Planning for Success

Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know – do not distinguish and recognise, have knowledge of and understand. Jeremiah 33:3

I have not spoken in secret, in a corner of the land of darkness; I did not call [you] to a fruitless service saying, Seek Me for nothing but promised a just reward. I the Lord speak righteousness-the truth [trustworthy, straight forward correspondence between deeds and words], I declare the things that are right.

God will always give us the exact right answer and plan of action if we seek Him. God’s plans for our lives are already blessed.

Roll your works upon the Lord-commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will and so shall your plans be established and succeed. Proverb 16:4

Waiting

Waiting...

There are some things in my life I feel I have been waiting forever for. And sometimes I think, maybe this will never happen. On days like this I take courage from this passage in Isaiah 30:18-23

But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you.
He's gathering strength to show mercy to you.
God takes the time to do everything right—everything.
Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.

Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find it's grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road." ...

God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills. Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.

Waiting produces great fruit in our lives. Patience. Kindness. Compassion. There is nothing a person can do to speed things up. The best thing we can do is to relinquish every way we would try to force God’s hand to produce the answer, and just rest in Him. He will do it in His time. And Eternity is time enough.

Despair and hope

Knysna Waterfront, South Africa

At one time I found myself in a place of darkness and deep despair. I had lost everything. The circumstances were such that I had actually PUT myself there, but everything I’d done I really thought was under the direction and leading of the Lord. I’d sold my car, wound down a business I’d been running (although not completely), I’d moved cities, believing a new opportunity was on the horizon. And then I hit a wall. Everything I’d believed would transpire, fell apart. Nothing turned out as I expected. I found myself feeling destitute, unsure of where to live, and what to do. And I’d completely lost the confidence I once had firstly in actually hearing God, and secondly in my abilities to achieve anything at all in life. 

Around that time, I received a phone call completely out of the blue from an old friend whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to for at least 10 years. He said, I heard what happened. But the night before, God had given him a dream about me. And a scripture. He said, God says, where you are right now is EXACTLY the place He wants you to be. There is no mistake. And the verse was Isaiah 46:11 “Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man Cyrus who executes my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, and I will do it.” 

I knew this verse meant that all the promises God had given me previously would still materialize. Cyrus was the Babylonian king who provided all the Gold to God’s people for the rebuilding of the Temple when they were released from exile. For me, this translated into a promise for my own life from God that HE would provide everything I need to fulfil the purposes and promises He has given and destined for my life, and that He could do that in unexpected ways and from unexpected sources. It was a dramatic moment of great encouragement, and strengthened me for the journey at the time.

Rare and Beautiful Treasures

I furnished my first home by turning scriptures into decrees:

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures. (Proverbs 24:3-4) NIV

Daily, and several times a day I would say, thank you God that my house is built through wisdom and established through understanding, I thank you that through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. I have expensive tastes. Within 6 months, my home was filled with the most beautiful furniture and fittings, of a level that I would not have been able to afford in the natural through income I was receiving at the time. God opened the way miraculously for these things to happen. 

God seems to be reminding me once again to speak the Word of God over the circumstances that seem contrary to what the Word of God says or those situations which appear to be in contradiction to the Promises of God for my life.

(As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the sight of God in Whom he believed,) Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that He has foretold and promised as if they already existed. Romans 4:17 TAB 

We are made in the image of God. So we do as He does. He created the earth with His words. We CREATE (or destroy) with our words. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]. Proverbs 18:21 TAB 

Amen

How to Raise the Dead

Raising the Dead promises and dreams of God over your life..

I was so encouraged recently when I listened to Marc Bredenkamp’s teaching on “Raising the Dead”. If you click on the link you can listen to it online too and gain more insight. In fact, you will probably want more after reading my notes (where I quote practically verbatim, I was blown away by this teaching and the words are powerful): 

When God gives you a Promise, He is giving it to you in order for you to FIGHT with it! As a rule God will give you the promise and He will never tell you the problems but there will always be a satanic contradiction. FACTS are always subject to change by the power of truth! So when you receive a promise from God in whatever way God chooses to speak to you, you have the Sword of the Spirit which is also known as the judicial punishment of the breath of God* which also gives you the ability to punish all disobedience in relation to any demonic force that chooses to exalt itself against the knowledge of God concerning your life. Once we receive that Promise we need to respond and obey according to the Word of God. 1 Tim 1:18: This charge I commit to you concerning the prophecies previously made over you that BY THEM you wage the good warfare. 

Question:  How do you wage a good war? 

Answer:   With your Promise, with your prophecy. 

God is speaking but nothing is happening until someone on earth begins to prophesy relating to the subject according to the WILL of God, not according to the “suggestion” or the “facts”. 

WHEN you do that, in the spirit, there is an establishment that takes place. IT COMES TOGETHER! In Ezekiel 37:9 “prophesy to the breath” in Hebrew means, prophesy to the air, prophesy to the atmosphere. 

We need to vocalize to the atmosphere that which God has said, on a continual basis, UNTIL that which is DEAD, comes back to LIFE.

* One of the definitions of the word used for the sword of the spirit (Eph 6:17) machaira is "judicial sword" for a full explanation listen to the teaching by Marc Bredenkamp by clicking on this Link:Sermon: Marc Bredenkamp

God you Promised..

There are days when the promise of God over our lives seems to fade and we wonder if there ever will be a season when things might be different than the present reality. It seems especially hard when the promise is for something quite spectacular. It seems the bigger the dream or promise or vision over our lives is, the longer the wait and delay in its turning into a reality. We can know why. We can even know how to get there (although the “way” is sometimes blurred and obscured from our vision) It doesn’t make the journey any easier. In these moments I continue to take comfort from God's Word. 

Stay alert! I am God, the God of everything living. Is there anything I can't do? Jeremiah 32:27

The day is coming when I will fulfil the good promise which I made to you..Jeremiah 33:14