Category: identity

Stand Up! The world is waiting for you.

I heard a word from the Lord in a dream last night. It was, “Stand up! The world is waiting for you.” There were many of us gathered in a retreat type of event. The speaker was challenging us with those words. There was a profound sense that it was a moment of commissioning and sending.

Many of us need to open our spiritual perception to hear the Lord stirring us, awakening us to realize that while we “wait” for a special invitation or affirmation from an earthly source to step forward, the world is actually waiting for us to stand up and release our voice.

The Lord is putting His word in our mouths. It is time for us to hear his word from Jeremiah 1:17, “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them.” Often you will find that the terrifying ones will be the spirits who try to control and manipulate you with their approval or disapproval. You will encounter these spirits both outside and within the faith community. Walk in heaven’s wisdom! The Lord has promised us boldness, courage, power, and authority when we stand. The world is waiting for us.

You are a blessing!

Trying Harder is Toxic to the Prophetic

The Holy Spirit is training me to live in full acceptance as a son in the family of God. I did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading me back into the fear of never being good enough. (Romans 8:10-17 TPT)

God longs for us to give ourselves to an intimate relationship with him. In Christ he transforms us into his friends and lovers. In order to move forward in receiving and declaring the living word of the Lord, we need to anticipate more amazement over who Jesus is in us.

Religious duty is not amazing! Nurturing an attitude of religious duty, of trying harder in my life is toxic to my growth in the prophetic. It is time for the Church (remember that the church is people) to come clean about our friendship with religious duty.

To be prophetic requires an ever-increasing fire of friendship with Jesus. Friendship with religion (trying hard to please God) is NOT friendship with Jesus. The first gift God gives us on our journey in the prophetic is friendship with him from the inside-out.

How would your life be different if you surrendered to his promise to never leave you or forsake you? What if never leaving you includes those times when you have sinned and/or deeply disappointed yourself as part of his family? Are you ready for a deeper surrender to his never-failing friendship with you? Talk to him about it.

You are a blessing!

God’s power all over us

I was leading a prophetic prayer session a few nights ago. A good friend in our prayer family shared a vision. She was seeing us standing in a narrow space between two walls. All of us had a hand on each wall and ready to push the walls apart.

She sensed that the Lord was inviting us to push the walls back in order to create space for his presence to rush in. The walls represented sin and/or evil mindsets with which we had grown way too familiar. It was time to name them, call them out and expel them in the power and authority of Jesus’ name.

One of the prominent evil strongholds that I saw was powerlessness. As our prayers began to heat up, we knew that we were moving with the Spirit of the Lord. The phrase, “having the appearance of godliness but denying its power” came to mind. 2 Timothy 3:5 speaks about us when we are powerless… “They may pretend to have a respect for God, but in reality they want nothing to do with God’s power. Stay away from people like these!” (TPT)

This morning as I was waking up, the Holy Spirit was stirring me to think about operating in the power of God. After I grabbed my coffee, I looked at 2 Corinthians 13:4. It talks about Jesus being “robed in God’s power”. You and I were put into Christ by God when we through faith received our adoption into his family. That means we are also covered in the awesome mantl/robe of his power.

I am praying today for the oil that cycles through the engine of the Church on earth. May God transform it into the fresh, golden oil from heaven instead of the sludge of recycled powerlessness. Most of us need a reawakening to the disrespect we show toward Jesus when we neglect his power. If we see it, our hearts will begin to break for change.

This is a new year and a new day. In Christ, you are robed in the power of God. That is a great honor and privilege. Don’t let selfish or lazy thinking cause you to take it for granted. You are better than that as a member of his household.

You are a blessing!

Taken into 2019

The living word of the Lord changes everything. Everything about God speaks. His word is like a fire. It is also like a hammer. (Jeremiah 23:29) He speaks and a new creation comes into being… YOU come into being.

The most elemental truth concerning you is identifying as God’s creation… craftsmanship… artistry… design. Through life-union with Jesus, the dead imposter you used to be is buried and your true self is breaking out as you are pulled into the future by grace. With every new day in Christ, you are becoming more of who really are. God has promised never to abandon you.

Surrender to the Holy Spirit’s current that longs to take you through that open door in front of you into the New Year. His desire is to change things through you this year. His creative power belongs to you in Christ. You have the authority in the name of Jesus to declare new things with your life and your voice. Because you are in life-union with Jesus and He is in you, your life speaks. (John 15:1-8 TPT)

In 2019, may you embrace your calling to declare the amazing news of God’s new creation. No one can share it like you. You have been designed with a unique voice to declare his glory. You matter because of Christ in you. His choice to be in life-union with you and me constantly lifts us to reign with him in this world to see His glory on earth as it is in heaven. Here’s to the best year ever in 2019!

You are a blessing!

Grace is not about my deficiency

Grace is not about making up for my deficiency. It is about the overwhelming goodness of God. In Christ, God completely shattered the intimidating forces of this world.

Grace goes before me in Christ preparing moments of display, signs, and wonders that show his glory. It is true that I have lived half a century with Jesus. And it is also true that I am still discovering how much the Father loves us. He loves the Son. When we receive his gift of adoption, we come into Jesus. Because we are in him, their love flows from within us out to the world.

The Holy Spirit constantly remains with us and in us because of grace. It’s not us! It is the goodness of God. Our grateful hearts explode with relief, peace, joy and the greatness of living any and every moment on earth as it is in heaven.

Because of Jesus, you are a blessing!

Burn the old, musty disguise…

When a child of God sins, their identity does not change. Becoming an orphan again is not an option… only role-playing. True change has come to us once we have opened the door to Jesus. We become daughters and sons at that moment. Untold damage is done when we keep the old familiar orphan self-perception around like a musty costume in the back closet. When you are a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ, you are never an orphan again. It’s just an old, dead, musty, role-playing disguise… Burn it! 

You are a blessing!

My story #8

The Loft Sessions – Walk in the Promise

I grew up at 82 White Street. I was given beautiful gifts by my dad and mom. One was their determination to take me into consideration in the late ’70s as I approached my high school graduation in 1980. My dad had received many opportunities to pastor churches in “better” places but we stayed there on White Street allowing me to finish high school years in the school system where I was at home. What a huge benefit that was to me. Thank you!!

Another gift was showing me the world of art. This is the dimension… the reality where I am at home and at peace. My mom was in love with music. It was most definitely her happy place. She meshed that into the way she raised me and nurtured the same love in me.

As I sit here this morning and write while listening to beautiful music by Jeremy Riddle of Bethel Music   I am being swept away into the realm where it all comes alive and the grave clothes unravel and fall off of me… music… art… creating with The Creator.

Will you come with me into this place? Will you let yourself go and free fall to soar on the breath of the Spirit on the wings of the art woven in to your very being?

Our Creator has knit creativity into us. At our response to His invitation it sparks to life and lights the world in a million expressions.

There is a growing congregation of us who have gathered around the world unknown to each other and yet we are waiting for you to express your art as you fall in love with the Son and His kingdom again.

I can’t wait!!