Created from the dust //

There is a lot of dust in the air after the election. No surprise, but what to do from here? The only way this much dust settles is with rain. 
Church that hears, hear. Church that is asked for help, I praise God for you because you won't turn that person away with a well wish. Church that sees, I thank God for you because you won't turn away and forget what you've seen. Church whose mind is on heavenly things, now is the time to bring heaven to earth -- it's always the time.

Snapshots of our country may look different to different hearts. You may see a community in mourning. Perhaps you see a people emboldened to speak as crudely as they desire because it's been modeled for them by the incoming senior leader of our nation. You could see chaos and hate and fear. Maybe you see a bunch of people overreacting and being pouty, entitled, and childish in their passionate outbursts. You might see your enemy and walk around watching your back in ways you never felt you had to before. The differences in sight yield differences in response. Protests, beatings, tears, caution, rolling eyes, praying Jesus comes back. Church, we have to say what WE see -- what the Father sees, what we see by His Son's Spirit in us -- and we have to respond the way He is responding.

He sees dust. He sees humanity that's separated from Him and the death and the pain and the terror and the destruction they live in because of it. He so desperately wants to embrace and cover and shield and fill and forgive and bless... He wants to resurrect every last soul -- the crying ones and the scoffing ones and the ones looking the other way. What looks like the Devil's time, God just sees as His time to shine. Church, He is here, right now, more than He even was in the flesh because now His Spirit is in ANYONE who believes that His death and resurrection counted for them 100% and is theirs for free. He is all over the place. We have eyes that see beyond what the world sees all around. We have ears to hear what our Daddy God is singing over this heart-broken and twisted world. We ARE His Body, all over the earth, and He has taught us how to do what He would do -- to love. See, step out, reach over, listen, respond with truth in love, worship in spirit and truth, overcome evil with good, put a hand on the sick and see them recover, raise the dead, speak life, call forth destiny.

All these dear, dear people with different eyes to see are created to be children of light and we are in their lives to help them know that. They have spirits behind them that are ugly but they don't need to be feared because all of them have been put under our feet, we have authority over all of them (not the people, the spirits influencing them). That doesn't mean acting as exorcists all over our friends and family and coworkers and social media connections, and if you've done that in faith God bless you, we are all learning, but we go on the offensive against the devil and we go after the very people he is wreaking havoc in and through. They don't know what they are doing, Church. They are literally yelling out in the streets for love, and we are the first-responders of heaven. I believe there are seeds of Good News already planted in all these hearts, just waiting to be watered and helped along. God is gracious to us, His Church. It's come to the point that the lost are literally seeking and ready to find, they are crying out and expecting a response, they are desperate for hope. We have it. We were made for this purpose: to administer Christ's reconciliation to all. The ones cursing their brothers and the ones seeking refuge and justice.

I don't believe this is the time that the true Church in America will go underground. I believe this is going to call them out of their places of preparation and hiding and into the destiny on their lives: to live as servant-Kings and Queens. This is the time of the Esther's who speak UP for life when it's the most risky to their own lives. (That does not mean just being pro-life and defending your position against the candidate that was pro-choice and calling that fighting for life. It means seeing the girl who wants to have an abortion and loving her to life, being willing to be spent on her behalf even if the only thanks you get is literally spit in your face.) This is the time of the Daniel's who do the right thing in secret and get exposed and targeted for it and become an undeniable testimony of the favor of God on His kids when they are submissively attacked and not only survive but come back with only blessing for those who tried to harm them. This is the time of the David's coming out of a season of being hunted to have their calling destroyed and stepping into that calling with a band of the world's outcasts who have become the mightiest of lovers and warriors and go on to serve and lead many, and see victory after victory over anything that comes against. (That isn't people of a sinful lifestyle "coming against" you in your holy lifestyle, but the devil and his armies coming against you the anointed child of God and your brothers and sisters in the Church who are walking in their high calling and tirelessly driving them out of long-held territory.) This is the time of the early Church filled with the Spirit and compelled out into the streets and to all the world with the power of God for emancipation from sin to all those that believe, those willing to suffer for this Good News knowing that no one can believe unless they hear and it's worth the cost of our own life to spread the news as far as possible. Remember that every single one of these was under the leadership of corrupt governments and honored those ruling, while being governed by God's authority. I truly believe that THIS is the time of a great revival.

God saw dust and He made something beautiful and deeply beloved out of it: man. We're made in His image. We too are hard-wired to see the dust and not just know the full potential for holiness in it, but to draw it out. 

Let it rain, Spirit pour out on all flesh, settle the dust that's filling the air with your overwhelming embrace, but let that water flow out of our bellies as you said it should. Out of us, Church, will flow rivers of LIVING water. And anyone who drinks this water [receives forgiveness freely offered and life fully given] will never thirst [from a place of death be so parched for just a drop of life] again. (Acts 2:17, John 7:38, John 4:14)

Please see my previous post for more on this time.

This Year's Election //

This Election year has been unlike any I've seen. I've never wholly agreed with a candidates policies but this year has felt rigged to me from the start. I remember that the media was projecting Hilary and Trump to be the nominees for the year back at the very start of the races. I know so few people, Christian and non-Christian alike, who legitimately want to vote for either candidate that I don't truly believe that they were America's top picks. Either way they're the picks we have and my theory is that God has a desire of who should be in leadership for the following few years. The candidates' lives don't reflect one's of favor with God so getting to know His heart on this election has certainly been one found in the secret place with Him alone, not through "popular opinions" or any other voice. The right to vote isn't one to take for granted, still I can't bring myself to vote for either party. I'm not clear on who God would have me vote for. I am clear on a few things though. >>

Corrupt leaders do not tie God's hands or strip Him of His authority. There are spirits behind everything and our battle isn't against people but the rulers in spiritual places. A Prince has reigned in this earth since the Fall of man and his keys were stripped of Him by Jesus. The Kingdom has been coming on earth as it is in heaven ever since. Those left with authority over corruption in the earth? The Church -- individual born-again children of God all over the earth.

Jesus loves terrorists, prostitutes, and war lords. He loves Trump, He loves Hilary. All sinners are enemies of God and He has always loved His enemies. The saints are wired to do the same. He loved his enemies so much that He sacrificed Himself just for the chance at being reunited in purity and intimacy with every one of them. As His kids we have been commissioned to carry that invitation to all, not to argue politics or to be a religious people ready to throw stones. And, regardless of the leader, we are always meant to pray for them.

You are for the One true God, or you are against Him. He isn't against you, clearly He is for you, but there is a law and order set up that holds consequences for sin (separation now and for eternity from Love Himself). All of humanity is in one of these two camps: sinner -- separated from God, or saint -- one with God. There are sinners who know that they are sinners and sinners who think they can work out redemption for themselves, these are the religious people and today they're known by most as "good" people. There are also saints who know they are saints -- that sin is forever removed from them and they live free, in unity with God, and with purpose to represent Him in the earth and lead others to this same reconciliation with Him -- and there are saints who don't know they are saints because they've believed the religious people who tell them they can never get free except maybe if they try really hard, they don't realize that apart from God it's impossible to please Him and that as a saint they are already fully pleasing to God. The saints are the Church, the Body of Christ, and they carry the authority to bring life in place of death, healing in place of brokenness, peace in place of chaos, and freedom in place of bondage. If they will rise up and walk in God's favor by faith all this will happen. Jesus in us, that's the Holy Ghost, is the hope of glory -- not a good choice of candidate to vote into leadership of our fleeting government.

Throughout history we see corrupt leaders of corrupt nations be humbled, we also see corrupt leaders over the children of God be counseled and aided by righteous men (the Old Testament version of a saint, those in right standing with God by faith before the Holy Spirit was given to all who believe in Jesus) who either choose humility or are humbled. Tests, trials, tribulation, trouble, these and more have served to humble leaders and nations throughout all of time. We are in for some. This is good news! It is a mercy for all those separated from God and it is meant to be considered as pure joy, something to celebrate, by the saints because these things serve to strengthen and refine our faith -- which is more valuable than the richest treasures found in the earth. The hard times are the times when a saint's life shines brightest, they're the unshaken ones when everything in life is shaken. So we're coming up on some hard times? Bring it on! I'm excited for us. We're going to grow so much in understanding, in the deepest places of us, His goodness and power and favor for those who believe -- remember that's the open invitation to the world thanks to the Resurrection.

Only saints who don't know they are saints will fear for their children's future with these coming times. I'm expectant for our children's future -- those raised in faith and those that will come to faith in these testing times. Shining as light in the midst of darkness, holiness in the midst of crooked ways and corruption, we are living beacons of hope and encounters of life in the world. We should expect certain persecution but be grateful when it comes, receive it like a gift, because our Lord suffered as well when He came with the invitation to life, now and forever, and complete freedom from sin and its consequences, and He endured it because of the joy ahead of possible reunion with even just one person. I believe we are going to leave nothing but an excellent example of resurrection from death for our children and the greatest inheritance -- the riches of all that Jesus is. It's a great time to be alive and having kids.

God can handle any fear that you may have regarding the future so don't be ashamed to bring it to Him. Just know that His way is to remove that fear from you by your encountering his almighty, grave opening, sin removing, saint birthing, Satan defeating love. Go to Him with it all. Leave it with Him and walk ahead with His freedom and wholeness and wealth and security. He is faithful and He is not finished with all He began here. We're going from glory to glory. The best is yet to come. There's a Kingdom to advance, Good News to share, and a Good Father to know. Praise Him!