Lisa Great

Fear is a spirit that seeks to make you feel small, insignificant and powerless. Fear seeks to keep you paralyzed by what you see and hear, but the Bible says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) Fear is a weapon of the enemy because he knows better than we do how powerful we really are, because of Jesus Christ who lives inside of us. Remember we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Fear feeds on our lack of understanding of who God is. His nature, His ways, His character, His plans, His modes of operation. When we don’t understand someone, including God, we can misunderstand what they are doing and it can cause fear. But when we do know someone’s heart, someone’s character, someone’s nature, we do not question (as quickly or easily) what they do because we know them. When you know God you realize He is always working all things together for our good. What we see is not what it always appears to be. There is always a redemptive plan in motion, no matter what it may look like to the naked eye.

I was praying Psalm 76 this morning and it says, “You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; The earth feared and was still, When God arose to judgment, To deliver all the oppressed of the earth.” God’s judgment is to deliver the oppressed, not to condemn them. We are living in a time of God’s judgment, the judgment of God has been released from heaven, He has rendered a verdict and declared deliverance to the nations. He is dealing with the enemies of humanity and is setting us free. This is His nature, He is redemptive all the time. Therefore, there is nothing to fear, for the kingdom is here!

Can you see it? Can you hear it? Do you perceive it? God is dismantling the Babylonian system that has held us captive for more years than any of us realize. Do you realize how active God is in our day? We have been trained to look for revival, outpouring, harvest, but we don’t realize is, for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Yes that is a salvation verse, but not just so we can go to heaven, but so we can live an abundant life on earth. Did you know the Jewish people do not see salvation as something that we receive when we die, but something we experience on earth? When Jeremiah told the people of Israel they were going into Babylonia captivity for 70 years, he also said to them, “Thus says the Lord, for I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11). Why do you think people love this verse? Because we were made for salvation now, deliverance now, abundant life now, not just in the future. Salvation is a now word. Jesus is savior now!

We are living in a worldwide salvation moment in history of the likes we do not fully grasp. Yes shakings are happening, but it is the Babylonian system that is shaking. The structures of debt, death and destruction are being shaken, those systems that have kept us in bondage, God is shaking them. Prison doors are opening; Luke 4:18 is happening; captives are going free; demonic strongholds are falling; the gates of hell are not prevailing. Can you see it, can you hear it? God is intervening in our lives in a way we cannot even fully grasp, He is for us in ways we don’t even understand. His kindness is going to lead to a worldwide repentance beyond what we even know. God is judging the wicked, the mafia, the puppet masters, people we do not know their name or what they have done. God is shaking the systems of Babylon and setting us free.

Psalm 75 says, “God is the Judge: He puts down one, And exalts another. For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, And the wine is red; It is fully mixed, and He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth Drain and drink down. But I will declare forever, I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked I will also cut off, But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.” He is not doing this because of how “good” we are, He is doing it because of how Righteous He is! Lift up your eyes, your redemption draws near!

The devil is a copy cat not a creator. Anything you see the enemy doing, it is only a perverted, twisted, misaligned copy of God’s original. Recognizing the counterfeit can be challenging, if you do not know what the original looks like, sounds like, acts like. When I was 19 years old and unsure of what I was supposed to do with my life, I took a 9 month course in banking. One of the things I learned was to study the authentic bills, for if we had a strong eye for the authentic bills we would spot a counterfeit instantly, because our eyes were trained in the original, authentic bills. The same principle is true for us as believers, we are called to be studiers of the truth, the authentic, the real, the Word of God, the nature of God, the character of God, the ways of God, not the counterfeit. The challenge is most believers can tell you what is happening on the news but are uninformed about what is happening in the kingdom. When you are trained in the counterfeit you are easily deceived, but when you have a singleness of eye for the authentic the counterfeit is easy to spot.

For example, there has been a huge thrust in the church about knowing our identity in Christ, therefore, it should not surprise us the enemy has a counterfeit narrative in culture about identity. Transgenderism is an identity issue, homosexuality is an identity issue, it is the enemy creating a counterfeit identity as God is establishing authentic identity. Ezekiel 43 gives us another example, “I heard Him speaking to me from the temple, while a man stood beside me. And He said to me, Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.” The authentic is God has a temple and He sits on a throne in that temple to dwell among His people. What does the enemy do, he creates a counterfeit temple and puts an idol inside it, so he can dwell among the people. Copy cat, counterfeit. The devil cannot create anything, he can only copy.

Now to today, we have a banking crisis on our hands, people are going to become more and more fearful as this unfolds, but let me tell you the truth, it is a counterfeit financial system that is falling, not the authentic, or kingdom financial system. If you can see it as counterfeit you will not fear its fall but quietly celebrate it, knowing God is dealing with the counterfeits so people can see the original financial design He has for us. We are living in the days of Babylon falling and the kingdom rising, it is a great, historic day to be alive. Rejoice for your redemption is drawing near.

Yesterday in church Rick White, the leader of the youth worship team, at our church preached on a Cultural Storm. He quoted Matthew’s story of crossing over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee when a storm arose, but Jesus was sleeping in the boat. Rick described, with data, the cultural storm our youth are in. He spoke of suicide rates, the number of trans gender youth, fatherlesssness and a variety of other data points. It was not a pretty picture that was painted and he did it with tears in his eyes as he said, they like disciples in that boat, we crying out, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” He went on to say the church is the answer, we have the solution for this generation, but we must speak up and speak truth. It was a convicting message, as he exhorted us to speak to the storm in the lives of this generation with truth.

Then this morning I am reading Proverbs 13 and verse 24 says, “A refusal to correct is a refusal to love; love your children by disciplining them.” When I was a youth pastor, many years ago, I used to have parent meetings and I would tell them, kids know their loved when you put boundaries on them. I said, L-O-V-E are the four walls that keep them safe. Set the curfew, discipline the bad behavior, correct the attitude, you are not their friend, you are their mom, their dad and though they have many friends they only have one mom and one dad. The Lord reminded me of this today and I believe we have a generation that does not know they are loved and does not feel safe, for many reasons, but one is because we have given up disciplining them.

Not corporal punishment, discipline.

Hebrews 12:5-8 says, “have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves.”

I exhort you this morning in two things, one if you have children please discipline them for it shows them you love them; and two remember you are a child of God and if He disciplines you, submit to it, it truly does let you know you are loved, protected, that you have a Father that does not want you harmed in any way. Discipline is protection not rejection. He loves you!

In prayer this morning the Holy Spirit had me bind the spirit of poverty and loose the spirit of generosity and He said, “Generosity is what breaks the spirit of poverty.” This prayer was not directed at any one person, but rather felt corporate for the body of Christ. The spirit of poverty has kept the body of Christ as ones that give their tithe, maybe, help others now and then, but for the most part have a spirit of poverty. Believers have a mindset that says, if it is in my possession it is mine, I worked for it, I deserve it, I get to do with it whatever I want. Much of this is cultural and not biblical, but it is reality. We can hear of someone struggling financially and do nothing about it. It is as though we think they got themselves into that mess they need to get themselves out of it. The Holy Spirit said, this is how the spirit of poverty thinks, acts, responds.

Then I open to Proverbs 11 to read as today is March 11th and verse 24 says, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.” When the Holy Spirit says something to me in prayer and then echoes in the word right where I am reading for the day, I know it is something He is wanting to deal with in the body of Christ. The size of life is evidenced in the spirit from which we operate. If we have a spirit of poverty we live a small life no matter how much money, time, or possessions we have. If we have a spirit of generosity, we live a large life. When we look at our life, we can identify what spirit is in operation and if we don’t like what we see we can change it. If you are living small, give big and watch God expand your life in every way, if you are living big, keep giving, keep loving, keep manifesting, because it is evidence of a life of generosity.

What I see coming is a major shift from individuality to community. From cultural domination to kingdom manifestation. Acts 2:42-45 says, “They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.” This is not socialism this is the kingdom and this is where the body of Christ is going and how the body of Christ is about to go from a spirit of poverty to generosity. We are going from religion to the kingdom and it is going to be revolutionary.

In the West there are four seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter; in the East there are two seasons, Wet and Dry. Knowing what season it is determines what activity is required. The body of Christ has been in a dry season, but the dry season is a season of sowing, plowing, planting, it is a season of breaking up the unplowed ground, burning the last harvest residue, dealing with the soil. The dry season is when seeds are planted, ground is tilled, earth is moved. The dry season is when intercession is done, fasting happens, sowing of time, energy and money is consistent despite no return. The dry season is a season of preparation and sowing.

Many in the body of Christ have been in a dry season, a season of sowing, but with very little reaping, but that is because it has been a dry season. We need the dry season, we need time to plant, plow, prepare the ground. If we did not have a dry season we would not have the right conditions to sow seed. Paul said in Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap a harvest if we do not give up!” My friends, it has been a long dry season, but this morning, when I was sharing with the Lord my heart about seeds sown versus harvest seen, He showed me we have been in a dry season. He also showed me that the rainy season has already begun, but we are about to see an abundance of rain.

Ezekiel 34:26-27 says, “I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them.” It has begun to sprinkle, but there is about to be an abundance of rain, showers of blessings being poured out in this next season. The dry season has given way to the wet season and all those seeds sown, all that ground plowed, all those coffee dates, prayer meetings, worship events, they were seeds in the dry season and we are about to see increase of the likes that will have us dancing in the rain; singing in the rain; praising in the rain! My friends, I see the cloud the size of man’s hand, here comes the rain and there is no umbrella needed in this next season!

Invitations are sent out for a variety of things, from baby showers to weddings, from parties to job offers. It is only an invitation, the choice to attend whatever the invitation is for is ours. We are not forced to respond, we can accept the invitation or deny it for a variety of reasons. We do this in the natural all the time. Sometimes we say no we can’t go to something and then we see what happened in a place where we were invited and we wish we would have cleared our schedule to attend. Other times we cannot clear our schedule, we wanted to go but something else was planned. Invitations will continue to go out and we can choose to go or not go.

There are invitations that we may want to drop everything for, but to do that we must understand the value of the invitation. Proverbs 9 has such an invitation, “Lady Wisdom has built and furnished her home; it’s supported by seven hewn timbers. The banquet meal is ready to be served: lamb roasted, wine poured out, table set with silver and flowers. Having dismissed her serving maids, Lady Wisdom goes to town, stands in a prominent place,

and invites everyone within sound of her voice: Are you confused about life, don’t know what’s going on? Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me!

Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning.” Wisdom is inviting us to come for dinner, but many have had other plans for many years and then wonder why their life is so challenging, their relationships are not working, their finances are not prospering. When wisdom invites us to dinner, we must clear our schedules and go sit at her table.

Lady Wisdom has thrown more than one dinner party and she will throw another one. If you hear the invitation to come to one of her parties, I strongly encourage you to go, it is the best meal, the best fellowship, and the best advice you will ever receive, all at the table of Lady Wisdom. The fruit of this invitation is lasting, measurable, identifiable and desirable. It takes a while to manifest, but when it does, the fragrance of wisdom in you will be smelled by those around you. Lady Wisdom will teach you things you did not know and you will not want to get up from the table. The invitation is going out again to all who can hear, I pray you clear your schedule and go sit at Lady Wisdom’s table, you will be glad you did, I know I am.

Today is the day of deliverance. You may not see it manifest today, but I am here to declare today is a day of deliverance. How do i know? Because today is Purim, it the beginning of the three P holidays we are about to celebrate and God is about to do wonders among us that we could not even imagine. It all starts today, the day of deliverance. You see God works on His calendar, not on ours. Did you know an asteroid the size of 145 horses is to pass earth on Purim, according to NASA as reported in the Jerusalem Post? I quote, “A massive asteroid the size of 145 Clydesdale horses is heading toward earth on Tuesday (today) according to NASA’s asteroid tracker. This asteroid’s arrival comes as most of the Jewish world celebrates Purim, a Jewish holiday that – technically – involved horses at one specific point in the story.” If you want to know what God is saying and doing, we must be on God’s calendar. Today is a day of deliverance.

The second P we will be watching is Passover, we know the story of Exodus 14 when the “angel of death” passed over the houses with the blood on the doorposts while Israel was in Egypt. We are familiar with the Red Sea opening up so the nation of multiple millions of people could pass through on dry ground. And don’t forget Pharoh and his army drowned in the same sea that delivered Israel. Can I say it again for those in the back, we are in a day of deliverance.

The third P is Pentecost. Fifty days after Passover, fifty days, that means it was a wink to a Jubilee, for the number fifty is a nod to Jubilee, which is debt cancellation, land restoration and family reconciliation. Pentecost is the outpouring of God’s spirit on all flesh, it is sons and daughters prophesying. It is a day of deliverance and celebration. My friends this three P season we just entered today, is a day of deliverance of the likes that will blow your mind. I know you can’t see it, I know the news won’t let you hear it, but that doesn’t stop the truth. The truth is going to set us free, for God has designed 2023 to be the three P day of deliverance and it starts today on Purim 2023. It is truly a time to rejoice for our salvation is here!

The word of God is like being on a scavenger hunt. The more you read it, the more you find that you did not know. Then if you pray the word of God, there are things the Holy Spirit will teach you, the black ink on white pages cannot speak, but the Holy Spirit can. There is a such a wealth of wisdom, truth, power, authority, grace, revelation and mystery in the word of God. No wonder the enemy keeps us so busy we do not have “time” to read the word. Oh friends, there is so much to learn, so much to hear, so much to discover in the word of God. Read it, pray it, sing it, you will find treasures in it you did not know were there.

I was praying Psalm 66 this morning and when I prayed verse 3, the Holy Spirit began to share something with me that we need to here. Listen to verse 3 “Say to God, How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.” Now listen to what the Holy Spirit said, “When the enemy flexes, My people flinch, but the enemy has no strength, so My people have no need to flinch.” I was astounded, for the truth in this statement is so true. The enemy flexes against us all the time and if we were honest, we flinch a lot, not realizing the enemy has no strength.

The Holy Spirit said, “This is exactly what happened in 1 Samuel 17 when Goliath was taunting and ridiculing the armies of the living God. Goliath spoke and Israel flinched.” I just shook my head and said, you are absolutely correct, but then the Holy Spirit said, “When David came to the battle field, he did not flinch at the enemies flexing and the armies of Israel pursued their enemies and over took them.” The Holy Spirit concluded, “I have a David coming onto the battlefield and My people will not longer flinch when the enemy flexes.” Oh if you could have heard me shout! Church, God is about to reveal a David in our midst and we will no longer flinch, even though the enemy may flex, we are about to pursue, overtake and recover all!