Thursday, July 16, 2020

Burning Ones

My husband and I watched an episode of a show called “Cooked” last week. In this particular episode, there was a nun who was an expert in making cheese. She made the cheese in an ancient way, in a big wooden barrel. The FDA had a problem with this. They wanted her to make it in a pure, stainless steel drum. 

The nun complied but noticed that she couldn’t keep e-coli from developing on the cheese. She went back to making it in the wooden barrel and then she didn’t have a problem with e-coli. She discovered that the wooden barrel harbored good bacteria in the grooves of the wood and it would kill the bad bacteria in the cheese. She was able to show this to the FDA and they allowed her to keep making her cheese in the big wooden barrels.

This is also how wine is sometimes still made and has been made for thousands of years. 

We often think the modern way of doing things is best and the more sterile the conditions, the better. In ancient times, however, they understood the health benefits of fermentation of certain foods and drinks. They knew the importance of having good bacteria to bring about that fermentation process.

Let me propose something to you. Even the greatest of Saints were still sinners. They are Saints because they loved God with their whole heart and embraced the wooden Cross of Christ. Therefore, they became like that good bacteria in the wooden barrel, killing the bad bacteria (sin and darkness) by their sacrificial love of Christ and their willingness to lose their own life in order to find it.

People have been saying for a couple years now that God is going to do something new and is about to pour out new wine. It is true that it is a wine that we have never seen before but it is not new. Actually it is ancient. It is a wine that is made up of the prayers of the saints, sacrifices and blood of the martyrs. It is a wine that has been fermenting for over 2000 years, since the first Pentecost!

This is the wine that is about to be poured out on the earth! This is a wine that we have never seen before! This outpouring will go above and beyond all other outpourings. This wine is going to cause the greatest move of God’s Spirit that has ever been poured out on the earth!

The Lord is building an army. This army will cross denominational lines. The ones who will lead this army have been growing in deep, intimate relationships with Jesus; They have been willing to lay down their own lives and be set on fire with His love. They have yielded to God and have allowed Him to work on and transform their hearts. They are willing to be baptized with the baptism of fire (Matthew 3:11). They will be known as the burning ones. This burning will spread like wildfire to the rest of the army. This army is going to be used to pour out the barrels of ancient wine.

To be part of this army is going to require blind trust and walking closely in the footsteps of Jesus. It might even look foolish at first to others but if they will keep their eyes on Jesus, He will lead them and impart to them the faith that they will need to partner with him in the pouring out of this ancient but new wine.

Let the cry of our heart be, “Make me into a burning one in your army, God!!”



Saturday, July 4, 2020

Sovereign Freedom

Today is the 4th of July. I am reflecting on what that means and some words the Lord gave me twenty two years ago, specifically, April of 1998. These words are stirring in me and I believe it is finally time to release them because I believe they have to do with the times we are living in and they might bring encouragement to others.

There are a lot of doomsday type messages floating around right now, both in Protestant and Catholic circles; messages that predict more tribulations coming. 

I do not doubt that there are more things coming, I have seen some things myself. The Lord even said to me once, "Do not be afraid of what is coming. It is necessary for the salvation of souls."

Jesus did say in Matthew 16:26, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul."

There is more than this temporal life and sometimes it takes a shaking of sorts for us to come to him. At least it did for me over thirty years ago.

However, I want to also bring encouragement to believers out there. True messages from the Lord should ultimately end up being filled with hope and encouragement even if they start off with a warning.

Twenty-two years ago in prayer, I had a series of images come to my mind as well as the interpretation (I do not always share the process and the images that come to me but thought it would help the believability of the interpretation, as well as show the process for those wanting to grow in their own ability to hear from God).

Here are some of the images: The Declaration of Independence being written, the Union army, a rebel flag, a turtle, a sun rising in the west, an American flag on a flag pole with a cross on it instead of stars, the earth with a big cross that was lying down being lifted up to a standing position, and the last image was of early pioneers from this country watching for the sun to rise and longing to see a new day dawning. Jesus then said, "You will see that new day."

Here is the interpretation of all these images that came to me:

There have been many human efforts to bring about freedom. They have been slow in coming and have often ended in civil war and blood shed. At times we have even retreated inside ourselves at the sight of adversity. But a new day is dawning when there will be a reversal of the order of how things are now. Life as we know it could change within a short amount of time and within our lifetime. It will end up being a glorious new day; the cross of Jesus will be lifted up and the Son of God will be glorified on the earth and in America and He will sovereignly bring about freedom!

I also heard Jesus say to me, "What you are about to see is a privilege and others have longed to see."

Let us partner with Jesus and pray this all comes to pass.