Tag: Access

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.

Slaying the Octopus…Accessing Abundance

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It was only two days ago that the Lord revealed to me an octopus that is in the lives of His people. This octopus is one of the gatekeepers to abundance. Once the Lord slays the octopus in our lives, we will have access to abundance, but it begins with slaying the octopus and we cannot slay what we do not see. That is why Solomon is penned as saying, “For where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). What we can’t see, we can’t deal with, that is why God exposes in order to dispose. So, often we don’t want to hear the truth, see the truth or know the truth, for we tend to see it as a way to shame us, condemn us or somehow criticize us. However, the Father in heaven, is way to kind to do that, He only exposes things in our lives in order to dispose of them from our lives. He is so generous that He will expose anything that is hindering us from accessing abundance. This is why He is exposing the octopus.
 
On the news about a week ago, they showed a blue ringed octopus and said it is deadly to humans. I looked it up, as I was sensing some prophetic relevance to this, but did not have all the pieces to see the picture God was releasing to me. Then while reading in Matthew 13:18-23 about the explanation Jesus gave to the disciples in regards to the parable of the sower, the word octopus came into my spirit again. I was befuddled and decided to check out Google to see what are the characteristics of an octopus, for obviously God was seeking to expose something in order to dispose of it. Here is what I discovered about octopuses.
 
Octopuses are soft bodied, eight armed mollusks whose mouth is in the center point of the arms; the body can rapidly alter shape and can even squeeze through small gaps; they have excellent sight; are one of the most intelligent and behaviorally diverse invertebrates; they live in water, grow fast and mature quickly, but they are short lived; the males die after fertilizing the eggs of the female; the female dies right after the hatching of the fertilized eggs; they camouflage themselves and are described as sea monsters in mythology (Wikipedia).
 
With that being said, let’s tie the characteristics of the octopus into Matthew 13:22 “The one on whom seed was sown among thorns, this is the man who hears the word, understands the word, but the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful” (NASB). The choker is the octopus, who has camouflaged itself as worry, that has snuck in through small gaps, that has its mouth in its arms, so the words spoken suffocate or strangle the word and it cannot produce fruit. The octopus is worry and it is choking the word in our lives and making us unfruitful.
 
But you may say, it says thorns and the octopus is a soft bodied sea monster. You are absolutely correct, thorns above ground are hard, but below ground they are soft for their roots which are below ground are what is choking the word in us. Jesus said in this parable, the word took root in the thorny soil, but it did not produce fruit, for it was being choked at the root level, for roots produce fruits. Now to take this one step further, this octopus the Lord is wanting to slay called worry is camouflaged and we often don’t recognize it, but it is there and it is linked to the spirit of mammon, who is another sea monster. That is why Jesus said, it is choked by worry of the world (the octopus) and the deceitfulness of riches (spirit of mammon). The Lord is seeking to slay the octopus in our lives, so that we can access abundance.
 
Abundance is the kingdom of God, abundance is Jesus, abundance is wisdom, truth, life, grace, hope, love, peace, joy, wealth, signs, wonders, miracles, it is abundant life in every way, abundance is Yahweh.