Posts

Posted on

How My Road Trip Revisits Led to Revival

I recently experienced a succession of revisits along a three-day road trip, where God had me cycle back to a string of places and events I had been to years earlier.

Amazingly, God met me at each revisit with a corresponding revelation.

He enabled me to re-experience each place and event in a new and better way, giving me pleasant memories over painful ones. Each shift built on the previous one(s), which culminated in a greater transition from my past for my future.

I felt like I was on a treasure hunt trail with God as He transformed me daily in bullet fashion.

What’s more, on the third day of my trip, my most direct route home was a stretch of highway that was new to me and is, quite literally, the road I believe God will also use to lead me deeper into a future He revealed to me over a decade ago.

Small and large, God is opening doors to better experiences for all of us who are willing to follow Him into multiplicity for Kingdom purposes.

These revisits are not the “go around the mountain” kind, like Joyce Meyer speaks of, that involves a timely cycle of trying to get it right. But the effortless “beauty for ashes” loop in Isaiah 61:3, where the Spirit of The Lord sets us on a progression of manifest redemption beyond ourselves:

“to strengthen those crushed by despair who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful bouquet in the place of ashes, the oil of bliss instead of tears, and the mantle of joyous praise instead of the spirit of heaviness. Because of this, they will be known as Mighty Oaks of Righteousness, planted by Yahweh as a living display of his glory” (TPT).

God is repositioning us for His ultimate fulfillment of restoration, rebuilding and renewal as in Isaiah 61:4.

But it begins with the revival of our heart—the release of the old and the embrace of the new. God is bringing a miraculous completion to the pain of past experiences to enable us to receive gain for His Kingdom purposes.

God can lead us to re-visit a string of places, events, situations and memories (even in dreams), then instantly pivot us in quick successions of manifest redemption—to awaken us and further position us into His plan.

These revisits are cycles of recreated experiences purposed to reset our present in peace over our past and free us to continue to head into the bigger blessings God has for us—near and far.

Revisits are set-up by God and are a kind of reunion, where we become more aligned with Christ in our soul through the release of Holy Spirit’s inner revelation as we walk through a better outward reality.

I liken revisits to a revolving glass door, where, in a pivotal moment, we enter into a threshold able to see where we’ve been and where we’re going—but moving swiftly with God’s help. Then we exit to a new place of satisfaction and fresh vision, not wanting to go back but being content with what’s before us.

God uses these revelatory revisits to revive us from death to life (Ps. 71:20).

Revisits may be necessary to adjust our inner and outer attitude so we can head in the right direction and grow in more light. In a revisit, we learn instantly and are gratefully made aware that God has perfected us in a way that only He can.

God uses revisits to deliver us into His abundance.

From darkness to light, His goodness will bring an uncommon finish of some former things in our lives to produce an uncommon future. In these revisits, God helps us align with His plan incrementally, so His multiplicity before us isn’t so overwhelming. In this way, God uses a progression of bulleted revisits as preparation for bigger revisits.

Revisits are one way God delivers, heals and strengthens us from regret to revival.

They are one way God miraculously redeems time by repositioning us for Kingdom purposes.

They are one way God reveals His final say: that life won’t end in our past; there’s more forward—much, much more.

Romans 8:28 TPT – “So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.”

God uses revisits to break us through into a new familiar, which is a kind of justice over a painful past, as much as it is a beautiful new beginning of resurrection life (Ps. 71:2).

God is streamlining our lives, making us more efficient for the journey forward.

Many of us are on the edge of our eleventh hour for greater manifest blessings, divine promises being fulfilled. If we are sensitive to follow The Lord, we will come out triumphant and receive nothing less than His very best.

Let’s stay on course.

“Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.” -Isaiah 43:18-19 TPT

“Even though you’ve let us sink down with trials and troubles, I know you will revive us again, lifting us up from the dust of death.” Psalms 71:20 TPT

“…When your miracle rescue comes to me, it will lift me to the highest place. All who seek you will see God do this for them, and they’ll overflow with gladness. Let this revive your hearts, all you lovers of God!” -Psalm 69:29, 32 TPT

“Now I can say to myself and to all, ‘Relax and rest, be confident and serene, for the Lord rewards fully those who simply trust in him.'” -Psalm 116:7 TPT

“No matter what, I’ll trust in you to help me. Nothing will stop me from praising you to magnify your glory!” -Psalm 71:14 TPT

This article graciously appeared online at Charisma Magazine and SpiritLed Woman Magazine on October 12, 2019 under the title “How God Can Use Revisits to Places You’ve Been to Revive Your Heart.”

Posted on

Back To School – God Is Faithful To Protect

It’s back to school time for many—a flurry of school supplies, schedule adjustments and, sadly, safety anxieties.

Will it be like last year?

Will be better?

In the midst of chaos, God’s promises are our best protection—His fidelity of faithfulness as armor—that surrounds us like a large shield, firmly affixed.

Psalm 91:4 TPT assures us, “His massive arms are wrapped around you, protecting you. You can run under his covering of majesty and hide. His arms of faithfulness are a shield keeping you from harm.”

Therefore, back to school is a time of grace to pray, believe, and receive God’s promises.

Mark 11:24 TPT reveals, “This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—be convinced that you have received it and it will be yours.”

“And now out of his fullness we are fulfilled! And from him we receive grace heaped upon more grace” (John 1:16 TPT)!

As we head into our new assignments of learning and growing, it’s good to know that we can experience God’s faithful assurance continually in our journey, beyond a single object or event … as we learn to trust Him at more of His truth.

This is where we grow our shield of faith.

So what’s to worry?

“Jesus replied, ‘You don’t understand yet the meaning of what I’m doing, but soon it will be clear to you’” (John 13:7 TPT).

We can always trust Him in this next-level of opportunity-process whereby He trains us, develops us, tests us, and establishes us.

Stronger in Him.

Knowing Him more.

To better equip us to do what He called us to do in this life as our classroom, where our commitment to His character and ways are proven.

Therefore, God’s faithfulness is necessary for our victory.

“Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in his eyes. Fix your heart on the promises of God and you will be secure, feasting on his faithfulness” (Psalm 37:3 TPT).

Found in the armor of His blood covenant, God’s faithfulness is a battle strategy of running to Him, hiding in Him, and receiving from Him to progress and finish our race by His strength, not ours.

His faithfulness is a post of revelation for reformation, perpetual truth that travels with us, and a marker for excellence-in-the-making. It is a place of support, a respite in our marathon, and a divine task and object that guards us.

God’s faithfulness is always available as the armor that sustains us completely. When we believe and walk in the Spirit of truth, faith, and grace, we can hold to our shield and watch His love for us unfold.

Beautifully.

No matter what.

It’s worth going back to.

Amen.

This article graciously appeared on Charisma Magazine and SpiritLed Woman Magazine August 19, 2019 under the title, God’s Powerful Promises for Your Family’s Back-to-School Days.

Posted on

Black Friday In July – Second To None

We’ve heard of Christmas in July. But Black Friday in July?

This was something new to me when I first saw the department store circular delivered to my door earlier this week.

Black Friday sales officially begin tomorrow (with a couple of pre-sale days added).

Yes, right now!

Who doesn’t like free shipping and deeply discounted prices?

But like all other activities (or habits), shopping needs to be done in submission to Christ.

For me, among other things, this meant not purchasing anymore “seconds.” The Lord had spoken to me about this months ago.

“What’s the big deal?” I initially thought. “I’ve been doing this for decades.”

After all, there were only a couple of items I had consistently purchased as second quality over the years: paperback books with nary a mark or crease that would probably get more messed up anyway, and holiday china from my favorite outlet with only the tiniest of imperfections, usually on the bottom, that would, perhaps, get broken over the years.

At first thought, books and dishes seemed like small things to me.

But not to God.

Books and dishes were just His beginning for me in the shopping arena.

When I asked Him for understanding, He helped me realize it’s about a new mindset that He desires to establish in me: The expectation of first-rate, top-quality, best, flawless, heirloom, legacy—His character outwardly reflected as manifestations of my inward inheritance.

God has fine stuff that He desires to give.

But old mindsets can feel like self-entitlement.

Still, it has to go to receive God’s best.

Galatians 5:16 TPT encourages us, “As you yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.”

So what are you expecting?

First-rate or second-best?

God’s finest strategy is to release the settling for seconds to Him and advance to top choice.

When we have the mind of Christ, victory can happen like lightning in God’s promised land. We need only to see clearly, having the blinders of our way removed.

Black Friday in July sale?

Doorbusters galore?

Free shipping?

1 John 2:16 TPT warns us, “For all that the world can offer us—the gratification of our flesh, the allurement of the things of the world, and the obsession with status and importance—none of these things come from the Father but from the world.”

But for me, it’s not about status.

It’s about beauty.

I’m drawn to beautiful things.

I’ve learned He’s the most beautiful thing.

And everything else is just second.

“Your pleasant path leads me to pleasant places. I’m overwhelmed by the privileges that come with following you, for you have given me the best” (Psalm 16:6, TPT)!

“So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly” (Matthew 6:33, TPT).

“…For the Lord sees not as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7, MEV).

This article graciously appeared on Black Friday in July at Charisma.com under the title “Why God Has More For You Than Second Best.”

Posted on

God’s Glory On Flag Day

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution that allowed the country to adopt its first official flag: the 13-star and stripe banner. Later, an act of Congress, signed by President Harry Truman in 1949, designated the anniversary of this resolution as National Flag Day. 

This act was signed 70 years ago this year. 

Also, three years before President Truman signed this act of Congress, President Trump was born … yes, on National Flag Day 1946. 

God birthed both an act and a promise—signs of opportunity for complete restoration—victory through unity in Christ for our nation.

Song of Songs 2:4 assures us that God’s banner over us is love. 

According to Strong’s Concordance, banner can mean sign, signal or standard. 

Moses experienced God raising up a standard of authoritative triumph in Exodus 17:15 as he surrendered to divine victory to rule over a nation of wandering Amalekites at Rephidim. As a sacrifice and a remembrance to God, Moses built an altar there, naming it “The Lord Is My Banner.” 

Prominent Episcopalian, lawyer and poet, Francis Scott Key, knew Jehovah-Nissi’s miraculous victory too.

Anchored eight miles away from Ft. McHenry, on a sloop, during the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814, Key wrote the poem that became our national anthem. 

Key witnessed local commissioned seamstress Mary Pickersgill’s two wool 15-star-and-stripe banners reign over the fort—a small “storm” flag, which measured 17 by 25 feet and flew during the bombardment by the British, and a larger garrison flag, which measured 30 by 42 feet and was raised the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, when the British retreated.

Key saw the battle from darkness to “the dawn’s early light.” 

Moses saw the battle from morning to sunset, when a new day begins, according to the Hebrew calendar (Ex. 17:12). 

Jesus is the standard Father has raised up for our new beginning (Isa. 11:10). What is Jesus, our miracle-sign, birthing through you to co-rule and co-reign over in this new day? Do you also see His victory as your co-labor with Him?

When we surrender to God, we surrender to divine victory.  Have you seen His greater victory after your storm?

Prayer

Lord Our Banner (Jehovah-Nissi), Thank You for Your banner strategy of victorious love for me. Help me to be brave like Moses and Joshua in prayer and Word. Help me to trade in my stones of hindrance (Isa. 62:10) for Your stone-of-treasure foundation (Isa. 54:11). Open my eyes to see Your compassionate banner of love and victory over me during and after my storms—the resurrection of new life evangelism that flows from You, through me and beyond me for Your glory, honor and greater good of nations. Thank You for making me into a glory carrier for Your Great Name. Amen. 

Scriptures

Lamentations 3:22-24 MEV – “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed; His compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.'”

Isaiah 11:10 TPT – “On that day, the root of Jesse will be lifted up as a miracle-sign to rally the people. Gentiles will diligently seek him, and his resting place will be glorious!”

Psalm 37:6 TPT – “He will appear as your righteousness, as sure as the dawning of a new day. He will manifest as your justice, as sure and strong as the noonday sun.”

Psalm 37:20 TPT – “All the enemies of God will perish. For the wicked have only a momentary value, a fading glory.”

Proverbs 4:18 TPT – “But the lovers of God walk on the highway of light, and their way shines brighter and brighter until they bring forth the perfect day.”

Isaiah 54:11 TPT – “You unhappy one, storm-tossed and troubled, I am ready to rebuild you with precious stones and embed your foundation with sapphires.”

Ephesians 6:10, 13 TPT – ” . . . Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you…you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slanderer, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.”

Isaiah 62:10 TPT – “Pass through, pass through the gates, and go from old to new. Prepare a new path for the people. Build! Build up a highway for them to come to me! Remove every hindrance and unfurl a banner for the nations!”

Psalm 36:5 TPT – “But you, O Lord, your mercy-seat love is limitless, reaching higher than the highest heavens. Your great faithfulness is infinite, stretching over the whole earth. 

The Star-Spangled Banner excerpts by Francis Scott Key

“Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”

Twenty-two years ago, God enabled me to write my first cover story for a major city newspaper on the topic of Flag Day. At the time, it was the 220thanniversary of the flag resolution. This article was re-published on CharismaNews.com at 2:00 pm. Rabbi Jonathan Cahn says the number 2 in Hebrew can mean change, especially in regards to newness of life. So change for the better is what I’m believing. How about you? Scroll down and comment below.

This article graciously appeared online at SpiritLed Woman Magazine and Charisma News on Flag Day, June 14, 2019 under the title “How God Birthed a Prophetic Act and Promise on June 14.”

Posted on

The Door To Life: My Near-Death Experience

With Memorial Day upon us, I am thoughtful of those who served well—the best they knew how—before passing into eternity. I am reminded that standing in the threshold between life and death is Jesus, the Door of life over death. 

Love. 

The Spirit of Grace for resurrection. 

New life.

I am reminded that the Door who saves lives for eternity is the same Door who guards them on earth, leading us deeper to take us higher.

Deeper to know Him more as Treasure. Higher to share Him more as Glory.

With honor.

And praise.

To nations.

1 Peter 2:9 TPT reveals, “But you are God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual ‘nation’ set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world.”

I recall a near-death experience in my life, where I saw Jesus in three consecutive dreams early one morning. The reality was that I had endured excruciating abdominal pain for months. Surgery had been scheduled later the same day as my dreams to remove a rare tumor that had been undetectable until it had grown to the size of a golf ball.

I was physically weak.

Drained.

But His grace was sufficient.

In all three of my dreams that morning, Jesus appeared out of darkness to come to my bedside. He never said a word to me but, instead, took hold of my left hand and led me onto a moving sidewalk that was inclined, like an escalator. 

Jesus was beside me the whole time. 

Perfect peace.

Perfect love.

Power of God.

I felt new life.

When we arrived at the top of the walkway, we stepped off and over to a narrow, open doorway. We turned around to look down at my body in bed as we stood in this threshold. 

Darkness still surrounded us. There was only enough light to see each other and my body in bed, which was spotlighted. 

I had seen only total darkness through the other side of the threshold in which we stood. And I distinctly noticed there was no door attached to this threshold. 

It later dawned on me that Jesus, alone, was my Door between the threshold of life and death. 

From the moment He arrived in my dreams, there was nowhere else I would have rather been. 

Only with Him. 

Alone with Him.

I had no concern for my body in bed or anything else on earth. 

Still, it wasn’t time for me to pass through the threshold with Jesus. 

There were more purposes to fulfill on earth.

So He turned me toward my life here.

And I awakened more convinced.

It was a Philippians 4:19 moment: “I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through the Anointed One, Jesus Christ!” (TPT).

Jesus, the Door of final authority, the Light of the world, lifted me out of pain, healed my body through surgery and resurrected my life at the doorway of darkness to be a light to others. 

He is the Glorious Door to abundant life, on earth as it is in Heaven (John 10:10). 

On this Memorial Day, may you be reminded of our life-giving Lord, who stands in the gap for you and your loved ones daily. 

As a believer in Christ, may you always remember that, because of Him, you will see your saved loved ones again in Heaven. Until then, may your eyes be set upon Him. As you worship Him, may you experience a touch of the same glorious peace, love and power as do those who have gone before you. And as His treasure, may you share your Treasure freely as richness of life . . . to affect nations. 

Amen.

Has Jesus rescued you? If so, please scroll down and share your testimony in the comments section below. To Him be the glory!

“Our God reigns over every nation. He reigns on his holy throne over all” (Psalms 47:8 TPT).

“I have come as a light to shine in this dark world so that all who trust in me will no longer wander in darkness” (John 12:46 TPT)

“Yes, God raised Jesus to life! And since God’s Spirit of Resurrection lives in you, he will also raise your dying body to life by the same Spirit that breathes life into you” (Romans 8:11 TPT)!

“So I, Yahweh, will assign him a portion among a great multitude, and he will triumph and divide the spoils of victory with his mighty ones—all because he poured out his life-blood to death . . . ” (Isaiah 53:12 TPT).

“I have glorified you on the earth by faithfully doing everything you’ve told me to do” (John 17:4 TPT).

This photo was taken on the beautiful grounds of a local hospital, where Glynn and I frequently prayer walk.

This article graciously appeared on Charisma.com Memorial Day, May 27, 2019 under the title, “The Ultimate One You Should Remember This Memorial Day.”