A Warfare of Rest - Day One – Establishing the King
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest… Hebrews 4:11
If you ask someone to describe the word “rest” invariably you’ll hear descriptions of babies sleeping peacefully in their mothers arms or feelings of sinking down into a warm bed after a long hard day. Rest invokes a sense of peace, of calm.
And that’s why phrases like “striving to enter into rest” or “a warfare of rest” can seem like oxymorons (contradictions). But maybe that’s because we haven’t fully understood what the word “rest” actually means.
The most frequent mention of the word “rest” in the New Testament is the familiar passage in Hebrews 3 and 4. In these chapters, the Greek word for rest is κατάπαυσις (katapausis) which literally means “a putting a stop to, putting down, deposing”. It comes from the verb καταπαύω (katapauo) which means to put to rest, calm, assuage, to stop, hinder, put in check, to put down, to depose one from power.
Depose? Merriam Webster’s defines depose as: to remove from a throne or other high position.
So put another way, then Hebrews 4:11 could actually be read: “Let us therefore make haste, zealously and earnestly to enter into putting a stop to or removing from a throne or other high position.
Which in fact sounds a lot like “casting down arguments and every high thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Could it be that a “warfare of rest” means allowing the Lord to expose and depose the enemy from all the places in our lives where, through unbelief, he has set up thrones or high positions from which he, rather that God, is ruling?
I really believe that over the next three weeks God wants to establish His Lordship over our lives and His rule over our hearts in a way we have not yet experienced. He will never be seen by the world for the King that He is, until He is first exalted as the One True Head over His Body, the Church.
So as we enter Day 1 of this “warfare of rest” let’s pray this prayer of dedication together: Lord, I desire for you to be seen in and through my life to be the One True, Majestic and Supreme Ruler of the Universe that I know you to be. And so Father I submit myself fully to strive to enter into rest. Expose areas in my life where anything has been put in a high place other than You. In Jesus name, Amen!
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
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A Warfare of Rest - Day Two – The Power of Momentum
I had an unusual picture during a time of prayer a few weeks ago. I saw a car, weaving on the road, until it hit a tree. The car was completely totalled. But then a man, who was obviously drunk, opened the door and staggered out, completely unhurt.
As I pondered this scene, the Lord asked me, “Why wasn’t this man injured?”
Thanks to far too many news stories on drunk driving, I knew what to answer. “Because he didn’t brace for impact”, I said.
“That’s right, the Lord continued, “when the impact came, he offered no resistance, he flowed fully with the momentum of the car.”
Immediately a verse came to mind that has been rolling around in my heart for the last couple of months:
For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
Most of us have been taught that in order to fulfill a spiritual purpose, to see the kingdom built on earth, we need to “do something”, to exercise the force needed to create spiritual momentum and propel a vision forward. But the truth is, when God speaks from heaven into earth, the rhema word coming from His mouth already carries within it all the spiritual momentum needed for His will to be fulfilled (Isaiah 55:10-11).
Hebrews 4:10 says that all those who have entered into rest have ceased from their own labours. And this is absolutely key for this consecration journey that we are on. Yesterday we talked about the importance of the enemy being deposed from areas where he is exercising his rule in our lives. But this isn’t going to happen by us exerting more effort or working harder to change ourselves. It’s going to come by surrender and rest.
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "Only in returning to Me and resting in Me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength (Isaiah 30:15)
God has given us a rhema word about a warfare of rest. And He even gave us a visual reminder with the picture of the whirlwind that strength does indeed come from quietness and stillness. And we need to believe that this rhema coming from his mouth has already created all the spiritual momentum needed to carry us from where we are now to where He intends us to be. All we have to do is be willing to exchange our efforts for His momentum.
So as we enter Day 2 of our consecration let’s pray this prayer together: Lord I know that change isn’t going to happen in my life by my own might or power. It’s only going to happen by your Spirit. So I choose today to rest and surrender myself fully to You. Please remove areas of resistance inside of me and teach me how to be carried along by Your Spirit in a greater way. In Jesus name, Amen!
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day Three – True Repentance
So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’
”See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart
that turns away from the living God. Hebrews 3:7-12
How many times have you read something in the Word or heard God say something to your heart and your first thought was “oh that’s impossible!”? When that happened, were you immediately gripped with conviction? Did you cry out to God to break your hardened, sinful, unbelieving heart and forgive you for your rebellion in testing and trying Him?
Chances are not. But the bigger question is, why not? God is pretty clear on how seriously He sees unbelief. So why are we so “soft” or tolerant about it?
I think in large part, it’s because while we understand at some level that we are spiritual beings living in a spiritual kingdom, most of us don’t have nearly as good of a grasp of the laws of this kingdom as we do, say, of the natural laws of the world around us. Gravity, for example, we respect. We don’t “test” gravity by deciding to step off a ten-story building into thin air. Or if we do, we only try it once!
It is both our blessing and our challenge that we live in a “dispensation of grace”. But grace doesn’t mean there are no laws in the kingdom. It just means that we may not always suffer the immediate and full weight of the penalty for breaking those laws, say the way the Israelites did in the Old Testament.
But I believe God is stirring a remnant of believers all over the earth, right now, to yearn for something more than living by what we can get away with by grace. When we were born again, we were translated from the rule or dominion of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved son. And from that day forward, we were meant to be conduits of that kingdom coming into the earth. But the reason that we haven’t really seen the kingdom being established here in the way we long to is because the kingdom isn’t yet fully established in our own hearts.
If we are serious about seeing His kingdom come on earth and about striving to enter into the as-yet-unrealized rest, then one of the first things we need to do is stop making excuses for our unbelief. We have to choose to see things from God’s perspective and not our own: if we hear His voice and we don’t immediately respond in faith and obedience, it’s because in some way our hearts have been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And that is why, as we talked about yesterday, we are totally and utterly dependent on God in this journey into rest. Because the truth is we don’t really know our own hearts; so we are not even able to see the things that are hindering us from entering into rest.
2 Corinthians 7:10 speaks about a godly sorrow that brings repentance and leads to salvation and leaves no regret. So maybe our first step in establishing a zero tolerance policy for unbelief in our lives is to ask the Lord to tenderize our hardened hearts by giving us the gift of godly sorrow for our unbelief.
If this resonates with you, then let’s pray this prayer together: Lord, I acknowledge that I have allowed unbelief a place in my life. And even though You said that whatever is not of faith is sin, I haven’t always felt convicted for my unbelief. And I know, You said, this is because my heart has become hard. God, I’m asking You to create in me a new heart and to grant me the gift of godly sorrow that can lead to true repentance. I don’t want to test and try and rebel against You. I want a heart that is soft and tender and knows Your ways. Please teach my Your ways, in Jesus name, Amen.
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 4 – Faithful and Perfect in All His Ways
A few years ago my mother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. She was in the hospital with a broken leg and was due to be discharged the next day. I called her that afternoon, as I was passing by, and asked I should stop in to visit. Ever the pragmatist, she answered “No, you’re busy, so don’t bother. Why don’t you drop by tomorrow after I’m home.” We chatted briefly about what kind of birthday cake I was going to make for her, since her birthday was the day after her return from the hospital. And then I hung up - never realizing this was the last conversation we would ever have. Later that night, while talking to my aunt on the phone, she had a massive heart attack and was instantly gone to be with the Lord.
When my brother called to tell me she had died, in total shock, hurt and confusion, I ran to the Lord. Upset, I said to Him “Why did I have no warning about this? What is the point of being prophetic if I’m going to miss something as major as my own mother dying?”
With love and firmness, He answered me. “Stephanie, you knowing wouldn’t have changed anything. This was the last day ordained for your mother on earth. She finished her race and has entered her reward”.
“I am faithful and perfect in all My ways,“ He continued.
And then He said something that filled me with the fear of God. “Stephanie don’t ever defile Me by saying “she shouldn’t died now” or “why didn’t she die after her birthday?" If you do, you are saying you know better than I do and that your thoughts are higher than Mine. The enemy is roaming around, looking for an open door in your emotions, so hide yourself in Me and My Word.”
I could feel the warring in my soul with the doubts and unbelief and questions but the fear of God was literally palpable in my room. So with tears pouring down my face I literally shouted out my agreement “Lord, I don’t understand everything that is happening right now but this one thing I know is this: You are faithful and perfect in all your ways. And I will not defile You by allowing my mouth to say anything different."
What happened next is hard to describe. I was hit by a wave of the presence of God that brought me to my knees. In my spirit I was taken to the story of when the Israelites were leaving Egypt and they were told to put the blood on their doorposts so the angel of death would pass over them. I had a vision of the Lord coming to me and, with his finger dipped in blood, He marked a cross on my forehead. I don’t know how else to describe it but to say that I literally felt the darkness of death and grief that was hovering all around, pass right over me and leave my house.
The following week would be one of the most profound experiences I have ever had of the “rest of God”. I am well acquainted with the psychological principles of the “seven stages of grief” and I fully expected to go there. But it never happened.
I never cried after that first night. People, seeing the incredible peace that I had, just assumed I was in shock and told me, “It will hit you later”. But I knew they were wrong. I never felt the loss; in fact, I actually felt like I had gained something. My mom, as much as she loved me, was still human. And like any other human being, she could never fully understand or know me. But now I knew she was part of the great cloud of witnesses and had heaven’s perspective. And I felt this incredible comfort of knowing that for first time in my life, my mom really knew me in the way I had always wished that she did.
Besides this peace, I had extreme spiritual clarity and could discern the unmistakeable leading of the Lord in the myriad of natural details that had to come into place for the funeral. It would take numerous articles to share all the stories of the sovereignty of God that I witnessed that week.
But perhaps the most profound thing that happened in this whole experience was when, at the funeral, one of my friends came to me and said, “I know this is going to sound weird, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you look more beautiful than you do today. I said to my wife, 'I feel like I’m seeing the real Stephanie for the first time, in the fullness of all that God made her to be.' And Steph, it was captivating.“
Deep in the heart of every human being is a profound need both to know who we really are and to be seen and known this way by others. And added to this for believers is the profound desire to fulfill whatever purpose God destined and to bring glory and honour to His name. We spend so much of our lives struggling to find ourselves and protect ourselves and project ourselves the way we want people to see us. And working so hard to make sure we don’t fail God in our mission.
And yet the answer to all what we are longing for is simply coming to the place of utter stillness in our souls that is born from the profound knowledge that no matter what, God is faithful and perfect in all His ways. When we enter that rest, the light of the glory of God can shine through us, unhindered, like sunlight streaming through a stained glass window, revealing the beauty both of His uniquely designed window and of the light that makes it come alive.
I believe that unknowingly, in the midst of pain and disappointment, in the depths of hope deferred from unfulfilled dreams, many of us have “defiled God” by our lack of revelation of His sovereignty, His nature, His character. It’s one of the areas that I know has weighed down my generation, Gen X, and hindered us from displaying the unique facet of God’s glory that He intended when He made us. But I also believe that this is a season of accelerated redemption and God is giving us this appointed time, before the new season starts, to throw off all these weights and the sin that has so easily beset us so that we will be able to run with perseverance the race whch will soon be set before us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus…
If this resonates with your heart, let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, forgive me for the times when, in my hurt or disappointment, I have questioned Your wisdom, Your faithfulness or Your love for me. I’m sorry for defiling You by exalting my own thoughts or ways above Yours. Please cleanse my heart and transform my mind.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give [me] the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that [I] may know [You] better. I pray that the eyes of [my} heart may be enlightened in order that [I] may know the hope to which [You} have called [Me}, the riches of [Your] glorious inheritance in [Your] holy people, and [Your] incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength [You] exerted when [You] raised Christ from the dead and seated him at [Your] right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And [You] placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be Head over everything for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way." (Ephesians 1:17-23)
In Jesus' name, Amen!
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 5 – The Faith Efficiency Assessment
Have you ever had God speak a rhema word into your life? Maybe you were reading the Bible and a verse suddenly jumped out at you. Perhaps you received a vision in prayer or a prophetic word was spoken over you by someone else. Immediately you knew that you knew that God was speaking and your heart was filled with faith and hope and joy.
But then …nothing happened. Or worse, the opposite of whatever God had promised started to happen. Slowly you found your faith fading, maybe even to the point that you entirely forgot what the Lord said. Or if you did remember, the whole experience was shrouded in confusion and unbelief. “Did God even speak? Maybe it was just my own mind. Maybe that prophet missed it. Who knows what that was all about?”
A few years ago, I had a free energy efficiency assessment done on my house, the purpose of which was “to ascertain the airtightness of the building envelope and to identify leakage points”. A blower door fan was sealed into my front door frame and I was asked to close every external door and window. Then the fan was turned on to begin blasting air into my house until a certain air pressure was achieved in the house (just like blowing air into a tire). The fewer holes through which the air could escape, the less the fan had to blow to create the desired change in building pressure. In the end, I was given an energy efficiency number that indicated just how airtight my house was.
Think of your life like that house. When God speaks a word into your spirit, it’s like a big blast of air blowing in. Your faith expands, just like pressure increasing inside the house. But once the fan stops blowing the only way that pressure can be maintained is if there are no leaks.
So how do you know just how airtight your house is? Well first you need to ascertain just how much air God has to blast into your house in order for your faith to expand? When the Lord speaks, is your faith immediately activated or do you find it hard to believe? Do you find yourself hesitating, questioning, rationalizing, wrestling or bargaining with God? Do you ever ask God to confirm the same thing over and over again even when He has already spoken clearly? If the answer is “yes”, then you may be dealing with more than just a small leak. It’s possible you have one or more doors open.
Or perhaps you are one of those people whose faith is easily activated when God speaks. The question for you then is “how long does your faith stay active?” Are there any revelations or promises from God that you once believed firmly but now you have let slip away? Is your faith strong at the beginning but then wanes over time? Is it affected when things happen that seem to contradict what God has spoken? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, it may be an indication that you have some leaks that need fixing.
The good news is that as part of this consecration of rest, God is offering free “faith efficiency assessments”. If we are willing, He is more than able to put us through the necessary tests to expose the open doors and leaks and give us the tools needed to make our house airtight.
If you want God to do a faith efficiency assessment on your life, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, more than anything, my desire is for my life to bring You pleasure. I know that You said that without faith it is impossible to please You. Today I choose to enter rest by giving You the full permission to perform whatever tests are necessary in my life in order to expose the open doors and hidden leaks that are allowing my faith to be compromised by unbelief. Jesus I trust you and submit myself fully into Your hands. Amen!”
With love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day Six - The Doing Fast
Waiting is a lost art. In the age of fast food, real-time computing and instagrams, we don’t expect to ever have to wait for anything. Think about the last time you were in a line-up, anywhere. How many people were calmly standing, waiting their turn? And how many were texting, tweeting, surfing, updating their facebook status, taking photos, listening to music, talking on the phone?
We live in a society where our value is measured by productivity. Showing initiative, getting things done, driving a vision forward are qualities to be greatly admired.
But the kingdom operates on a different grid. To build the kingdom is to die to human initiative – our own ways, thoughts and plans – and to submit ourselves to God’s higher ways and thoughts. And one of the primary ways God brings death to human initiative is through waiting.
Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him. (Psalm 37:37)
Sounds relaxing, doesn’t it? But for most of us waiting is uncomfortable. Why?
I’m not a coffee drinker but I have friends who are borderline addicts. They tell me, “I can stop coffee any time I want.” I laugh. Because the truth is, it’s not until they are forced to stop – say by a fast – that they start to realize just how dependant their bodies have become on that jolt of caffeine. They get headaches. They are tired. They are grumpy. And it usually it takes a while for their bodies to recalibrate back to the non-caffeinated state.
The “doing drug” can be just as impacting on our souls as caffeine is on our bodies. When we are doing, we feel good. In control of our lives, knowing where we are going. We make our plans and our checklists and as we tick off every completed task, we feel that surge of pleasure that comes from accomplishment.
But let’s say one day you make the decision to be completely radical and live literally like Jesus did.
I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. John 5:19
If you take this challenge, the first thing you will notice is that the waiting quotient of your life is going to dramatically increase. Most likely you will be ok for the first day or so. It’s almost like an adventure – waiting to see what the Lord will instruct you to do. But as time wears on and “nothing’s happening,” that’s when full effects of the “doing fast” really start kicking in. You feel uncomfortable. Edgy. Fidgety. Unhappy. Why?
Because the waiting is starting to expose just how much of your identity and sense of self-worth is dependent on what you do versus the revelation of who you are: a son or daughter of the Most High God. Loved, cherished, adored. Even if you do nothing.
The persistent need to run on the endlessly-spinning hamster wheel of human performance is one of the biggest open doors that reduces our capacity to walk by faith and gives the enemy access to establish unbelief in our lives. It’s not what or how much we do that is the real problem; it’s the drivenness to do from which God wants to set you free through a greater revelation of His love.
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29)
If you are willing to enter into “the doing fast”, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Father I want to live like Jesus lived, not doing things from my own initiative or good ideas, but only that which You want me to do. Please Lord, set me free from the driven need to perform in order to feel worthy or loved.
Lord I’m asking that you would grant [me], according to the riches of [Your] glory, to be strengthened with might through [Your] Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in [my} heart through faith; that [I], being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that [I] may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen!” (Ephesians 3:16-21)
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaiah 30:18)
I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord. More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning. (Psalm 130:5,6)
With love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day Seven – The Lip Audit
For the past few days a phrase has been running through my head: loose lips sink ships. It was a navy slogan in the Second World War that means beware of unguarded talk.
The Bible also has a fair bit to say about “loose lips”.
Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut. (Proverbs 10:19, NLT)
Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. (Ephesians 5:4, NLT)
Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. (Ephesians 4:29, The Message)
Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.” (Matthews 12:36-37, The Message)
Now let’s stop for a moment and do a “lip audit” on yesterday. Walk back through your day and jot down a list of every word you can remember speaking from the time you got up until the time you went to bed. Not just the formal conversations you had with other people, but every word. Like when you yelled at your kids to stop screaming because they were driving you crazy. Or at your brother because he left his dirty towel on the bathroom floor for the five hundredth time. Think about what you muttered under your breath when someone cut you off in traffic and don’t forget to include the choice words you shouted when you banged your hand in the door.
Now look at your list. Anything foul or dirty? Was every word a gift? Did every word you speak help and build up the person who heard it? Did it bring glory to God?
Words are not just words – they have had a creative power since the beginning of time.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3, NIV)
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21, NIV)
We literally hold the power of “life and death” in our tongues. And if we aren’t speaking life then… well… there is only one other alternative.
Put another way, by our words we are either advancing the kingdom of God or reinforcing the kingdom of darkness. There is no gray area, no middle ground. Every single word counts.
Which is why the Psalmist wrote: Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.(Psalm 141:3, NIV)
Our mouths are one of those doors by which our faith is either expanding or being diminished by unbelief.
But trying to control our tongues by our own strength is an impossible task. Even James said, “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”(James 3:7-8)
So what then? Are we just doomed to live in fear of the inevitable day of reckoning? Thankfully, no, there is another way.
For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. (John 12:49, NAS)
The world around us tells us that it’s important to “speak your mind” or “share what you feel”. But the truth is as believers, living in submission to the King, neither our mind nor our emotions are supposed to be in control of our tongue. That right belongs to the Father alone.
So if we choose to submit our tongues to the control of the Father, does that mean that we will never slip up? Of course not. We are all human, we all sin (miss it) and we all, thank God, can appropriate the blood of Jesus and the grace of God to cleanse us from our sin. But what it does mean is that we have decided that we will no longer live carelessly, but increasingly conscious of God and His place as Lord and Master in our lives.
If you want to commit yourself, like Jesus did, to place your tongue under the control of the Spirit, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Father, forgive me for speaking carelessly and foolishly as if I had the right to say whatever I want. I acknowledge that I gave up that right, and every other right to control my life, when I accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for my sins. Father I don’t want my mind or my emotions to rule over my tongue anymore because that rulership belongs only to You. Lord, help me to be like Jesus and not speak from my own initiative but only by Your command. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day Eight – Defusing Bombs
Have you ever heard God speak during a sermon or in your quiet time, and immediately your heart leapt and your spirit began running full tilt down the path of faith towards the Father’s open arms when SNAP! Suddenly you found yourself violently yanked backward by an emotional leash you didn’t even know was there.
“What are you thinking? Don’t you remember what happened last time you tried that? Do you really want to be hurt again? Are you really going to trust again? On no, we are NOT going down THAT path again.”
Emotional triggers, born from bad experiences in the past, can pop up when we least expect it. A word, a look, a sound and the next thing we know, we find ourselves tumbling down a dark pit of emotional turmoil.
Past hurts, disappointments, and failures can mark our souls, creating holes through which faith can seep out and the enemy can creep in with an unbelief designed to abort our future. If we are not careful and diligent to protect our hearts, that unbelief can become a stronghold that keeps us trapped and paralyzed by the past, even when the Lord tells us it’s time to move on.
So it was for the Israelites at the time of their deliverance from Egypt. They had witnessed dramatic displays of the power of God: plagues had ravaged Egypt while they were spared. The blood, the frogs, the gnats, the flies, the pestilence, the boils, the hail, the locusts, the darkness at noonday, the death of the first born – all unmistakeable signs that their day of freedom had really come. But as awesome as all these things were, they were still not enough to dislodge an unbelief that had wrapped itself around their souls during 400 years of captivity. Although they were physically free from their bondage to Pharaoh and Egypt, they remained slaves through the fear and unbelief ruling in their hearts.
But God knew this. And He already had a plan to restore their faith and set them free fully. But to do so, it would mean facing the very thing of which they were most afraid.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 14:1-4, NIV)
Even though the Israelites may not have known It, God had a plan. A plan that would only not bring them closer to their promised rest, but would also display His glory in the face of His enemies and bring increased revelation to the Egyptians of just who He is.
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14: 10-12, NIV)
Sometimes in order for God to dislodge unbelief that is held in place by fear of the past, we have to be willing to allow Him to take us back to situations that trigger those fears so that the unbelief can be fully exposed and He can erase and replace it with faith.
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. (Exodus 14:13-16)
So what do you do when you trip an emotional land mine? First, you choose not to be afraid. God would never command you to do anything you cannot do by His grace. So if He says “Do not be afraid,” it means you have the choice.
Next, stand firm. You don’t have to do anything. Just don’t run away.
Third, believe that God will fight for you and choose to be still. The word translated “still” is actually the Hebrew word חָרַשׁ (charash) which means to be silent or speechless. Remember when you were a kid and your mom told you “If you don’t’ have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all?” Well it’s pretty much the same thing – if you don’t have anything positive or faith-releasing to say, it’s best to keep silent.
And finally, choose to move in the opposite spirit to the fear and unbelief and take a step of faith. Choose to move on.
What does it actually mean to move on? I can’t really tell you that - only the Lord can. All I know is that we can’t place conditions on our obedience in order to protect ourselves. Nor can we avoid the places where we are hurt. We can’t pretend they aren’t there or say they aren’t valid or real. But just because they are real, doesn’t mean we want to empower them to direct us. Because the right to direct our lives belongs to God, and God alone. So we have to be willing to go wherever He says, trusting that the plans He has for us are for good and not evil, to give us a hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11, LVB)
If you want to shut down the enemy’s access to your faith through emotional triggers from the past, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, I don’t want anything to exercise rulership over my life except You and Your word. So Father, if there are any unhealed hurts in my life which have become access points for fear and unbelief to gain a foothold and control me, I am asking you to expose them and to heal me. I don’t want to try to protect myself God. I trust You and Your ways and Your wisdom and Your plans and Your love for me. I choose to move on – please show me what You would have me do. In Jesus name, Amen!“
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 9 – The Power of Thanksgiving
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:11-19
There is a power in thankfulness. As we continue in this journey of entering into rest, it’s important that we take time deliberately to thank, praise and exalt the Lord for what He has already been doing in our hearts these past 8 days.
There is a version of Exalt the Lord, led by Heather Clark on the Watchmen Continual CD that we wanted to make available for you as you worship today. You can access an mp3 by clicking here. (Click link to listen – a window will open in your internet browser. To download the mp3, right click on the browser and select “save source as”.)
As we spend our day ministering to the Lord with our praise, worship, adoration and thanksgiving, here are some scriptures for further meditation: 1 Chronicles 16:8-36, Psalm 29, Psalm 34, Psalm 95, Psalm 100, Isaiah 26:1-9.
We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign. Revelation 11:17
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 10 – The Boiling Point
Times of focused consecration, like the one in which we are presently journeying, can be a two-edged sword. Because it is a “kairos” time when God has determined to do something specific, there is a tremendous amount of grace available and potential for life-altering breakthrough. But at the same time, true breakthrough usually comes when God is able to take us to the root of our issues. And often times that comes through trials and tests that expose what’s in our hearts.
Different friends have been sharing with me some of their struggles during this consecration and it got me thinking about breaking points, times when we feel like we just can’t take any more exposure or any more tests. Everything in our flesh or mind is screaming – stop! And we’re tempted to pull back or run away.
I was pondering this the other day, when suddenly Lord interrupted my thoughts with an interesting statement. “What you think is a breaking point is actually a boiling point.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“What happens when water boils?” He queried.
“It changes states; it shifts from a liquid to a gas.”
“Exactly Stephanie,” He answered. “And that’s what spiritual boiling points are too. Places where I apply heat in order to shift you into a completely new state.”
When water boils and changes to steam, it no longer looks the same nor does it act the same because as the water is heated, the molecules start to move faster and faster and separate one from another, allowing them to move more freely.
What a picture of what the Lord wants to do inside us. He wants to shift us into a completely new state, where we don’t look the same or act the same or think the same. A place where we are able to move more freely and, therefore, respond more quickly to Him.
So how does water change into steam? Does it just decide it wants to change? No, there has to be heat applied that causes the change to happen. All the water does is respond to the heat.
Try as we might, we really don’t have the power to “change” ourselves. All we can do is respond properly when God is turning up the heat because He wants to shift us to a new state.
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (James 1:2-4, The Message)
What do you do when someone gives you a gift? You accept it and thank the person who gave it to you. And that is exactly what we are supposed to do when tests come our way and our hearts are being exposed. Instead of trying to avoid them or hide what is happening, we need to accept and embrace what God is doing, thanking Him that He loves us enough to reveal everything inside of us that is keeping us from being like Jesus. Because ultimately, being like Jesus is what we all want.
If you would like to position yourself to respond in a new way to God’s boiling points, both during this consecration and beyond, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, I want to thank you for leading me into this time of consecration, this warfare of rest. Thank you for giving me the gift of sight so I am no longer blind to areas inside my heart where my faith has been compromised by unbelief. Please give me the wisdom to recognize and the grace to accept the times when You are “turning up the heat” in my life because you want to shift me to a new state. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 11 – Living Martyrs
In the battle to enter into rest and rid our lives of unbelief, some of the biggest doors we have to close in our lives are doors of fear. Even as faith is the substance of things hoped for, unbelief is the substance of the things feared. So the only way we can ever be truly free from the rule of unbelief is if we remove the hooks of fear by which unbelief has attached itself to our hearts.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15, NIV)
What is death in the natural? It is the ultimate expression of loss. So that means if we are afraid to lose anything – our family, our possessions, our career, our health, our reputation – we become slaves to the enemy rather than servants of God. And when we give fear a right to exercise control over our lives, it compromises our ability to hear God and leaves us in a place of confusion and unrest.
Most of us are well-acquainted with loss and disappointment in our lives. The enemy’s strategy is to use these disappointments or hurts to build up sufficient “circumstantial evidence” to cast doubt on the character and trustworthiness of God. Circumstantial evidence is a theory supported by a significant quantity of corroborating evidence that can be used to convict someone of wrongdoing (produce “reasonable doubt”) in the absence of hard evidence. The enemy is only too happy to give a "significant quantity of corroborating evidence" to cause us to waver in unbelief concerning the promises or character of God.
The more loss we have suffered – marital breakdown, church splits, relationships blown apart, a child who wanders from the Truth, a business failure, hope deferred and dreams seemingly unfulfilled – the more susceptible we are to the fear of loss working its way into the very fabric of our souls.
So how then do we gain the ultimate victory over this fear of death? By embracing death.
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. (Luke 9: 24-25, NIV)
The enemy wants to convince us that God is not trustworthy and so we need to protect that which we hold most dear because he knows that once anything is released fully into the hands of the Lord, his power has been nullified. So our true freedom comes when we are willing to “lose our lives”, die to our own ways and thoughts, and surrender ourselves wholly into God’s hands.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30, NIV)
If the enemy cannot snatch us from Jesus’ hand, neither can he take anything the Lord has given us, except by the Lord’s permission. And in this truth, we can find true rest.
If you would like to be set free from the bondage to the fear of death and loss, let’s pray this prayer together. “Jesus, thank you for sacrificing Yourself through Your death on the Cross so that I might be set free from slavery through a fear of death and loss. God I want to appropriate the freedom that you purchased by Your blood in every area of my life. I ask You to please expose all the places where the enemy has gained a foothold through ungodly fear and I give You the permission to root it out of my life by whatever means necessary. Lord, I affirm today that I take up my cross, deny myself and choose to lose my life for Your sake. Help me to be a living martyr, dying daily, that I might enter into Your promised rest. In Jesus name, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 12 – Uttering Mysteries
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.” (Luke 9:24-26)
As we cleanse our spiritual houses from fear and unbelief, close the open doors and seal up any holes by which the enemy has been gaining access to our lives, we also need to make sure we don’t leave the newly-freed areas empty. The enemy is always roaming around, bombarding us with wrong thoughts, looking for ways to re-establish his rule in our lives. So it’s not enough for us to strive to enter into rest, we need to secure our position there. And we do that by filling our lives with faith and truth.
But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 1:20)
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. (Ephesians 6:18)
Praying in the Spirit elevates our spirit into ascendancy over our mind, will and emotions. Put another way, it puts our spirit man in the driver’s seat and prepares us to receive our directions from our GPS (Global Positioning System), God, who always knows the exact route we should take to get to His intended goal for us with the minimal amount of traffic and detours!
Praying in the Spirit is especially important in seasons of transition like the one we find ourlseves in right now. God is about to open new doors for our lives, but we don’t yet know where those doors lead. It’s a little bit like trying to navigate on a unfamiliar road in the dark. But that doesn’t mean we have to wander around lost or drive blind. So how do we get directions when we don’t know where we are going?
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. (I Corinthians 14:1-2)
Although we may not know the road ahead, God does. And He already has the plan to bring everything into conformity with His eternal will so that we might be for the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:11) We are able to tap into that plan as we pray in the Spirit, uttering with our spirit the mysteries of God. In this way, we activate the power of agreement, bringing our spirits into greater alignment with the will of God. And as we ask for the gift of interpretation, God begins to release revelation from our spirits into our minds of His plans and purposes. In this, we become true sons of God, being led by the Spirit of God to create a channel for the will of God that is in heaven to be established on the earth. (Romans 8:14)
Our Awaken Team felt stirred by God to pray together via conference call every morning during the consecration. The vast majority of our time has been spent praying in the Spirit and we can testify that these have been times where we have sensed the tangible leading of the Holy Spirit and a release of downloads and revelation from heaven! So we want to encourage you take time today, and every day during this consecration and beyond, to pray in the Spirit - building up your faith, uttering the mysteries of God and bringing yourself into ever increasing alignment with the soon-to- be revealed eternal will of God.
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 13 - Unholy Alliances
A few nights ago, I was visiting my dad. When I left to go home, I attempted to lock the back door behind me, but try as I might I could not get it to close. It would close part-way but not far enough to properly lock it. It was dark and I’m not that familiar with the door, so I just kept pulling on it with greater and greater force until finally I was able to just barely squeeze the deadbolt shut.
The next day I returned to pick something up and this time I went to the door in broad daylight. As I tried to open it, I looked down and noticed a small area rug had become jammed along the bottom of the door. Now I understood why I had been having such a hard time getting that door closed.
We can experience something similar when we are trying to close doors in our spiritual life. No matter how much force we exert, we cannot seem to get them shut because the enemy has managed to insert something that is blocking them from fully closing. And one of his door jambs of choice is something I call “unholy alliances.”
I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:18-20
There is a tremendous power in agreement. When we come into agreement with something and we speak it from our mouths, that thought or idea moves from the spiritual realm into establishment in the physical realm. The spiritual realm is filled constantly with words. God is always speaking words of life, words of faith, words of hope, words of love, words of blessing. But our enemy is always speaking too.
The enemy is the father of all lies, Jesus said, and he understands full well the power of agreement. That’s why he mercilessly bombards our thoughts with lies. Just like he did to Jesus in the wilderness, he tries to get us to falter in our trust in the word of the Father – “Did God REALLY say that this was going to happen? “You must be crazy to believe something like that.”
If we are not careful to resist the devil immediately and we allow these lies access to our hearts, not only do we open a door for unbelief, but we actually jam that door open by activating the power of agreement. An unholy alliance is formed that then gives the enemy legal right to establish his throne of unbelief in that area of our life.
Rebecca, who is part of our Awaken Team, shared with us one morning how the Lord revealed to her that she had an unholy alliance operating in her life. She had been in a car accident and had injured her back severely. She was in a continual pain, not being able to sit down comfortably for more than a few hours at a time. She of course went to see the doctor, who told her that there was nothing they could do for her and that she was going to be in this pain for the rest of her life.
The report from the doctor was true, with respect to the best of his natural medical knowledge, but at the same time it was not the truth because it did not take into account a higher law, the law of the Blood of Jesus and the healing that He had already purchased for Rebecca on the Cross. Because Rebecca didn’t guard her heart, she came into agreement with the lie, “you will be in pain for the rest of your life”.
“People would pray for me,” she explained, “and I would thank them but deep in my heart, because I had set my agreement with that lie, I didn’t actually think anything was going to change. And so it didn’t.”
But then one day in a conference, the Lord suddenly opened her eyes to see this lie and how her alignment with it was blocking her healing. She repented, was prayed for and was instantly healed!
If we want not only to enter into God’s promised rest, but secure our place in this rest, we need to shut all the doors of entry for unbelief and break any unholy alliances that we have made with the enemy. If this witnesses in your heart, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, forgive me for not being more careful to guard myself against making agreements with the enemy. I want to break every unrighteous agreement that I have made with the enemy. Jesus, will You please shine the light of Your truth into every corner of my heart and expose any places where I have wrongly entered into unholy alliances. I want to set my agreement with You and Your Word alone. By the power that is in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join this consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 14 – The Power of Covenant
A number of years ago, the Lord led me into an intensive time of fasting and prayer in a season in which I was going through a heavy testing in my life. One afternoon, while praying, I fell asleep and had a very vivid dream. Some spiritual leaders, who are friends of mine, came to my house. We were sitting together in my living room together when, one by one, they began to literally preach and release powerful words of faith into the situation I was facing. They were all sharing excitedly except for one older spiritual father, who sat quietly in the corner of the room. As the preaching continued, I felt that I really needed to hear from this older father, but when I looked up, he was gone! I ran to my front entrance where I found him putting on his shoes and preparing to leave. He looked sad.
I grabbed his arm and said, “Please don’t leave.”
And he looked me right in the eyes and said, “You just don’t understand the covenant and you don’t know how to appropriate the blessing. You are not going to be able to get it from someone else’s preaching or a book. You have been given so many promises from God, but you have not been wise to steward them.”
I woke up with his words burning in my heart. And the Lord spoke to me and said, “My Word is My covenant with you.”
“I know, Lord,” I answered, “the Bible is full of Your promises to us.”
“Yes, Stephanie, but I’m not just talking about the Bible. I have whispered promises to your heart and asked my friends, the prophets, to speak over you. These too are part of My covenant for your life. But you’ve not treated My words to you as the precious promises that they are and because of it, you have been unable to appropriate the blessings I have prepared for your life”.
At that moment, I knew what I had to do. I spent the next many days meticulously going through my prayer diaries, sorting through my files, finding all the words God had given me, all the promises He had made rhema to me from the scriptures, every dream I had ever had and every prophecy I had ever received over my life. I wrote them all down in a document I called “My Covenant with God”.
In Matthew 25, Jesus taught a parable about the servants who were taking care of their master’s money. Those who were faithful with the little, God began to entrust with more. That same principle applies to everything the Lord has spoken to us, whether personally or through others. As long as these words line up with the Scriptures they are part of our inheritance. More than that, they are part of our ammunition in the warfare to enter into rest!
This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. 1 Tim 1:18-19
I have a friend who recently got a very bad report about her health. She could have been tempted to come into agreement with the enemy but instead she sent out an email to her friends asking for prayer. To this email, she attached a document of all the prophetic words that have been spoken over her life. “If people are going to fight for me,” she said, “I don’t want it to be from a place of fear or pity. I want them to see what they are fighting for and pray in alignment with what God has said will happen in my life!”
“You said, God!” can be one of the most powerful prayers you will pray as you fight the good fight of faith in your life. There is an authority of heaven that is released when you declare back to God, and into the spirit realm, what the Lord has already spoken over you. You’re creating a holy alliance, strengthening the power of agreement and keeping the doors of your life secure against unbelief.
If this resonates in your heart, then I want to encourage you to take some time today to find the words that have been spoken over your life and, by faith, begin to declare them back to the Lord and into the spirit realm.
And if you would like to commit to the Lord to be a better steward of His covenant to you from this day forward, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Father I thank you for every word that You have spoken over my life. I declare that Your words are eternal, O God, and they stand firm in the heavens! I ask you, Father, to forgive me for the ways in which I have not properly stewarded or treated Your words as precious. Please help bring to my remembrance the promises that I may have forgotten; speak them afresh to my heart today. Help me to be a faithful steward over Your word today and from now on. In the name of Jesus, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join The Warfare of Rest consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest - Day 15 - Unchanging
Have you ever come to a point in your life where it seems like you have messed things up so badly that you start to wonder if you’ve irrevocably altered the plan of God for your life and nullified His promises? Have you ever heard the taunting voice of the enemy saying, “Yeah, sure, God may have SAID this and that over your life. But then YOU did X and Y and Z. You messed up, buddy, and now it’s too late for you.”
I came to just such a point about 15 years ago. First, God the Lord asked me to lay down a ministry position by revealing to me that I was serving there, not in obedience to Him, but because I was driven by a fear that no one would see my calling and that my destiny would remain unfulfilled. Then, a few months later, I found out my husband was having an affair and we separated. My life was coming apart at the seams and I was wracked with regret, shame, and condemnation.
One day I could bear the pain of my dismal failure no more and I threw myself, sobbing, on my living floor, pouring out all the dark despair of my heart before the Lord.
"God, I know that I have ruined my life. It’s not bad enough that I am a WOMAN in ministry (my church wasn’t supportive of women leaders) but now I’m going to be a DIVORCED woman! My life is over – I have no hope of ever fulfilling my destiny and it’s all my fault.”
As I lay there in agony, I felt the gentle, tender presence of God literally surround me, as if the Father Himself came and knelt down beside me. Leaning down, He whispered into my ear.
“I am not a man, that I should lie, nor a son of man, that I should change My mind. Do I speak and then not act? Do I promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19)
In that moment, something miraculous happened and the pain, shame, humiliation and despair rolled off me. When I stood up, I was a different woman. I’m not saying that I never suffered again or faced moments of discouragement or despair, but something was sealed inside my spirit, an understanding that my destiny and the fulfillment of God’s word in my life, doesn’t depend as much on who I am, as it does on who He is.
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants." And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:13-20)
Above all else, God is a “man of His word”. When He swore His covenant with Abraham, He sealed it by two things which are unchangeable and in which it is impossible for God to lie – His character (His very nature) and His word.
Hundreds of years later, Balaam, an oracle of questionable allegiance, was hired by Balak, an enemy of Israel, for the sole purpose of using his “gift” to curse Israel. But God had made a covenant with Israel and even though they were unfaithful to Him and had wavered in unbelief (Numbers 13), God still remained true to His word. He commanded Balaam: “You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed." (Numbers 22:12)
In fact, not only was Balaam prevented from cursing Israel, God actually compelled him to speak blessing over them. Now Balak was not very happy at this turn of events and told Balaam that unless he had something bad to say, better not to say anything at all. But Balaam could not stop.
“God has commanded me to bless them and because He has blessed them it cannot be reversed.” (Numbers 23:20)
What an amazing testimony to the power of God’s faithfulness and His determination to honour what He has promised.
Another time, God showed the prophet Jeremiah a vision of an almond tree. Then God asked him, “What do you see?” Jeremiah answered, “The branch of an almond tree.” The words for “almond tree” and “watching” are very similar in Hebrew and so the Lord replied, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that My word is fulfilled." (Jeremiah 1:12)
When we come to the revelation that God is even more invested than we are in seeing His promises to us fulfilled, we can enter into the rest of not trying to fulfill the promises of God by our own labours. That doesn’t mean that we become passive; we are actively listening for whatever the Spirit is saying and bringing ourselves into obedient alignment with His word. But we no longer have to carry the burden of fulfillment on our shoulders. We can leave it where it rightly belongs - with the Lord. And when the enemy comes with his accusing voice, telling us how we are disqualified because of our mistakes or weaknesses, we don’t have to argue or fight to prove our worthiness. We can choose to rest in the truth that we are simply jars of clay through which God has chosen to pour an ever-increasing measure of the knowledge of His glory, so that the all-surpassing greatness of power that is displayed in our lives will be seen to be of God and not of us! (2 Corinthians 4:6-7)
If this resonates with your heart and you would like to enter into this deeper level of rest, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, I ask you today to help me to anchor my soul to the hope that comes from a greater revelation of Your unchanging nature and Your faithfulness. Forgive me for the times that I have wrongly taken the burden of fulfillment on my own shoulders or believed the enemy’s lies that my mistakes were greater than Your power to watch over and perform Your word. Lord I choose to close the door to unbelief by declaring that You are not a man that You should lie nor the son of man that You should change Your mind. Whatever You say, You do and whatever You promise, You fulfill. Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join The Warfare of Rest consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 16 – The Resting Place
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. (Luke 6:26)
Now this is not exactly a verse you will find plastered on most people’s refrigerators!
Who among us doesn’t want to be popular? Bask in the glow of approval from parents, teachers, peers? We all want to be accepted, we all want to feel loved.
Our need for approval and acceptance is as old as humanity itself – it goes back to the moment that Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the garden. They didn’t just leave with a new animal-print wardrobe. They also took with them a root of rejection that became woven into the fabric of the soul of mankind. From that day forward, every single human being born on planet earth has struggled with the fruit of this separation from the Father, an orphan spirit that aches with an unrelenting need to feel worthy, accepted, validated and loved.
By going to the Cross, Jesus laid Himself down as a living sacrifice for our sins and became the bridge by which we could be restored to right standing with the Father. He delivered us from our slavery to fear and rejection and the bondage to an orphan spirit, by releasing over us the power of the spirit of adoption. (Romans 5:6-21).
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:14-17)
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29)
As believers we came to Christ because of a revelation of our sinfulness and need for the saving grace of the blood of Jesus. But if we lack the revelation of the full work of the Cross and of our placement in the family as sons and daughters of God, then we will be tempted to fill that need for approval and acceptance somewhere else.
As part of my Christian journey, I went through an extended season of testing in a church that was not a healthy spiritual environment. Because the leaders themselves struggled with rejection, they were unable to provide the normal encouragement and blessing that spiritual fathers and mothers should give to younger people. In fact, they saw anyone with a gift as a threat to their authority and so many young people, including myself, were deliberately pushed down and made to feel small and insignificant.
I cried out to the Lord many times for true spiritual fathers and mothers. And in His mercy, the Lord began bringing leaders into my life who genuinely loved me and wanted to see me released into my calling. But because I did not yet have a revelation of my adoption as a daughter of God, I soon found myself desperately seeking approval and validation from these leaders. That put me into a vicious performance cycle – serving in obedience to God but driven by this unhealthy need for approval. And no matter how much approval came, it was never enough because my heart was like a bag with holes in it. Everything that was poured in, always managed to leak out. So even when it looked like everything was going my way and I was given many amazing opportunities to walk with senior leaders, inside I still struggled with a deep rejection that kept me bound in a place of terrible pain and emotional torment.
One day I was driving and bitterly complaining to God how I felt unappreciated and used and how I knew the problems were these leaders I was walking with – that they just didn’t know how to be true spiritual parents. All of a sudden, I saw a clear vision before my eyes.
I was literally hanging off the side of a cliff, my finger nails dug deep into the ground. I instantly knew this was a picture of me in my former church – just barely hanging on for dear life. But then I saw leaders standing below me, at the base of the cliff, their arms outstretched, coaxing me to let go, promising to catch me. As I fell into their arms, instantly I turned and like a frightened little child, I clung to them.
The vision stopped and the Lord spoke to me, “You have made these people into idols, Stephanie, and that’s why you are struggling so much in these relationships. I ordained you to walk with these leaders as a way of bringing healing into your life. But you have started to look to them to be the ones who will “save you” and release you into your calling. And I am a jealous God, Stephanie, and I will not permit anyone or anything but Me to be your safe place. And so I am opposing the very relationships I ordained because this is wrong order.”
‘For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,’ says the Lord, ‘that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’ (Jeremiah 13:11)
We are meant to cling to the Lord and the Lord alone. But because many of us have not received a complete revelation of our adoption as God’s children, we tend to cling to other things to fill the identity void inside us. For some, it’s our jobs or our callings or maybe our ministry positions. But for most of us, we cling to other people: spouses, parents, bosses, spiritual leaders or friends. Psychology has developed modern descriptions like co-dependency or soul ties to describe what is, in fact, a very old problem: idolatry.
When we hear the word “idol” we think of images of stone carvings or Asherah poles. The objects never were (and still aren’t) the problem. The problem was that people looked to these things for safety, for protection, for comfort, for direction. And they worshipped – they bowed down – to them. Anything or anyone we depend on to feel safe, protected, or comforted other than God can be an idol. Anytime the opinion of another person starts to speak more loudly into our identity than the voice of God, we have elevated that person to the place of God and made them an idol.
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe. (Proverbs 29:25)
My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:13)
Human beings are imperfect; they will always disappoint us, hurt us, sometimes even use and abuse us. If we tie our sense of identity to the approval of another human being, we will never be able to truly enter into rest. True freedom will only come when we gain a revelation of our adoption as sons and daughters of God and cling to Him, and Him, alone.
If this resonates with your heart and you would like God to expose and remove any idols in your life, let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, Psalm 24:3-4 says, ‘Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.’ God, the longing of my heart is to go to deeper places in Your presence and experience greater levels of Your glory. But I know that this can’t happen if there are idols in my life. So Father, I’m asking You to shine the light of Your truth and revelation into my heart and expose any idols I have established there. Deliver me from the fear of man and give me a testimony in my spirit that I am a son/daughter of God. I want You to be my only refuge, my only hiding place, my only place of rest. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join The Warfare of Rest consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest - Day 17 - Don't Flick Your BIC!
“Don’t flick your BIC!”
“Lord this isn’t funny. That’s the third morning in a row you’ve said this. What do you mean?” Debbie asked.
The still small voice repeated, “Don’t flick your BIC!”
“I know, I know, I got that part – but what does that mean?”
Silence. Tucking the phrase into the back pocket of her consciousness, Debbie went to wake her kids up and begin the day.
Later that afternoon, she had a few moments alone before the kids came home and the after-school chaos began.
She opened her Bible and her eyes fell on Isaiah 50.
Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment. (Isaiah 50:10-11)
“Don’t flick your BIC!” the Holy Spirit whispered.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2:9-11)
One of the greatest hindrances to entering into rest in our lives is relational pain. Pain can short circuit our faith and our ability to hear God, making us more vulnerable to accepting the enemy’s lies and taking matters into our own hands. That’s why, just like cancer cells that migrate to places of weakness or wounding in the natural body, the enemy migrates to places in our hearts and spirits where there are unaddressed wounds and begins to speak his lies.
“How could you ever forgive him for what he did? Just close your heart and the pain will stop.” “Your marriage is never going to work, why keep trying? Imagine how good it would feel for all of this to just be over?” “That person calls himself a Christian and he did that to you? Well you know what you should do to get back at him!”
With our guards down, lies can be quickly transformed into strongholds of unbelief. Perspectives become distorted, attitudes twist and the heart begins to function in misguided ways, in opposition to the truth that we know.
When we have been hurt or wronged, the temptation for spiritual vigilantism becomes great. A vigilante is someone who does not have faith in the justice system, so he takes the law into his own hands.
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you-who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12)
When we choose to hold onto our hurts or walk in unforgiveness, we are lighting our own fires. When we expose the sin of another person or give ourselves the right to slander, we are moving in unbelief concerning God’s character and nature as Lawgiver and Judge.
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14)
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)
It’s when we are hurt that we must strive the hardest to enter into rest, to cease from our own labours and put our trust in the Lord.
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:23)
The secret to Jesus’ ability to humble Himself when mistreated was his knowledge that God alone has the big picture of justice across time and eternity. And so it is for us. Our safety is not trusting in our own human wisdom but in God, who is just.
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. (2 Thessalonians 1:6-7)
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)
“No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)
When we entrust ourselves to God and embrace the suffering of Christ, we open a door for God’s divine justice and for the comfort of the Lord to soothe our wounds and pain.
For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Corinthians 1:5)
As we continue to close the doors for unbelief in our lives, God wants to bring healing to the places of our deepest wounding so that we can move into the next season, fully secure in the place of rest that is born from faith. If this resonates with your heart, then let’s pray this prayer together
“Father, I want to bring every area in my life, even the painful ones, under Your rulership. Please expose places in my heart where I’m being a spiritual vigilante, defending my rights and trying to protect myself against injustice or pain. Forgive me for my pride in exalting myself to the place of Judge over my own life and the lives of others. Lord, grant me the grace to forgive as You forgave and to destroy the strongholds of unbelief the enemy has built in my heart. Lord I want to enter into the rest that comes from knowing You as the one Lawgiver and Judge. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join The Warfare of Rest consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 18 – A New Heart
Have you ever had one thing you really set your heart on as a kid – one thing you wanted more than anything – but never got? Maybe it was a new bike or the newest Barbie with all her fashion accessories. You dreamed, you hoped, you dropped hints to your parents, you wrote letters to Santa – but somehow that toy just never materialized.
For me, it was a Betty Crocker Easy Bake oven. I was 8 and I wanted one. Badly. It’s all I could think about – how I would bake cookies and little cakes, just like my mom. I pestered my parents mercilessly. But my mother, ever the pragmatist, quickly dashed all my hopes.
“You are not getting an Easy Bake oven so you can burn the house down.”
Period. End of story. My first taste of the bitter pill of unfulfilled desire.
But certainly not my last. Like every other person, my life would not unfold the way I dreamed as a child. And late one Christmas Eve, a few years ago, I found myself in a deep place of despair, overwhelmed by all the things my life wasn’t, all the things I didn’t have, all the promises that were unfulfilled. With tears streaming down my face, I cried out to the Lord.
“God, I don’t know how much longer I can live like this. All the hurts and disappointments have warped me and I feel like the real me is locked up in a castle of fear. I hear what You are saying, but I can’t get out of the castle. I’m afraid to trust, I’m afraid to believe, I’m afraid to hope any more.
God, I know you love me. And it is Christmas. Couldn’t You just turn back time and take me to the place before all the pain, when I was still innocent and full of hope? Let’s say 8 years old. At 8, life was good and full of hope. Couldn’t you make me 8 again?" And with that, exhausted, I lay down and fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning and… well… nothing. I didn’t feel any different.
“What did you expect?” the enemy taunted me. “Seriously, this is real life, Stephanie, not It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Dejected, I got up and headed to my parents’ house for the traditional Christmas family gift opening. A pile of socks, sweaters, books, DVDs and gift certificates later we were done. Or almost.
“You forgot one,” my mom said.
“What?”
“That one” she said pointing under the tree, “the one from Santa.”
“Mom, I’m 30 years old.”
“I know, I know, just open it,”
I picked up the present and read the tag. It was signed “From Santa. Sorry it took so long to get here.”
My heart started pounding.
“You’ll probably think it’s silly,” my mother said, oblivious to what was transpiring. “But I was reading the flyers one morning and I saw this was on for half price. And the strangest thing happened. I felt like God spoke to me and said, ‘You need to buy that for your daughter.’ And I thought, ‘That’s ridiculous. She’s a grown woman.’ And so I ignored it. A few weeks later, dad and I were shopping and we happened to go by the toy section in the store – and there it was again. Only this time it wasn’t on sale. And I felt God said again, only much more insistently this time, ‘You HAVE to buy that for your daughter.’ So, I bought it. If only I would have listened the first time, think of the money I could have saved….”
She kept talking but I didn’t hear anything else she said. Hands trembling, I ripped away the wrapping paper to reveal…. the coveted Easy Bake oven. With tears welling up, my eyes wandered to the label in the top corner of the box: ages 8 and up.
People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:13-15)
There is a power in childlike faith. Do you remember when you first got born again or when you were young, how you were able to eagerly receive everything God said with faith and hope and trust? But over time, disappointments and wounds rob that simple faith from us. How many times have you heard a new Christian or young person breathlessly share what the Lord has shown them? And even if you smiled on the outside, inside you were thinking, “Yeah, it’s good to be full of faith now, but wait until you’ve hit the wall a few times. Let’s see if you are still so zealous.” That wariness or cynicism is a fruit of disappointment or hope deferred that has hardened a part of your heart in unbelief.
But God wants to restore our innocence. He wants to take us back, before the wounds and defilement of the enemy, to a time when our childlike hearts trusted without fear.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)
Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)
In the movie The Passion of the Christ, there is a scene where Jesus is carrying the cross through the crowded streets after being beaten almost beyond recognition. Jesus' mother, Mary, is watching, devastated, when suddenly Jesus stumbles under the weight of the cross and falls to the ground. As He does, she is taken back to a memory of Him falling down as a small child and her going to Him to comfort Him. As the scene shifts, she is on her feet, in the present, running to Jesus. As she grabs hold of Him, Jesus looks at her through the blood and pain and says, "See Mother, I make all things new."
It is possible. If you are willing to stop protecting yourself, stop guarding these hardened places of unbelief within your heart. If you will step back and allow the Lord to touch your heart of stone, He can make it into a heart of flesh again.
You can believe again. You can hope again. You can embrace the eternal destiny He has placed in your heart. You can run, you can soar, you can be who you were always meant to be.
If you would like the Lord to make your heart new again, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Father, I believe that you are the God who makes all things new. I give You access to all the places where disappointments and hurts have made my heart hard in unbelief and I ask you to make it a heart of flesh again. Father, please restore to me the innocence that I once had so I can run unreservedly in faith and in rest with You. In Jesus’ name Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join The Warfare of Rest consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 19 – Neighborhood Watch
Imagine I told you that a thief was going to break into your house tonight but it wasn’t clear when or how – how would you protect your house? Obviously, you would want to watch every possible access point – every door or window. But in my house, that would be impossible for me to do alone. I have windows upstairs, on my main floor, in my basement, not to mention a front door, back door, garage door, and sliding glass door. For me to effectively watch every possible opening into my house, I would need a small army of family and friends to help me.
That’s the whole idea behind something called neighborhood watch. Neighbours agree to watch out for any suspicious activity around each other’s houses as a way of preventing crime from happening in their area. So let’s say that I’m working my front yard and a thief takes this opportunity to try to break in to the back of my house. Well if my neighbour, Ed, sees him, he is going alert me and phone the police, the same as if the thief was breaking into his own house.
Neighborhood watch is a great picture of how God has designed us to protect our spiritual houses as well. We were never meant to live or function alone in our Christian walk, we are meant to be part of a spiritual community. The Bible says that we all see in part – that means I, alone, can’t see the whole picture of what God is trying to say. And I also cannot watch or even know every possible access point where the enemy might try to get into my life. I need my community, those believers whom God has brought into my life – my family, my friends, my spiritual leaders – to also watch over my house with me. That way, if a thief is sneaking in without my knowledge, they can alert and help protect me.
Another name for a spiritual neighborhood watch is corporate discernment. So how exactly is corporate discernment supposed to function?
First, discernment is just another way of saying the witness or “knowing” that we have in our heart that God is speaking. Have you ever been in a meeting and heard a speaker say something and immediately your spirit leapt inside of you? That was your spirit agreeing or witnessing that what it’s hearing is the Spirit of God. When we get born again, our spirit man becomes alive to God’s spirit, we immediately have the ability to recognize the voice of God. That’s why Jesus said in John 10 that we, His sheep, know His voice – the voice of the Good Shepherd - and so when we hear a strange voice (the voice of the enemy) we won’t follow it. Not surprisingly, Hebrews 5:14 tells us that this discernment, the ability to distinguish good from evil, is something we get better at the more we practice it. The more we become familiar with the voice of God, the easier and easier it is to distinguish Him speaking, even if the enemy is generating a lot of spiritual noise around us.
So if we have this discernment, then why do we as believers sometimes get confused about God’s voice or accidentally let the enemy into our spiritual house, thinking that it’s God? It’s because rarely does the enemy come at us announcing who he is or showing himself in plain sight. Jesus said he’s the father of lies who likes to masquerade as an angel of light.
Imagine you go to a costume party with your best friend, Bob, but when you get there, you realize there are two other people there, who are the same height and weight as Bob and are wearing the exact same fully body costume as him. So when they are standing together, suddenly you realize you are having a hard time telling them apart. Now the easiest way to figure out who is who would be to ask them each to call your name – because as soon as you hear Bob’s voice, you are going to know it’s him, right?
But what if you happen to have a cold and your ears are plugged? Well that’s going to make it a lot harder to hear clearly and therefore a lot more difficult to figure out who Bob is. But let’s say another friend of yours, Jim, who also knows Bob, is at the party. Problem solved – you just ask Jim to come over, listen to all the voices, and help you decide which guy is Bob.
That’s exactly how corporate discernment works. Our hearing isn’t always perfect. Hurts, fear, unbelief and a host of other experiences can dull or plug up our spiritual ears, making it more difficult to hear the voice of God clearly. It’s at time like this that it is such a blessing to have other believers to share with who can help us discern what is really the voice of God. Or put another way “For by wise counsel you shall make your war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety. (Proverbs 24:6)
The concept of community is something we have lost in our fast-paced, internet-driven, individual-focused society. 100 years ago, everyone knew their neighbours and people looked out for one another. Today, we drive out of our garages, talking on our cell phones, maybe giving our neighbours the occasional wave.
But as believers, we belong to a different kingdom with different laws than the world around us and we are not supposed to be subject to the spirit of this age. The Bible has a lot to say about us being part of a Body and the importance of unity in that Body. And the enemy fights it tooth and nail, trying to blind us to this important truth, so he can weaken the kingdom’s advance and be able to gain more ready access to our spiritual houses.
Establishing a spiritual neighbourhood watch in your community of believers is one of the ways you can stand against the independent spirit of the present age and align yourself with kingdom truth. If you would to ask the Lord to help you learn how to do this, let’s pray this prayer together: “Father, I thank you for the discernment that you have given me so that I can recognize Your voice. Please teach me how to increase in my discernment so that I can be more finely tuned to Your voice in every area of my life. And Father, I know that You have set me in a Body as it pleases You. Please teach me more about Your Body and how to walk in it the way You always intended. Father I want to see a spiritual neighborhood watch developed in the community that You set me in because I know this is a divine strategy to build and protect Your kingdom. Please show me what to do and I will follow You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join The Warfare of Rest consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 20 – The Procession
One day, at the Lord’s prompting, I went to clean a friend’s apartment as a surprise for him. He was not a believer and had struggled with addictions throughout his life. But he had a tender heart toward God and always said the only reason he was still alive was because of the prayers of his Pentecostal grandmother, who had passed away a number of years before.
I must admit I wasn’t feeling particularly magnanimous that afternoon. Truth be told, I was being grudgingly obedient – complaining as I cleaned through the cigarette butts and plates of dried-on food. Yech! At one point, I was gathering together some papers that were scattered on a table, when a small picture slipped out. It was a well-worn school picture of a small boy. As I turned it over, I saw my friend’s name and the words “10 years old”, written in a shaky script. I realized this must be a picture that his grandmother kept while she was praying for him and he reclaimed it when she died.
Suddenly, without warning, I saw a bar of liquid light appear near the ceiling and run across the whole room. And I heard the Lord say, “This is the faith of generations, reach up and grab a hold of it.” As I reached my hand up by faith, I was caught up in a vision and found myself standing in a huge hall where points of light, filled with incredible energy, were ricocheting all around. There appeared to be no resistance, so none of these points of light were diminishing in energy as they moved.
Then the Lord spoke again. “These are the prayers of My saints, spoken by faith in accordance with My Word. They are living and active and have not lost any power since the day they were prayed. And I am asking you to reach back into the pages of spiritual history and join with the prayers, faith, worship and prophetic utterances of former generations. Can you not see their hands reaching out to you to carry the burden, to pick up the call?”
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for…All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance… God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:1-2; 13; 40)
When we accept Christ, instantly we become eligible to be linked into a procession of faith that is as old as Abraham and through which we can play an integral part in the timeless plan of God to see every one of His promises fulfilled.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11,12)
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)
About a year after this “hall of faith” encounter, I was given another vision in prayer one day. I saw a farmer, walking across his field at the end of the work day. He was praying and as the words came out of his mouth, they turned into letters that I could see and then they fell into the ground. Then the scene changed and I saw a little country church on a warm summer morning. The doors and windows were open and I could hear worship. As I watched, musical notes begin to float out of windows and then drop into the ground. Then I heard the Lord say,
“There is a great deposit of My glory in this nation because I have had many godly men and women whose feet have walked this land and worked this land while faithfully serving Me. And as My word was sung in worship or spoken during a meeting or prayed by someone in their secret place, that Word, mixed with faith, fell like seeds of righteousness that went deep down into the soil and remains yet today. There are many who sowed and never saw the harvest that was promised. But I have not forgotten those seeds of faith. They are not dead nor lost. Instead they lie dormant, sleeping, waiting for the right season when there will be a prophetic cry to ‘Come forth!’ And they shall spring to life and be gathered in as part of a great end-time harvest. When those seeds did not bear fruit in the generation in which they were planted, the enemy rejoiced thinking he had thwarted My plan. But he did not know and he could not see that they were not lost but hidden away for the time of the fulfillment of all the generations.”
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven… (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
A few years ago, in a prayer meeting, I saw a picture of myself wearing a T-shirt across which was emblazoned in large letters: Gen X - the generation that reaped where they did not sow. And the Lord said to me, “Remember this, as it will be your safety against falling into the trap of wrongly believing that you are somehow better or wiser than those that came before you. You are not – you are simply landing in the fulfillment of time.”
We have a great privilege of being among those who are coming at the very end of this magnificent procession of faith. And if we are willing to humble ourselves so the Lord can entrust us to call forth life into the seeds of faith as He directs. I truly believe that we will have the honour of seeing the prayers of many generations fulfilled and the faith of many generations being made complete.
If this resonates with your heart and you would like to make the commitment to take your place to stand in the procession of faith, contending not only for your own promises, but for all the generations, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, I thank You for the privilege of being invited to enter into the company of faithful ones, men and women from throughout the generations who, against all hope, have believed in You and even when they have not seen the fulfillment of all Your promises, they have greeted them at a distance by faith. Father, enlarge my heart and my perspective so I can contend for more than just my own promises. I want to see what You desire, and what many have stood for, being made complete as You establish Your kingdom on this earth. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to join The Warfare of Rest consecration and receive the daily exhortations you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.
A Warfare of Rest – Day 21 – No More Delay
One morning upon waking, I felt the Lord say to me that I needed to re-arrange the furniture in my bedroom and in particular, the position of my bed. My bed had always been in the same spot since I moved into that house and for good reason – it was the most logical place for it based on the layout of the room. As I lay pondering this odd instruction, the Lord spoke clearly to me. “Stephanie,” He said, “I want to re-orient you. A new season is coming when I am about to display Myself as the Mighty God in a way that you and much of the present-day Church has not yet experienced. I want you to shift your bed around so that every morning when you wake up, the first thing you see is a new perspective. It will be a constant reminder to you that everything is about to change.“
Last week during one of our Awaken team prayer calls, Rebecca kept hearing the word “re-calibrate” and searching the internet, she found this explanation.
In general use, calibration is often regarded as including the process of adjusting the output or indication on a measurement instrument to agree with value of the applied standard, within a specified accuracy.
Calibration may be called for:
Throughout this warfare of rest consecration the Lord has been repairing and modifying us (His instruments) during a specified time period because there is a new standard coming to which He wants to adjust us.
Theologically we know that God is the Mighty One, the Sovereign King. But experientially, it has seemed like the enemy has succeeded in his plans to destroy far more often than the Lord has reigned victoriously. We have tried walk by faith, only to be disappointed again and again. And all these experiences have subtly conditioned us to expect deferral and delay.
During the last month, our team has been seeing the numbers 11:11 everywhere. We know that the 11th hour means that time has run out. It’s also, literally, the last hour before midnight – before a new day dawns. In Matthew 25, Jesus told the parable of the wise and foolish virgins who all fell asleep waiting for a bridegroom who was delayed. But it was at the midnight hour that a cry rang out “Wake up, the bridegroom is coming!”
We feel that the Lord is trying to alert us that the hour is much later than we think. The signs of times are all around us, from the increasingly weird weather patterns to the destabilizing world economies to the escalating unrest in the Middle East. Yet at the same time, the enemy is trying his hardest to lull the Church into a complacency and dullness of not recognizing the season that we are in.
When God said He wanted to “re-orient” me, it was an interesting choice of words. To re-orient literally means “to cause to turn to or face the east again.” The east is where the sun rises – where the new day begins. And the east is also where, we know, Jesus will split the sky when He returns as our victorious King. I believe Rebecca heard right and this whole consecration is about a re-calibration – there is a new kingdom standard to which we have to rise if we are going to function the way the Lord wants in the new season. And there is an open door that we need to pass through – and that door is a door of rest. That’s why we can’t enter into the new season with strongholds of unbelief controlling us and wrong mindsets warring to keep us stuck in the past. Over the last 21 days, the Lord has been taking us on a journey of repositioning our hearts so that we would turn away from the pain and sorrow, the disappointments and failures and hope deferred of the past season and reoriented, facing east, with joyful anticipation of our redemption that is drawing near.
The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:11-12)
For weeks I have been hearing a refrain from an amazing song written by my friend, Laura Woodley Osman, called “Right Now.”
I believe I will live to see
My nation on its knees
All the young and the old ones
Will be calling Jesus, King
It will all change, it will all change...
It WILL all change – everything we have known, everything we have experienced, everything we thought we understood about how the kingdom of God will be established among us - it’s all going to change.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19)
If we don’t fully let go of the past, we will never be able to perceive the new that is coming. As Joshua said to the children of Israel about to enter the Promised Land “You have not been this way before.” We have not been this way before. It’s a new day, a new season and God wants us to move forward securely anchored to a newfound hope that the day has come for the fulfillment of every promise and every vision.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by and every vision comes to nothing’? Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer quote it in Israel.’ Say to them, ‘The days are near when every vision will be fulfilled. For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations among the people of Israel. But I the Lord will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious people, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the Israelites are saying, ‘The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future.’
“Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” (Ezekiel 12:21-28)
If you would like the Lord to seal this process of reorientation and secure the place He has taken you as you have stepped out of unbelief and into rest, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, I choose today to believe Your word – more than the circumstances, more than the pain of the past. I choose to forget and not to dwell on the old but to re-orient myself and fix my eyes on You and the hope of the new day that is coming. Lord I ask You to complete Your work in me. Search my heart and expose in me any mindset that may still be trying to hold me in the past. I want to be a clean slate, God, a blank page on which You can write the story You want for my life in this next season. I choose to say, by faith, it will all change, God. I believe that we are entering now into the season where You will fulfill not only the promises you have made for my life, but the full plan You have had to see Your kingdom established on this earth.
Thank you for bringing me through this consecration and for exposing and helping me to seal up many open doors and holes in my spiritual life through which unbelief was gaining a foothold. Lord, I ask You to help me by Your grace to maintain what I have attained these three weeks and move forward from glory to glory and faith to faith. I believe oh Lord – help my unbelief! In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!” (Revelation 10:5-6)
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
If you would like to stay connected with Awaken the Dream and the journey, you may sign up at http://www.awakenthedream.org/connect.