There is a reason to place your trust in the Lord. The Creator of the Universe still does miracles and can create a solution for your needs. He gives us reason to lift up our head and have hope.
It's because I've lived through certain things that I can absolutely without a shadow of a doubt stand here today and tell you that Jesus Christ is THE ANSWER. If we could save ourselves we wouldn't need a Savior and a Redeemer. If we had all the answers, we wouldn't make some of the mistakes we've made. When troubles overwhelm us, we have to place our trust in someone and something that is bigger than us. It's the hope that rests in Jesus Christ that does not disappoint us.
God wants you to know that He has spoken words of destiny over you. Some of those words you haven't even heard, because they've been spoken in heaven. There are conversations going on in heaven all the time, and many of those conversations concern us because we are His creation. GOD has spoken words of purpose over you. He has spoken words of blessing over you. He has spoken words of victory over your life. And He watches over His word to perform it, to make sure it comes to pass.
How do I know that? Because in Genesis 1:26 God spoke to Himself, (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and said, "Let us make man in Our image…" and He spoke words of purpose over us. God gives an example of this is in Jeremiah chapter 1. God spoke to Jeremiah the prophet and told him, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you and ordained you…" I remember when I've expected my babies, and like many parents, I spoke words over their lives. Isn't it normal to say things like, "Oh, someday my child is going to grow up and be a doctor, or a successful businessman, or she's going to be an artist, or any number of things. Well, God speaks words over us, too, because we've all been created to be His children. He gets excited about us fulfilling our destiny. He wants and waits for us to come into agreement with the things He has said about us. It takes faith to see ourselves the way He sees us! It takes faith to say yes to His plan and let go of our own self-centered ideas. It even takes faith to let go of low self-esteem, inferiority or all the ways we may see ourselves that are less than what God thinks of us. Moses had to stop living in his past in order to be ready for his future. Even though Moses was recorded as one of the Bible's greatest men, he still had some pretty big failures from his past. He had to overcome how he thought others thought about him, and how he thought about himself! So many great men and women in the Bible and throughout history have had to overcome the low points of personal failure, the judgments and perceptions of others and other challenges in order to become the man or woman that God would then use to lead others. God wants to use each of us to bring a life-changing message through a life that has been changed. In chapter one of Jeremiah, God asked Jeremiah a question about what He saw in a vision. Jeremiah told him and God responded by saying, "You have seen well. I am ready to perform My word." When we are able to see what GOD sees, He says, "GREAT! Now I'm ready to perform My word in your life." And again in Jeremiah 29:11 God declares, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
Do you realize that God has conversations in heaven that we know nothing about? The Father talks to the Son and the Holy Spirit; He talks to the angels, and gives them assignments. He speak to them about us. GOD HAS SPOKEN WORDS OF DESTINY OVER YOU. When GOD says something, He isn't just an idle talker. He has a plan to bring those things to pass. He had a plan for Jesus. Right? He knew every twist and turn that would happen and He outsmarted everyone that came against His Son. It didn't look like that in the natural, and it didn't look like that to His enemies, either. God outwitted everybody when the power of the Holy Spirit resurrected Jesus, and Jesus showed up at Satan's door to take the keys of hell away from him! I wonder how the devil felt when he got that knock on the door. God is AWESOME! He doesn't think like we think. He even knows what the devil is thinking, so nothing catches Him by surprise. He sees the end before it happens and writes His plan accordingly.
So you see, it doesn't matter what situation you're in. I'm not trying to minimize anything you're going through – please don't get me wrong. I know life is hard. But what I'm trying to say is, it doesn't matter how messed up your life has gotten or where you're at on the road. God has written the victory into the plan for your life. There is reason to have hope. The devil wants you to focus on your circumstances and get sidetracked by certain things, including hurts, bad memories and the junk you've picked up along the way. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. What are you going to do with it? AREN'T YOU GLAD THAT GOD HAS A PLAN THE ENEMY KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT? Praise God, even if everything you've ever hoped and believed for is dead, God is still the God of resurrection life and unlimited power. His resources are unlimited. Don't ever say there is no solution for what you're going through…He is the God of creation and He still loves to do new things. Isaiah 48:3 says that God declares things about our future and they come forth suddenly. He says, I'm going to make you hear new things…things that are created for you now. Isn't that an encouraging word? It's time to make room for the promise to be fulfilled, and that means there is something that God will require of us. We have to have the right response when God presents the "new thing." Ask the Lord to help you have the right response of faith, love and action that will release what He wants to perform in your life!
Every time we have gone through personal wilderness seasons or hard times it was to give us a change of heart or a different perspective. It was meant to produce a permanent change of heart, and that only comes through experience working character into our lives. It wasn't because God was being hard or harsh. Religion may tell you that, and people that lack understanding of God's grace and mercy may tell you things like that, but everything God does is through the filter of His mercy. His judgments are made through the mercy seat. It all comes through the work of the cross, and the work of the cross is redemptive and restorative - every time! God has a completely different perspective of our situations than we do. If we are in need of forgiveness, God will show us our need – through our circumstances. If we are in need of grace, He will allow us to experience our own need for more grace. In order to receive His mercy, we have to become aware of our need for it. Do you realize that most people judge others by their actions yet people judge themselves by their intentions? That is a double standard, and God doesn't have double standards. We can't have selective obedience when it comes to the scriptures. If we judge others and lack mercy, that is exactly what we will receive in return. (Matthew 7:1) James 1 & 2 tells us that we will by judged by the law of liberty, or rather, the law of love. Loving God and others, doing to others as we would want others to do to us is the whole sum of the law. If our prayers lack mercy towards others, even those that have hurt us, what we may someday reap is a lack of mercy when we need it. Don't let yourself be in that place. We have to learn how to give it away. God wants all of us to have a changed heart so that we can carry more of Him to a hurting world. We carry a message of hope. When we change, God rearranges our life. He changes who we encounter. He gives us divine connections we never would have encountered before. We start to walk in different circles of influence. Without personal change, we will never encounter the people we need to connect with in order to walk into our destiny. It's withheld from us because we're not ready yet. Doors will be shut to us until we develop the fruit that God is looking for. Until we learn to release what's in our hand, we won't encounter the blessing He has stored up for us. We won't even cross paths with it! Until we learn how to give away mercy, love and grace to those that don't deserve it, we won't walk into the "new thing" He wants to bring us into.
Jesus was perfect in all His ways, yet God allowed him to experience the injustice, the bitterness, the hurt of rejection and being judged by others. He allowed Him to experience the pain of the cross. Many people looked at him and thought He had failed. Why did He have to go through that? So He could understand how it feels. So He, as a man, could win the victory for all men. Only when you've been there yourself can you show compassion and restore others. Only when you've been there yourself can you comfort others and show them how to overcome and hold on till you get the victory. But it takes a gentle heart to bring restoration to others. It takes gentleness and humility to bring a message of love and restoration to others that isn't tainted with judgment, religious criticism and words that will inflict pain. THERE IS A BIGGER PLAN to what you've been walking through. Stop looking at your circumstances and ask God to help you understand the revelation He wants you to understand. The circumstances of your situation may be what you are living through at the moment, but it's not the complete picture of where God wants to take you. You're just passing through, on your way to the BIG PICTURE. God has been waiting for you to understand it's not just about your immediate needs. His mercy and love will override your circumstances, but it takes a willingness on our part to believe and trust in Him. Once you choose to believe, He can change your perspective. Our limited perspective limits His ability. We must activate our faith in order to receive, because the kingdom of God is received by faith.
Let your hope be stirred up once again. Let faith arise! God is working on your behalf. He has people you aren't even aware of praying for you. God pursues us to give us a message, then He waits to see what we'll do with that message. Do you know that He sends messengers with a message? He might send someone to you to tell you that He loves you. He might send someone else to tell you that you need a change of heart, or a change of direction. He might send someone else to tell you that you're being stubborn and need to change your attitude. He might send someone else to tell you, keep holding on, the answer is on the way. He always sends messengers, and He's always communicating with us in one form or another. How is He talking to you today? SO… it's not that God isn't talking…the question is, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE MESSAGE? YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE MESSAGE - AND YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE MESSENGER – BUT THAT DOESN"T MEAN THAT GOD ISN"T STILL TRYING TO GET A MESSAGE TO YOU. WE CAN EITHER THROW THEM IN THE TRASH OR WE CAN ALLOW THEM TO BIRTH SOMETHING IN OUR HEART."
No problem is too big for God. Your issue, whatever you are facing, is not too big for God. He wrote the number of your days before you were even born, and He can re-write your life story even now. Do you remember hearing a story about Lazarus in the Bible? Jesus got to this man after he had been dead 4 days. Most people would have said, "That's it. End of story." And I assure you, that's what the devil was thinking too. But Jesus told his disciples that God was going to show His glory in the situation, and He did. GOD IS GETTING READY TO SHOW HIS GLORY IN YOUR LIFE.
Jesus called out, "Lazarus, come forth!" Jesus told the bystanders to loose that man from his grave clothes, and Lazarus came out of the tomb alive and well. You see, Lazarus hadn't fulfilled his destiny yet. There was still more of his purpose left to fulfill, and Jesus saw to it that Lazarus got another chance to do just that.
Some of you need to shake off those grave clothes and allow Jesus to breathe new life into you. For every stone that the enemy has rolled in front of you to seal you off from your destiny, I say, "Let those stones be rolled away, in Jesus name." Let the resurrection power and life from the Holy Spirit be released to bring wholeness and joy to you. I speak freedom to you today. Let those seeds of destiny spring to life and may all your purpose be fulfilled, in Jesus' name.
There is one thing more powerful than every other force you will ever encounter, and that is the power of God. It is the power of His love. He brings hope to the hopeless. He desires more than anything to bring restoration to your life and fill your emptiness with His love and wholeness. He provides eternal life for those that will place their life in His hands and trust Him. He restores the brokenhearted and He heals all our hurts, IF we will choose to open our heart to Him. I pray that you discover what I've discovered. He is all we need.
Dear Heavenly Father,
You know the things I have gone through in my life. There have been hurts and disappointments, but I am ready for a new day. I want to renew my commitment to You today, Lord. You are my master and Lord. I ask You for forgiveness of my sins, and even those in my family line up to the third and fourth generation back. Whether it's been myself or someone else in my family line that may have opened a door to the enemy, please forgive us for broken covenants, broken trust, infidelity, rebellion, unforgiveness and idolatry. Forgive me for resisting anything You have brought into my life to help me change. Forgive me for blaming You or others when You were trying to show me something in my own heart or life that needed to change. I ask you to forgive me, and forgive any generational sin committed by others in my family line. Let today be the day of a clean slate, and let these things be a closed door to the enemy from this moment on. I apply the blood of Jesus to these sins and declare that Satan can no longer use these things to revisit generational sin upon me according to Hebrews 8:12. And now Satan, according to James 4:7 you must take back your curses, your bitterness, your lies and everything you have brought into my life and I command you to do so in Jesus' name. I declare and decree that my ears are shut to the lies of the enemy and Satan, you are not allowed to speak to me. I also command you to restore no less than a 7 fold return according to Proverbs 6:31.
I choose to release any judgments that I have made against others out of being hurt, and I repent for judging those individuals. I choose to forgive those that have sinned against me and those I love, and those that have hurt and offended us. I do this as an act of my will, and now I ask You, Father, to please bring healing to every lie, every bad memory, every situation that has caused pain to me or my family. Let me not remember the hurt, and empower me to walk in victory. Help me to only remember the good about those that have brought hurt to my life. I ask You to bless and heal those that have hurt and wounded me. I pray that they too, know Your salvation, healing and deliverance. Please help me to see these situations, and even these individuals from your perspective. Holy Spirit, please heal my heart, my mind and emotions. I let go of bitterness, jealousy, anger and unforgiveness. Pull them out of my heart, Lord, until they are all gone. Do it today. I renounce inferiority and insecurity that have come in as a result of hurt and brokenness. Please heal my trust issues with others. Help me to see things through new eyes of love and faith. Heal my hope, my faith, and my love. Heal any areas of grief, heaviness and unbelief. Holy Spirit, release the truth that will set me free. Give me revelation to understand what You want me to understand. I thank You for Your healing, restoration and victory, in Jesus' name. Amen.
A few years ago the Lord gave me a word that I believe is appropriate to make it a "now word."
Shortly after my son was born I had been having vision problems. The problem had been a constant frustration for about 6 weeks, but I really wasn't thinking about that except that it was bothering me not to see clearly across the room. One day as I was up early feeding my son, I remembered seeing the clock when I got up; it said 4:05 (a.m.). Then after a few minutes I remember seeing the clock again and it said 4:41. I thought, "How can that be?" It was just a little after 4:00 when I sat down. It was strange and I thought, did I fall asleep or something? But I hadn't, and I knew I hadn't imagined the original time on the clock, either. I kept wondering about that and thought something odd had happened. All of a sudden my vision cleared. The blurred vision was gone and my vision has remained clear ever since. God immediately brought a prophetic word back to mind that I had received about a year earlier. The word was, "My Bride needs to take off her glasses." I knew at that time that God wanted to give a fresh vision, and especially for ministry leaders not to keep looking through yesterday's vision. As I was sitting in my chair, marveling that my vision was no longer strained or blurred, two scriptures came to mind. The first one was out of Jeremiah chapter one where God asked Jeremiah what he saw, and when Jeremiah told him that he saw an almond branch God replied, "You have seen well, I am ready to perform My word." The simultaneous thought I had was out of Isaiah 60:22 which says, "...I, the Lord, will hasten it in it's time." I believe the thing with the clock seeming to jump ahead was a prophetic example of God speeding up time to perform His word, but we must also seek the Lord for revelation so that we can come into agreement with it and declare it in our prayers.
I knew it meant that the vision that certain leaders had was for a different period of time and it was blurring the focus of where God wanted to lead them. Stop looking back at prophetic words and ask God to clarify what is relevant for this new season. If you will pray over this word God will release clarity, vision and purpose. Ask Him to speak plainly. He is ready to perform His word and take all who will follow, all who have been prepared and chosen by His Holy Spirit, into a new day.
Fresh vision does not only pertain to how to move forward with God in ministry but how we see ourselves. Some of us cannot move forward with God the way we are. We must leave the old perspective of how we have seen ourselves – and WHAT ROLE or what mold we thought we were to fit into. There are pastors and teachers, worship leaders and others that will be taken to a new level or into a new role. Some will be taken from the pulpit into the marketplace. It is not a step down. It is not a lesser role. It is simply different. We cannot afford to resist what God wants to do or we will be left behind. There have also been many people in transition. They have been locked in the tomb or put aside in a cave so that transition and transformation can take place. Only when that process is complete will the stone be rolled away and they will be brought back into the light. It has been for their safety, for protection against the enemy, that the process would not be cut off before it was complete. Do not despair thinking God has forgotten you! He has been trying to change people's identity and how they see themselves. Do not get caught up in thinking that the role or position you had in a former season will apply in the new season. The winds of change are moving, lifting and shifting people into new roles and new places. Do not say, "I am this or that" simply because that is familiar. That forms an incomplete picture. The function we have held in the body of Christ is changing for many people. They are being taken into a new identity in Christ in order to fulfill a greater purpose. Our identity and our wineskin must change in order to hold the newness of what God wants to take us into. We must make room for Him to come into our midst and tell us afresh and anew how He sees us. As we press through into a closer relationship with Him, lingering in worship, He will impart new vision. What we are in our private time is who we really are. Who we are in our prayer closet is who we are. His greatest purpose is for us to realize the identity He has for us. Not just as His child, but as the person He created to reign and rule with Him for eternity. Let the Generals arise! Let the Kings and Priests arise! Let the Commanders arise! Let the Worshippers and Prophets arise! This is His army.
The other part of this word relates to healing. Our identity cannot be tainted from misconceptions from past hurts or disappointments. We cannot take rejection or insecurity into our future. There is no place for that. There is no room for prejudice or competitiveness. There is no room for unforgiveness. There is no room for jealousy. A good tree bears good fruit. God is not looking for mixture. His kingdom and authority must be represented accurately. Do not say, 'This is how it's always been done,' for "I am doing a new thing," says the Lord." He is restructuring and realigning His body in order to fulfill a greater purpose, but the question is, will we make room for Him to change our identity, our heart, our wineskin and our future? Will we prepare ourselves by taking steps of faith and acting upon what He has put in our heart? Like any new birth, you must make room for the blessing to come in!
