growing in the prophetic

Craving Wisely

My cravings are set on fire by my hunger and thirst. The pressures of life push and pull me to an empty place. Once I get there, my soul demands to be filled. I cannot deny or escape it.

To be alive is to crave more life. I am always hungry and thirsty because I have been created for renewal. As long as I am breathing I will be craving.
For some reason, I find myself journaling this… “Coming to terms with the primal source of life…the kingdom of God… the Spirit of God. It is the presence of God that provides power, stability, breath, life, and more.”

I began to think about prayer. It is bringing my hunger and thirst to the bread of life and the living water… King Jesus. Wisdom tells me that my cravings drive what I do. The reason I pray is to not be a fool when it comes to my heart intentions… what I am REALLY trying to get.

Jesus said, “Blessings on people who hunger and thirst for God’s justice! You’re going to be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6 – The Bible for Everyone) or “How enriched you are when you crave righteousness! For you will be surrounded with fruitfulness.” (The Passion Translation)

We are right now under pressure from adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of us are careening toward a confrontation with our heart motives… what we REALLY crave.

I hear the anchoring voice of the Spirit urging me to come to him every day to eat the bread of life and drink the living water that only comes from King Jesus. Only a fool would ignore Him.

God, lead me in heaven’s wisdom. – Amen

Speak, Lord, for Your Servant (church) is Listening (1 Samuel 3:10)

Inspired by 1 Samuel 3

This has been a historic era when we have been trying to have all of the benefits of the kingdom of heaven on earth without the King. The nations of the world have bought into the lie that says even if there is a God, He is distant from us and uninvolved on earth.

Most, even in the church can relate to 1 Samuel 3:1, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.” Eli’s house was corrupt and he himself was allowing unethical and immoral things to happen. God was about to judge his household.

In the middle of the mess, the Spirit of God broke through and caused the boy Samuel, to hear from heaven. That encounter under the coaching of Eli (even though he was coming under God’s judgment) launched Samuel into an unprecedented prophetic ministry.

We have come to such a moment right now. I submit to you that the Coronavirus Pandemic has become a moment when what we hear has awesome potential to launch the restored prophetic voice of the Church for the glory of King Jesus.

This is a moment when I am choosing by the grace of God to be intentional about how I respond to what I hear. I am joining with young Samuel and praying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. The Church in all nations is going to shine powerfully in 2020 and beyond in an unprecedented way. Our service to God, today, is to listen only to Him.

In Christ, You are a blessing!

Seeing differently

People often ask, “If God is real and present with us, why doesn’t he do something about the evil and destruction in the world?”. The prophetic voice asks, “Because God is real and present with us, what am I doing?”. Communing with the Holy Spirit will always change you into more of a living expression of heaven here and now.

God is talking to us today, revealing more of his dreams to us. He is focused and intent on his family in all nations finally growing up until the whole world sees King Jesus. The Holy Spirit is inviting you to trust him, not with the seemingly insurmountable challenges of tomorrow but in the middle of your next steps today. Invite him to show you where and how the light of heaven is streaming into your dim and dark places. God is building us together in Christ. Somehow in his incredible mercy and creativity, he is shining in us and creating a masterpiece on earth as it is in heaven. – inspired by Ephesians 4:11-16

Because Christ is in you, even your most challenging times contain the light of God’s presence. God is real, He is not avoiding your life or your space. Open our eyes, King Jesus to see this day on earth with the vision from heaven. – AMEN

SEEING IN 2020

I’ve been crafting and honing a prophetic word for 2020 over my own life. The phrase that has been coming to me is, “This year you will SEE in 20/20”. I’m working on a prayer that will express what I want God to do in me over the coming year. It involves restoring the eyes of my heart and renewing my ability to see clearly in the Spirit

According to the American Optometric Association, “20/20 vision is a term used to express normal visual acuity (the clarity or sharpness of vision) measured at a distance of 20 feet. If you have 20/20 vision, you can see clearly at 20 feet what should normally be seen at that distance. If you have 20/100 vision, it means that you must be as close as 20 feet to see what a person with normal vision can see at 100 feet… Having 20/20 vision does not necessarily mean you have perfect vision. 20/20 vision only indicates the sharpness or clarity of vision at a distance.”

I want an inner vision that has been refined to “normal visual acuity” for a child of God living to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. I want to see at 20 (spiritual) feet what I am supposed to see. And, I love the prophetic idea of having clear “vision at a distance”.

I feel like God is blowing on the fire in our hearts with a desire to see in 20/20 in the New Year. I am definitely intrigued. Has the Spirit been stirring up anything similar to this in your life? I am wondering if others have been getting revelation for the year to come.

I would love to hear your reply!

If you feel overwhelmed…

We are designed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are created for the presence of King Jesus. God is intent on living in His family, His bride, the church. His church is people. It is you and me.

Something begins to happen as a result of surrendering our lives to Jesus. He starts changing things… changing us. The living Holy Spirit is constantly renovating and upgrading us BECAUSE we are the temple of the living God. For His glory to fill this temple, we need to be made ready.

God is right now renovating the church in all nations, preparing us for a more profound and intense manifestation of the glory of King Jesus. The challenging times and the unprecedented upheavals around the world are happening because all things must come into alignment with God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

As we, His temple, surrender to him we will shine with His glory and increasingly find others drawn to us to find hope. Lately, I have been experiencing more renovations in my own life. God has been aligning the attitudes of my heart and calling me to higher levels in prayer. He needs to do that in me because of what He wants to do through me.

Maybe you have been wondering why life has been harder than usual lately. In the middle of amazing times with God, things seem to be more chaotic. I want to encourage you. If you have surrendered your life to King Jesus, you are in his care and He is with you… not just surrounding you but within you.

He is not working on you out of frustration, but out of a passionate desire to prepare you to shine even more with the fire of His presence. I know it is hard and maybe impossible to find the courage to go on when you are looking at your own strength. We HAVE TO focus on Christ in us in order to find grace in our time of need.

I pray that right now, the eyes of your heart will be opened and you will hear from the Spirit of God that you are not alone. All of the perceived challenges in front of you are only there to make you more amazing for the glory of Jesus. You are not alone and today is a day when we win in Christ.

Healing my Spiritual Vision in 2020

Every November I ask God to give me a word, a focus for the coming year. It stirred in me this morning that I would love for the Spirit of God to bring healing to the eyes of my heart in 2020. I know that seeing everything more clearly as he aligns my vision will call for greater courage and surrender.

Over the next week, I will be crafting my word from the Lord for my life as it relates to 2020. My tradition is to have it ready for my birthday on November 13. I then submit it to King Jesus and surrender it to him as I start on another trip around the sun.

Maybe you would like to ask the Lord about 2020? If you feel like it is a year for him to heal the eyes of your heart, your inner vision, you are welcome to join me in that focus.

As children of God in Christ, we are prophetic people. The Church is called to be a prophet to all nations. May we surrender our vision to King Jesus over and over again so that He will be happy in his Church and his heart will overflow with blessing!

The Open Door

There is always a massive reserve of wisdom available to us with Jesus. More than ever before, I am aware that God has reconciled all things to himself in Christ. Reconciliation is a gigantic word.

The unseen things are eternal and what is seen is temporary. It has taken a lifetime to learn, but I am convinced that I wouldn’t last a day without the Spirit of Truth connecting me to life. Somehow, I understand that it’s okay and that He is not in a hurry for me to learn all the lessons.
It is time for us to engage life with a spiritual vision. There is an eternal dimension in every moment of this day. In the simplicity of our routines on earth, heaven is colliding with us. Jesus became the open door for God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. The jaw-dropping reality is that somehow He wants to prove it by showing up through you and me today in every ordinary thing we do.

So, maybe today I will more consistently let go of the anxiety connected with propping up my world in my own strength. This I know for sure… Jesus is the one who pulls it all together and He is our open door to more than we could ever imagine.

Miraculous, not Magical

I order to live a story surrendered to God’s appointment you need grit, grind, and grace every day. It is miraculous but it’s not magic. It requires living on earth tapped into the resources of heaven.

“But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves upon the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit. Fasten your hearts to the love of God and receive the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives us eternal life. Keep being compassionate to those who still have doubts, and snatch others out of the fire to save them. Be merciful over and over to them, but always couple your mercy with the fear of God. Be extremely careful to keep yourselves free from the pollutions of the flesh.” (Jude 20-23 TPT)

In Christ, you are a blessing!

Prophetic Give and Take

I am gaining a much greater appreciation for our need to gain skill in the “give and take” of the prophetic in our relationships. I have focused most of my attention on learning how to hear from God and deliver prophetic words to others.

But, Jesus opened the way so that I can also receive powerful blessings through others as they deliver prophetic messages from God to me.

This two-way communication with other believers in Christ requires me to learn how to both receive from and give to others through the gift of prophecy.

Because of all that Jesus accomplished as our Saviour and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh (see Acts 2), we have the incredible blessing of relating prophetically. The same power of Christ that frees us to deliver a prophetic word also empowers us to receive a word responsibly from another believer.

I have a sense that the Church is going to greatly increase our ability to receive words from others with the Holy Spirit’s help. Powerful days lie ahead of us as we learn to lovingly judge the words others deliver to us in a healthy way.

The Lord Jesus is still building his church. The best is yet to come. Don’t squander the opportunities available to you to practice the prophetic in your relationships.

In Christ, you are a blessing!

Unlimited Provision… Unlimited Systems

In the middle of a conversation yesterday with an apostolic friend of mine, a word rose up in me… Unlimited provision is waiting for unlimited systems. Prophesying involves taking action, sending a text, making a phone call, saying hello to a stranger, telling someone that you are learning to listen to God for the sake of blessing others, etc.

A system is “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method.” (Oxford Dictionary) For too long, the objective of our system for the prophetic has been to protect the exclusivity of who gets to prophesy. In other words, we approach prophesying as something reserved for those special ones among us. This has been so limiting to the kingdom of heaven being experienced on earth.

There is kinetic power in the prophetic. Kinetic energy is what a body possesses by virtue of being in motion.

This is what I have learned about being prophetic… the more outlets I create for prophesying, the more it flows from me. Prophecy is receiving AND declaring the living word of the Lord. The more you step forward and risk creating another outlet, the more results you will see.

We all have systems (ways that we operate on a daily basis). Do a gut check to see if you intend to release the kinetic power of the prophetic today. It could be as ordinary as choosing a name from your phone contacts, asking God to release an encouraging word through you to that person, and sending a short text to reflect what you received from the Father concerning his love for them.

Unlimited provision is waiting for unlimited systems. I am speaking that word into my own space today. Maybe that is a good word for you as well.

I truly believe that as your actions create more outlets for the prophetic, you will experience the kinetic energy of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

In Christ, you are a blessing!