Overcomer

What is the prophetic – (Part 2) – Gary Florence

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Let’s pick up where we left off on part 1.

Ananias had a choice to make he could have looked through his natural eyes and the circumstances surrounding Saul and what was happening to the church and declared to him “You are a lying good for nothing murderer” and you know what, in the natural he was speaking the truth but Ananias allowed the Lord to open his spiritual eyes instead and heard the Lord say to him, “Go for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel”.

We too have choices to make, we could look through our natural eyes and circumstances surrounding people and declare to them “You are nothing but sinners all you do is sin, sin, sin!” Or could we allow the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes and call out the hidden treasures that God has placed in each one of us? Later on Saul, who is now named Paul, says that prophecy is to encourage, edify, and build up. He also said I wish that all of you would prophecy. I just have to wonder if one of the reasons Paul wrote that is because of the impact the prophetic word from Ananias had on his life.

The prophetic word has the ability to change someone’s life for the positive. You may one day be called upon by the Lord to be an Ananias to someone that in the natural there is nothing you can see in them being used by God that would have an impact on the world. They may even be in sin, but do you dare to allow your eyes to see into the spirit and call forth the Paul in them. Let me put a challenge before you and me, those of us who may have the gift of prophecy what if we decide to choose the prophetic to encourage, edify, and build up? To call forth from a person the hidden treasure within them because each and everyone one of us has God given talents, abilities and gifting’s and allow the ones who have been called to the office of the Prophet to call forth the judgments of God when it’s necessary. What kind of impact could we have on people’s lives if we decided to rise to this challenge?

In our mouth’s we have the power of life and death, together let’s choose life. Here’s something for you to think about. Our founding fathers and mothers, did they not also prophesy over our nation when the declared that we would be “One nation under God.”?

The next time we get together I am going to share on a topic that can be controversial and push a lot of people’s button and that is should women keep silent in the church? Do you have your buttons ready?

Sound of Thunder – Part 4 – Karen Austin

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Sound of Thunder – Part 4

I’m going to reveal Myself to My people in a way that has not been seen for a long, long time upon this earth. I am coming in visitation to those that I will call to lead My people. And I will impart and empower them to move beyond where they think that they could ever go and accomplish. For I will be the wind in your sail. I will lift you up and I will move you here and I will take you there. Yield your life to Me, not just your heart, but your life. Whoever loves his life will lose it. But I say that I will add to your life. I will add increase. My people are going to walk in a measure of peace and prosperity and joy in this hour. The joy that passes all understanding. That peace that passes all understanding shall be yours.

But you must spend time with Me. Guard what you see. Guard what you hear. Guard what you read. For they are but mere man and have man’s opinion. Man’s wisdom will not cut it in these days that we’re coming into. It will be the wisdom of God that will be made manifest to the principalities and the powers.

There is a strengthening, an empowering coming to the sons and the daughters. the mature ones. They will be as Samson in the world. But they will not be deceived, because they will remain in the secret place. There will be times that My Spirit will come upon you that you feel as they did in the days of old, that they could leap over a wall and run with a troop. But do not say “I am old. I am weak. I am tired.” Because this day will require supernatural strength and I am your supernatural God! I will supply everything that you have need of. The days of the miracles and the signs and the wonders are about to be poured out and released. And the miracles will be multiplication of food, multiplication of water. Everything that you will have need of will be provided.

What is the prophetic? (Part 1) – Gary Florence

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I am sure that there are as many answers as there are questions to this topic. We may think of prophecy as one foretelling the judgments of God, like in the Old Testament or Jesus telling Nathaniel that He saw him sitting under a tree before they even met. So in this day and age who’s voice do we listen too? There are those voices who say that the judgments of God are coming to American. Like California is going to detach from the U.S. and drift out to sea and perish because of Hollywood. Then you have other voices claiming that a kind of like utopia is on the horizon. I am not writing to side with one or the other, what I would like to do is take you down the road to Damascus where a man named Saul was about to encounter THE Prophetic Word.

Saul was on his way to kill the Way (Christians) when he was knock off his high horse by the prophetic light of Christ. Many times we call out sin and judgment in one another lives but what would happen if we decided to call out one another’s treasure of destiny that God has placed within each of us. Next time we will found out what choice Ananias made when he came to Saul at the house on Straight Street.

Will you believe the lie? – Gary Florence

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Several months ago I was sitting in church and out of nowhere I heard within side of me “You have no voice.” I knew it was a lie but it was so convincing and felt so real that I allowed it to silence me. If we believe a lie long enough it can become truth to our emotions. Week after week I would go and just be quiet not saying anything, then about 3 weeks ago I heard “If you will humble yourself under God’s arm in His timing He will lift you up.” I kept hearing this verse over and over then one day I believed the Lord said to me “You need to humble yourself and ask your church family for help.”

I grew up in a culture that asking for help was a sign of weakness. When I was younger and played sports I remembered when I would get hurt my coach would say things like “shake it off” or “rub some dirt in it.” So finally at our home group last week I shared with them what was going on in my life and asked them for help. They gathered around me and prayed and spoke words of encouragement and broke the lie off of me. Your breakthrough may be found in a little word like “help”.

There are people all around you that need to hear your voice. You may come in contact with a mother who has had one of those weeks, where all she has done is wiped snot from her child’s nose and cleaned up dirty diapers and she is wondering is there more to life than this. Is this what God has called me do to and you could be that voice to remind her of her destiny and to encourage her. There may be someone who is trying to make ends meet and pay a mortgage and put food on the table. Your voice may be just what they need to hear at that moment. Will we allow a lie in our life that tells us we have no voice and to be silent or will we allow truth spoken from someone else because we have humbled ourselves and asked for help so we in turn may speak words of truth and encouragement to someone else?

Yes you and I have a voice. So if you see yourself in me and that your voice has been silenced ask the Lord if He desires you to humble yourself and ask for help from your brothers and sisters in Christ and then see what He is about to do in your life and the lives of those around you waiting to hear your voice again.

Everlasting Love – Karen Austin

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“Tell My people that I love them with an everlasting love. My love is no greater for them when they are in a season of blessing than in a time of warfare and transition. My love is a constant of which they can always be sure!

The enemy of their soul tries to persuade with his lies to doubt My love for them. Tell My people if they continue in My love and always remain steadfast, assured of My love, they will always come out victorious. For their faith works by love and being confident in My love for them [Galatians 5:6]. I have done all that is necessary for their victory through the greatest sacrifice I could make – My very own Son.

Forget not all that was done for you. Because of love, He left the place of glory to come to a sin filled earth. Because of love, the sick were healed and the possessed were delivered. Because of love, the beating, taunting and scourging was endured. Because of love, even as the very drops of His blood was pour out – love was crying out “Father, forgive them”. Love is the basis for all that I do. Nothing will ever change the love I have for you.

Journal entry 12/8/15 (to be continued).

“For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries[s] as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.” 1 Corinthians 12-13 TPT

Where will this battle find you?

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stand upThe world is turning faster than we can keep up with it. At times, we aren’t even sure if we can keep our balance with all the turmoil that surrounds our lives. The world’s view of relationships, especially marriage, is becoming skewed at best. Divorce rates in the body of Christ are at an all-time high, and we as the church have no one to blame but ourselves. We are allowing the enemy of our souls to rip the very fabric of our vows of matrimony apart at the seams. Marriage is no longer viewed as something sacred or something to be cherished. It’s a checklist of possibilities that no longer hold any value in the culture of today. We laugh away divorce as though it’s no more valuable than a stick of gum or a penny we find on the street. We aren’t concerned anymore about the likelihood that we will find a lifelong mate, in whom we can place our trust, our devotion, and, more importantly, our heart. Why is this? Why aren’t we fighting for our marriages?

Putting things into perspective, though, I can say that my wife and I have been close to being casualties of this war against marriages. This battle has been a long and sometimes very brutal conflict, which has led to the death of many marriages and relationships in Christ. The enemy is constantly trying to rip marriages apart, for one of the foundations of our faith is really based on marriage to Jesus, and an understanding of what it means to be a bride as it pertains to the body of Christ, awaiting her bridegroom, who is Jesus.  We watch with jaded eyes as our young people are being manipulated by the concepts and precepts of this world, who themselves are embracing a Hellenistic society where everything is permissible, and the idea of “living for the day” is being recited in volume that can’t be hushed by standing by and doing nothing.  We are losing, plain and simple. We are losing a battle that should be easily won. We are losing because we want to lose. We don’t want to fight anymore. We have become so exhausted from the trials of our own lives that we aren’t willing to fight for the next generation because the scars on our backs are too deep and too painful.

There is hope, though; there is always hope.  J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “Even Darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out all the clearer.”

Our light into the darkness is the fire of Christ that burns within each one of us, the light of hope and the light of glory. We aren’t alone by any stretch of the imagination, unless we want to be. Why do we choose to be alone? Because we have allowed ourselves to fall sway under the influence of many possible reasons. Shame, guilt, condemnation, fear, and the list is endless as to what may influence our choices to stand and fight as a congregational team, or stand and fall as an army of one. In the past, I have often thought, “I don’t need anyone else, I can do this on my own.” That, my friend, is a lie, plain and simple, a lie we tell ourselves daily. Either we are choosing to make wrong decisions, or we are being influenced by the power of the air, or really both.

We will struggle in this lifetime; we will struggle as Christians. For us to believe anything different is to believe in a doctrine of demons. This new wave of prosperity Christianity is robbing God of His glory and robbing the believer of the true power of Jesus. Why would James write the following scripture?

James 1:2-4 “2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Our faith must and will be tested. Our marriages will be tested, our relationships will be tested. Our belief system will be tested. Everything in our lives will be tested, so that through this testing, our faith will be established in Jesus, and not in our own strength. We cannot and will not allow this world to catch us off balance! We will stand and fight the accuser of our souls and the enemy of our Lord. We must war for the salvation of our children and our grandchildren. This isn’t a choice, this is a mandate. Do not let the blood be on your hands because you sat and did nothing, when God in His word warns us. Stay with me, folks, don’t let me lose you, for scripture will always speak in ways that man cannot.

Ezekiel 33:1-6

33 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

Simply put, if we who know the truth, and the truth is Jesus, and his scriptures are His words, if we sit and do nothing, then the blood of the lost and the broken will be on our hands. If we do not warn those who have fallen sway under the power of darkness, we will answer for not heeding the trumpet call of the Lord.

Is there someone that you know needs your prayers? Pray for them. Is there a co-worker who you know is distraught and struggling? Ask the Lord to give you the words of comfort to speak. Is there a marriage, or better yet, is your marriage breaking apart before your eyes? Stop fighting one another, swallow your hurt, your pride, and your shame, and seek the Lord together. Has your life become cold and lonely? Do not fret and do not fear, because my friend, you are not alone in this fight. The body of Christ will stand with you. The Lord of Hosts will stand with you. I will stand with you. Believe in prayer, believe in scripture, most of all, believe in Jesus, the lover of our souls and the Redeemer of our spirits.