Wow! This has been a busy season of life and it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything, but that doesn’t mean God hasn’t been speaking. As many of you know, I like to listen to Johnny Enlow and have learned so much that has reformed my way of thinking about the future and whether we have a part to play to see things change. Things like seeing the kingdom of Heaven come to earth.
In the portion of scripture we have labeled as the Lord’s prayer, in Matthew 6:9-15, Jesus said this: “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…’”
I memorized this portion of scripture as a prayer when I was a kid and can quote it by heart, but I really didn’t know the understanding behind it, especially the part “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I guess I always thought that God would do the work of it and we would receive the benefit of it, probably in the great by and by since I was taught that earth was going to hell-in-a-hand- basket, so to speak. But I never thought I had a part to play in seeing His kingdom come to earth in our day. I just prayed the prayer and didn’t really think about the rest of it.
A few months ago, I felt led to look up some scriptures on us (God’s children) inheriting the land. Here is one of the scriptures I found that day. Psalms 37:21b-22, “But the righteous is gracious and gives. For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, but those cursed by Him will be cut off.”
Having looked up inherit scriptures before (I’ve written about our stance as children of His inheritance in previous blogs) I took this scripture to mean that He would be gifting us this land because we are His children, like part of the “will” of His kingdom. We would receive this because we had His name and we receive His inheritance at some point. But when I felt led to look up the Hebrew meaning of this scripture I was shocked by what it was really saying. Here is the meaning of this word, inherit, in the Hebrew.
Inherit H3423 (yarash) means: a primitive root; to occupy (by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place); by implication, to seize, to rob, to inherit, also to expel, to impoverish, to ruin, cast out, consume, destroy, disinherit, dispossess, drive out etc…
What??!!
This reminds me of God’s promise to give the Children of Israel the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 3:18 says, “And I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God has given you this land to possess it; you shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.” Then Deut. 3:20 which says, “Until the Lord has given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the land which the Lord your God has given them beyond the Jordan; and then shall you return every man unto his possession, which I have given you.”
Well guess what! This word possess is the exact same word “Yarash”; It has the same meaning which is “to occupy (by driving out the previous tenants and possessing in their place.”
I remember teaching a women’s Bible study about this 30 or more years ago. I remember teaching that this example of “possessing the land” was a type and shadow for what we need to understand today. I didn’t know then, just like in many other things, how pertinent this is for today…and I didn’t know that these next scriptures that have to do with OUR future were the same word meaning to occupy (by driving out the previous tenants and possessing in their place).
Listed below are the scriptures that have this meaning. The words highlighted are the word yarash in the Hebrew:
Psalms 25:13 “His soul will abide in prosperity and his descendants will inherit the land.”
Psalms 37:9 “For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.”
Psalms 37:11 “But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”
Psalms 37:22 “For those blessed by Him will inherit the land.”
Psalms 37:29 “The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.”
Psalms 37:34 “Wait for the Lord and keep His way and he will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.”
Psalms 105:44 “He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, and they inherited the labor of the nations.”
Isaiah 54:2-3 Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left and your descendants will inherit the nations.
Isaiah 57:13 “…But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land and will possess My holy mountain.”
Isaiah 60:21 “Also your people shall all be righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified.”
Isaiah 65:9 “I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains; My elect shall inherit it and My servants shall dwell there.”
Micah 1:15 “Moreover, I will bring on you the one who takes possession, O inhabitant of Mareshah, the glory of Israel will enter Adullam.”
In all of these verses, the Lord is saying His people will occupy by driving out the previous occupants and occupying it its place.
I was really being spoken to as I looked up these verses. I believe, when you consider type and shadows of the OT you can glean spiritual truth for today. An example is the Children of Israel putting the blood on the doorposts while they were still slaves in Egypt and the death angel passed over (the first Passover). (Ex. 12.) Then in the NT Jesus is called the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, and His crucifiction was on Passover. God is very specific when He fulfills OT principals with NT fulfillment. (Matthew 26)
Now listen to a portion of this parable Jesus told in Luke 19:11-13: “And as they heard these things, he spoke a parable because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. So He said, ‘A nobleman went to a far country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return. And he called his ten slaves and gave them ten minas and said to them, Occupy till I come.”
He was encouraging the people who were listening to not wait with an expectation for the next step to just happen, but to occupy. The word occupy in this verse is the Greek word G4231 Pragmateuomai and means “to busy oneself with ie to trade, occupy” and comes from the root word “to practice, ie perform repeatedly or habitually, to execute, accomplish. These are verbs, they show action. I love this…
How we perceive our future totally determines what we put our hands to. If we believe that the anti Christ is the next thing to appear on the scene and will torture and torment us until God has to come and whisk us away, then we aren’t going to have faith to believe that the previous verses about “driving out the previous tenants and occupying in their place”are supposed to happen. We will just hope to get a few people saved during the tribulation season and hope for a pre-trib or mid-trib event. But I heard it said awhile back that if this is the narrative we live by then what we are really saying is satan is more powerful than God and we, His people, weren’t able to accomplish God’s original design for Adam and Eve, and that was to subdue and have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:28)
The word subdue in the Hebrew is H3533 (kabash) and means to tread down; hence, (positively) to conquer, subjugate, bring into bondage, bring into subjection.
Dominion in the Hebrew is H7287 (radah) and means to tread down, ie subjugate, to crumble off, (come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, rule (over), take.
Well, satan took care of that right away and Adam and Eve gave away their authority to him. Jesus, came and took it back away from satan when He was crucified, died, went to hell and was raised from the dead. Colossians 2:15 says, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
I just looked up the word shew (G1165 to exhibit from the base of 1166 a specimen (as shown), example. The word openly is G3954 and means all outspokenness, frankness, bluntness, publicity.
What this is saying to me is Jesus made a public example out of them. If you’ll remember in Luke 9:1, “He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over ALL the demons and to heal diseases.”
And in Luke 10:19 it says, “Behold, I give unto you power (exousia) to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power (dunamis) of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
If you’ll remember from past blogs, exousia is authority and dunamis is power. So what Jesus was telling His disciples (and us) is He gave us authority over all the power of the enemy. Satan’s authority has been stripped from him, all he has is power and that’s only if he can get us to agree with him. If we don’t heed or agree, he has no power.
Jesus’ reference to treading on serpents sounds a lot like God telling the serpent in Genesis 3 that there would be enmity (hostility, hatred) between his (satan’s) seed and Eve’s seed and that Eve’s seed would bruise satan on the head and satan’s seed would bruise his (Eve’s seeds) heal. Jesus did that and we have been given back the authority that the serpent gained in the garden. Hallelujah!
So why am I saying all of this? How does this apply to us today? I believe that just like in the OT, Joshua and the children of Israel had to show up for the battle. If you’ll remember, when they crossed the Jordan River, God had the priests take the Ark of the Covenant into the middle of the river and it says the river stood up and they crossed on dry ground, just like when they crossed the Red Sea! (Joshua 3:9-17)
Then the angel of the Lord (in Joshua 5) gave Joshua a battle plan. It was a most unconventional battle plan. Joshua 6 says they marched around the walls of Jericho under the direction of the Lord. On days 1-6 they marched around one time in complete silence. The priests blew the shofars each day as they walked leading the way with the Ark of the Covenant following them.
On day seven God said to walk around the wall seven times. So the armed men lead the way, then seven priests carrying seven shofars blew them as they went, then the four priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant, followed by the people who walked in complete silence until they completed the seventh round. Then when the priests blew a long blast, the people were instructed to shout because Joshua told them, “The Lord has given you the city.”
This battle plan makes no rational sense. What the people did was a pure act of obedience. What kept Jericho’s army from sitting on the wall and picking people off as they walked by? What kept them from coming outside the gates and attacking them and killing them? Isn’t that what most armies would do? God had them do something that makes no sense and divinely protected them while they were doing it.
There are numerous examples throughout the OT of God leading men to win a battle God’s way, not man’s way. Take a look at David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. David refuses Saul’s armor and defeats Goliath with nothing more than a sling and 5 stones and this was after Israel’s army had hid like cowards for 40 days (1 Sam. 17:16).
Then Gideon from Judges Chapters 6 and 7 obeyed the Lord and won the battle against the Midianites using 300 men, pitchers with candles inside and shofars. It says in verse 7:22 “And when they blew 300 trumpets (shofars), the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. I believe God can and is moving the same way today. I believe he is using ordinary people doing unconventional things out of obedience to the Spirit to change the atmosphere in the Spirit. I believe we are to contend for the kingdom of heaven to come to the earth. I believe we have been duped into believing things have to get really bad so we can get whisked out of here so we haven’t been compelled to look for and consider scriptures that say God’s glory will cover the earth: Numbers 14:21 All the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord, and Isaiah 6:3 (about the angels in heaven) One calls out to another and says, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His Glory.”
What do you think this next scripture means? Acts 3:19-21 Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His Holy prophets from ancient times.
I took some time looking back through what the prophets had to say. If heaven must receive Jesus until the period of restoration of all things that God spoke by the mouth of His prophets then I believe we should know what the prophets have said and ask the Lord to give us insight on where we’re going and what God wants to see happen.
Here are a couple of verses that I found:
Is 60:1-3 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behond, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you, and nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
Is 58:8 and 12 “Then you will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.
Look at this verse from Ephesians 4:10, “He (Jesus) who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.”
Here is what fill means in the Greek: G4137 Pleroo which means to make replete, ie (literally) to cram (a net), level up (a hollow), to furnish (influence) satisfy, execute (an office), finish (a period or task), accomplish, (be) complete, fulfill, (be make) full (come). Replete, in the dictionary means full or abundantly provided or filled, and complete.
This is what Paul said Jesus did. When you look the word “fill” up it is much more telling with understanding. Now listen to the same verse from The Passion Translation:
“The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven, in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things.
Doesn’t this remind you of God’s original design for man before the serpent deceived them and stole their authority? It is my understanding that God wants us to understand who we are in Christ and what our stance should be when we know.
Then take a look at Daniel 7:22 and 27 (you can actually read from 7:9-27). 21. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.” 27. Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the Saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.
All of these verses, in my opinion refer to God’s original intent and what He still intends to do, and speaking of original intent, did you know our country also had an original intent? Did you know that our nation, the United States of America was begun with a covenant with the Lord? Unfortunately, we did not learn about any of this in our history classes in school, but on April 29, 1607, a prayer of dedication was made by Robert Hunt. Here is the prayer that was prayed over our nation from the very beginning:
We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains and may this land, along with England, be evangelists to the world. May all who see this cross remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and this most noble work, that the Holy Scriptures maybe fulfilled. From these very shores the gospel shall go forth, not only to this new world, but the entire world.
Psalm 22:27-28 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the Kingdom is the Lord’s and He rules among the nations.
It’s from this stance that I have taken to praying and fighting for our nation. To hear more about this go to this link and watch a video by Tim and Dutch Sheets on Command the Foreword.
One example stood out to me in this video. It’s another example from David and Goliath. Goliath name calls Israel’s army and calls them servants of Saul (1 Samuel 17:8) but David corrects the narrative by saying that they come “in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel”. David also calls Goliath an uncircumcised Philistine. (And here is what I love!) David was not referring to body parts, he was referring to covenant. David was saying, “I am here under the covenant of God and you are not!) David puts the whole thing back into perspective.
Those words struck me. After hearing about Robert Hunt’s prayer in 1607, he prayed that we would be a nation in covenant with God, that this nation was established to spread the gospel to the whole world and that we would be evangelists to the world. It’s from this stance that I have joined the spiritual fight for our nation. This nation is God’s and the evil that is trying to steal that away are not in covenant with God. We are!! I know God wins…I’ve been told that prophetically from the very beginning but we all have a part to play. We are to co-labor with Him in what is going on at this time.
Just like David, Gideon and the children of Israel, we need to show up to the battle and obey the Spirit. The things He may lead us to do may make no rational sense, just like David, Gideon and the children of Israel when they marched around the walls of Jericho. They all showed up and gave their acts of obedience and God did the rest…every time! I liken it to we give our 3% out of obedience to the Spirit and God does the 97% and the battles are won. He is calling us to partner with Him.
Last year I heard a testimony from Kat Kerr on Holy Spirit obedience. I wish I could share the link but I have no idea which Elijah Streams it was on. The Lord was asking her if she would obey him whatever He asked her to do and she shared a testimony about buying a round trip airline ticket, the day of, and flying to an airport many states away to give someone she didn’t even know a prophetic word, and then she flew home. She did this by complete faith as she didn’t even know what the prophetic word was going to be. The Lord just kept telling her she would know when he showed her who it was to talk to. I was stirred by her testimony and I said to the Lord, “I want to do that too.” He replied to me, “What about the things I’ve already told you?” (Oh oh…)
I realized there were several things that He had revealed to me and I had not written them down or completed them. I had not stewarded them well. So, I went out that day and bought a small book that is now in my purse and I have a list of things from the Lord. When I complete one I date it in my book.
I could fill up pages showing you pictures of places I’ve gone, and perhaps in time I’ll write more about some of the places I’ve been, but for now I’d like to highlight a trip Hannah and I took to Virginia. We obeyed the Spirit’s leading to go to George Washington’s tomb and Cape Henry, both in Virginia.
The purpose of our trip was to repent for the sins of our forefathers where it was appropriate and to declare scriptures and pray as the Lord led.
This is George Washington’s Tomb in Mount Vernon, Virginia. I’m sure you will notice symbolism that will show you some of what we repented for. We also discovered while we were there that he owned slaves and the Spirit said to repent for slavery in our land too.
Praying at Mount Vernon at George Washington’s tomb. Notice the Obelisk…
The entrance to the slave graves.
We walked down a path to the slave grave yard. There were no memorial markers, just string (I’m sure that was recent) and a few stones to mark the locations. Such a huge difference between the two, yet all mankind is created equal in the eyes of God. So, we repented that man felt they could own other men…and that it was ever legal in our nation.
Some graves had more stones than others. People today are making them to honor their memories..
Also, on the way we felt led to pray over each state we entered. We anointed the borders of the states we passed through. It added time to our travels, but we felt the delays were important enough to add several more hours to our trip. Here are a few pictures of states where we anointed their borders.
Hannah praying at the Illinois border. We couldn’t get a picture of the Illinois sign so the first exit sign had to do. Some Border signs are up on the top of the bridge when you drive in.
We also prayed over the borders of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. Hannah is walking in the chiggers (ha ha) to get to the sign for Pennsylvania. On our way home we drove a different route and covered West Virginia again and Kentucky. We prayed to break off evil assignments established over each state and to pray God’s protection over them in this coming season.
On day two we went to Cape Henry, Virginia. This is at what most people know as Virginia Beach. The official spot of the Puritan landing is now on a military base. We didn’t know that the first day we arrived there, so we went back the next morning. Here are a few pictures of that part of the trip.
We prayed, read Robert Hunt’s prayer, declared scriptures and blew the shofar… And anything else Holy Spirit said…Each place is different in what we do. Holy Spirit just leads & we obey. We took communion here & poured a little on the sand.
On our second day at Cape Henry we got onto the military base and went to the memorial of the cross they build from the planks of the ship. Of course this cross today is a memorial. The wooden cross is long gone.
Someone had left some annointing oil so we did some annointing as we prayed. We were so encouraged as we were there because it was obvious that we weren’t the only ones with the idea to pray and declare that our nation was and still is a covenant nation. Look at these next pictures of some of the items we found around the cross.
As we were walking away we all admitted that this location had been the highlight of our trip. It was SO encouraging to add our prayers and declarations with all of the others that had been lifted up into heaven from this place. And we prayed Robert Hunt’s prayer again from this place.
It has been exciting to go and see what we hear from the Lord in each place. Several other verses come to mind. One out of Ephesians 6:12 which says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” What I perceive is first in the spirit, then in the natural. We hear what the Lord intends, we agree with Him in prayer, praying scripture and making decrees, then we stand in faith, having our eyes on what God is doing, not what the devil is doing. The children of Israel failed time after time in the wilderness. They kept getting tripped up looking at circumstances and freaking out and reacting in the flesh instead of reminding themselves of what God had promised them which was, He was going to take them to the Promised Land. We need to do the same.
Yes things in the natural look bad and appear to be going downhill, but that is not what God has said. Do I believe circumstances or do I believe God? I keep reminding myself to believe God. I keep doing my best to listen to the Spirit and take whatever steps I hear Him say to take.
If you listen to the video I shared above Tim Sheets received a word from the Lord that we were going to be going through a shaking. He shared this video in June and the Lord said June, July and August were preparation months, and then September was going to be a shaking. Multiple times in the word God said, “Do not fear, do not fear, do not fear.” He assured us that evil was going to be shaken and exposed, and dealt with but we were going to have to go through some things, but to keep reminding ourselves that wicked was being dealt with, not us. Along with the shaking He would be ushering in God’s reset. Not what the New World Order has in mind, but what God has in mind. So, evidently, things could look scary in the next months ahead, otherwise God wouldn’t have said don’t fear. So when these times come, remind yourself to NOT FEAR! We are being given a heads up…
I heard the Lord say to me a few months back, “This generation has the opportunity to do it right this time.” I am going to do my best to honor His request. I may have to be like David and ask myself, “Why so downcast Oh my soul, put your hope in God”, but I will do that if necessary. I want to be found faithful…and I know you do too.
The thought has come to me that we are in an Esther season. Esther was told by Mordecai in Esther 4:14, “Yet who knows whether you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this?” God has each one of us here in this time period and this season for a reason. It’s no mistake…We each have a part to play in what God is doing. If you ask He will show you your part and as you do it you will be blessed in your obedience. There’s nothing more fulfilling than obeying the Lord.
If anyone wants prayer, I will be glad to pray with you. If you feel confused in the days ahead, reach out. We will be here for each other. Pray that the Lord opens your eyes to what He’s doing. It’s easy to see the bad…it’s not always as easy to see the good. God says to think on these things, Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.”
Before I close I’d like to take a minute to suggest that if you haven’t yet read my book, you can click the link below to go check it out. It has many, many testimonies of God Stories, and my next book will have God Adventures. This book has encouragement, chapters on how to begin to recognize the Lord’s movement in your life and other chapters on revelations I have received. You can check it out here:
Until next time….
Rants Ramblings and Reflections 