Voices! Voices! Voices! Who do we listen to? With so many opinions, ideologies, and options being shouted at us … we had better make certain which voices we let into our hearts & minds. We need to be willing to look beyond the common party line noise being shouted at us day and night. Telling us to obey, to be afraid, to stay in our houses, to wear masks, fear our neighbors and friends, to demand social justice. Don’t touch, don’t get close, don’t breathe, or participate in life. We cannot allow these voices to control our narratives, beliefs, and actions. All the while we say “we trust God – He will save us”. Really? As we cower in fear, we expect God to do the job He has told us (the church) to do? Instead, we sit and wait for those who are supposed to be working for us, to tell us when “it’s safe” to come out again! Can you imagine the early church responding in the way that we are? Read the book of Acts and you will see just the opposite. You will see men and women of faith – true faith – as evidenced by their actions. Things weren’t easy in their day. Peace did not reign in the region. Did they cower in fear and wait for the government to tell them when it was safe to go about living life and doing the job Jesus gave them to do? I don’t think so! How about the book of James? Clear cut words stating that our actions cannot look different than what we profess our faith to look like. Our faith and actions must be in alignment for them to carry any weight.
We have all been in a sequestering time that God in His grace has provided us. A time to seek Him and hear His voice, and to allow His word and ways to be worked deeply within the fabric of our beings. In this time, a multitude of voices has emerged, both good and bad. What and who are you listening to? It’s important to know that there is a battle of voices in this hour, all seeking to find a place in our hearts and mind. These voices are seeking to determine the narrative that will form our beliefs and actions. Who’s voice are we truly listening to? I don’t mean, which scriptures are we quoting and “believing” and hoping that everything’s going to be okay … maybe … we hope! I mean … are we actually hearing the voice of the Lord? Are we hearing His heartbeat throughout the earth today as He is calling His people to rise up, to get to know him and his ways, and to position our hearts to BE the church? There will be no more time simply to attend church so we can be blessed and lulled into passivity. We must hear the voice and heartbeat of God, who in His mercy is giving us this time to realign ourselves with His plan and ways, and to rise up to take our position in the battle. Our voice of faith must be heard. Prophetically on the Hebrew calendar, this is the year of “the voice”! 2020 or 5780 is the year of Pey, which means “the mouth” or “voice”! And boy, are voices of all persuasions shouting and roaring! Some with fear and intimidation. Some with peace, peace. Others with the complacency of “we hope all will be okay”. Yet, still others with the roar from heaven like a trumpet blast to say, “wake up”, “rise up”, “shake off your old ways and thoughts”! The bible says that satan roams about “like” a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (kill, steal and destroy)! If you are acting out of, submitting to, or supporting the voice of fear, destruction, violence, passivity, inequality, sickness, and separation, you must ask yourself what voice you are listening to and following! The Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Jesus himself) roars with the justice of heaven calling His people to hear his love, battle strategy, and plan! He came to give abundant eternal life! It’s only when we hear His voice that we have something truly worthy of saying. The kind of truth that sets people free! It is His voice spoken through the prophetic power of His sons & daughters that will change the course of history-in-the-making! It’s not just trusting that God will take care of it all as we sit back and do nothing. It is not the time to allow ourselves to be programmed and brainwashed with fear or complacency! Not the time to stay in our homes and “trust” that something good will come from all of this. No! It’s time to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and begin to respond accordingly. Will we allow our freedoms and liberties to be stolen out from under us while we are asleep? How long will the church keep its doors closed and allow ourselves to believe that we are not relevant? We must ask ourselves, are we speaking a message that challenges the party line? Or listening to a pseudo gospel that keeps us weak, timid, and relying upon others to do everything for us, all the while allowing it to render us powerless?
2020 – What a year! Much has been said about 2020 being the year of 20/20 vision. Is it just a cliche? Or are we gaining the right view of God in the midst of this battle being wagged for our true freedom? Wow!!!! This is the time for us to gain the right view – the clear view – the vision that truly sees, understands, and receives Him as He is. We’ve heard a lot about the prodigal son, but do we see the truth in that parable? The truth that’s it about a prodigal Father – not the son. The original word we use for prodigal actually means “extravagant” and “generous”. Does that describe the son or the father? Our father is always waiting for us to turn to Him so that we might see how powerfully He loves us! And in His love, that we will accept our place as sons and daughters – brought into full acceptance by our Father! How we must begin to get the right view of our Father, of Jesus, the Christ (the anointed one), and of the Holy Spirit!
We must WAKE UP! We must RISE UP! We must change our views and understanding to align with a faith that ACTS according to its beliefs! Not a “pseudo faith” that says one thing and acts another! God is calling us to ARISE and to align ourselves with who He truly is and what He is saying and doing! No longer willing to just sit and be like squirrels chasing our tails based upon whatever rules, numbers, injustices, etc. are being screamed into our ears, hearts, minds, and paradigms! My friends, the only “new normal” we should be willing to accept is the new normal that God IS who He says He is! He is the God who is no longer willing to allow His children to be lukewarm, wishy-washy, push-over wimps! Not simply repeating the “party line”, but instead tuning our ears and hearts to hear His heartbeat and voice! I ask you this: Who will continue to form your narrative? CNN, Fox, local news, anarchists, neighbors, relatives, churches who will only dare to speak nice messages to you through zoom platforms out of fear to stand in the face of the onslaught of its enemies? Who? I know that I am speaking much more “loudly and forcefully” than I normally do, but my heart burns with the message to you, that we must wake up, clean out our ears and hear a message that shakes us out of our complacency and apathy! There is a battle going on, my friends! A battle for nations, for sons and daughters who will know the kind of truth that sets us free! Not the fear that keeps us cowering for fear that we might get sick or die! I dare to say that we must quit parroting the new terminologies that are being pushed upon us to accept a world where we are slaves to the system! God’s word doesn’t tell us to stay six feet away from everyone, not to touch anyone, to stand in lines, and march to the beat of tyranny! It says that we must gather together, lay hands on the sick, above all else to stand, to fight the good fight of faith.
The early church went from people who were fearful, scared, weak men and women, to those who were emboldened, fearless, faithful warriors able to stand in the face of tyranny and bring good news everywhere they went! Those able to be witnesses of the “same power that raised Jesus from the dead”! Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they rose up and turned the world upside down with the good news of God’s grace, love, power, and plan! Let’s rise up from being the ones who are cowering and waiting for all this to blow over, being willing to accept the outcome because we are too afraid of a virus, mask or no mask, distance or no distance! Let’s pray in the leaders who will arise in the midst, who will lead God’s people out of the chaos into God’s desired outcome of this historically pivotal time! This is a hinge-like battle for the world realignment of power, economics, morals, and truth! We must determine to hear Him, know Him, and to become one of these leaders! However; in order to become a Deliverer, we must first be delivered of our fears, failures, lukewarmness, comforts, self-centered, confused thinking, and belief systems. Get off the fence and choose a side! Let’s choose God’s side! When we truly turn to Him, God will deliver us, but we must then partner with Him! Let’s let our actions line up with what we say we believe! It’s time for the awestruck wonder of the glory of God to return to our hearts and lives! The battle for possession of “our promised land” is in our hands! Not by might or power, but by the Holy Spirit as we tune our hearts and ears to Him for the ways, plans, and means that will be spoken, in order to mature us into true sons and daughters of God who can be used to turn our world “right side up”!
June 30 at 4:00 am, I heard God speak these words: “This is the decade of the mouth. I have much to say. Not just words but messages I want to deliver to my people. I am speaking and revealing myself to my people. I want to speak to and through my children. In the beginning, I spoke everything into existence. Today I am speaking and creating within my people. I am forming new things in the womb of my bride. I speak and create so that new things can be birthed upon the earth. My words form life. Do not let the enemy shut your mouth. Do not allow the fear of man to keep you from speaking what I tell you to speak. I am releasing the sound of my voice throughout the earth. My creative voice. When I speak, new things are formed and brought into existence.”
