This is not a time for the Church to run and hide, but to arise and shine!  Isaiah 60 tells us it’s in the midst of thick darkness over the people, that the glory of the Lord arises.

There are 4 responses that God is looking for in this hour – that will determine the future of our families, our communities, our nation & the nations of the earth.  We also share 6 practical tips for living and abiding in the presence of God in the midst of the storm. 

Joseph shares his story of God’s grace & love getting a hold of him!

The Lord formed Adam from the clay & made Eve from Adam’s rib. It’s not like God set up the baby factory & then left it on autopilot. He was personally involved when He fashioned us in our mother’s womb!

Paul didn’t have eloquent arguments or logic. He decided to know nothing except Jesus & Him crucified on the cross. It’s the smartest choice in the world, to know nothing except Jesus!

Every new place in God requires more faith than the previous place. Every new situation challenges us to discover Him more, trust Him more, & risk more!

How to grow in hearing and understanding God’s voice! – Session 3

God has been blamed for every imaginable evil. Even after we come to know Jesus & have experienced His love for us, the very next crisis can cause to doubt His goodness for us.

King David had an affair with another man’s wife, tried to hide the pregnancy, then had her husband killed. How do you recover after a catastrophic sin? Start with “Have mercy on me, oh God!”

To worship God is to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He already demonstrated His love when He sent Jesus to die for us! We respond by loving Him back!

Kairos moments are God appointed times for your life that if you will say “Yes God” in those moments, will take you to God’s fullest purposes & destiny!

Jesus loves us with the same intense love that the Heavenly Father loves Him. If we love Jesus, then we’ll obey Him; Jesus said that He and the Father would come and abide with us!

God has healing for your body, soul, and spirit. The growth of your spirit can lead to deeper healing of your soul & body!

Jesus promised that He will never leave us, never forsake us. We can know & live in His presence! We can learn to hear His voice and know His heart!

Is anything too hard for the Lord? With God, all things are possible! The angel Gabriel told Mary, “No word, promise the Lord has spoken will be impossible for Him to do!”

Our lives are filled with “befores” & “afters”, both good & bad. Who I was before I got married; who I became after. Who I was before my children were born; the dad I became after. Who we were before Jesus came into our lives; who we are now because He is!

Before the universe was created, God already decided that He would send His son to save us. Jesus is found throughout the Old Testament stories.

Who do you believe more? The expert who tells you that it’s hopeless or the God who says otherwise?

Jesus said “Connect the dots!

The birds don’t plant or harvest yet your heavenly Father feeds them…how much more will He care for you?

I fed 5000 with 5 loaves 2 fish, 4000 with 7 loaves & a few fish…you don’t have to worry because you forgot to bring food!

Jesus invites us to a deeper relationship with Him. He stands at the door knocking, looking for those who will hear His voice and invite Him in for dinner!

Love the place where God has put you! Love the people God has given you! How can He use us if we won’t at least try to love the people & land that He has given us?

God refers to cities & land as living entities with responsibility before Him. When the land is defiled, the land can spit out its inhabitants through natural disasters, pestilence, famine, etc. But the land can be cleansed when its people return to God.

For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.

Lev 18:25 NKJV

How to grow in hearing and understanding God’s voice! – Session 2

Sin tendencies, patterns, and bondages can run in family lines; but so can godly legacies of spiritual gifts, the call of God, and anointed ministry!

We are healed and can overcome all the devastation the devil has done to us because of what Jesus did on the cross and by the Holy Spirit that lives within every believer!

But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Matt 12:28 NKJV

Spirits of fear, anxiety, sorrow, grief, despair, hopelessness, rejection, shame, etc. are tormenting spirits that afflict the mind & heart; spirits of infirmity afflict the body. Jesus takes our sicknesses & infirmities and sets us free!

How to grow in hearing and understanding God’s voice!

The message the spirit of shame speaks is “wrongness of being”, that there is inherently something wrong & bad at the root of who we are. So we hide ourselves, put on masks, get defensive…

Jesus forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness

The spirit of rejection whispers in your thoughts, “No one loves you”, “You can’t do anything right”, “You’re not good enough”…

It attacks your heart and makes you feel alone, unloved, unwanted, abandoned, forsaken…

Jesus was rejected so you could be fully loved and accepted!

To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…”

There are lots of reasons you may be grieving, depressed, stuck, hopeless, desperate…but Jesus came to bring something beautiful out of your ashes of devastation and to give you reasons to have joy, praise, and thanksgiving!

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Fear is a terrible master! It’s abusive, manipulative, and controlling. It locks you in a prison cell with walls that close in tighter and tighter.

There is your heart and then there is your innermost being. The heart can put up walls and barriers; the innermost being is your heart after all the walls have come down.

My physical eyes can be fooled by an illusionist. My spiritual eyes can be deceived by a demonic counterfeit. But what about the eyes of my heart? What deceives the eyes of my heart? Hurts, wounds, unforgiveness, fear, insecurities, lies, hope deferred, pride, etc. Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see truthfully.

We have physical eyes that see the natural world. We have spiritual eyes & senses to perceive what happens in the spiritual realm, both angelic & demonic. We also have eyes of the soul & heart that Paul prayed would be enlightened

For years I struggled with knowing God’s love for me. Whenever I hit hard times the first thought that would come to mind was “Why is this happening to me? I thought God loved me”.

The disciples thought it too! In the midst of the raging storm the disciples woke up Jesus and said “Teacher, DO YOU NOT CARE that we are perishing??”

Do you know that God cares for you and loves you?

How do you hold on to your faith in God when the perfect storm hits you? Job & Paul held on even through severe adversity & circumstances.

“I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”

Sons & daughters look like their Father: forgiving, loving, kind, merciful, peacemakers, etc. All of creation is waiting for the sons & daughters to come forth!

Paul asked Apollos, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” He expected a definitive answer back!

The presence of the Holy Spirit is supposed to be life changing! He corrects our wrong thinking, gives life to us physically, gives us victory over the flesh, makes us sons and daughters of God!

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9 NKJV

It is so easy to become mucked up inside and to find ourselves feeling so distant from God. The answer is to come back to Jesus and to put all our junk under His forgiveness. He takes away our sin and removes the separation between us and God!

Why are you in your tough situation? Is it because you’re like Job? Maybe it’s because you’re like Moses, or Daniel, or Joseph, or Peter, or David, or Saul…

Let the prayer of your heart become “Lord, do what you gotta do to get me to where You want me to be…”

God is always trying to get our attention. When He does, what is it He is trying to tell us? Engaging with the Lord is how we co-labor with Him, and how we end up seeing God sized answers that only He can do!

God can take care of us time after time but then there comes a situation that freaks us out…and we’re afraid…what if He doesn’t come through this time?

All morning long, the Holy Spirit had been reminding me of the many times God has shown His deep love for me.

So I threw out my sermon and just shared stories about the Father’s love…

“If God were to show up right in front of me, then I would believe in Him…”

Well maybe, maybe not. You can see miracles, signs & wonders and still decide not to follow Jesus. But if your heart is open to Him, encountering God will totally rearrange you!

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So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten… Joel 2:25

God can give back and make up what was stolen from you, even if it has been decades. He is the God that brings beauty out of ashes!

Fresh from my vacation where we walked and walked and walked…we talked, laughed, saw new things, made faces at each other.. Adam & Eve, Enoch, Noah, Abraham all walked with God in the same way…”

When God’s heart was grieved by how Israel’s first king walked before Him, He said that He would find another to take his place – “a man after His own heart.” What was it about David that drew the attention of heaven? What made David a man after God’s own heart, and how can we become a people after His own heart as well?

Moms have the hardest but also the most rewarding job in the world! I share things I felt the Lord wanted me to pass on to moms to reassure and encourage you!

What are the Second & Third heavens? When we pray and engage in spiritual warfare, we are wrestling in the Second heaven arena!

When was the last time your heart was at peace? When was the last time it felt safe? When was the last time it felt loved, heard, & acknowledged?

The Holy Spirit comes to dwell with us AND in us. If we love Jesus, both He and the Father come to dwell in us!