Lisa Great

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 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!

I am not one who gets a word for the year, but since 5785, the new Hebrew year began, the Lord has been speaking one word to me. This word has been coming up in things I say, things I see, things I hear God is doing. When it is repetitive I pause and take notice, so today I was praying Psalm 47 and it showed up again, I am now convinced, this is the word for this year for me and I am wondering if it is going to be for us as the body of Christ. The word is BEYOND!

Psalm 47:2 (TPT) says, “The Lord God Most High is astonishing, awesome beyond words! He’s the formidable and powerful King over all the earth.”

Dictionary dot com says, “Beyond means to a degree that is past the understanding.”

I sense we have entered into a BEYOND season in the presence of God. When you live with not enough or even barely getting by in relationships, finances, opportunities, health issues, or whatever it may be, the idea of beyond can seem far fetched. Yet I sense we have entered into a BEYOND season. BEYOND is not about us being able to figure it out or make it happen, BEYOND is something God does and we see it happen, hear of it happening, experience it and our response is, that was BEYOND.

BEYOND what? BEYOND expectations; BEYOND explanation; BEYOND understanding; it is just BEYOND. When we reflect back on 5785, the year of the open window, we are going to find ourselves saying, God went BEYOND. We have heard it said so many times, but I believe time has caught up with this word and now we are going to see and hear Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

One of the more elusive phrases in the word of God are the words “the fear of the Lord”. For years, I never understood what they meant. People I speak to still think it means being afraid of God. It’s phrases like this that make me wonder why the word fear was used and what exactly is the fear of God? I have never had an adequate way to answer this when someone asked me, then this morning the phrase showed up in my reading of Proverbs 15:32-33 when it said, “Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” These two verses opened up like a treasure chest to me this morning.

The Lord showed me a target with various rings and had me write different words for each ring from the outside in. Outer ring is humanity, next ring is humility, then listening, then wisdom, and the inner circle is the fear of the Lord. What He showed me is out of the sea of humanity there are those who display humility by listening to correction and instruction that leads to wisdom and reveals they have the fear of the Lord.

The Lord showed me a second target with the same various rings but had me write different words. The outer ring is humanity, next ring is pride, then ignoring instruction, rejecting correction, the next ring is foolish, and the inner circle is lawlessness. He said, out of the sea of humanity are those who are proud and don’t heed instruction, let alone accept correction, which manifests in foolishness. This then reveals a heart of lawlessness.

The height and depth of humility is the fear of the Lord; while the height and depth of pride is lawlessness. I love how the word of God is crystal clear that we have a choice as to who we want to be and what that choice sounds Iike to others around us. There is no mixture, we are operating in one or the other targets, but knowing what they lead to is important for it helps us repent and switch targets if we don’t like the one we are manifesting.

Living in Malaysia for 9 years forded me the honor of learning things I did not know. One of the things I learned on one of my many walks in our neighborhood was about “squatters”. “Squatters” are people who find a vacant piece of land, set up a temporary dwelling, but the longer they stay on that land, the more permanent they make it. One day they decide it is now theirs and they are not moving. The land is not theirs, but they will not be dislodged from their “home” without a fight, because of how long they have been there.

Reading Mark 12 this morning reminded me of this story from my life in Malaysia. Jesus says, “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.” Jesus owned the land, the vineyard, and all he placed in it, but then he leased it out to some people. As you continue to read this story, you realize these who were called to lease this vineyard, believed they were now the owners because they worked it for so long.

Friends, our life is not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20). No matter how long we live in this tent, body, we are owned by someone else and when He speaks to us about what He wants from us, He made us so He knows what He is producing in us and through us. The challenge is, most people live as though they are the owner of their lives. Many are “squatters”, who have assumed ownership because of time. The son of God owns our lives, we are leasing this body, so when the Lord asks us to do something, wants to receive something from us, we must stop resisting Him, for He created us, He designed us, He is in charge of us and He is a really, really, really good owner, but we must let Him be in charge.

You are called to be royalty not a squatter. Come up higher, give Him charge of you, and watch Him crown you with glory in ways you never thought possible.

Today is the day of atonement on the Hebrew calendar. Under the Old Covenant, this was the one day of the year where the high priest would go into the holy of holies and make atonement with blood for the nation of Israel. This day was significant on so many levels for the nation. Today is that day for Israel as a nation historically.

Today is the day, Lou Engle and the Million Women March is happening in Washington, DC. Today, many women and men will gather on the Washington Mall to pray for our nation, make declarations about who we are as a nation and will activate the Esther Ekklesia for our nation. Today is a significant day on the calendar for America as a nation.

This morning from 4am – 7am, the Holy Spirit kept speaking the name Eliashib to me. Over and over again for three hours I heard this name, Eliashib, Eliashib, Eliashib. I had no idea who this was, so I got up and looked up the name, Eliashib. Eliashib is the high priest during the days of Nehemiah in the rebuilding of the wall. His name is found in Nehemiah 12 and his name means God restores. Armed with information, I still needed the revelation as to why the Holy Spirit was saying this name to me.

In prayer I was asking the Lord what about Eliashib and He said, “Eliashib is the high priest whose name means God restores.” I said, yes. He went on to say, “On this day of atonement, today is the beginning of the restoration of this nation called America. Restoration begins today, so now pray and say, the restoration of the nation begins today.” I smiled a huge smile, the days of waiting are over, the days of restoration are beginning today, our sins have been forgiven, the high priest of our nation is Jesus the Christ and His name means salvation, America has been saved, America is now going to be restored, walls will be rebuilt, safety will return, Babylon has fallen and the God who restores has begun His plan for this land. Today is the first day of the restoration of this nation, called America!!!!

When I was young I was passionate and that passion was reckless in many ways. I was passionate about my opinions, about my desires, about my dreams and goals. Passion is propane that fuels our flesh so we pursue what we want. My passion was about me, but the longer I am a believer in Jesus Christ and the more time I spend with Him, the more I recognize His passion was about others. The movie, The Passion of the Christ was about His passion for the salvation of the world through the shedding of His blood. Then Mark 10:45 says, “For the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.” Biblical passion is not about us, it is about others and how we can use our passion to be a blessing to others.

If we as believers are called to lay our lives down as John says, “There is no greater love than this than you lay your lives down for your friends.” (John 15:13) Then why did God give us specific passions unique to us, that are like an ache in our soul if we cannot express them? It is because that passion is not for you, but it is to come from you, so it is not about you, but it does bless you. My gift, my ache, my calling is not about me, I do not stand in the mirror and preach to myself, my gift is for you, your gift is for me. My passion for the word of God is for you and as I sow it in you, it blesses me.

Proverbs 11:17 & 25 says, “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” What we sow, we truly reap. As I sow into you kindness and blessing, I then reap those things, maybe not only from you, but I will reap them through someone else who is sowing them. My passion is to be kind to you, to bless you, to water you, then what I sow I will reap. My passion is to serve you and your passion is to be to serve me and others and then we have a cycle of service that is a blessing to all of us, for what we sow we also reap. Let us be people who are passionate about serving others with the gifts God gave us.

There is song that rises from the depths of my spirit when I spend time alone with the Lord. It is not a song that will be recoded on an album, sung in a church service or played on the radio, but it is song that comes from a heart of praise that God delights in. It may not be in the right key or have the correct tone, but the heart behind the song is what brings such delight to the One in whom we sing. There is no intimidation when there is intimacy, so the sound is less important than the words of the song you sing.

I am sensing in the spirit the Lord is less concerned with our song writing sessions with other people and more interested in our song singing sessions with Him. When is the last time you sang a song to Him about what was in your heart. Songs carry great weight in the spirit, for they declare who He is to us, not for others to hear, but for Him and Him alone. I live in a city where many songs are written, produced, and awarded, but how many people sing or write songs not to be heard by people but as a gift to God alone?

Little choruses that repeat bring Him great joy; words don’t need to rhyme or follow a meter, when it is your heart singing it has a sound that the radio does not understand, but God does. Psalm 40 says it this way, “A new song for a new day rises up in me every time I think about how he breaks through for me! Ecstatic praise pours out of my mouth until everyone hears how God has set me free. Many will see his miracles; they’ll stand in awe of God and fall in love with him!”

Sing my friends, sing with all your heart, sing softly, sing loudly, but let what is inside of you come out in song. It changes your view of God and your situation; sing, let a song come out of you; it creates a breakthrough in you, that comes out of you. Sing to Him, He loves to hear your voice. Sing, sing, sing, there is song in you He wants to hear come out of you. A song just between you and Him.

The spirit of poverty is more than just money, even though it manifests in the realm of finances as well. The spirit of poverty is a way of thinking and those thoughts manifest in actions and decisions. Poverty is a lower level of thinking; a worm mentality; a sinner identity; it masquerades as piety, but in actuality it is a spirit of poverty. The spirit of poverty dresses itself in self-righteousness, religious jargon and nefarious activities. The spirit of poverty is no respecter of persons, it is in the rich of this world and the poor; it is in the CEO’s of companies and the one sleeping under the bridge. It is a way of thinking that is incongruent with the Word of God.

The longer I am a believer, the more I spend time in the Word of God, and the more I believe those who really love me, both God and people, the more I realize the spirit of poverty is a counterfeit to our call to royalty. Royalty is not crowns and robes of people in positions over kingdoms, it is a way of thinking, acting, talking, manifesting your identity. 1 Peter 2:9 says, we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. We are royalty, but we talk, think and act like poverty. We eat cheap food in both the spirit and the natural. We drink cheap teachings, we preach cheap sermons and we believe cheap lies, because we are more accustomed to poverty than royalty.

Royalty thinks differently, they speak differently, they carry themselves differently. Wisdom is royalty. Proverbs 8 says, “For I am Wisdom, and I am shrewd and intelligent. I have at my disposal living-understanding to devise a plan for your life. Wisdom pours into you when you begin to hate every form of evil in your life, for that’s what worship and fearing God is all about.” Royalty recognizes royalty. Royalty thinks like a resource center, like a distributor, like a generous one at all times. Royalty is always wanting to better everything about everyone. We are called to be royalty and it is time to cast off the spirit of poverty and put on the robe of royalty for we have nations to disciple in the ways of royalty.

I was hanging out with the Lord in His word this morning and as I was reading, praying, leaning in the presence of God wrapped itself around me and tears came to my eyes as I sensed the reality of His presence ever so close. Yesterday, I told someone, I feel so alive. Everything in me is alive, all my relationships around me are alive, everything is just so alive. I told them I have not felt like this before, I am not sure how even to describe it, other than everything is alive.

This morning the same thought came to me, everything is so alive. It is not an emotional alive as though some financial breakthrough happened, some miracle manifested or some relationship was suddenly restored. It is not a situational alive sense, it is a deep seeded knowing everything is alive. Then I wrote the date in my journal and it is Tishri 5, 5785 on the Hebrew calendar and I hear the words 5785, the year of Five Alive.

When I was younger we used to drink a juice called Five Alive and the tag line was “Get A Taste For Life”. Friends, we are living in a year called Five Alive. This can have so many connotations or directions we could go with this, but one thing I know is that this sense of being alive is substantive, not emotional. I looked up what alive means in Hebrew and the words connected to the word alive are fresh, strong, community, relatives and sustenance. It is a Five Alive year!

Psalm 37:3-4 says, “Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in his eyes. Fix your heart on the promises of God, and you will dwell in the land, feasting on his faithfulness. Find your delight and true pleasure in Yahweh, and he will give you what you desire the most.” This is what it means to be alive. Strong not emotional alive. It is something you experience and it this is the year of Five Alive!!!