A Corporate Word
In the last year the Lord has spoken things to me that have provoked me to examine my perspective and thought process.
Throughout the 2019 season the Lord was speaking to me out of Mark 4, where Jesus simply declares, “We are going to the other side.” He then falls asleep in the back of the boat. All is not as it seems at first glance. It usually isn’t in the kingdom of God.
To some in this season, it might seem that Jesus has fallen asleep at the back of the boat where the boat is usually given direction and purpose. I believe it wasn’t so much that Jesus was asleep, but that during this time He was actually seated at the communion table with His Father declaring to the demoniac that the kingdom of heaven is at it’s shore.
A demonic storm arises bringing dispute to what Jesus had just declared. The storm in the natural made it appear that going to the other side was an impossibility. The disciples were not discussing whether Jesus had said they were going to the other side, they went right to “Master don’t you care if we die?” A better response would have been to be in prayer.
This is where we find ourselves in this season, a demonic storm has arisen to make it seem as if God is asleep and surely we will die. Neither is true!
In this season, I had a dream in which I saw a room with several fathers of the faith from the previous generation. They were pointing to a ladder at the end of the room. They were exhorting me to not stop here. There is more, press in!
In the previous email I mentioned the 24 day fast the Lord had led me on. One of the things the Lord had impressed upon me was that if I measured future moves of God based on past experiences or limited how God could move based on previous moves of God it would be possible to miss what God is about to do.
The disciples were looking at the natural circumstance and perceived impending doom. But in the heavenly realm, a door to the miraculous was opening. Their focus on earthly circumstances blinded their perspective for what was about to transpire. They were looking at their natural surroundings based on their own human wisdom and concluded, surely the outcome is not good.
In the boat of uncertainty I pray, “Lord remove the limitations and ceilings I have created to what is possible. I repent of “measuring” your goodness based on what I deduce in my own understanding.”
The Jeremiah 33 word the Lord gave begins by saying. “Ask of Me and I will show you great and mighty things. Things you DO NOT KNOW. The goodness and faithfulness of God is NOT determined by our understanding. God is ALWAYS good and faithful.
It is possible in this season that God will stretch our faith to what IS possible in Him and show us things we don’t even have a grid for. My prayer in this season is, “Lord expand my faith for what IS possible in you, not what is impossible because of the limitations of my own understanding.”
Invitations arise out of times of uncertainty. This invitation is to remove strongholds of impossibilities in our minds, and to arise into identity and experiences that we didn’t think we were capable of receiving.
I had a prophetic experience in this season. I call them encounters because I really don’t know what to call them. When I am in the vision, it is interactive. I hear, see and sense. But most of all, in the midst of it, I feel the Fathers heart pass through me tenderizing my heart for what I am experiencing.
In one such encounter, I stood before the Lord and I know this may sound strange, but this is how it happened. He was putting His work clothes on. (Psalm104) It was like He was putting Himself over me. My legs were in His legs, My arms within His arms. He approached a mountain that I had tried to move for decades, a mountain that I was certain was immovable. He stood upon the immovable mountain, me inside Him, I could feel and sense the fear and dread come over the mountain that stood in opposition to Gods promise over my life. I felt the mountain of granite shake and then turn to sand and flee before His feet. I heard, “What is the mountain before you Zerubbabel, the mountain will become like level ground before you.” (Zechariah 4)
I want to share this vision with those of you who feel the boat is not only sinking, but that you have fallen out of the boat and are drowning. Years ago in a vision, the Lord showed me a man that was drowning. The Lord spoke to me to steady him and hold him up. As I approached, I realized the water I was walking on was only knee deep. Deep enough to pray, anointing my knees for intercession. This mans “mind” his “thoughts” were covered in despair. To him the drowning was real. I took his hand, helped him up and the circumstances that had caused hopelessness could not sink him into despair. His mind had been covered. What we perceive we believe to be true. Does our perception align with Gods word and a spirit of Truth? I believe God is raising up those who are fearful to become warriors and more. His hand is extended out to us, to walk on the water with Him!
In the midst of the plagues, there is more. There is the passover lamb, the bringing forth out of Egypt, the preparation and now the promise. I believe this is the cycle that we are in. The Lord spoke to me about hindsight being 2020. I believe He is taking cycles and patterns that have limited us from stepping into fullness and He is putting us on a path that will result in fruitfulness and fulfillment. The Lord showed this to me out of Numbers 13. There are twelve men that go to Canaan to spy out the Land. All twelve saw the same landscape and the same obstacles. Ten men believed according to the limitation of their own understanding that this was impossible. But Joshua and Caleb determined that no matter how impossible the situation, Gods goodness and faithfulness was still larger than any obstacle.
The Lord spoke to me in that time and said, “What you come into agreement with you give authority to rule over you.” It was huge when Joshua declares “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” That is not a magnet we put on our refrigerators, it is a crown that is to rule over our thoughts and words!
In one my quiet times, the Lord told me to approach Him as a priest to minister before Him. One day as I listened I heard, “That won’t fit through the door, leave it outside. I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but through me.” I was sitting in an open basement, just one door in and one door out. I realized He was speaking about Himself as the door not just to the Father but to the promises.
A stronghold is an untruth that we believe about God and therefore ourselves because He is our Father. In that season the Lord was declaring over me my identity and who He is as an overcomer of my inabilities. My inabilities do NOT determine who He is or His measure of faithfulness. As a priest He would declare who I am in Him. Not who I am apart from Him. My only role in that process was to come into agreement with His declaration thus giving His Truth the right to rule over me and bring down strongholds in my thought process and identity.
What you come into agreement with you give authority to rule over you. Those strongholds had put me on paths and years of wonderings. You are who He says you are. He formed you. He knows what is in you and what He fashioned you for. He also knows our shortcomings. When He says, “Let the weak say I am strong” His strength stands in the gap of our weakness and we appear strong but others are really seeing His grace manifest in us. I will expand and finish this in a future teaching.
I leave you with this, I had thought I would send one letter a month. But last night at 2 am the Lord woke me up. I saw a sword press into me. (Hebrews 4) He was showing me my thoughts and attitudes that had hindered what He had planted in me from bearing fruit. But then I had this overwhelming awareness of being filled with perfect Love, all fear began to melt from my being. I was surrounded by His faithfulness, His goodness and His loving kindness. It actually helped me get up like I was weightless. I felt like a helmet of assurance was covering my mind, the helmet of salvation. He was dressing me for war, but he covered my mind first. It was the first piece of armor that he put on me.
I have prayed for years "give me the heart of a warrior.” I saw His glory as He passed before Moses declaring Exodus 34, “The Lord compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” He keeps bringing me to the passover lamb. I believe He keeps speaking old testament promises and New Testament fulfillment because in the midst of the plagues we will see long time promises begin to be fulfilled for all of us. Gods is faithful in the midst of the exodus and after the plagues. The law guided Israel but a compassionate Father spoke of grace in Exodus 6:6 "With an outstretched arm I will redeem you.”
The Father prophesied the cross, knowing we couldn’t do it on our own, because He never intended for us to do it alone. He always intended for us to FEAST at the table with HIM.
