the West and probably worldwide is the idea of a dark future, a gloom and doom end, a rapture theology. The challenge is, it is baked into so many people if you say anything different, they won’t, can’t or don’t want to hear it. But this narrative is one, not biblical and two, not beneficial to anyone.

Proverbs 2:20-22 says, “You will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.”

We must relearn many things we have been taught in church, for the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God has entered a building stage in our generation and it will be built according to the biblical pattern, not the seminary one, not the left behind series one, not the cultural/denominational church one. The kingdom of God is a city whose builder and maker is God. God has the blueprints and He is starting to build again.

When I came into the kingdom of God, it was an experience of the likes that is hard to describe, but vivid in my hearts treasure chest. I got saved in 1989, surrendered my life to the Lord with all my heart, but in 2000 something happened to me and I entered the kingdom of God. They are not the same, salvation is the runway to the kingdom, so keep moving, you haven’t seen anything yet.

I liken the kingdom of God to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. When the children were operating in an innocent curiosity, they found a wardrobe, but only one of the children would go into it and when she did, she found a door at the back of it that opened up to a world she could have never known existed. It was called Narnia.

I had a similar experience, where I was led to the door of the kingdom and the choice was mine to go into it or remain where I was in Christianity. I was saved, but there was more and I was curious, so went through the narrow door, just like in that wardrobe that leads to life. Once inside this kingdom I saw and heard things I had never seen or heard before. It was truly a whole new world where a narrow door led to wide open spaces.

Psalm 119:130 says, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”

The kingdom of God is unfolding every day revealing things I did not know. It is a perpetual journey of discovering new things about the heart of God in the word of God. Salvation is needed but it is a settlers location, the kingdom of God is eternal and it is a movement that knows no end. I love the kingdom of God and what is unfolding, opening, revealing, makes me want more and more and more of this King and His kingdom.

Come through the narrow door that leads to life, you will encounter a kingdom that knows no end and you will love all the sights, sounds, and stories the kingdom shares. There is so so so so much we do not know, but we are invited by the King to come in to know and be known.

Salvation is a journey, not a prayer you say one time at an altar call. Salvation is a journey of discovering who God is, who you are, what the church is, who the Jews are, what the Bible says, and what community really looks and sounds like. Salvation is hard times and joyous moments, it is humility and prosperity, it is healing and loss. Salvation is not a straight line, it is a windy road, it is tear and laughter, salvation is a journey and we are invited to enjoy the mysteries on the journey.

On this Memorial Day, in the USA, we remember our history as a nation. We remember those who fought wars so we could live free, we remember places where much blood was shed so we could salute the red, white and blue. We sing a national anthem, we watch parades, we tip our hats to our veterans and we thank God for our currently serving members of the military. Just like salvation, this nation has been and continues to be on a journey and today we remember moments from that journey.

Memories are there to teach us, to remind us, to encourage us that salvation is a journey. The salvation of a nation is a journey, the salvation of a soul is a journey, it is not a location or some far off destination. It is the everyday moments, where we listen to the song of creation being sung over a nation, while we sit on a porch or stand in a stadium to cheer on our favorite team.

Psalm 116 says, “I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.”

The journey is both low and bountiful. Ironically, both are needed for our maturity individually and nationally. But in it all we can say with the Psalmist, “I love the LORD, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.” (Psalm 116:1-2) Enjoy the journey, call on the Lord and remember He is the God of salvation for the nation!

Americans love to read their bible as speaking to them individually, while God is speaking through His word to nations corporately, not to people individually. We miss much of what God is saying to nations, when we only can hear the word of God as individuals.

Reading Proverbs 24 this morning yielded an understanding that we are witnessing nations returning to the Lord in ways we may not recognize. When we are taught that certain nations are bad and other nations are good, we can miss what God is doing with a nation.

Jonah saw Nineveh as enemies of God, so when God called the prophet to go and preach “repent” to that nation, he did not want to go. Once he finally went, that nation repented from the king to the animals and everyone in between. Jonah was upset about this repentance of a nation, because he had been taught the nation called Nineveh was evil, and they were before they repented.

America is only one of many nations that are repenting right now. It is happening nations around the world. Kings are repenting, Prime Ministers are repenting, Presidents are repenting and in their repentance is coming justice for those who are not repenting. Nations we have been taught are evil are repenting in ways we do not even understand, but that justice will reveal.

Proverbs 24 explains this repentance better than I can. “He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him; But to those who rebuke the wicked will be delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.”

When a nation starts abhorring wickedness and rebukes it as well, blessings are coming on those nations. America is repenting, listen carefully, repentance is in the air and so are many other nations. Wickedness is being judged not declared acceptable anymore, this is what national repentance sounds like. And this repentance is bringing untold blessings to nations.

Habakkuk 1:5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.”

Have you ever struggled with a word some people consider common place in conversations to explain their situation? I have never liked nor agree with the word delayed when it pertains to God. The reason being is because God lives outside of time, but enters into time at just the right time. I do not believe anything has the ability or power to delay what God wants to do in us, through us or with us.

Delay gives power to something other than God and I just always struggled with that word as it pertained to something not happening in our idea of timing. Today, the Lord gave me the word I have been searching for to counter this so easily spoken word called delay. The word is dormant or dormancy.

Dormancy is the state of rest or suspended activity in which a living organism temporarily slows down its growth and metabolism to survive unfavorable conditions. Its natures pause button. A seed might look dead but it is alive on the inside, just inactive. Only when the right conditions appear does the seed “wake up”, sprout or begin to grow. Dormancy is not death, it is strategic waiting. It’s a season of preperation, pruning, unseen development before a time time of fruitfulness. (ChatGPT)

I was reading John 12 and this verse opened up understanding which brought liberation. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The seed was never dead, it was not delayed, it was dormant. Fully alive, just strategically awaiting the right conditions for maximum fruitfulness.

Many of us are seeds that are not dead, we have not been delayed, we are dormant by design. The conditions have not been right, but the preperation, pruning and development has been happening. The conditions are calling for the dormant seeds and when it begins to rain, those seeds which have been lying dormant will suddenly sprout overnight. It was not delay, it was dormancy by design.

There is a reality that we do not like therefore we do not obey. It is not a reality that is discussed, for it is not a happy reality, but it is a reality. It is called restraint. Restraint is a biblical principle. If you want to be a powerful kingdom asset on earth, you must understand restraint.

This morning, the Lord and I were discussing how the prophetic words over our lives are not given so we can fulfill them in our own strength with marketing, ministry or even church planting. Too many people have self-fulfilling prophecies, which is why they do not have authority, even though they may have a ministry or a property.

Prophetic words restrain us if we are willing to stay in the prophetic words we are given. I have been restrained from many things I wanted to do, because of prophetic words over my life. Being restrained by the prophetic words God has given us is hard, but those words come to test what is in our heart. Psalm 105:19 says, “Until the time when his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tried him (Joseph).”

The ache is real, the wait has felt long, but the truth is, we are being restrained by the prophetic words over us for a powerful move of God that is upon us. If you have been restrained and have submitted to the restraint of the prophecies over you, thank you for letting me know I am not alone. He has been worth the wait.