2014 - The Year of the Open Door

The Jewish new year, that begins with the feast of Rosh Hashanah in September, having begun in September of 2013, is the year 5774.  Many prophetic voices are hearing and receiving from the Holy Spirit the same message about this new year - "5774 - the Year of the Open Door".  Below is a photo depicting the potential of God's Kingdom purposes and power unlocking new doors of discovery, opportunity and divine surprises held out to us in Christ as we "press on to know the Lord" and "forgetting what lies behind...pressing forward toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus". 

Of course, their is much to be thankful for in our past seasons of life, many blessings from the Father's hand, and much wisdom to be received with gratitude as treasure on our journey forward into new beginnings.  The key is that we can never create a better past; we can learn from it, be enriched by it, but we can never change it or move forward by trying to live in the past.  Some people hold onto idealized versions of their past, some hold onto bitter, hurtful and resentful memories of past experiences and some just can't seem to let go of what's familiar (many times, what's negative, limiting and restrictive) so that they can move on to better days and make life-shaping contributions to the future God has for each of us.

I am convinced that we are all being invited by God into a "future filled with hope".  Of course, this "hope" must be one that proceeds from faith in the promises of a good and faithful, merciful and all-wise and powerful Father who has sent His Son to become the "Hope of all the ends of the earth" - not a human hope, but a supernatural Hope!  We hope in the Love of God; we hope in the promises of God that are all "Yes, and Amen!" in Christ; we hope in the Rulership, Kingship and Government of God over all things that rests upon Christ's shoulders, an ever-increasing Government of Shalom for the world's ills and that we share in as the members of His Body in Heaven and on earth.  

We have been divinely assured by the apostle Paul that "Christ IN us is the HOPE OF GLORY!"  Jesus' Life in us is not one of victimization, intimidation, fearfulness or powerlessness, but the Life that "overcomes the world"!  Christ in us as His people, His members, His glorious Church (ekklesia:  governing assembly) is the source of our hope in the "knowledge of the Glory of God filling the earth as the waters fill the seas"!  This is "a Door standing open in Heaven and a Voice calling us to 'come up Here and I will show you things to come.' "  An eternal perspective, a higher view that always sees brighter tomorrows because we are learning to "wait upon the Lord and MOUNT UP with wings as eagles" and fly on the currents of Heaven's Wind to new places in relationship with the Son...places where we are able to see new spiritual landscapes for our lives and those around us and for the world Christ was born into to redeem.  

Isaiah reminds us in Isaiah 60:  "Arise, Jerusalem!  Let your Light shine for all to see.  For the Glory of the Lord rises to shine on you.  Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the Glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.  All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance...your eyes will shine and your heart will thrill with joy...!"  We don't have to wait until we "go to Heaven" to see these things taking place!  Heaven has already come to earth in the incarnation of our Savior and King and His Light now dwells in us.  We now have the calling to "let our Light shine" in the darkness around us so that explosions of God's Glory may erupt through us around the world to begin the new creation transformation for every aspect of life.  Heaven holds strategies and blueprints for earthly transformation that have yet to be exhausted...Christ is the Hope of the Nations and we are carriers of that Hope; a Hope that can heal, deliver, redeem, make new, inspire, release powerful signs, wonders and demonstrations of God's Kingdom manifesting on earth.

Yes, there are appointed, set times in God's plans and purposes and I believe with all my heart that you and I are living in one of those appointed, set times and that our Father is setting before each of us "an open Door", which no man can shut.  Let us arise from the things that have hurt, disappointed or opposed our hope, let us arise from our mistakes and battle fatigue and SHINE in this new year, "for the GLORY OF THE LORD rises to shine upon YOU!"  By faith, with thankful hearts, let us step into our future, God's future for us, and take hold of it with praise and bring it with all its promise and purpose into our present.  For us, as God's sons and daughters, the future is NOW!  We have seen it and it looks like Jesus Christ our Lord and He has made us all "partakers of the powers of THE AGE TO COME" (Heb. 6:5) - NOW!  What will we do with what the new birth in Christ has released in us?  Will we cooperate with the future bleeding backward into our time and lives through the operation of the Holy Spirit?  Will we, with our Lord's beloved Mother, say "YES!  I am the Lord's servant; So be it unto me as You have said!"...and will we allow, hunger and yearn for the Holy Spirit to come upon us anew and the power of the Most High to overshadow us so that He can give birth through us to a new and redeemed future for the world we live in?  

One final thought:  one translation of II Corinthians 5:17 says, "if anyone is in union with Christ a NEW WORLD HAS BEGUN!  The old things have passed away and the new has come!"  May your year, may our time, see 2014 as a pivotal year in God's plan and purpose for each of us, our families, our neighborhoods, our cities, our nations; for small keys can open large doors.  May this be the Year of the Open Door to the glory of God the great Three in One!  Amen.

From Ravens to Camels - Shifting From Surviving to Thriving

 This is your time to shift from "Ravens to Camels":

God is shifting his people from surviving to thriving.  

A ‘Raven' situation is looking for a one-time miracle that reminds you that you are still in famine.   Example: as Elijah the prophet experienced at the brook Kerith and with the widow of Zarephath during the famine of 3 years he had decreed by the Word of the Lord.   Ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening and he drank from the brook.   Eventually, that provision dried up and the Lord directed Him to Zarephath to a widow (someone not of Israel-God's covenant people) through whom He also provided bread miraculously, both for Elijah and the widow and her son, for the rest of the famine.

A ‘Camel' situation is looking for a long-term solution for you and those around you where we learn to draw from "the Bank of Heaven", God's riches in glory provided for us in Christ, through which He supernaturally supplies every need we face.    A 'Camel' situation is a long-term solution because camels move together in long caravans through desert places; BUT!   those camel caravans are always loaded down with an abundance of varied items, foods, goods, valuable treasures and gifts that stretch throughout the long caravan.  

God our Father is offering 'camel' solutions that will take us into provision that is ongoing, developing, increasing, abundant and full of variety and which stretches out long-term across any and every desert time or survival mentality that surrounds us.    God is asking each of us as His children to look at what He has placed in us and to ask Him how to practically begin to develop, explore, step out in faith and attempt to use the various gifts He has created us with.    Other items in the 'caravan' may be relationships, connections, experiences, ideas (flowing by inspiration from the Mind of Christ in us) and the experiences and discoveries others have made in similar situations.

Listen for God's voice in all the areas of interaction, communication and interest He brings across your path...you just might be staring a camel in the eye that is loaded

A Presence in the World

“It can only be that God begins in a small way at one single place in the world. There must be a place in the world – visible, tangible – where the salvation of the world can begin; that is, where the world becomes what it is supposed to be according to God’s plan. Beginning at that place, the new thing can spread abroad, but not through persuasion, not through indoctrination, not through violence. Everyone must have the opportunity to ‘come and see’. All must have a chance to behold and test this new thing. Then, if they want to, they can allow themselves to be drawn into the history of salvation that God is creating. Only in that way can their freedom be preserved. What drives them to the new thing cannot be force, not even moral pressure, but only the fascination of a world that is changed.” Gerhard Lothenk.

A Major Shift and Acceleration

There is a major SHIFT and acceleration happening in the hearts of many across the globe and among every expression of Christ's followers. There is a greater convergence happening in a fresh way than what we have understood in our journey to this point...the convergence between Heaven and earth, the blurring of the boundaries, of entering beyond the veil into the Most Holy Place through the new and Living Way! 

There is a Door standing open in Heaven and an invitation to "Come up here and I will show you things...". I believe we are beginning to see the fulfillment of what many have discussed and agreed on about Christianity in the west in the 21st century surviving and thriving only if all followers of Jesus SHIFT into becoming mystics - those who through desperate spiritual hunger, desire and faith can engage with and encounter the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the unseen realms of the Kingdom of Heaven and there be taught how to shape nations and see a major global harvest movement of the Spirit that will bring transformation. Isaiah 2, Micah 4 and Acts 2! Much love!!!

Heaven Rules!

In the book of Daniel, the prophet and seer contained in the Scriptures, there is recorded the account of him being called before king Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to interpret a dream and vision of the night that had terrified the king. As you'll remember, the dream had to do with pride and human kingdoms not acknowledging Heaven's rule over the affairs of men.

It was decreed that the king would lose his sanity and his kingly rule until he realized and acknowledged that "Heaven rules - the King of Heaven rules - over all human kingdoms and He gives them to whom He will."  The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians mentions in the second chapter that the "wisdom of this world is foolishness to God" and that "if the rulers of this age had realized the truth of who Jesus was, they would never have crucified the King of Glory".  

It seems more and more clearly in our day that the rulers of this age have, as King Nebuchadnezzar in his time, lost their sanity and have made a basic travesty of their kingly - or, political - rule in the name of pride, power and position.  The global fragmentation of the world's peoples through the rhetorical agendas being proclaimed over media airwaves, print and internet have become an increasingly threatening form of insanity which lulls the world to sleep or angers those who feel powerless to do anything about it while deeper and darker forces exert their numbing influences on the thinking of the "teeming masses".

The King of Heaven, the great Creator, Ruler and Sustainer of all life revealed in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, has also begun to exert His own divine and heavenly influences among the nations in hearts that are crying out for MORE of His reality to be made manifest in the ordinary affairs of everyday people and increasingly desperate conditions.  There are those who, like Daniel of old, are being taught and shown the unseen realities of another realm from which Jesus Christ descended into our humanity by means of conception and birth through the womb of a Virgin.  These men and women are mostly unknown to the "rulers and powers of this age", but are most well-known in the courts of Heaven.  Learning through prayer, deep hunger and desire and faith based in the revelation of the interaction of Heaven and earth found in Scripture, these "weak and foolish" ones are the very ones that the Spirit of God seems to be training with wisdom from the courts of Heaven to make a transforming difference in the affairs of earth in our time.

May we learn that foundational and critical lesson in our own lives, nations and times and agree in a humble and cooperative spirit, for our times are crying out for men and women with true wisdom like Daniel...not the worldly and prideful pseudo-wisdom of the rulers of this age!

"God's mercies are new every morning and His compassions fail not!"

Solitude is the furnace of authentic formation of the soul and sense of being; solitude with ourselves and God's loving and living Presence takes us to a place of transformation of true vision for what life is meant to be, rather than having that dictated to us by the society around us - a wandering and rootless society, not centered in authentic self-knowledge and a personal connection with and knowledge of the love and Truth of God our Maker and Savior and which shapes a very shallow vision of what can be. The inner journey into our true selves found in communion with our Friend and Rescuer, Jesus of Nazareth - the Eternal Word and Son of our Creator Father - releases us from the false self the world has told us we are. We are listening to the wrong voices! That's why solitude is so vital; so we can hear "the sounds of Silence" and allow the One who is Love and Truth to show us, speak to us, and heal us so that the true self, we've been created to be and to become can begin to emerge and come out into the light of Day.

This true self, this new self, serves as a compass for our living in the midst of a wondering, wandering, aimless generation whose only reality is material, but whose hearts long in the silent moments for something More; something deeper, more satisfying, more substantial and more lasting. It takes courage to journey into solitude and meet with God face to face and heart to heart; to face the fears, the pains, the uncertainties that we so desperately try to avoid and deny and drown out with busyness, constant activity, noise and other forms of medication. Gather your courage, call out to the One who loves you and made you for a larger Life and ask Him to meet you in the silence and talk to you about the Larger Story your life is meant to inhabit and live in; where you find out who you really are and who He really is. Listen! He's calling......

Advent Longings