Face To Face

Words are an understood form of communication. Written words, spoken words, pictures in words, songs are words, words are everywhere. Because we are so inundated with words, we use words as our main form of communication. We type words, we speak words, we hand write words, we pray in words, oh the power of words. I personally love words. However, I am learning there is a language that speaks louder than words and it is our face.

Proverbs 27:19 says “As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.” As people we reveal what is in our heart by what is on our face. Sadness is seen on the face; bitterness is seen on the face; disappointment is seen on the face; joy is seen on the face; peace is seen on the face; anger is seen on the face. I have been realizing money cannot hide what the face says; makeup cannot cover up what the face says; a mask cannot conceal what the face says.

I was at a Pumpkin Festival yesterday and there was a man in a Batman costume, he looked so amazing from a distance, but the closer I got to his face, the more I saw the wear and tear of life on his face, just from the nose down. It was amazing to me as the Lord has been having me look at people’s faces. We love Facebook, we love selfies, we love showing our face, or others don’t like showing their face at least not on social media. However, the point is our face is communicating how we are doing on a heart level.

Next time you look in the mirror, look at your face and listen to what it is saying, for you face can tell you what is going on with your heart that you may not be able to hear. If you don’t like what you see on your face, cry out for the Lord to create in you a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within you. For the Lord loves to communicate through words, this is why we have a Bible, but He also communicates through the face, that is why He says, seek my face!!!! This is why I look at your face when I speak to you, I want to see your heart and I want you to see mine. It’s called face to face communication.

It’s Not Dead, It’s Only Sleeping

Do you have a promise from God that has not come to pass? Those promises can be hard to hang on to for a long time, for disappointment fatigue sets in and tells us it will never come to pass. If we think waiting is hard when it comes to something God has said, imagine this…

Two sisters, Mary and Martha, have a brother who is sick and they tell Jesus. Jesus responds and says, “This illness does not lead to death.” (John 11:4) Hope comes whenever Jesus speaks. The two sisters believe Jesus that this sickness will not lead to death, but guess what, Lazarus died. Jesus told His disciples in John 11:14 “Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died.” What do you do with this? Jesus said the sickness will not lead to death and the dude is dead.

Talk about a trial of your faith. Jesus Himself said that Lazarus’ sickness would not lead to death, but the guy is dead. When Jesus arrives to the village where they are John 11 says, “Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.” The guy is dead, dead, but Jesus said this sickness would not lead to death. What do you do with this?

Some of us have a word from God that something is going to happen and yet that which God told you would not die has died. This is a hard place to be in. The voice of the enemy is loud in times like this, all the assaults on God’s character comes when a prayer is not answered; a promise looks like it is not kept. But friends, God is not a man that He should lie (Leviticus 23:19). I know it is hard, I know you believed and haven’t seen yet, I know you heard clearly but now you are starting to give up hope. But we are dealing with God not man.

Martha understands how you feel, she confronted Jesus and told Him, you said, but now He’s dead. She was hurt, mad, confused, she understands how you feel. But it is God we are dealing with here. Friends, God does not lie to us, that is why we can trust Him. I know what it looks like, but I am telling you if God said it, no matter what it looks like He is going to do what He promised. Don’t give up on God, you are going to see the glory of God in the land of living, just you watch. Just ask Mary and Martha.

Heart To Heart

The heart is the central command center of every human being. We are called to guard our heart for out of it all the issues of life flow – Solomon. We are also told that out of the abundance of our heart the mouth speaks – Jesus. The heart is where dreams come alive, where love is experienced, where pain is felt and where memories are stored. Everyone of us has a heart, many are broken, shattered, beaten down and broken’ others are closed, shut down, and walled off; but there are some that are soft, pliable, open, trusting, believing, and alive. Where is your heart today?

When we live life out of our head it is a defense mechanism so we do not get our heart broken again. The challenge is, intellecual, heady conversations do not penetrate people the way a heart does. A person with a big heart is called generous, passionate and joyful. Much of Christianity has been done from head to head; denomination to denomination; doctrine to doctrine; but Jesus Christ the author and perfector of our faith was a man of heart. He encountered the “heady” Pharisees and Saduccees, but He never stopped operating from His heart no matter who He encountered.

Do you know why blind people got healed, dead people were raised, lepers were cleansed and lame men walked? Because heady people walked right past them, but Jesus the heart God/man saw them, heard them and loved them. Jesus spoke to them from His heart and the heart of His Father and healed them. The heart is a powerful tool to bring healing to hurting, wounded, sick, bruised and battered people. Heads argue while hearts heal. If you meet a hurting/distant/angry person today, don’t go head to head with them, win them with your heart. Proverbs 25:15 says, “A soft tongue will break a bone.” Your heart has power to heal another persons heart, no matter how hard their heart may be.

Not Just Hearing Anymore

We live in a generation of people who have said a prayer but don’t know the Lord. They go to conferences, they attend revivals, they get baptized in water, they go to church, but they do not know the Lord. How can a whole generation of people, do all the right things and not know the One they are doing all the things for?

While in Charlotte, NC earlier this month, we went to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Headquarters. It was a powerful experience and I will never forget what I read, saw and heard while I was there. The thousands upon thousands of people who said a prayer with that man cannot be underestimated. Then I see on Facebook and Instagram, the crusades men and women are doing, baptisms that are happening on college campuses and mega churches with thousands of people sitting in the auditorium or stadium. Yet when finances get tight, when government acts funny or when a bad report is heard people act and talk like they don’t know God.

Friends, this is not how it is supposed to be, but I don’t blame anyone for this, other than to say, we have expected people to believe in a God they don’t know and we call it faith. We expect people to believe by faith but when they don’t see it come to pass, there is no establishing of the faith. Faith is wind, spirit, word, manifestation of what we have heard is how we know God is who He says He is and can do what He said He can do.

Ezekiel 37 says, “You shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.” God doesn’t expect us to only hear and never experience. Our God is not all talk no action. He knows words and manifestation are what establishes the knowing that He is God. We are about to see what God has said and people are going to know He is God and when they do, everything will change!!!!! Manifestation will establish what we have heard.

Location Matters

A before sunrise morning on one of the highest places in Franklin, TN at the office of Iris International, Heidi Baker’s ministry. We went to a meeting called Hour of Power with Barbara Jeter and the Nashville House of Prayer. It was a combination of location and voices that made this morning one I will not forget. From opening worship to the closing words of Will Hart the CEO of Iris Global, the presence of God was identifiable. 

I have been on top of this hill to this house before, my friend Sharon, knows the woman who built it with her husband. The internal walls have over 100 scriptures written in them, the brick pillars that anchor the gate at the entrance has Matthew 28:18 etched in them. The 360 degree view of our city is beyond words to describe and the gathering of the Esthers and Mordecai’s in that room was purely enjoyable. 

Everytime I am on this land the dreamer in me opens up wider than in any other place I stand. Whether it is the unobstructed view or the presence of God on the property, or a combination of both, I love coming here for it takes me beyond my natural thinking to dreaming dreams so much bigger than me. Today was no different. As we sang Shout to the Lord, it brought me back to dreams I was given by the Lord when I was first saved. When I walked the outer perimeter of the land, I lifted my hands and declared dreams only God knows I have. What a morning. 

I pray you lift up your eyes, for everyone is going from apathy to awakening to ambassadors. I am not sure where you are today, but shackles are coming off feet, scales are coming off eyes, and dreams are becoming decrees. And as Will said to Billy Gaines, you were on a tour bus, then you found yourself on a school bus, but God is putting you on tour again, but this time you are going international. Welcome to Beyond, there is no place I would rather be, you all and me. 

Welcome To New

What has been will not be again, we have entered into brand new days and brand new ways. Looking to the past for what is upon us will cause us to miss what God is doing among us. We must lean into love if we are going to see what God is doing right now. The days of the law are over, the days of love are here. The days of one foot in the old and one foot in the new have given way for me and you to enter in with both feet.

In the past Babylon and its system was only cut down, “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field.” (Daniel 4) In this new day, the system called Babylon is being uprooted and cast away. This is the new way says, Yahweh.

The days of things circling back to us are over, the days of kissing things goodbye, burning our ships on the shore, putting our hand to the plow and not looking back are here. The madness of the matrix is broken, the doorway to the new beginnings is here. This is not a coming soon, this is present and active reality. The hinderance is not around us, the hinderance is within us. Our belief systems is about to change significantly.

Just like going from rotary phones to smart phones, we are getting an upgrade of the likes we will love so much we will never go back to land lines or decieved minds. New teachers are rising, because new lessons need to be learned. New leaders are rising because new ground is being taken. We are truly going from glory to glory and the story we are telling is unfolding in real time and it was blow our mind. Welcome to all things are new.

The Waiters Are Coming

John 2 tells a story of a wedding happening that Jesus, His disciples and His mom were invited to. While at the wedding, Jesus’ mom heard a rumor that they had run out of wine. Mary then turns to Jesus and says, you can do something about this; she then turns to the servants and says, do whatever He tells you to do.

While reading this story last week the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, people have run out of things. Some have run out of patience waiting for the promise; others have run out of money to pay their bills; others have run out of tears to cry over that relationship; some have run out of opportunities to advance in their career; still others have run out of options to deal with their physical ailments. I do not know what you have run out of, but I do know that when we run out, that feeling of running out comes with shame. The enemy capitalizes on our running out.

I am here to deliver to you some good news, Jesus says to tell you, “THE WAITERS ARE COMING!” John 2 says, “Jesus came to the servers and instructed them, Fill the pots with water, right up to the very brim. Then he said, Now fill your pitchers and take them to the master of ceremonies.
And when they poured out their pitchers for the master of ceremonies to sample, the water had become wine! When he tasted the water that had become wine, the master of ceremonies was impressed with its quality.”

The waiters are coming with pitchers filled with what you have run out of, but they are not coming with just any resource, they are coming with quality resources in order to make sure you are not ashamed. Help is on the way my friends, you are not going to be embarrassed by this situation that has run out. Fear not, the Lord says to tell you, “THE WAITERS ARE COMING!!!!”

Time To Face The Judge

There is one word in scripture that people do not like to hear and that is judgment. We fear what we do not understand. Judgment is not condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, it is recompense, it is restitution, it is deliverance. The very word we fear is the very word we need. We need God to render a judgment on behalf of the saints.

I was praying with Psalm 50 this morning and it says, “Here he comes to judge his people! He summons his court with heaven and earth as his jury, saying, Gather all my devoted lovers, my godly ones whose hearts are one with me— those who have entered into my holy covenant by sacrifices upon the altar. And the heavens declare his justice: God himself will be their judge, and he will judge them with righteousness!”

Courtroom scenes in scripture are more common than most of us realize, because we serve a God of justice and He is Judge of the whole earth. The challenge is we view the Judge as one who will cause us harm rather than help us. Jesus shares a story of an unjust judge who did not render a correct verdict for a widow in Luke 18. Our God loves justice and He sits as judge in order to render a verdict on our behalf.

As I prayed Psalm 50 the presence of God wafted into the room and overwhelmed me as I said, “Judge me, O God!” First I was afraid of what that would mean, but as I sat in His presence, the fear turned to favor as the presence of God rendered a judgment on my behalf. His gavel hit the judges bench with a verdict that liberates, exonerates and penetrates everything inside of me.

Friends, the Judge is for you not against you, but you must stand before His bench and in authenticity ask Him to judge you. You will be overwhelmed and probably surprised by what the Judge decrees. But you won’t know Him as Judge who is for you until you stand in front of Him as Judge of you. Enter His courtroom, there are cases He wants to try but you must be present to hear the verdict.

We Need Fathers

Living in a culture that emasculates men, vilifies men and dishonors men, but then asks the question why do we have an identity crisis on our hands, is ironic at best. It may behoove us to recognize it is because identity comes from the father. When we support men being women, homosexuality as a viable lifestyle, pornography and adultery as okay and then wonder why we have so many eligible single women, so many fatherless children, so many narcissistic people, and so much trauma drama. We think all of this is new to our culture, our generation, but it is not. 

The apostle Paul addressed all of these issues in his letters to the Corinthians and if we understood what was really happening in the Corinthian culture, we would not call America Babylon, but that’s for another blog. Paul addresses the sexual immorality issue head on, and the apostle John speaks to the identity issue coming from the father. Friends, we need healthy men, we need men who know who they are. We need fathers who know who they are in Christ, so whole families can come into the kingdom. 

It all starts with identity and if you did not have a healthy father, your identity is probably fractured and yet someone has to stop the trauma train and seek the Lord, so the glory train of knowing who you are in Christ can run for generations to come. You can’t change what you were given but you can change what you pass on. 

John 8 speaks of a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees and Jesus says, “For I absolutely know who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m going. But you Pharisees have no idea about what I’m saying.” They didn’t know who Jesus was, because they didn’t know who His father was. Jews trace identity back to the father. So Jesus says, “What I say about who I am is true, for I am not alone in my testimony—my Father is the other witness, and we testify together of the truth.”

In Israel men were called son of ______ (their father’s name), no wonder Jesus called Himself the son of God, for God is His father. Friends, we need fathers, for they release to us our identity. Men we need you to be honorable, humble, pursuers of God and His truth, valiant warriors and defenders of truth on earth as it is in heaven. When fathers stand up, identity in the children will be restored. We need men to be fathers for fathers instill identity and identity removes insecurity. 

Who Said?

Who told you there is not enough to go around? Who taught you to believe in lack rather than abundance? Who said if you give it away it won’t come back to you? Who said? Who told you? It wasn’t the word of God; it wasn’t Jesus; so who said, who told you?

People have a lack mentality individually, corporately and nationally. It is this idea there is not enough to go around, who said? No seriously, who said? The climate change narrative? The 24 hour news? Some book, some man or woman wrote? Some podcast, YouTube/Rumble video you watched? Some X thread you read? Who said? Who told you?

The reason I am asking this question is because I was reading John 6 this morning and the Holy Spirit hovered over verses 11-12 which say, “Jesus then took the barley loaves and the fish and gave thanks to God. He then gave it to the disciples to distribute to the people. Miraculously, the food multiplied, with everyone eating as much as they wanted! When everyone was satisfied, Jesus told his disciples, Now go back and gather up the pieces left over so that nothing will be wasted.”

It was the Feast of Passover, which is a barley feast, of which all males of Israel were required to attend and to bring an offering with them. Here is a young boy with five barley loaves and two fish in a crowd of 5,000. The disciples take his food (lunch/offering/both we don’t know what he was doing with these supplies) and give it to Jesus, who gives thanks, gives it back to the disciples, who give it to the crowd, and then who gather up 12 basketfuls as leftovers. Friends, there is no lack in the kingdom of God.

We call ourselves believers, but we must start asking ourselves who do we believe? That is why I said who said? We need to repent of believing the reports of people over the words of God. Our God is abundance, there is no lack, not now, not then, not ever. He never runs out. So, it is time to repent of believing the lies of men who say there is not enough and start believing our God who says, there is more than enough for everyone to be satisfied and we will even have leftovers in the kingdom of God!