Wake up from Your Sleep!!!

"Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.

Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times"!

http://www.ephesians5-11.org

Originally posted to Facebook - Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 8:44am

Word of the Year for 2009: Victory

I've gotten more confirmations in the last 12 hours, the word for 2009 is: Victory.

I was just watching a prior taped watch night service from this New Years Eve from Kingsway International Christian Centre in London, England, and their entire stage was decorated like a battle field and their worshipers and dancers were all dressed in camouflage. I saw the military stance in full force. But there was no somberness, they were dancing and celebrating having the victory. I just think the military imagery is really interesting. It's just further confirmation of what I have been hearing, and the impressions I've been getting from the Lord about the body of Christ rising up as the Army of God this year more than ever. With the result of that being walking in total victory, wholeness, health and strength.

I have gotten my scripture for this year as well. I was brooding over the scriptures, and asking for the scripture to back up this sense I was getting, and when this happens, I pray and open my Bible randomly and ask God to lead me to a passage, but my Bible is so marked up with highlighter and post it tabs that it often flips to key passages that have been important for me in the past, or in recent times, so I have to close it again, and try and try again. Finally last night it happened, and I was blown away.

Here it is: 1 Corinthians 15: 50-58

Our Final Victory

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “ O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Now, while the primary meaning of this passage refers to the last victory over death, we see in verse 56 that we can have victory over death now by defeating sin, because sin is death, and the strength of sin is the law, but Christ has come to free us from the law, and hence, to free us from the power of sin and of death. We are now under Grace, not law, so we are free, and have victory over death, and victory over sin, which brings death. Original sin brought physical death into human reality, but it also brought spiritual death, which Christ, the second Adam, has now freed us from. We have been given the power of having an incorruptible spirit through Christ. We have victory over spiritual death in the here and now, not just later, in the rapture, or when our mortal bodies are traded for immortal ones upon physical death. This victory spoken of has more than one dimension. Victory can be claimed now.

This victory can also be claimed in the body. Death also speaks to decay, disease, destruction; also brought on by original sin, and by the attacks of the enemy. As John 10-11 says: The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.comes to steal, kill and destroy. So we know, the enemy only brings death, God gives Life.

So, when it gets difficult, our exhortation here is that our labor is not in vain, victory is already ours!

Originally posted to Facebook - Friday, January 2, 2009 at 3:20pm

In 2009 I see the army of God rising up & taking authority

I am going to elaborate on this later, but I need to get this out now. Within the last 12 hours or so, something dropped into my spirit for 2009. It was a sense of something for myself, but I've since gotten two confirmations (from two different sources) that it may be for more of the body of Christ than just myself, so I'm gonna slap it up here in rough form right away.

This is the year of walking in victory. This is the year when we say enough is enough, we get serious about the authority we have in Christ and start using it. This is the year we become warriors, on an entirely new level. And the paradox is, while we are totally suited up for battle, and we have all of our armor on, we are also totally aware that it is God that goes before us, fights for us, and is our standard bearer. What we do is stand our ground in the authority we have in Christ. We throw down the gauntlet, but he fights the war. We do put on the whole armor of God, as in Ephesians 6, but we also know that ultimately, it is not our strength that will win the fight, and that all those pieces of armor are empowered by God, He is fighting on our behalf even then.

This is a year of identity. If you don't know who you are in the Spirit by now, you will fully get it this year. You will come into Divine revelation of your identity in Christ. The things the world has put on you will start falling off. If there are remaining lingering elements from your past that have clung to you, those will now get their final eject from your soul. Your identity will start to refine even more, as more of the dross burns off. The things that once had you bound will have no power over you. When you start to walk in your full identity, and claim your complete authority in Christ, nothing can stand against you and win.

I'm not saying that there won't be any trouble, trial, temptation, or things from the past that may try to get in your face, I'm not saying there won't be any other forms of spiritual warfare and that we'll all be floating around on a Glory cloud 24/7, but what I am saying is your default setting when anything comes against you in the Spirit realm will be: "Excuse me? do you know who you are dealing with? I'm a child of the most high God!" You won't react in any form or fear or worry, but rather kind of laugh in the enemy's face and think, wow, you are really gonna have a bad day picking a fight with me.

This is the year we put the enemy to flight. We're on the offensive now. No more whining and whimpering. No more being pushed around by a puny little sniveling punk. I've had enough of this little napoleon complex runt beating up on my friends, family, churches, ministries, and myself. I am filled with righteous indignation and everything within me is saying rise up and conquer!

I hear the call of the Warrior Bride, and it's the call I am answering for this year. The battle is the Lord's, but I am suiting up in my armor, and I will be ready to do my part; to know who I am in Christ, to embrace my identity, lay claim to my inheritance, and take hold of my authority.

I am part of the army of God and I am the warrior bride who gets to take time off from battle to rest against my beloved at the wedding feast, and I take pleasure in both these things, because there is a love war going on, and I intend to win.

Originally posted to Facebook - Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 10:02am

What does First Fruits look like on an individual level?

Of course when speaking of the principal of giving God our first fruits, it's not just about monetary offerings. It's also a reminder to be very intentional about how we spend the first part of the year. Obviously we want to give God every day of the year, 365, but there is a special emphasis placed on the first month of the new year. We want to consecrate the new year to the Lord. That is practicing the principal of first fruits as well. By that dedication, we are very deliberately saying "I give you this year God."

For me, it means giving the first, and best of everything I have to Him, because the first will govern the rest. I intend to spend this first month establishing a new foundation with God to lead me into the new year. To make sure I give him the first and best of everything I have, be it time, attention, finances, talents, gifts, or anything else. I have already begun to spend the first few hours of every day with him (which is a switch for me as a night person). I just intend to let the Spirit guide me in giving God my First Fruits this month, and I'll keep you posted if I receive any revelations worthy of sharing with you all.

*Oh also, I just want to seek Him like crazy. I wanna get on my face and see what He has to say to me. I want to know the plans and purposes He has laid out for me this year, and that's going to take time in His presence, and so I intend to set aside as much time as I possibly can from "the outer world" and go into His Chambers. I just know the responsibilities of life will be tugging on my sleeve, but I will take as much time as I can away from it all to be alone with Him.

Originally Posted to Facebook - Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 6:40am

Reminder for the New Year: First Fruits

Deuteronomy 26:1-15 (New King James Version)

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

1 “And it shall be, when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,
2 that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.
3 And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the LORD your[a] God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’
4 “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.
5 And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God: ‘My father was a Syrian,[b] about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
6 But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.
7 Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.
8 So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.
9 He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”;[c]
10 and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O LORD, have given me.’
“Then you shall set it before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.
11 So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.
12 “When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled,
13 then you shall say before the LORD your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.
14 I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me.
15 Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”’[d]

Footnotes:

1. Deuteronomy 26:3 Septuagint reads my.
2. Deuteronomy 26:5 Or Aramean
3. Deuteronomy 26:9 Exodus 3:8
4. Deuteronomy 26:15 Exodus 3:8

Originally posted to Facebook - Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 6:25am