When the children of Israel entered the Promise Land ten cities stood as obstacles in their way. The first of these cities was Jericho.
In Joshua 6: 2 God said, “I have given you Jericho.” Jericho was a promised victory. Israel was not yet an army – they were simply a group of desert wanderers with a promise. They had no army. Their resources had worn thin from years in the desert. Their only weapon of warfare was their obedience to God.
The Church stands before in a similar posture. We are facing a Jericho that is standing in the way. The world systems are unstable. Financial fear is trying to lure the people of God into it's fear. There are a lot of walls standing in the way of promise. God is positioning His Church to bring down those walls just as He did in Jericho. We all know the story of Jericho. This was a walled city. There was no way in. God instructed Israel to march around the city once for six days. On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times, shout, and then they would have the victory.
The shout was the focal point in the story. 1.5 million voices would rise together. This was a shout of grace. A shout that said, “Our only hope is if God shows up.” This shout of grace was wonderfully desperate because Israel had no way into Jericho unless God did for them what was impossible for them to do in their own strength. That is the nature of grace. Grace releases God's favor. Favor brings the victory. When we shout grace at our Jericho, God releases a supernatural favor that no wall can withstand.
What we miss in reading this story of Jericho is the size and dimension of what took place. The city of Jericho covered only six acres of ground. If you consider the outer fortifications the size of the entire city was only 9 acres in total.
At the time this event took place, the children of Israel numbered about 1.5 million people. This is the relative size of cities like Dallas, Philidelphia, Phoenix and San Diego. Try to get the image of what took place at Jericho. A city of nine acres was surrounded by 1.5 million people. The inner ring of people that surrounded Jericho were made up of the priests followed by the men of war and then the people of the nation of Israel. Tens of thousands of people deep as far as the eye could see were a rotating mass revolving around only nine acres. There was no single file line of people. This was a mass of humanity.
For six days no one spoke a word. For six days Israel walked around the city only once each day. On the seventh day they walked around the city seven times. This was not a silent event. You don't move this many people quietly. The sound of 1.5 million people marching was powerful and loud. The earth shook. The dust cloud alone from so many feet pounding the earth would have looked like a dust storm of all dust storms.
On the seventh day, at the completion of seven circumnavigations of Jericho, 1.5 million voices raised and shouted at the walls of Jericho and the Word says the walls of the city fell straight down. This was no timid shout. This was an aggressive and prolonged shout as Israel closed ranks over nine acres of land. I see people running forward and shouting with arms up-raised. 1.5 million people rushed straight ahead and closed the gap over the rubble that used to define the city of Jericho. This former obstacle vanished off the map.
Where are your walls of Jericho? Those walls will not fall by human wisdom and reasoning. Another church program will not do it. Only the shout of grace will bring it down. The shout of grace in obedience to God was the weapon of supernatural warfare for Israel. When we shout grace we are making a statement that unless God shows up we won't be able to move ahead.
God is asking His people to position themselves in unusual prophetic postures to perform unusual acts of obedience. God is asking us to shout grace to the walls that stand in the way of His promise. This is not a timid shout. It is loud and without apology. It comes after days of prolonged obedience and marching in the dust. Many individuals and ministries have been on a long dusty march, but now a plan for victory is before us. The plan for this season is the same plan for victory in all of recorded history – the battle plan is always a plan of grace. The cultures we live in are waiting to see God's miraculous provision demonstrated in His people. We are the ones who possess the shout of grace. The sound of grace is waiting to be echoed in every city and every nation upon the earth.
Today, as you stand before the walls of your Jericho shout out loud the word “grace.” With that shout of grace will come the dismantling of the walls of those encampments that stand in the way of the promise.
'What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'" Zechariah 4: 7
Gather your mounting bills and shout grace over them.
Stand with you spouse and shout grace into your future.
Shout grace over a wayward child.
Assemble your ministry team and shout long and hard the word of grace to every obstacle that stands in the way of your vision and calling.
Stand on the high places of your city and shout grace over the broken and lost.
Once you shout the grace of God walk straight ahead and see the glory of God. Under your feet will be the remains of fear and impossibility.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sunday, December 14, 2008
"2009 - A Year To Engage The Open Heavens" by Garris Elkins
n 2008 God accelerated His people into a new place. We have been positioned beneath heavens that have been opened by the very hand of God. We are now standing under unrestricted heavens. This is the time to order all aspects of our lives to reflect this reality.
As I pondered this word for 2009 I sensed three assignments for the Church as she stands under the open heavens:
Praise it down! - 2009 is the year that worship will be experienced in a new dimension. Praise is the music that adorns the stairway of heaven that connects this earth with the heavenly realms. As we praise we will be taken into new dimensions of “stairway worship” that will join our voices to the voices of heaven. Praise under the open heavens will allow us to hear the sounds of heaven and bring that sound down upon the earth to displace the sounds of fear and sorrow. The sound of praise will push back darkness and create a new space into which the miraculous works of God will be poured out.
Pray it down! - 2009 is the year to pray down supernatural provision with a greater boldness. Heaven is waiting to hear our petitions. The provision of 2009 is hanging like a swollen water droplet that is about to fall to earth and splash all around. Our prayers will shake loose those drops of promise that will water our communities, our nation and the world.
Pull it down! - 2009 is the year to activate heaven through unusual prophetic acts. These prophetic acts will declare the intentions of God upon the earth before they become visible in the natural. Individuals and ministries will at first look foolish taking these postures, much like Noah did when he built the ark. Endure the ridicule because the rescue of heaven is on the way and heaven's target will be your act of obedience. As the flood waters rose in the time of Noah, so the flood waters of fear are rising in many hearts. Unusual prophetic acts, that at one time looked ridiculous, will become postures of promise.
God is calling His people to “speak” in a language that will be seen more than it will be heard. This is not a year to be timid. Pull it down! Pull it down! Pull it down!
A prayer for 2009 - “Father God, I am standing beneath Your open heavens. You have brought me to this place for a time such as this. Thank You that the open heavens are not effected by a closed earth. I shout out to You, my Jehovah God, Here I am. I am ready to engage Your open heavens! For 2009 I will praise it down! I will pray it down! I will pull it down so that Your Name is glorified upon the earth! I pray and declare this in the Name of Jesus Christ Your magnificent Son. Amen.”
As I pondered this word for 2009 I sensed three assignments for the Church as she stands under the open heavens:
Praise it down! - 2009 is the year that worship will be experienced in a new dimension. Praise is the music that adorns the stairway of heaven that connects this earth with the heavenly realms. As we praise we will be taken into new dimensions of “stairway worship” that will join our voices to the voices of heaven. Praise under the open heavens will allow us to hear the sounds of heaven and bring that sound down upon the earth to displace the sounds of fear and sorrow. The sound of praise will push back darkness and create a new space into which the miraculous works of God will be poured out.
Pray it down! - 2009 is the year to pray down supernatural provision with a greater boldness. Heaven is waiting to hear our petitions. The provision of 2009 is hanging like a swollen water droplet that is about to fall to earth and splash all around. Our prayers will shake loose those drops of promise that will water our communities, our nation and the world.
Pull it down! - 2009 is the year to activate heaven through unusual prophetic acts. These prophetic acts will declare the intentions of God upon the earth before they become visible in the natural. Individuals and ministries will at first look foolish taking these postures, much like Noah did when he built the ark. Endure the ridicule because the rescue of heaven is on the way and heaven's target will be your act of obedience. As the flood waters rose in the time of Noah, so the flood waters of fear are rising in many hearts. Unusual prophetic acts, that at one time looked ridiculous, will become postures of promise.
God is calling His people to “speak” in a language that will be seen more than it will be heard. This is not a year to be timid. Pull it down! Pull it down! Pull it down!
A prayer for 2009 - “Father God, I am standing beneath Your open heavens. You have brought me to this place for a time such as this. Thank You that the open heavens are not effected by a closed earth. I shout out to You, my Jehovah God, Here I am. I am ready to engage Your open heavens! For 2009 I will praise it down! I will pray it down! I will pull it down so that Your Name is glorified upon the earth! I pray and declare this in the Name of Jesus Christ Your magnificent Son. Amen.”
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
"This is the Season for Miraculous Multiplication" by Garris Elkins
As the situation on Wall Street develops many Americans are becoming nervous about their finances and their future. The foundations of financial security are now shaking.
The kingdom of this world functions with a system of mathematics that is based on the equations of natural addition and multiplication. This system draws its data from what can only be seen and understood. God's Kingdom invades what is known and violates the rules of natural addition and multiplication with miraculous multiplication.
One of the most profound narratives in the Word is the feeding of the 5,000. In Mark 6 Jesus takes what amounts to a kid's lunch and turns it into a miraculous feast for a crowd many believe was in excess of 20,000 people, when you take in account the women and children who were also present that day.
34 “Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. 36 Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”
These people had been following Jesus for hours and made no provision for an extended outing. Have you noticed that our greatest needs sometimes surface in the most remote and resourceless places? That was what happened in Mark 6 – there were no backpacks filled with camping supplies or stores nearby from which to buy food. People had been following Jesus across the countryside. The place was remote and the need was overwhelming.
Do you have a remote and resourceless place in your life? Has your retirement fund taken a dive? Is your marriage in a challenging season? Are the partners in your ministry diminishing? Are you clueless about the next step in your life? Maybe you find yourself in a remote place and the little resource you have seems ridiculous to meet your current need.
The disciples saw the need of this immense crowd of people and provided their own solution. They said to Jesus, “Send the crowds away...” In other words, we are tired and hungry and our patience is thin – make this problem go away. But Jesus invited the disciples to participate in a miracle that He was about to set in motion. In verse 37 Jesus spoke, “But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”
This is natural addition and multiplication speaking. “With what?” is a phrase that is spoken when we take a look at our remote place, and our lack of visible resources, and assume that the source and supply for our miracle is only what we can see.
Then Jesus asks a question.
38 “How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.” They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”
Miraculous multiplication begins with what we have now. There were thousands of hungry people in this remote place. The disciples went out to see how much food they had to work with. They came back with only 2 fish the size of sardines and 5 loaves of bread the size of muffins. This was all the disciples could find among all these people!
39 "Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred. 41 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. 42 They all ate as much as they wanted, 43 and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. 44 A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed from those loaves!"
If you do the math on how many groups of 50 and 100 there were within all these people its not unrealistic to conclude that it would take several hours to distribute this miraculous meal. Can you imagine the cheers of excitement as the miracle begins to sink in! This was not a single moment of miraculous multiplication - it went on and on. When we begin to live in the environment of miraculous multiplication, there will be heard, similar to what must have echoed across the fields that day, shouts of astonishment and joy at what God was doing.
There is coming a season when these sounds of joy will be heard in those who do not yet know the love of God. God will miraculously multiply provision within His Church and then move into the streets where supernatural evangelism will take place. Can you imagine what would happen in our cities if miracles of miraculous multiplication began to take place in the town square? God's goodness is our best advertisement for His Kingdom. The Word tells us that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.
There are two postures we can choose when we find ourselves in remote and resourceless places.
WE CAN CHOOSE TO LOOK DOWN
Jesus told the disciples to feed the people. Like the disciples we can look down at the kid's lunch in our hands and ask, “With what?” and only see our lack in comparison with the impossible need before our eyes.
WE CAN CHOOSE TO LOOK UP
Jesus modeled a different posture - He looked up. Mark tells us that Jesus took the lunch, held it up to heaven, blessed it and then began to give it away. Jesus reached up and away from that remote and resourceless place and touched heaven.
Our provision is not what we hold in our hands. Our provision is not what the current situation on Wall Street reveals. Our provision is waiting in heaven to be laid hold of and pulled back into our lives. Everything we are and everything we need exists in and around God's Throne.
If we believe our provision is only here amidst the current signs of doom and disaster then we will reach towards that limited resource. God is asking us to take our finances, our broken bodies and our failed relationships and raise them towards heaven and choose to bless them. The blessing of a raised need connects that need with the glory of God. His glory is what transforms the little we have into an overflowing abundance. Once our need has touched the hem of heaven's garment we then pull down that transformed need back to earth with the glory of heaven upon it. While the kid's lunch is still in our hands, unyielded to God, it can only remain a lunch and not a miraculous feast.
We need God for miracles in remote places that seem like dead ends. The church can live in fear like the world, or she can raise what she has to heaven and bless it expecting our loving Father to send the little we have back to earth transformed by the glory of God and ready for a supernatural transformation.
Today, take the need you have, no matter how small it may be , and raise it to heaven and choose to bless what you have. Ask God to touch your need as it is raised to His Throne. Then bring your need back into your remote and resourceless place and begin to give it away. Heaven's touch on what you have is never to possess, but to release. What you give away will begin to multiply into a new and on-going provision.
Each time you sense fear trying to raise itself up, say this in the face of that fear, “I have raised this circumstance to heaven and God has touched my need. I am pulling down from heaven a miraculous multiplication of what I have. I am expecting a miracle in a place that the world says is impossible. I am believing that with God all things are possible – even turning a kid's lunch into a feast of miraculous multiplication.”
The kingdom of this world functions with a system of mathematics that is based on the equations of natural addition and multiplication. This system draws its data from what can only be seen and understood. God's Kingdom invades what is known and violates the rules of natural addition and multiplication with miraculous multiplication.
One of the most profound narratives in the Word is the feeding of the 5,000. In Mark 6 Jesus takes what amounts to a kid's lunch and turns it into a miraculous feast for a crowd many believe was in excess of 20,000 people, when you take in account the women and children who were also present that day.
34 “Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. 36 Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”
These people had been following Jesus for hours and made no provision for an extended outing. Have you noticed that our greatest needs sometimes surface in the most remote and resourceless places? That was what happened in Mark 6 – there were no backpacks filled with camping supplies or stores nearby from which to buy food. People had been following Jesus across the countryside. The place was remote and the need was overwhelming.
Do you have a remote and resourceless place in your life? Has your retirement fund taken a dive? Is your marriage in a challenging season? Are the partners in your ministry diminishing? Are you clueless about the next step in your life? Maybe you find yourself in a remote place and the little resource you have seems ridiculous to meet your current need.
The disciples saw the need of this immense crowd of people and provided their own solution. They said to Jesus, “Send the crowds away...” In other words, we are tired and hungry and our patience is thin – make this problem go away. But Jesus invited the disciples to participate in a miracle that He was about to set in motion. In verse 37 Jesus spoke, “But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”
This is natural addition and multiplication speaking. “With what?” is a phrase that is spoken when we take a look at our remote place, and our lack of visible resources, and assume that the source and supply for our miracle is only what we can see.
Then Jesus asks a question.
38 “How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.” They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”
Miraculous multiplication begins with what we have now. There were thousands of hungry people in this remote place. The disciples went out to see how much food they had to work with. They came back with only 2 fish the size of sardines and 5 loaves of bread the size of muffins. This was all the disciples could find among all these people!
39 "Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred. 41 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. 42 They all ate as much as they wanted, 43 and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. 44 A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed from those loaves!"
If you do the math on how many groups of 50 and 100 there were within all these people its not unrealistic to conclude that it would take several hours to distribute this miraculous meal. Can you imagine the cheers of excitement as the miracle begins to sink in! This was not a single moment of miraculous multiplication - it went on and on. When we begin to live in the environment of miraculous multiplication, there will be heard, similar to what must have echoed across the fields that day, shouts of astonishment and joy at what God was doing.
There is coming a season when these sounds of joy will be heard in those who do not yet know the love of God. God will miraculously multiply provision within His Church and then move into the streets where supernatural evangelism will take place. Can you imagine what would happen in our cities if miracles of miraculous multiplication began to take place in the town square? God's goodness is our best advertisement for His Kingdom. The Word tells us that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.
There are two postures we can choose when we find ourselves in remote and resourceless places.
WE CAN CHOOSE TO LOOK DOWN
Jesus told the disciples to feed the people. Like the disciples we can look down at the kid's lunch in our hands and ask, “With what?” and only see our lack in comparison with the impossible need before our eyes.
WE CAN CHOOSE TO LOOK UP
Jesus modeled a different posture - He looked up. Mark tells us that Jesus took the lunch, held it up to heaven, blessed it and then began to give it away. Jesus reached up and away from that remote and resourceless place and touched heaven.
Our provision is not what we hold in our hands. Our provision is not what the current situation on Wall Street reveals. Our provision is waiting in heaven to be laid hold of and pulled back into our lives. Everything we are and everything we need exists in and around God's Throne.
If we believe our provision is only here amidst the current signs of doom and disaster then we will reach towards that limited resource. God is asking us to take our finances, our broken bodies and our failed relationships and raise them towards heaven and choose to bless them. The blessing of a raised need connects that need with the glory of God. His glory is what transforms the little we have into an overflowing abundance. Once our need has touched the hem of heaven's garment we then pull down that transformed need back to earth with the glory of heaven upon it. While the kid's lunch is still in our hands, unyielded to God, it can only remain a lunch and not a miraculous feast.
We need God for miracles in remote places that seem like dead ends. The church can live in fear like the world, or she can raise what she has to heaven and bless it expecting our loving Father to send the little we have back to earth transformed by the glory of God and ready for a supernatural transformation.
Today, take the need you have, no matter how small it may be , and raise it to heaven and choose to bless what you have. Ask God to touch your need as it is raised to His Throne. Then bring your need back into your remote and resourceless place and begin to give it away. Heaven's touch on what you have is never to possess, but to release. What you give away will begin to multiply into a new and on-going provision.
Each time you sense fear trying to raise itself up, say this in the face of that fear, “I have raised this circumstance to heaven and God has touched my need. I am pulling down from heaven a miraculous multiplication of what I have. I am expecting a miracle in a place that the world says is impossible. I am believing that with God all things are possible – even turning a kid's lunch into a feast of miraculous multiplication.”
Monday, November 3, 2008
"God's Hour Glass - He Is Not Done With You Yet" by Garris Elkins
Recently, I was in Central Oregon speaking at a men's retreat. I enjoyed the drive over the Cascades and was looking forward to speaking to this group of men. The previous Sunday, on the way out of the sanctuary, one of the women in our church stopped me and said, "Garris, I believe I have a word for you about the men's retreat - you are to go unprepared." I thanked this faithful woman for sharing this word with me and then I went home.
Later that day I realized what "going unprepared" meant for me. This meant that while I would go unprepared in a traditional sense I would not go without a word from the Lord.
Sure enough in the next few days, while in prayer, the Lord gave me an image that would become the word for these men. I share this image now because it's truth touches all of us. The image was of one of those old hour glasses that measured time by draining sand from the upper compartment to the lower. In the image it looked like the last few grains of sand were trickling downward and the hour glass was about to run out of time.
As I looked at the hour glass I saw the hand of God enter the image, pick up the hour glass and turn it over. Then the Lord spoke and said, "Tell the men that some of them feel like their time has run out, but I am about to change that. I am turning over their hour glass and giving them a new season."
As I thought of this word I grabbed it for myself. Never before, with all the cultural change and financial crisis going on, have I felt like time as we know it is running out. For days I kept seeing that image whenever a faithless lie would try to rear it's ugly head. I kept seeing the hand of God come into the scene and change everything.
Do you feel like your life, your marriage, your ministry or (insert your unique situation here) has run out of time? God is reaching into your situation and His hand is picking up the hour glass of your life and He is turning it over. I believe the church is entering a new season when we will see the hand of God do this very thing on both a personal and corporate level.
There was one final word the Lord spoke concerning this image - as God turned over the hour glass He said, "You have another season - I am not done with you yet!"
Later that day I realized what "going unprepared" meant for me. This meant that while I would go unprepared in a traditional sense I would not go without a word from the Lord.
Sure enough in the next few days, while in prayer, the Lord gave me an image that would become the word for these men. I share this image now because it's truth touches all of us. The image was of one of those old hour glasses that measured time by draining sand from the upper compartment to the lower. In the image it looked like the last few grains of sand were trickling downward and the hour glass was about to run out of time.
As I looked at the hour glass I saw the hand of God enter the image, pick up the hour glass and turn it over. Then the Lord spoke and said, "Tell the men that some of them feel like their time has run out, but I am about to change that. I am turning over their hour glass and giving them a new season."
As I thought of this word I grabbed it for myself. Never before, with all the cultural change and financial crisis going on, have I felt like time as we know it is running out. For days I kept seeing that image whenever a faithless lie would try to rear it's ugly head. I kept seeing the hand of God come into the scene and change everything.
Do you feel like your life, your marriage, your ministry or (insert your unique situation here) has run out of time? God is reaching into your situation and His hand is picking up the hour glass of your life and He is turning it over. I believe the church is entering a new season when we will see the hand of God do this very thing on both a personal and corporate level.
There was one final word the Lord spoke concerning this image - as God turned over the hour glass He said, "You have another season - I am not done with you yet!"
Friday, October 3, 2008
"The Purpose of Pruning" by Garris Elkins
When God prunes His people He is preparing them for a coming season of fruitfulness.
Have you ever wondered why God cuts back certain resources or relationships in our lives? Are you going through a pruning season right now and find yourself searching for the reason why you are left as a severed branch? Getting cut hurts. It can make us feel insecure. God wants to change how we see His pruning process.
When I was a boy each year I watched as my father would go out into our front yard and cut back the trees. It was unbelievable how much of each branch he cut back. The trees looked like they would never survive his yearly pruning, but each spring there was an explosion of new life. It never failed. Year after year my father cut the trees and year after year new life came. As I grew older I realized that my father cut the branches back to prepare the trees for new life.
In the culture of the Middle East vineyards are everywhere. Each year vineyard owners would cut away the dead branches and prune back the unfruitful branches. The vineyard owner had a purpose in his pruning - to make the vine ready to produce fruit in the coming season. The pruning was part of the preparation for a coming harvest.
Your life is no different. When you enter a season of pruning the enemy wants you to focus on the pain and perceived loss of the pruning process. God, on the other hand, wants you to begin celebrating because a new season of fruitfulness is coming. God is calling the severed branches to begin to celebrate in anticipation.
In the Old Testament a vineyard is mentioned as a metaphor for the people of God. But each time the vineyard was mentioned in connection with God'ss people the vine was depicted as a degenerate, wild vine.
In Jeremiah 2:21 the prophet asked, “How did you grow into this corrupt vine?” In Isaiah 5:4 a similar question was asked, “What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done? When I expected sweet grapes why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes.”
The vineyard of God needs tending by the Master Vinedresser or we will become something that is unusable to the Lord. Pruning is part of God's process to make us sweet and usable branches.
Above the gate of the Temple entrance, and draped over the four huge columns of this doorway, was a large sculpted vine overlaid with gold and clusters of gold covered grapes the size of a man. Each time someone would enter the Temple they would have to pass under this image. Each time a person walked underneath this image of the vine they were reminded of what they could be in God. The wild and degenerate human vine would walk under an image of God's promise.
Some of you may think that God has pruned you without reason. He wants to remind you that He prunes with purpose. God prunes us out of love to prepare us for a new season that He is sending our way. To get to that new season requires that we pass through the pruning process. In the pruning God remove what is dead and unproductive in our lives.
The stub that you are left with is not the end of the process. The stub is evidence of God's preparation. The stub is a promise that in the next season God has plans to make you alive with His fruit.
I want you to walk with me underneath the Word of God like the people who walked underneath the gold-covered cluster of grapes at the Temple entrance. As you walk under the Word I believe you will discover the purpose of God's pruning in your life.
In John 15 the Lord said, “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”
If you have come through a season of pruning it is critical that you know God's heart for you.
GOD PRUNES US TO SHAPE US INTO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON
The context of this scripture is fruitfulness. God is not punishing the vine. He is sculpting the vine into a new image. In verse one Jesus said, “I am the true grapevine.” When God prunes us He uses the template of the life of His Son and the pattern He trims to.
At salvation you and I were grafted into the Person of Jesus Christ. We are part of Him. We are not some isolated branch. The pruning of God is His shaping process to make us look like Jesus.
GOD PRUNES US FOR A COMING SEASON OF FRUITFULNESS
In verse 2 Jesus said, “He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.”
Fruitfulness flows out of our position in Christ not our activity for Christ. The greatest work a believer can do for God is to learn to rest in the Lord. Rest is the environment where the greatest works of God take place.
Galatians 5:22 tells us,”The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” We can't make this kind of fruit happen. Did you ever try to be patient?
The miraculous works God has assigned for the church to do don't flow from human effort. These works flow from a place of rest where God is free to move through His vine to the world.
There are seasons when God will prune back our activity so we only have rest to offer. This is where the greatest works of God's Kingdom begin to manifest themselves. The tools of God's Kingdom are not human-made or human-powered. When we work from this place of rest it is the Lord who gets the glory, not our style or models of ministry.
GOD PRUNES US SO OUR LIVES WILL BRING GLORY TO GOD
Jesus addressed this issue of glory in verses 7-8 “But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”
The word “remain” in the dictionary means, “to be there.” To remain means that we get to live out our oneness with Christ. In verse 5 Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” When you feel the Father begin to cut and prune your life what you bring to the process is to simply remain. To press into intimacy with the Father in an deeper way.
The Father is glorified when His branches lay heavy with fruit. This fruit does not come with new and more intense activity. This fruit comes because of our position in the Vine.
What should be the response of a branch that is being pruned? A pruned place in your life or ministry is a place of worship and celebration. God is preparing you for something that only comes on the other side of the pruning process. Why would a pruned life worship? When God prunes us He is shaping us into the image of His Son. The nub at the end of your life that is raw and cut away is an announcement that God is about ready to do a new thing. This new thing, springing forth from the wound of pruning, will bring glory to the Father because the growth will come from something that does not exist in our human strength, abilities or resources.
Have you ever wondered why God cuts back certain resources or relationships in our lives? Are you going through a pruning season right now and find yourself searching for the reason why you are left as a severed branch? Getting cut hurts. It can make us feel insecure. God wants to change how we see His pruning process.
When I was a boy each year I watched as my father would go out into our front yard and cut back the trees. It was unbelievable how much of each branch he cut back. The trees looked like they would never survive his yearly pruning, but each spring there was an explosion of new life. It never failed. Year after year my father cut the trees and year after year new life came. As I grew older I realized that my father cut the branches back to prepare the trees for new life.
In the culture of the Middle East vineyards are everywhere. Each year vineyard owners would cut away the dead branches and prune back the unfruitful branches. The vineyard owner had a purpose in his pruning - to make the vine ready to produce fruit in the coming season. The pruning was part of the preparation for a coming harvest.
Your life is no different. When you enter a season of pruning the enemy wants you to focus on the pain and perceived loss of the pruning process. God, on the other hand, wants you to begin celebrating because a new season of fruitfulness is coming. God is calling the severed branches to begin to celebrate in anticipation.
In the Old Testament a vineyard is mentioned as a metaphor for the people of God. But each time the vineyard was mentioned in connection with God'ss people the vine was depicted as a degenerate, wild vine.
In Jeremiah 2:21 the prophet asked, “How did you grow into this corrupt vine?” In Isaiah 5:4 a similar question was asked, “What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done? When I expected sweet grapes why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes.”
The vineyard of God needs tending by the Master Vinedresser or we will become something that is unusable to the Lord. Pruning is part of God's process to make us sweet and usable branches.
Above the gate of the Temple entrance, and draped over the four huge columns of this doorway, was a large sculpted vine overlaid with gold and clusters of gold covered grapes the size of a man. Each time someone would enter the Temple they would have to pass under this image. Each time a person walked underneath this image of the vine they were reminded of what they could be in God. The wild and degenerate human vine would walk under an image of God's promise.
Some of you may think that God has pruned you without reason. He wants to remind you that He prunes with purpose. God prunes us out of love to prepare us for a new season that He is sending our way. To get to that new season requires that we pass through the pruning process. In the pruning God remove what is dead and unproductive in our lives.
The stub that you are left with is not the end of the process. The stub is evidence of God's preparation. The stub is a promise that in the next season God has plans to make you alive with His fruit.
I want you to walk with me underneath the Word of God like the people who walked underneath the gold-covered cluster of grapes at the Temple entrance. As you walk under the Word I believe you will discover the purpose of God's pruning in your life.
In John 15 the Lord said, “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”
If you have come through a season of pruning it is critical that you know God's heart for you.
GOD PRUNES US TO SHAPE US INTO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON
The context of this scripture is fruitfulness. God is not punishing the vine. He is sculpting the vine into a new image. In verse one Jesus said, “I am the true grapevine.” When God prunes us He uses the template of the life of His Son and the pattern He trims to.
At salvation you and I were grafted into the Person of Jesus Christ. We are part of Him. We are not some isolated branch. The pruning of God is His shaping process to make us look like Jesus.
GOD PRUNES US FOR A COMING SEASON OF FRUITFULNESS
In verse 2 Jesus said, “He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.”
Fruitfulness flows out of our position in Christ not our activity for Christ. The greatest work a believer can do for God is to learn to rest in the Lord. Rest is the environment where the greatest works of God take place.
Galatians 5:22 tells us,”The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” We can't make this kind of fruit happen. Did you ever try to be patient?
The miraculous works God has assigned for the church to do don't flow from human effort. These works flow from a place of rest where God is free to move through His vine to the world.
There are seasons when God will prune back our activity so we only have rest to offer. This is where the greatest works of God's Kingdom begin to manifest themselves. The tools of God's Kingdom are not human-made or human-powered. When we work from this place of rest it is the Lord who gets the glory, not our style or models of ministry.
GOD PRUNES US SO OUR LIVES WILL BRING GLORY TO GOD
Jesus addressed this issue of glory in verses 7-8 “But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”
The word “remain” in the dictionary means, “to be there.” To remain means that we get to live out our oneness with Christ. In verse 5 Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” When you feel the Father begin to cut and prune your life what you bring to the process is to simply remain. To press into intimacy with the Father in an deeper way.
The Father is glorified when His branches lay heavy with fruit. This fruit does not come with new and more intense activity. This fruit comes because of our position in the Vine.
What should be the response of a branch that is being pruned? A pruned place in your life or ministry is a place of worship and celebration. God is preparing you for something that only comes on the other side of the pruning process. Why would a pruned life worship? When God prunes us He is shaping us into the image of His Son. The nub at the end of your life that is raw and cut away is an announcement that God is about ready to do a new thing. This new thing, springing forth from the wound of pruning, will bring glory to the Father because the growth will come from something that does not exist in our human strength, abilities or resources.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
"Shepherding Revival" by Garris Elkins
The Lord is preparing to call forth the “Apollos Church.” The Apollos church are those groups and churches who have a love for God's Word and an enthusiasm for the things of God, yet have not experienced a powerful touch of God's presence. These people are not resistant to what God is doing, they are simply unfamiliar. God is looking for wise people who will reach out to these individuals and churches who are ready to embrace what God is doing, but simply need someone to shepherd their first steps.
In Acts 18 Priscilla and Aquila encountered a man named Apollos who loved God and His Word and was very enthusiastic. They saw that in the midst of his love for God's Word and his enthusiasm, that Apollos lacked a power encounter with the Spirit.
“24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”
Priscilla and Aquila were wise. They opened their home to Apollos and loved him. They became vulnerable and took the first step. In this environment of love, Apollos had an encounter with the Holy Spirit that changed everything in his life. A reading of I Corinthians will reveal the great impact Apollos would have on the Early Church.
There is also a current application of the story of Apollos. As I read through this text the Lord spoke to me and said that He was about to open doors across denominational and relational lines and call forth the Apollos churches, including those churches and denominations who were once known to have moved in the power of the Spirit, but of late have moved away from such an experience. If we are to reach the Apollos Church, and those people who make up these groups, God will ask something more from us. God will ask us to think through and pray about how to wisely navigate this time in Church history.
Recently, I spoke with a group of pastors and suggested some words of direction to help them wisely navigate those times when God's Spirit is being poured out in new and unusual ways.
Discerning Patterns versus Molds
Many hungry people will go and experience the fullness of what God is doing elsewhere and then come back to their place of ministry and try to press others into their mold of personal experience. The results of aborted revival attempts attest to the lack of wisdom in this approach.
Instead, God is calling us to lead by patterns. Each life and ministry has a unique pattern God has assigned to them. When we experience a deeper work of God in our lives, we would be wise to bring back those experiences as new cloth and thread and begin to weave a new tapestry into the pattern God has uniquely assigned for each life and ministry.
Lead by Invitation, not by Confrontation.
In a particular season of ministry God called me to repent of frustration. I was teaching and said something out of frustration wanting people to get on board with what God was doing. I had couched a challenge with a either/or phrase instead of an invitation, causing unnecessary reaction and pain.
In tears, I repented and asked God to change me before I demanded change in others. Invitation gives people time to process what is before them. In some instances confrontation may distance us from the very people God has called us to love.
Discerning the Fire of God and the Strange Fire of Hell
People have been created to have deep experiences with God. Fear has so gripped some people that their fear of the false has become a barrier to the real.
In Leviticus 10, two priests brought strange fire to the altar of God and they died for their error. The fire of God was to have been used to ignite the Temple fires. Strange fire came from a different source than God. Some believe the priests brought fire from their homes, instead of from the altar of God, to ignite the Temple fires. It seemed logical, but it proved fatal.
“How can you tell the difference between the fire of God and strange fire? The answer is simple, you can't - initially. Like the wheat and the tares that grow up together, the fruit will be the proof. The fruit of the fire will bear witness to the author of the fire. Discern the best you can, then trust. God will reveal what is true and false. God's ability to lead us into truth is greater than hell's ability to lead us into error.
Dealing with Resistance
Some who appear resistant to the things of God are not resistant. They simply need time to process what they see God doing in you. People need time to process change. In every season of change there will be those who simply cannot continue the journey with us. Those percentages are small. What is sad is that sometimes we lose a higher percentage of that small group for the lack of wisdom on our part. People need to have someone stop along the journey and explain what is happening. John Wimber, in the early days of the Vineyard movement, was known for this wisdom. He stopped and explained what God was doing. Even those initially fearful eventually came on board because someone was shepherding them.
The Apollos part of the church will be powerful when she is ignited. God is searching for wise people who will take the Apollos church into their homes and introduce them to something new from God.
In Acts 18 Priscilla and Aquila encountered a man named Apollos who loved God and His Word and was very enthusiastic. They saw that in the midst of his love for God's Word and his enthusiasm, that Apollos lacked a power encounter with the Spirit.
“24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”
Priscilla and Aquila were wise. They opened their home to Apollos and loved him. They became vulnerable and took the first step. In this environment of love, Apollos had an encounter with the Holy Spirit that changed everything in his life. A reading of I Corinthians will reveal the great impact Apollos would have on the Early Church.
There is also a current application of the story of Apollos. As I read through this text the Lord spoke to me and said that He was about to open doors across denominational and relational lines and call forth the Apollos churches, including those churches and denominations who were once known to have moved in the power of the Spirit, but of late have moved away from such an experience. If we are to reach the Apollos Church, and those people who make up these groups, God will ask something more from us. God will ask us to think through and pray about how to wisely navigate this time in Church history.
Recently, I spoke with a group of pastors and suggested some words of direction to help them wisely navigate those times when God's Spirit is being poured out in new and unusual ways.
Discerning Patterns versus Molds
Many hungry people will go and experience the fullness of what God is doing elsewhere and then come back to their place of ministry and try to press others into their mold of personal experience. The results of aborted revival attempts attest to the lack of wisdom in this approach.
Instead, God is calling us to lead by patterns. Each life and ministry has a unique pattern God has assigned to them. When we experience a deeper work of God in our lives, we would be wise to bring back those experiences as new cloth and thread and begin to weave a new tapestry into the pattern God has uniquely assigned for each life and ministry.
Lead by Invitation, not by Confrontation.
In a particular season of ministry God called me to repent of frustration. I was teaching and said something out of frustration wanting people to get on board with what God was doing. I had couched a challenge with a either/or phrase instead of an invitation, causing unnecessary reaction and pain.
In tears, I repented and asked God to change me before I demanded change in others. Invitation gives people time to process what is before them. In some instances confrontation may distance us from the very people God has called us to love.
Discerning the Fire of God and the Strange Fire of Hell
People have been created to have deep experiences with God. Fear has so gripped some people that their fear of the false has become a barrier to the real.
In Leviticus 10, two priests brought strange fire to the altar of God and they died for their error. The fire of God was to have been used to ignite the Temple fires. Strange fire came from a different source than God. Some believe the priests brought fire from their homes, instead of from the altar of God, to ignite the Temple fires. It seemed logical, but it proved fatal.
“How can you tell the difference between the fire of God and strange fire? The answer is simple, you can't - initially. Like the wheat and the tares that grow up together, the fruit will be the proof. The fruit of the fire will bear witness to the author of the fire. Discern the best you can, then trust. God will reveal what is true and false. God's ability to lead us into truth is greater than hell's ability to lead us into error.
Dealing with Resistance
Some who appear resistant to the things of God are not resistant. They simply need time to process what they see God doing in you. People need time to process change. In every season of change there will be those who simply cannot continue the journey with us. Those percentages are small. What is sad is that sometimes we lose a higher percentage of that small group for the lack of wisdom on our part. People need to have someone stop along the journey and explain what is happening. John Wimber, in the early days of the Vineyard movement, was known for this wisdom. He stopped and explained what God was doing. Even those initially fearful eventually came on board because someone was shepherding them.
The Apollos part of the church will be powerful when she is ignited. God is searching for wise people who will take the Apollos church into their homes and introduce them to something new from God.
Friday, May 16, 2008
"Praying from the Throne Of God" by Garris Elkins
Our global civilization is in an epoch change cycle. This cycle of change will test everything we know. God is birthing something new in His church to prepare us to minister supernaturally in a world that is exhausted from dead religion and dead political promises. A refreshing wind of God's presence is blowing across the creation. God is asking His people to reposition their prayer altars. He is calling his church to fully realize their position in Christ, not only as a theological truth, but as a position of authority from which to pray. We are being asked to take our prayer altars to the Throne of God and there begin to pray the will of God into existence upon the earth.
Paul defined this position of the church in Ephesians 1:19, “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else‚ not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”
The resurrection power of God caused Jesus to be seated far above the turmoil and change that is taking place on the earth. When we gain this perspective we will see into the invisible realm with the eyes of faith and then begin to pray into existence what seemed impossible in the natural realm.
Paul went on to tell us what the positioning of Jesus means for us. In Ephesians 2:6 Paul said,”For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
We cannot pray with power, confidence and authority if our line-of-sight is only what we see taking place around us. Our prayers must be created and released from the perspective of heaven. It is from our position in Christ, seated at the right hand of God, that we gain a perspective of prayer that is infused with a boldness that comes from seeing this life from God's perspective. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing. The same applies to us. To pray the will of God means that I must first see His will.
What does prayer from the Throne of God look like? This kind of prayer is prayed with resurrection authority. “This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead.” Death tried to hold Jesus back but the prison door of death was kicked in by the power of Christ's resurrection. When you see death trying to raise its false authority over your situation run to your position in Christ and declare your victory in prayer from the Throne of God. As that kind of prayer is released the kingdoms of earth will be shaken with resurrection power.
This kind of prayer feels the touch of the Father's hand. “And seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms.” You and I are also at the Father's right hand because we are in Christ. Ephesians 2: 6 declares, “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
As Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and as you and I are there together in Christ, we are in that position to experience an intimacy with God that drive will release the prayer of faith. Prayers of faith are birthed from people who know and experience intimacy with God. You are not distant from Him! Ever! Pray with confidence as one who is forever united with your Redeemer.
This kind of prayer is birthed in a place far above the turmoil. “Far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else.” The social, political and economic strains taking place on the earth do not affect this kind of prayer. Prayer from above is not affected by the conditions down below. As you pray from the Throne of God you are praying as a child of God. To a religious spirit you will appear headstrong, maybe even precocious. Don't worry about how other people feel. You are a child of God who has access to the Father at all times. We are positioned with the One Who is far above it all. That should breed confidence in God.
This kind of prayer flows from headship. “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things.” Praying from the throne of God towards earth will speak to areas in the world system that are living independent of God. Headship brings order. Prayer from the Throne of God will declare headship over the disorder and rebellion that is robbing the earth of God's joy. Rebellion will be subdued, wars will be averted, national leaders will yield to the word of the Lord when the Church prays.
There are social and political transitions that are about to take place that will someday be traced back to prayers that were sourced in someone who was praying from their position in Christ at the right hand of the Father. These prayers will not struggle up in human effort in some attempt to convince God to move, but rather they will flow down with anointing and set in motion supernatural change. Authority flows down from the Head - so should the prayers of His saints. Strongholds that many Christians have thought were too far gone for change will suddenly change. God is about to change what appears to be unchangeable.
God is talking to His Church in this moment of human history to not only realize who we are in Christ, but to understand where we are in Christ. We are dual-citizens of both earth and of heaven.
Ask God to take you to the Throne and ask Him how He wants you to pray in this time of epoch change. As you survey the earth from His perspective - it will forever change how you pray because you are seeing the world from heaven's perspective.
Paul defined this position of the church in Ephesians 1:19, “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else‚ not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”
The resurrection power of God caused Jesus to be seated far above the turmoil and change that is taking place on the earth. When we gain this perspective we will see into the invisible realm with the eyes of faith and then begin to pray into existence what seemed impossible in the natural realm.
Paul went on to tell us what the positioning of Jesus means for us. In Ephesians 2:6 Paul said,”For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
We cannot pray with power, confidence and authority if our line-of-sight is only what we see taking place around us. Our prayers must be created and released from the perspective of heaven. It is from our position in Christ, seated at the right hand of God, that we gain a perspective of prayer that is infused with a boldness that comes from seeing this life from God's perspective. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing. The same applies to us. To pray the will of God means that I must first see His will.
What does prayer from the Throne of God look like? This kind of prayer is prayed with resurrection authority. “This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead.” Death tried to hold Jesus back but the prison door of death was kicked in by the power of Christ's resurrection. When you see death trying to raise its false authority over your situation run to your position in Christ and declare your victory in prayer from the Throne of God. As that kind of prayer is released the kingdoms of earth will be shaken with resurrection power.
This kind of prayer feels the touch of the Father's hand. “And seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms.” You and I are also at the Father's right hand because we are in Christ. Ephesians 2: 6 declares, “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
As Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and as you and I are there together in Christ, we are in that position to experience an intimacy with God that drive will release the prayer of faith. Prayers of faith are birthed from people who know and experience intimacy with God. You are not distant from Him! Ever! Pray with confidence as one who is forever united with your Redeemer.
This kind of prayer is birthed in a place far above the turmoil. “Far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else.” The social, political and economic strains taking place on the earth do not affect this kind of prayer. Prayer from above is not affected by the conditions down below. As you pray from the Throne of God you are praying as a child of God. To a religious spirit you will appear headstrong, maybe even precocious. Don't worry about how other people feel. You are a child of God who has access to the Father at all times. We are positioned with the One Who is far above it all. That should breed confidence in God.
This kind of prayer flows from headship. “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things.” Praying from the throne of God towards earth will speak to areas in the world system that are living independent of God. Headship brings order. Prayer from the Throne of God will declare headship over the disorder and rebellion that is robbing the earth of God's joy. Rebellion will be subdued, wars will be averted, national leaders will yield to the word of the Lord when the Church prays.
There are social and political transitions that are about to take place that will someday be traced back to prayers that were sourced in someone who was praying from their position in Christ at the right hand of the Father. These prayers will not struggle up in human effort in some attempt to convince God to move, but rather they will flow down with anointing and set in motion supernatural change. Authority flows down from the Head - so should the prayers of His saints. Strongholds that many Christians have thought were too far gone for change will suddenly change. God is about to change what appears to be unchangeable.
God is talking to His Church in this moment of human history to not only realize who we are in Christ, but to understand where we are in Christ. We are dual-citizens of both earth and of heaven.
Ask God to take you to the Throne and ask Him how He wants you to pray in this time of epoch change. As you survey the earth from His perspective - it will forever change how you pray because you are seeing the world from heaven's perspective.
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