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Grateful Hearts

A couple of weeks ago, during quiet time with our Lord, Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, saying, “Grateful hearts are surrounded by life.”

He revealed to me that He desires to create a lifestyle of gratitude in His people. This involves not only becoming grateful for Him and to Him for what He will do in our lives but to also be grateful for the pathway of surrender that facilitates it.

God is making us aware of our need for Him right now because of the level of risk and reach of abundance that He’s bringing us into (Ps 65:11).

Outward Abundance

This is an expansive give-up-to-go-up way to abundance, where we will begin to experience the outward blessings, while remembering how they came about. And to the extent that it will become a new way of life forward to affect generations. 

Where many have known Him as the God of the impossible in the secret place, they will now know Him as the God of the impossible outward blessing.

He will reframe what His sufferers endured as they listen to Him. He will reveal more of Himself in the midst that may have been missed earlier to help them finally get on top of painful circumstances and lead this outworking of abundance, while continuing to follow Him. 

So, those who have suffered through the laying down of limitations time after time, feeling like all they experienced was suffering after suffering but still holding onto hope for promised goodness they had not seen, will now experience the outward blessing upon blessing. 

Purposed to Build Legacy

God will use them to rebuild legacy. Some of those blessings will involve contracts. 

And there will be such a deep level of gratitude that will propel them onward. Many will experience Amos 9:13 CEB, which confirms that 

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows will overtake the one who gathers, when the one who crushes grapes will overtake the one who sows the seed. The mountains will drip wine, and all the hills will flow with it. I will improve the circumstances of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; and they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they will never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God.

The way there is to surrender more to His will and His ways, seek Him for His wisdom, carefully follow His precepts and do the work at hand.

Release of Unholiness

Holy Spirit revealed to me that He’s finally releasing the ties that interfered with those who walked with Him for so many years—in spirit, in mindset and even in physical proximity. He is severing ungodly ties and establishing new boundaries so all can live freer and more aligned with Him.

Holy Spirit revealed to me that He’s bringing a finality to ungodly co-dependencies that have transgressed beyond their assignments to grow and train others. This is to encourage more dependency on Him. 

He revealed that it’s time to move on past old limitations into a lifestyle of integrity beyond the grasp of what was to live better and far better lives that will bring Him greater glory. 

So, in this season, where alignments will surface into manifestations, God’s people can watch and marvel as He graciously shows up to do that which only He can do as they continue to do what He instructs.

Creating an Honor Society

Holy Spirit revealed to me that He desires to create an “honor society” and that He is building it to reveal Himself to the world as a God of Honor. In doing so, He is inviting us to return to honor and justice. 

He is inviting us to return to the knowledge of Him. To come to know Him as Wonderful Counselor and see justice. To align with Him and come to know Him as Mighty God. 

He is inviting us to interact from a heart of wisdom and impart wisdom to impact society, which requires us to lean into Him (His grace and favor), not on our own understanding (Strong’s #5463).

In a vision, I saw The Lord ask, “Does wisdom sync down?” 

“No,” He said. “Wisdom lifts. Therefore, rise. Come up higher with Me. And access wisdom.” 

Unusual Access

Holy Spirit revealed to me that He is about to give His people unusual access to what’s critical. Many are about to be personally escorted into the most important places. 

This requires that we humble ourselves before God. Turn to Him and watch Him open the doors for us. It won’t be the way others got in. It will be a unique passage that is not open to all. It will be a better way, a protected way, a more direct way and a more honorable way. It will be a passage of authority.

This is one way that God will make a way where there appears to be none. 

These necessary entrances are reserved for those who walk in divinely-purposed assignments. They are not reserved for the masses and are not visible to them. God has aligned workers standing by to show His surrendered ones the way and lead them through to critical points of their destinies. 

Keep Growing & Going

So, faithfully reach for God and keep growing in Him. Keep working what He instructed you to do, even if you have to begin again, knowing better this time around. Even if you have to get creative and work around some obstacles. 

Remember, immature Peter denied Jesus three times and was forgiven each time. Mature Peter became part of Jesus’ inner circle.

We can be encouraged that God has more restoration for us as we progress with Him. He is the God of more than enough (Je 31:14 MSG). And it’s time to overflow with His goodness in our assignments to bring Him more glory in the earth.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, 

Amen. 

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

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Declaration of Grief

During quiet time with our Lord a couple of weeks ago, Holy Spirit showed me this Word-vision (Declaration of Grief) and revealed that some of His people have made declarations of grief over their circumstances, their souls and their lives due to disillusionment of Him. 

These false declarations have been exalted above God and His truth. And they need to be reversed, so those who feel grieved can live out the level of life forward that God desires they receive.

If this is you, God desires to disempower grief in your life by having you choose to illuminate Him, not eliminate Him in your circumstances.

He is the only One who can fix it. So, if you are willing, you don’t have to experience defeat but ascend in victory.

Psalm 119:28 HCSB says, “I am weary from grief; strengthen me through Your word.”

What’s important to understand is that God is not the cause of grief and that, with excessive grief, comes degeneration. It’s one way the enemy tries to steal quality of life from people, and all of it is founded on the lie that you cannot get past it.

Holy scripture tells us in Proverbs 21:23 MSG to “Watch your words and hold your tongue; you’ll save yourself a lot of grief.”

The word “grief” in this verse means distress or straits (Strong’s #6869a). Webster’s defines straits as “a situation of perplexity or distress.” A narrow place with limited resources or space or time; a constricted or tight place. The point here is that we can hem ourselves into a state of grief with our own spoken words, and the more we meditate on them and speak them the worse the situation and our mental health becomes. 

If you’ve ever tried to figure something out or do something or get someplace that was beyond your own ability, you know how frustrating and impossible it feels. But when we turn to God, tap into Him as our Source and hand over our frustration and grief, He offers us unspeakable joy to strengthen us and help us go beyond where we could not go alone. 

This is how it works when dealing with grief. We are to pass through it, not camp there. And God is inviting us up higher in this area. 

1 Peter 1:8 TPT says, “…through believing in him you are saturated with an ecstatic joy, indescribably sublime and immersed in glory.”

The AMPC version calls this joy “inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly).” 

1 Peter 1:8-9 MSG says, “…Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.”

And isn’t Heaven on earth what we ultimately desire?

If you’ve been making declarations of grief over your life, Holy Spirit would have you know that whatever it is that you believe you’ve lost is not lost in God’s Kingdom. Because He designed life itself to be a cycle, not a linear time on earth. 

Plus, God will do the impossible for you if you will only believe, which means to trust Him in His truth and apply it to your own life and situation. Hold onto Him, instead of your trouble (grief). And in fact, humbly lay your trouble at the foot of His cross and entrust Him with it. Because, as long as you hold onto it, it will work against you.

Whatever tight place you believe you cannot get through right now, God will make a way.

Jude 1:24 NIV says, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.”

Excessive grief does not honor God and can actually be an idol. And idols get torn down. Many believe excessive grief attracts demons that try to hold people in a consistent state of grief. This would be a demonic stronghold.

So, we can prevent a lot more trouble coming our way when we willfully surrender it all to God. And the sooner the better. 

He has an amazing year before us, and He desires to help us. So, will you let Him help you?

If so, pray with me . . . 

Dear Lord, 

Thank You for Your Glory-Presence. Thank You for making a way for me to experience Heaven on earth as joy unspeakable. 

I repent of making grief an idol above You and Your way, and I choose to turn to You and lay it down. I renounce all ties with the enemy of my soul and command all ungodly spirits assigned to grief to go in Jesus’ Name.

This day, I choose to honor You by receiving the new life and purpose You have for me. And I entrust You with all that I cannot control. 

Thank You, Lord, for loving me past grief and help me speak life consistently.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, 

Amen. 

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

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Lift Down

A couple of weeks ago, Holy Spirit showed me the Word-vision “Lift down.” In this vision, the letter “i” in Lift was illustrated like an EKG line with the end of the line pointing upward as an arrow. 

At first, to me, this phrase seemed like an oxymoron. But as I sought The Lord for His meaning and looked it up in the dictionary, it began to make sense. 

According to Webster’s, Lift down means “to pick up (something) in order to move it to a lower position.” The example given was lifting a box down from a shelf to the floor.

When I read this, God sparked my spirit that He’s about to lift down His shelved saints for outward use . . . bringing them from that upper shelf, that high place, that upper room of powerful intimacy with Him alone. 

A place reserved for His people to interact with Him for His enjoyment and for their deep transformation and equipping. A pure place, void of distraction and wear. A place of infilling and refreshing. An anointed assignment of “be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10).

But just as it was an inner-chamber time, these lifted down ones are now coming more into the latter part of Psalm 46:10, which is to experience God being exalted among the nations and in the earth. 

Just as many have been switching out seasonal décor and reorganizing their purposed spaces to make room for their new year goals, God is making a spiritual shift in their lives, too.

Holy Spirit impressed my heart that their shelf-life has expired and they are now being renewed outwardly to offer fresh hope and new life to others. 

Interestingly, if you look at the word “shelf,” you will see “he” in the center. If you delete the “h,” in “shelf,” you will see the word “self.” 

The ones who were shelved, were ones who were delivered from self-centeredness and into more of Him. They were made powerful in The Lord, as they were inwardly lifted by Holy Spirit. 

They were held up, close to God’s heart, in intimate reserve for higher purposes. And over time, God made them into uncommon instruments fit for use. 

Now is their season to be repositioned, to lift off into just the right place for them to share more of the blessing God created them to be. 

These saints are purposed to lift the hearts of many. They will bring the strength and beauty of life to saints. They will serve as God’s vessels to see manifest miracles. And nothing less will bring such great joy to their hearts. 

The verse Holy Spirit repeatedly highlighted to me is 2 Corinthians 9:11 TPT, which says, “You will be abundantly enriched in every way as you give generously on every occasion, for when we take your gifts to those in need, it causes many to give thanks to God.”

So, these lifted down ones will live out their life’s purpose in a better place, more aligned with God and those with whom He assigns. 

Regarding these assignments, Holy Spirit revealed to me that there will be a sense of gratitude over that which seemed long gone being reconnected and restored. 

God was working to bring these lifted down ones “there” the whole time. It just took longer for them to get “there.” 

Holy Spirit reminded me to make room for some switch-out alignments in this season for they will surely come. The shift will prove to be better and far better. It will ultimately bring great joy. And for it to happen, one thing must end as one thing comes together. 

These endings are things God is finished with in the best way. Things that have served their higher purpose and are being promoted beyond as well.

If you are one of these lifted down ones, God has been preparing you for this for a long time. He has been working it behind the scenes in marvelous, miraculous ways to bring a holy, full-circle, new-life convergence to go and be “there” to fulfill destiny at just the right time. 

It will all ultimately prove to be a blessing. 

And 2024 is just the beginning of the release. 

I firmly believe we are about to see an uncontainable rain pour for and through these, who were fed by an underground stream for so long. And even as I write this devotion, I see the Words “it cannot be stopped.”

So, Dear Lord, 

Let it be according to Your will and ways. As you lift down your shelved ones, may they bring honor and glory to You and Your Kingdom in the nations and in the earth, all the way to their Heavenly Home. 

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, 

Amen.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

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Trustworthy Him

As we enter into this new year with our hopes and dreams and our goals and purposes, we can remember that God is trustworthy. We can trust that He is with us, He knows what is best for us, He will do what He said He would do and that we and our assignments are valuable to His Kingdom.

Webster’s defines trustworthy as “worthy of confidence” and “dependable.” Strong’s concordance (#4103), defines it as “faithful.” It can also mean “to confirm, support” and to “establish” (#539). It can mean to “build up” to “believe” and to “bring up.”

Psalm 111:7 TPT assures us that “All God accomplishes is flawless, faithful, and fair, and his every word proves trustworthy and true.”

This is good news because we’ll need Him and His perfect guidance to help us all throughout this new year and beyond as He brings His words to pass in our lives. 

For many, this is the year they’ve waited for. It’s the year of the door (on the Hebrew calendar) when they will step out of the old and into the new to begin to receive their big promised breaks. This is not to say, everything will happen in 2024. But it will begin to happen with even more to come in 2025.

By now, you’ve probably experienced some old doors closing, some transitional shifts, some clarity of direction, and God even settling some matters that have weighed on your heart. 

But there’s much more to come as God moves many onward into a whole new beginning that will touch every area of their lives. 

A couple of weeks ago, Holy Spirit revealed that He’s bringing in some “pillars” to help “support” this new reality. In fact, these support pillars are actually “doorposts,” upon which the door is hinged. If you research the word “doorpost,” you’ll find that it’s another definition of the word “trustworthy” (Strong’s #539, Brown-Driver-Briggs)! 

We know that Jesus is our Door. The One who brings a close to divine assignments, including opportunities and relationships, and the One who opens new ones.

So, these support pillars of the Door will be people God will bring into the lives of His faithful ones, who will be assigned as long-standing constants that will believe in them, bring out the best in them and help them rise. They will be strong, stable and secure. They will be established and will function as a gracious resource and even a kind of guardian. They will be dependable, purposed people that God has made trustworthy to help others fulfill their purpose in life. 

And, in some cases, it will mean they will even nurse people back to stability.

This is good news because it means that many are coming into new, strong relationship assignments, some of which may prove surprising. Some of which may even feel like reassignments as God brings in familiar people to be a part of His full-circle, outward blessings.

But even the familiar ones will serve in a new role and purpose for the long-haul that will prove out God’s plan. They will offer a sense of completeness with developed skills and extensive value with many benefits. 

There will also be many entirely new people, as God expands the reach of their missions.

One important element in all of this is to know when to let go of the past while moving forward. A focus on Jesus is imperative, as doing so sets the right trajectory that will hit the mark on time. 

Paul encourages us in Philippians 3:12 TPT by saying, “run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me his own.”

Paul assures us in 1 Thessalonians 5:24 TPT that “The one who calls you by name is trustworthy.”

So, we can depend on God to help us and know that He will bring it to pass. We just need to submit to Him in obedience and follow His lead into the Godly manifestations of His promises for which we have held to faith.

Pray with me if you will . . . 

Dear Lord, 

Thank You for being perfect and faithful. Thank You for Your beautiful plan for my life. 

I invite You to cut the ties in my life that bind me to whatever You are finished with. I choose to move faithfully forward with You into new assignments, according to Your plan for me. 

I forgive and bless everyone in my present and from my past and pray only good things for them. I trust that You love them and will guide willing hearts into Your beauty.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, 

Amen.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

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Gateway In Him

God is favorably converging His faithful ones in divine purpose with others. Those who have walked through the pain of divine alignment with Him are now entering into outward expressions of His promised John 10:10 abundance.

The key verse Holy Spirited highlighted to me was John 10:9 TPT, which says, “I am the Gateway. To enter through me is to experience life, freedom, and satisfaction.”

The Word “Gateway” here literally and figuratively means a door. It represents power and authority with the ability to open and/or close an entrance. It can reference a house door, a palace door, a temple door or a door to the kingdom of Heaven. It can also reference a door of opportunity. 

In this verse, it references an identity of Christ and is “the Name of him who brings salvation to those who follow his guidance” (Thayer’s). 

So, in Him, we find our living passage into all that He is and has purposed for us in abundance. 

In Matthew 7:13-14 TPT He invites us to “Enter through the narrow gate because the wide gate and broad path is the way that leads to destruction—nearly everyone chooses that crowded road! The narrow gate and the difficult way leads to eternal life—so few even find it!”

In verse 13, the TPT study note links the narrow gate with the Golden Rule and says, “Love is the true gateway that leads to life, for God is love.”

We also see in Luke 13:24 TPT that “There is a great cost for anyone to enter through the narrow doorway into God’s kingdom.”

This narrow “door of the kingdom of heaven” is described as “likened to a palace” (Thayer’s).

Holy Spirit said to me weeks ago that “It’s palace time.” So, it’s time to take the arm of our lover, Jesus, as our Bridegroom, and be escorted into His kingdom abundance. 

This is the kind of abundance described in 1 Corinthians 2:9 TPT – “…Things never discovered or heard of before, things beyond our ability to imagine—these are the many things God has in store for all his lovers.”

So, these stored-up treasures are full-circle, rainbow promises that He’s about to fulfill as not only the desire of our hearts but His, too. 

Another key element of this forward holiness process is found in Deuteronomy 7:11, which Holy Spirit highlighted to me weeks ago. In this verse, God says that when we do what He instructs us to do, He will bless us. 

So, the blessings come through obedience in submission to Him. Not in our own way but in His. 

Holy Spirit expands on this precept in Deuteronomy 7:12-13a. The Message version says:

And this is what will happen: When you, on your part, will obey these directives, keeping and following them, God, on his part, will keep the covenant of loyal love that he made with your ancestors:

He will love you,

he will bless you,

he will increase you.

This kind of all-around kingdom abundance that’s found in John 10:10 means whatever is centered around God will be blessed. This is why His bride had to be delivered from self-centeredness, where we considered ourselves first, instead of God. 

It’s also why He had to grow us in our faith that pleases Him and why we had to be delivered from cycles of tormenting root-sin, like unforgiveness. It’s why we had to have our shattered foundations of hope restored. And it was God’s purpose in every other painful reset. 

He was blessing us all along to bless us even more to become an even greater blessing to His heart and others. 

God restores things He loves. 

So, let’s look at this kind of golden gateway blessing even more.

It’s blessing that is all-around excess, beyond what is anticipated, exceeding expectations, more than enough (Strong’s #4053, HELPS Word Studies). It’s superior blessing, extraordinary and surpassing. It’s eminent and comes with advantage and honor. 

For many, this will be a time of refreshing with expressions of His life, freedom and satisfaction. A time of overflowing joy and praise unto God (Ps 118:19) that will prove beyond our imaginations (1 Co 2:9 AMP). It will be a time of radiance (Pr 31:31 TPT). A time of reaping with saturated favor (Pr 11:25 TPT). And a time of coming before the King and being heard to see loved ones saved (Es 5:1-2; Ps 24:4-5 TPT).

The Psalmist in 118:20 TPT proclaims, “I have found the gateway to God, the pathway to his presence for all his devoted lovers.” 

In Revelation 3:20 TPT, Jesus offers Himself as our Bridegroom by saying, “Behold, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come in to you and feast with you, and you will feast with me.”

In Psalm 24:7, David commands, “So wake up, you living gateways! Lift up your heads, you doorways of eternity! Welcome the King of Glory, for he is about to come through you.”

If your response to Him is a resounding “Yes” then pray with me . . .  

Dear Lord, 

I praise You for all that You are, even as my Gateway-Bridegroom. 

Thank You for sharing intimacy with me, for loving me abundantly to become all You would have me be with You for Your glory.

I choose You as my Lord and Savior on earth and in Heaven. 

And I thank You for life abundant.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name,

Amen.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.