November 2018 – Dan Lamos

Not Alone

There are days when it is only the momentum of my habit that carries me here. It brings me to this time of solitude where I am alone with God. Every morning he is faithful and never fails to reassure me with the living word.

I reconnect with meaning here in this space. It is an unseen garden where I walk with God. You could say it is the Father’s vineyard. He joyfully sends me to work here. (see Matthew 21:28-32) I long to hear his reassurance in my soul. I need to taste the living water as he reminds me that he loves my perseverance. He is blessed when I keep showing up to work the vineyard day after day for the glory of Jesus’ name.

As I think about you today, I am thanking God. The fact that you would take a few minutes to read these paragraphs is in itself life-giving. According to God’s living word, I don’t look at you from a limited, worldly point of view. I know that in Christ you are part of the New Creation work of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17) We thank God for each other because we are members of one body. Through the living presence of the Holy Spirit, we are formed into a temple where God dwells.

So, this morning was one of those times when it was only the force of habit that pulled me to be awake and alone with God. Thank you, Father, for good habits. We love your vineyard. Open our eyes to see that you have favored us by sending us to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17).

Thank you, friend, for encouraging my soul as you read what I have written. Let’s remember each other today and pray that by a miracle of God’s grace we will perceive heaven as it flows all around us in those places our habits carry us. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. We are not alone.

You are a blessing!

Finding Our Sanity

Our new self in Christ speaks so powerfully that it overwhelms our life… our experience of the world. We each find our sanity as a branch grafted into the vine. Jesus is the vine and The Father is the gardener. Find yourself by staying in life-union with him and by allowing his living word to flow in you. (see John 15 TPT)

Calling us to adjust…

The prophetic is a constant reminder of the transforming power of the living word of the Lord. It is similar to but not the same as learned behavior based on the written word. The written word is indispensable and we must consume it. But, the transforming power is in what God is saying. Asking for his living word and positioning ourselves to receive it is wise.

The Lord is calling us to adjust our expectations as it relates to receiving his word. His word will challenge you to adjust your behaviors and lifestyle. But, those adjustments are mostly about preparing the way for the Lord to increase the flow of his living word in you and empower you to declare it into all of your earthly situations and relationships.

You are a blessing!

Praying with your spirit…

Here is a little personal history. Thirty years ago this weekend, my dad, John Lamos passed away at sixty years of age. Since 1962 (the year I was born), that man showed me how to live in friendship with Jesus. By the time I was eighteen, I had surrendered my life to Jesus as my father did.

In friendship with Jesus, I have learned that I am a living soul. That is a complex but foundational reality. As a living soul, I need to pray. Prayer is like breathing. It keeps me alive. I have to breathe. I also have to pray to stay connected to the life God intended for me… eternal life. (John 3:16)

I feel like I will always be in training when it comes to prayer. I am always learning to pray more effectively. Through prayer, we engage with God’s agenda… to see his kingdom come and his will done on earth as it is in heaven. I want to grow as a prayer warrior in every season of my life.
A half-century of friendship with Jesus has shown me much about prayer. I have discovered that as a living soul, I have a spirit and a mind. Both are active in prayer. But, not just randomly. It matters whether I lead in prayer with my mind or my spirit.

The Apostle Paul taught us, “…pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” and “I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also” (Ephesians 6:18, 1 Corinthians 14:15) Through his teachings, I am convinced that no one knows my mind like my spirit.

It is the same with God. No one knows the mind of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11) So, I am continually learning to pray in the Spirit. To do that, I intentionally engage with the Lord with an expectation that the Holy Spirit will help me. My objective is always to pray with my spirit and with my mind. But, it is crucial that I train my spirit to lead the way. My mind has to stay submitted to my spirit for prayer to be effective.

With my mind submitted to my spirit, I can trust the Holy Spirit to protect and guide me to pray with the heart and agenda of God. Can you learn to do that in a day or a week? No. This will be a life mission for anyone who wants to fully explore their potential in prayer.

The more I pray in the Spirit, the more I perceive the prophetic. With my spirit, I discern access points where heavenly doors or windows or wells are open making God’s provisions available to me for earthly issues. Praying in the Spirit empowers me to receive and declare the living word of the Lord.

Without a commitment to grow more and more in prayer, I would never have taken my journey in the prophetic. It has been a desire to pray that has fueled the prophetic.

If the idea of praying with your spirit is new to you, I encourage you to make a habit of asking God in the name of Jesus, to help you activate your spirit in prayer. Don’t pressure yourself to copy someone else in this. The Father can be trusted to lead you based on the way he designed you.

One gateway into this sort of activation is to watch or listen for impossible things to come before you in prayer. Your spirit is designed to agree with the Holy Spirit for impossible things to be accomplished for the glory of Jesus Christ. As impossible things come before you in prayer, don’t back off. Instead, lean into them and say something like, “Yes, I believe in the name of Jesus that it will happen on earth as it is in heaven”. Allow yourself to worship and to become more aware of who you are in the spiritual dimension. The Lord will help you gain awareness and fluency as you practice and persevere. Be patient with yourself and ask a father or mother in the Lord to help you.

My prayer for you is that you will not settle for a default prayer position with your mind constantly leading the way. We need you, the church needs you, the world needs you to pray in the Spirit on all occasions. Don’t lose heart and keep going after it.

You are a blessing!

Flowing beneath the surface…

It is a profound mystery to drive your roots deeper in search of the wisdom you need to live your story. I declare to you that regardless of your feelings or your current perceptions, you are God’s workmanship (masterpiece) created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God has already planned in advance for you. (Ephesians 2:10)

The relentless river of God’s creativity and design is flowing and creating pressure underground and beneath the surface of your life. If you will turn aside at any time (the sooner the better) and prophesy over yourself the announcement that Jesus made about the Spirit of God bursting out from deep within you, you will begin to see realness and authenticity flourish again. It is irreplaceable and unmistakable. Here is that announcement recorded in John 7:37-38 “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

You cannot afford to lose heart and it’s not necessary. I agree with you in faith that change is happening for you as you drive your roots deeper in pursuit of hope and power for your life. The Spirit of God will meet you there for the glory of King Jesus.

You are a blessing!

Buried deep…

I never could have predicted how The Gardener would plant me after I gave him my “yes” many decades ago. I never would have sent my roots deeper when the troubles came if he wasn’t so trustworthy. I never would have known that the glory of heaven was buried deep in the soil if it wasn’t for his living word. (see Jeremiah 17:7-8)

You are a planting of the Lord destined to be an oak of righteousness. This moment matters. (Isaiah 60:21, 61:3)

You are a blessing!

Weakness… Portal to God’s Power

Thank you so much for asking the Lord for words to prophesy over me on my birthday (Nov 13). I have captured and saved the messages you sent. Our Father poured out the generosity of his household to me through your prophetic words. The family of King Jesus is glorious and has the power and authority to bless like no other network anywhere in the world.

What an incredible honor it is for me to craft words into works that you would read and be affected by eternal things from God! There are unlimited provisions available to us because of Jesus. You are designed to live, move, and exist by receiving and sharing those provisions. God blesses me by allowing me to write out of what he has poured into me.

I was reading 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 in “The Passion Translation” this morning. In his letter, the Apostle Paul wrote about his weaknesses and especially how he chose to handle them. In Brian Simmons’ paraphrase it reads, “…my weakness is a portal to God’s power.”

Being able to perceive yourself with both God-given strengths AND weaknesses is crucial to prophesying. Every one of us fights a personal battle with insecurity over our weaknesses being exposed. You are not alone and we all get that it’s hard for you to be vulnerable. We have that in common.

The church is designed to be prophetic… along with apostolic, evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching. (Ephesians 4) Those of us who have heard God’s call to help others grow in the prophetic must properly steward our weaknesses.

Here is the scripture from 2 Corinthians I was reading today, “But he answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me. So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

The word of the Lord to us today is actually an invitation to trust him with our weaknesses. How powerful would it be if people could see the glory of God on us because we are not defeated but actually delighted by the ways we are weak? This will take courage and faith. But, he provides the unlimited grace that is needed. I pray that there will be a resurgence of the glory of God’s household in the generations beginning with us.

You are a blessing!

Hungry for the word of the Lord and the signs of heaven?

Samuel was a prophet to Israel in the Old Testament. He had an amazing track record with the people of God. It was written of him, “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.” (1 Samuel 3:19-20)

I love the story of how Samuel was introduced to the prophetic while he was a boy. You can read it in 1 Samuel 3. There is so much to learn from the interaction between Eli, Samuel, and the Lord. It speaks loudly to us about the need for spiritual mothers and fathers to step up and own what has been entrusted to us.

However, I want to focus on the first verse in the chapter. “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.” (1 Samuel 3:1) Take a moment and think about that. What would it be like to live in a time when you almost never perceived the word of the Lord and almost no one saw visions? Maybe we know about that far too well.

I don’t believe that the living word of the Lord was scarce or unavailable. It is usually the case that engaging with it is rare and unusual. God is not honored or pleased to make his amazing Presence known anywhere his living word is not welcomed and embraced. Oh, He is there, but the manifestation of the Holy Spirit won’t be experienced.

The voice of the Lord is speaking today. We will hear it if we long for it. If the church will set our hearts on being with him by faith in King Jesus, and surrender to whatever he needs to do in us, we will hear his voice. (see Isaiah 6:1-8)

There is an unprecedented move of God rising up in the world. It is marked by a hunger and thirst for the living words of the Lord. Will we be a generation who won’t stop until it is said, “the word of the Lord was overflowing and the signs of heaven were everywhere”? THAT would be amazing. By the grace of God, that is what we are going after.

You are a blessing!

Living Keys

For me, the prophetic is partnering with the Holy Spirit by using the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19) With the “living word of the Lord” keys we open the way to light and we lock up the darkness in the name of Jesus.

Kings Church gathered for a worship service last night. As we worshipped and then listened to Pastor Seth Fancy share the word, I began to think about why I love the prophetic.

The prophetic reminds us over and over again that the only living God is with us. The light of his presence is the air we breathe. Receiving the living word of the Lord keeps us alive. In humble surrender, we live, breathe, and exist in him.

I love the prophetic because it is heart to heart communication with Jesus. It is an unseen place where I am most alive. It is where I open to the light of who he is and turn away from darkness. (1 Corinthians 2:10-16)

The church needs the prophetic to reveal the secrets of our hearts and to allow the Spirit to clothe us with transparency. God is for all people in all places… every nation and generation.

The church is people who receive and share the living words of the Lord.

You are a blessing!

God’s relentless display of beauty… You (part three)

There is a resurgence rising up to engage with something more. People around us are experiencing a world that is cracking and crumbling around them. Everything from religion to politics is failing to deliver on their promise of an amazing life in an amazing world. As daughters and sons of God in Christ we possess an eternal something.

My most prized possession is God’s living word. I had no idea how powerful his word would be when it was first being planted in me as a boy. It has been a relentless slow-burning fire in me. The Holy Spirit has pursued me thousands of times in my sin and rebellion using the prophetic. The prophetic for me is receiving and sharing the living word of the Lord.

The prophetic is a powerful force alive with heaven’s glory. God uses it to infiltrate every nation with the truth that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn. He actually came to save it (John 3:16-17) He saves us by staying with us and relentlessly changing us into who we really are. His word is alive with the power to do that for every person in every nation.

And God’s strategy is you. You are his masterpiece, work of art, craftsmanship, made for the glory of heaven here and now. When you are led by the Spirit to put your faith in Jesus, your eyes are opened to see that the Father has a purpose for you. He is designing you to love his glory and to live for his reasons (Ephesians 2:10)

So, don’t allow the distraction of trends and hype to make you throw away the treasure of the prophetic. The living word of God is moving and shaping you. You were planted by God when you trusted Jesus with your life. He is intent on growing you into who you really are… and oak tree of righteousness. (Isaiah 61:3)

You are a blessing!