Tag: blessing

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The Shaking’s Just Begun

As silly as this might sound, God gave me a prophetic word through watching a movie recently. I didn’t have any massive revelation while watching the movie, but Friday/Saturday night at about 1 AM, I felt God whispering to me about things to come. This is a word intended for the church primarily. Please understand that this word is not about doom and gloom, but about the revelation of true identity. This revelation will be a massive wake-up call for some and a spring of joy for others.

I really don’t like to mention specific dates or timeframes when I share a prophetic word, but I strongly believe that this specific word has a maturation date. I feel like God told me “six months.” I interpret this to mean there is a growing period of six months before this word starts to unfold. That puts us in May 2018. I don’t really know though since all I heard was “six months.” As you read this, ask the Holy Spirit to bear witness in your spirit about these things and ask Him this: “Teach me to number my days so that I may apply my heart unto wisdom.”

Cliffnotes version:

  • The Church is not a building, but a body, a called-out assembly
  • Anything that the “church” has done in the past apart from God’s strength will be consumed by fire
  • Believers are finally waking up to their identity as the Church
  • Leaders are continuing to transition
  • We are going to witness a manifestation of fierce love against the tide of anger and revenge
  • Deep generational reconciliation is about to take place
  • Jacob will not steal his brother’s blessing
  • The two sons of the Good Father (the prodigal son and the one who stayed home) will be reconciled as co-heirs
  • The seers will be united
  • The prophetic gift will be supercharged

The Church Is Not a Building

The Church is not a building, but a body, a called-out assembly of people. Unfortunately, many people are still caught up in the programs and traditions of man. Everything about the church as an institution that has been done in human strength apart from God and then swept under the rug to avoid confrontation is about to come back from the place it’s been suppressed, and it will utterly decimate the facade erected by those who have gone before. The skeletons in the basement are about to be uncovered. Anything rotten in the institutional church’s foundation is about to be revealed, and there will be no recourse but to hand it over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

Many believers will raise the alarm that the church is under attack… and they will be correct in their assessment, but not necessarily correct in identifying the enemy. What they may not realize, is that the devil is only a pawn in God’s tactical plan. The institutional church, by its lust for power and human achievement, will have given a foothold to the devil and invited him in. The lust for power, control, and reputation is what has really been attacking the church. The destruction coming is not out of wrath or anger, but a deep desire for what’s real and eternal. It is to burn away the wood/hay/stubble so that the gold/silver/precious stones may remain. You may think you know what “shaking” looks like now, but the real shaking has barely begun. Everything that can be shaken will be.

The purpose of all of this is so that the ekklesia would wake up to their reality that the Church is not a building or a program, but a people who carry the Name, the Presence, and Power.

More Leaders Transition

Leaders of the older generation that have held the keys of power and authority will transition out of their role in the spotlight before the destroyer comes. This could look like physical death or merely handing the torch on to new rising leaders.

Those in the church who have fulfilled a comforting and nurturing role will be the first to pass the baton. I heard God saying that the comforters of the older generation will be the first to transition because they are about to manifest their legacy. They are about to give themselves as living sacrifices, moved by fierce love, against the onslaught of anger and the spirit of revenge at work in the world today. This will set the stage for what’s next.

The remaining Christian leaders who have been traditionally looked to for strength and direction will be bound by grief at the quarrels and fighting they see in the church but they will transition in peace as they begin to see reconciliation happen with those who are taking their place.

Heavy Dose of Identity

Forerunners of all kinds are about to step into a deeper place of understanding about who they are. These are people who may already be walking in a measure of their identity… but there is more, much much more. Church leaders who GOD has called to inherit leadership in this season (regardless of their age) are about to WAKE UP.

More than just leaders, anyone who has been tangled up in bitterness and hopelessness in the church is about to drink straight, undiluted identity. They will discover they are not merely strong—they are valiant and unashamed—and they will rise to answer the renewed call of destiny over their lives.

Jacob Will Not Steal His Brother’s Blessing

I feel that God has told me that there has been fighting between the generations, mixed with deception and trickery. Like the two sons of Issac, there has been an attempt of one son to steal the blessing from the other. However, that is where the similarities end. I feel like God is saying that as our true Father, His eyes are not dim and His first blessing is not His only blessing. Instead, He has endeavored to bless all of His children. Anyone in the rising generation who has been oppressed or labeled “deceivers” and “outsiders” will soon realize that they are not of the household of Jacob (a deceiver), but they are grafted-in sons of the King of Kings and also heirs in the LIFE to come.

The current and rising generations in the church today are like the two sons in the parable of the Good Father. One son was a prodigal and wasted his inheritance while the other son maintained his service in his Father’s household. When the Father received back His prodigal son with joy and feasting, the other son harbored bitterness and contempt. The heirs who have served God faithfully are about to be reconciled with the heirs who have been far from their Father.

The Seers Will Be United

Jesus said that if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light. In the same way, the seers and prophetic voices in the Church that function like eyes to the Body will be united in heart, mind, and purpose during this time bringing the light of revelation to the whole Church. Their gifting is unique in that it is timeless. There won’t be as much of a transition among the leaders here because their gift is to shelter the body during trouble and lead them through the times of testing. Their many insights will have a compounding effect leading to a multi-dimensional view of God’s activity in the world.

In addition to this, the seer gift is about to take on a new dimension of not only sharing what God reveals but also of an unprecedented and NEW role to bring opposite perspectives into HARMONY. We are about to see the prophetic gift SUPERCHARGED in a way that will enable seers and prophets to impart God’s point of view in such tangible ways that others will experience God’s point of view from a first-person perspective. No longer will the prophetic be merely about describing how God sees things, but it will be about imparting the experience of how God sees things such that you won’t be able to go back to how you used to see them. Your old paradigms will be incomprehensible and unable to be recalled because the MIND OF CHRIST will overshadow and overcome the flesh.

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Upending Anger

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.

Romans 12:14 (NLT)

I remember watching a video not too long ago of a police officer dragging a black girl out of her school desk and not knowing what story about the context to believe. I also remember feeling a strong sense of anger emanating from the student and from the officer. It marked the first moment of my awareness of the deeper issues we’re now facing today.

As a white male millennial, there are a lot of things you could assume about me. There are certain areas of life where I have experienced “white privilege” (if you call a lack of discrimination and being evenly and fairly considered among many options to be a “privilege”) and others where I’ve felt discriminated against. I’ve been discriminated against because of my height, my age, my beliefs, my poor financial status… usually not my race, but that doesn’t make the discrimination any less real.

All I know is that holding on to anger would have kept me stuck in a mess of insecurity, a mental and emotional prison, an unhealthy and stunted worldview. It’s for this reason that I want to share specific areas that I have chosen to forgive others so that I can be free to enjoy life and spread joy to others. These things I’m about to share may be real problems or they may be merely perceived by me. Either way, these are negative beliefs and experiences that I refuse to hold on to and I will also share areas where I am choosing to bless instead. This is what taking action on the issues of the day looks like for me. Maybe there will be another step after this, I don’t know. For now, let’s begin:

I Forgive White People

  • I FORGIVE any and all white people for knowingly or unknowingly exercising any level of privilege, real or imaginary, at the expense of other human beings instead of on the behalf of others
  • I FORGIVE any and all white people who deny that racism still exists today for not seeking to understand the world they live in and for not actively seeking to help those who are hurting
  • I FORGIVE any and all white people for any real or perceived attempts to drown out the voices reminding us that black lives matter by creating a cacophony of “all lives matter”
  • I FORGIVE any and all white people for being unnecessarily reactionary and unskillful in dealing with conflict and exercising humility

I Forgive Black People

  • I FORGIVE any and all black people who knowingly or unknowingly hold on to anger against white people for refusing to forgive me for the injustices of the past and present, and any injustices yet to happen, intended or unintended
  • I FORGIVE any and all black people who rail against all white people as being ‘privileged’ for not realizing that privilege doesn’t necessarily come to you because you are white but because you are affluent and for making unfair generalizations about me
  • I FORGIVE any and all black people who are equally as stubborn and naive as white people for not taking the time to walk a mile in my shoes and still have the audacity to point a finger of accusation

I Forgive Police Officers

  • I FORGIVE any and all police officers who have consciously or unconsciously allowed their prejudices to influence the way they treat black people in a manner that differs from the way they treat white people for not actively uprooting their unhealthy world views and presenting the best version of themselves possible

I Forgive The American Church

  • I FORGIVE the church for not always setting the best example of how to love people across generational and racial lines and for often serving to help divide rather than restore society
  • I FORGIVE the church for not emphasizing the necessity of forgiveness enough and demonstrating how to walk it out

I Forgive Angry and Defensive People

  • I FORGIVE any and all people who hate, argue, and disparage others for not listening to the heart cry of society today and for not being moved with compassion

BLESSINGS

I Bless White People

  • I BLESS white people with humility and joy so that they can discover the privilege and power of becoming the servants of all and establishing a standard of living that becomes other people’s floor rather than their ceiling
  • I BLESS white people with maturity and confidence to ask excellent questions and to become skilled listeners, especially when talking with people of unfamiliar backgrounds, upbringings, and persuasions
  • I BLESS white people with bravery to face criticism, however harsh, and still respond with love and honor

I Bless Black People

  • I BLESS black people with a double portion of grace and honor so that they can begin to rise up and initiate the greatest movement of healing and racial reconciliation the world has seen to date
  • I BLESS black people with abundant peace so that they can rest in the assurance that God doesn’t show partiality and His vindication is strong and complete
  • I BLESS black people with unquenchable endurance, an indomitable spirit, so that the world will know that the One who breathes life into mankind is powerful enough to sustain the people He loves

I Bless Police Officers

  • I BLESS police officers with the wisdom, strength, and love they need to serve and protect our citizens with dignity, honor, and respect
  • I BLESS police officers with insight to recognize situations and circumstances where they could be harboring potentially compromising beliefs
  • I BLESS police officers with divine action strategies to pursue personal development and foster goodwill in their communities

I Bless The American Church

  • I BLESS the church with an irresistible pull of the Spirit to make Jesus the starting and ending point of their conversations so that unity becomes the norm rather than the exception and so that they can lead the world as a light of hope in the midst of the darkness of division

I Bless All People

  • I BLESS humanity with the realization of the love of Christ, and the wisdom and understanding to apply it in everyday life
  • I BLESS humanity with heavenly keys to conflict so that people from all walks of life will be able to accurately express who they are and what they’re feeling and so that those listening will know how to interpret what they hear and understand things as they are intended and not as a different worldview or belief system may cause them to falsely appear
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A Different Light

Ever have a moment of sudden revelation? I’ve been having many of these lately: simply going to and from activities, day to day, when all of a sudden, the smallest thing will strike me. The way the clouds have formed, the way a friend speaks, the stillness of the air, the way a stranger walks across the room… I find myself constantly stopping in my tracks and reeling from the weight of the realizations from these simple things, and often I find I don’t have the words to express them. The lack of words is what really causes me to ache inside: when realizations come with intense feelings I often feel that I need to write to release and understand them, but somehow their intensity prevents my mind from piecing them together in any logical sense. Allow me to share one of my recent moments.

A recent revelatory moment

This picture has so many feelings attached to it. When I saw this scene walking back from dinner one night I almost started crying and had to snap this photo. I look at this and feel an intense foreboding and hope and peace simultaneously. The way the sun is setting grips my heart with longing and urgency. It’s as if the day had reached its climax and everything around me had become ripe and full, ready to be made new by night. This is perhaps more telling of where my heart is at than anything else. I definitely feel a longing for a sort of renewal and sense a sort of urgency for preparing for my next stage of life, but I have no idea what these things look like and that is quite possibly why I can’t seem to properly describe the feelings I’m experiencing. All in all, I have to admit that this moment was suddenly beautiful and I left carrying the weight of blessing in my spirit. Just to have been given this experience felt like a tremendous blessing. I’m still reeling from it.

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Themes

In all honesty, I haven’t had a lot on my mind lately. Over Thanksgiving break I’ve been house-sitting which has been a blessing and a curse, but mostly blessing. The hard part is being by myself, yet at the same time that is also the blessing—the silence is like an emotional/mental/spiritual detox. Yep, it’s just me and the dog I’m watching and frankly, I couldn’t ask for more.

Thanks to the tremendous amount of silence and stillness, I’ve been praying like nobody’s business (who else am I going to talk to?). I did spend some time with family on Thanksgiving Day, but I’ve mostly just been tending to the house and the dog and praying. I did venture out on Black Friday to a local coffee shop (there’s something about being in the company of strangers that’s oddly affirming of my humanity) and had a chance encounter with a friend I haven’t seen in months (though it felt like years). So really, nothing hugely fantastic has really happened over the last few days, but that’s ok: I’m learning to feel His pleasure in the little things.

I’ve still been recording my important thoughts as I have them although they have been much fewer as of late. I think I’m beginning to see a theme however. Much of the things that I ponder relate to ways that I can grow in genuineness but genuineness is never the point. That is, genuineness is a byproduct, not a goal. That’s it really. If I were to say that my main goal in life is to be genuine, then firstly, I wouldn’t be being honest with myself and secondly, I would have no idea what that would even look like. It just so happens though that when you live according to your convictions and humbly adapt to circumstances and ideas that you encounter, genuineness forms as a result of living unashamedly as yourself. As a Christian that’s only part of it though. Genuineness also comes from living unashamedly toward Christ. Something I’ve realized while I’ve been praying is that admission of weakness is not designed so that we would dwell on our needful state, but so that we would celebrate Christ’s power and life already at work in us. It’s the celebration of Christ in our lives that marks us as genuine Christians. Love, joy, peace, and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. I couldn’t ask for more.

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Blessing

Sometimes, I find myself particularly tired of my place in life… and then it hits me: I want it now. I want my portion now. I have been promised an inheritance, and I’m tired of waiting. Oh God, have mercy on me. It all begins when I start to think about the things that I do, the places I’ve been, the person I’ve become, and I look at all of the people who just don’t care, all of the opportunities that never presented themselves, all of the situations that I’ve judged to be unfair. I feel gypped, robbed. I feel like it’s about time that I find a useful place in life utilizing my whole person. I’m tired of being at the place of existing and waiting and doing so much work to continue waiting for something fulfilling.

I’m so close to being a prodigal. But then I remember Jesus’ parable. Then I remember Peter’s words of wisdom. Then I repent of my thoughts.

I am easily tired and worn out. I am easily fed up and sickened by familiarity and routine. I am weary of watching my life pass before my eyes as the things which I feel would bring me fulfillment pass me by in favor of other people. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you…” — 2 Peter 3:9

I could say something to the idea of “maybe the things that I feel would bring me fulfillment really wouldn’t.” I could say that maybe God has a purpose in allowing me to be passed over and ignored. But I don’t think my heart is misguided in this. I don’t think my feelings are lying. I don’t think my motives are impure. I do, however, think I need to be found in the place of readiness for His blessing. He is patient toward me, giving me time to repent and change and renew my mind. His blessing is on the transformed life and I must hasten my transformation by renewing my mind. At the same time, I must be patient for the times that the process doesn’t progress as quickly as I would like it. So here is my mind, God; will You teach my heart to know Your ways, to think Your thoughts? Will you illuminate the darkness in my mind? Will You remove the spiritual blindness oppressing me? Will You lead captivity captive? Will You kill death? Will You enable me to enjoy You?