Splashes of Manna

Declarations:

Speaking and declaring Scriptures and what you know to be God’s will, is a powerful tool against the enemy. Declare them OUT LOUD, SPEAKING WITH AUTHORITY. Romans 4:17 tells us to “speak things that are not as though they were.” It says “as though they WERE” because they are in God’s original design and plans, established before the foundation of the world—so those plans are already in the spirit-realm, and we are coming into agreement with them.

TO STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH:

Speak these out loud, with confidence and authority.

Father God, I thank You and give You praise for the Truth of Your Word, and that You are not a man, that You should lie (Numbers 23:19). I stand in agreement with Romans 4:17 that I can “speak things that are not as though they were,” and Isaiah 55:11 that says Your Word never returns to You without accomplishing its purposes, and John 14:13-14 where Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”, I declare that…

Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. (I John 4:4)
God is for me, and He is more powerful than those who are against me. (Romans 8:31)
I am more than a conqueror through Jesus who loves me. (Romans 8:37)
I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)
All things are possible with You. (Mark 10:27)
I am fearfully and wonderfully made by You. (Psalm 139:14)
No weapon formed against me shall prosper. (Isaiah 54:17)

Call to Worship:

Father, we ask that You would reveal Yourself to us and enable us to see and hear You as we never have before.

We come in the authority You have delegated to us as people in blood covenant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, seated with You at the right hand of all Majesty.

We speak to every unclean spirit over this community, this land, and this building and we say you must cease and desist—you are to pull back this morning, this place, and this time.

We declare in Jesus’ Name that this time is dedicated to the King of kings and Lord of lords and we recognize only His sovereignty here.

Call to Individual’s human spirit to Worship:

Now to each one of you here this morning, I call your human, God-given spirit to attention in Jesus’ name. I invite your spirit to come to the front to receive truths that your soul is not able to hear or receive.

I call your spirit to fix your eyes on the Holy Spirit; to lift your face upward, and to receive truths from God that transcends the words that are spoken.

I bless you to receive with your spirit and to validate the things you are receiving, and I bless your soul with the willingness to walk in agreement with you, the spirit, as you are led by the Holy Spirit.

I bless you in the name of Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

QUESTION YOUR “WHY”:

I believe we should always question our “Why?” Many of the things we do are not necessarily right or wrong, but our motivation can cause a good thing to be defiled.

I love to cook and please people with food, but years ago my motivation was that I would be applauded or appreciated. The evidence of that was, when I prepared something for someone, I would apologize for something not being right with it or make some kind of excuse for it not being acceptable. I was suggesting that what I made wasn’t good enough—my underlying fear was that I wasn’t good enough.

The Lord showed me that when I first began to sing as a teen that it was for the ‘pat on the back’ I received—the applause—the acceptance and validating I received from their accepting comments. I was so desperate to feel good about myself that I discovered ways to try to get that accomplished.

Here are some indications that issues in your life need to be addressed spiritually: There is at least one “WHY” under every one of these:

if you can’t forget a hurtful memory or person—just can seem to let it go—it keeps nagging at you
when there is high energy in your reaction—your reaction/response is greater than the situation warrants
when a particular issue or person can instantly ‘set you off’
if you’re a perfectionist—you are driven to do something perfectly
when you are driven to excel—can’t be content with anything less
if you do something to prove someone else wrong
when guilt is an easy landing place for you
if you feel the need to control
when a particular subject stirs anger, jealousy, pain, or fear within you
if there is an area of life you refuse to talk about
if you have compulsive behaviors
if you are overly competitive and you just can’t loose
if there is something that you ‘just can’t stand!’
if your adult defensive posture is, “They did the best they could” in reference to parents or others who hurt you
when you feel compelled to defend your position—you have to be right!
when you are more offended than seems appropriate
if you are an “oholic” of some kind: work-oholic, shop-oholic, clean-oholic, food-oholic, etc.
if you had angry parents
if you felt abandoned in any way
if you felt that your parents’ rules were more important than you were
if you were punished instead of being disciplined
if you were belittled by words, actions, etc.
if you were abused physically, emotionally, verbally, or sexually
when you feel defensive about something
when you are offended because of what was done to someone else—second-hand offense
when you feel you always have to have the last word

Information & Facts about Spirit and Soul:

No conflict between soul and spirit—each has a different function/purpose. See Heb.4:12—there is supposed to be a distinction between the spirit and the soul.

Your human spirit will be able to draw out of the soul things the soul has never been able to do before.

Human spirit is designed to draw out the very best of what is in the soul.

The human spirit’s design is to lead the soul not crush it.

As the human spirit gains strength and becomes dominate, the soul will be able to shine brighter.

The soul is capable of greater expression and reaching greater heights when the soul is in submission to the spirit, rather than when the soul runs rough-shod over the spirit.

A strong or controlling soul (mind, will, emotions, fears, anger, judgments, etc.) smothers the functions of the human spirit.

The soul always wants its own agenda.

The soul responds through what it has experienced and believes—whether or not it lines up with the Word of God.

The soul usually sees no reason to step aside and allow the spirit to make the choices.

Living in God’s Peace and Safety: Job & Proverbs 1:33

We can take a very valuable lesson from Job. Job bemoaned the fact of all that was happening to him and even that he was alive. In Job 3:25-26 he stated, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded had happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.” Job was so consumed with his circumstances that he lost track of the only One who could have helped him, who could have given him peace in the midst of his horrible circumstances.

Romans 8:6 tells us, “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” We are blessed when we are directed and led by the Holy Spirit. We can experience an even greater measure of being directed and controlled by the Holy Spirit of the One and only true God of the universe when we are walking in relationship with the King of kings and the Lord of all lords. There is no greater or more powerful partnership than that.

Solomon was giving a warning against rejecting wisdom and thus rejecting God. In Prov.1:33 the Lord says, “But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” We need to have an intimate relationship with God so we have the ability to hear everything that the Lord has to say to us. We need a greater understanding and revelation of who we are and who God is, and all that He can and will do for His obedient children. We need to not only know, but experience God’s presence with us—whether we are in a comfortable place or a place of difficulty.

What are you doing to make or allow your heart to be ‘good’ ground? Luke 8 – parable of Sower

Four kinds of soil:

seeds feel along the path—trampled on & birds ate [seeds are the Word of God]

… seeds along the path are ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

on rock – when came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture

… are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

fell among thorns which grew up with it and choked the plants

… thorns – stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures and they do not mature.

fell on good soil – came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.

… good ground – stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

What kind of soil is in your heart?

HOW TO STOP STUPID! Stupid: unwise, ill-advised, irresponsible, senseless

A friend’s story: He was in court and wasn’t happy because he didn’t think the judge was listening to him—and he told him so. The judge gave him 30 days for contempt of court. Then he argued with the judge about the sentence—so the judge gave him another 30 days. After the proceedings were over, as the judge was leaving the courtroom he said to my friend, “Do you think you’re man enough to do 90 days?” In his self-arrogance my friend retorted, “If you think you’re judge enough to give it to me!” And, so he did. When my friend arrived in his jail cell in his orange jumpsuit, he saw a top bunk open. He asked, “Is that bunk for me?” A burly, much bigger man, replied, “Ya, unless you want mine,” and pointed to his bottom bunk. “All you have to do is fight me for it.” Suddenly, my friend finally had a smart thought and said, “I’d like the top bunk just fine!” When the man asked him what he was in for, he told him what he had said to the judge and about the contempt charges. The man looked at him and said, “You’re not in here for contempt, you’re in here for stupid!”

All of us do things in life that we could probably call ‘stupid.’ None of us want to do that, but it’s not always so easy to stop ourselves. This teaching is a list of practical things we can do in an effort to stop ‘stupid’ in our lives.

Make quality decisions.
1. You may need to change ‘friends.’ Not everyone who calls themselves your friend is a true friend who want’s what’s best for you.
2. Don’t go places you know will put you in a compromising position. You can’t hang out in the old familiar places if they open you up to problems, temptation, bad influences, etc.
3. Don’t do things that will lead you into temptation or be a path to bad choices.
4. You can’t keep doing the same things or going to the same places and expect change in your life.

Be determined to do what is best for YOU—no matter what.
1. Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
  - God has good plans for you.
2. YOU need good plans for you, too.

Put yourself in places and with people who will support your quality decisions.
1. Find a body of believers (church) or family who love God and love you and truly want what is best for you; who know how to support and encourage your good decisions.
Have someone to whom you can and will be accountable. Preferably someone who can encourage you when you are in a place of decision and wanting to ‘slip’ or give in to temptation.
1. The person needs to be trustworthy, emotionally mature, live a life that is responsible, and really wants what is best for you.
2. This person needs to have the ability to speak honestly to you—to correct you when necessary.
Set a goal for yourself. Keep your eyes on your goal—you have to see the bigger picture than just today.
1. Jesus was able to keep his focus on the ‘bigger picture’ rather than getting caught up in the problems or pain of the current situations in his life.
  - Whenever we focus on our current situation and allow that struggle to overwhelm our thoughts, it’s like holding your thumb up close to the end of your nose and then trying to see what’s beyond it.
  - Hebrews 12:2-3 (NIV) – “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Vs.3) “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
    - From The Message Bible – “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”
    - Where do we need to keep our focus? On Jesus and our end goal.
    - Jesus was able to endure because He stayed focused on the joy set before Him—the joy of victory.
    - Jesus’ outcome from following God’s will—keeping His eyes on the goal and joy set before Him—gave him the strength and endurance He needed to have a victorious outcome.
1. You must know where you are going—what your goal is.
  - Recognize where you’ve been, where you are right now, and where you want to be.
  - Without a goal you won’t know where you are going—“To fail to plan is to plan to fail.”
1. Quote: “This one step – choosing a goal and sticking to it – changes everything.”
1. Quote: “When faced with an adversity or obstacle, power forward harder than ever before! And with the right mindset and enough drive forward you WILL accomplish your goals. And the beautiful thing about that is that arriving at one goal is the starting point to another, and the cycle forever continues!” Quotes taken from Movemequotes.com.

Think through scenarios and what you will do or say if or when you are presented an opportunity that is not in your best interest—have a plan already in mind.
1. ‘Walk yourself through’ some possible situations in your mind, deciding what would be your best response and action to get yourself out of a tempting situation.

Trust God that He will help you overcome any temptation.
1. 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
  - Many people refer to this verse and only quote the part about not being tempted beyond what we can bear.
  - It also says GOD IS FAITHFUL – but too many times when we are in an alluring situation, we don’t think about God and His ability and desire to help us.
  - And the last sentence is important: “But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way so that you can stand up under it.”
    - When we allow ourselves to get into a situation where our emotions or desires have been stirred up, it is very difficult to decide to refuse.

1. James 4:7-8 – “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you.”
  - Resisting the devil, resisting temptation, not giving in to something you shouldn’t do has the requirement of first submitting yourself to God.
    - Until we are totally committed to God and doing our best to do His will and follow His direction, it will be difficult to make the changes in our lifestyle and actions to cause positive change in our lives.

1. It’s difficult for God to help ‘Stupid!’
  - Here’s my personal story of ‘stupid’: Many years ago I worked in my sister’s shop and would go to work determined to not eat sweets. As the day would go on, I’d think about the grocery store a few doors down the mall and their bakery. I knew they served samples of their baked goods. Subconsciously, I was trying to deceive myself into thinking that I could taste the samples and not purchase any sweets. The reality was that once I tasted them and the sugar got into my system, it was all over—I would purchase whatever sounded good, return to work, and eat it all.
    - Once our desire for something is stirred up, or we are emotionally involved or excited, or sexually stimulated, we are not at the point of desiring God’s help so He can “provide a way for us to stand up under it.”
  - We can easily set ourselves up—once a thought goes into a desire, most of the battle is over.
    - James 1:13-15 – “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Begin to notice how or why you sabotage yourself. Ask God to show you how, why….?

Quote: “Take the time to see things as you would have them be instead of as they are.”
1. The quotes from Movemequotes.com are not from a spiritual perspective. But the spiritual principle for this one is Romans 4:17b – “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”
  - Once again, we need to see the bigger picture—how God sees the situation—what He says about us and our abilities?
    - God says we are victors and overcomers (Romans 8:37); we can do anything with His help (Philippians 4:13); all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27).
  - We have every right to speak that we are victorious, an overcomer, etc.—that’s how He sees us.

What you speak daily is what you will get.
1. It is a spiritual principle: You will get what you speak.
  - Galatians 6:7 – “A man (all people) will reap what he sows.”

1. Power of the tongue.
  - Proverbs 18:21 – “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
  - Proverbs 21:23 – “He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.”
  - James 3:1-6 speaks about the power/influence our tongue has in our lives.

1. Negative talk is enemy talk.
  - James 3:10 – “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”
    - We can’t praise God and speak good things for ourselves one moment, and then speak self-defeating things and expect to have success.

1. Power scriptures and statements. I’ve reworded these verses to make them into positive confessions; declare them out loud.
  - 1 John 4:4 – The One who is in me is greater than he (devil) who is in the world.
  - Romans 8:37 – I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me.
  - Philippians 4:13 – I can do everything through Him (Christ) who gives me strength.
  - Mark 10:27 – All things are possible with God.
  - Proverbs 18:21 – The power of life and death (failure and success) are in my tongue—and I choose life.
  - 1 Corinthians 10:13 – God, I know You are faithful; You will not let me be tempted beyond what I can bear. But, if and when I am tempted, You will provide a way out for me so I can stand up under it and not give in to temptation.

“You need a plan that you are so familiar with that it kicks in immediately.” Quote from a friend.

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you,

so that in all things at all times, having all that you need,

you will abound in every good work.”

2 Corinthians 9:8

You need an experience on which to hang your expectation:

An experience, that when God showed up in a way that we suspected He could—now we have an experience.

We make bitter root expectations from bad or hurtful things that happen to us. We need to do the same with good, successful experiences—especially with God and His faithfulness.

Prov.37:3-7 (Amplified Bible) “Trust in the Lord and do good…”

“God loves you just the way you are.” Those words are often spoken or put into song to help people to feel better about themselves. I do believe it is true, but I think our perspective is a bit off in our interpretation of what that means.

Too often we take it to mean that God is satisfied or pleased with our attitudes, actions, behaviors, or lifestyle. Because God doesn’t just have love—HE IS LOVE, He does love us no matter where we are or what we are doing—but that doesn’t necessarily mean that He is pleased with all that. When our children do things we don’t like, it doesn’t (or shouldn’t) remove our love for them, but we certainly are not pleased with them at that moment.

We can be extremely grateful that God sees and knows us from beginning to end—we get so caught up in the ‘now’ of our lives that we don’t have the full picture of our lives.

WHY…as Christians do we continue to struggle.... when we are trying to live an effective, meaningful Christ-filled life—wanting to be all God wants us to be—trying not to ‘sin on purpose’, etc., why do we continue to struggle with old thoughts, wants, desires, or our unhealed places of woundedness?

After all, 2 Peter 1:3-5 (NIV) tells us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” So why does it seem we don’t have those ‘everythings’ evident in our daily lives?

2 Peter 2:19b – “…for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”
Heb.12:1b – “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles [us].”

The ‘everythings’ promised in 2 Peter 1:3 are hindered or stopped or held back by our ‘everything’ in Heb.12:1 that so easily entangles us.

What triggered this writing was reading Heb.9:14 – “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” In general, it seems most Christians tend to think that the “acts that lead to death” are the major sins we hear preached against—lying, stealing, addictions, drugs, alcohol, sexual sins, etc.

When in fact, the deeper sins we have buried in our hearts VERY QUICKLY bring spiritual death to our spiritual growth and Christian walk. EVERY place in your heart where you hold a critical attitude about someone or something (no matter how right that judgment seems to be—and it could even be based on fact), it’s your critical attitude that makes it your sin.

EVERY place in your heart where you hold unforgiveness—NO MATTER HOW JUSTIFIED your belief feels—they are “ACTS (sins) THAT LEAD TO DEATH”!!! A person once told me he was proud that over the years he has been able to keep control of his intense anger and rage, and that he didn’t unleash it against anyone. He missed the whole point of Eph.4:18 – “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts”—and other verses that tell us to rid ourselves of anger, malice, etc. Is it good that he has been able to ‘control’ his anger and rage? Of course, but I can’t believe God is honored by our unwillingness to forgive and let go of the offenses done to us!

Prov.4:23 – Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Jesus, after being betrayed by a friend within His close fellowship… after being arrested without good cause…after spending the night in an unjust trial… after being beaten and flogged with leather straps that had hooks on the ends that did FAR more than put whip lash marks on His body—it ripped His flesh apart…

After having to carry His own heavy cross that had to rest on His bloody body as He dragged it along to the place called the Scull where He was going to be nailed to that same cross…after being stripped of His clothing and mocked…after having His hands and feet nailed to that cross…after that cross was dropped into a hole that jolted His body as it plunged into place…after saying, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”…after hearing many taunt Him for who He claimed to be...after all that…Jesus hung on that cross for three hours in darkness as He experienced…

…ALL wickedness and sin; there was so much evil and wickedness that the sun couldn’t even shine! It’s so easy to say that we know He took upon Himself all of our sins, but we need an understanding that for Jesus, in human form, it was VERY INTENSE! Three hours of darkness—it took that much time for…

…EVERY sin of EVERY person ever to walk the earth…

…for EVERY disease that was or could be in EVERY man, EVERY woman, and EVERY child…

…for EVERY evil imagination—for EVERY demonic entity to attack Him—for EVERY iniquity experienced and embraced by EVERY person to ever live…

…for EVERY pit of despair, depression, hopelessness, and fear…

…for ALL mental illness—for ALL unrighteousness—for ALL emotional pain—for ALL physical pain—for ALL physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse ALL people had or ever would experience…

…for ALL rejection, betrayal and abandonment we would ever experience…

…for EVERY handicap and limitation known to all mankind…

…for EVERY slavery experienced by humans—for ALL OF THAT to be put upon Him. No wonder darkness filled the land!

Think of the darkness you feel when you go into a sin-filled place; that's NOTHING compared to ALL wickedness Jesus experienced on the cross. When we say Jesus had to experience our humanity, I don't think we fully consider what that really means. Heb.2:14-17 – "…He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil. For this reason He had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people." 2Cor.5:21 – "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." When Jesus said, "It is finished!" (John 19:30), the assault of all sin and wickedness was finished; and the redemptive plan of God was fulfilled. Heb.12:2 – “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” To be able to get through everything He had to experience He kept His focus on the joy of knowing His sacrifice was so you could be saved, healed, set free, delivered, and made whole. He did it for YOU!

Do you feel like a puzzle that has its pieces scattered and messed up?

No matter how your life has been broken apart, like a puzzle with scattered pieces, God knows how to put you back together with every piece in its proper place. For most (probably all) of us, that is a process. As we allow God to go into those old dark places within us and shine His light into our pain filled darkness, He can and will do what we need to have our disjointed puzzle put back together.

I guarantee you are a beautiful picture even if you cannot recognize that right now—you always have been, but you haven’t been able to appreciate and rest in your beauty because someone or something has marred and damaged the beautiful picture on your box and messed up your puzzle pieces.

I’ve often used the illustration of having a precious little girl, freshly bathed, with a sweet fragrance, dressed in clean and beautiful clothing. As you send her out to play, you marvel over her beauty—you’d recognize her anywhere. As she experiences life on the playground she gets covered in the mud of life—some thrown on her and some mud puddles she chose to jump into. When she returns to your doorstep, you look at her, barely able to recognize her because her beauty has been covered with the sin of others and the mud of life—but, her beauty is still there under all of that.

No matter what you’ve done or has been done to you, your original God-design and beauty is still there; those things don’t remove your beauty, they just complicate and cover it—and scatter your puzzle pieces into an unrecognizable picture. Even if some of your pieces seem to be missing, God can and will restore them. If some of your pieces have torn edges and you wonder how they could ever fit together again—it is possible for God.

I wish I could share my personal history with you of God putting my life puzzle back together because it is a testimony of God’s faithfulness. It doesn’t matter how badly you are broken, how scattered and destroyed your pieces seem to be, or how desperate your life issues seem to be, I promise God has a way of restoration for you.

As Christians, often we don’t know an effective way to pray about those things, but I have experienced restoration from some pretty despicable and desperate things, so I know it is possible. And we usually need someone to help us—someone who can pray with us and is experienced in knowing how to invite the light of Jesus into the dark places.

My life scripture is Luke 4:18-19…Jesus saying He came to heal the brokenhearted, set the captives free, and release prisoners from darkness. I am sooooo grateful Jesus not only came to save us from the kingdom of darkness, but He came to save us from ourselves!!!

Forgiveness: And one of its complications….
Is it easy to forgive? Often, it is not. Sometimes our pain is so overwhelming that we can’t say we are willing to forgive—the ‘want to’ just isn’t in us.

I remember praying for a young woman in jail and she wanted to forgive her mother, but just couldn’t. The Lord showed me she had long list of great disappointments in her life, and this offense was added to that painful list. I asked the Lord to cover those disappointments with His precious blood; immediately she said, “I can forgive her now.”

Once the Lord separated her list of old disappointments from the current one, she was able to forgive.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 – My testimony…Writing the vision…

I wrote this in 2014.

One morning I was pondering an issue in my life as I was sorting through old documents in my laptop. I came across one that intrigued me so I opened it to see what it was. It’s from Habakkuk 2:2-3 about writing the vision and sending the heralds. God definitely “set me up” for that one! That was exactly what I needed to remind me of God’s faithfulness to me and have my vision refreshed.

About 25 years ago (now about 33 years later) the Lord led me to this scripture as I was in the midst of the worst torment I had ever had in my life. My pastor had prophetically spoken a word of the Lord to me that shook me to the core—it was that everything I had done up to that point for God was worthless. I was shocked and very disturbed that it could be true—and I wanted to come against it saying it wasn’t true, but somehow, I knew better than to do that.

After all, I had loved and served God since I was 12 years old—how could that be true!?! The Lord gave me a dream, and as I woke up during it, I was verbally recounting and defending everything I had done for the Lord—then the startling understanding of knowing it was true. I was in such emotional and spiritual torment that it literally felt like my insides were being pulled out of my bellybutton. That was the night my self-idol and spirit of pride lost their power and were removed by the Lord. After I repented and asked God’s forgiveness, I desperately cried out to Him for something that would give me peace in the midst of my turmoil. I opened my Bible and there was Hab.2!! When I read it, I instantly had peace flood through me because I knew God was saying it will be alright—that I would get an understanding and I (we) would get beyond this.

What a HUGE change that made in my life. I later came to understand what defiled my good works and service to God and others was that my motives for doing them were wrong. Because of my very poor and damaged self-image, my wounded need under my desire to serve God (I did have a godly desire to serve) was to look good, to be good, and get approval. Proverbs 16:2 – “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” And verse 9 – “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” I am SO GRATEFUL for the Lord determining my steps!!

That morning the Lord’s application of Hab.2:2-3 was different: “Then the Lord replied: ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks to the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.’” I realized (again) that I needed to write down the vision and instructions the Lord has given me and actively hold on to them until they come to pass. I have absolutely NO DOUBT of God’s faithfulness, so if it seems there is little spiritual movement in my life, I know it’s me and not Him.

What is the vision the Lord has given to you and/or His instructions/directions for you? Write them down very plainly so there is no doubt what you are believing God to do; then assign it to God’s herald to run with it. Early on in my spiritual journey I read Frank Peretti’s books “This Present Darkness” and “Piercing the Darkness.” The Lord used those books (although they are novels) to teach me two things: 1) How demons operate in our lives and 2) that angels need to receive their assignment from us in many situations. I’m pretty sure the ‘heralds’ in Hab.2 are angels available from God that He wants us to use to get His will accomplished in our lives.

Here is a sample of what you might write and say: God, I speak to the herald You said in Hab.2:2 is mine to run with my vision and I say: Herald, here is the vision-instruction-direction of the Lord for me. (Write it out plainly and speak it out loud). Herald, run with it. My vision-instruction-direction from God has an appointed time. Herald, I bless you with delivering my assigned appointments at the timing of the Lord and in perfect alignment with His will and desires. Herald, run—run to catch up to what God has planned; run to arrive at the right place, at the right time, with the right message. Run in accordance with the will of God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

DECLARATIONS OF FAITH:

Father God, I thank You and give You praise for the Truth of Your Word, and that You are not a man, that You should lie (Numbers 23:19). In agreement with Romans 4:17 that I can “speak things that are not as though they were,” and Isaiah 55:11 that says Your Word never returns to You without accomplishing its purposes, and John 14:13-14 where Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”, I declare that….

Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. (I John 4:4)
God is for me, and He is more powerful than those who are against me. (Romans 8:31)
I am more than a conqueror through Jesus who loves me. (Romans 8:37)
I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)
All things are possible with You. (Mark 10:27)
I am fearfully and wonderfully made by You. (Psalm 139:14)
No weapon formed against me shall prosper. (Isaiah 54:17)