Using Unlikely Vessels With Unlikely Weapons

It seems totally illogical to step forward after being punched in the face but those who are obedient will be rewarded in this season. It’s the step forward that’s important. DON’T RETREAT!

It is only natural to retreat when attacked but we can’t forget that we are not natural beings… we are supernatural beings. This means we must resist what comes natural in favor of His nature that is supernatural.

Everyone is on guard right now and highly suspicious. It is so easy to say “ who needs this?”, and run for cover. Here’s the thing, He is our cover and if He brought us to it, He will help us through it. He is dealing with our insecurities through the experience.

It’s time to be sensitive to His leading. It’s a time to act unnatural (for us) in a supernatural way. Whether it’s being bold when you usually aren’t OR doing something thoughtful just to show you care when you usually don’t.

It is reacting in the illogical ways, the kind and loving ways or the fiercely firm ways, that throws the enemy off. Some people are always are expecting a fight. If they get a hug, they find love instead. It’s up to us to change the narrative and that changes perspective. A perspective change starts a culture change.

God shall use the foolish things to confound the wise. (1 Corinthians 1:27)

He is using unlikely vessels with unlikely weapons in this hour. You get to change people’s ideas of who they think you are. We get to show them Jesus through our actions. Whether that’s standing our ground when we never have before or in giving them a hug. It is a divine strategy. Trust His leading. When in doubt…. show LOVE.

The Lord Is Taking Us from Victim to Victor

Many of us have used denial as a way to process bad things that have happened to us as children and teens.

It could be that we couldn’t handle the cruelty of what was being done to us so we told ourselves it wasn’t. really. happening.

We may have been threatened as a child not to tell about the bad things or even more horrible things would happen to us or the people we love.

We may have learned through the countless children’s movies that we need somebody to come and rescue us when bad things happen… that we can’t fight for ourselves.

These ways of thinking paralyzes us (as adults) whenever bad things happen. We either deny the bad or wait silently for someone else to stop it. We have learned to function as a victim.

We need to be able to be an active participant in fighting back against the bullies in life as a victor.

We have learned not to ask and not to talk about the unpleasant topics in life but it’s that very confrontation conversation that will engage us into action in our current adult lives!

The learned helplessness even effects our intercession. If we are afraid to stand up to bullies in real life, chances are you aren’t standing up to the devil in your prayer life either. He is the ultimate bully.

In my prayer time this morning I sensed the Holy Spirit is healing helplessness and denial that we learned as coping skills in childhood, so we can walk fully as warriors with adult ways of handling the things happening around us and to us. The Lord is never too busy to hear your pain and collect your tears and heal you into total wholeness. I sense that He is releasing angels to surround you through this process. Praise Jesus that we will walk into our future as fully functioning adults!!!! We are most definitely in a spiritual war and we need every able person in the fight! Stop telling yourself you can’t handle what’s going on in your life. Let Him heal the victim thoughts and emotions. You might not be able to face it in your own strength… He can! Start telling yourself you can, because He can! Start thanking Him for taking you from victim to victor!!

***Remember you can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens you!!!!

Stop Being Polite with the Demonic

We have been taught to be polite, to turn the other cheek, to yield to others, to be willing to compromise, to forgive quickly… this was taught to us in regard for how to treat people… this was NEVER intended for how we should respond to our spiritual enemy.

There is absolutely no good in the devil and his cohorts. We should not entertain anything he has to say. Do not give him a voice in your life. We must take a strong stand and block ALL access into our lives. The only goal he has is your destruction. Don’t give him an inch.

***Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

Notice there are two parts to that scripture. Submitting to God and resisting the devil. Submitting to God gives you the ability to resist the devil!!!!

Sometimes we think if we lay low that we will get off his radar. This is not a human bully on the playground we are dealing with… he is…. the enemy of your soul! This tactic will not work for you are called to be a warrior. You were born for this! You must confront him head on. Every time you stand up against fear, manipulation, intimidation, and control….. you are resisting!!!!!

****For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12

Time to stop being polite and entertaining those rulers, authorities, powers, and spiritual forces in our lives!!!!!!

I’M CALLING MY PEOPLE OFF THE FENCE… Choose Today Whom You Shall Serve

I heard these words resounding in urgency while in prayer. I felt the Fathers heart desiring for every EVERY SINGLE PERSON to choose Him.

I had a vision of a tremendous quaking happening and a fracture in the ground formed under the feet of the people who were standing around. There was VERY LITTLE TIME to decide which way you would go as the fracture was QUICKLY becoming a chasm.

I heard the Lord’s voice booming CHOOSE TODAY WHOM YOU SHALL SERVE !! (Joshua 24)

I saw those who have been straddling between serving other gods and the one true God becoming confused and in their confusion failed to make a decision and fell into the chasm. THIS WAS NOT HIS HEART FOR THEM.

The fence dwellers live their lives with a mixture of God AND desiring money, power, the applause of man or and/or to avoid all conflict or criticism from man AND due to this mixture end up compromising their beliefs and staying silent when they need to speak up. Who are you bowing down to??

Ask Him today where you actually stand… for Him…. against Him…. or somewhere in between. Ask Him to forgive you if He reveals divided loyalties and He will. Ask Him to give you strength to navigate the persecution that comes with choosing Him whole heartedly and He will.

He is looking for each and every one of us to choose Him and boldly declare today…AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!!!!

Grace for Those Who Remain in Egypt

Many have called this current moment a “Red Sea” moment and I agree. We are crossing over into the promised land as the Lord parts the waters. My heart, this morning in prayer, was saddened for those who chose to remain in Egypt. How many has to leave family or friends because they refused to leave with them?

There is GREAT grace and mercy for those who are blinded by this world. Weren’t we once in those shoes???? These people, who are dearly loved by God, don’t know what they are doing. They are merely trying to get through this life just like everyone else. It’s the source they go to for truth that’s been causing the problems. Their source is telling them lies appearing as truth. They then believe the lies are truth. They don’t realize Who they are fighting. It’s normal for people to cling to an illusion rather than have their reality fall apart.

Illusions cause delusions. Illusions are something you think is real, that isn’t. A delusion is the belief you have over what you think is real.

Both will shatter soon and people will start to see what’s been behind the curtain. Be ready with open arms to show them forgiveness and love as they start to wrap their brains around what they see.

The Lord will be obliterating the powerful spells that’s been over this world. There will be a coming back to the gospel message and a turning away from other gods. Jesus will be seen clearly in all His glory!!

John 8-32 – Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free

Imposters in Your Inner Circle

We are living in a time where many things aren’t necessarily what they seem to be. There is much illusion going on that brings deception. We must look deeper than the surface of situations and people. We must inquire of the Lord as to what is truly going on behind the scenes.

The Lord is accomplishing much through this season of political unrest. He is dealing with idols in our lives even if one of those idols is our President. No man is going to save us except for Jesus. Take your eyes off man and put them on Jesus! Trust in Him! He is the miracle maker, not man.

He cares about what and who is near and dear to us. He cares about who we “run with.” He is revealing and refining our inner circle for the days ahead.

I realized that those who were in DC today that caused problems at the capital had a different agenda then most who were attending even though they had been walking as a group on the same path together all day. They were trying to appear as “one of the crowd” but their behavior showed their true colors. They were imposters. I felt the Lord say that this is something else He is accomplishing in this season in EVERYONE, He is exposing the imposters in our lives.

There may be people around us that say all the right things to us to make us believe we are on the same page but their agenda is different than ours and it shows up in their actions. They have a struggle making their actions line up with their own words.

The Lord is saying to look past the words that come out of their mouth and look at their actions and that will tell you if they are full of integrity or full of something else.

Amos 3:3 – How can two people walk together unless they are agreed. (NKJ)

2 Corinthians 6 -Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? (NKJ)

It’s important who we are yoked to whether it’s friends or romantic partners. Things will get impossible if you aren’t headed in the same direction as someone you are yoked to. Beliefs, values, and vision is important to have agreement on in our closest relationships.

It’s time for us to KNOW who truly walks together with us in agreement over the destination and over the road we take to get there….FROM those who merely like the idea of taking a walk with us.

He is revealing the imposters as well as who “Judas” may be in our inner circle. We must be willing to see it.

Trading in the American Dream for God’s Dream for America

In prayer recently I felt a Holy weight fall on me which laid me out flat on my face. I felt the intensity of the fear of the Lord and what is coming.

I sense His grief over the state of our country and the state of the church. I saw how much of the poison of the worlds ways has polluted that which was to be kept Holy.

The desire for comfort over righteousness has caused a familiarity with grace that was never intended.

The striving to make the American Dream a reality has been a great distraction for many. Our focus became more on ourselves and less on others. It became more about building our personal kingdom instead of building the kingdom of heaven. We became focused on self and making a life for ourselves free of all discomfort and inconvenience.

Are we called to a life free from pain? To the contrary, we are told we will encounter discomfort but we are to count it all joy. We are told persecution will come. We are told to lose our lives, to die to self and that was truly when we gained true life.

I heard the Lord say to me that we have been lulled to sleep by the American Dream much like Sampson was lulled to sleep by Delilah. We chose comfort over a “set apart” life full of the power of the Holy Spirit. In essence the American Dream has become the American Nightmare full of comfort seekers rather than selfless Christ seekers.

God didn’t send His son to earth to suffer and die so that we could have a comfortable life. He sent Jesus to die for us so that we would lose our life through our belief in Him. A wise pastor told me a long time ago that each time we dig self back up out of the grave we stink a little more.

We are called to die to self and live to Christ. It was Paul who said “it is no longer I who live but Christ in me! who lives.”

We must not make avoiding pain the main way we move through this world. Our leading must be motivated strictly by obeying the Holy Spirit’s leading. Remember satan tried to entice Jesus by offering Him all the treasures of the world. We must not fall for the same trick. I’ve said it many times that the enemy does not come in a suit that says “bad guy”, he comes many times as our “dream girl”, “dream guy”, “dream house”, “dream job”, “dream salary”, etc. Not all dreams are God dreams.

It’s time to turn from the American Dream to God’s Dream for America. It’s time to turn from our dream for our life and to God’s dream for our life.

REMOVING THE WORLDLY DEBRIS FROM THE CHURCH

I could feel the sadness over all the people who don’t feel welcome in our churches. I could feel his anger over those who want to carry His authority but not His heart.

Things that have kept into the church like pride, judgement, control, vanity, greed, gossip and slander…. these things should not be found in the Lord’s house.

I see a reprioritizing to align with His heart about to happen within His church. I see great compassion and humility being released as we shift our focus off of others and onto the face of a holy God! We will not care what others are doing or what they look like but instead only care about what the Holy Spirit is doing.

It’s time to turn from our ideas of what church should look like and into Gods idea of church. We must allow Him to remove all the pollution that has kept in through the ways of the world and replace it with a return of righteous living, Holy living, and the fear of the Lord.

Reverence is returning to the divine. No more familiarity and treating that which is Holy as common.

IDOLS COME CRASHING DOWN

Anything that is holding a place in our lives that the Lord deserves will come crashing down from tv shows to music. The Hollywood celebrities that we have put on pedestals will come crashing down. We will see that much of the gold found in California was fool’s gold.

Those institutions we have valued and viewed as “Ivy League” will be seen in a new light. Anything that we label as “prestigious” will be seen differently. The idols are coming down. We are learning to see them how God sees them.

I sense the Lord saying that the future will be very uncomfortable in the worldly sense but refining in the Godly sense. We will lose passion for the things that are not of Him, in favor of those that carry His fire! He is allowing the momentary discomfort to reprioritize our hearts. The things that just don’t matter will fall aside and the things that do will gain a deeper anchor within us. Sniper like vision will emerge in many from this season and intercessors will be given heavenly keys to strategy to disarm the enemy.

Another amazing thing that will emerge from the pressure will be longer distance vision of a world that we have never experienced in real life. It will be a life that God dreamed of where we can trust people again and believe the words coming out of their mouths. I see innocence being cherished and protected again.

I see media producing shows that will bring life and encouragement. I see such a strong sense of justice in society that gone will be the days of filming crime instead of trying to stop it from happening. I see people engaged and genuine compassion for their neighbors coming. People will have a new appreciation for truth and highly regard it. I see self righteousness breaking off people as people from all kinds of backgrounds embrace one another. I see the church in all its beauty!!!

We will be truly “living the dream”, but it will be Gods dream we are living out and not our fleshly manmade one!

The Clashing of Cultures

I hear CULTURE CLASH in my spirit. There is the culture of the kingdom of heaven and then there is the culture of the kingdom of this world. They are at war.

I sense that this year will bring more clashing of those cultures. It’s time to take a stand for what kingdom you serve. Choose this day whom you shall serve. No more straddling the fence.

The church has been effected/infected by the culture of this world (darkness), but now is a time for the culture of heaven to effect/infect this world with His light!

Passive Christianity with the goal of being seen as “tolerant and relatable” to the world is over. We have held back truth to a world who desperately needs it. No more closet Christianity where you believe in Christ privately but nobody “out there” knows it.

We have lowered Gods standards of righteous living to meet where we are at instead of raising our standards to match God’s standards. We have become familiar with that which is to be treated as Holy.

The kingdom of heaven has Jesus on the throne He is the only one worthy of all our praise and worship. The kingdom of this world has many thrones with celebrities and the powerful sitting on them.

He is dealing with our idols. He is exposing them to allow us to remove them whether it be celebrities we want to look like, influencers we want to dress like, affluent people we want to be like, or the people in our day to day life. Make sure the people we look up to are worth holding as role models and are not taking the place of God in our thoughts and attention.

Come FULLY out of the world and be set apart.

He is commissioning His church with a call back to holiness and righteous living.

There is a call to lay down your life and to consider this cause worth dying for much like enlisting in the military.

We must stand up for what is right and what is true. You need to know what you believe, take a stand, be willing to die for it.

The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel comes to mind. They refused to bow to the golden idol that king Nebuchadnezzar had created and they got thrown in the fiery furnace as a result. God protected them in the fire. They had to take a public stand for what they believed. I sense the Lord asking us what we would’ve done in that exact situation. I believe God will reward those willing to take a public stand this year.

Do not fear!!!! I see a church this year learning to stand with unapologetic fierceness with a return of holiness, righteousness and fear of the Lord!

Guard Your Gates Against Compromise

Guard your hearts, homes, and country against infiltration by the spirit of compromise…..this was what I heard in prayer during my quiet time with the Lord recently. I could sense the seriousness in these words. It was not a warning as much as a command much like a general commands His soldiers.

The enemy knows better than to blatantly attack you out in the open. The enemy would much rather woo you into agreement with his perspective of things using ungodly counsel. Then you are compromised. You may have thought you were using one definition of the word compromise while the enemy is using another definition completely.

Compromised – to settle a dispute by mutual concession.

Compromised- to settle for less of a standard then is desired.

Compromised- to cause to become vulnerable or function less effectively.

You may think that giving in on small things is worth it if it brings peace even temporarily but that is not how it works in the spirit realm. If you give a little, they will move in and set up camp. You cannot compromise with the devil. You will end up compromised instead.

Be careful where you get your facts and opinions. Even if it is from the news, entertainers, family, friends, etc. We must have discernment to know whether we are listening to the wisdom of God, or the wisdom of the world. The wisdom that comes from the world is usually rooted in lies that are meant to cause fear in order to control.

1 Corinthians 3:19-For the wisdom of this world is foolishness (absurdity, stupidity) before God; for it is written [in Scripture], “[He is] The one who catches the wise and clever in their craftiness;” (AMP)

It’s time to take a strong stand and say NO ENTRY to some things attempting to come through the front door of our hearts, homes, and countries.

This is very much a spiritual war and it must be fought in that realm. We must love people but hate evil.

We are called to be wise as serpents but gentle as doves.

Ephesians 6:12-For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. NIV

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭10:3-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬