Lisa Great

Fiddler on the roof is remembered for its famous song with the word “Tradition” as its mantra. It is spoken in such a manner you can never forget the word. The song goes on to describe traditions that may or may not be benefiting them in their context, which makes it thought provoking and actually quite funny. Once you hear the song you cannot unhear it.

Just as for Fiddler on the roof and the word “Tradition” there is a word in the body of Christ that is ringing in the hearts of too many believers, but it is not a new word, but an ancient word which began in the garden and continues throughout stories in both the Old and New Testament. The word is “Suspicion”. From Adam and Eve’s suspicion that God wasn’t as good as He said He was to the Pharisees in the days of Jesus, the Bible is riddled with “Suspicion”.

Reading 2 Samuel 10 today this word came up yet again, but in the context of Israel’s enemies being suspicious of David’s heart of benevolence to an enemy nation. “David said, “I will deal loyally with Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.” So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the Ammonites. But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it?”

The body of Christ still struggles with “Suspicion” and honestly just like in 2 Samuel 10, this “Suspicion” of each other is not benefiting us. When we are suspicious of each other or of people, we actually create troubles we do not need nor want, but our suspicion tells us they are not trustworthy, they are not safe. We call it discernment as we keep an eye on them, while assuming their motive based on their action or attire.

I pray that we no longer be known as people of suspicion or tradition, but rather we become like the disciples of Jesus who sat at the Passover table and when Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me, they were not suspicious of anyone at that table. Even after the guilty party took the bread which allowed Satan to enter him they still were never suspicious of Judas. Some call it clueless, I call it a culture of love that had no suspicion of others at their table.

As we enter 2025, let’s drop the spirit of suspicion and pick up a spirit of trust that gives people the benefit of the doubt, rather than casting suspicion. There are blessings hidden in some that the enemy wants us to be suspicious of. Let’s not buy into the narrative of those who are suspicious. May we not be the fiddler on the roof singing, “Suspicion!”

I have never met a person that wants to be controlled. The reason for this is because we were made for freedom. Free to make our own choices, free to love, free to give, free to follow, free to lead, free, free, free we were created to be free. They were free in the Garden of Eden to eat from any tree in the garden (Genesis 1); Jesus said in John 8, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Freedom is the heartbeat of the word of God. We have been set free, but the challenge is remaining free for we have an enemy and the enemy has a name, sin. Sin is the antithesis of freedom, for sin makes you a slave and Jesus sets you free.

Have you ever wondered why we use our freedom to sin which takes away the very freedom we were given so freely? No one can make you sin, sin is a choice you and you alone make. Which means we give up our freedom freely by choosing to sin. Sin is not just a behavior we can call sin like sex outside of marriage, stealing, murder, idolatry, but sin is also a heart posture that wants to do things our way not God’s way. The Bible calls that sin rebellion. When we freely give up our freedom to sin, we become controlled by sin. But no one wants to be controlled, so why do we sin?

I was reading 2 Samuel 7 this morning and it says, “Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” Do you realize God’s heart for you is to bring about the promises He spoke to you and over you? Did you know His desire is to make you know all the great things He has planned for you? His heart is not to control you but to liberate you, but you must let go of doing it your way and let Yahweh lead the way.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, He knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you, to give you a future and a hope. Did you know He spoke that through the prophet Jeremiah to a people who were slaves in Babylon? He made them a promise of freedom while they were in slavery. Friends, the blood of Jesus has been shed so you do not have to sin, let it go, freedom is waiting for you to access what has been granted to you in Jesus.

I love the body of Christ, I love community, you know why? Because others in my life value things I don’t; carry gifts I am not gifted with; and speak truth into places I cannot see are locked into lies. Isolation is the enemy of our souls, because it locks us into a one dimensional understanding and belief that what I believe is true. It is true, until you come out of isolation and realize there are other people with other values, other gifts and other ideas that you had not thought of. They are not there to cause division, they are there to add value to your life. This is why I love the body of Christ.

Intimacy and community is what brings about transformation in us. The more interlocked we are with other people, the more transformed we become. Where one person is strong, I am weak, so I can lean on their strength until I have their strength as one of my strengths. Where one person is gifted in this area and I am gifted in that area, we can share out gifts with one another, so there is no deficit in what we are doing together. I love the body of Christ.

Solomon, a member of the body of Christ speaks so highly of wisdom and with such elation it makes wisdom desirable. In Proverbs 4 he says, “Wisdom is the most valuable commodity—so buy it! Revelation knowledge is what you need—so invest in it! Wisdom will exalt you when you exalt her truth. She will lead you to honor and favor when you live your life by her insights. You will be adorned with beauty and grace, and wisdom’s glory will wrap itself around you, making you victorious in the race.”

Solomon left words that add value to the body of Christ and as we lean into what he is saying, as we buy what he is saying we should buy, it will beautify us as the body of Christ. Wisdom will smooth out our rough edges, calm our anxious souls and brighten our dull eyes. The body of Christ is the bride of Christ and we need wisdom so we can be beautiful for our bridegroom. I love how the words build the body of Christ so we can exemplify beauty and grace. Thank you for being a member of the body of Christ and sharing who you are with me, you make me more like Him.

When this morning person, who is normally up before the birds, turns into a night person for one night of laughter, dancing and playing pool with new friends and a wonderful housemate, it throws off my circadian rhythm for a couple days. But thanks be to God for a great nights sleep that recalibrates everything so we are aligned to that which we are assigned. This girl loves the early morning, but it was New Years Eve, so I had to embrace the joys of those who love the night.

I remember being in Bible school and one of our teachers told us we had to do our devotions in the morning and gave all the reasons why. Then I married a night person, my son is a night person and so is my best friend. All night people. The Lord reminded me, Jesus prayed all night and he rose early in the morning, so Jesus was a night and a morning person, which means we can be either or and Jesus is right there with us in our best hours of the day. I hope that liberated someone. ( 🙂 )

Now that we are in the new year, people are setting goals for this year in front of us. Many are on a 21 day fast to hear the Lord and His desire for the year; others are writing the vision and making it plain so they can run with it; and Proverbs 3 wants to add value to the beginning of this year and help direct us as we march forward into advancing the kingdom together. “My child, never drift off course from these two goals for your life: to walk in wisdom and to discover your purpose. Don’t ever forget how they empower you. For they strengthen you inside and out and inspire you to do what’s right; you will be energized and refreshed by the healing they bring.”

Friends, the joy of the season is going to be the joy of the Lord and it will not end. We are going to find a building consistently this year of joy after joy after joy coming in waves over us to wash off all the old seasons. This year we are going to come alive in a way we did not know we could. We are going to find ourselves operating in a freedom we did not see, a love we did not know how to receive, and a peace that we cannot deny. Wisdom and purpose are going to propel us into this new year and carry us for the rest of our days. We are in the best days of our lives even as we are shaking off the dust of a past season. Enjoy!

When calendars align it is a sign, but what is the sign saying? Where is the sign pointing to? These are questions we need to ask, not just assume answers to. Genesis 1 says, the Lord put the sun, moon and stars in the sky for signs and for seasons. The Hebrew people saw the celestial bodies (sun, moon and stars) as their calendar so they knew what time it was. Friends, we are alive today during an alignment of the likes I am not even sure how to process properly.

Hanukkah and Christmas both landed on the same day last year. Now today, the New Moon and the New Year are happening on the same day. The New Moon is the day the Hebrews knew it was a new month and the month that just began on the Hebrew calendar is the month of Tevet, the 10th month and for them it is the 5785 year. For us it is the 1st of January, the first month and the year is 2025. The alignment is two first months beginning on the same day doesn’t happen often, but then the Lord shows me this…

Rabbi Jason Sobel said, 5785 is the year of the open window, so I start reading in Genesis 7 where the first mention of the word window is. It is the windows of heaven that open to pour out rain on the earth in the days of Noah, to bring judgment on the wicked and redemption for the righteous. But as I keep reading, Genesis 8:5 (5785 hint hint) says, “And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.” This is today!!!!!

I started shouting, on this 10th month, first day in the Hebrew year 5785, so 1 Tevet 5785 (January 1, 2025) in Genesis 8:5 it says, the tops of the mountains were seen! This is huge, the Lord is saying to us, the judgement is past, the waters are receding, the tops of the mountains are revealing hope that a new day has begun. Not just a new year, a whole new day, a new way, same mandate, “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1) but a new way.

Friends, the tops of the mountains are revealed, in this year of the open window, the year of open eyes, the year of open mouth, the year of open hands, God is saying to us today, “Can you see the tops of the mountains?” We made it through the flood. “You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.” (Psalm 66:12). The windows are open, the abundance is coming down and we are going to build the kingdom a new on earth again. Let’s go!!!!

On this final day of 2024, the year of the open door, I woke up hearing the Lord say, “On this last day of the year, there are some doors that need to be closed.” I jumped out of bed and began writing what I was hearing the Lord saying, the excitement about the doors He wants to shut is equally as exciting as the doors He said at the beginning of the year He wanted to open. My first sense was to think of Noah and how God shut the door behind him when he and his family were in the ark. God is about to shut some doors in our lives and He wants us to partner with Him in doing it on this last day of 2024.

One door we need to shut is death’s door. I was praying for a friend who has cancer, the other day, and the Lord told me to shut the door to death in her life. That is exactly what I did. I shut death’s door, that is not a door she will walk through as she goes though this cancer journey. Our decree is from Psalm 118:17-18 “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.” We shut the door of death with a decree we shall live and not die!

Another door we need to shut is the debt’s door. We shut the door of debt by declaring Matthew 6:12 “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” We must not go into the new year with any debts of unforgiveness in our lives. The debt door must be shut, declaring no man owes me anything, I have forgiven everyone of everything. Sin is a debt we keep a hold of and the Lord is wanting us to shut debt’s door on this last day of 2024.

A third door we need to shut is destruction’s door. We shut this door by declaring Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” We must shut the door to destructive speech, our words are powerful and we must close this door.

The side door to destruction’s door is the door of anger. This door must be shut and shut immediately. We shut this door by declaring Ephesians 4:26-27 “Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” We have to shut the door to anger as it is not our friend, it is an opportunity for the devil to come in and wreak havoc on our relationships. This door needs to be shut today.

Friends, as we leave the year of the open door, 2024, we need to shut some doors. These doors have not done anything to bless our lives and God has things planned for us in the coming year that our beyond all we can ask, think or imagine, so shut some doors as you leave the year of the open door, and then tomorrow we will walk into a New Year free from those doors that sought to hold us back not propel us forward.

When we stand in line for something, we are waiting for a specific reason. We are waiting for a show to start; we are waiting to buy something we found we want, need or just like. We wait at the doctors office to be seen. We wait for the traffic light to turn green or the car in front of us to turn left. When we wait it is for something specific, we are wanting to see, hear or obtain. What are you waiting for? What specific reason is behind your waiting?

Psalm 130 says, “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.”

The watchmen in scripture are usually waiting to see an incoming enemy in order to warn the leaders of the city. This is the most common use of watchmen in scripture, so when I read this today, it caused me to pause, for these watchmen were waiting for, watching for the morning. They were waiting for the new day to break, the first sign of a new day, a new moon, a new season. At the time of Jesus birth, the wise men were waiting for the star in the East to announce the birth of the new born king. Waiting, watching, but for what?

Friends, waiting is hard, but when you know what you are waiting for, it makes the waiting worth the wait. We are all called to be watchmen, but what is God asking you to watch for, to wait for? Do you know specifically what you are waiting for? The father in the story in John 15 was waiting, watching for the return of his son back home. Once he saw his son coming his way, he took off running.

Many have been waiting, watching and the Lord is putting it in many people’s hearts to get ready for we are about to see, hear and experience what we have been waiting for, watching for. When you see us take of running, it is because what we have been waiting for has come into sight, been heard in a sound. We know what we are looking for, what we are waiting for, you may not, but we do and when we see it, we will take off running. What are you specifically waiting for, watching for? Will you know it when you see it? I hope so, because when I see you take off running, I will know you have seen or heard what you have been waiting for and you will know the same about me.

Identifying wickedness in its many forms is easy. People in the church and the prophetic point it out to us daily. I just received a prophetic word from Australia telling me how America is doomed due to her wickedness. If identifying wickedness changed anything we would be the most transformed people in the world. Christians are great at identifying wickedness, because for them to get saved they had to admit they were wicked, then say a prayer, come down to an altar and live happily every after. Is this where we learned to be experts in wickedness and how evil nations, people and cities are?

Every time the Bible speaks about wickedness it is not to state the obvious, it is to identity the solution. Proverbs is filled with a contrast as to what wickedness looks like and what righteousness looks like. The demarcation is there so we can know where we are and repent or continue to build. Our identity in Christ is declared as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Yet many believe they are dirty rotten sinners. Who you believe you are is what you will speak about others and places around you.

Reading Psalm 129 this morning it says, “The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.” Immediately the Holy Spirit says, righteousness is what what cuts the cords of wickedness. Cords are strings and when I read that, I saw the wicked as puppets with strings being cut so they can no longer perform their wicked acts that are harming themselves and others. Friends, no one is born wicked, they are programmed that way and God, who is righteous is cutting the strings of their wickedness.

Hollywood is having its wicked strings cut and actors are getting baptized in water, ordained into the ministry, preaching about Jesus Christ. Can you see the strings of wickedness being cut by the righteous God? I can and I rejoice. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, so instead of talking about all the wickedness we see and hear, what if we cut the strings of wickedness off of people, industries and nations? I got my scissors of the spirit and I am cutting their strings, for righteousness is exalting the nation.

Whenever a story is happening it is very challenging to see what God is doing. But once a story has been written, the signature of God is clearly visible. We live out our story everyday and the day to day can give the impression nothing is happening, no significant story is being written. But just like looking at one frame of a movie strip, what is going to be displayed is not the one frame, not the one moment of the story. The big picture, the whole narrative and when it is seen, when it is heard, will make sense to the moments that seemed insignificant at that time.

In 1 Samuel 22 there is a blip on the timeline of David’s story that taken just in these two verses makes little sense, “David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.” Here is a man who was anointed as the next king of Israel, in a cave and 400 men who are in distress, debt and bitterness of soul gather to him. This is not highlight reel material at the moment.

The joy of this moment in David’s life is that it is just a moment. A king in a cave took the men God gathered to him and made them into an elite company of warriors. In the moment of their arrival, it did not make sense for it was only one frame of a whole script. But once the movie played on the big screen, this moment carried great significance.

I do not know what frame you are seeing in your story today, but know that God has given you His Holy Spirit and you are only in a frame, which may not make sense right now, but when the movie plays it will make total sense. Whether you are David, an anointed one, who has been placed among distressed, in debt, bitter ones or you are one of the ones who has been placed with David. Fear not, it is only a frame in a whole storyline.

God has gathered people together in a frame for He is writing a story for the whole world to hear and you are in the story. Your frame may not make sense right now, but the story is going to be epic and the producer, God, knows what role you are playing even if you can’t see its significance as of yet.

We talk a lot in the church about saving the lost, seeking out what has been lost, we even celebrate the prodigal son and his return. All of which are needed and necessary but there is one other group the Lord is going after and we will add to our pursuit of in this coming year and that is those who have been cast away.

The cast aways are not always talked about or even remembered, but there they are cast out into depression, isolation, loneliness due to reasons most of us have no understanding of. Going after a cast away is a task not for the faint of heart, for they have been cast away so are not easily brought back into fellowship.

The pain of being cast away is a pain that is hard to describe but is of the likes of abandonment. The cast away learns self-preservation to the point of looking like they have not been cast off in order to survive alone in the world while others are celebrating connection.

Ecclessiastes 3 speaks of the cast away saying, “God seeks what has been driven away.” Reading this today, the Holy Spirit said, I am sending people to pursue those who have been cast away, driven away. God is seeking out and sending people to pursue those who have been cast away.

The challenge for the one who has been cast away is that God is using people to come find you and to bring you back, but it is people who have cast you away, driven you away. Isolation has not been helpful to you, but the sight of someone coming for you is not desired either, for the ones who hurt you were people too.

To the cast aways, to the ones who have been driven away, God is sending people to come for you, do not push them away. They are coming to bring you back with them to do life again. You were never meant to do life alone, forgive those who drove you away, because there are coming for you those who won’t cast you away, drive you away or send you away, they are coming to knit you in with them and others. God is coming for those who have been driven away.