Category: Uncategorized

When we read our bibles, we come across verses that on the surface seem to be hard to understand, but when we lean into them they unlock insight into situations we may have never considered before. Most people don’t read the Old Testament because they don’t know the character of God, don’t know the culture of the East, and don’t have anyone to teach them what God is saying through Israel’s history and journey with God.

I was reading in Judges 1 this morning and I came across verses 6-7 that says, “Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adoni-bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me.” Now on first glance this verse may not have much meaning to the causal observer, but when we lean into it there is something powerful the Lord is saying.

If you cut off someone’s thumbs and big toes you render them limited at least, but unproductive for sure. Our thumbs and big toes are major players in our functioning as a body. If you can’t use your hands and your feet it hinders your ability to produce. Therefore, this act was done as a way to render this evil king unproductive in his pursuit of Israel in battle. Then to read this evil king did this exact thing to 70 other kings is insightful as well.

Some have said the thumb and big toe is representative of the apostolic ministry in the church. The 12 disciples were called the 12 apostles of Jesus. Paul was considered an apostle who carried the revelation message, Christ in you the hope of glory to the Gentiles. If the apostolic is cut off so is the spirit of wisdom and revelataion given to the church, which makes us unproductive.

I heard the spirit of God say, “I have given the church back their thumbs and big toes, the apostolic has been restored to the church”. Not everyone believes this, but it is the truth and the restoration of the apostolic to the church is increasing our productivity as the body of Christ. This is not a title, this is a function, and with the restoration of the apostolic comes the ability to function by design as a body. Thank you Lord for restoring the apostolic thumbs and big toes to your church and for removing the thumbs and big toes of our enemies. This is a bigger deal than many realize.

I don’t know what you are waiting for, but I am waiting for glory. I was reading Titus this morning and when I got to chapter 2 I was shouting Hallelujah, send your glory, I want to see your glory. Listen to what Paul says to Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:9-11)

Friends, some people are pointing you to look for gloom, but the Bible is pointing you to look for glory. I don’t know about you, but what I am looking for determines what I want to see. If I am looking for gloom and doom, I am going to see everything negative happening in the world. I am going to speak all the bad things I see. But, if I am looking for glory, I am going to see all the gold in the earth, in people, in the age in which we live. I am looking for glory, not gloom.

Moses said in Exodus 33, “Show me your glory!!!!” Ruth Heflin was a woman who was in pursuit of the glory. Everyone of her books has the word glory in the title. Revival Glory, Harvest Glory, Golden Glory, River Glory, she wanted to see the glory and so do I. Friends, pray for the glory to be manifested, the glory to be revealed, the glory to come. Jesus Christ is the glory of God and He lives in you. Can you see that you are a carrier of glory? It is time that we the church, ask for glory, look for glory, cry out for glory. It makes me shout “GLORY!”

Loving people, pulling the gold out of them and building them up not tearing them down is what we are called to do as believers in Jesus Christ. The Bible says “A bruised reed he will not crush, a smoldering wick he will not put out.” (Matthew 12:20). Jesus was a people builder. Everywhere He went He was raising the dead, casting out demons, healing the sick, giving recovery of sight to the blind, teaching the truth about the gospel of the kingdom, rebuking the devil and training the people of God to do the work of the ministry.

Jesus modeled what loving people looked like. He let women sit at His feet. He called fishermen, tax collectors and bible scholars to follow Him. He went to people’s home and ate meals. He taught in synagogues. He sat in boats and on mountain tops in order to liberate captive people. He would pray at night while others were sleeping and He would fast while others were eating. Jesus loved His Father and He loved people.

Insecure people manifest arrogance because they think so lowly of themselves, so they have to think more highly of themselves. Romans 12:3 says, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” When you see arrogance you are actually seeing insecurity.

Insecurity comes from being criticized and tore down in the formative and consecutive years, rather than being built up. Tearing down arrogance is not how we handle insecure people, building them up is how we handle them. Confident people are humble people, because they know who they are internally. They have been built inside strong.

When you meet people, listen to what they say, so you can either reinforce their confidence with words of life or build them ancient ruins others tore down with words of life. We are an Ephesians 4:29 people, “And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage others; do this by speaking words of grace to help them.” We are builders of people!

Time…it is a bigger word than any of us realize. I was driving home this morning from dropping something off and I saw a sign that said, “Make the most of today, for it will never happen again.”

Time is always moving forward and never looking back. We as people have been placed in an earth realm that is governed by time. We have times we regret, times we cherish, times we missed and times we will never forget. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, but not everyone uses their currency called time the same way.

The challenge with time is we cannot blame anyone else for what we chose to do with our time. We can explain ourselves, we can get mad at others or ourselves, but the truth is, time is a currency and we choose how we spend it everyday.

On March 24, 1994 in a Sunday night service in Smithton, MO, the people in attendance at that time, witnessed the power of God in a way that changed their lives forever. Those in that first service, were eye witnesses to what God did in what they thought was going to be an ordinary Sunday night service, but God had other plans.

There are moments in time when God chooses to do something with a group of people. We are not privy to it being on the calendar, it is spontaneous to us, but planned by God Himself. Those times happen and if we miss them we wished we had been there.

Friends, the apostles of Jesus, who began as disciples, said yes, when this rabbi, who was the Messiah, invited them to come follow Him. Everyone of them dropped what they were doing and followed immediately. This was the best decision of their lives in ways they could not see at the time.

I pray you do not miss moments in time where God comes down in a room of people and does creative miracles. I pray you spend your time on what has eternal value. I pray you prioritize what you value, so you are in the right place at the right time, for the kingdom of God is breaking into rooms in ways I have not seen since those days in Smithton, MO. It’s time!!!!

Wicked words are like airborne viruses that float in the atmosphere and attach themselves to people. Once attached they release poisonous venom which eats away at the person to which it has attached itself. Those words are powerful to tear down others.

Psalm 50 says, “You let your mouth loose in evil And your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you;I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God.”

As people we struggle to ward off these word curses that have gone airborne out of the mouths of others created in the image of God. These viruses enter into other people and causes illnesses of body, soul and spirit in the person who picked up this airborne virus.

We have two responsibilities as the body of Christ to ward off these airborne viruses. One we must make sure we are not a carrier for the venomous virus. James 3 says, “The tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” Two we must stand in the gap and remove the fiery darts others have been hit by.

The attacks have not stopped with a new leader, with a new year, with a new prophetic decree, the enemy is relentless in his assault, but we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus; righteousness is exalting the nation; and we are called to be the head and not the tail. It is time to shoot down the airborne viruses that are floating in the air over the ones we love.

There are memories locked inside of us on a cellular level that want to keep us in old cycles, old systems, old patterns, but God is unlocking us and setting the captive memories free. We may not view memories as captives, but they are, for they are locked up inside of us and they actually hinder our forward progress. Memories speak to us and seek to dictate how we speak and act. These memories are being set free from us, so we can walk in truth not past captive memories.

I see cells opening and memories fleeing, flying away. This mass exodus from inside of us is going to transform us in a way that will be revolutionary to us. Can you imagine living without traumatic memories? Without a painful history? Not when you die, but now while you are living. God is opening cells and setting captive memories free and this will liberate your body, your soul and your spirit. This is what being a new creation looks like, feels like and will be like.

Words are seeds and words come from many places one of which is the captive memories. Those memories have caused us to seed chaos, discord, division, death, debt, divorce, disaster, doom and gloom. Captive memories have been locked into dark cells, but God is setting those memories free, so we can speak peace over our seed and it is going to change everything we produce.

Zechariah 8 says, “But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘For there will be peace for the seed: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.” There will be peace for the seed!!!! When our seeds are sown from peace the result is a yield of the likes we have not seen before.

God is doing an internal cellular unlocking and when these captive memories are set free from you, peace will be your bodyguard and yield will be your reality. Let the unlocking begin!!!!

Our life is determined by our view. What we see either shrinks us or increases us. If we see a God that is manageable, controllable, limited, we will live a life that is like the God we see and serve. But if we see our God as awesome, majestic, holy, grand, elevated, we will live a life that matches the one we see and serve.

I was praying Psalm 48 this morning and it says, “Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth.” Immediately I was reminded of the day I went up to Mount Rainier in Seattle, WA with some friends from Minneapolis. They had come out to visit me while I was attending Bible college there.

We drove to the mountain and inside the state park we traversed toward the mountain winding around the park roads. There was no sight of the mountain as we were driving in the park, which was odd, for this is a huge mountain. However, we turned one corner and Mount Rainier came into view on a bright blue skied day and it was breathtaking in beauty.

The first words that came out of my mouth at the sight of this mountain was majestic. There were no words to describe what we saw, it was more than a sight it was an experience. It changed me forever, because now this beautiful mountain I looked at from a far for so many years, was now up close and personal and it was beautiful beyond description.

Many people have seen God from a far. We love the look of Him in the distance, but we are about to see Him up close and personal. We have been winding through the state park of the spirit and we know we are close to Him but we have not turned the corner that brings Him into view yet. Oh but when we do, we will cry out majestic, glory, holy, awesome. We will stand in awe at the one who we have only enjoyed from a far.

The sights, the sounds, the smells, the experience we are going to have with the mountain of the Lord as the chief of all the mountains (Isaiah 2) is going to change us forever. Our view will forever be changed as we see Him in a way we have never seen Him before. Everyone is going to be awakened in a fresh way by the sight of Yahweh.

I was walking into my bathroom to wash something out in the sink and someone’s face flashed into my spirit and the Holy Spirit said to me, “Many of my children are mad at me because they have not gotten what they wanted from me when the wanted it.” I came and sat down at my desk to ponder what the Lord just said to me.

I sat here thinking, if I got what I wanted when I wanted it, I would have missed out on what I needed, even when I didn’t know I needed it. We think we need money, a microphone, a ministry position, a certain job, whatever it may be we think we need, so when we don’t get it we pull away from God.

What if what you think you want or need is not what you actually need? I thought I needed one thing, but in the waiting for what I believe I am called to be, I have found what I longed for and did not even know it.

We were made for intimacy with God. We were made for community with people. We have the ability to hear the voice of God; to speak to and hear from the Living God; this is beyond what we can even comprehend. We have the living God inside of us. Selah.

When we think ministry, microphones, money, men, women, positions, titles, whatever it may be is more valuable than intimacy with God, we pursue those things and miss the most valuable person, position and wealth offered to us. Jesus Christ is what we long for. Intimacy is what we were made for. I have learned He holds back what I think I want in order to give me what He knows I need. I need Him, His presence, His voice and so do you. Nothing satisfies like Him.

I know some people are mad at God because they haven’t gotten whatever it is they think they want, but when we wake up, we will see He is what we long for and He is truly our hearts desire, for He alone is eternally satisfying. #Mondaymusings

Over the past few days the weather was predicted to be extremely volatile in our area. On Friday morning before the sun rose I was walking the dog and the eery silence was in the air, the calm before the storm. It was palpable in the atmosphere. The wind was beginning to pick up, the clouds were rolling in and everyone was on edge as the radar showed some significant weather that was headed our way.

Now this morning, before the sun rose I was again out walking the dog and the calm after the storm was palpable as well. However, this atmosphere was not eery but peaceful. The birds were singing, the gentle breeze was blowing, the moon was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. Two different days, same weekend and yet two completely different atmospheres.

Reading 1 John 2:8 this morning, the Lord reminded me of the difference in the days I felt and John penned it so well, “The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” If we build our theology on Friday’s weather, we will miss truth about Sunday’s weather. All day Saturday it rained off and on but the predictions that looked so promising and looming never landed with the punch they expected them to punch.

May we not be ones that build a theology around Friday’s weather, of darkness, death, gloom and doom, but may we be ones who build our lives, speak words and make decrees about Sunday’s truth. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the air is clear and Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. The darkness has passed, the true light is shining and the kingdom of God is at hand. The atmosphere has changed, now we must align our theology with that change.

When I first got saved, I would see a lot of pictures and those pictures would confirm where people were at in their life and it brought hope to them that God saw them, heard them and loved them. The picture might not have meant anything to me, but as I shared it with them, many times the tears would fall from their eyes as they knew what I saw was from God.

In our walk with the Lord the way He speaks to us changes over time, but He never leaves us with only one way of communication. He actually adds ways of communicating to us. We may have a dominant way of hearing, but He is always speaking, if we are listening, there is always something being said that lets us know He is with us in ways we may not even recognize.

While praying Psalm 45 this morning, I had a short film run through my spirit in which I saw people on horseback riding across the USA and I saw in their saddlebags a bible. As I was watching this in motion picture playing out in my spirit, the Holy Spirit said, “Those are the circuit riders of old and they are being released again across the earth again to bring the gospel of the kingdom.”

Psalm 45:4 says, “In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!”

I see circuit riders carrying the gospel of the kingdom all across the nation and the nations for the cause of truth. They are coming in meekness and will be people of righteousness. God is sending them out two by two in order to see people set free. The circuit riders have been released to advance the kingdom of God on earth again. I can hear the sound of their horses hooves coming to a city near you.