Category: Epiphanies

Circle the Enemy…and Shout Him Out!

“Gratitude is thanking God after He does it. Faith is thanking God before He does it. As we imagine unborn tomorrows, we have to recognize that everything is created twice. The first creation is spiritual. Prayer is the way we write history before it happens. It’s the difference between letting things happen and making things happen. How God answers our prayers is up to Him. But we need to pray through till the breakthrough (regardless)!

“In August, 1996, I felt prompted to pray a perimeter around Capitol Hill. I was reading Joshua 1:3: “I will give you every place where you set your foot.” I felt like God wanted me to stake claim to that promise, so I prayed a 4.7-mile circle around the Hill. Two decades later, we ‘own’ six properties on that prayer circle with a combined value of more than $75 million. Did I mention that we own them debt-free?! ONLY GOD could do this!! There is NO WAY I could have orchestrated that many miracles. (Incidentally) I didn’t think of it as a grand gesture at the time, but that’s exactly what it was.

“The gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the LORD said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands.’ Joshua 6:1,2.

“Did you catch the verb tense? It should be future tense: ‘I will deliver.’ It hadn’t happened yet, right? So why is it past tense: ‘I have delivered’? Because every miracle happens twice! The breakthrough always happens in the spiritual realm first. Then—and only then—does it manifest itself in the physical realm. God had already delivered Jericho in the spiritual realm; all the Israelites had to do was keep circling (the city walls) for seven days.

“Before feeding the five thousand, Jesus asked Philip a question:’Where are we to buy bread, so that all these people may eat?’ Do you really think Jesus was asking Philip to GPS the nearest Panera Bread? Me neither! Jesus was ‘kneading’ him (play on words intended!). How do we know this? Because Scripture says, ‘He well knew what He was about to do.’

“Take a deep breath! God’s got this! God wants us to get where Hewants us to go more than we (even) want to get there, and He’s ‘awfully’ good at getting us there.

“There is one catch, of course: none of us know how long it will take! As my friend, T. L. Rogers said, ‘It would be a lot easier if God told us how long.’ One of the most poignant questions in Psalms is this one: ‘how long, O LORD?’ We’re like little children in the back seat of a car putting this question on repeat-mode: ‘Are we there yet?’ (Perhaps) God’s answer is a lot like ours, as parents: ‘One minute less than the last time you asked.’

From Mark Batterson’s book, Win the Day, pages 151-152, under the sub-heading, Seven Circles.

“Gilded with Goodbyes…”

“Every moment of every day is ‘gilded with goodbyes,’ per Frederick Buechner. It may sound somber to say that you’re experiencing everything for the last time, but this perspective makes every moment a holy moment…if you want to ‘win the day,’ you’ve got to live like it’s the first day and the last day of your life.” Mark Batterson, Win the Day, pg. 150.

Panzy Pacifists?

“We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a power the twentieth century does not reckon with. But we are ‘harmless,’ and, therefore, unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places…we are ‘sideliners’—coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers, while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us; we are too much like its own. Oh, that God would make us dangerous!” Missionary & Martyr, Jim Elliott.

Do It Here & Now, O LORD!

Upon recovering from being sick and feeling the need for a nap, I was trying to rehearse verses from Acts 2:38-42 (yes, not ‘only’ for memory-sake but also to put myself to sleep!) and this Thought came to me: if God supernaturally birthed His Church in Jerusalem, a City purportedly similar in population and climate and topography to Simi Valley, adding 3,000 souls in one day, then establishing house-to-house, ‘favor spots,’ etc., how much more…HERE and NOW…in my town since childhood and in these Last Days, for He promised that the “Latter Rain would be greater than the Former Rain” (purportedly, physically/naturally true in Israel to this day) and that He would “pour out the Latter Rain WITH the Former Rain,” prophesying an even bigger and better and more sustained move of God than before. Specific to Simi, in the early 1990s, the man of God, Dutchie Clayton, preached a message for us in church that also included a supernatural/rhema Word of Prophecy, where Jesus declared through him that ‘these hills are Mine, this Valley is Mine, these souls are Mine,” etc., promising His R.O.A.R.* here in our future…which I believe is NOW, “for surely, He comes quickly!” (*R.O.A.R.= R-Restorative, O-Overcoming, A-Awakening & R-Revival.)

Holy Calling, Sacred Work

“I take off my shoes when I write because I consider writing to be holy ground—a sacred trinity of writer and reader and God. You are giving me five hours of your time, give or take. With God’s help, I’m going to give the best book I’ve got. Taking off my shoes is a ritual reminder that writing is a divine calling. I don’t just type on a keyboard, I worship God with the twenty-six letterers of the English alphabet.” Win The Day, by Mark Batterson, pg. 115 (italicized and bold type added by me, ‘dkb’).

Trust + Thank > Plan + Evaluate

“Rejoice and be thankful! As you walk with Me through this day, practice trusting and thanking Me all along the way. Trust is the channel through which My Peace flows into you. Thankfulness lifts you up above your circumstances. I do My greatest works through people with grateful, trusting hearts. Rather than planning and evaluating, practice trusting and thanking Me continually. This is a paradigm shift that will revolutionize your life.” Sarah Young, Jesus Calling, pg. 85.