THIS!

My wife, Jan, just wrote and released this powerful blessing.

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Blessing of Suddenlies

Isaiah 29:1-8

Isaiah prophesies sudden deliverance, which is fulfilled and recorded in chapter 37:36-38. He is not only speaking about a specific time in history, but a truth about what God is like for His people and towards their enemies. 

In the name of Jesus Christ,

      I bless your spirit with the wonder

      of living in His presence,

      in His preserving favor.

Whether experiencing great blessing

      or distress, you are always directly

      face to face with Him.

When trouble hems you in on all sides,

      keep looking to God—persevere in hope.

If you are humbled by adversity

      and under great stress and duress,

      if you are filled with sorrow and fear—

      your voice reduced to a whispered prayer—

      believe deeper still in God’s word to you.

He has already spoken a word of deliverance!

Your enemy considers himself powerful,

      yet that is how completely he is deceived:

      he is culpable and he will be humbled;

      his power doesn’t compare

      to the awesome ease of divine action.

This is what God is like:

      He will dispatch the threat,

      completely removing it—

      forgotten as though just a dream.

Divine deliverance will happen suddenly;

      in a dramatic, last-minute instant—

      it will happen!

I bless you with new faith,

      refusing to live by working the system

      and by practicing religion,

      yet not believing God’s word.

Without minimizing human culpability

      and the reality of evil in the world,

      may you no longer be run around

      by the noisy sounds of discord:

      no longer live as though you

      are at the mercy of earthly forces;

      no longer live as though you are dealing

      with secondary causes.

You are blessed with a direct face to face

      relationship with the Lord Almighty

      in every circumstance.

Though His mercies may seem delayed,

      He will not delay—

      He will never fail you:

      He is sovereign in history,

      He is your Higher Reality,

      He will preserve you,

      He will have the last word—

      and it is a word of deliverance.

Fighting in a Dark Place

When I was a cop, I was so familiar with each weapon at my disposal, I could run the weapon, break it down and reassemble it in a dark room and not miss a beat. I didn’t need natural light to know the feel and function of what I carried.

In times of personal or cultural darkness, a similar principle is present. If we become familiar and regularly train with our spiritual weapons in times of light when life seems to be prospering, then when things get dark, we will still be able to function while others stumble in the darkness. We will not become dysfunctional based on what we cannot see or understand.

Some of the social angst taking place in the community of faith in this dark moment is because many did not make themselves familiar with their spiritual weaponry while it was still light.  The spiritual weapons God gave us to fight off the assault of fear and faithlessness do not depend on the natural light of human understanding to function. They work anywhere and all the time, no matter what is taking place.

Prophesying Hope to the Seed

“Israel will remain a stump, like a tree that is cut down, but the stump will be a holy seed that will grow again.”

—Isaiah 6:13b

When I was a boy, I watched my father trim the mulberry trees that lined our driveway. When these trees were in full bloom, they provided a wonderful place of shade during the hot summer days. The first time my father trimmed these trees, I thought he had killed them. He literally cut them back to a stump and a few branches. But each year the trees grew back healthier and larger than before because within the DNA of the tree was a life and a structure that no amount of trimming could destroy. Life is like the mulberry trees of my youth; there are times when we get so trimmed, we wonder if we will ever grow back, and then life happens again.

Once, when I read this verse from Isaiah 6, the words seemed to hang in the air. The Lord spoke to me, saying:

I am raising up a host of prophets who will prophesy hope to the seed that remains in the stump. I never leave a stump without a seed. This seed contains the DNA of My life. It is activated and brought to life by hope. Raise your voice and speak hope to the seed that remains. The seed is waiting for the sound of hope. Do not focus on the stump. The stump only carries the seed. This present devastation is temporary. Words of hope are anchored in eternity. Rise up and stand before the stump just as My servant Noah did when I asked him to build the Ark. You will look foolish to those who only see the stump, but I will grow the seed and the tree will stand again. Prophesy to My seed.

(excerpt from Prayers from the Throne of God)

The Challenge of Reduction

Recently, I was asked to write a magazine article from the content of my new book, BEYOND. When you have written tens of thousands of words and framed them within the pages of a book, reducing the critical elements down to just a couple of thousand words can be a challenge. Everything of value and worth can and must be able to be reduced to a simple thesis statement, or we haven’t done our homework.  

Some of us are in a season of reduction. In the process of that reduction, the thesis of our life is uncovered, good or bad, as the accumulated clutter of life is stripped away. We will discover what is at our core motivating our choices. We will also find out what we have allowed, remaining unchecked, that has determined the range of our emotional response to unexpected change. As painful as reduction can be, it is really a needed exercise. Without an occasional reductive reset, we will continue on with the status quo of our recent history and miss the new thing God wants to do in and through our lives.

If you are in a moment of personal reduction, don’t fight it, go with it. It is part of a journey to return you to what is most important in life. The process will become a reminder that you need less than you have been led to believe. Reduction is not less. It is more. More of what truly matters.

Have You Noticed?

Have you noticed arguments about the non-essential issues of life and the theological arguments over personal preferences have left the online conversations? When a globally fearful presence is prowling the streets of our cities, we rise to something better in our soul, something God put there when He created us, something that remained hidden in times of self-reliance. Don't waste this time. Something beautiful is taking place.

Increase in Decrease

The Lord is doing a work of increase in this time of decrease. While the garment of your patience has become frayed and threadbare, and you feel naked and exposed, the Lord has been crafting something new to clothe your thoughts and emotions. He will not waste your sorrow. As you come to Him in this strange and unfamiliar time and cry out in your pain and confusion, the Lord will create a new and stronger garment from the sacrifice of your praise and worship. It will become an insulating shield between your vulnerability and the raw elements of this exposed and separated time. He promised to never leave you or forsake you. The Lord is about to confirm that truth to you in a very personal way. What God has promised will not return empty of fulfillment. 

Sheltering in Place with God Almighty

For the last 40 years, whenever my life entered a confusing and challenging time, I went to the Psalms. This morning the Lord invited me back to the Psalms into a quiet place with Him. I am sheltering in place with the peace of God.

Historians tell us that in times of great social upheaval and revolution, the voices that brought the most comfort were the musicians, poets, and prophets. There are books in Scripture called the books of poetry and wisdom. Among those books are Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. This where I will park my heart and mind until this global crisis passes.

People are trying to find answers when no answer is yet available.  They want to feel peace when peace is only possible in the presence of God, not in solutions or outcomes offered by human intellect and understanding. This lack of clarity and its resulting futility will create more fear, dread, and anger-fueled violence in the coming days. Only peace can offer us safe passage into the future.

I invite you to step into the peace of God. His peace is the only sane place in this uneasy time in our history.

“Many people say, “Who will show us better times?”
    Let your face smile on us, Lord.
You have given me greater joy    than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
 In peace I will lie down and sleep,
    for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe” (Psalm 4: 6-8 NLT).

The Most Dangerous Virus

Dread has become the most dangerous virus now stalking our nation. Psalm 91:6 addressed the issue of dread, “Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday.”

The Cambridge Dictionary defines dread as “to feel extremely worried or frightened about something that is going to happen or that might happen.” Dread is the constant fearful expectation that something terrible is happening or will happen. It is the result of a shift in our focus from hope to hopelessness. As a result of that shift, dread enters our thinking.  

This current global pandemic will pass, but dread will remain to return again if we do not challenge its presence.  It will return if we did not learn to live in the truth of the opening verses of Psalm 91, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” 

Rest and trust are the only known antidote against the virus of dread. We need to repeatedly inject our thoughts with rest and trust and declare that God alone is our only refuge and our place of ultimate safety. That injection of truth will destroy the virus of dread and return to us a proper perspective on how to live in a challenging moment of history.

Wearing Your Boots of Victory

You will wear the failed plan of the enemy like a pair of expensive snakeskin western boots. What the enemy had planned to use to crush your life will become a testimony of God’s intervening love and deliverance in this time of great cultural shaking.

As I prayed this morning, I saw a pair of cowboy boots made from python snakeskin.  The finished boots were being prepared for delivery to a customer. The boots were very expensive and beautifully handcrafted. To make the boots, a python had to be killed and skinned.

Pythons are powerful snakes. They kill their prey by constriction, suffocating, and crushing their victims to death. In the spiritual realm, there is a python spirit. He slithers into times of personal and national trauma, looking for his prey, and then he attempts to squeeze the life out of them. 

God is preparing a pair of spiritual boots for you made from the skin of the python spirit assigned to constrict your life. The boots will be a testimony of hell’s failed attempt to destroy you in this uniquely painful time in our history. The beginning of the end for this constricting spirit comes when you shift your focus from your circumstance and call out to God keeping your attention focused on Him until your time of deliverance. That single petition will deliver God's supernatural power into your life situation that is immensely more powerful that the constricting presence of the python spirit’s lies and deception. 

Shift your focus. Call out to God and get ready to wear your new boots. They will be a perfect fit and a profound testimony of God’s delivering love.

Grace is Difficult Times

You will make it through this challenging season. The fear and panic circling your mind like hungry wolves are lies that must be confronted, or they will devour your hope. This is not a time to rely on your personal strength. It will not be enough to get you through what you are facing. Like Jesus said to Paul, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." Your weakness can become your greatest strength if you allow that weakness to be empowered by the grace of the Lord, the One who promised to never leave you or forsake you, especially when a deadly virus is on the prowl.

Out from the Shadow

One will come forth and walk in the shadow of another. This shadowed one is the primary, not the secondary. A covert positioning is taking place – a positioning of purpose to determine and steer an agenda contrary to the heart of God. Let discernment rule as you exercise your will. All is not as it appears. The one in the shadow is being positioned to step forward at a predetermined moment to occupy the place of the primary one whose departure will come unexpectedly. All of this will take place under the cover of this painful global diversion. Those who have ears to hear the Spirit, listen. The One who speaks with a still small voice is speaking. His voice will not be heard in the wind, earthquake, or fire of social posturing from either side of a human issue. He speaks from the heavens. His word will not fail.

Overwhelmed

This morning the word “overwhelmed” floated across my mind. I sensed this was a nudge from the Spirit to engage the word to see if the Lord had something to say. So, I checked out overwhelm in several dictionaries. 

Overwhelm has been used to describe something being submerged, sunk, engulfed, covered with water. It also means to be overcome by emotions or perpetual stimuli. One definition was especially interesting, considering the coming of Passover and Easter, “to pass or go over something.” The interpretation of the word can be good or bad, depending on what is doing the overwhelming.

We will all be overwhelmed by something. Many are beginning to realize how easy it is to be overwhelmed in a negative way at this time, especially if your job is affected and your family is trying to keep the kids educated and the bills paid. We can begin to feel alone and isolated. We can drown in these uncharted waters feeling like we are being submerged without our permission, buried alive, and emotionally suffocating.

With sensitivity to you and your situation, I want to make a suggestion. Jan and I have learned a life-principle that has never failed us in those times when it felt like we were being submerged in despair, and our life was descending into dark depths out of control. In those instances, we got down on our knees and worshipped. We did it out loud, not with cute Hallmark card kind of religious slogans, but with gut-wrenching words of honesty, praise and declarations to the goodness of God, especially when what we were feeling was anything but good.

There are times in life when the way forward is only revealed through worship.  We will either be overwhelmed by the presence of God or the disasters of this life. We will leave behind a testimony of our response and interaction with this unique moment in history. That testimony will be crafted from the choices we made that determined what we allowed to overwhelm our lives. 

The Wave Has Broken

Something has broken overnight in the spiritual realm regarding the deadly Coronavirus. It is like the wave of this virus had mounted up to its full height and finally crashed its intensity upon the beach of our culture. The remnants of the wave are beginning to flow off the beach back into the sea. The presence of this virus still requires continued wisdom and diligence until the beach is finally clear, but the wave has broken, and so has its authority. Expect to see God reveal His power and love in unusual ways as we approach Passover and Easter. 

Three Words of Encouragement

Early this morning, the Lord spoke to me. He shared three things:

-       a word for pastors 

-       a word about what is happening globally 

-       a word about communion 

PASTORS: I wrote last week that this is a “before and after” moment in history.  When we return from this time of isolation, things will have changed. While the economy and quite possibly your church finances are experiencing a significant adjustment, none of this has caught God off guard. As an elder among pastors due to my age and years of service in that role, I want to encourage you to not lose hope. When all of this upheaval is over, you will return to a Church that may look and think differently. Don’t try to return to how things were before all of this transpired. This is a time to seek the Lord and ask Him to show you how He wants you to conduct the business of your ministry in a new way. In some cases, this will require a significant step of courage.

GLOBALLY: We are in a season of tremendous reset. Just as God has done throughout all of human history, He can turn what appears to be a disaster into a blessing. This is a Kairos moment where God will intervene supernaturally in human affairs. When humanity seems hopelessly trapped in fear and has lost all hope, God will intervene to display His love and goodness. He will use the hands of the Church to touch a troubled world. Our culture feels leperous and isolated. Be willing to touch human pain and sorrow with acts of love and mercy. 

COMMUNION: Consider taking communion with your family and friends. Do it every day if you can. It is the meal that heals. In your time of communion, draw upon the healing power of God. Pray for each other. Encourage the discouraged ones. Strengthen the weak ones. Let your communion become your primary fellowship in this time of isolation.

Layers of Understanding

Every event in life has layers of understanding. As we explore the depth of these layers, we begin to see things not realized when an event first began. We can park at one layer, thinking, and in some cases hoping, we discovered the deepest layer. Fear, deception, fatigue, and cultural pressure are all motivating factors that can cause us to park at one level and not dig deeper.

Once we begin to explore the depths of an issue, we begin to see things we may have previously written off as the undisciplined imagination of a conspiracy theorist or the storyline of a pulp fiction novel. At that moment, a battle with our pride and self-image is engaged. Truth seekers must push past that stalling event if they want to dig deeper to discover what is actually taking place. 

There is so much going on in our world at this moment. It is not wise to allow our thinking to park at our current level of understanding and think we have discovered the bottom-line for any issue or event. Only God knows the depth of what is taking place. Follow His lead, and you will see and hear things only the Spirit can reveal.

“But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets” (I Corinthians 2:10).

The Gifts of Isolation

When the barriers and restrictions come down, and we eventually all come back together, those who did not waste this time expending their energy on unreasonable fear will be given great treasures to bring back. They will return carrying gifts they received that were made possible in this time of isolation.  

Parents will carry back the gift of a child’s laughter birthed from a goofy, creative moment made possible by a school closure. Celebrity will be redefined. The label of hero will be placed on those who sacrificially worked in markets and hospitals while the rest of us kept our distance. Books will be written by new and previously undiscovered authors who did not think they had anything to say but found their voice in isolation. Many who serve in government will be shaken free from a partisan spirit as opposing sides were forced to come together to survive and protect each other as the virus ran its course. 

God is always at work doing abundantly more than we can ask or think in times of sorrow and pain. When we return from these times we discover the gifts we were given during our time of isolation.

Before and After

The social and emotional reset taking place because of the Coronavirus is so profound it would be a mistake to not consider its implications on the life we once knew. 

In times of rampant fear, what was considered an irrational response in times of peace and safety will be seen as practical and sensible. This only happens when something out of our control like a terrorist attack or a new and rapidly spreading virus pays a global visit. No matter what you think about this virus and the cultural response to its presence, we are in a moment similar to 9/11. The Coronavirus will become a before and after marker on our historical timeline.

Many will return from this time of social separation desiring to make a change in how they express their faith and fellowship. A reset is taking place in this absence from large gatherings. Those who discovered a more personal expression of their faith may want to continue that expression as their primary fellowship event. They will seek out leaders who make room for and honor these smaller expressions as being equally valid as a full sanctuary on Sunday morning.  

The virus will eventually run its course, but its impact will deliver lasting change. I believe God is using this challenging time to reset His Church. We will emerge from this season stronger and more agile in our faith if we allow God to direct our steps, not fear. His perfect love has purposed to remove fear from our hearts if we remain open to the sound of His voice.  We will emerge fearless from this reset able to make courageous adjustments to our faith and its expression in culture. As a result,  the fruit of our partnership in the Great Commission will accelerate at speeds far greater than the spread of a deadly virus.

Defintion and Dispersal

It has been years since I used the word “para-church.” That word describes a form of ministry taking place outside a traditional understanding of the Church. The dictionary defines “para” as “beside or alongside” something. The word establishes a separation. Scripture reveals something different. Every expression of faith where two or three are gathered in the Lord’s name is the Church. It does not matter what day, what hour, or what context. None of what we do is para anything. It is all part of the larger whole.

A dispersal of the Church is currently taking place in Western culture. In this dispersal, we will hopefully erase the para-church mindset from our thinking. As I write these words, a global virus is impacting all areas of our lives, even how and when we meet to worship. In some ways, it is similar to the persecution the first believers experienced in Acts 8. They had been meeting by the thousands for several years in the Temple complex. Amid all the good and miraculous things taking place, there was a problem. They were not going out beyond Jerusalem under the mandate of the Great Commission. They were stuck. Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the Earth still needed to hear the Gospel.  

As the Coronavirus grips the world in fear and immobilizes entire cultures, the Church is being dispersed once again. This dispersal is not outward but inward. This dispersal is moving us away from what is known and familiar. Our understanding of a Church gathering and the way we do ministry in culture will undergo a revamping in this inward dispersal. We are being dispersed inwardly to explore smaller, more intimate gatherings and create unique and more agile ways to fulfill the Great Commission. 

As you gather in your home this Sunday with a small group of family or friends, your experience is every bit as valid as a mega-church meeting where thousands met just a week ago. When you return to your workplace on Monday morning, what you do in your sphere of cultural influence is a valid ministry, as valid as a ministry with a professionally designed website and an established donor list. Nothing we do in Jesus 'name is para anything. It is an integral part of a larger magnificent whole that expresses the unique creativity of God. 

God is using this challenging moment in our history to help us see our faith in a different light. Hopefully, this experience will return us to the Lord’s original intent without all the added definitions, baggage, and financial burdens we have accumulated along the way that have limited our Kingdom potential.

Reset in Times of Crisis

While we are in the middle of a bitter election process, a global pandemic, and rampant fear - God is at work offering a reset of our priorities, our values, and the potential for our future. 

A couple of months ago, while doing a final proofread for my book, BEYOND, I highlighted the following quote. It seems to bring clarity to something greater that God is doing while so much negativity and fear is filling the social environment.                                                                              

"God is currently resetting the course of individuals, businesses, ministries, and governments. Without a reset, we will enter the next season guided by assumption from the past, not revelation for the future." (chapter 8: Preparing for the Journey)                                                                                                                           

If you attune your heart to the voice of God and respond only to the impulse of the Spirt, you will experience this needed reset. Like a course correction made to a mariner's compass heading, you will be able to navigate this challenging moment in history and arrive safely at a future harbor filled with hope and promise.

Practicing Peace

We have entered a domino moment in history with the fear of a deadly virus spreading around the globe. If another significant domino falls, like the outbreak of a major war, a global financial collapse, or a natural disaster of national significance, our sense of cultural stability will vanish. What seemed so secure and lasting in one moment will fall in the next.

When we allow our emotions to have their way in times of peace, we will only have emotions to fight with when we engage in a real battle. Paul listed self-control as one of the fruits of the Spirit. It’s in the mix with the other fruit because the rest of them don’t have a chance to emerge if we don’t have control over our emotions. This is not living without emotions. It’s controlling their ability to form our response to the negative issues of life. Self-control is self-training ourselves in times of peace so that when a major conflict or global disaster comes, we will be led by spiritually wise battle tactics, not by crippling fear.

We have been called to practice the presence of Jesus at all times.  We do this so that when a dark and dire moment of human history does unfold, His peace will guide our actions and keep us from joining an unbridled emotional stampede that can lead an entire culture over the cliff edge of social and spiritual disaster. 

God is at Work in the Midnight Hours

At least twice last night, something usual took place. It was unusual because I was not aware it was happening. Jan said she awoke two times to hear me prophesying over various people while I was asleep. She did not recall all the content, but they were personal words to individuals. At one time, I was prophesying that the hand of God would sweep away the opposing forces that were hindering a person’s life.

Each night I kneel at my bedside and ask the Lord to speak to me and give me dreams in the night. I did not consider this would mean I would be releasing prophetic words. Jan did not recognize the names of those receiving these words. I believe these prophetic words were a work of God’s Spirit that does not require we know the recipient. I was speaking from the depths of the Spirit, not from natural wisdom or known relationships. It was much like prayer in the Spirit, where God will use us to pray for things our natural mind had not entertained.

At this moment in history, we need the manifestation of a supernatural God who steps over the solutions offered by the limitations of human intellect to bring freedom where freedom was thought impossible. God is releasing prophetic hope at unusual times and by unexpected means. Many of us were not aware this was taking place. I am so glad Jan shared with me what is going on in the midnight hours.  Tonight, I will go to sleep with a new level of expectation and faith in the goodness of God.

Becoming a World-Changer

I have noticed something about people who literally change the world. They do not allow the fears and doubts of others to craft their message or construct their vision. They do not place their hope in any earthly system or institution. Their hope is anchored securely to the throne of the One who has authority over all things.  

In the process of becoming a world-changer, these unique individuals have trained their ears to hear the voice of God amidst the clamor of culture. They have trained their eyes to see through the veils of fear and doubt. This transformation to become a world-changer doesn’t happen overnight.  It is not a shallow quick fix of a fake version of faith. It is the by-product of contending for something better every moment of the day when everything and everyone said what they were contending for was impossible. 

How we interpret the world around us is the best evidence of whether or not we will become a world-changer. Most of the individuals who are truly changing the world are not known or publicized. They are a secret revolution – a one man or one woman army feared by hell. Jesus modeled this for us, and so did His early followers. The world has forever been changed because of their example.

Spiritual Crop Dusters

While there are many practical things we can do to minimize our contact with the deadly virus running rampant through our country, we can ignore the deadlier spiritual virus of fear that is also running rampant. The latter has a greater potential for death because it kills the soul of a people.

Jan and I are increasingly aware of the power of intercessory prayer at this time in our nation’s history. One thing we have been doing of late is prayer drives. We drive through our community, praying as the Spirit leads. These prayers are multi-faceted. Some are warfare prayers pulling down the strongholds that hold our region in the grip of things that are not God’s best. We also pray in tongues knowing the Spirit is strategically releasing an interpretation of our prayers into individuals, groups, and institutions.

This weekend on one of our drives, I saw our car turn into a crop duster aircraft. I saw our prayers being sprayed out over our valley like an insecticide would be sprayed over a field by a crop duster to kill an insect infestation. The spray from our prayers was empowered by faith, not fear, and they were having a devastating effect on things not seen with the natural eye. 

The most significant virus now affecting our nation is fear. Our faith has only one vulnerability to an infestation of fear– our will. What we choose to believe and speak has a tremendous impact on the spiritual environment where we live. We cannot place our hope in the discovery of an immunization against the Coronavirus as wonderful as that would be.  By the time we are injected with a new immunization, the virus will have mutated, and fear will come once again. We cannot place our faith in a nervous and overreactive financial market. We should all try to walk in wisdom and do all we can to hold off the expansion of a deadly disease. While those practical measures are being embraced, as believers,  we must also be spraying words of hope and faith across our nation, putting to death the rising infestation of hopelessness and fear.

Planting the Right Seed in the Right Field

Be wise to which plow you place your hand. Some have plowed the wrong field in the wrong season planting the wrong seed. There are times when walking off a questionable field and seeking the Lord is the wisest course of action. It is better to lose the investment made in a wrong seed and the time wasted in a mistaken obligation than to plant a seed not ordained by God. The Lord never planned for us to plant an error and reap a harvest of despair.

Virus Insight

When we use history to forecast future events, we can be taken by surprise when something unexpected and catastrophic appears and dramatically changes the course of our personal lives and the broader culture. The most significant challenges to humanity throughout history were not anticipated because of accurate and precise predictions. They just happened unannounced. When those events happen, no one is fully prepared. Trust in God is our only safe option in these situations. While concerns regarding the Coronavirus mount and fear accelerates around the globe, take a moment to seek God in prayer, and ask Him to prepare your heart to respond to what is transpiring with wisdom and faith. Wisdom and faith will help you navigate through what might come regarding this event or something else we have not yet imagined. Trusting in God is our only safe refuge, whether we are experiencing an over-hyped event or an unfolding global tragedy. 

My New Book is Available

My new book, “BEYOND – Exploring the Frontier of God’s Expanding Revelation" is now live on Amazon in the print edition. The Kindle version will be available in the coming weeks. When I wrote the book, I wanted it to be something that would appeal across a broad spectrum of life assignments from the single mom working two jobs with kids in tow to the Fortune 500 CEO who needs to discover the next step forward for a corporation. BEYOND was birthed from the content of my message delivered at the 2019 HUB Nation Conference in Bend, Oregon. Every Kingdom venture has a frontier of revelation that God calls us to explore. On these frontiers is where a promise or a vision is waiting to become a reality. The elements of that exploration are what I hope to process with the reader.

Spiritual Combustion

Spiritual combustion takes place when we step over the threshold of an obstacle in faith, and enter a new realm of the Spirit. It is like an explosion of fire in the natural when smoldering embers deprived of oxygen are suddenly exposed to increased oxygen, and accelerated combustion takes place.

I remember watching a video of a house burning. A firefighter was working through the house and opened a door behind which a fire was smoldering. When increased oxygen flow entered the room the fire exploded. Fire is a chemical reaction that requires fuel, heat, and oxygen. Those three components are called the Fire Triangle. Flammability increases as the level of oxygen increases. 

Never underestimate the potential of a simple act of obedience. Your “yes” to the voice of God may have you to step across a spiritual threshold where a smoldering promise has been waiting for the wind of the Spirit to be released by your obedience.  The fire God does not kill or injure when it accelerates in intensity. The purpose of God's fire is to burn away the lies and plans of hell that stood against the potential of a promise becoming a reality. 

God wants to open a door in your life to allow the wind of His Spirit to go before you. The Spirit will ignite a promise that has been smoldering out of sight behind a closed door. He has been waiting for your “yes” so He can open the door. When your "yes" becomes an act of obedience aligning you with a promise from God, supernatural combustion will take place. 

Sprung Traps

The traps set for you will come to no avail. The hands placing these traps in what was perceived as your weakest place was a tactical mistake. It was a mistake because the trap setters did not realize God's power is revealed most profoundly in our vulnerable places. Deceitful and cunning hands will emerge from these weak places with their traps having sprung prematurely, catching the deceivers in their own devices. As they pull their hands out from what they thought was a place of easy prey, their sprung trap will be clinging to their deceitful motive for all to see. The sound of unrighteous traps being prematurely sprung will be soon be heard in the land, from the highest places of influence to the most ignored and hidden servant of God.    

The Love That Never Disappoints

You have most likely heard the phrase, “If the election were held today…” Those words are typically followed by predictions based on data obtained at a given moment in time. This way of looking at life is not predictive. It is short-sighted and spiritually myopic. This short-sightedness takes place not only in the arena of politics but in every area of life where premature judgment calls are made based on what is, not on what could be. 

God is vastly different in how He sees and creates outcomes. He does not rely on polling research or what the status quo is saying. The Lord relies only on His love when He evaluates our life and our future. The love of God sees our future in an expansive redeemed view unrestricted by human fear or faithlessness.  He sees a future where intersecting events are destined to come together to release a miracle of transformation that has been determined by His will to take place. 

The self-described pundits that surround your life can only evaluate your life based on raw, unredeemed data available at the moment. God sees something beyond the moment - something only visible with the eyes of faith. 

God is not done with you or those you love even if the evidence supports your feelings of discouragement and disillusionment. It does not matter if your “election” was held today or tomorrow or next week. What matters is what God has planned for your life. That is where you should place your hope. His love will never disappoint you.

Turned Hearts

The older I become, the more I find myself less impressed with human credentials. Educational achievement, financial portfolios, or professional alliances no longer tell me anything about a person. It is the condition of a person’s heart that is the most critical indicator of the quality of a person's life. Someone can gain impressive personal credentials and professional accolades and have a heart turned away from intimacy with God.

Solomon was noted as the wisest and wealthiest man who ever lived. He was versed broadly in all fields of scientific insight. He could settle the most challenging of social disputes. World leaders sought out his counsel. With all the acclaim he garnered, Solomon had a point of weakness in his character. That weakness caused his heart to turn away from wholehearted devotion to God. His greatest possession, the condition of his heart, was given to the demands of his many foreign wives who asked him to worship their pagan gods, some of those gods were the most detestable false deities of the day.

Solomon’s downfall was disobeying the Lord’s command to Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods” (I Kings 11:2). At the beginning of his downfall, Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines, and they did turn him away from worshipping God alone. Painfully, I Kings 11:4 describes what happened to Solomon, “In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord His God.” 

The words, “they turned his heart” are chilling. As I read those words, I asked myself, “Is there anything I have allowed to turn my heart away from a singular devotion to God?”  Each day the most important thing any of us will do is to check the condition of our hearts and determine which way it is turning. Any movement away from intimacy with God, even the slightest direction change, must be confronted as our worst enemy and dealt with swiftly or the epithet of our life will produce a sad testimony like the painful end of Solomon's life.