Lisa Great

We must leave the last season, no more dragging our feet, no more resistance to the new season that is here. Some say it takes the church 40-50 years to change, but we have a God who does in a moment what takes man a lifetime to do.

We have been dwelling, lingering in one side of a verse and God is saying it is time to move to the reality of the other side of the verse. Here is what He is showing me.

Prophetic people have spent time prophesying to the Ezekiel 37 dry bones, but the Lord says it is time because, “I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.” It’s time to lead a great army.

Pastoral people have spent time preaching the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, the need for the forgiveness of sins, but the Lord is saying, now it is time to preach to people Matthew 28 “Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.” It’s time to preach a resurrected Christ not a crucified one.

Apostolic people have spent time building church buildings, but it is time for them to start building people inside strong with the truth that Paul spoke of in Colossians 1 “God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you.” It’s time to build the people of God who are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Same bible, different message. The days of weeping are over, the days of exuberant praise are here. Our message must match what the Spirit is saying to the church. We must become what we read, it is time to manifest who God says we are. It’s a great day to be alive.

My husband did a word of exhoration this week on being a gap stander according to Ezekiel 22:30, where it says, I looked for a man to stand in the gap on behalf of a nation, a people. His exhortation was for us to stand in the gap and repair the breach, rebuild the wall, call them home.

As I was praying this morning I heard in the spirit the words, “RETURN NOW” they were loud, they were in command tone. It was an atmospheric announcement to those who have walked away, strayed away, stepped away from what was once valuable to them.

Immediately after hearing the call to “return now” I heard the Holy Spirit say to those who would be on the receiving end of their return, “NO SHAME, NO CONDEMNATION, NO CONVERSATION, ONLY CELEBRATION!” Again it was in a command tone to those who be receiving those who are returning. Then as I was pondering these words, the Lord brought me to the story in Luke 15.

“He returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.”

Friends, some are hearing “return now” and they will be coming back, but others are needing to hear, “no shame, no condemnation, no conversation.” These people need to be able to come home to a celebration of their return, not a conversation about why they left.

In a self-help world, this sounds unhealthy, but in the kingdom of God, this is how healing happens for all. No shame, no condemnation, no conversation, only celebration. Prepare the place for a party, for the Lord has sent out the message, “return now!” Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Did you know that dynamite has a long shelf life? It can sit on a shelf for a long time and not lose its power. The length of time on the shelf for dynamite does not diminish its power, though it may sit there waiting year after year after year.

Did you know the word of God is like dynamite, it may sit on the shelf of your bookcase, or in the holder on the pew in front of you at church, or on the app on your phone. It may sit there, but it does not lose any of its power, no matter how long it sits there.

The only thing dynamite is waiting for is a detonator. What if you are the detonator that will unleash the power of God’s word in someone else’s life? What if they’re filled with power, but they need a detonator? Dynamite will sit there, full of power, but unable to operate by design until it is detonated.

Jeremiah 23:28-29 says “Let these false prophets tell their dreams, but let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between straw and grain! Does not my word burn like fire? says the LORD. Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?”

The word of God is powerful, it is explosive, but it is not destructive, it is reconstructive. We are the detonators that release the power of the word of God. As we open our mouth and prophesy the word of God, pray the word of God and preach the word of God, we detonate the explosive power of God’s word in people’s lives.

What if you are the detonators that people are waiting for? What if they are powerful, anointed, prepared for purpose, and you will be the spark that activates the power in them and through them? Everybody wants to be dynamite and you are, but you are also a detonator for others. May we detonate the power of God inside of each other, by speaking the word of God over each other. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

I have a friend of mine named Carmen, who shared with me one time that we affect our development emotionally if we do not learn to crawl before we are forced to walk. Crawling is an essential part of our development as people.

We as the body of Christ have been crawling for a long time, for God has brought us through some deep valleys, across some rough rivers, and led us through some dry wildernesses. But it was all needed for our development.

Now it is time to not just walk, but to run. Not for the sake of speed, but as a sign of wisdom that was gained in the early developmental stages of the body of Christ. We cannot remain on our knees crawling along through life, we must stand up on our feet.

The apostles and prophets understood the call to stand up. The prophet Ezekiel said when he encountered the spirit of God he fell face down and the Spirit of God told him to stand up, so he could speak to him. The apostle Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 6 to stand and keep on standing. The apostle John saw visions of God and fell down, but the angel told him to stand up. There is biblical precedence for us to stand up.

We are being invited to the next stage of our development as the body of Christ, it is time to stand up; To walk; and to run. Stand in your identity, walk in your authority and run with wisdom. Proverbs 4:11-13 says, “I will teach you wisdom’s ways and lead you in straight paths. When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble. Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.”

Friends progressing through development is what freedom feels like. Stand up, we have ground to take, people to serve, love to give and receive. Crawling felt like mobility, but wait until you start walking and then running, it is a whole new way of advancing the kingdom of God together. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

There was a trend for a while when students would paint rocks and put nice sayings or scripture verses on them and leave them in various locations. Those rocks you may have walked passed and didn’t know it, or you may have seen them and know what I am talking about.

This morning, I was at the park very early this morning walking the dog and as I was praying and processing out loud with the Lord, I began to thank Him as He revealed to me what He was doing in a challenge I am facing. As the praise rose from my heart out the doors of my lips, I saw a rock with blue paint on it and wondered what the saying on it was.

The rock said, “The pain that you’ve been feeling can’t compare to the joy that is coming. Romans 8:18.” I grabbed that rock and knew it was a word of encouragement for me and added value to the praise I was giving to the Lord for the challenge I have been facing.

Once home, still smiling at the rock the Lord put on my path, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Even the rocks cry out!” I giggled and began to sing a new song to the Lord saying, Yes, even the rocks cry out the truth of God, yes even the rocks cry out.

Friends, I do not know what you are going through, but I am here to remind you that even the rocks cry out on your path to encourage you that God sees everything, hears everything and works everything together for the good. It may not feel good, but it is working things together for the good. Maybe you need to hear the voice of the rock crying out, like I did, so this one is for you as it was for me as well.

Trauma, grief, pain, it is real, it hurts, it is a loss that is hard to process, but my friends, they all must have an expiration date on them. Trauma was not supposed to become an identity; grief was never to be long-lasting; pain is not meant to remain. When we make a culture out of these issues we face, we actually perpetuate, normalize and continue in them, rather than process through them so we can come out on the other side of them.

Biblically the Hebrew people were told to grieve seven days for someone that died, seven days. God put an expiration date on grief. Why? Because grieving past the expiration date causes more issues than we even realize or recognize. Trauma is a bad memory we keep playing over and over again in our head. If we never process through the trauma we will continue to self-sabotage our relationships with new people in our lives. Friends, we must have an end date for these issues.

We have created a counseling culture in which now it is normal to say I am triggered; I have trauma; and it is real, no doubt about it, but when is the expiration date on these issues? Israel struggled with the same thing, they have four months a year that were fasting months to mourn past memories that we very challenging for them nationally and personally. But God said through the prophet Zechariah, those things you are mourning have expired and God gave a new command.

Zechariah 8:18-19 “The word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”

God is wanting to turn our mourning into dancing, our sackcloth into joy, but we want to hang on to past seasons, past hurts, past experiences and they are hindering us in the now that God is inviting us to enjoy. The hurt is real, the memory is legit, the trauma happened, I know, but friends, when are we going to start living again? When are we going to start loving again? When are we going to start enjoying the new people in our life now who didn’t do that to us? We can’t change the past, so when are we going to let it go, so we can live, feast, fellowship and follow the Lord into the abundance of everything He has for us? Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

The sound of the shofar is being blown in the spirit, but what if it is not a call to war, but a call to praise? What if we are so used to battles, wars, survival, selfishness, tightening the belt, battening down the hatches, hiding, that we don’t know what to do with the sound we are hearing, because we are assuming it is the same sound sending the same message? 

We as people are pattern people. We get into patterns of behavior, patterns of operation and honestly we make a lot of assumptions about sounds, situations and people. We think we know what the sound means, what their intentions or motives are, or even why this or that is happening. The reason being is historically this is what the pattern has been. But friends, God is breaking rank with old patterns in a massive way. 

We may be hearing similar or even the same sounds, but they mean something completely different now. Listen to Pslam 150 as it pertains to the sound of the ram’s horn, which historically was a call to battle, but now is a call to something else. “Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn.” 

The sound of the shofar is being blown in the spirit, but it is not a call to war, it is a call to praise, a call to rejoice, a call to celebrate. We must learn to discern the new day we are in. This move of God is so good, we don’t even recognize it, because we have so many historically negative things we have encountered, we resist the blessing being given to us. Listen again, yes it’s the same sound, but it is sending a different message. Rejoice, praise, celebrate, this is what the sound of the shofar is saying for such a time as this. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

There are so many priorities in the church. Depending on where you go, will determine what the priority is. None of them is wrong, but very few of them, if any of them are prioritizing what the Lord wants prioritized. Worship is a priority, preaching is a priority, community is a priority, giving is a priority. None of them is bad. People are to be prioritized, but to the Lord there is on priority that is above them all and I wonder if we have missed His highest priority.

Ezekiel 20 speaks of God’s highest priority and it is spoken of in light of Yahweh bringing Israel out of Egypt and wanting to give them the most beautiful land He could find for them, a land flowing with milk and honey. Multiple verses in this chapter speak of God’s priority, and verse 44 says it this way, “You will know that I am the LORD, O people of Israel, when I have honored my name by treating you mercifully in spite of your wickedness. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!”

The highest priority of God is His name. His name is His character, His nature, the way He treats people, His name is of utmost importance, yet I think we as the church say His name but have not prioritized His name. We have become casual with the Name of God. We have taken for granted the character of God and how He treats us. We have become to familiar with a God we do not really know.

His name is what we represent. His name is on our foreheads, we are marked by His name. His name is what we call on when we pray. His name is on many of our buildings, but have we prioritized His name? We show value for His name, by acting like Him, obeying Him, treating others the way He treats them. His name is His highest priority and we as the church (people of God) must prioritize His name over everything else, for His name is who He is and who we are called to be. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Jesus said in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world.” Because it is the words of Jesus, we may struggle to be honest about who easy this is so say, but how hard it is to do. No one like trouble, no one enjoys conflict, no one wants a third world war, no one wants riots in their streets. There is nothing pleasant in our feelings side of life about trouble, whether personal, national or international.

Then James comes along, the brother of Jesus, and says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” Two different men, same message. There must be something to this we need to grasp in order to navigate challenges in this world in which we live.

We don’t like the feelings trials, troubles, evoke in us, which is why we try to avoid them at all costs. We ignore them, put them off, deny them, but they will not go away. Like that mosquito that buzzes near your ear while you are in bed and you are swatting for it in the dark. Trials, troubles are emotionally a challenge, even if we act like they are not.

Jesus said, take heart; James said, count it all joy. What did these men know we don’t know about trials, troubles? They knew what was being produced in the trial and they did not see joy as a feeling but as a posture. When joy is a posture of the heart, which comes from character not emotions, you realize this trouble, this trial is producing something in us we need. Rejoicing is not an emotion, it is a posture and when we take heart, it is because we see what the trial is producing, more character, more maturity, more love. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org

Can you hear it? Can you see it? Do you feel the shift in the atmosphere? Have you noticed the stuck is now being unstuck; the long wait is now giving way to answered prayers? It is happening in so many places to so many people. It feels like a suddenly, but it is actually a sigh of relief. Transition turbulence is happening because God has released long awaited promises.

Ezekiel 12 says, “A message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, you’ve heard that proverb they quote in Israel: ‘Time passes, and prophecies come to nothing.’ Tell the people, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will put an end to this proverb, and you will soon stop quoting it.’ Now give them this new proverb to replace the old one: ‘The time has come for every prophecy to be fulfilled!’”

We have gone from waiting to watching as answers are happening everywhere. It may not look good if you watch the main stream media, but if you can hear what the spirit is saying, if you can see what the spirit is doing, change is in the air. Great changes, new assignments, new alignments for the day is at hand. The glory of God is manifesting on earth, prayers are being answered, struggles are ceasing.

Listen my friends, listen closely, this transition turbulence is not for our demise, but for our arising, shining and giving God all the glory. The story is not over, it has just begun a second half and it is so good. If you made it through the first half, you are going to love how this unfolds in the days ahead. Shake off the dust of yesterday, last week, last month and last year, it is time to dance like no ones watching for praise and thanks is exploding everywhere. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org