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Growing up in North Minneapolis, we would cut through yards to get to our friends house. My back door was only one cut through yard to my dear friend’s house. He and I were tight, we went to school together, we hung out together, our families were friends, it was so nice having him only one street over from me growing up.

Being teenagers in the 80’s was so different than today. Our parents disciplined us, and sometimes even publicly without shame. I would get a pinch under the arm, a swat on the butt or even a look while in the mall that I knew I was to get back in line immediately. It was not abuse, it was called discipline and it trained me to be responsible, it caused me to mature, and it taught me how to treat my mom and other people.

My friend across the street had a similiar upbringing. I remember one time coming through the yard to come see him and his mom was disciplining one of the kids in the front yard. I knew to wait til she was done, so I paused before preceeding over there.

Discipline is where the word disciple comes from. If we don’t want to be disciplined we are not disciples. Then if we are leaders, we are under even stricter discipline first privately, but if we don’t respond, then publicly. We are living in a time of public discipline by the Lord on His leaders in both church and culture. It has gone public for some and is happening privately for others.

Psalm 99 says, “Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the LORD, and he answered them. In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them; they kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them. O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.”

We love God’s forgiveness but He is also an avenger. An avenger means “God held them accountable not to destroy them but to discipline them —- especiallly since they were leaders. God held them to a higher standard. Discipline was correction not destruction. God as an avenger means accountability.” (ChatGPT)

The God who is an avenger is disciplining not destroying people publicly. It is time for us to pause, hold our tongue and watch, not comment, criticize or condemn those who are being disciplined. If you grew up with discipline, you know both biblicallly and personally we only discipline those we love. God loves us so much He is being an avenger with His leaders in church and culture, because He has forgiven them but He needs to discipline them to show them He loves them.

When something is allusive, hard to figure out, confusing or a mystery that seems confounding there is a good chance it is because either the truth has yet to be revealed or there is a deliberate concealing taking place.

For years I wondered what does the phrase, “the fear of the Lord” mean. Was I supposed to be afraid of God; was God so awesome and powerful, that I was to live in fear of Him. Oh the many thoughts I struggled with wondering what does this simple yet profound phrase actually mean.

Then you add that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and now if I want wisdom, I need to understand the fear of the Lord and the puzzle seemed to get more and more hard to assemble in order to see the truth about this phrase, the fear of the Lord.

Throughout the whole Old Covenant, the message about Jesus as the coming Messiah was always there. It was hidden until Jesus Christ was revealed on earth as noted by the gospel writers. They knew the words, for the Hebrew people were avid readers of the Torah, the Psalms, and the Prophets, but it wasn’t until Jesus was revealed, that they saw the truth that was always there.

We are living in a time in history where the truth that has always been there is being revealed. What used to be hard to understand because of deliberate concealing, is now being revealed and setting people free. It is happening everywhere. We are in a holy visitation.

What then does the fear of the Lord mean? Proverbs 8 tells us, “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” Not only does Solomon tells us what the fear of the Lord is, He tells us what evil we are to hate. Simple, straightforward and right there in Proverbs 8.

The body of Christ is about to have a revelation of the fear of the Lord and as we do, the honor of God will be restored to the house of God, so we can experience a biblical move of God. Mystery solved.

When I first became a Christian, back in 1989, one of the first lessons I learned was about the body, soul and spirit. What I was taught was, the spirit is supposed to lead, the soul and body are to follow. I was told if the body or flesh leads then we will get into situations that are challenging for the spirit will not follow the flesh. It was a simple teaching, but it helped me understand with a visual, like that of a train, how to be led by the spirit and not by my flesh. Maybe you were taught something similar many years ago. 

This morning, I am praying Psalm 97 and the Holy Spirit reveals to me, not a train, but a processional. This procession is Psalm 97:3 “Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.” What I saw was fire in the front, then the Lord next and finally I saw the body of Christ following behind the Lord. It was a processional I saw in the spirit. 

The Lord began to speak to me and said, “If you stay in your place in the processional, I will deal with the enemies before you even arrive.” I immediately saw how the fire of God leads to consume all the adversaries, so when the Lord goes in the enemy is already dealt with and then we follow. I sense we get into battles we were never meant to fight because we are in the wrong location in the processional. 

Fire goes first, then the Lord, then us. This order keeps us safe, keeps the enemy dealt with by the Lord and then we walk in the victory He already won for us. The challenge is we like to run ahead of the processional, for we do not like the pace, nor the timing of God. We think He is moving to slow and we think we know more than He does. We must get back in the processional of God and follow, not try to lead. 

It is the same thing I learned when I first got saved. It is always for our safety, not for our stiffling. Get in the procession of God behind the fire, and behind the Lord, it will make this journey a lot less wearisome, because we are not fighting battles the fire of God was created to win on our behalf. Follow the fire friends, even if the pace is not your preference it is leading the processional.

Did you know that everyone has picked the path that they have chosen to walk on? Not everyone is walking on the same path, even if everyone says that they are a Christian.

Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Thus says the Lord, stand by the crossroads and look, and ask for the ancient path, where the good way is, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” There is always more than one path to choose. The power of choice is a gift from a good Father. There are two paths laid out for us and we get to choose which one we want to walk on.

This is an invitation to Christians, to believers, to those who go to church. The two path choices are actually found in Proverbs 4, where it says, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.”

One path is always flooded with light, is always about Day and the ability to get brighter and brighter and brighter. The other path is about darkness, it causes stumbling, and it gets darker, darker and darker. Your view of the future or of the current reality in which we live is determined by which path you are on. There are Christians on both paths. There are preachers giving you either a Bright future and present reality understanding and there are preachers, who are giving you a dark, doom and gloom reality and future.

We speak based on what we see, which is related to which path we are on. But only one path was made for the righteous. The other path was made for the wicked. Jesus is on the path that gets brighter and brighter. Following him will lead to more and more light . He will not lead you into darkness for the Bible says that he is the light of the world therefore wherever he is, there will be light and it will get brighter and brighter and brighter. Enjoy your Sunday morning and may you get on the path that is lit with the light of the world.

What never ceases to amaze me is how different destinations and various locations unlock in us fresh revelations. When we live with an open ear to hear what the spirit is saying, He will speak from the land on which you are standing. Psalm 24 tells us “the Earth is the Lords and the fullness there of”. Every land we place our foot on releases to us what is on it and in it if we are open to receive it.

Being in the Houston area this weekend, I have learned much about the land on which I’m standing. With nearly 4,000,000 people in this area the traffic is bountiful to say the least. I asked my host, “Why have so many people have come to Houston?” The answer was one word… Oil. People flock to Houston because there is money in oil.

While in prayer this morning, the Lord said to me, “It wasn’t coincidental that the first place you were taken to was an oil store.” My host took me into a location where anointing oil was made, and it was a pure delight experience for me and the first one I had on this trip. Then we went to another friend’s house and she told me about her Olive tree in her backyard as we did a tour of her property. Yet again, the theme of oil has come up while in this area.

Now this morning during my prayer time, I start singing a phrase, Holy Spirit you are the oil and the wine. While singing this over and over again, the Holy Spirit dropped the verse in Revelation 6:6 into my spirit that says “Do not harm the oil and the wine”.

The apocalyptic literature of Revelation 6:6 has to do with inflated prices and political conflict, but the hope in these passages is that there is a declaration from the throne of God that says “Chaos has boundaries and it is not allowed to touch the oil and the wine”. The rabbinical Jews believed that national or international conflict and chaos was a form of purging or preparing for messianic redemption. No wonder John said do not touch the oil and the wine.

No matter what you may be going through right now, never forget God has put boundaries on conflicts and chaos and has declared over your situation. Do not touch the oil and the wine in that person‘s life, in that nation, in that community, in that church, in that city. The boundary line has been set and will not be crossed so when the dust settles get ready because God is about to unlock the vats of oil and the barrels of wine inside of you.

I am in Katy Texas for a conference in which I will be speaking at this weekend. This morning, while sitting on the back porch, the Lord began to speak to me through Psalm 92 and as I was praying six white birds that look like doves flew in front of me. Nature has a way of communicating with the word of God is saying.

Psalm 92 says, declares steadfast love in the morning and faithfulness at night. Steadfast love is a devoted, loyal love that is not earned. Every morning the Lord is declaring his steadfast love to us. It’s a loyal enduring love that is expressed through action, especially within covenantal relationships. It is the Hebrew word chesed.

What I found interesting is that the word morning carries with it the symbolism of Hope, clarity, and renewal. The Lord is declaring he loves us steadfastly, and he wants us to know it in the morning because it will give us hope and this is not a Love that we earned. It is a love that brings clarity and a love that brings renewal.

But not only in the morning does the Lord make a decree, He also makes one at night. He declares his faithfulness at night. Faithfulness is reliable constantcy, in darkness or uncertainty. It means to be firm, trustworthy, reliable, it is not an internal conviction, but an external dependability. It is the Hebrew word, emunah. It is a relational word, a lived trust, not an abstract belief. It’s a statement that declares he never abandons and never breaks covenant.

When we don’t see his kindness because the morning has given way to night, we can always trust his faithfulness because he is always reliable. Psalm 92 says declare steadfast love in the morning and faithfulness at night. Our God is for us not against us whether we can see it or not.

There are many mysteries in the Word of God. Truths that seem like they are hidden, but they are not hidden they are mysteries to us, because we do not have the level of understanding they are unlocking for us. The Word of God is like a multi-dimensional puzzle, we want to skip dimensions, not realizing each dimension unlocks understanding into the next dimension of truth. The Lord is walking with us and continually inviting us into more understanding but it takes great humility and trust to unlock more truth.

A truth the Lord has been unlocking for me is that of how what we take from others is actually taking the same thing from ourselves. What we sow into others is actually being sown into ourselves. The Lord is revealing in many passages the damage we are doing to ourselves as we take from others what is not ours to take.

Proverbs 1 this morning established this truth yet again, “These men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.” When we take financially from others because of the greed in us, it actually keeps us in poverty, even though we believe we are in prosperity.

The mystery the Lord is unlocking is the truth that words we speak about others are actually either destroying or building us, based on whether we are edifying or tearing down others. When we speak fear, we are actually sowing fear inside of us. When we speak lies, we are actually planting lies in us. When we steal from others, we are actually stealing from ourselves as well. When we fornicate, we are actually doing violence to the other person and to ourselves.

God is revealing in many ways, through the Word of God the truth that what we are sowing in others is being sown into ourselves as well. This truth, comes with the fear of the Lord, for it causes us to really consider what we sow in others, when we realize it is sowing ourselves as well. We may not have realized what we were doing, but it is harvest time and the seeds sown are now been seen in many people.

The limitations called time do not apply to God. When you do not live in time you are not limited by time. Time is a construct given to the earth for the operation of life on earth. The sun, moon, stars were all given for us to understand time according to Genesis 1. God, however, is not limited by time, therefore, He is not intimidated or limited by time the way we are. The more we think like God, the less time will intimidate us or limit us.

Psalm 90:2 says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” God is eternal, God is all powerful, God is not limited in any way by anything. Is it any wonder we are called to have the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ breaks off all limitations, it removes all intimidation and opens us up to the idea of anything is possible, because now we are thinking like God.

I was thinking about an injustice done to a friend of mine. This injustice happened 18 years ago and has affected him ever since. The diagnosis is, he will never recover from the injustice done to him. But as I was sitting with the Lord this morning, the Lord revealed to me that 18 years may sound intimidating and confirming that the diagnosis will not change, but…

A woman with an issue of blood for 12 years was healed with one touch of His robe; a man with a 38 year infirmity was healed with one word from Jesus; a boy born blind was instantly given sight; a man dead for 4 days was brought back to life and his name is Lazarus. Time does not intimidate God nor does it validate infirmity cannot be healed.

I do not know how time is trying to intimidate you; how years are trying to say nothing will change; but as I sit with the One who is from everlasting to everlasting, I see Him unmoved by the time we live in on earth. When He speaks healing happens; when He touches issues dry up; and when He touches leprosy leaves. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is God.

In Judaism there is a season of time called the Counting of the Omer. This is the designated time of 50 days between the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Pentecost. During these 50 days, according to Leviticus 23, Israel was to count the omer, but what I didn’t know is what an omer is.

Religion has captured this time, ordained by the Lord and made it a religious activity of moving from freedom received at Passover to revelation received at Pentecost. But we all know it takes a lot more than 50 days to move from freedom to revelation, or we would be living in revival all day everyday. So, I dug deeper and what I found has brought such joy to me and I want to share it with you, because we are living in the days called the counting of the omer.

The omer is a dry measure, used to measure grain that has been removed from the stalk. A sheaf is a bundle of grain gathered during the barley harvest in Israel. Now listen to Leviticus 23 “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.”” This was a command from the Lord for all generations, they were to bring an omer from the sheaf they harvested. An omer is 1/10 of one sheaf or 2.3 liters in dry measure.

But listen to this, they were to count the omer for 50 days, this means they were to count the number of sheaves they gathered during harvest season. Think of it this way, it is like counting the number of hay bales you roll after cutting your field. Their harvest was so massive it took 50 days to count it and the Lord counted this a time of feasting and celebrating the harvest the Lord gave them. They sowed in the winter months after Tabernacles and were to count it in the spring.

I tell you all this, because right now we are in the counting of the omer, and we are to be counting the sheaves of blessings God has given to us for it is harvest time right now. Spring is the time of reaping the harvest. We are to be counting all the blessings God is giving us right now and it will take 50 days to count them all for that is how many He is giving right now. We need to repent of looking at all that is wrong and look at all that is going right, we have a lot of sheaves to be counting during this 50 days of counting the omer. It’s harvest season in the kingdom of God!!!!

The tekel test has been completed.

When I was a kid the only test I knew about was one I had to take in school. It brought a sense of dread for I did not know what would be asked on the test, I was concerned about the grade I would get and I was not one who liked to study, due to immaturity. All that to say, test, tests, testing, is not a word I associated with anything positive.

Since I have matured, been through Masters level education and now am an avid reader of the Word of God and lover of studying the scriptures, I love the idea of a test. The reason I love the idea of test is because I realize it is an indicator of where I am. This is not to shame me, but to locate me, so I can have a right estimation of myself.

God tests us all the time not to give us a pass or fail grade, but to prove to us how much we have grown, how much we can handle and how much we actually are carrying. Many Christians know Malachi 3 where it speaks of tithing and God says, test me in this. This word, test, means prove me as faithful to what I said I will do and who I am.

Well not only are we invited to prove God, God is wanting to prove us. The challenge is we do not always like the results of a test, because we do not really want to know the truth about where we are or who we are. We like living in a false reality, believing we are someone we are not. The challenge is, we and others know who we really are, whether we face this reality or not.

In prayer this morning I heard the Lord say, “The tekel test has been completed.” Tekel is the word found in Daniel 5 and it means to find the weight of something. God has completed the tekel test and has discovered the weight of our faith. This test was needed for what we are stepping into. Some have been found wanting, while others have been found faithful. Our faith is measured in weight and our weight class has been identified in the spirit.

We are seeing who the heavy weights of faith are, but we are also seeing who the light weights of faith are. This is not for shame or glory, but knowing our weight class is important. Most people think they are heavy weights in faith, but God has weighed them and has found them wanting something they haven’t worked for. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Hearing is not just listening but obeying and doing what you hear.

Many are strong in their knowledge, talent or finances, but they are weak in faith. As the heavy weights of faith are revealed they will attract a generation that is longing for something weightier than religion, for the kingdom of God is of the heavy weight class, while religion is of the light weight class. The tekel test has been completed and the weight classes have been identified and the ring is ready for the fight.