Category: Dan Lamos

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!

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! 

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

The word of the Lord is alive and active. (Hebrews 4:12)  God intentionally brought us into being. We are designed for life-union with Jesus and his word is designed to change us into who God says we are. The prophetic will always be about Jesus. He is the Living Word of God. 

Receiving the living word of the Lord is where the prophetic always starts. David saw himself as something God had already written before he was born. (Psalm 139) The prophet Jeremiah also was told that he was set apart to be a prophet to the nations before birth. (Jeremiah 1) God’s word is full of life and it is designed to keep on filling us so that it flows out of us in everything we do. 

The Lord has taught me to trust what he says more than any other word regardless of how powerful it may seem to be. Sometimes I have even had to disagree with my own opinions and mindset because of God’s living word. What God says and reveals about my life is more powerful than even my own opinions. 

In order to grow in the prophetic, that’s where you begin. When you surrender yourself to Jesus, you become a child of God. The Holy Spirit wakes you up to the fact that you are a growing tree that he has planted. (Isaiah 60:21)  But, he didn’t just plant you and leave you to grow on your own. 

We are his sons and daughters. We have been appointed as prophets to the nations. The word we have been given radically changes things. Because we bear the name of Jesus, we possess the power and authority to “…uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”  (Jer 1:10) Jesus promised that the church he is building will unlock and open the way for heaven to be known in all the earth. 

Today you can say to the Lord, “I believe that your word is alive and active in me because I am your child. I exist because of your word. I surrender my heart, mind and body to you. Jesus, drive my roots deep into what you say so that it spills out of me everywhere I go today.” Amen

You are a blessing! 

Dealing with the thief

Intimidation causes me to tolerate the thief.

The thief is the spirit behind all that is evil.

Letting others steal from me is not love.

Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

I will not tolerate the thief in myself or my world because Christ lives in me.

I will stay in life-union with Jesus and let his words produce generosity in me.

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

I mentioned a week ago that I would write about my experience with trusting God. The prophet Isaiah wrote prophetically that God’s people were planted by God for the display of God’s splendor. (Isaiah 60-61) Over time they would become “oaks of righteousness”.


We need to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Under the title, “God’s relentless display of beauty… You” I want to share my experience in trusting Jesus with my life. So, you will be seeing a series of posts under that heading. From my earliest memories, I have heard that I am indeed “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10) Knowing that and then trusting the process has become a lifelong project for me.
I was blessed to be raised in a pastor’s home. I don’t want to leave you with the wrong impression about what I was “blessed” with. The gift of being the fourth of five children in a pastor’s household was not a life of ease. The term “pastor” is taken from a latin word meaning “shepherd”.


My parents were shepherds to the families in our innercity church. So, in a sense, I was raised as a hired hand of a couple of shepherds. That meant that I lived and breathed the good, bad, and ugly about how people can behave. It wasn’t always pretty. But, it provided me with a front row seat to the human experience of trusting that God would cause his will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven”.


Thanks for your patience as I search through my memories for the keys of the kingdom God left for me to find. Yes, he does that. The Lord hides things from us. But, it’s not because he wants you to lack any good thing. It is because he wants to bless you in your searching. When you put your faith in Jesus as a living presence with you and you allow his words to infiltrate your mind, keys of heaven get stored away for you to discover along your journey.

You and I have been entrusted with life. Congrats! That is a big deal. Don’t miss the truth that you weren’t given the gift of life because you deserve it. God has taught me that his gift of existence to me makes me worthy of showing up each day for his glory. I get to do this!

To live with Jesus means that we possess eternal life in him. That amazing, transcendent, life of God was made available to me through living as a pastor’s son. By loving and bearing with humans that were under our care, I was driven deep in the ground so that like a seed, I could die and then begin to grow into something amazing.

I resisted that process most of the time as a kid and then as a teenager. But, God was relentless in his pursuit of my heart. Take courage today in knowing that in every moment of every day there is a spiritual dimension to your life. The Spirit of God will meet you there. Holy Spirit brings the living presence of Jesus to you. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life in every moment and the door is always unlocked to you by faith. Young or old, rich or poor, success or failure, the One who designed you for his splendor is available.

You are a blessing!

Life-union…

I had a “prayer warrior” friend say to me recently that the problem with Christians in western culture is that we won’t humble ourselves enough to receive the living word of the Lord. I was intrigued and provoked (in the best way) as I have wrestled with this very thing for many years.

I have discovered a new favorite phrase from “The Passion Translation” referring to how Jesus calls us to live. He urges us to “remain in life-union” with him. For many of us, we will remember hearing about this as “abiding” in Jesus.

When it comes to being prophetic, no matter your age or culture, you must relate to Jesus as a person and you must receive his words. Both are far more than an idea, a concept or a set of beliefs.

What would happen if we gave our lives, surrendering ourselves to Jesus in order to remain in life-union with him? It would require us to embrace him as a living person present with us and his living words as something active inside us.

We would stand out as a bit strange at times… but “wonderfully” strange.

Maybe you have that same desperate hunger gnawing away in your gut as I do for God to be known on earth as in heaven. And you aren’t sure what to do with it. I encourage you to ask the Lord to make remaining in life-union with Jesus a priority in everything you do. Watch for him to show you the implications of his living presence with you and in you. Anticipate that you will experience him and his living words as active transforming agents in your life. Let your life-union with him expand your worldview.

As you do, you will find yourself prophesying more and more with your words and even your actions. Here is John 15:1-7 from “The Passion Translation”:

“I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father. He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest. The words I have spoken over you have already cleansed you. So you must remain in life-union with me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.

“I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches.[e] As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless. If a person is separated from me, he is discarded; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned. But if you live in life-union with me and if my words[f] live powerfully[g] within you—then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done.” (John 15:1-7) TPT

You are a blessing!

Not invisible… transparent

Lately, I have been writing more my journey in the prophetic. I’m not sure of all of my motivations behind this. But, I know that I want to help us all (including me) receive and declare the living word of the Lord in this time we have been given.

In a church prophetic prayer session recently, one of our prayer warriors was crying out to the Lord, saying, “We want the pure prophetic, Lord!”. As she prayed I began to see a picture of myself wearing a cloak. As I wore it, I disappeared. So, I said to the Lord, “Oh… a cloak of Invisibility”. I sensed from him that I wasn’t exactly right. So I waited. What came to my spirit was the word “Transparency”. As I engaged with that word, I began to see myself on the stage of our worship center. I realized that people could see the outline of my shape… enough so that I was recognizable. But, I was see-through. People could easily look into me and even through me. I was wearing a cloak of Transparency.

I intuitively understood that this really blessed the Lord and it is what he wants for me. He wants me to walk boldly in transparency. There is a burden in my heart, that tells me that he wants that for all of us who want to grow in the prophetic.

Lord, give us the pure prophetic. And, begin by transforming me and clothing me with your transparency. – Amen.

You are a blessing!