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Never Diminishing

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When I was a camp counselor in Park River, ND under the leadership of Rod Crystal Lundeen Quanbeck, we would have to make announcements to the campers and we had a way we said it, but it was always a call to hear announcements, announcements, announcements. I can hear that little tune in my head even now as I write this. It is amazing how some memories will be with us forever and pop up in the most unseemingly unusual times. I loved working at that camp, it was a summer I will never forget. I wonder if I am remembering this today, because my son leaves for his first summer camp this afternoon, oh the memories he will make just like I did as a counselor in that ever so remote city in North Dakota.

I said all that to say, the Bible releases announcements of good news every time we read it. Whether from a passage we have read over and over again or from some place we have not frequented as much. Today I was praying Psalm 23 and the Lord had me dig into the word want. So often we think we know what a word means, but there is depth in words, there are pathways in words, there are discoveries, treasures and truths in words that unlock us if we lean into them. Psalm 23:1 says, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We know this verse, but do we know this verse. I didn’t until right now.

To not want in the Hebrew means, to not lack, to not decrease, to not diminish, to not be deprived, to not fail, to not make lower, to not have need. Oh my goodness, when the Lord is your Shepherd, the good Shepherd of John 10, when we make Him our Shepherd, we will not lack, fail, diminish, decrease. This is powerful, when the Lord is our Shepherd there is no fear of failing, falling back, diminishing. When the Lord is our Shepherd we continually increase, we win, we are ever ascending, this is such good news. We set goals and fail, because we want to be our own shepherd, so we go to conferences to learn how to be a better me, but the Bible says, all you need is a Shepherd. He will lead you and as you follow His voice you will not want!!! Being a sheep has incredible benefits if we are willing to let Jesus be our Shepherd. We get to be sheep, bah, bah, bah, bah and we shall not want.

What Time Is It?

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To us who are temporal 70-80-90-100 years feels like a long time and the older we get it feels like a short time. Have you ever realized people talk about, wrestle with and do no understand time more than any other thing? Time is an earthy construct that if we do not have an understanding of it, we will create a theology around it that suits our temporal time on earth, rather than God’s big picture understanding of eternity. Our time on earth is only one piece in a very large puzzle. Our piece of the puzzle is very valuable to us, because it is our piece. Our generation is not the puzzle, we are not the capstone, we are not the apex of time, we are only one piece. We are an important piece, but we are only one piece. We must get a grasp on time if we are going to be effective for the eternal plan of God.

Doctrines, theologies, philosphies are all spoken in time but they go throughout the ages. The more off we are in our theology, because we do not understand time, the more we restrict those coming after us. We serve a God who loves legacy. He spoke about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, legacy has always been God’s eternal plan. He spoke to prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah and Zechariah about a Messiah they would never see or hear with their natural eyes and ears. They spoke, but it did not manifest for many many years. Our words outlast us in ways we do not understand.

We were born into the construct of other people’s words. We must dismantle theologies that were spoken out of fear, were created with only their time in mind and were established on faulty foundations. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, He is a now God, now is the time we do not understand because of fear and ego. Is it any wonder Jesus said, we must deny ourselves in order to follow Him. We serve a now time God. Yes He was in the past, He is in the future, but that is because He is a now time God and now, today is the day of salvation. Contentment comes from living in the now, now is a construct of time, we must learn if we are going to fulfill the purposes of God in our generation. Now, now, now is where we live. We need to be mantled with NOW.

Stones That Sparkle In The Land

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Language has a beauty to it that makes the heart smile. Words have the power to lift us up, build us up, encourage us and send us out to do great exploits. When Jesus had a woman caught in adultery thrown at His feet by the religious leaders of His day, He said, “Whoever is without sin, cast the first stone.” The story goes on to say, starting with the oldest to the youngest they all dropped their stones and walked away from that woman. Jesus had a way of building up people who religious leaders found as an easy target to tear down.

While reading Zechariah 9 this morning, the wording caught my heart by surprise and caused me to pause and ponder the beauty of the language chosen to describe a people who lived in a desert land called Israel. “They are as the stones of a crown, Sparkling in His land.” The they in this passage is a refrence to the people called israel, the land is the actual land called Israel. What most don’t know is Israel is predominantly desert land, so for the Lord to call them stones sparkling in His land is a powerful image. Because they are stones of a crown, that word stones can be translated as jewels. Rubies, diamonds, emeralds, jaspers, sapphires, and any other precious stone you can think of.

What a connection this is, Jesus said He who is without sin cast the first stone, and the Zechariah prophesies, these are stones of a crown sparkling in His land. My friends, take another look at the stones you want to throw at another person in the body of Christ and realize just like you, that person is a precious jewel in the crown of God. Can you see them as a diamond, emerald, sapphire or ruby? If you can you will not want to stone them to death for their sin, for missing the mark, you will want to see them sparkle in the land of the living. Your words either cast them down or lift them up. I see stones of a crown, sparkling in the land we call earth. Can you see them?

I See A Victory

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The spirit realm is extremely active. Movement is everywhere. It is not frantic or panicked movement, it is activity, strategic organization, movement. It can likened to people making final preparations for what is coming. I can’t even find words for it, other than active. Many moving parts happening in the spirt and it is all for the good news of the gospel of kingdom’s advancement in the earth and the glory of the Lord God Almighty through humanity. Oh how I wish I could describe it.

I speak of what I see so you can look past the present reality to a future reality that has been planned for a long time and is now about to manifest among us. The enemy sees the signs of the future often quicker than many believers do, because it takes spiritual eyes to see spiritual things. Remember the enemy is a spirit, a demonic spirit, but a spirit nonetheless and he wants to disrupt, thwart or delay what God is doing, but nothing will stop what is coming from heaven to earth, nothing, no one.

Many, I mean many, prophets, leaders and well-known people are all saying the same thing. A shaking is coming to the nations. But they all agree, the shaking is for the making of the new era, the new day, the new nations God designed from the beginning. Matthew 24 says, as in the days of Noah, what were the days of Noah, days of a new beginning on earth – Genesis 8. We are living in these kinds of days again. New beginning days, full circle days, but it is coming with a shaking. What will it look like, sound like, feel like, I have no idea, but Hebrews 12:28-29 says what will remain is that which cannot be shaken.

With all of this in mind, Psalm 20:7-8 really speaks clearly, “Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God. They have bowed down and fallen, But we have risen and stood upright.” It is a day of boasting in our God, for the enemy is bowing God is arising.

Temporal or Eternal? What Do You Want

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When we meet people, read about people or hear about people who have a relationship with God, a knowledge of God or an understanding of God that we don’t it is not to shame us, it is to encourage us there is more we do not know about God. Their love, passion, pursuit of God is an invitation from God to learn more about Him.

I was reading Psalm 19 this morning and the psalmist wrote about six different aspects of God’s word when he said…the law of the Lord; the testimony of the Lord; the precepts of the Lord; the commandments of the Lord; the fear of the Lord; the judgments of the Lord. To Christians nowadays the words, law, commandments, fear and judgements would cause us to put up walls, walk away in fear and not want to draw near to a God like this. But listen to what the psalmist said immediately after these six statements. “They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.” The psalmist knows something about the word of God and the nature of God most believers are unaware of. We have so much to learn.

I went to a church in The Woodlands, TX yesterday and for Father’s Day they had a car show outside with a variety of different cars. One car I wanted to see up close was the Rolls Royce, it was legit luxury. I met the owner, not of the one I was sitting in, but also of the other two he owned and were on site as well. He said to me, he came from poverty and now look at me. It wasn’t arrogance, it was reality. I smiled and said, yes sir, you have come a long way. He was proud of those vehicles. I was honored to sit in that car, which costs the same as houses in TN, a lot of money. Then I read Psalm 19 this morning and I realize, we highly value the temporal, but the psalmist highly valued the eternal word of God. I enjoyed the Rolls Royce, but it is going to wear out, break down and its only temporal, but as I read the word of God this morning, I am thankful for the eternal Word that is legit truth that sets us free!

Medicine From Heaven

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We who believe in Jesus Christ know that one of His names is Jehovah Rapha, He is the great physcian. He can and does heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper and still casts out demons. Our God is alive, living, seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly realms. He is the alpha and omega, that means He is the beginning of a thing and the end of it as well. He is sovereign, all-knowing, and all powerful. He is God alone and there is none like Him. Because of who He is, we are who we are, for we are created as a shadow, a direct representation of who He is. We are image bearers of the Great I Am; we are ambassadors of Christ; we are children of the Most High God.

All of this truth is what caused Proverbs 17:22 to have such an impact on me this morning as I sit here in Conroe, TX with the Lord. Here is what Solomon said, “A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.” Joy is medicine, it heals us in ways nothing else can. Proverbs 16 says, “In the presence of God there is fullness of joy.” With so many people in the body of Christ sick both physically and emotionally, I sense this morning God is about to give us a prescription for joy. Joy is medicine from heaven that heals deep places in our soul, spirit and body. Joy is the answer to our deepest problems, but joy is not circumstantial, joy is the presence of a person, joy is the presence of God.

Many hearts are broken, bruised and have been beaten up, the reasons for this are wide and varied, but I prophecy to you today, joy is our medicine from heaven and it is going to heal us in such a deep way. Joy is not an emotion, it is the presence of God. Joy will evoke emotion, but it is not an emotion. Healing is coming to the church on so many levels and I believe it is coming as joy, for it is medicine from heaven to heal us and we have tried so many other ways to be healed, yet are still sick, so I believe God is about to innoculate us with joy and we are going to get healed and then release healing to others and it will be the medicine called joy!!!!

The Choice Is Yours

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I spent 19 years pursuing the counterfeit thinking somehow, someway it was going to meet my need, satisfy my desire, heal my pain. I kept going back for another drink of that bottle, another hit on that pipe, another encounter with a man, only to leave empty every time. Yet somehow, the cycle of death would not let me go, it kept convincing me the counterfeit, if given another chance, would produce the results it promised, but over and over again, I received the same results, nothing the counterfeit offered brought about any change in my life. I became more and more numb, until I could literally not feel anymore, so thought what is the point of anything.

The counterfeit will have you continually coming back for more, while the authentic will fill you to overflow and produce in you a gratitude that will keep you full.

The authentic is legit, it does not lie, for the authentic is Jesus Christ, the God man, who came in the flesh to die for the sins of the world. He is the only way, the only truth and the only life, there is literally no other way to the Father of lights, but through Jesus Christ the son. It is a one way, narrow way, but it is the authentic way and when you surrender to His way, you will truly want no other way. Psalm 16 says, “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” It is the cycle of life and Jesus Christ is the gift that keeps on giving.

If you want to get out of the cycle of life you can, but it takes a choice. I made my choice when I was 19 years old, I am now 53 and I am so thankful everyday for that decision I made so many years ago. When you make the choice it does not matter, but making the choice is literally a life and death decision. You can choose life right now, but it is your choice. It is not one time choice, it is a daily choice to live. You were created for life, but you must choose life. Death is an enemy, not an ally. The Bible says, the grave is one of the four things that never says enough, death will continually seek to keep you in the cycle of death, but Jesus is inviting you into life. Today, I pray you choose life, whether you are a Christian or not, today is the day of salvation, choose life and get in the cycle of life!!!!

Unlock For The Walk

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When we know the why behind the what it gives us understanding and removes frustration. When we see the what but don’t understand the why, it can challenge us to the point of not wanting to be involved in that which God has invited us into. We see this in community, family, marriage, work enviornments, churches, cities, nations. People see the what, but if they are not aware of the why, they don’t understand and cannot add value to the what because they don’t understand the why. As leaders we need to be crystal clear in our communication about the why so when people see the what, they can partner with what is being done, what is being asked and what is being built.

God is the most prolific communicator any of us will ever encounter. Now learning His language, character, nature takes time, so there are challenges even with God, not because He is not good, but because we don’t know Him well enough to understand all He is doing unless we invest copious amounts of time learning to hear His voice, see His signs, sense His movements. But when you begin to get in a rhythm with the voice of God, you will start to hear and see puzzle pieces that reveal a picture of the likes we could not have seen or heard if someone had told us. Now with all that said, here is what the Lord spoke to me this morning while praying Psalm 15. “I AM UNLOCKING HUMANITY SO THEY CAN WALK WITH DIVINITY.”

The enemy has bound us, imprisoned us, taken us captive through deceptive philosophies, well crafted arguments, sickness, disease, temptation that leads to sin and ignorance, but God is unlocking us, delivering us, setting us free. Psalm 15 says, “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart.” God is inviting us into integrity, righteousness and truth for that is the code that unlocks humanity in order to walk with divinity. My friends, we are going through a door into a world we have only heard about but are about to see, touch, taste and hear. We are being unlocked in order to walk with God again!!!

Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On

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Prophetic people love the numbers 222/2222. Many go to Isaiah 22:22 which says, “Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.” This verse becomes a prophecy about keys, God is giving us the keys to open and to close. Others go to Revelation 22:2 and receive it as a sign of healing for it says, “In the middle of its street, either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” I have come to believe every 222 or 2222 scripture we love to quote is a nod to Jesus. For He is the key of the house of David; He is the tree of life; He is the healing of the nations. So, when I find a 222 or 2222 sign God highlights to me, it reminds me of Jesus and who He is.

Today I was reading Haggai 2:22 and it is not a frequently quoted 222 verse, but it does carry promises I believe are happening right now in our midst, we can feel them but not necessarily see them…yet. “I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.” Haggai is releasing a prophetic word of encouragement to the exiles who returned from Babylon and were rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem as stated in Ezra 4. This is a word of encouragement because it was a nod to what God did to Pharoh when Israel exited Egypt. I believe it is a word of encouragement for us today as well.

Church, God is shaking the heavens, not to harm us, but to help us. There have been powers, principalities and rulers in the heavenly realm orchestrating rulership through people in the earth realm and the Lord has been watching it for decades, but has decided in His sovereignty during our lifetime to shake them out of the heavens again, overthrow them again, and rescue us as the nations from their grip again. We are in the midst of a rescue mission from an enemy we did not even know we were under. Yahweh is doing this, Yeshua is restoring nations to righteousness, Jehovah alone is behind the shaking. I can’t say it enough, be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). When the dust settles we will see the King of Righteousness was behind the shaking and we will celebrate!

Access Denied

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Love does not mean access! This is what the Lord said to me as I was reading Ezra this morning. He said, “You can love your enemies without giving them access to you and what you are building.” Enemies appear helpful in order to gain access, but once access is denied we will see they are an enemy and not an ally. Enemies can masquerade as polite, helpful, or even beneficial for a moment, but tell them no and you will see they are still an enemy.

Now listen to Ezra 4:1-3 “Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”

The church hears the word enemy and immediately hears the words of Jesus, “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) Then we argue in our heads with the words, “Love does not mean access.” Jesus was speaking in the context of the beatitudes in Luke, the parallel passages are in Matthew 5. The kingdom of God does not hate its enemies, like the world hates those who do not agree with them, align with them or do what they say. The kingdom of God can say no to their enemies when it comes to access but still love them. This is hard for a humanistic culture, because we equate love with access, but 1 Corinthians 13 says, “Love protects!” When you love someone you protect them from the enemy that comes to steal, kill and destroy them (John 10:10). This is why love does not mean access.