No Delay

“There is no such thing as delay, there is a lack of understanding the day.” This is what the Lord spoke to me this morning while in prayer. It has become popular to tell people they need to bind the spirit of delay; they need to prophesy, no more delay; and a variety of other variations of this vein. But, the Lord said to me, “there is no such thing as delay, there is a lack of understanding the day.” As I pondered these words, I realized we feel like there is a delay, because we put a time frame on the promise God has spoken. That is not delay, that is us not understanding the day.

In Joshua 6 the Lord speaks a word of promise to Joshua and the children of Israel about the city of Jericho, saying, “I have given Jericho, its king, and all its soldiers into your hands.” When God says something, it is going to happen, but when it happens is in the following verses, for the chapter goes on to release the strategy that needs to be employed for the promise to be actualized. Joshua 6:3-5 gives the strategy, “Every day for the next six days, you will march once around the city walls with all your fighting force. Seven priests will go in front of the covenant chest, each carrying a trumpet made from a ram’s horn. On the seventh day, you will march around the city walls seven times, and the priests will blow their trumpets.  When they play a long final blast, then all the people will give a mighty shout. The city walls will collapse in front of you, and all the Israelites will charge in and take the city.” Anyone of those soldiers could have decreed no more delay after day 1, 2, 3 or more, but it was not a delay, rather they were unaware of the day. If it is day 3, 4 or 5 there was not going to be any sign of victory for it was not the right day.

When we are unaware of what day we are in, based on the strategy God has spoken to us, we will cry, delay! But it is not a delay, we just don’t understand what day it is. People do this with so many things. We do it with prophesy, we do it with scripture, we do it with our end time ideas. If we don’t know the day, we won’t know where we are, but one thing is for sure, there is no delay. Joel 2 says, “In the last days…” (plural); Matthew 24:36 says, “On that day…” (singular); Galatians 6:9 speaks to a “due season”; whereas Romans 13:11 says, “now is the time and the hour…”. There is no such thing as delay, but there is a lack of understanding the days, day, season, time, or hour.

Many of us have a promise from God, we know that we know, God said…but the timing is where we are off. If we were honest, God did not give us a when it would happen, He only told us what would happen. For maturity to take place, it is important that we stop imposing our thoughts, our time frame, our faith in ourselves, rather we must listen not just to the promise, but the strategy about how to employ the promise and then we will better understand the day we are on, so we can be patient in the process, for the promise will not delay. Remember Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

“Don’t yell or shout. Don’t let your voice be heard until the day I tell you. And then I want you to shout with all your might” (Joshua 6:10).  If you are still in the silent stage, don’t worry it is not a delay, it is just not the day. Once the day arrives, trust me, you will shout, the walls will fall, the victory will be sure and the battle will be won quickly, for the Lord will say, NOW! Shout unto God with a voice of triumph! (Psalm 47:1). It is not a delay, it is design, because with God there is no delay.

Have You Been Bit and Don’t Know It

Have You Been Bit and Don’t Know It?
 
Matthew 12:25, “Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”
 
James 4:1, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?”
 
As I listen to the news, as I listen to church people, as I counsel married couples, as I listen to parents with their children, I cannot help but notice we have been bit and don’t know it. What we have been bit with is a venom that comes straight out of the mouth of that ancient serpent, the devil. I call it the disease of denominationalism. One may wonder how marriage, church, parents and politics can all be bit by the same disease, for the categories are rarely listed together? Yet, the devil is no respecter of persons, all he wants to do is steal, kill and destroy us (John 10:10). Have you ever noticed how the devil treated Judas? He bit him with the venom of destruction at the Last Supper, then he sent him to do the bidding of the religious leaders, who were also bit with the same spirit, allowed him to be paid for his service, but once Judas recognized how his actions decided Jesus crucifixion, he was remorseful ((Matthew 27:3). Yet, the religious leaders did not care, for Judas was just a pawn they needed to use to accomplish their demonic purposes. What they didn’t know is that the devil was going to do to them, what they did to Judas.
 
The religious leaders, the politicians, the people, all were bit and didn’t even know it. I would suggest the same is true for people today. Most have been bit and don’t know it. Bit with what you may ask. The spirit of denominationalism, which is the venom of the devil himself. It bites politicians, parents, church people and leaders alike, spouses and anyone else you can think of. It divides countries, churches, families, companies, races and people in general. It is a spirit that so many people are bit with, they do not even think to deal with it when they are doing spiritual warfare. It is demonic in origin and manifests in destruction of relationships on every level. LIke the religious leaders did with Judas, by throwing him away after he did their bidding, this spirit will use you to its advantage and then spit you out as though you have no worth.
 
Most people have been bit by it and don’t even know it, that is why they can’t recognize it. It is subtle, it is sneaky and the only vaccination against it is love. Not that cheap love, not that weak love, not that love wins kind of love, only love for God and love for people, that is rooted in biblical understanding of love as noted by Jesus when He said, if you love me, you will do what I command, that kind of love. Love that trusts God even when you don’t understand. Love that is passionate, powerful, and doesn’t throw people away. That kind of love, which very few know is the only vaccination for this spirit of denominationalism.
 
What is the spirit of denominationalism? In its simplest form, it is the belief that if we do not agree we cannot walk together. It demands that we agree on everything in order to go to the same church; eat at the same table; live in the same house; it demands submission to one person’s ways, thoughts and beliefs or it says without words, get out, you’re not welcome, I don’t want you. In politics, it manifests as Democrats who will not confirm Republican cabinet picks; in churches, it manifests in not letting certain people in leadership roles; in families, it manifests in one person as the final say on all things; all in all, it seeks to silence any voice that does not agree with it.
 
The reason there are over 43,000 different organizations under the banner Christianity is because we cannot agree, so we cannot walk together. Amos 3:3 says, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” Amos said, we have to agree to walk together, not agree to agree. If you went to the temple during bible days, you would have heard arguments on doctrine, beliefs, theology, etc. on a level that many could not handle, but once they debate, the argument, the discussion was over, they walked out of the temple arm in arm, for they were brothers first and had not been bit by the spirit of denominationalism.
 
The church is divided, that is why it lacks power, it lacks authority and it lacks authenticity. If we disagree, we leave and find another church where people believe the way we do or we start our own church. Jesus said, the church is to have one voice, one message, one call, “REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS HERE!” Division has never been God’s plan for the salvation of the world, the kingdom of God has one King, Jesus the Christ the son of the living God, one book, the Bible, one way, one truth and one life; it is a narrow road, very few want to travel on it, that is why they create their own way, their own church, their own whatever, but there will be a bride for Christ and she will speak with one voice, she will live in plumbline with her husband Jesus of Nazareth, and she will only listen to one voice, His.
Have you been bit and don’t know it?

Double Doors

Psalm 24:7-10 “Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty—he is the King of glory.”

In Luke 1 we read about two women, one is older, married, barren and of the priestly line of Aaron; the other woman is young, a virgin, and engaged to someone of the kingly line of David. Two women, both childless, one older, the other younger, as I am reading about these two women, Elizabeth and Mary, the Lord speaks to me and says, “DOUBLE DOORS”. I had recently listened to a sermon where the Rabbi said, women are doors that open us to new dimensions, so the idea of women as doors was not uncommon to me. The story of Elizabeth as the future mother of John the Baptist and Mary the future mother of Jesus was not foreign to me either, but when the Lord put it all together in one phrase, double doors, I knew He was speaking something significant for this hour.

Throughout scripture we see pictures of people who could be considered double doors, such as: Deborah and Jael (Judges 4); Naomi and Ruth (Ruth 1); the 12-year-old girl and the woman with the 12-year issue of blood (Luke 8); so the idea of double doors is not rare, but rather common in scripture. Paul talks about a spirit of wisdom and revelation; Jesus spoke about the two greatest commandments and Moses came down the mountain with two tablets of stone. But, what I wanted to know is, what these double doors signify to us prophetically in this hour.

As I was in prayer about this phrase double doors, I began to think about what double doors represent. The first thought I had was they represent a wider entry way. If you have double doors on a house, the entry way to that house is double the size of a single door dwelling. The next thought I had was the types of houses that have double doors. In my mind, they are for wealthier neighborhoods, houses that are larger. I then began to think about William and Kate in England and the double doors that were opened as they stepped out on the balcony as husband and wife. This thought of the royal couple was the key to unlocking what I see as the prophetic significance for where we are with the idea of double doors.

I asked the Lord, what the double doors represent and who was going to come through those doors. Asking the right question, will unlock the right answer. The Lord began to share with me, that the double doors are revelation and demonstration. The Lord said, He is about to raise up leaders who carry the revelation of the Word of God and can demonstrate the power of God. The double doors are revelation and demonstration. This was incredible to hear, then the Lord went on to show me that when the doors of revelation and demonstration open, they will reveal the administration of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, because the King of Glory will come through the double doors of revelation and demonstration. I dropped my pen!

What we are about to see is the King of Glory, the Lord Almighty, come through the double doors of revelation and demonstration to reveal the administration of the kingdom of God. Get ready for the revealing and opening of the double doors.