Breakthrough

Red Sea Impossibilities

As I entered the doors of the local hospital emergency room, once again, several different thoughts came to my mind. This hospital, the corridors, the ritual of checking in, the nurses and even the food, had become familiar for many reasons.

It was just a little over a year ago that I had taken my father to the ER, accompanied by my mother. He had battled heart issues for years and this time his implanted defibrillator went off with such strength it rocked him to the core. Since he had tested positive for that irritating pandemic, COVID, he stayed in the hospital. During those days, his defibrillator went off so many times he simply wanted to quit. But he fought hard so he could come home to his family that awaited his return.

After COVID he battled pneumonia and won! Though he did come home for a time he returned to the hospital because he became infected with MRSA (an infection that is caused by a type of staph bacteria). The infection demanded intense antibiotics which caused kidney failure. Eventually, during the cool of the season, with the trees turning multi-colors (his favorite season) he came home to hospice care.

It would only be a few months later that we would stand by his bed as he entered eternity.

Almost a year to the day that I first had taken my dad into the emergency room, I was driving my husband in. He had become ill with a high fever that lasted for a couple of days and didn’t seem to break, even with medication.

It would be a 10 day stay; first warding off sepsis that was trying to invade his body, and then going through several surgeries that would leave him without four of his toes. The first several days were crucial, but eventually I was allowed to take him home. He would have to remain off his foot for at least another month after he got home. I was becoming used to the daily care, thinking about the times I had helped my mother and sister with my father in the not too distant past. I was thanking God for sparing my husband’s life.

I thought this would be the last I would see of the hospital for some time.

But after work, as I pulled into my driveway, I got a phone call. My mother had gotten into a horrible car accident and was at the emergency room. I entered that familiar door and was led back to emergency rooms, again.

Despite that she lay in a neck brace and endured horrific bruises, she forced a smile. I thought. “I am glad she is alive!” Though bruised, a cracked rib and cracked pubic ramus, she was still alive! I was glad to drive her home that evening. She began to heal slowly while my sister and I watched her improve. Then one morning she complained about chest pains and here I was again, at the ER.

After many tests they discovered small blood clots had entered her heart and her lungs from the bruising in her legs. Not only had she survived the accident, but she had survived blood clots.

I sat by the bedside once again, trusting the God who had always been faithful.

The saying, “when it rains it pours” seemed to be appropriate.

PS 139 kept coming to my mind, especially the final verses.

 PS 139; 23-24 NLT
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

I was being shaken. Often people say that God won’t give you more than you can handle. Well, I don’t always agree with that statement. He often allows more that we can handle on our own. He just gives us more of HIS GRACE. I thought, “What was in my heart? “I want God to lead me along the path of everlasting life. He is faithful to do just that.

These are precarious days. Our country seems to be shaking! The events that are taking place are events that test the core of our beliefs. Events that are affecting our personal lives, events that are affecting the future of America and the world are taking place in these hours.

We must be prepared to hear the voice of God. We must be prepared to obey his leading. We must be prepared to bring in the harvest for salvation.

We don’t know our future. We don’t even know how many days we are going to be on the earth. But it is important that we make most of our time.

As my mother is resting her weary body while it heals and my husband is being restored, I rest in the comfort of the Lord. I know there will be many struggles. I have witnessed them personally and among friends and family. I see them in our nation, and the world, at large.

Heartache, death, disease, violence, and trials don’t seem to stop, it seems. But it is part of this life. Jesus even said that there would be many trials but to be of good cheer for he has overcome the world.

What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9?

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed”. (NLT)

God’s light always shines brighter in perilous times and impossible situations.

It has throughout history. I am SURE that when Moses reached the Red Sea and knew the Egyptian army was right behind them, he was wondering what God had up his sleeve. But he trusted God who delivered ALL of them, while their enemy perished.

I bet Esther was not expecting to have to plead for her people as Haman had declared that all the Jews should be slaughtered. It seemed impossible to have victory amid that disastrous proclamation. But God heard the cries of her heart and others. Not only did God deliver them, but Haman hung in the place of the one whom he threatened to have killed.

We can continue with Joseph who must have felt hopeless as he sat in a prison for years for a crime he never committed. He may have wondered how he was going to get out of this one. But God heard his cries and not only freed him but made him second in command of the nation.

What about Daniel, who was thrown into the lion’s den, David, who was sought by King Saul who wanted to kill him, or Noah who built a huge ship to be able to endured a flood that would not spare anyone but his family. God was faithful and saved each of them. And then there was Peter who was delivered from prison by an angel. We can go on and on.

Even in modern times we have heard testimonies of God’s faithfulness when all seemed lost. There are testimonies yet to be heard from places like Afganistan, China or North Korea where it takes the faith of God who still works in the impossible. DOES God hear his people?

Sometimes we must walk through things we thought we wouldn’t have to. Sometimes life seems hopeless. BUT GOD STILL hears our cries and delivers, ESPECIALLY when it seems impossible.

What are you going through? What thoughts are invading your mind? What trials are crossing your path that seem impossible and what fears may be knocking at your door.  What about the future of America? Has God heard the cries for this nation? I believe he is waiting for his timing for this nation and for your future. He is waiting for the impossible. When we reach the Red Sea of impossibilities, God WILL be glorified.

I pray that you trust him in the process of your journey. 

God bless!

Press Forward.

I cannot image the intense physical and psychological pressures that the firefighters are experiencing during these hours. Nor can I imagine the control or determination of doing the “right thing” in the face of threats and accusations that the police officers are facing.

But I do understand the wave of doubt and shaking that has tried to come upon the body of Christ as we continue to press in for our country and in our personal lives. I just keep pressing on, as are many others. I have seen worship breakout across the country outside the church buildings and rejoice. I know deep in my heart that our Lord is at work, regardless of what other things I may see or hear.

Paul saw and experienced many hardships but still saw beyond it and encouraged others. That is why he stated:

“And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.” Galatians 6:10 (AMP)

He was always encouraging his fellow believers during heartache or blessings, while in chains in prison or as a free man.

Today is no different. We need encouragement.

That is why when the Lord showed me a picture while I was in prayer (for my own personal family crisis and for the nation) I wanted to share it with the Christian community.

This is what I saw:

I saw a ship floating on the waters. The bow was beginning to break through what appeared to be a thick glass window. It was at least a foot thick. Chunks of glass began to break and fall as the ship pushed through. I hadn’t noticed that there was even a window in front of the ship until then.  It continued pushing with more force and more power. On the other side of the window one could see clearer.  

I realized then that we have not been really seeing with clarity like we thought we had. Our vision was somewhat cloudy. We have heard 2020 is supposed to be a year of clearer vision. I believe as we join in unity and push through, we will begin to see what Holy Spirit has been trying to show us.

The word that came to my heart: Do not give up. There is breakthrough right in front of you. You are breaking through with his power this hour.

As I am writing this, I am listening to a worship group on YouTube. Before the worship they stated that they kept trying to record live worship, but their equipment kept crashing. (I am assuming they were talking about electronics?) Anyway, they finally were able to record and this was their prayer: “we pray that everyone that sees this will have glass shattered in their lives. All the glass of insecurity, all the glass of pain, all the glass of doubt will shatter, and we will find that Jesus is Lord. May we look more and more like your Son.”

The timing was perfect!!! But of course, the timing with the Lord is ALWAYS perfect.

I encourage each person that is reading this to press forward. There is breakthrough in your lives. Your prayers are on the precept of breaking through for yourself or for others. There is breakthrough against the things that have been holding you back in your walk with Jesus. There is breakthrough for hope, for healing and for salvation; or whatever you have been praying for.  When you break through to the other side your vision will become clearer.

DO NOT GIVE UP!

Wake up! Rise Up! Pray! Assume your authority and then charge forward. The breakthrough is right in front of you.

The Lord has heard your cries, like he heard the cries of the children of Israel as they cried to him to be delivered from slavery in Egypt.

Keep praying. Keep believing. Keep trusting. Press forward.

God is our deliver and will show his hand of deliverance. He loves his own and will not give us up into the enemy’s hands at this hour.

The battle belongs to the Lord.

“This is what the Lord says to you: Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” 2 Chronicles 20:15 (NIV)

Keep on keeping on. God bless.

HAVE FAITH; MOVE MOUNTAINS

It takes faith to believe.

It takes faith to know that God created the heavens and the earth. It takes faith to believe that Jesus is the son of God and that there is no other way to God but through him.

And yet, once the faith is put into practice, explosive outcomes occur.

Certainly, you remember the part from the movie, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” when Indiana Jones musters up faith to walk off a cliff, hoping that he steps onto a hidden trail. Miraculously, his feet land on a rock pathway. Once he finds the “hidden” path he clearly sees the rest of the route. Though this was just a movie, it is a good example of walking by faith.

We must take the first step of faith. It is in obedience, believing that God will make a way, that miracles happen. He never fails us. He leads us from the moment we, by faith, accept him as our Lord. (He was the one who guided our steps that directed us toward him, in the first place.) And then he continues to guide us in every part of our lives. Instead of seeing with our eyes, we begin the journey of seeing with our heart and hearing with our spirit.

David may have seen a giant in front of him when he faced Goliath, but in his heart, he saw the power of his God and faith arose in his spirit. The same thing happens in each of us. We may see destruction. We may see defeat. We may see hopelessness. Those are the very moments we need to walk by faith, and not by sight. That is when we need to take courage and fight the giants in our lives with the Word of God.

“David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies – the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead body of your men to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!” 1 Samuel 17:46 & 47 (NLT)

David had unwavering faith in his Lord. He believed with all his heart that the Lord would not just pull him through, but that he would give him wisdom to DEFEAT the giant that taunted him and the God he served. He had such faith that he told his enemy he would die. How dare his enemy defy the God of Heaven.

The giants in our lives will fall, as well. They won’t just fall; they will be destroyed! They will die! The Lord stated that NO weapon formed against us will prosper. (Isaiah 54:17)

It starts with BELIEVING anything is possible. It starts with believing what our Lord says. It starts with faith.

Faith is powerful!

The Lord said that if we had faith, as little as a mustard seed we could move mountains. NOTHING would be impossible. (Matthew 17:20)

Faith was powerful then and it is powerful now.

Even in my personal life, situations that seem impossible to untangle, have been miraculously straightened. And I have heard testimonies of the impossible in the lives of others.

All we need to do is BELIEVE.

Remember the story in the Bible about the father who wanted his son to be delivered from demons that were trying to kill him? He asked Jesus if he was able to help him. Jesus told him that everything is possible for anyone who believes. The father wanted to believe and asked the Lord to help him overcome his unbelief. (Mark 9)

It only takes us to believe and yet, even if we struggle with believing, we need only to ask the Lord to increase our faith. The Lord takes what we give him and expounds on it.

Think about the time Jesus took the small amount of bread and fish and fed 5000! It really IS all about him and the power of HIS hands. We need to simply believe and walk out our faith, no matter how small it may appear. He accomplishes the rest.

Once while at a prayer meeting, we prayed for a local government leader. During the prayer time the Lord showed me a picture. I saw the person we were praying for lift their shield towards heaven. I noticed that the shield itself was not large. It was only the size of a dinner plate, yet the person lifted it confidently in faith. Suddenly I noticed that a large invisible force field begin to shoot out from the small shield. It covered the individual completely.

Then I understood.

The Lord just asks us to lift our shields of faith, no matter what size they may be. He takes our sacrifice, our praise, our faith and creates greatness from it.

As we exercise our faith, he causes it to grow. And soon faith allows us to believe in more miracles. As each prayer is answered our hope rises, our fears lift, and faith becomes our lifestyle.

Living by faith does not mean we have little.
It means we have all that God desires for us.

He is our shield. He is our protector. He is the lifter of our souls.

When Moses put his staff into the sea, it parted. It was not the staff that parted the sea. It was his obedience and his faith that the Lord would deliver him. The Lord did the rest.

Like Moses, our part is to stand in faith and believe. Everything else is in the Lord’s hands. He provides our needs, our miracles.

He is a good God. He is good when there are blessings. He is good when evil appears to prevail. He is good when darkness covers the earth. And he is good when we see a mighty miracle take place.

Quit looking at the impossible situations that appear to be looming. Instead look at the Lord of the host of heaven. Keep your eyes focused on him. Speak to the giants that stand in front of you and say,

“How dare you defy my Lord. I refuse to bow to fear. I refuse to bow to unbelief. My God will supply all my needs. My God will strike down the giants that taunt me. Greater is he that lives in me than he that lives in this world. God will rescue me!”

HAVE FAITH. MOVE MOUNTAINS. BELIEVE.

God bless.

Breakthrough Season

I spent many hours driving on the highway this summer. During times when I was alone in the car, I prayed or simply talked with the Lord. People that may have observed this in the adjacent cars, may have assumed I was simply conversing on Bluetooth.

During one of those conversations I realized that my prayers had become declarations or prophetic proclamations. I began to say, “This summer I prophesy” …. the next word on my tongue was, “breakthrough”. Before I could even get the word out of my mouth the billboard sign on the side of the highway (it was one of these billboards that rotate advertisements) changed. Guess what the word was that filled the billboard?

BREAKTHROUGH

The word seemed to shine like a Vegas neon sign. Of course it was an advertisement of some sort. But the one word that took up most of the sign was BREAKTHROUGH, in bold letters.

Joy, excitement and anticipation filled my heart. Words regarding breakthrough began to spill out of my mouth like a river. I began to declare and believe BREAKTHROUGH over many of my personal situations, some that I have been praying over for years.

Faith bubbled over and I began to declare BREAKTHROUGH for others, for our land and our nation. I felt like I couldn’t contain myself. It was if I was creating life through those words as our Lord did when he created the world.

Suddenly Ezekiel 37: 1- 6 came into my mind.

“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, O Sovereign Lord you alone know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know I am the Lord! So, I prophesied as I was commanded….”

Days and weeks later the Lord would put a person or a circumstance on my heart and I would say, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. I declare the breath of life to you”, whatever the, “you,” represented. I would prayerfully speak life to people; to hopeless situations, to dead dreams that laid dormant and to promises that were not fulfilled.”

Then today as I was watching TV, a story came on about a tunnel being drilled through 85 miles of bedrock. The commentator made a comment stating (paraphrased) “This is one of the biggest break throughs.” Of course, he was commenting about breaking through the bedrock. But it reminded me of the “Breakthrough” word again.

Now is the time for the biggest breakthroughs in our lives, if we believe.

So, I speak LIFE to each of us and to the prayers and dreams in our hearts that we have been praying for and believing for but have become dormant. There may be things hidden so deep that we may have forgotten them, things that may appear dead. I declare life to those prayers, life to our dreams, life in our churches, life to our land and our nation.

This is not just a word for me, but for each of those who walk in the Light. Take authority of the situations that are surrounding you and speak life by speaking God’s Word into the situation.

Only you and your Lord may know what you are facing. It is time to walk in breakthrough!

LIVE!

Amen and God Bless.