A Cup of Coffee and a Slice of Heaven: What is God Saying for 2015?

A Cup of Coffee and a Slice of Heaven: What is God Saying for 2015?: What is God Saying for 2015 "Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your co...

What is God Saying for 2015?

What is God Saying for 2015

"Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords And strengthen your pegs.” Isaiah 54:2

Overall:  This will be a season of great growth and expanded opportunity. There will be an increased hunger for the things of God and worship will shift to go higher in many houses of faith.  It will also be a season of acceleration in every area of our lives.  It is a Jubilee year in which God will eradicate debt (if we yield to his gentle leading and set order in our finances), deliver us from drudgery, and set us in our proper place in Him. God will show us that He is not slack concerning his promises! This is all in preparation for a revival in the Body of Christ that will be unprecedented and will bring many out of darkness into the marvelous Light. (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Peter 2:9)

What it looks like:

-This a year where we must enter into a Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4: 1-12). This does not mean that we get to take a yearlong vacation!  This means we must cease striving to “work” our way into a full and healthy relationship with the Lord. This not a heretical doctrine of demons that everyone is essentially saved, despite their decisions.  This is to remind us that as Believers we must accept our salvation, and our relationship with Christ at face value, and stop striving to be “right”.  Our righteousness is as filthy rags to Him (Romans 3:21-22).  We can never be “good” enough to earn His love, and we cannot not be “bad” enough to disqualify ourselves from His love.  His is pleased by our faith in Christ.  Therefore, we must cease working to be loved and/or qualified, and we must begin to seek God for our purpose in Him, and ambition only to complete our given assignment as He permits us. As a wise elder once told me:  “Stop trying to be good, and let God change you.”  This takes the wind out of a religious spirit that causes us to waste precious time flopping around and salivating at the altar like the prophets of Baal who were hoping to catch the attention of their God. We have His grace!  We have His love!  We have His acceptance! If we are human enough to accept that we have need of Jesus as Savior, He is God enough to change us through His process.   We must not fight that process by hiding the dross that has risen to the top in our lives and covering it up with vain works and religious exercises. We must yield by admitting our need for change; giving up our “right” to be right, and commit to doing all things HIS way. The work that He has begun in us will continue unto the day of Jesus Christ! (Phil. 1:6)

-God is going to settle some things. There are areas of our lives that have been hidden which will be brought to light. There are relationships, dreams, plans, and burdens that we have held onto hoping that God will do what we want in them.  This is a season where God is going to say “yes” to some things and an emphatic “no” to others. These matters will be made clear to us.  However God chooses to answer the question will be the final answer, so we must set our face to however that looks.  In some areas in our lives, that answer will bring great joy. In others, it may bring great sorrow. God is not a task master.  He will give us time to celebrate the yes’s and grieve the no’s. But He will not permit those of us who only want His best to build altars to our celebrations, nor will we be able to live in the grave clothes of the areas that die.  Whom the Son sets free is free indeed; but we must choose freedom. (John 8:36)

-The call to entrepreneurship will continue. Don’t be “scairt”. The hand of the Lord is on your business idea.  Start the process, and commit to working it out step-by-step.  The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just (Proverbs 13:22)…but the just has to get it crackin’!

-Spiritual Leaders, World Leaders, Celebrities, and Mothers and Fathers in the Faith will continue to pass away or step down from their current positions.  There is a new generation of leaders being raised up.  Wise leaders are already grooming successors and distributing birthrights to those who have been faithful to serve. In this manner, the Body of Christ will take some hits as the Lord exposes the some of the darkness, inappropriateness, and misappropriations that some leaders (spiritual and community) have committed (Jeremiah 23:1). Make no mistake that God’s flock is not only the Body of Christ.  It is the entire world.  While judgment begins in the Church, the Lord has set his eyes to those in business, and in government.  (Daniel 2:21; Psalm 75: 6-8). Take heart!  All of this will bring a great healing in the Body of Christ, as the Lord reveals the sources of division in the Body, and a real quest for the move of the Holy Spirit will over take denominational-ism.

-The prophets will speak; and the Apostles will set order:   The Lord has set the mantles upon the Apostles and the Prophets for they are the foundation of the Church (Eph. 2: 20-21).  Many who have been overlooked, set aside, or have been found patiently attending to the things of God in obscurity are about to be brought to the forefront. There are no “superstars” in Christ!  This is not to celebrate any man, but those who have been earmarked for ministry will be set upon a firm foundation in this season as God begins to send out the prophets and the apostles to dig up fallow ground in preparations for revival. Apostles will begin new ministries, and set the five-fold ministers in place.  We will see the anointing of Moses among community leaders as God begins to set apostles in the Body, business, government, and community.  The prophets will issue a clarion call to the Body of Christ to “make straight the way of the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3).  Young (young meaning in ministry not in chronological age) prophets  and the prophetically tempered will accept their call and begin the arduous process of being “made” for ministry.  A word of caution for the zealous:  95% of what even a seasoned prophet does is in the secret place of prayer. Do NOT despise the days of small beginnings (Zech. 4: 10)!  Your intercession is like one who sits on the fence so another may cross over. Intercession will shift the atmosphere and change the climate. Seek the Lord in prayer and He will meet you there.  

-There is to be more civil unrest.  I began to prophesy in 2008 that the Lord was exposing the spirit of systemic racism, gender disparity and class-ism in the United States. We will continue to see the Lord exposing injustice and disparity in the United States. Please do not chalk this up to a race war.  This is not an issue of race, gender, class, or sexuality.  It is an issue of justice verses injustice.  I know that I am preaching into oncoming traffic, but the Body of Christ must stand on the side of righteousness.  Hate crimes against race, gender or the LBGT community is NOT the judgment of God.  It is an act of evil.  We must stand for the HUMAN rights of everyone—even those with whom we do not agree. We cannot be swayed by the manipulation of the media, social media, or the opinion of man.  The mercy that we measure out to the world will be the standard of mercy by which we will be judged (Matthew 7:2). In Obadiah, Edom was judged for sitting idly by and worse yet, raging against an already broken Israel.  In Amos Israel was judged for celebrating the troubles of others while haughtily thinking that because they were “chosen” that they were exempt for judgment. If we as the Body of Christ sit idly by and permit the abuse of civil and human rights, or worse yet, we work to protect those who violate the human rights of others, we are setting ourselves up to be judged.  What will happen when this spirit of hatred turns it eyes towards Christians?  How will the Body answer when it our human rights that is violated; not because of race or gender, but because we uphold the word of the Lord?  How will we respond when the government takes away federal funding and tax exemptions for our outreach ministries because we refuse to marry gays in the Church?  Who will be our Edom that sits idly by or worse yet will kick us while the Church is openly persecuted and abused?  That day will come!  It must come so that prophecy must be fulfilled.  If we search our hearts now, repent and extend our hands in love, prayer and mercy to those whose HUMAN rights are being trampled; we will see such mercy extended to us in the day of destruction.  This is also not just about judgment.  This is the Lord setting order so that real revival and a hunger for the heart of the Lord can come forward. Real revival will begin when the Body begins to walk in perfected (mature) love for HUMANITY.

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens wrote this in the opening paragraph of Great Expectations.  That is what we will see in the upcoming year.  Many of us personally will see some great highs in God as He sets us in our proper place, eradicates debt, and heals us and sends us forth in destiny.  But the same hand that comes to set order for us personally, must also set order for us as a Body, and we will see some lows. But we must take the mindset of Job: “The Lord giveth, and the Lord takes away; but blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Rd 12/27/2014

A Cup of Coffee and a Slice of Heaven: I Need a Drink

A Cup of Coffee and a Slice of Heaven: I Need a Drink: God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.&quo...

I Need a Drink

God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." (Ephesians 2:10 (NCV)


My sister has decided to have a party for her students. As she was telling me how about it, you could her just a slight anxiety in her voice because like many of us in this holiday season, she is rushed, stressed, tired, and “peopled out”.  I asked why she did not ask me to come and help (I am a caterer), she said, “I did, and you said that you were not Florence on the Jeffersons.”  I frowned, and laughed. Yep, I did say that.
My sister and I are both ministers.  She is a gifted teacher, and preacher. She is married to one of the most anointed teaching pastors that I have ever met.  My sister teaches at a large Methodist university in Texas.  In between teaching classes and preaching, I cater.  We both care for aging parents, and we both mentor young, emerging leaders. As a wife, my sister still has to clean, cook, and take care of her generally self-sufficient husband. The hard part about this that all of us are also introverts—we genuinely love people, but there are times that the work becomes overwhelming, and tiresome.  We begin to look at the lives that we generally love to live and reduce to them to “everybody needing something from me”. We live the life of service to others.
As I prayed, a scripture that has been ringing in my spirit for the last several days came again to the forefront.  I picked up my bible and read it in its entirety: “15For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV).  Sometimes when scriptures sit in my spirit, it’s because a sermon is “brewing”, so to speak.  However, as I prayed, I realized it was the Lord speaking encouragement to me in this season.  “Ok, Lord,” I thought.  “It took a moment, but I got it.”
Anyone who is in a growing relationship to Christ is also called to service, because our lives are not our own.  The moment that we say yes to Christ, we are saying yes to living the life that has been planned for us before the beginning of time.  We are called out of self-centered living and loving, to a life of vulnerability, openness, care for others and agape love.  We do this for people who sometimes are selfish, dependent, thoughtless, entitled and demanding. If we are not careful, in our desire to “do our jobs” so to speak—we lose focus and become frustrated, tired, short-tempered and cynical. The call has not changed; but the place where we pull our strength has.  We move from living ministry to doing ministry.  We live ministry out of our call and our relationship with Christ.  We do ministry out of our own strength and obligation—and sometimes the fine line between the two becomes blurred.
I said as much to the Lord.  He said to me: “Ahh, so you see the difference.”  Then He asked, “Child, how did Christ manage to live a life of service when there were constantly people pulling on Him and needing his anointing?” At that moment, I heard Mark 1:35: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (NIV)”. He continued. “Child it is not that you will not become tired, but you must take time away from everyone, to rest and pray.  Come and sit with Me, not as one who is doing something for Me; but come to Me when you are heavy laden and find rest.  You don’t even have to speak.  I listen to your heart. Picture yourself reaching into your pockets and purse and giving me all your cares.  Then sit with Me quietly and allow me to restore your soul.  When you do this, you are drinking from My never-ending flow of Living Water, and not out of your drying well of human strength.  Renita (I knew that He was serious), taking a Sabbath is not a suggestion—it’s a command.  It’s okay to rest; and it is okay to say no.” Come confidently to Me and get your mercy, and I will give you the help you need.
I sighed.  It’s easier said than done; but it must be done.  The greatest joy that one can experience is to find purpose in life. However, it is easy to move from purpose to work; and it’s easier to take on obligation as a penance, rather than a reward. It is in those times, that I pray for the discernment to recognize the subtle shift and run to sit by the still waters of the Lord and find rest.