We Need Another Word

This generation is leaving organized “church” in the droves. I sincerely believe that many people are leaving in order to find Christ, not because they are trying to run from Him. Sure, there are always those that look at the cost of being a true disciple of Jesus, and as he singles out and requires the thing that they value most in life (like the rich young ruler who had to much wealth to give it up) they slowly fade into the crowd, disappointed that they can’t keep their life as they know it and follow Him. I honestly believe that many who are totally “churched out” are just looking for more. They are looking for something fresh.

If we are not careful we can hijack a scripture and proclaim it with faith as to try to twist God’s arm into doing what we want Him to do. But what if that word wasn’t for us at this season of our life and we would really LIKE it to be for us. Sure it’s the word of God, but we need the freshly spoken word of God. The greek word for the spoken word of God in the New Testament is Rhema. We need a Rhema word. Something that is God breathed for our current situation and circumstance. Not something for three years ago.

 

Luke 1:37

37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

KJV

Luke 1:37  For with God nothing shall be impossible.

I don’t know how the translators of the New Testament missed it, but there are two more greek words at the end of this quote from Jesus that were left out. The full sentence should be, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible, no rhema” With God, no freshly spoken word of God will ever be impossible. Could it be that people are leaving “church” in the droves because there is no bread in God’s house? I don’t mean the stale  loaf from yesterday. I mean something fresh for right now. 

There is a significant difference when someone reads or speaks a word that has the breath of God blowing on it for the current moment and circumstance. 

We need another word. A Rhema word. 

Ponder that.

What’s ahead?

I wanted to take a few minutes to let you know what I will be blogging about for the next little bit. I want to take a look at why we do what we do as Christ followers. I want to look at how many of the traditions we now have came into existence and I believe we will be challenged to become more authentic in our faith – true imitators of Jesus. 

We live in a generation that has so many questions about faith. For previous generations the answer “because I said so” was settled for while wrestling with tough questions about living out their faith in Christ. I feel that this generation needs so much more than an answer like that. It’s time for us to dig into the word of God and even a little bit of History and see where the stuff we do originated. 

Be Blessed! 

 

p.s. Connect with me on Facebook

Some Assembly Required

A little over a week ago a friend sent me a text asking if there is a verse in the Bible that tells us that we have to go to church. Here’s the deal. The early church never did place an emphasis on congregating together so you won’t find a scripture commanding it. The regular gathering together of fellow believers was a give-in. Take a look at this verse with me. 

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25

I believe the wording here is very important. The writer of Hebrews did NOT say, we shouldn’t forsake the gathering or congregating of ourselves together. He says we aren’t to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. When I am asked a question like “where is in the Bible does it say that I have to go to church” While I realize that it’s a fair question, the answer totally one-ups the question. The writer skips gathering and moves to assembling. Let me show you the difference between congregating/gathering and assembling. 

I used a flashlight as an illustration a week ago. It was this huge, silver, billy club-ish flashlight. The batteries were on the table with it, the lens and bulb were on the table with it, the bottom part of the flashlight with the spring on it that pushes the batteries to the front of the cylinder and keeps them in place was on the table too. I pushed the whole pile together and tried to turn the flashlight on. It wouldn’t turn on it. Then my friend assisted me and he put the flashlight together with one battery out of place and the flashlight still wouldn’t work. A huge surprise right? All the parts where there. They were all congregated together on the table yet the flashlight still would not, and could not fulfill it’s purpose. Sure I could beat a vicious dog with rabies off of me with it but It wouldn’t give me any light. One the package of most flashlights there are three words that are very important. ‘Some assembly required’. 

We have placed more emphasis on gathering together and not enough emphasis on assembling together. In order to assemble something it’s obvious that that parts have to be gathered together. As a matter of fact when you assemble something you are taking many little components and you connect them, and make them into a larger whole. That is what I believe God is calling His church to do. 

At Haven of Hope I encourage people to get assembled because if all you do is gather you will never fulfill your purpose and we won’t fulfill ours as a church family. In order for the flashlight to work all the parts had to come together into their predetermined place. God has a place for you in His family. And I believe that everyone that comes to Haven of Hope has a place in our church family and we will never discover it until we all determine to get assembled.

 

WARNING: When you are assembled you lose the ability to isolate yourself and be independent of everyone else. Rather you become inter-dependent and you become a small part of something that is bigger than yourself. If you take an assembled flashlight and move it in one direction every part that is assembled moves with it. Every battery, screw, bulb, wire, and whatever else comes with a flashlight moves together. 

Assembling requires your participation. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. Assembling is going to cause you to move at times you don’t want to move. It’s going to cause you to be pressed by other parts and members. It is going to FORCE you to be accountable to the other components in the body of Christ. Yeah, I said it. Forced accoutability.  It is so worth it. Your power increases as you become united and assembled to others. 

And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight : and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. Leviticus 26:8

I would like to challenge you to get assembled to a church family. Get assembled to the body of Christ. Don’t just show up for your sunday worship experience. Take it to another level. Become a key component to something BIG. 

Ponder that. 

Get Out of the Box Part 2

 

David is now the King of Israel and he is passionate about bringing the ark of the Lord back home.

 

7 And they carried the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drave the cart.

 

8 And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.

 

9 And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled .

 

10 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God. 1 Chron 13:7-10

 

 

I want you to notice what the Israelites did to the ark. They placed the ark on a new cart.

They didn’t bring the priests out to get the ark. They just took the philistine way of transporting the ark and they gave it a face lift. I believe that many times we are asking God for revival but we are not aligning ourselves to receive the move of the Spirit we are asking for. We often say that God can move in our church services, and we are even being generous enough to give Him an hour or two to accomplish everything, then we dismiss Him as soon as “strange things” start happening.

 

I also want to point out that when David put it on a new cart, David was building something to transport it on. The Presence of the Lord and His Revival never come in administration and the machinery of man’s ways. It always comes on the shoulders of priests.

 

David is bringing God back, yet God is upset, He doesn’t want to come back in the same conditions that He left. He doesn’t want to come back on a cart. God doesn’t even want to come back the same way that we experienced it before.

I encourage you do not put God in a box. Do not fight His creativity to do a new thing a new way.

 

Isn’t it interesting that the oxen stumbled when they came to the threshing floor?

This couldn’t have been an accident. No I believe that it was divine providence.

I believe that God wanted the oxen to stumble and killed Uzza because He stopped God from breaking out in Israel in a new way. God would have had to minister to Israel in a new way if the ark would have fallen.

I believe that God is going to minister to this generation in a creative new way. You see, yesterday’s revival can become today’s idol. It’s been said that the enemy to the next move of God is the last move of God. Why? Because we place limitations on what God can do by confining the movement of His Spirit to particular manifestations and procedures that God isn’t interested in.

 

At a personal level-God is causing your world to stumble because God wants to get out of the box in your life. He is shaking your world because He wants to get out of you. God wants to break out into this generation in a way that we have never experienced before, when your world stumbles, rather than steady it and keep it all together like you did in the past, I challenge you to let God out of the box so He can do a new thing. Let Him break out into this world through you. Let Him stretch you and lead you into something new.

 

When God falls out of the box, we are going to go into new places that we have never even thought of.

 

Ponder that.

Get Out of the Box Part 1

 

When God gave Moses the plans for the Ark of the Covenant, it was said that He would attach Himself to that Ark. God’s manifest presence was going to sit above the mercy seat in-between the Cherubs. The day the ark was made and God came upon it, God put himself in a box.

 

The Israelites (following the models of the heathen around them) became very superstitious with the ark. They had more of an ark focus than a God focus. They put more trust in the tradition and beauty of the ark then they place in the God of the ark.

The ark became more of a rallying point then a God point. We have our little issues that we all rally around, and the ark was theirs. I can hear the trash talk that would have gone on with foreigners, “ha, you think what you have is something, well let me tell you, we have the ark. Our God is in a box with neat angels on top”. Scripture proves that the people lost a God focus when they were fighting the philistine army.

 

2 The Philistines drew up in battle array to meet Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.

3 When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, ” Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.”

4 So the people sent to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts (1 Sam 4:2-4)

 

I want you to notice what they say in verse number three. “Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.” They didn’t say let’s get God’s presence here, they said let’s get the box. If we can get the box here, it, the box will deliver us. I wonder how many times we have put our trust in boxes like religious traditions to deliver us from the world?

 

One thing that the Lord keeps dealing with me about is to stay away from boxes that limit God. I cannot get my identity from a man made box, even a man made box that God created. You see, the ark had become an idol to the people. It had become the focus of their worship rather than God being the focus. And if we are not careful yesterday’s revival can become today’s Idol.

 

See boxes are mind sets, ways of thinking, traditions, boxes are made to be restrictive.

What many never realize is religion is a box. The Spirit of religion allows just enough movement to make restriction feel like progress. The Spirit of religion keeps you in the box. We must figure out if we are making progress or simply moving and making noise as we bump into the sides of the box we are in.

 

Movement and progress are not the same thing. For example, I remember a time when our neighbors(who are a part of our church family) drove thirty minutes away to go to Life Group. When they got to the house that Life Group was at they found out that Life Group wasn’t at that person’s house after all. Life Group was at our place, right across the street from where they lived. When they arrived I told them how much I appreciated their willingness to drive 45 minutes to come to Life Group that night. It was a bit of a trip. While they racked up mileage on their car, that could hardly be called progress.

When we live in a box trapped by the Spirit of religion we move a lot, but we keep going from the same valley to the same mountain top, back down to the same valley and up again. We do this over and over again, we move a lot, but we don’t progress into the things that God has for us.

 

The good news is that God is about to do a new thing in the earth, and God wants all of us to get out of the boxes that we have been living in.

 

God is constantly trying to lead us into greater understanding of who He is. Truth is not a destination; truth is a person and a highway. Truth always leads to more truth. God has never given you a truth so that you could build a wall around it and settle there for the rest of your life. That is what the spirit of religion does.

 

I want you to realize something. God’s first choice was not the box. God’s perfect will was the Garden of Eden. God wanted relationship with man, but man in a desperate attempt to find the God he had lost created religion. No matter how many times God tried to bridge the gap with mankind, mankind would only go as far as religion would allow. God conceded to get in the box, but God does NOT enjoy restriction.

 

The ark falls into the hands of the Philistines and all the while God is getting ‘claustrophobic’ in the box. He is tired of being in a box that is restricting His movement.

 

I have a news flash for you. God has become restricted by all of our boxes and He wants out!

 

Ponder that.

 

p.s. To Be Continued…

Oh Lord, Kindle the Fire in me.

Lately a passion for the revival fire of God to burn in me has been waking me in the night, dragging me out of bed, into my living room, for times of simple, sincere cries to God for more of Him, for an outpouring of His Spirit in our generation. Not just sprinkles here and there, but mighty torrents of His Spirit. I want to see what God wants to see. I want to witness the Heaven’s opened on my city and region.  Our church family is contending for a ‘depression free zone’ in our area where the weighty shackles of depression that hang on people are lifted off of them, even if for a moment as they drive down the interstate through our town.

I believe our generation should have that! I believe our generation should be able to experience healing like never before. I believe I owe them these encounters that will lead to an outbreak of the supernatural. The only way that I could possibly become a vessel that God can use is if He lights a fire in me that burns, and ignites the hungry hearts of others around me.

The great Welsh Revivalist, Evan Roberts prayed one prayer over and over for years before experiencing an amazing outpouring of God’s Spirit. His prayer was simple yet powerful. “Oh, Lord” Evan’s cried, “Bend me”. His passion was for God to mold him into whatever God wanted him to be. Evan was 26 years old when he became the central figure for what is considered one of the greatest outpourings of God’s Spirit that has ever taken place on the earth. God did answer the prayer of Evan’s, and in less than one years time over 100,000 people came to Christ! For 11 years Evan prayed that prayer and others like it, asking God to use him for revival and 11 years of passionately praying God’s will for His generation allowed Him to experience it and become a catalyst for the outpouring.

I’ve seen people introduce themselves at Alchoholics Annonymous, and so I want to introduce myself today, for those of you that don’t know. My name is Jonathan, and I’m addicted to the presence of God. I am so addicted to it that I believe everyone on the planet should have the opertunity to experience it, at least one time. So the prayers that I find myself praying when I wake in the middle of the night on my bed, the prayers I find myself praying when I wake in the morning and even as I type this blog, are really simple, “Oh Lord, kindle the flame of your Spirit in me.”

Ezek 20:47

‘Hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you… the blazing flame shall not be quenched, Ezekial 20:47

 

Rather than blogging a thought to you, I’m just going to type the cry of my heart to God. I’m going to pray,

 

Father, more than anything else, I want to see your Kingdom come in my generation. I want to see people experience the same freedom that I’ve experienced in you. I want people to feel the power of your love, and know that you created them and value them. I want our generation to step beyond anything that religion can offer us, and God, please give us, my generation, a revival of relationship! Father, awaken our hearts to you, and consume us with your holy fire! If you start the fire, nothing can quench it! If you start the fire nothing can contain it or stop it. Oh God, open the heavens on our generation, and remove the reproach of our generation. I hear people declare that it’s a godless generation, and that people aren’t hungry for you, but I know they are desperately looking to find you. Let us become the revival generation that is recorded in the history books. Not just a couple of superstars, but an entire generation that becomes consumed by the fire of your Spirit. Oh Lord, Kindle a fire in me.

What is Jonathan up to now?

Thanks for checking out my blog! I hope it is a blessing so far and continues to be one. If it is not a blessing to you… why are you reading this now?

I wanted to drop a line to share some of what is going on in my life of ministry right now. From time to time I will post and update and ask you to partner with me through prayer to see God’s Kingdom released through me.

At Haven of Hope we are all fired up right now about what God is doing. In this past year our church family has grown numerically and matured in God. We are a church family. And like a natural family we all vary in maturity and growth, but one of the most exciting things for me as the leader here is to see the hunger and passion in the people that make up this family. In the past few weeks not only have been experiencing many opportunitiesto tell people about God, but an anticipation is growing and people can feel the spiritual shift taking place, a shift that is signalling something greater is about to burst onto the scene.

Right before my wife and I moved to plant the church three years ago the Lord told me that the first three years would be years of growth, but God would primarily use those years to develope my family and other people that God was going to use here. He then told me beginning in the fourth year we would experience explosive growth. Now I know, there are people that don’t believe in hearing from God, or at least they think it’s stupid to share things like this that could make you look bad, but all of my experience is that God confirms all that He says if we are in alignment.

 I believe that we are in alignment, and I also believe we need the prayers of others around us, we need your prayers to help us move into a revival in our area. I really believe  “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16 Your prayers will change things in our area. Would you please be led by God to pray for the Framingham area, and a step beyond that, would you pray for a breakthrough in all of New England? Those of you in the Bible belt please pray for a breakthrough in this region. Those of you overseas would you please pray for revival here just like you want to see where you are at?

I was just ministering in the city of Haverhill Wednesday night. Before going there, the Lord told me His Spirit was going to break out that night, and He did! We moved into a great stream of prophetic intercession. We have decided to go ahead and do a month long meeting where I will be going up there every Tuesday night to minister, and the coolest thing is they are moving their mid-week service from Wednesday to Tuesday so we can do it. Please pray for Pastor Roy, and the Church in Haverhill… The church is called Abundant Life, but please pray for the Church at large in the City. Please pray for me to have strength to minister, and for all of us to get consumed with a passion for God.

This Sunday I will be ministering at Acts II Ministries in Thompson CT. That is the church that I grew up in and I’m excited about going back there to minister because I know there is going to be a room full of passionate people that are hungry for a move of God. I already know God is going to bring it! I will be running right back to H.O.H. to wrap up a series right when I finish ministering, but I want to have complete focus to the ministry for that great church while I’m there. Please pray for me this Sunday and please pray for Acts II Ministries, that God would break out, and invade the place with Heaven!

Ok! This was much longer than I thought, but I know many of you have had some kind of personal contact with my ministry in the past… soooo you owe me your prayers if I prayed for you or your church.

I Love you all!

Jonathan

D.A.R.E. to make a personal impact in the world for Jesus Christ part 2

Continued from part 1…

 

I want you to see something – when the master comes back, he says to both the first servant and the second servant that they did good, and their reward would be great. The servant that gave the master 10 talents and the servant that gave the master 4 talents were both rewarded and praised.  24 “Then the servant with the one bag of gold came and said, ‘Sir, I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate.  25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.’   

 

The first two servants had a mentality of releasing, and investing what the master gave them. The third servant had a mentality of “not losing”.

 

What spirit birthed this mentality of “not losing” what the master gave? What caused this servant to bury what the master had given him? The answer is fear.

 

The master did not say, WOW – you wonderful wise servant! You didn’t lose what I gave you. No.He called the man a wicked, lazy servant!

 

Mediocrity is what is birthed when fear, wickedness, and laziness hook up. Mediocrity is the mentality that praises itself for what it doesn’t do rather than what it has done!

 

We live in a world that has been gang rushed by mediocrity as it’s standard of success.

 

We live in a world where expectations for us are low, average is the new standard called excellence, and anything that is beyond status quo is considered over achieving. People are becoming more and more comfortable with accomplishing less and less.

 

This mentality affects every area of our lives, and this mentality has invaded the mentality of the church world.  Often times what passes for Christianity in our world today is freakishly far away from what Christianity was when it was born. It’s become a religion, but to the Christ followers, we can’t be satisfied with religion. Jesus Christ desires to have personal relationship with each of us. Religion is what man made. Howerver, God’s plan was always relationship with us. 

 

What shocks me is that out of the three servents we can choose to emulate, the majority of the church world has chosen ot emulate the third servant. The church world is settling for mediocrity by hiding what God has entrusted to us to invest in this world. 

 

It is impossible for us to progress and be used by God to expand the influence of His Kingdom on the earth if we are acting defensivley and out of fear. Please don’t settle for low productivity.  

 

One thing I love about children is they are excited and full of high hopes and dreams. As life goes on many times their dreams adjust to what others around them say their lot in life is. I’ve never met a child that said “When I grow up I want to be an under acheiver”. Today I pray that your heart is stirred up and that your mind is brought back to the expectations and dreams you had when you first believed before others tied you down with their low expectations.

 

Will you join me in taking the challange to make an impact in the world for Jesus Christ?

D.A.R.E. To make a personal impact in the world for Jesus Christ – Part 1.

Lately my eyes have been opened to how complacent I have become in so many areas of my life.  The thing is I’ve become complacent because for too much of my life I have allowed a world comfortable with mediocrity define success in my life.

I just launched our vision casting series yesterday for our Haven of Hope church family and I really feel like sharing some of the basic concepts that God has placed on my heart for our group in this blog. Our theme for this year is “D.A.R.E.  To make a personal impact in the world for Jesus Christ.”

14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a trip. He called together his servants and gave them money to invest for him while he was gone.  15 He gave five bags of gold to one, two bags of gold to another, and one bag of gold to the last — dividing it in proportion to their abilities — and then left on his trip.  16 The servant who received the five bags of gold began immediately to invest the money and soon doubled it.  17 The servant with two bags of gold also went right to work and doubled the money.  18 But the servant who received the one bag of gold dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money for safekeeping. 

 

19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money.  20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of gold said, ‘Sir, you gave me five bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount.’  21 The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’ 

 

22 “Next came the servant who had received the two bags of gold, with the report, ‘Sir, you gave me two bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount.’  23 The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’ 

 

24 “Then the servant with the one bag of gold came and said, ‘Sir, I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate.  25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.’ 

 

 

26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! You think I’m a hard man, do you, harvesting crops I didn’t plant and gathering crops I didn’t cultivate?  27 Well, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest. (Matthew 25:13-28 ) New Living Translation

The first thing I want you to notice in this passage is that Jesus makes it clear the money(or in KJV talents) never belonged to the servants. The master gave three of his servants his money to invest for him until he returned. Remember, this is a parable to teach us what the Kingdom of God is like. The servants are really being given resources from the King to invest wisely just as all of us have been given resources, money, time, giftings, talents and abilities that have been entrusted to us to manage wisely until the King returns.

The next thing I want to point out is that the master does NOT just give his resources to these men randomly. It clearly says that he gave money to each man according to their ability. Another words God never just hands people talents and giftings. God will never give you an amazing talent beyond your ability to manage. God will never give you a calling that is so great that it is beyond your ability to fulfill. God will never give you an anointing that is so great that you can’t stand up under it. God will never do that, because God is a great manager, and He knows how much we can handle and how much to trust each of us with. If God gives a person great talent they may not have the desire, willingness, or passion to manage what He has given them but they do have the ability to manage it or it would never have been given to them in the first place. When we are bombarded by mental attacks that we can’t fulfill the call that God has placed in our life we need to rebel against those thoughts and realize that even though there are times in our lives when our management ability can come into question but God’s cannot. If God has called us to do something, that calling came pre-packaged with the ability to accomplish the task.

Before we wrap up this entry I want you to look at this verse with me. Maybe you can ever memorize it.

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. (Ephessians 4:7)

Grace isn’t merely unmerited favor, it is unmerited divine assistance.  The reason we need to understand this is because many people are trying to operate in a gifting that they don’t have. Maybe they are trying to be an evangelist when God has called them to pioneer a church, or start a business, or to become a nurse, whatever it may be, far too many of us fall into the trap of becoming enamored with certain gifts, talents, and callings that other people around us have because we think that there are some calling that are so much better than the rest of the callings in the world. The problem with this is that if you don’t have the gift from God to be something neither will you have the grace from God to accomplish it.

For example. I remember a while back a pastor spoke to me about his frustration with the church he had been trying to establish for a number a years. After nearly ten years he had gotten nowhere, he was becoming angry an even questioning his calling. I believe he has been called to be a pastor, I believe he has the grace on his life to pastor. But the gift of pastoring and the gift of being a church planter are totally different giftings. The reason that man was frustrated is because he is operating in a gifting that he doesn’t have the grace to operate in. I’m not saying that if you are walking in your true calling that you won’t deal with problems, or that people that really have been called to plant a church will immediately have a huge crowd gathering when they show up in town. I’m saying the ride is a whole lot smoother and the results are better when you walk in your gifting with the grace of God dripping all over you.

If God has called you to be a teacher, go to school to become a teacher. Maybe you have been called by God to be an auto mechanic. Then fulfill that calling and realize that God’s grace will be on you to reach people and expand his Kingdom from where he places you. He is trusting you with his resources and you really do have the ability in you to invest them wisely and make an impact in the world for Jesus Christ.

To Be Continued…

Alignment to Receive the Promise

From the time I was 18 until I was 24 I travelled around the world ministering as an itinerate speaker. Week after week I would hear various prophecies and interpretations in churches stating that a great move of God was going to start in their city. When I would meet with people from other churches as a teenager everyone had a prophecy about how the great revival was beginning in their city or region, it didn’t change as a minister, every minister would tell me similar things. One night another interpretation to the gift of tongues was given about the great revival that was going to break out in that city, and I stopped and asked God what that meant. I was confused everyone was hearing from God that an insane move of his spirit was going to begin there. This is what the Lord told me.

This prophecy is a blank check; it will be fulfilled by whoever responds.

 

I have met people that have had amazing prophetic words spoken over their lives, and none of it has come to pass and if they keep going the way they are now it will never come to pass. Because the reality is: you can wallpaper your house with all of the prophetic words that God is speaking to you, without proper alignment they will never come to pass.

 

Most prophetic words are really words of potential. In order for the word to come to pass your involvement is required.

 

It was by faith that Sarah together with Abraham was able to have a child, even though they were too old and Sarah was barren. Abraham believed that God would keep his promise. And so a whole nation came from this one man, Abraham, who was too old to have any children — a nation with so many people that, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.  Hebrews 11:11-12 NLT

 

Get this, God promises that Abram (later called Abraham) would be the father of nations. Yet he is married to a barren woman. Not only is Sarah barren but she is also past the age in her life that she can have children if she weren’t barren. Not only was Sarah a wrinkly old mess, but Abraham was to old to have kids himself or as some translations say it “good as dead” so you have an impotent man, and a barren lady past the season for childbearing with a prophecy/promise that God is going to make Abraham a father. Obviously God was going to have to open Sarah’s womb, obviously God was going to have to do a miracle in Abraham’s reproductive system, but there was one thing that was left for them to do. They still had to have sex. In other words, God promises an out of this world miracle but there is still something attached to the prophetic promise, a clause if you will; you have to do your part. You have to be aligned with the promise that God has so when the time comes for it to happen “in earth as it is in heaven” it can happen.

 

Align yourself to receive the promise.

 

Ponder that.