Take it!

I had an amazing time at church today! Truth be told, it has just been an awesome move of the Spirit of God in the life of my family as the Lord ordered our steps to a different place of worship, one that is clearly part of His call on our lives for this season. It has been one Holy Spirit encounter after the other on another level since then, and the Lord has been unfolding Himself in new dimensions to each and all of us ever since. Err…no don’t ask me the name of the church sis. This is not a call for you to move from where the Lord may have you planted at this time. If He needs you to move, He will move you Himself and it will not be out of any orchestrated effort on your part. I’m simply sharing because I consider that I am doing life with you on some level through this platform, and because of the things God spoke to me at the turn of this year which I am beginning to see glimpses of; and I am honestly both excited at the bit He has shown me, as well as excito-scared (my new word combo) of the magnitude of what He has said is yet to come.

So in church today, the pastor in the course of his message made reference to Esther 8 verse 8 and sis, it was such a powerful alignment to every other thing he preached on prior to and after he made the reference. Honesty, today was another one of those ‘this-message-is-precisely-for-me’ days; but something about this particular verse of Scripture, among the many he shared, spoke deep to my core. It resonated even more profoundly with me as my spirit made immediate connections with two other statements he made in the course of his ministration…. statements that would otherwise have seemed somewhat unrelated were the Holy Spirit not helping me see them through a different knowing. He had quoted Matthew 11 verse 12 further along in his message, and in elaborating on the relevance of that portion of Scripture to the point he was trying to pass across, he’d said, “Not everything is given. Some things must be taken!”  My spirit immediately jumped back to Esther 8 verse 8. 

Again at the end of the service, he had mentioned that there would be a special ministration next week and everyone should come with their 2017 goals. He however reminded us that our faith is not supposed to be in the goals, but in He who enables us to do; that the injunction from God is to seek first after His Kingdom and righteousness and all other things would follow, including the attainment of our goals. Sis, maybe it’s because I have set my own goals for the year which I am trusting God to help me deliver on, or maybe it’s because everywhere around me all I see are conversations about goal-setting; but suffice it to say that as he made that announcement at the end of the service, my spirit immediately went again to Esther 8 verse 8 and somehow I knew that this was the word I needed to share with you today.

^{Esther 8 v 8} You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke.”

·        ‘You yourself write a decree’: Sis, have you framed your 2017? The Lord is reminding you again that He has given you power and authority and that you need to use it to reign and rule in your corner of the earth, to fulfill godly purpose and deliver glory to Him. The word of God is that we should write the vision and make it plain (Habakkuk 2 verse 2). You can only run with it when it is written, sis. Anything else is just glorious imagination. The word of God tells us that the world was framed by the Word of God (Hebrews 11 verse 3), and we carry the divine nature and power of God in us. We are Kings and Priests. He has given us rulership and dominion over the earth and He has asked us to decree a thing and it shall be established. We need to make tangible decrees, sis! Write down your decrees for your 2017 and trust that you are framing the world that the power of God will then unfold for you. Write your vision for this year and run with it. Write it, speak it, set your eyes continuously on it and you will surely see it come to pass… indeed, you will see greater things come to pass in this year in Jesus name. Please don’t be casual about this, sis. In 2017, the Lord is looking for uncommon believers, for radical faith! He is looking for those who will choose to believe Him over what man will call foolish; those who will walk in naive faith, trusting the word of God that NOTHING is impossible to Him. I sense that God wants to show off in your life and in my life in a radical way in 2017, sis. Don’t let ‘normal’ stand in the way of extraordinary this year. Please sis!

·       ‘…as you please’..:  Hey sis, are you as excited as I am at this? As I please? What does this mean? I tell you what ministered to me, sis. The Lord is saying to you and I that there are no limitations this year. As long as our ultimate objective is to deliver a higher level of glory to Him in 2017, we can ask as we please. We can ask for the big things, we can ask for the small things. We can ask for the spiritual things, and we can ask for the material things. We can ask for spiritual enlargement, and we can ask for promotion in our places of planting and in the works of our hands. We can ask for influence and we can ask for impact. As we please, sis. It’s all as we please. However…..

·         ‘…in the King’s name…’:  Here is the catch sis. As we ask, we must ask in the name of the King. Jesus said to us that whatever we ask in His name, God is able to grant to us according to His riches in glory. So there is an alignment called for sis and that is why in my view, while I will ask as I please, I will color it myself by asking in Jesus name, and asking for Him to show me any request I make that does not fit into delivering glory to Him.

·       ‘…and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke’: Sis, be sure you don’t move with any project/goal/endeavor that the Lord does not sanction. Not in this year! These are not the day’s, sis! As we ask as we please, and as we ask in the name of the Lord, let us also be patient to wait and hear from Him so we have clarity as to the things He has sanctioned. God clarifies the what, the how, the when, the where, the with whom, etc. Many times He unfolds these one step at a time, but be sure you have a specific ‘Yes’ for your ‘what’, sis. It is only then that you can be sure He seals it with His seal of approval, with that signet ring no one can revoke. Once the Lord establishes your assignments for 2017, no force from the camp of the enemy can override you. They may try, but it will be a vain thing and in the end the enemy will never prevail.  

Sis, God has an awesome plan for you and I in this year. But, we will only walk in it if we take what He has made available to us. We must pull that which He has spoken into manifestation in this realm, and that involves a ‘taking by force’. This is not a time to be casual about your Christianity! This is not a season to be apathetic about your pursuit of purpose! This is not the time to maintain status quo in your relationship with the Holy Spirit! I can’t tell you enough that this year, the Lord is calling us to a new level of intimacy with Him.

The world is going through fundamental changes, sis. Those who will live in elevation over all the trials and tribulations of the day are those who will intentionally live in an elevated spiritual position. Sis, let’s be intentional and focused about seeking God at a higher level this year. Let’s cast aside every success or achievement of the prior year and years, and let’s consign every failure to history. God has turned a new page for you and I, sis. But there is a demand placed on us if we are to walk in it, if we are to achieve goals that are fully in alignment with His will and which will deliver the glory He desires our lives to bring to Him in 2017. Let’s take it, sis! Let’s PRESS IN and TAKE IT! As always the Lord will help you, sis…as assuredly as He continues to help me!

Be blessed sis…..for you surely are!