The Destiny Center

The Pursuer is the Possessor

2011-06-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

'When the Pursuer awakens the Possessor rises and Recovery is born

I Samuel 30:8

'Pursue, for you shall surely overtake your enemies and without fail, you shall recover all'

In the ashes of your meltdown God has appointed your turnaround.

I Samuel 30 gives the account of David and his men returning from a business trip to find that their city had been sacked and burned to the ground. Their families and their possessions had been taken captive and were missing. In that moment David was literally standing in the ashes of what used to be.

Can you relate to 'standing in the ashes of what used to be'?

When David and his men arrived at Ziklag to discover it burned with fire and their families taken captive they wept until quote 'they had no more power to weep'. Translation: they had exceeded their breaking point and were paralyzed in the chaos of exhaustion.

Out of the ashes of great despair a chaos ensued that caused a break down of confidence in David's leadership. The men that knew David best, who understood his battlefield prowess and who had staked their lives on the prophetic promise that he would become king now spoke openly of killing him.

This level of accusation and attack took David to a place of soul suffering that intensified the pain he was already experiencing. In that moment he was 'excessively squeezed'. Not only had he lost his family but now he had lost his support system. Chaos reigned in the ashes of an unexpected meltdown.

Can I be real for a minute? The truth is, we're all like David. No matter our destiny, gifting, prophetic promises or our resume' of success, each of us has a breaking point. All it takes is the right enemy hitting us in the right place at the right time and it shatters us.

Newsflash: You're susceptible to being breakable!

One of the first casualties of transition is Confidence in your Sense of Being.

Isn't it interesting that when David and his men were processing the chaos of their meltdown that they lost their sense of identity? In essence, the 'ashes of what used to be' obscured their identity.

These men were hardened warriors, battlefield geniuses. They were entrepreneurs who had built a successful business providing personal security for wealthy men in the badlands of southern Judah. They were possessors by nature and they had the resumes to prove it.

Most importantly, they were survivors. They had successfully survived the relentless attempts of King Saul to find and kill David.

Your enemy wants to create a disconnect between your prophetic identity and your present reality.

Your enemy wants to so overwhelm you with negative emotions that you forget who God built you to be. He wants to shatter your confidence. He seeks to break your focus and to paralyze you with grief over all that's gone wrong so that you don't have the capacity to move forward.

Make no mistake, you're enemy knows you've got what it takes to emerge from your meltdown in a posture of victory and success. That's why he hits you so mercilessly, so relentlessly, so overwhelmingly.

In spite of your meltdown, you were built to bounce back.

The good news is that God will not leave you broken. While ashes surrounded David's life and his soul was excessively squeezed by the chaos that sought to consume him, God had recovery on His mind.

I Samuel 30:8 was God's assurance to David that the Amelekite victory over Ziklag would be reversed and that David would prevail if he pursued his enemy. In the middle of his meltdown this prophetic promise gave David confidence that God would give him a turnaround.

I've got good news: you're coming out of the chaos that has sought to consume you!

In recovery you discover a renewed sense of Courage, Confidence and Conviction.

In the midst of the emotional desolation David was experiencing, God awakened the anointing of recovery deep within David's spirit and he began to bounce back. God supernaturally broke David's soul paralysis and romanced the pursuer in David with the promise of recovery.

Suddenly, David began to act like the 'king' (his prophetic identity, not his present reality) he was, not the beaten man he had become.

This is a critical point. In seasons of great warfare the temptation is to become so spiritual that we miss the simplicity of faith. What God wants and needs from us is to believe Him in spite of the meltdown, then to base our behavior on that belief. He will not place more on you than you can bear. He's not after great sacrifice, He's after great faith.

The result for David was that he experienced a supernatural recovery of his courage, confidence and conviction, all of which had become casualties of his meltdown. Within a few moments, David recovered his capacity to pursue like the possessor he was and he shifted the atmosphere in the ashes completely in his favor.

He rallied his men, broke them out of their soul paralysis and forecasted a vision of recovery that completely empowered his men to come back also. David recovered his sense of credibility (prophetically, relationally and politically) as God built him back and focused him on pursuing recovery.

In a Kingdom sense, 'recovery' is a 'restoration that leaves nothing broken'.

I'm writing today to provoke the pursuer in you!

I firmly believe this is the direction that the Holy Spirit wants us centered and focused on. God has recovery on his mind and He's provoking His kings to rise up and pursue the impossible dreams, desires and drives that He's placed in us.

As I wrap up this word I want to leave you with several action steps that you need to take to realize the recovery that awaits you. Remember, God's got your recovery on His mind. He wants to partner with you to create miraculous outcomes in the scenarios you're facing.

Embrace your Prophetic Identity not your present reality

Believe your time is NOW and build everything around that belief

Focus on your turnaround, not on your meltdown

Boldly pursue the things God is speaking into your spirit knowing that He's your partner in the pursuit process

Don't be afraid to step out in faith. Embrace the fact that God knows where your 'stuff' is and that He's orchestrating your steps to be in the right place at the right time

Refuse to allow your enemy to intimidate you into remaining 'where' you are

Refuse to be defeated by a fear of failure

Allow yourself to dream again

Allow the Holy Spirit to romance your hear and mind with the rewards of faith's pursuit, then go after them

Lastly, I want to remind you that the DNA of a possessor is resident within you. You come from a long line of prolific pursuers. You possess the DNA of an overcomer.

Embrace the fact that you were built to bounce back and to break through. No matter where your enemy's hiding, he cannot keep what belongs to you.

Relentlessly pursue the things God has placed in your spirit, moving forward in courage, confidence and conviction. You are not alone. The God of Heaven has decreed victory over your life. The only way you lose is if you refuse to pursue

Every assignment has an enemy. Every anointing has an adversary. Every dream attracts detractors who seek to devour it.

Your destroyer will not prevail against you. The unholy alliances that have aligned against your destiny will not stand. The arm of the Lord is warring against your adversary and victory is in the NOW.

Your partner on the journey,

Bishop Howard L. Bass

Transition & The Emergent Joseph Company

2011-03-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Many of you have been in a season of turbulence. Be encouraged: God's up to something strategic in your chaos.

You don't need me to tell you these are challenging times in the earth. We've entered a period of volatility, uncertainty and shaking among the nations. There is great anxiety among the masses as tremendous difficulties continue arising from every corner of the globe. Economies are struggling, wars are raging and natural disasters are plastered all over the headlines. It seems there's been an eruption of sorts that has released a wave of upheaval in a way that our generation hasn't seen.

I feel it important for us not to attach prophetic meaning to every natural disaster or conflict that comes across our TV screens and web pages. Many in charismatic & prophetic circles assign prophetic meaning to every event that happens and some have erred because of this. When we overstate natural events we become like the boy who cried wolf until people tune us out. What good is legitimately having something to say if no one wants to listen to us anymore?

Not every event has prophetic significance. In times of crisis it's important to release what God is saying. It's equally important not to sign His Name to every thought or opinion we have. I believe there is great need in the Body of Christ at this time for maturity, balance, wisdom and prophetic caution.

Since Adam fell the earth has groaned in pain, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. While natural disasters can have prophetic importance, most often they are simply the result of the earth's groaning in it's fallen state. It's important as believers that we have a well-balanced theology and world view. We must avoid extremism and resist attaching a 'thus saith the Lord' to everything that happens in the earth.

To be heard in the marketplace of ideas we must possess credibility with our audience. To possess that credibility we must earn the right to be heard. The wisdom of God must rule the day if we are to reign effectively as sons & daughters of God in secular realms.

The aforementioned being said, it does seem that we've crossed a threshold where the nations are entering a Time of Transition. While I'm not referring to any singular recent event I do believe that the volatility we see on multiple levels in the earth is evidence that we've entered a time of global transition that has Kingdom ramifications.

On a Kingdom level, many have already been in deep transition for some time.

Interestingly, Joseph is the paradigm for this. Joseph entered his time of transition long before his family or the nations did. Simply stated, he was a prophetic forerunner for the coming moves of God amongst the nations. In other words, there was a divine set-up in Joseph's storm.

Joseph spent time in deep transition so God could strategically position him to lead Egypt and the surrounding nations through their time of transition that was coming in the form of famine.

My point is that God always has prophetic forerunners that He processes in preparation for what's coming among the nations.

I believe the transitions that many in the Kingdom have been enduring have prophetic & strategic significance in the times and seasons of God. I also believe we're beginning to see the nations enter their time of transition. As such, this will present tremendous opportunities to advance the Kingdom.

I believe there is an emergent Joseph Company that has been transitioned in darkness, processed through brokenness and prepared via uncommon sufferings.

This Joseph Company is being strategically positioned by the mastery of the Holy Spirit to affect Kingdom outcomes in a multitude of marketplaces, both in the Kingdom and in the secular arena.

Let me be up front. I am not a doom and gloom prophet. God gave us a Dominion Mandate and the transitions many have been through are preparation for deeper levels of anointing, greater dimensions of influence and higher-quality mantles.

Transition and Increased Influence

Real authority lies in the ability to influence outcomes. If you look a the Joseph Model you see that in every season of transition, God increased Joseph's influence. Influence is what authority really is. As the nations enter a time of transition, this Joseph Company is going to operate in an unprecedented level of divine influence that will create the victories God has purposed to affect.

Let me be clear: there are staggering victories that God has appointed for His people.

With Joseph you'll recall that as the nations entered their time of transition, Joseph exited his time of transition and stepped into his time of promotion. This is a model for us. There is a prophetic shift that is coming. There's a 'lift' in the 'shift' and God's bringing His forerunners out of their prisons, wildernesses and caves to strategically set them in times of promotion and places of influence.

For those of you who have been in deep transitions, be encouraged. There are new mantles coming upon many in this season. I'm not just referring to ministry mantles, although this is inclusive of that. I'm also referring to marketplace mantles of influence. God's setting-up 'marketplace moves' where He'll work through His Joseph Company to intersect a world in transition that is receptive to the wisdom and the prophetic perceptions of God.

Please hear me when I tell you that promotion is coming to many in this season.

Joseph's promotion was in direct connection to the shaking of transition that God was sending amongst the nations. I have every confidence that the season of transition we've been in in the Kingdom has everything to do with what God is setting up to do in the 'marketplace of the nations'.

Over the past couple of years the Lord has made it clear to me that one of the assignments that He's set upon my life is to speak prophetically to the Body of Christ regarding the Kingdom dynamics of transition. It's become evident to me that part of my leadership DNA lies in the realm of of leading others who are in transition.

Interestingly, most of you are connected with me because of experiencing transition yourself. Through the process, God has orchestrated the steps of our journeys to intersect us and bring us across each others' paths. As such, it is my prayer that this ministry is having a deep impact in your life as your process through your transitions.

Much like Joseph's steps being orchestrated by the Holy Spirit to end up in Potiphar's house and to connect with the butler in prison, so has He ordered our steps. We've connected with each other in the various stages of our individual and corporate transitions by the divine designs of the Master.

Trust me when I tell you that He's a Master Strategist & Tactician. There's a divine blueprint to the times & seasons of your life, especially and including the transitions you've been in.

It is my sincere desire that this ministry is an ongoing source of encouragement, strength, impartation and prophetic insight for you. My greatest passion is to bring you the wisdom of God that it might become a critical weapon in your hands as you press your way through the seasons of your life.

Be encouraged today my fellow warrior. God never leaves a Joseph bound in his prison: there's a palace assignment on your life

Transition, Hard Heavens & The Rainmaker

2011-03-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

As we continue to 'shed the skin of an old season' many exciting truths are emerging.

I want to share some things with you that I think will stimulate your prophetic self and provoke your faith on multiple levels.

Today I want to focus on battling Hard Heavens and the moves of the Rainmaker.

The Dawning of New Era's are preceded by Hard Heavens

Many of God's people have been an intense time of battling 'Hard Heavens'. Contrary winds and Hard Heavens are partners in the transition process. If you've walked through any level of transition at all then you understand what I'm talking about.

Consider the results of Hard Heavens:

Hard Heavens create Extreme Seasons of harsh difficulties

Hard Heavens produce stiff winds of opposition & resistance

Hard Heavens create sterile environments that are hostile to the fulfillment of desires, dreams and drives

Hard Heavens birth famine & drought

Hard Heavens produce harsh 'earthly' outcomes

'Earthly' in both the external conditions created by the lack of rain (a type of favor, blessing and resource) and the internal 'earth' of one's thoughts, feelings, emotions and stress points. One of the byproducts of a Hard Heaven is harsh mental & emotional stress.

Hard Heavens and the moves of the Rainmaker

The quintessential Hard Heaven is found in I Kings 19. You'll recall that God had closed Israel's heavens and for 3 1/2 years there was no moisture in Israel. The season was so harsh that there wasn't enough moisture to produce a drop of dew on a single blade of grass. Israel's heaven closed up and their 'earth' became hard. Drought ensued. Famine set in. Hard Heavens produce harsh climates.

A 'Prophetic Pattern' is the dominant spiritual climate that governs the times & seasons of your life

Most importantly, while Israel was under the prophetic pattern of a hard heaven, the prophet Elijah entered a time of transition. It's essential to see that Elijah was under a Transition Pattern while Israel was under a Hard Heaven Pattern. In this we see the pattern of personal transition accompanying, indeed result from a Hard Heaven.

Hard Heavens and Transition are partners in the overall process of destiny fulfillment.

It's important to recognize that God kept Elijah in the transition. God provided for Elijah in transition. He had to endure the harshness of the Hard Heaven but God orchestrated his steps, outcomes and provision in every stage of transition. At every moment God strategically positioned Elijah where he was supposed to be.

I state this because when you're battling Hard Heavens in times of Transition it's easy to feel ineffective, insecure and out of synch. Rest assured, those thoughts and feelings are stress related responses to the chaos and lack of clarity that you have in transition.

An interesting fact about a snake that's shedding it's skin: it goes blind for a few days while it's shedding the skin of it's last season and totally loses it's ability to see anything!

Elijah is a type of a Rainmaker

A rainmaker is defined as someone whose 'influence initiates progress and ensures success'

There is a Heavenly Rainmaker and there are earthly Rainmakers. In the marketplace, a rainmaker is someone who possesses the ability to create success and bring in new business.

In the Kingdom, a rainmaker is someone who battles hard heavens in times of transition and emerges from the process mantled to release the success of heaven into earthly environments.

Rainmakers birth the release of miracle moments. Rainmakers are human conduits to the heavenly Authority, Voice and resources that shift the dynamics on the ground.

In Transition God qualifies you to become a Rainmaker!

When God shifted Israel's Hard Heavens pattern, the Heavenly Rainmaker sent His earthly Rainmaker (Elijah) to release into Israel's natural atmosphere the miracles God had appointed that were waiting the heavens, desiring to emerge for them.

You'll recall that Elijah declared there to be 'the sound of an abundance of rain', then positioned himself in a posture of intercession at the summit of Mt. Carmel until the natural atmosphere reflected that the pattern of Israel's Hard Heaven had been broken.

You know the rest. In the space of a few minutes, the heavens were filled with clouds and wind and there was a great rain.

Not only was Elijah Israel's national Rainmaker but he was also Elisha's personal Rainmaker. He was the one God had appointed and assigned to 'rain' on Elisha's destiny, to activate the dormant DNA and dreams that were resident in Elisha's life.

It was not until God sent Elijah the Rainmaker to Elisha plowing in the field that Elisha's destiny, dreams and DNA awakened within him. Elijah walked in a dimension of divine influence that was directly linked to the future Elisha carried within him but did not know God had purposed for him.

Rainmakers carry the prophetic influence to unlock the gifting, assignment and destiny DNA that God has deposited within you. Their presence in your life releases things in you that you were never aware of. In reality, their presence releases His Presence in new dimensions in your life and new seasons of forward movement are born from the experience

Recognize the Rainmakers God's assigned to you and pursue them with relentless perseverance

Rainmakers and the Perseverance Factor

To close this word I want to shift from the Elijah Model of Hard Heavens and Transition to the Elisha Model of Hard Heavens and Transition. Just as Elijah endured personal transition and battled a hard heaven, so did Elisha in order to get his hands on the mantle he'd been dreaming of.

In 2 Kings 2, when God was shifting Israel from the Elijah Era to the Elisha Era, Elisha had to endure a significant transition cycle of resistance, opposition and Hard Heavens.

In order to possess his destiny and dream (the double portion of Elijah's spirit) Elisha had to press through repeated resistance and opposition from his personal Rainmaker when Elijah repeatedly, vehemently opposed him in Gilgal, Bethel and Jericho. Each of those cities represented a dynamic spiritual season of victory and breakthrough, yet because Elisha was in the transition of shedding the skin of his old season, he could not experience the blessings those seasons represented.

Instead, he kept encountering repeated resistance from his Rainmaker and opposition by the other prophets who were located in these cities. This is a type of a Hard Heaven and weird warfare. It's one thing when your competition opposes you but how do you handle it when your 'Rainmaker' opposes and resists you?

Resistance from your Rainmaker is evidence that you're transitioning through a Hard Heaven

Elisha's response was powerful in that he kept speaking what was in him and continued walking it out no matter what he endured in the transition process.

When they got to Jordan, everything changed. They crossed over Jordan after Elijah parted the waters with his mantle. Once they were on the other side of Jordan, everything changed for Elisha. His atmosphere, experiences and dynamics were completely different from those he'd just endured in the repetitive transitions and Hard Heavens from Gilgal to Jericho.

Jordan is the place of a Positive Shift

Jordan is the place of your 'Finally'!

Jordan is the place where you step out of the jurisdiction of old prophetic patterns

Suddenly, Elisha's Rainmaker stopped resisting him. Instead of opposition, he discovered:

A prophetic audience that was in synch with Heaven's intentions
A new dimension of dream hospitality
A Rainmaker's attention turned in his direction
An affirmation of his Right to Possess what he'd been Pursuing

Elijah suddenly asked Elisha 'what can I do for you?'

Translation: Now that you've persevered through transition, you've broken the jurisdiction of your Hard Heaven, SO HOW CAN I MAKE IT RAIN FOR YOU?

What a stark contrast. The contrary winds of resistance ceased. Elisha was comfortably distanced from his competition (the sons of the prophets in the cities) and he had an exclusive audience with his Rainmaker. After 14 years of service, sacrifice and seed sowing, the Rainmaker wanted to know how the Sower wanted it to rain!

The key to it all lies in the prophetic revelation God gave Elisha about the experience he'd just been through. When Elisha said he wanted a double portion of Elijah's spirit, Elijah said qoute 'you have asked a hard thing'.

The word 'hard' literally translates 'fierce, harsh, severe, extremely difficult'

The Heavenly Rainmaker was releasing a prophetic key to explain why Elisha had kept experiencing harsh opposition, fierce resistance and severe testing in the repetitive transitions from Gilgal to Jordan. Elisha's Hard Heaven was in direct proportion to the scope of the future that was in him and the destiny that lay before him!

Never underestimate the Prowess in your Perseverance

There's an Interceding in your Persevering

Recognize your Perseverance as a type of Intercession. It's interesting that under the Elijah Era, effective intercession came in the form of Elijah's 'effective, fervent prayer posture (James 5:16-18) at Carmel's summit.

In the Elisha Era however, effective intercession against the jurisdiction of Hard Heavens came in the from Elisha's relentless pursuit and perpetual perseverance as he kept walking in the direction of his destiny. He persevered in the path that his Rainmaker had awakened in him years before. The result was that his perseverance broke him through the hard heavens and positioned him in the place of destiny possession.

You must embrace the truth that your relentless pursuit & perpetual perseverance has an intense intercession element about it

When you're in transition battling hard heavens you may well feel inadequate and ineffective in your prayer realm. The lack of heavenly response and the limited results you see work together to bring confusion and discouragement.

The real truth is, while you're persevering through transition your walk becomes intercession. Your enemy wants you to miss this because he needs you to underestimate the power of a relentless pursuit & and perpetual perseverance.

Interestingly, Jesus never taught His disciples spiritual warfare prayer. He did teach them to relentlessly pursue and to perpetually persevere.

I point this out because your testimony, your authenticity and your authority don't come exclusively from your prayer closet: they come from your walk through times of Transition when you're battling Hard Heavens!

When Abraham was entering the era when Isaac would be conceived, God showed up and told him 'walk before me...' He didn't tell him 'pray to me' but rather 'walk' because he was about to walk out of the transitions and hard heavens he'd been in straight into God's Promised era of fulfillment.

There is something essential, dynamic and prophetic about your walk, your endurance, your relentless pursuit & your perpetual perseverance.

Real, effective intercession takes place when you walk out what's in you!

By no means am I mitigating the importance or place of your prayer life. You know me better than that. What I'm releasing to you is that He wants you to know how effective your relentless perseverance is, especially when it seems your prayers are blocked by Hard Heavens.

Many of God's choice servants are enduring harsh seasons of discouragement, exhaustion and fatigue in direct proportion to the depths of their transitions and their hard heavens. In the harshness of their warfare the enemy has sought to overwhelm them with feelings of inadequacy.

Like the snake, when you're shedding the skin of an old season, you can't see clearly. Your enemy knows this, so he speaks against you in the language of discouragement and fatigue. He's told you to quit. He's told you that you're ineffective. He's told you that your endurance, pursuits and perseverance are all a waste of time. He's told you that God doesn't want you to have the things you're pursuing.

He doesn't want you to know is that your perseverance demoralizes him!

You need to know that your walk is effective warfare!

You must keep walking because your perseverance is positioning you to be in the right place at the right time. It doesn't matter that you can't see it or feel it.

If your perseverance wasn't working your enemy wouldn't be attacking it and resisting you. Embrace the contradictions as confirmation that you're still headed in the right direction.

Recognize that your relentlessness is having a greater impact than you've been able to perceive while you've been in transition.

Every transition has an appointed conclusion and Hard Heavens always precede seasons of Divine abundance.

Your old season is losing it's grip on you!

Believing for your success!

Pastor Howard L. Bass

The Destiny Center

Shedding the Skin of an Old Season

2011-02-26T20:25:00.000-08:00

There is a 'right-now word' emerging from the heart of the Spirit, emanating from the Heaven of heavens and I felt it necessary to release it to you now.

Somebody's life is shifting. Somebody's world is changing. Somebody's destiny is awakening at this very time. Times and seasons are shifting and a company of people are coming out of their nightmare scenarios.

Earlier this evening the Spirit of the Lord spoke the following to me to:

'Tell My people that they are coming out of their caves. They are coming out of their prisons. They are coming out of their wildernesses. They are entering 'the Time of their Rising'

They're being realigned, reassigned and repositioned out of their Nightmare Scenarios into their Dream States

(Your 'Dream State' is the place you've dreamed of being but have been unable to access because of the warfare, opposition and transition cycles you've been stuck in. It's the places God told you He would take you before all hell broke loose).

Tell them they are shedding the skin of an old season.

The former things are passing away. As I spoke to Moses and released him from his personal wilderness in Midian, I am awakening the warrior/leader in my people and sending them forth into new seasons and new assignments.

I am breaking the patterns of the former things. I am setting a new call upon the lives of many. New things do I decree.

Tell them that they are indeed emerging from the shadows of their transitions and that they will walk in a dimension of My Light they have never known.

Tell my people that their season of preparation and transition is ending'.

As the Lord dealt with me tonight regarding the word I just shared with you, He has further emphasized several other things to me that I feel to share at this time.

First, this word is not for everyone. Indeed, the Lord spoke to me that this word is exclusively for His 'Coming Out Company'

Over the past few years the Lord has shown me that there is a company of saints whose battles, seasons, and sorrows have been more intense than others. These mighty warriors have been through staggering transitions, losses, and sorrows.

Subsequently, they've been in extreme seasons of isolation and abandonment. They've been left alone to wrestle some big devils in dark shadows. They've been rejected, forgotten and disconnected. They've warred against an unrelenting sense of hopelessness and despair.

Be of good cheer: new oil is flowing out of old pain and these wounded warriors are being called to the forefront of a new season clothed in victory, opportunity and strength. They're being armed by the Spirit in the garments of favor and success. This 'Company's time' is changing!

Their warfare has been of a greater intensity than the normal battles we face. Please hear me on this: everything this Company has been through has been preparation for an unprecedented shift of the Holy Spirit.

What's coming is not merely a revival in the former sense that we've known it. The Spirit of God is raising up, authenticating, mantling and releasing a new breed of Kingdom leaders who will take their worlds by storm.

There are significant apostolic mantles being possessed by these warriors in this season. You're about to discover why your transitions have been so deep, so long, so intense and so unjust.

Today, as the Lord spoke to about this Coming Out Company (that's what He called it) He gave me the following paradigms:

Joseph coming out of prison to take possession in the Pharaoh's court
Moses' release from his 40 years in Midian to lead Israel out of Egypt
Elijah's emergence from the cave at Horeb & the devastating season of Jezebel's torment

There are two distinct common denominators with these three men that the Spirit of the Lord is emphasizing in this word:

Deep, intense personal transitions
Destiny Doors that only God can open

There is an emphasis in this season on Doors that Only God can Open!

Those of you for whom this is a right-now prophetic word, please hear me on this: God's orchestrating the opening of destiny doors on your behalf. They are strategic, miraculous and will close out your transition season.

The Holy Spirit wants you to know that He is opening doors that only He can open. Your deliverance, recovery and repositioning will have His fingerprints all over the door knob.

He's going to strategically reposition your steps in right places. You're going to walk in an element of synchronicity with the Holy Spirit that you've never experienced. It will be heavenly and the results will be anything unlike the results you've been experiencing.

Do not wrestle at this time: rest. God alone can open the doors you need to walk through. Avoid unnecessary warfare, He's warring on your behalf. Listen intently to the Voice of the Spirit. He will gently lead you into His paths of peace.

Like Joseph emerging from prison, Moses emerging from the wilderness and Elijah emerging from the cave at Horeb, this Coming Out Company is emerging from their transitions mantled with new authority, clothed with a spirit of fearlessness and postured in a state of dominance. You will dominate in this season!

This 'Coming Out Company' is emerging into the Time of their Rising.

The word 'emerge' means 'to rise to a position of prominence from a position of obscurity and inferiority'. This is the move that the Spirit of God is making in this time.

Be encouraged my brother, my sister, my fellow warrior. Your labor is not in vain. Your course in transition is over and you're indeed shedding the skin of an old season.

It's Time!

Behind Closed Doors

2011-02-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

'What God cultivated in your life in your last season He's using to elevate you in this season'

2 Kings 4:1-7 gives the account of a widow who's husband (a prophet who'd served in Elisha's prophetic school) had died, leaving she and her two sons in crippling debt with her creditor coming to take her sons to be slaves as payment for the debt.

The Spirit of the Lord has been speaking to me on a prophetic level out of this passage and I'm convinced her story is a prophetic paradigm for many at this time. As such, there are some truths that I feel impressed to share with you.

Let me begin with a strong word of encouragement. Like the widow, many of God's people have been in an extreme 'emptying season' where dreams, connections, revenue streams, and favor has died. It seems every meaningful door in your life has been shut and you've discovered that, try as you might, you can't make the right doors open (if you can't relate to this you need to acknowledge how blessed you are, then take a minute to give God a shout for the sweet place you're in)

The result is that you're left in an empty and exhausted state without the resources to bring resolution to your crisis. Indeed, it seems that chaos has become the order of your life. You've been crying out to God with little results, if any, to show for it.

2 Kings 4:1 'Now there cried a certain woman...'

The word 'cried' implies that she'd been in a crying season but that something rose up within her to place a demand on that which yearned to emerge for her that she could not see and did not possess.

A 'flow' rose up within her that placed a demand on something in the realm of the Spirit that desired to move on her behalf.

There are blessings, breakthroughs, connections, revenue streams, and destiny events God has appointed for you that desire to emerge in your life in this season.

Her crying to the prophet speaks of a war cry that arises out of our wounding that touches a nerve with God and provokes a season of new movement in our lives.

'There is a war cry rising out of your wounding that is shaping the battle in your favor'

You need to know that your relentless perseverance in this season is highly impressive to God. Your results may not show it yet but you've touched the heart of the Father and there is a new season of 'God movement' being released in your direction.

'Your cries in this season have touched a nerve with the Father'

The 'crying' you've been doing has cultivated a reservoir of great favor in the heart of God. Subsequently, there is going to come a rich flow of favor, miracles, and newness out of your season of 'emptying endurance'. You're about to be rewarded out of a reservoir of divine favor that your cries have tapped into.

Hear me on this: there is a new season of fresh flow that is emerging out of the 'emptying season' you've been through. In coming days you're going to be rewarded out of a reservoir of divine favor that you've never before tapped into'

The Dynamics of a Set-Aside Season

2 Kings 4:4 '...you shall shut the door...and set aside that which is full.'

Many of you have been wrestling with the dichotomy of being 'full in a Set-Aside season'. By that, I mean that God has filled you with substance, greatness, vision, desire, and drive. As a result there is a divine flow that He's cultivated in your life but He's not yet released you to the time, place, season, or right situation where you can flow in it. Indeed, you've been processing the tension of possessing 'A flow' in a time of 'No Flow'.

It seems as though God filled you with 'great substance' then set you aside for a season without clarity as to what's coming next. The result has been a season of confusion, frustration, and uncertainty due to being 'full' in a Set-Aside season.

The 'flow' God's been cultivating behind the closed doors of your life is being repositioned to the 'market place' where He's been creating a demand for the flow you move in

Anytime you process your way through a Set-Aside season of closed doors, limited opportunity, and personal isolation, what follows is a season of unprecedented enlargement.

If you don't believe me just take a look at the season Moses spent in Midian before God called him to lead Israel out of Egypt. Joseph's unlikely promotion over the state of Egypt was preceded by the closed doors of a prison where he flowed prophetically for others but could not find a flow to free himself.

The season you've been in is a precursor to uncommon opportunities and unprecedented doors being opened. Indeed, a Set-Aside season always precedes the opening of destiny doors that only God can make happen.

In coming days you're going to experience the dynamic of divine release that unlocks closed doors, opens your destiny doors, repositions your feet in right places, and connects you with the right people. Doors are being unlocked, your flow is being unblocked, and your time is reviving.

The closed doors of your 'Set-Aside season' are opening, your time is changing, and your flow is going to find it's place of fulfillment.

Get ready, God's sending good things your way.

Making Room for Your Miracle

2010-12-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

'When all you've got is a 'word' you've got enough to change your world'

The enemy seeks to complicate your life through chaos and confusion. The solution to your complicated situation is found in the simplicity of a prophetic solution and provocative faith.

Last week I wrote you about breaking the spirit of famine and I gave you some evidences to identify the spirit of famine and it's operative. Today I want to share some strategies to encourage you and help create a path to victory in whatever you're facing.

Genesis 26:6 'And Isaac dwelt in Gerar.'

The verse listed above was Isaac's response to a prophetic direction given him by God. As a stand alone verse, it doesn't seem to be an impactful statement. In fact, it seems more like a historical fact than a prophetic solution. That all changes when you look at the context in which it's written.

Isaac was in a critical season in his life, dealing with the fallout of a famine. Consider the complexity of his situation. He was living in a foreign country, subordinate to the relationship he had with that country's king. As the owner of a thriving livestock company his very survival was dependent upon the agricultural cycles in the land.

Famine was a strong enemy that threatened his survival at it's very core. His ability to provide for his family and sustain his business was subject to the conditions of his season. Talk about a complicated situation!

When the dynamics are 'set' against you, don't underestimate God's ability & desire to 'set' things in your favor!

The Word tells us that Isaac was contemplating going to Egypt as Abraham had done during the famine that he wrestled with. As Isaac sought a business strategy to survive the famine, God spoke to him to 'dwell, remain' in the very place he was experiencing famine and that in so doing God would be with him and bless him. God completely redirected Isaac's life with a seemingly ridiculous instruction.

Breakthrough Key #1: The Place of Direction is the Place of Protection

God promised Isaac both Divine Presence and Divine Prosperity in the place (the physical location) of a prophetic solution. A prophetic solution or interruption is what God gives you when He wants to release Covenant Blessing into your life.

Do you know that a promise from God is a component of the overall Covenant that you have with Him? When God engages your life with a promise He is invoking elements of the covenant that He made with you through the Blood of Jesus. God uses His Covenant Blessings to cancel the dynamics of your famine.

Your faith's response to a prophetic solution gives God avenues to step into your natural situation.

Now let me be real for a minute: Famine will wear out your faith!

When you walk through a season where you've thrown all your resources at your famine, the process empties you. The last thing your faith 'feels' is strong and victorious. The last thing you possess in yourself is the ability to stand and fight it. Famine is an exhausting enemy.

Real famine will exhaust you, empty you, and wear you out! In fact, until you're wrestling with 'faith fatigue' you haven't really experienced a deep famine.

While famine will wear out your faith, don't misdiagnose fatigued faith for dead faith!

The instruction must have seemed odd to Isaac as it 'made no sense' to remain where he was. His situation was complicated, didn't God know that?

Breakthrough Key #2: Make a fresh Investment in the Prophetic

In spite of the seeming ridiculous nature of Isaac's prophetic interruption, faith rose within him, a deep expectation was birthed, and a dimension of prophetic vision was awakened within him that allowed him to see through the famine! Isaac seized the promise of God to the extent that he 'married' himself to the place God told him to stay.

Verse 6 says that he 'dwelt' in Gerar. The Hebrew word means 'to marry' oneself to a thing. Isaac's response to the prophetic direction God gave him was to make a covenant with God not to leave the place of instruction. God counted Isaac's response to obey him as a marriage contract. God later honored Isaac's covenant response with a one hundred fold harvest in one year, in the very place where famine had sought to destroy him.

Isaac took his faith to another level by making a fresh investment in the prophetic in his life. His decisions, direction, and behavior became an investment in the prophetic contract God had made with him. By dwelling in or marrying himself to Gerar, Isaac invoked the covenant and God broke the effects of the famine out of his life and business.

As you read of Isaac's outcome you discover that the ridiculous instruction released miraculous intervention. God's covenant is your contract for supernatural intervention in a time of famine.

Breakthrough Key #3: Your Success is God's Passion
Your success is God's passion. Even in times of famine He is planning, positioning, and setting up another success season for you. He is focused on your breakthrough. He's busy in your famine season creating the solutions that will empower you to recover your prosperity (blessing, wholeness, and equilibrium).

It's interesting to note that the Hebrew word for prosperity is 'wholeness'. It's inclusive of physical, emotional, psychological, relational, and financial prosperity. It refers to God's design for us to obtain a posture of equilibrium in each of these arenas of our lives. Famine is a strong enemy that attacks your equilibrium on every side.

Breakthrough Key #4: Your Covenant with God is a Prosperity Contract

Prosperity in the New Covenant is the Greek word 'salvation' which means 'whole' referring to the condition of the whole or entire person. My point here is that the Holy Spirit maintains a continuity of principle and prophetic thought regarding the covenants of God in the Word, regardless of the time, season, or generation.

Jesus made a Covenant of Wholeness with us through His Blood.

These are now our blood rights as sons and daughters of God. Subsequently, when God wants to 'give' us our inheritance, He releases a prophetic solution that establishes a new degree of covenant with us. While the whole covenant is in effect from the moment of our new birth, there are strategic seasons when God comes to us in the place of a famine, shift, or transition and initiates us by prophetic experience into a new dimension of Covenant Blessing that we've never moved in before.

This is the strategy He implemented with Isaac in order to break his famine and birth the process of Isaac discovering his Rehoboth. 'Rehoboth' means 'wide place, room'. Rehoboth is the place the Lord had in store for Isaac as an inheritance at the end of his wrestling process. It was God's place of establishing Isaac's own identity separate and distinct from Abraham's. Rehoboth is also the place of an uncommon reward.

Rehoboth is the place God has in mind that He calls you to discover personally through a combination of prophetic experience and relentless pursuit. When Isaac broke through famine and contention to come into his Rehoboth, he discovered his place. His contentions were over and his multiplication season was born. The process had begun with a prophetic solution in a time of famine.

Never underestimate God's ability to bless you in unlikely places!

Interestingly, it was the famine itself that threatened to prevent Isaac from discovering his Rehoboth: the place that belongs to you. It's the place where God has made room for you. Rehoboth is the place or season God's been positioning you to possess while you're wrestling with your famine. God's prophetic promises release Covenant Blessings that empower you to get to where He's taking you.

Famine's assignment is to obscure your vision so that you can't get to your Rehoboth

Famine seeks to consume your success in addition to threatening your survival. In the place of famine it's easy to scramble for a quick fix due to the unrelenting pressure that you're under.

In chaos and famine it's essential to have access to a prophetic voice, a prophetic flow, and a prophetic anointing. I say this because in times of famine it's easy to lose sight of any blessing. It becomes a tremendous struggle to focus on the fact that God has promised, purposed, and positioned your success. A real famine will obscure the evidence of God's blessing for a season.

While God did not send a prophet to speak to Isaac, He gave him a personal prophetic moment that set vision in him. It's important for you to recognize your prophetic capacity and embrace it. There will be seasons where God gives you no external word through a prophetic voice. You will walk through a place where you seem to lack external confirmation and external encouragement.

In that place it's important to remember that there is a prophetic DNA within you. Know that in your famine you possess the capacity for your spirit to become the prophetic conduit of His Spirit. Never forget that the life of God is resident within your spirit, especially in those times when it seems your external situations are dying.

In this season, don't be surprised if God doesn't send a prophet to you but instead awakens the prophet within you!

The Law of Divine Direction:

When you're headed in a direction contrary to God's plan to bless you He will interrupt you with a course-altering, prophetic solution

God met Isaac while he was in a time of deliberation and gave him a prophetic interruption and a ridiculous instruction. The word God gave him created new vision, gave him the capacity to see a divine solution where he was, and centered his decision-making around his covenant with God.

It's important to recognize that God never told Abraham not to go to Egypt when he was in famine. The point here is important. To bless Isaac with his own breakthroughs, he required that he break from the tradition of his father. The reason is because no two seasons are ever the same.

God needed to teach Isaac that his covenant with God was more than enough to create and release a divine solution to a complicated human situation. God was taking Isaac to a new dimension of faith and destiny creation. I've got a feeling that He's doing the something similar with you.

Prophetic Solutions & Strategies to set as a Prayer Focus:

Your Covenant with God Creates Uncommon Solutions

Make a fresh investment in the prophetic at this season

In both the prophetic voices assigned to your life and the prophetic DNA

that is resident within your own spirit. Do not underestimate your
prophetic legitimacy!

Focus on the truth that you have a Covenant of Blessing

May the material I've shared here provide a conduit of wisdom that will awaken new perspective within you.

May the dilemmas and decisions you face at this time give way to great deliverances.

Multiplied blessings,

Bishop Howard L. Bass

Breaking the spirit of famine

2010-11-30T09:59:00.000-08:00

Your famine is a temporary condition,
not a permanent position!

As a student of the Book, I'm sure you've recognized that the Word of God is a book of battles. The warfare paradigm is one of the most clearly deliniated and often repeated Kingdom realities in the Word.

In the Old Covenant we see that every champion had great enemies. Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, the prophets, and the corporate nation of Israel each had enemies to overcome on their path of destiny fulfillment.

The theme is repeated in the New Covenant with Jesus Himself being the preeminent model of one's destiny being opposed, battled, and vehemently resisted by a multitude of enemies. The Apostles also carried out the grand tradition as they pursued the Holy Spirit's mandate to advance the Kingdom of God in their time.

The Apostle Paul summed up this dynamic succinctly in I Corinthians 16:9 'Behold, a great and effectual door are opened unto me, and there are many adversaries'.

No doubt you're well aware by personal experience, of the warfare dynamic that is such a prevalent part of the believer's journey. That stated, I want to focus on a particularly violent opponent of your destiny: the spirit of famine.

Now before I lose you in the verbiage 'the spirit of famine', let me qualify what I mean.

Famine in it's purest sense, is extreme lack that persists for an extended season.

The Hebrew word for famine means 'lack, scarcity (and it's resulting hunger)'. In other words, famine means you're wrestling with a landscape of extreme lack in your life.

No matter what you need, when you're in famine, you never have enough and you don't possess the capacity in yourself to change the dynamics to 'get enough'.

Biblically speaking, famine can result from both natural and spiritual issues. There are times when famine manifests as a result of natural, environmental, economic, or relational conditions. Other times, famine results from poor decision making and unwise choices. There are also times when God calls for a famine to bring testing in our lives (see Issac in Gerar, Joseph in Egypt, Jesus in the wilderness). The Word bears out all of these divergent types of famine.

The spirit of famine of which I write is a different animal altogether and is your adversary's attempt to block the blessing of God from manifesting in your life. It's the result of the very real demonic forces assigned against your life, your assignment, and your destiny. I'm writing today to identify the spiritual warfare component that's at work in the natural famines you're wrestling with.

I. God's blessing is the only tangible proof of your covenant with Him

Let me repeat that statement because you need to let it resonate in your mind and spirit: The blessing of God is the only tangible proof of your covenant with Him.

How else can you prove externally that you have a covenant with God? Blessing is 'covenant evidence'. Blessing makes the covenant tangible.

Now, before you're tempted to recoil at that statement, think for a minute about God's 'proof pattern'. He made a covenant with Noah and put a rainbow in the sky as proof that He'd never again destroy the earth with a flood. Every time Noah and his descendants saw a rainbow they saw evidence of their covenant with the unseen God.

When God cut covenant with Abraham, He told him to look at the innumerable stars in the sky as a point of reference for the prophetic promise he carried as the father of many nations. Every night sky Abraham peered into revealed the evidence of his future and served to prove that his prophetic experience with the Covenant Maker was legitimate.

In both cases, God gave Noah and Abraham tangible focal points as evidence of their covenants. My point here is that when God makes a covenant, He seals it with tangible proof to give evidence to the ones He makes covenant with. Blessing is God's way of giving you proof that He is Who He says He is and that He does what He says He will do.

God's blessing also provides tangible empowerment to accomplish your dreams, goals, visions and assignments. It equips you with resources, both physical and spiritual, to accomplish your destiny. Blessing propels you forward in energy, confidence, and strength. The blessing of God will energize and strengthen you!

Furthermore, it also provides you with emotional and mental encouragement that God is indeed on your side, guiding your steps, rewarding your faith, and empowering you to succeed. Remember that God works on a reward system: He is a Blessor, a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk upright before Him.

So I think by now you get the point. I went into all of that to lay out the case that the blessing of God is your evidence of covenant because that's really what the spirit of famine is all about.

II. Cutting you off from God's Blessing is the agenda of the spirit of
famine

Your enemy recognizes the multidimensional, multifaceted purposes of the blessing of God and he will throw out all the stops to cut you off from it!

Your blessing is the desire of the spirit of famine. The spirit of famine is a satanic strategy to cut you off from the blessing of God and to take it from you. The ultimate objective is to destroy you through the poverty that famine creates so as to destroy your destiny. Remember, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The spirit of famine is a satanic strategy to steal your destiny.

Note the following truths about famine as a tactic of your enemy and it's assignment against your life:

* Famine is your enemy's way of attempting to prove your covenant with God is invalid

* Famine is your enemy's way of attempting to prove that God is a liar

* Famine is your enemy's way of attempting to starve you out of your place of destiny

Make no mistake, when the enemy hits your life with a spirit of famine, things will go from bad to worse. Times will go from hard to harder and for a season it will seem like your enemy has succeeded at cutting you off from the blessing of God. Worst of all, when you're battling the spirit of famine, it will seem like you're completely cut-off from the Voice and Presence of God.

A lack of mental and spiritual clarity, as well as struggling to hear from God are evidences that you're wrestling with a spirit of famine.

Some additional evidences that you're battling a spirit of famine are listed below:

No compassion, mercy, or help from those connected to you who are not in famine
An excess of closed doors in your life
Extreme difficulty in achieving breakthroughs in prayer
An overwhelming sense of hardness that surrounds every facet of your life
Strong mental oppression that is heavier than normal discouragement
The total loss of your reserve resources so that you struggle for survival on a day to day basis

III. The spirit of famine vs. Prophetic Authority

You need to know that the objective of the spirit of famine is to completely surround you with lack, cut you off from your supply lines (both natural and supernatural), and suffocate you through starvation. It's assignment is to cut you off and to starve you out!

The paradigm for an assault from the spirit of famine is revealed by Syria's assault against Samaria in 2 Kings 6 & 7.

The king of Syria gathered his entire army and besieged Samaria. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. It was the center of economic activity for Israel and was positioned in the nation's most fertile, productive farmland. The spirit of famine that operated through the king of Syria strategically targeted the center of Israel's economy, the very heart and soul of the nation.

The Syrians succeeded in isolating Israel's leadership, their economy, and the seat of their authority, cutting them off from any outside assistance. Notice that their king had allocated his entire army to cut-off one city! The spirit of famine never fights fair and will squeeze you through overwhelming opposition.

The objective was to destroy Israel through an extended season of extreme lack. The ensuing conditions were deplorable. Cannibalism was practiced to fend off starvation. The heads of donkeys were being sold for the equivalent of $1,400 U.S. dollars. It seemed as though the spirit of famine had succeeded.

IV. Deliverance from the spirit of famine never comes from human
compassion:it only results from asserting prophetic authority

The spirit of famine is broken through the power of a divine decree, released through the mouth of a prophet. While I realize this may seem foreign to some, God used this strategy for both the widow at Zarephath with the prophet Elijah as well as with Elisha in Samaria. My point here is that the releases that come from a prophetic mantle are designed to break the spirit of famine.

V. When God wants to bless you He'll assign a prophetic voice to your
life

Prophets carry authority to break the spirit of famine because they must wrestle with it extensively while in the personal solitude of their qualifying seasons

Please pay attention to the truth I just shared with you about prophets and their qualifying seasons. It's a secret of the Kingdom that not many are aware of. It's rarely taught in our churches but part of my assignment is to shed light on prophetic truths that others don't talk about.

While we benefit from the prophet's authority and ministry, what we don't see is the deep wrestling that God requires of prophets for them to possess the authority level to move in a famine-breaking, recovery-birthing anointing.

In order for any of us to possess spiritual authority, we must wrestle our way into the next level. The anointings, mantles, and ministries you admire and that are effective for you have been acquired by those who possess them through deep qualifying seasons. Before the prophet ever releases a word into your life, they've had to wrestle their way into a new level of authority.

The wrestling of one season releases prophetic authority in the next season.

What prophets wrestle with in one season, God gives them authority over in another season. Elijah was tormented so powerfully by Jezebel in one season that he sunk into a suicidal retreat into the cave at Horeb. God met him in that place, turned his season, and broke Jezebel's jurisdiction out of his life.

After Elijah's personal wrestling match with Jezebel, his mantle represented the authority to break her jurisdiction as well as the spirit that operated through her. Years later Elisha came into possession of Elijah's mantle, broke Jezebel's power, and birthed the fulfillment of the prophetic word God had given Elijah.

VII. Asserting prophetic authority is God's strategy for breaking the
spirit of famine

I know that I've given you a ton of material to this point. Let me shift quickly by giving you three keys that you must implement for God to break the spirit of famine out of your life:

Breakthrough Key #1

Recognize and Respond to your Prophetic Connection Points

God prophetically aligned the widow of Zarephath with Elijah by repositioning the prophet into her country and her famine was broken. Her recognition of this prophetic alignment revealed the solution that brought resolution to her famine. She shifted from death to life and literally released a perpetual miracle in her house for a year!

A major key to breaking the spirit of famine out of your life is to recognize the prophetic connection points that God has aligned you with. Samaria was aligned with Elisha and the prophetic mantle on his life released them from the tyranny of the spirit of famine. Though it was dormant for a season, God activated the prophetic DNA in Elisha and he decreed a word of divine release. The result was a miraculous victory over the spirit of famine and an economic recovery that broke the back of their lack once and for all.

When the Syrian army had succeeded in decimating Samaria, just before they reached the break point of defeat, God broke through their prophetic connection point with a prophetic decree.

Note that their deliverance did not come from an outside source: it came directly through their prophetic connection point.

Elisha was also living in the city, dealing with the same famine dynamics that they were. It's interesting that God required the prophet to move in faith, in an unscripted moment of prophetic decree, ignoring the very dynamics that were defying him in order to deliver the city.

The word of the Lord was that God was breaking the spirit of famine off of Samaria with a release of unseen, unexpected prosperity in Samaria's marketplace in one day. Elisha asserted his prophetic authority, released the word the Lord put in his mouth, and the spirit of famine was broken.

Breakthrough Key #2

Nothing shifts naturally until something is released prophetically

You will recall that there were four lepers outside the city who did not hear what Elisha released prophetically. Likewise, Elisha and the city leaders had no idea that the lepers were about to become connection points in an unseen realm that would facilitate the manifestation of God's prophetic decree.

The point here is that the lepers did not rise up and move toward the Syrian army until after the Lord released the prophetic decree through Elisha. The discovery of victory was activated when the prophet moved. Elisha's prophetic movement created human movement and the lepers discovered unexpected abundance. The principle is that new prophetic movement activates new human movement. There must be a human response to a prophetic release for an enemy to be broken.

Though they were disconnected naturally, the lepers were connected to Elisha prophetically by divine alignment and his prophetic release activated decision-making that moved them into a miracle space, even though they never heard what Elisha spoke. The result was unexpected provision, prosperity, and victory. The prophetic movement of Elisha activated human movement that God partnered with, releasing physical and financial abundance.

Breakthrough Key #3

A fresh prophetic activation is awakening ideas in you that will equip to defeat the spirit of famine

Get ready for some radical repositioning to take place in your life. We are entering a strong 'comeback season' where that which has been stolen is being replaced, repaired, and recovered.

The spirit of famine and the elements that it operated through are being driven out of your environment by the strong Hand of your God. Beginning today, the Lord is initiating a season of doing wonders among us. Your response to prophetic movement is creating a new dimension of partnership between you and God. He will give you the blessings of His covenant.

Expand your vision, God is expanding your horizons. In a time when many are eyeing deep reductions, God is going to give His people miraculous expansions. Your time of enlargement is at the door.

A prophetic word for you:

God has identified the spirit of famine assigned against you because He has an assignment of prosperity aligned with you. Hear me on this. The blessing of God and the tangible evidence of your covenant with Him are being restored gloriously, mightily in your life.

There is overwhelming, famine-breaking recovery that you are stepping into. The key for you at this time is to position yourself as those lepers and to move in the direction of God's prophetic stirrings. He's steering you in the right direction. He's positioning you to step into unexpected blessing. Make sure to honor your prophetic connection. Your deliverance from the spirit of famine is directly linked to your reaction to what the prophetic voices in your life are speaking at this time. You know who they are and there is deep prophetic confirmation in your spirit.

He is breaking the spirit of famine out of your life because it's time. The assignment of your enemy has been canceled. There is a new season of prophetic activation that is awakening in your spirit, your heart, and your mind. Your alignment with the prophetic voices assigned to you and your response to God's voice through theirs is going to break the spirit of famine once and for all. There are new ideas, strategies, and solutions being revealed in you as you move in the direction of His prophetic stirrings. He has already positioned everything you need to succeed in the place of your next step!

No matter what you do, in this season, do not disconnect from the set, prophetic voices God has aligned you with. You know who they are. Honor your connection with them and move in the direction that the stirrings of God are provoking within you. Your deliverance will come when you respond to a fresh uprising of the prophetic authority that's being activated in your life!

The Focus Factor

2010-11-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

As you know, lately at The Destiny Center we've been focusing on the principles of becoming a champion. I want to continue focusing on the concept of becoming an uncommon champion and I write today to share some things with you that the Lord's been emphasizing in my spirit.

While there are many champions in Scripture, the Lord has kept me focused on David in this season. I believe there are destiny keys revealed in his journey of faith and achievement that the Holy Spirit is highlighting for us as keys to our own breakthroughs and successes. As such, it is my fervent expectation that as we follow the David Model we will experience 'David Results'.

With that in mind, I want to share some keys with you that I know are going to bring you insight and empowerment as you press toward your intended outcomes.

'Uncommon Champions emerge from unlikely places to possess Impossible Destinies'

I'm sure you've noticed by now that I use the word 'uncommon' quite a bit. The word has such a dominant place in my personal language pattern because on a prophetic level, it's what I keep hearing the Lord say about His people and about our destinies. Regardless of our times, seasons, and scenarios, I continue to hear the Lord say 'uncommon' to me. He has uncommon victories, uncommon opportunities, uncommon prosperity, and uncommon destinies on His mind for us. After all, haven't you noticed that you've been in an uncommon season of uncommon warfare, wrestling with uncommon enemies?

'Uncommon Enemies always try to block the Emergence of an Uncommon Future'

The word 'uncommon' means 'extraordinary, remarkable'. Consider that meaning in light of what God did with David. Everything about David's rise to greatness (from his obscure life as the 8th son of a poor man from a small village) as Israel's most prolific king speaks to God's proclivity to do uncommon things with uncommon people. David possessed an uncommon destiny and nothing in his personal history could stop it.

'An Uncommon Enemy reflects a Destiny Door'

Destiny Doors are the key opportunities, Divine appointments, and significant shifts that enlarge your living. Destiny Doors are the kind of shifts that release you from the suffocating limitations of old seasons. They serve to emancipate you from inadequate environments and they open up times of enlargement in your life.

These Destiny Doors are the Divine appointments that God has strategically positioned to set you in a greater dimension of achievement, fulfillment and success. They open up a deeper, greater path toward your destiny. When you encounter a Destiny Door, you begin experiencing Divine acceleration, so that things that wouldn't move, shift, or come together for you previously begin manifesting in your life and you have to run to keep up with what God is doing.

'A Destiny Door will Shift Your Living!'

Destiny Doors are neither ordinary opportunities, nor ordinary enemies. They are the significant thresholds you cross when you're stepping into a greater dimension of God's purpose for your life. 'Destiny' includes the totality of your faith journey and your arrival at specific times, seasons, and outcomes. As you journey toward new realms and dimensions of destiny fulfillment you will cross thresholds of newness. David certainly experienced this with Goliath. When he defeated the giant, a door was opened in his life that shifted him out of the sheepfolds of Bethlehem, into new realms of opportunity and greater levels of living. As a result, David discovered that his life had shifted and a whole new world opened up to him.

'An Uncommon Destiny attracts Uncommon Enemies'

Perhaps you've heard me say that you know who you are by the enemies you attract. More than just a catch-phrase or preacher-speak, this truth is revealed in Scripture time and again. For instance, Goliath became a destiny door for David because part of David's life-assignment was to destroy the final five giants that remained in the land from the time of Joshua. Goliath had four brothers who along with him constituted an uncontested reign of terror. Long before David's birth into a supremely dysfunctional family, God had destined him to bring these generational leftovers to their collective knees.

'At strategic moments, when you're crossing thresholds into deeper dimensions of destiny fulfillment, a significant enemy will rise against you'

Not only did David attract the attention of Goliath (whom he quickly vanquished) but more importantly, he attracted the animus and rage of King Saul because he had a king's anointing on his life. You know the deal. David slaughtered Goliath and brought great deliverance to Israel only to find that his new found favor and success opened the door to a protracted, severe, and unexpected persecution cycle in his life. David had vanquished a great enemy only to find that the prophetic king's anointing he carried a attracted greater enemy than the giant he'd just dropped.

'The anointing you carry and the future you represent determine the enemies you attract'

The enemies David attracted as he was emerging from the sheepfolds of obscurity reflected the destiny that awaited him. His 'destiny enemies' also served to create prophetic contradictions in his life. The enemy that rises against you says something important about the assignment the Lord has for you. In this way, the Lord works through the hostility of your enemy to confirm, reinforce, and further validate your destiny.

Perhaps you've endured the blow-back of strong enemies and the hostility of destiny-defying dynamics that seek to block your emergence from one level or season to the next. In that place, you need to know that there is Divine confirmation in your prophetic contradiction. The prophetic always releases conflict. Knowing that truth and embracing it as a Kingdom dynamic empowers you to focus on the validity of your prophetic identity and will keep you motivated in the fight.

To this point I've focused on the 'uncommon' element of David and his status as a great champion. As you can see, he was indeed 'uncommon' and went through some 'uncommon stuff' to achieve the uncommon destiny God had designed for him. My prayer is that, in the prophetic pattern of the David Model you can see the prophetic realities of your own journey. Remember, uncommon preparation precedes uncommon promotion.

The Focus Factor: The Power of Prophetic Vision

'Your greatest skills become delivery systems for the anointing on your life. They are the keys God uses to unlock your Destiny Doors'

Every champion possesses incredible skills that they've cultivated deeply over time. David was no different and it was his skills that gave the anointing on his life a delivery system through which he achieved uncommon victories. These skills become keys that unlock doors to greater success. One of the great keys David employed that empowered him to prevail over his enemies was his ability to cultivate a prophetic focus. I call this key 'the Focus Factor'.

David developed the uncanny ability to direct his focus in a prophetic direction in times of great chaos and this invariably turned the battle dynamics in his favor. In this sense, David created unlikely and impossible outcomes through the power of a prophetic focus. David's focus factor repeatedly turned defeat to victory, enemies into opportunities, and losses into recovery. David knew where to focus his attention, his resources, his expectations, and his energies. When trouble got big in David's world, David got 'small' in his focus. Don't underestimate the power of this truth.

'Your ability to experience Divine recovery is directly linked to your ability to correctly refine your focus in times of chaos and crisis'

David's brother rebuked him for having a vision for victory. Saul tried to cap David's success level with failure, inadequacy, doubt & self-defeat. Goliath attempted to curse him with intimidation and fear. In all of this, David was impervious to the negative and defeating dynamics that sought to defy his pathway to victory. Instead of allowing his environment and the significant voices in that environment to shape his vision and break his focus, David refined his focus to the prophetic word over his life and his Divine assignment. Everything David did in that moment, rejecting his brother's accusations, his conversation with Saul, his refusal to wear Saul's armor, and his prophetic defiance of Goliath reflect David's prophetic focus. He saw nothing but victory in a place where everyone else saw defeat. His prophetic focus reinforced his vision for victory.

David carried a prophetic confidence, indeed a prophetic 'knowing' within him that shaped his perspective of the battle and set his field of vision. Subsequently, he saw and knew what no one else could. In that moment, because of the power of his prophetic focus, David stepped into greatness and became an uncommon champion. His prophetic focus created an outlet for the anointing upon his life to find expression and to create a miracle in a hostile environment.

'History will forever remind us that a prophetic focus always cancels a demonic assignment'

Perhaps you're struggling to find your focus in a time of crisis. Don't lose heart. Every uncommon champion has seasons where the chaos they're enduring creates great obscurity and uncertainty. The key to getting through the stress and frustration of that place is knowing that there's a Divine resiliency resident within you that will bring you recovery.

'Times of chaos and vision obscurity precede greater dimensions of prophetic clarity'

God would not call you to uncommon living without equipping you to fulfill your assignment. Before you entered the season where chaos clouded your future and enemies broke your focus, God anticipated it. I write today to encourage you that God will not leave you with a broken focus.

'Seasons of great wrestling, where you struggle to maintain your vision and focus, precede greater seasons of richer prophetic focus'

While David succeeded in maintaining his prophetic focus in his Goliath Season, he lost his vision and focus in his Amalekite season. When the Amalekites sacked his city, burning it to the ground and taking his family hostage, David had a complete breakdown. He 'lost it' in the smoke and flames of his unexpected chaos. The Scriptures tell us that he and his men were bitter and exhausted their capacity to weep. They were tapped out and his men talked of killing him. In that broken condition, when vision gave way to unrelenting pain and his ability to focus seemed a casualty of the chaos that surrounded him, David experienced a Divine recovery of his prophetic focus.

In the midst of the chaos, something awakened in David, and the champion that he was emerged from the shadows of a broken focus and an uncertain future. In that moment, David experienced a shift. While his men spoke of killing him, David's focus recovered and a prophetic strategy was born that turned it all around. In the end, David and his men recovered all.

I'm writing to tell you today that God's got your recovery on His mind. You may be in a time of great chaos and situational uncertainty but there is a prophetic release that's bringing you back into balance. Your ability to see clearly and focus prophetically is being reborn in you. Trust me on this, you are entering a significant season of vision recovery. New dimensions of prophetic focus are being formed in your faith, your spirit, and your mind. Things are shifting in your unseen realms and a strong sense of newness is awakening deep within you.

You will exit this season of chaos where you've struggled to 'see and know' clearly, with a stronger sense of clarity, direction, and aim than you had before your chaos ensued. You've not lost anything in this season: you've been prepared for a greater capacity to see like never before. New strategies are being revealed in you that will bring victories and uncommon success into your life. The voice of the Lord is being restored in your hearing. Your vision has survived your transition and great recovery awaits you.

Never underestimate God's ability to empower you to recover you focus!

A Season of Comprehensive Victory

2010-08-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

If you've ever really gone after something that you desired deeply, you know the mental, emotional and financial toll the pursuit can take on you, especially when you don't arrive at your 'destination' within the time-frame of your expectations.

This process of a 'dream pursuit' can be an exhaustive journey and can leave you in a depleted condition at certain seasons. I call this dynamic 'the process of being in an exhaustive journey'. One of the great frustrations of being in the process of an exhaustive journey is the totality of the toll it can take on your resources.

I wrote about this dynamic last week and I want to develop this concept further, shifting your focus in a direction that I believe will encourage you on an intuitive level and empower you to experience a recovery of your expectation level.

'You've been in the process of an exhaustive journey but you're positioned on the brink of a comprehensive victory'

Last week I wrote about Israel's pursuit of the Moabites in 2 Kings 3 and they're subsequent lack of water. Today I want to shift your focus toward something dynamic that Elisha spoke concerning Israel's immediate future while they faced a serious empowerment deficit.

In 2 Kings 3:19 he told Israel that they would utterly destroy Moab's defensed cities and their most important, prosperous cities. He also revealed that they would absolutely destroy Moab's ability to come back against them any time soon. They were literally going to annihilate Moab's ability to continue defying them. The absolute rout of Moab by Israel's army speaks of a Season of Comprehensive Victory.

Moab reflects some 'Destiny-Defying' dynamics that rise up to block your entrance into a bigger, better season!

Elisha's word to Israel was that God was releasing them into a season of comprehensive victory over Moab, their 'defying enemy'.

Moab had historically been a defying enemy of Israel, dating back to when Israel was positioned to cross over into the Promised Land. At the very season when they were stepping into their destiny, Moab rose up to defy them (see Numbers 23:7).

Elisha declared that though Israel's army was positioned in a place where they lacked the empowerment they needed to move forward (they were without water for their army and animals) God was going to release a dimension of empowerment to them that would birth a season of comprehensive victory.

You're going to 'Recover your Victory Pattern'

A 'victory pattern' is the track record of achievement, accomplishment and success that you possess from previous seasons. It speaks to your having achieved goals, overcome obstacles, defeated enemies and attained some desired outcomes. A victory pattern simply means that you have historical evidence of achieving victories and creating successes in spite of your failures, limitations, obstacles and yet-to-be realized dreams.

Each of us has a victory pattern. These are the definitive accomplishments, breakthroughs and successes that God has given us at some point.

Though each of us has a victory pattern in our lives there are some seasons where we seem to 'lose it' and we seem to be incapable of duplicating the successes of previous seasons. In that place we discover that old victories are insufficient to change present realities. We then struggle to recover our victory pattern due a defying lack of empowerment.

We all walk through that season where it seems like we've lost our victory pattern and we struggle to get it back. Indeed, this is exactly where Israel was because they used to dominate Moab, yet they were having to pursue the very enemy they used to have authority and victory over. Can you relate?

'Have you been in a season where it seems like you're incapable of winning?'

By 'incapable of winning' I'm talking about your having seemingly lost the ability to create desired outcomes, overcome obstacles and enemies, reach goals, achieve successes and attain victories over the defying dynamics that are blocking your progress and resisting your dreams.

If so, you need to know that 'where you are' is not forever. Every season must change. You will recover your victory pattern.

Elisha's word to the king of Israel was that the resources God was releasing would empower them to 'recover their victory pattern'. Moab would not be able to stand before them and Israel would achieve a comprehensive victory. They were about to move in a dimension of Divine unstoppability!

Perhaps you're in an exhausted state right now, not knowing how you're going to get through it or where your breakthrough is coming from. I'm writing to encourage you that your exhaustive journey is merely the setup to a season of comprehensive victory.

As God begins moving again in your situation, and believe me He is going to move for you, you'll discover new resources where you've been experiencing some serious, defying deficits.

Divine reinforcements are being released in your direction

Change and empowerment are coming to every level of your life. You're going to drink from the waters of recovery and you'll be empowered to step into a season of comprehensive victory.

These Divine resources that fill up where you've been 'empty' will serve to re-energize, reinvigorate and refocus you in the right direction. Indeed, you're recovering the relentless focus that you've had in previous seasons. You're emerging from your exhaustive journey in a posture of Divine empowerment and being released to a season of achieving some comprehensive victories. In the process you're going to recover your sense of confidence and identity and you're going to discover new dimensions of a brand new you!

'It's time for your defying deficits and dynamics to succumb to your success season'

The very things you've lost on your exhaustive journey are being restored to you. Your victory pattern (accomplishment, achievement and successes) is recovering and you're entering a new season of effectiveness. You will move forward from this season into an unprecedented level of achievement as old enemies become your new victories.

Your crisis is the context of a miraculous comeback and you're recovering your victory pattern!

The Power of a Prophetic Perspective

2010-08-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've learned by now that the walk of faith is no ordinary trip. If you're anything like me, there are just some seasons where you wish there wasn't so much excitement!

While I don't know 'where' you are at this season, I do know that we all experience similar seasons at one point or another. That said, I want to share some things with you today that the Lord has been opening up to me regarding a prophetic paradigm for many at this season.

While many have been in an extreme season of challenge, difficulty and lack, I write today to release the truth that God's got a plan to attack your lack with His abundance and to turn your season around.

The Power of a Prophetic Perspective

Have you ever sensed that you were close to a significant breakthrough only to find yourself stuck in a situation that sought to defy your exit from an old season?

2 Kings chapter 3 gives us a biblical scenario for this dynamic and is a paradigm of truth that reveals keys of deliverance that will shift you out of your breakthrough-defying limitations.

The Word says that when King Ahab died, the nation of Moab rebelled against Israel's authority. During Ahab's reign, Moab had been subject to Israel's authority and supported Ahab financially as a tax base. During the transition from Ahab's administration to his son Jehoram's reign, the king of Moab perceived an opportunity to defy Israel's authority.

Moab's rebellion represents ' an enemy's attack against your financial resources, your revenue streams and your supply lines'.

Transition Invites Enemy Activity
When you're transitioning from one season to another your enemy will perceive you as vulnerable and will attempt to defy your authority. You will also discover that when you're in a transition there'll be an attack against your 'resources, revenue streams and supply lines'.

Moab's rebellion speaks of an authority-defying dynamic where an enemy you've had victory over rises against you in a time of transition in order to defy you and hit you with loss.

Get the symbolism here.

In times of transition your enemy will perceive you as weak, vulnerable, inadequate and incapable. While you're dealing with the dynamics of the things that are shifting on you, your enemy will seek an advantage against you.

The Word tells us that the kings of Israel, Judah and Edom formed an alliance to overthrow the Moabite rebellion and began a 'Pursuit Cycle'.

As the kings pursued Moab, the 9th verse says '...they turned in a circle and went seven day's journey...'.

The phrase 'turned in a circle of seven day's journey' reflect something deeper than just the route they took to fight Moab.

Emerging from a lengthy 'Pursuit Cycle'

In the Word, the number 'seven' always reflects that a cycle is being completed. Simply stated, 'seven' represents 'completion'; that something is coming to an end and that something new is about to begin.

That this strategic positioning occurred at the end of their seven day journey reflects that they were in a Divine shift, that they were emerging from their 'pursuit cycle' and that God was birthing a new season of victory and recovery.

If you look at a map you'll see that Moab was due east of Israel, across the Jordan river. Conventional wisdom suggests they should have taken the direct route to Moab. Instead, the strategy of that season positioned them in a longer journey, south of Judah into the desert south of the Dead Sea, then east and back north. In other words, it took longer than it could have to get where they were going!

My point here is that many have been in a 'Pursuit Cycle' only to discover that the closer they 'sense' they are to getting to their intended outcomes, the farther away their intended outcomes seem to be.

I write today to those of you who feel frustrated, as though your breakthrough is just beyond your reach and your pursuit cycle has not turned out like you planned. In fact, you're wondering why He's taking you the long way to get to the place, state and condition of your recovery.

Indeed, many of you feel as though it's taking a lot longer than it should to get where you are going!

You may feel like your breakthrough's been delayed but I write to tell you that you are indeed emerging out of your pursuit cycle and long-awaited victories are directly in front of you.

An Emergency at the Brink of a Divine Emergence

To further complicate their situation, the Word says that when they got to the end of their seven days' journey they had no water. As they were emerging from their pursuit cycle and were closer than they'd ever been to achieving their intended outcome, they were confronted by a significant complication: they were an army with no water.
Are you in the place where your journey has exhausted your resources and depleted your ability to make war?

It's essential for you to see the paradigm their story reveals. On the brink of victory they lacked the basic levels of empowerment they needed to win their war.

Have you discovered that there are certain seasons when you know you're on the brink but you're battling a lack of empowerment? How do you handle it when you know you serve the 'God of more than enough' but in the real-time dynamics of your life you're wrestling with 'not enough'?

The key to breaking through is to recognize that prophetic solutions, not present conditions are what shape your outcomes!

When they discovered their dilemma, panic set in the heart of Israel's king and he envisioned an outcome of defeat.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah had another idea. Jehoshaphat knew that a prophetic perspective could shape their outcome differently than the limitation that defied them. They sought an audience with the prophet Elisha and when told their dilemma, Elisha released a prophetic word that broke through their limited perspective and released a miracle flow of water that was more than what they needed. Indeed, the prophetic perspective opened up a realm that released the waters of recovery.

Elisha declare that in spite of their lack, the very place where they were limited would become a limitless supply of what they needed. He told them to 'make the valley full of trenches' because God was going to fill it with water from an unseen resource. The word 'valley' means 'a place where water had flowed in a previous season'. It was literally a dried up river bed.

I want you to read that last paragraph again closely, then look at 2 Kings 3:17.
In other words, you're going to experience a Divine release that restores your flow so that your rut will become a reservoir of Divine empowerment!

Elisha told them that God was giving them a miracle from an Unseen, Uncommon resource. He qualified that God was going to do something miraculous to break the back of lack but that there would be no 'natural evidence' that they could hear, feel or see to signal that a miracle breakthrough was headed their way.

I want to release that word into your life today. God's about to release things in your direction that you didn't see coming. He's got resources where you see restrictions and His prophetic perspective is shifting the dynamics where you are.

Don't worry about 'where' and 'how' it's going to happen, just get something in your hand and make room for God to move where you are!

'Tell my people that I see that the 'Way things are Where they are is not Enough'.

The Holy Spirit breathed that word into my spirit yesterday and I want to release it into your life today.

He's Filling Your War Treasury

Because water represents hydration, energy and empowerment, in this context the water is a prophetic paradigm for the believer's War Treasury. A War Treasury is simply the built up resources one needs to make war effectively so as to emerge victoriously.

Without this basic element being Divinely released, their War Treasury was empty. God's filling it with more than enough speaks prophetically of a Divine resourcing of your war treasury that's going to empower you with everything you need to emerge from your warfare with a comprehensive victory.

I write today to tell you that you're emerging victorious out of your pursuit cycle and the Lord's not going to leave you empty on the brink of victory only to be defied by the lack that's mocked you.

Timing is Everything
The last key we must embrace is the exact time when the water showed up.

Not only did God release what the prophet had decreed was coming, but we're also told when the water came.

Verse 20 says 'And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom and the country was filled with water'.
Pay attention to the phrase 'in the morning' because with God, timing is everything.

The Hebrew day began at sundown, not midnight or sunrise. This is important because God released the 'Waters of Recovery' when they were literally emerging from the darkness of a night season.

I know by the Spirit of God that many of you have been enduring the darkness of night seasons. You've battled with 'whether or not' you correctly heard from God as your response to His Voice long ago set you in a pursuit cycle. As you've pursued you've exhausted your resources and now you feel like you've been left empty at the brink.

To complicate matters, you've descended into a night season where it looks like the darkness owns you. You carried a word from God that at one time birthed great clarity and vision within you, only to discover that as time has passed you're ability to see clearly has dwindled and disappeared.

The truth is that you've just been cycling through the three phases of a night season. Every night season has three distinct phases, listed as follows:

The Time of Declining Light- your ability to see clearly diminishes

The Time of Dominating Darkness- you're surrounded by darkness

The Time of Dawning Discovery - you emerge from darkness into newness

Because the biblical day begins at the Time of Declining Light (when the sun sets), we actually begin our 'new day' by entering a period where shadows grow longer and sight grows dimmer. This creates confusion because we know we've entered a new time yet the shadows grow in our lives until darkness surrounds us.

I don't need to tell you the difficulties of a night season. What I must remind you however is that the darkness is merely a phase of the night season; that it must succumb to vision's recovery. Darkness must surrender to newness because it's part of the cycle.

That God released the waters of recovery at the very time they were emerging from the shadows of their night season was prophetically strategic for you and me.

In your night season, what looks to be a 'pathetic condition' gets revealed as a 'prophetic position' when you emerge into your Time of Dawning Discovery.

You are indeed emerging victorious from your pursuit cycles and your night seasons. The Lord has ordered your steps and your position at this season is no accident.

Make no mistake: your dilemma is significant but it is absolutely no match for the God of No Limits! Somewhere in your limitation He's commanded a release of Divine Saturation and things are filling up where you are.

No situation's going to confine you. No limitation's going to define you. Your lack is being swallowed up in Divine release and you're going to rout your enemy in this next season.

You're coming out of that!

Stay Connected,
Pastor Howard

Destiny Thresholds & the spirit of Pythos

2010-07-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

Destiny Doors, Thresholds & Gates

Every season has a distinct line of demarcation that signals it's beginning or ending.

When the Lord is shifting you into a new dimension or season you must pass through a door or gate to access your time of enlargement. As you do so you will cross significant thresholds that represent a forward advance in God's purposes for you.

There is much imagery of this in the Scriptures. Whether it be Joshua's generation crossing the Jordan to enter the promised land or the Apostle Paul's entrance into Macedonia as the Gospel entered Europe for the first time, we see clear thresholds of change that represent new seasons of destiny.

Paul qualified this as a 'measure of rule' in 2 Corinthians 10:13.

The Greek word 'measure' is 'metron' meaning 'one's appointed portion or lot'. It's the equivalent of the Old Testament word 'inheritance'. It speaks to that which God has given you as an assignment and inheritance. It's the full scope of who God has built you to be and what He has appointed you to accomplish. A metron are the full picture of your destiny and the totality of your journey. It represents your destiny in the sense that it speaks to the maximum calling upon your life.

Paul when on to say that the measure had a 'rule' included in it. The word 'rule' is 'kanon' meaning 'one's realm and sphere of influence'. It speaks to the increases of authority, influence, favor and effectiveness we experience when we cross thresholds into new seasons so that we can maximize our assignments and destinies and fulfill our metron.

As we cross thresholds in the timing of God we experience unique and distinct dynamics that confirm that a threshold has indeed been crossed. Consider the Apostle Paul's prophetic retrospective in 2 Corinthians 7:5 of the threshold he crossed when God enlarged his sphere of influence into Europe.

2 Corinthians 7:5 "For when we came into Macedonia (literally 'extended land' representing a time of enlargement) our flesh (humainty) had no rest (relief, relaxation, freedom) but we were troubled (to squeeze and press as grapes; to press hard upon with distress) on every side; without were fightings, withing were fears".

This paradigm of crossing a destiny threshold as recorded in 2 Corinthians 7:5 is rich with Kingdom reality and prophetic dynamics that are at play for many in this present season.

Times of Enlargement

Note that when Paul crossed a destiny threshold into a Time of Enlargement the enemy released a warfare against him that affected a total consuming of his mental, spiritual and psychological resources. Basically Paul wrote that the warfare was so intense that it drained and exhausted him on every level of his humanity ('flesh').

He qualified the intense level of warfare as being 'on every side' meaning that he was totally surrounded by his adversary and completely consumed with the fight.

He also said that he wrestled with fear, literally the Greek word 'phobia', on a deep internal level. Paul's use of the word 'phobia' is a key for us because it speaks to irrational fears that carry deep dimensions of torment and soul affliction for it's sufferers.

In essence, Paul battled unrelenting, tormenting mental imagery that incessantly assailed his thoughts, bombarding his mind and emotions with the repetitive threats of death, doom and defeat. The spirit of phobia had been unleashed against the apostle's life and it was wearing him out.

To get the full picture of the experience Paul was referring to, look at Acts 16:16 which tells of when he cast the spirit of divination out of the young woman in the city of Phillipi, the capitol city of Macedonia.

Historically, Phillipi was a major gateway city (a type of a prophetic Gate of Access or Destiny Door) to Europe to the west and Asia to the east.

It was a significant city politically, economically, militarily and culturally. In essence it represented a big door for Paul and a gateway of access into his time of enlargement. Phillipi is reflective of a distinct destiny threshold that's crossed when we enter a new season of greater influence.

After Paul cast out the spirit, the young woman's masters dragged Paul before the city's magistrates who proceeded to beat them 'with many stripes' and then threw him into prison. The word 'stripes' literally means 'a death-blow'.

The spirit of pythos

Before moving forward I must tell you that the spirit Paul cast out was no ordinary devil. The word 'divination' is the Greek word 'pythos' or python.

In Greek mythology, pythos, in the symbol of a serpent, was the chief spirit that guarded the Oracle of Delphi, which was the highest level false prophetic spirit in the Greek world. In other words, the spirit of pythos that Paul cast out was a high level territorial spirit that had exacted deceptive control over the region of Macedonia. It was a controlling spirit of deception that held the region captive under it's suffocating influence.

I want you to get the symbolism here because it reveals a deep prophetic pattern of the warfare many have been enduring in this season.

The beating and imprisonment Paul suffered was the direct result of a demonic blow-back for his taking authority over the spirit of pythos.

Remember the 'stripes' were intended as death blows to Paul's assignment and his time of enlargement. As he crossed the threshold into an increase in his sphere of influence and realm of effectiveness, the spirit of pythos sought to suffocate him with relentless phobia, extreme persecution and cruel affliction.

In the animal kingdom the python is a snake that kills it's victim by squeezing it to death, crushing it's internal organs and suffocating it.

Likewise, the spirit of pythos is a suffocating spirit who's assignment is to squeeze you out of your destiny, your inheritance and your metron. It is a suffocating spirit of extreme cruelty and affliction.

When you're wrestling with the spirit of pythos you will deal with unrelenting phobia that carries deep torment with it. You will also suffer cruel affliction in your life and the season of warfare will exact an exhausting toll upon your soul. It will leave you exhausted and spent spiritually, emotionally and mentally.

Victory over the Violence of pythos

The good news is that there is victory over the spirit of pythos.

As Paul & Silas sat in the depths of the Phillipian jail, surrounded by darkness and reeling from the many 'death-blows' that had been laid upon their backs, something shifted in their dark place.

The Holy Spirit began breathing the breathe of Life back into their suffocated souls and they regained their composure. In the depths of brokenness and darkness the Holy Spirit released the wind of recovery within them. In spite of the actions and constrictions of the spirit of pythos, Paul and Silas experienced Divine recovery in their dark place.

Prophetic Fault Lines are Shifting!

God's method of deliverance was to shake Paul's prison with an earthquake.

Earthquakes occur when the tectonic plates under the earth's surface shift due to the build up of pressure over an extended period of time. The place where the plates come together and the shift occurs are called fault lines. Research reveals that there is a fault line in the region where the city of Phillipi was located.

This is a powerful fact to consider because it tells us that Paul's experience with the spirit of pythos was prophetically strategic and that God had strategically positioned him in the very city where there was a natural fault line. This natural fault line further reflected a prophetic threshold for the season Paul had entered.

Your season is not an accident. You've been strategically positioned by Divine appointed and there is a dynamic of Divine Alignment affecting a shift in the fault lines in your life. There's a Divine shift in your place of pressure and things are coming together for you. Indeed, the lines are falling to you in pleasant places!

The Word says God shook the prison with a great earthquake as Paul and Silas prayed and praised. In other words, God gave them external evidence of their internal recovery and shook the shackles of the spirit of pythos completely off of them!

While you're wrestling with the spirit of pythos you need to know that your relentlessness demoralizes your adversary.

You may be suffering under the suffocating squeeze of the spirit of pythos' constrictions in your life but there's an overcoming in your enduring. There's a deliverance in your perserverence. The Holy Spirit is replacing the suffocating dynamics that are draining you with His wind of recovery and life's coming back into you.

When God's positioned you at the threshold of enlargement and increase, He will use your authority to break the opposition of the spirit of pythos. You will experience total and complete victory over the influence of pythos and the Holy Spirit is breaking it's strong hold completely off of your life.

There's a prophetic shift taking place in your life and the spirit of pythos is being broken off of you!

Stay connected,

Pastor Howard

2010-04-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Covered by Covenant!

I want to drop some things in your spirit today that I think will benefit you as you reach toward your dreams, desires and goals.

For the next few minutes why don't you grab your favorite beverage, kick back in a quiet place and journey with me through the pages of the Word to discover what the Holy Spirit has to say about what He's up to in this season.

Now, let's look at Joshua chapter 3!

The 'Separated Place' is a Destiny Space

As Israel was shifting from their wilderness season (the place of cycles, preparation and processing) into their destiny possession (the inheritance, assignment and destiny for which they were created) in Canaan, they first had to cross the Jordan river. It's important to recognize the two territories of the wilderness and the Jordan as they are the context of Israel's season.

First, recognize that 'the wilderness' speaks to us of a place of cycles, transitions, preparation and processing. It's that in between place where you've come out of something but you've not yet come into a new thing.

The Jordan river represents an identity transition, a Kingdom authority threshold and a prophetic boundary. It's the place where you experience a transition in your identity, where you cross a threshold into greater Kingdom authority and you access a boundary in the prophetic.

Furthermore, the Jordan is a prophetic boundary where old seasons/dimensions die and new seasons/dimensions are born. Quite specifically, the Jordan is the border of a Divine release!

With that groundwork laid, let's look at Israel's transition out of their wilderness season.

In Joshua 3:3-4 they Israelites were instructed 'when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it.' But before Israel could 'go after it' they had to allow a distance to be placed between them and the ark.
Notice verse 4: 'Yet there shall be a space (distance, separation) of 3,000 feet between you and the ark: do not come near it that you may know (to perceive, distinguish, recognize) the way that you should go: for you have not gone this way before.'

I want to focus on the destiny keys that are revealed in these two verses, for they are essential for us in a time of transition.

As Israel was shifting out of their wilderness cycle they were required to think differently and allow the Lord to move differently. You'll recall that the ark of the covenant had been positioned in holy of holies inside the tabernacle at the center of Israel's camp for 40 years while they were in the wilderness. In order for them to be able to thrive in their transition thru the Jordan and see God work miracles, they had to allow the Lord to reposition things.

Quite literally, God removed the evidence of His Presence & Promise from their midst (at least that's what it looked like to Israel). He was shaking and shifting their perception so He could show them greater things.

Get the symbolism here. At a strategic moment in Israel's history, when they were positioned on the brink of destiny, God repositioned Himself!

God told them the reason for this was because they had never been 'this way before'. In other words, the Lord was opening up a new pathway of discovery that required a significant shift in how He moved, where He moved and how Israel responded to His move.

You've heard me say recently that there are new things that want to emerge, indeed that are waiting to emerge before us in this season. The Lord was revealing to Israel here that old patterns and pathways must be removed in order for new patterns and new pathways to emerge and newness to be created. The same holds true for you and me at this season.

A Destiny Shift will stretch you and can create a sense of Separation Anxiety!

Anytime you're being repositioned to discover a new pathway you will go thru 'separation anxiety'. Due to the transitions, the shifts and being in 'the place of the unknown' anxieties will arise within you. You need not fear them as they are merely reflective of the fact that you're in a transition unlike any other, therefore you have no frame of reference for 'getting thru' this place. The ark going before Israel is reflective that He has already gone before you and is leading you prophetically thru this place.

Further exacerbating the challenge for Israel was that God demanded 'separation, space, distance and time' to be placed between Israel and the ark of the covenant.

This had to stress the Israelites because they were accustomed to being close to that 'box'. Now, in the time when they were shifting out of the wilderness and into their inheritance, God repositioned the 'box'. God was literally stretching them to think 'outside the box' as He was moving 'the box' outside of them. He was thinking, moving and doing 'outside the box' as Israel was on the brink of their destiny!

Remember that everything Israel recognized as their covenant with God was symbolized by and represented in that box. It represented Israel's concept of security. Now He was removing it from them their midst, repositioning it outside their frame of reference and requiring them to trust Him, waiting patiently in confidence while they watched their leadership put a distance of over half a mile between them and the box. No doubt this created some separation anxiety in their hearts and minds.

Have you ever been in the place where God seemed to put a separation between you and His Presence, His Voice, His direction, His provision and His counsel?

Have you experienced that place where it seems that time and space have distanced you from the fulfillment of His covenant promises? Are you in a place where it seems like God's moving but leaving you behind?

This dynamic creates separation anxiety, which is the fear of being separated from Him and all that He has for you.
I want to encourage you with several truths revealed here that will empower you with strength and equip you with divine strategies to walk thru this place.

I. Separated to be Elevated
God repositioned the ark outside their frame of reference because of what He was about to do and where He was taking them. They were stepping into a better, sweeter, richer life and were headed into territory they had never known. They were in a destiny space of exiting wilderness-living and entering promised-land inheritance. They were shifting from the identity of being wilderness wanderers into the identity of being destiny-warriors. They were entering a brand new state of being.

II. Separation brings Vision Clarification

Remember, they were told the reason for God repositioning the ark away from them and the ensuing time and space that separated them was so that Israel might 'know the way' they were to go. The word 'know' used in the verse means 'to perceive, distinguish, recognize'. The principle here is that the separation served to bring them clarity of vision, specificity of direction and certainty of where and how to move.

In other words, when you wait on the Lord while He's moving outside your frame of reference, He will reward you with a new dimension of perception and recognition as well as the ability to distinguish things correctly. This in turn leads to deeper insight and greater foresight about the way you are to go.
This speaks to your ability to see clearly and make wise decisions that bring you into everything God has for you. There is a whole new dimension of 'knowing' that you will possess as a result of how God is moving at this season.

III. Their Separation was 'Future' Preparation

While we struggle with the 'outside the box' thinking, shifting and moving of God and we wrestle with the separation anxiety that's created in times of transition, we fail to see the separation for what it really is: that He and His covenant are standing in our future preparing a way and revealing a pathway of prosperity. In other words, He's already worked out your tomorrow and He's already made your way!

When the priests removed the ark and placed it more than a half mile ahead of them, God was illustrating that His covenant had gone before them and that He owned their future. Their present place and their future space were covered by His covenant.

You may well be dealing with some separation anxiety in your life right now. What I'm assigned to tell you today is that the Lord and His Covenant with you are standing in your future. He possesses it in authority and victory. Waters are stopping, enemies are dropping and victories are being achieved!

He dominates your tomorrow and there's nothing you need that He hasn't already positioned in place.

In fact, everything you need already awaits your arrival. As you walk thru this season you're going to discover a new pathway of provision. Pathways of prosperity are being opened up to you and God's going to blow your mind with blessing. He's going to give you your own authentic miracle-experience and your life will never be the same!

Hear me child of God: you have absolutely nothing to fear!

The separation you sense at this time is not abandonment, it's divine appointment. Your sense of separation is all about the appointed places and destiny spaces that He's created before you. You're in a place you've never been because He's taking you to places you've never been!

Indeed, new pathways of discovery are opening up within you and before you. We've shifted into the third phase of a the night season, which is the Phase of Dawning Discovery. New discoveries are being released and revealed as you allow God to move outside the box.

You future is sweet with victory and rich with prosperity. As you walk with Him thru this place He's going to part waters, release miracles and unblock the obstacles that have kept you from your inheritance.

One final thought. In verse 3 Israel's leaders told them that after the separation period when the ark of the covenant was repositioned ahead of them they would be released to 'go after it'.

I want to let you know that the Spirit of God is going to release you to 'go after it'. Whatever 'it' is, it's yours and Hes' giving you permission to go after it. Indeed, your separation is sanctioning your authority to go after it. Much breakthrough, success and accomplishment is ahead of you!

Oh by the way, when Israel began to walk thru the Jordan river the waters parted, breakthrough was experienced and they exited their transition because they were covered by covenant.

Go after 'It'!

Stay Connected,

Pastor Howard

Shifting from Leanness to Enlargement

2010-04-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you some thoughts that I think will be beneficial to you as you press forward in your faith journey.

In thinking about the Israelites crossing Jordan in Joshua chapter 3, I am reminded of some destiny keys that we have to employ in order to possess the things that God has for us.

First, recall that God required Joshua's generation to do it differently than Moses had done it.

The transition through the Red Sea required Moses to stretch out his rod over the sea and God sent an east wind to move the waters. In Moses' generation, the waters parted before Israel went into the sea, or before they stepped into their situation.

When Joshua was leading them into Canaan, God required the priests (a type of leadership) to step their feet into the waters of Jordan before God moved the waters. This is evidence of being at a brand new level of maturity as well as the fact that Israel was now walking in a new dimension of authority that they did not possess when they came out of Egypt. Remember that authority is 'the ability to influence outcomes' and the permission to 'get it done'.

Destiny Key #1:

The Strategies & Methods that 'Got You Out' will not be enough to
'Take You In'

New seasons demand new strategies.

If you're unwilling to change you become inflexible and you run the risk of tying God's hands from releasing a fresh flow of blessing in your direction. When you become inflexible you run the risk of becoming irrelevant. If you become irrelevant you cease to have any influence whatsoever. You never want to get stuck in an old season, an old mold of thinking, an old method of doing and an old way of being when God is doing new things.

You've heard me say many times that one of the greatest abilities we must possess is 'flexibility'. God required it of Joshua's generation because their destiny demanded it.

Practically speaking, don't fear change. Condition yourself to mix things up and do things differently. As your seasons change, your strategies must change as well.

Destiny Key #2

Enlargement Demands a Repositioning

When God released Israel to 'take their promised land' (a type of your inheritance, assignment and destiny) He shifted them from 'leanness to enlargement'.

Remember the staggering size of the grapes that the spies brought back from their reconnaissance mission 40 years earlier? They were so big and succulent that two men had to carry one cluster on a beam of wood. That was symbolic of the 'flowing with milk and honey' dynamic that awaited Israel in their place of inheritance.

God had worked through their transition period in the wilderness to reposition them into enlargement. Their diet was changing, their housing was changing, their economic status was changing. Indeed, they were being repositioned to live large!

My point is that in order to step into their time and place of enlargement, God required them to reposition their strategies, mentalities and methodologies in order to 'get thru' the Jordan river. The Jordan is symbolic of a transition threshold where one season ends and another season begins. It is the place of old endings and new beginnings - see Joshua 5:12.

I know that we have crossed a thresh hold in our transitions where old things have passed away and new things are emerging before us. This dynamic holds true for each of us in our personal journeys of faith and destiny creation.

One final thought I want to drop on you regarding Israels' shift from leanness into enlargement.

When the Lord instructed Joshua to have the priests bear the ark of the covenant upon their shoulders and step into the waters of Jordan, He was requiring them to step into 'the waters of the unknown'. Remember that the river was at a flood stage at that time and that the waters of Jordan are very dirty, muddy and murky.

This represents a threshold of change where God requires us to take a step of faith in a place of risk. It speaks to the fact that we carry the authority of kingship and the certainty of covenant (both of which are symbolized by the ark resting upon the priests' shoulders) into our murky, cloudy or unclear scenarios.

Simply stated, the Lord required them to place their feet where the couldn't see them or what was there. They had to 'find their footing in the place of not knowing'

The principle is this. There are 'certain things' in your uncertainty, there is clarity in your cloudiness and there are miracles in your murkiness that are waiting to emerge as you repositioning yourself and press to find your footing in your place of 'not knowing'.

Indeed, there are some 'submerged things' that God is going to do for you that are waiting for you to move forward in faith. As you do, these submerged things (breakthroughs you can't see) are going to emerge with clarity. Not only will God make a way but that path will absolutely reposition you in your place of enlargement.

Don't be afraid of the shifting of this season. There are new things that are waiting to emerge for you and things that have been submerged in your life are going to emerge with clarity, prosperity and enlargement.

What look like the waters of the unknown are really the waters of breakthrough!

Stay connected,

Pastor Howard

P.S. If the Lord is using this blog to speak into your life, would you take a minute and shoot me an email at pastorhoward55@verizon.net or sign up as a follower? Your cooperation will help me better track the impact we're having and to connect with you in return.

Chaos, Transition and Repositioning

2010-04-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last week in this space I released a word from the Lord regarding our entering into a time of enlargement. While enlargement is a great place to be, you need to know that a time of enlargement is preceded by chaos, opposition, transition and repositioning.

The word 'transition' has taken on many identities, definitions and symbolism in our modern lexicon. It's a frequently used term that describes the changes and shifts that emerge in every human life. While transition is a modern word it has it's roots in the ancient texts of the Scriptures and was at work in the earth long before our generation seized upon it to describe the stuff we experience when we're in a time of change.

Indeed, the 'Transition Dynamic' is a Kingdom principle that began manifesting in the lives of biblical leaders, heroes and difference-makers as they pursued their destinies several millennium ago. For the purpose of this writing I want to qualify transition from a Kingdom perspective.

Transition is a period of time where you experience unexpected losses, situational uncertainty (not knowing how things will end up), a deep sense that your life is being shaken, significant upheaval and changes that produce deep discomfort for you. Transition is also evidenced by your wrestling with a deep sense of personal inadequacy as to how to manage your thoughts and emotions, change your situation and break your loss cycle.

Furthermore, transition creates dynamics that are beyond your ability to control them. It will seem to hit you suddenly and without warning. You will struggle to find your footing and regain your center for a time. Lastly, you'll know you're in a time of transition when chaos seems to surround you as you try to process your way out of it. You will feel like you're not in control of the transition but rather that the transition is in control of you.

With that said, it's essential for you to know that 'Transition' is a signal from God that the order of how things have been in your life is coming to an end. It means that 'where you are' has gotten old and that God's in the process of creating something new.

Newness is always preceded by a transition. When your present level of living becomes old it's because it has become inadequate for who you are, for what God's up to and for where He's taking you. Transition therefore is a shaking that births a new journey in a new direction.

While the transition can be unsettling and uncomfortable, it's God's way of preserving you from becoming irrelevant. Anything that becomes inadequate has the potential of causing you to become irrelevant. Irrelevancy is your enemy's way of limiting your reach and of sequestering you in wrong places because he fears your future. Make no mistake, your enemy fears your future!

Transition is God's way of delivering you from inadequacy and irrelevancy. He wants to keep you on the cutting edge of what He's up to. He'll use transition to make you more effective, give you greater influence and to increase you on multiple levels in your life. He's designed you to be a multidimensional, multifaceted game changer in multiple atmospheres, arenas and realms.

He's created you to be a game changer. He built you to be an odds-beater. He's designed you to shift atmospheres. He's empowered you to co-create new realities with Him. He has substantial, strategic investments in you and transition is one of the ways that He preserves His investment in you, maximizes your potential, preserves your future and makes you more effective.

Today I want to give you three dynamic principles found in Jesus' experience as He was transitioning from Nazareth to Capernaum, from rejection to promotion and from nothingness to greatness. There's nobody who's ever been more of a game changer than Jesus so we can take confidence in the principles of transition that He walked through as His old season in Nazareth come to an end. You can find these dynamics enumerated in Luke 4:16-32.

Transition is Designed to Reposition You

Transition's assignment is create repositioning and distinct endings so that God can form new things in your life.

Transition is God's way of signaling to you that He has new things ahead of you.

Chaos is Evidence that God is Closing Old Doors

Chaos is 'the confused, disorganized state of something before a distinct form appears. I've qualified 'chaos' as all hell breaking loose in your life!

Chaos is evidence of a structural breakdown in the order of an old season.
When your season changes, chaos will hit your life because the old order or
pattern of how things were is resisting the change that God is birthing.

While chaos releases confusion it is also evidence that God is closing doors.

Old seasons want to contain you in their grip thereby keeping you from the
'more' that God has waiting for you. Your old season desperately fears
your new season. Your enemy desperately fears your repositioning. The
enemy knows that once you get repositioned, he cannot contain your
enlargement, your authority and your influence.

Enlarged Opportunities Create Blow-Backs of Opposition

A 'blow-back' of chaos and opposition will hit you as you're about to exit a
wrong atmosphere and enter a right atmosphere.

A 'blow-back' is an eruption of hostility, resistance, negativity or fear that attempts to block you Exit from an Old Season/Wrong
Atmosphere into a New Season/Right Atmosphere.

Finally, I want to drop some truth on you that I believe is essential for each of us to contemplate and implement at this time:

'Discovering your destiny is a journey of faith and risk. In the struggle to step out of your comfort zone remember that miracles don't happen in safe places. Abraham 'went out not knowing where he went' and found that God's plan was bigger than his. It's in 'going without knowing' that destiny moments occur and limitations are broken. Take a step of faith in a place of risk and watch God show up!

I pray this nugget of wisdom will open a whole new realm of insight and perspective in your heart as you assess your seasons, situations and storms. Don't be afraid to shift forward at this time: God's got more on His mind.

Go make it happen!
Pastor Howard

Prophetic Word - Stepping into a Time of Enlargement

2010-04-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

'The blow-back of your enemy will succumb to the authority of the Christ in your chaos'

The words that follow are a prophetic word that the Spirit of the Lord gave me today regarding the season we are stepping into. The paradigm for this is Jesus’ transition out of Nazareth into Capernaum as found in Matthew 4:13-24 & Luke 4:16-31.

Like Jesus in Nazareth, many of God's people have been in a time of transition wrestling with adversaries, opposition, rejection, wrong atmospheres and weird warfare. Like Jesus Himself when the crowd tried to throw Him off the cliff, many of you have been in the chaos of transition without any evidence that the Christ has been in the chaos. He's there but you haven't been able to 'see evidence' of His Presence. I write today to tell you by the word of the Lord that the Master is closing the door to that season.

I have been ministering on this dynamic over the past several weeks at Dominion Church but today the Holy Spirit released a fresh prophetic word in me regarding this being the prophetic pattern that we are now under. In the space that follows I will release the prophetic word as it came to me, then in a day or so I will be posting some patterns from Jesus' experience in Matthew & Luke that form the paradigm for this new alignment. Be encouraged: you're exiting your time of transition and you're entering a time of Divine enlargement!

'The Word of the Lord for this season is Enlargement'. We are exiting a Time of Transition and shifting into a Time of Enlargement. In this season of Enlargement we will begin experiencing new alliances and new alignments that create new assignments. These will be the unscripted 'suddenlies' of God that shift us into new dimensions of authority and greater spheres of influence. They will also change the repetitive cycles we've been experiencing. One of the fruits of this season is that God's people are going to walk in a supernatural dimension of recovery that has eluded us for a protracted season. New mantles are coming upon many in this season. The Spirit of God says that our level of living is shifting.'

Furthermore, the following bullet points are dynamic experiences that the Spirit of God is going to give His people:

* Doors of Deliverance are Opening Suddenly

* Enemy schemes are being disrupted

* The anointing is canceling enemy’ assignments from the previous
season and they will not follow you into your future

* Your place of wrestling is giving way to a place of refreshing

* Prosperity is replacing lack and loss

* You’re going to be able to 'Breathe' again

Many of God’s people have been in a 'suffocating season' but God is giving you breathing room and what had been a struggle is giving way to a settled state of ease. The ease of God is settling like a mantle upon His people, for we’ve been warring to enter a new dimension of authority and rest.

* The Spirit of God is putting distance between His people and their
enemies

* We are possessing new Mantles of Authority

* New Alliances are being formed

* New Alignments are coming into being

* New Assignments are emerging in this season

* New Destinies are being shaped

* New Opportunities are being created

* New Outcomes are being experienced

* Inheritances are being released, possessed and activated in this
season

* We are emerging into new dimensions of destiny that we had not
perceived lay before us.
This is why our warfare has been so protracted, elevated and exhausting.

I declare that season is over!

* The creative energy of the Spirit will be released and
creative miracles will manifest in the following dimensions:

1. Prophetic Creativity

2. Imaginative Creativity

3. Entrepreneurial & Economic Creativity

4. Assignment Creativity

5. Relational Creativity

Note that these five creativities will emerge in the

form of fresh prophetic strategies that create solutions and open

pathways to prosperity and peace.

* Blessings that have been Blocked and Backed Up will be
released in this Season

* Move forward Expecting Miracles: they’re coming in a flurry

As I stated in the beginning of this post, in the next couple of days I'll be bringing out some things from the Word in the aforementioned passages enumerating the biblical paradigm.

Set your expectation level for miracles. The word of the Lord has been released and enlargement is yours!

Stay connected,

Pastor Howard

2010-02-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

When you're in transition it's essential to remember that God never begins a process without having set-up the end from the beginning. Indeed, somewhere in your situation there is a Divine set-up.

That being said, the nature of transition is such that it introduces dynamics into our lives that create elevated, exaggerated and extended stress levels. Simply stated, transition is a turbulent time where the negative dynamics in our lives become exaggerated and intensified.

You must recognize the toll that a time of transition takes upon your spiritual, physical, emotional and mental faculties. When you're in transition you've got a lot on your plate and if you aren't careful you will become so focused on trying to control, redirect or perhaps just survive your transitions that you can lose sight of your need to focus on maintaining the equilibrium in your life.

When you are in transition it is essential that you focus on maintaining a healthy mental, emotional, physical and spiritual equilibrium. This can be a very challenging assignment given the elevated stresses that transition creates. You simply must remember to focus on your own well-being during times of transition.

If you don't focus on maintaining a proper equilibrium between the stresses of transition and your own personal needs, you will succumb to defeats that you should not have to suffer.

Keep in mind that exhaustion leads to exaggeration and everything becomes exaggerated when you're in transition. Your fears become exaggerated, your fatigue becomes exaggerated and your perception becomes exaggerated.

Recognizing your need to maintain your emotional, mental, spiritual and physical equilibrium is a wisdom strategy that helps you to navigate the waters of your transitions successfully. Your need for rest is greatest when your stresses are at their peak. Be willing to recognize and embrace your limitations and respond to them proactively for in doing so you can take ownership of your state of being while you're still 'going through'.

Also keep in mind that the devil loves a tired mind. It's been said that an idle mind is the devil's workshop but in actuality it's the tired mind that he loves to mess with. Your adversary seeks to gain advantage against you through the exaggerations in your mind when you are exhausted from your journey. It is at this stage of exaggerated stress that the enemy begins messing with your thoughts, feelings, perceptions and emotions.

By recognizing and embracing your limitations and then using this knowledge to regain your equilibrium, you make your enemy's job more difficult. Remember that he wants you exhausted on every level and that he seeks to capitalize on the fear, uncertainty and lack of security that you feel when you're in a transition. By focusing on creating a healthy equilibrium in your life you disrupt a significant dimension of his ability to war against your mind and emotions.

I started by saying that God never begins a process without already setting up the end of it. I've written an entire book ('Your Best is Yet to Come') about the Kingdom dynamic known as 'Process'. At various points in our walk of faith we will all experience a deep transition known as the process. The great news is that the Lord is the Chief Architect of the Process. He's Authored and Finished the story of your transition before you began to go through it. When He brings you out of transition, and He will bring you out of transition, He will create a deep, rich and lasting recovery in your life.

Indeed, God's got recovery on His mind for you!

Stay strong, stay focused, stay connected!
Pastor Howard

You can get a copy of my book entitled 'Your Best is Yet to Come' by emailing me directly @ pastorhoward55@verizon.net or by logging on to my website @ www.howardbass.com

The Reason for Your Season

2009-12-09T06:22:00.000-08:00

In his second letter to the church he founded at Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote "When we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings; within were fears." - 2 Corinthians 7:5

In this powerful statement the Apostle Paul releases a critical prophetic dynamic that revealed the real 'reason for his season'.

Have you been in a place recently that's caused you to ask 'God, what's the reason for my season'?

Obviously I'm not referring to the Christmas season that's upon us but rather the season of exaggerated stresses, pressures and attacks that many in the Body of Christ have been enduring.

Looking at the words that Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, we see deep Kingdom principle regarding stepping into 'Territorial Entrances'.

A 'Territorial Entrance' occurs when the Lord releases you into a time of expansion and enlargement in which you will possess greater influence and effectiveness.

'Territorial Entrances' have everything to do with an enlargement of the assignment God has given you and the destiny that He has designed for you to co-create with Him.

To fully grasp the dimension of warfare that accompanies a 'Territorial Entrance' we must look carefully at what Paul wrote in light of other examples of 'Territorial Entrances' as described in the Scriptures. Consider the following:

Jacob's 'Territorial Entrance' was reflected by the deception, trickery and theft of his father-in-law Laban over a 20 year period while Jacob was working for him, hiding from Esau.

Joseph's 'Territorial Entrance' showed up in the form of a pit; suffering rejection by his brothers and being sold by their hands into slavery in Egypt.

David's 'Territorial Entrance' was evidenced by the jealousy, hatred and persecution of King Saul, resulting in a 13 year period of repeated assassination attempts on his life.

While there are numerous other biblical examples of 'Territorial Entrances' recorded in the Scriptures, the aforementioned should help establish a clear pattern for you.

When the Lord gives you a 'Territorial Entrance' He opens a door to a new season of assignment in your life. The purpose of the 'Territorial Entrance' is to expand your influence, reach and scope of effectiveness.

With this understanding in mind, let's take another look at what Paul revealed about the 'Conflict Dynamics' that often accompany 'Territorial Entrances'.

First, Paul said 'when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest for we were troubled on every side'.

The word 'Macedonia' literally translates 'extended land' or 'the place of expansion'.

In other words, Paul was saying that at the time God was giving them an expanded dimension of influence and extending the scope of his reach, there was so much external and internal conflict going on in his life that 'his flesh had no rest.'

The word 'flesh' is the Greek word for human nature. It speaks to the totality of the human experience, including one's thoughts, feelings, perceptions and emotions, in addition to the physical body.

The word 'troubled' means 'to press and trample like grapes; to press hard upon, to afflict and distress', while the word 'rest' means 'relief from persecution; to loosen or relax'.

Paul was saying that he was physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted from the hyper-intensive season of all encompassing personal conflict he had been enduring.

The incessant persecution he was enduring produced external and internal stresses within the great apostle's human nature to the extent that they left him completely spent on a human level. Indeed, the 'Territorial Entrance' that God gave him into Europe was an extreme season, even for the battle-tested apostle.

Paul went on to describe that he had experienced an all-consuming battle that produced great conflicts as he said 'on every side', meaning that he was completely consumed with conflict on every level of his life at that season.

Furthermore, Paul told the church at Corinth that he was engaged in both external conflicts ('fighting without') and internal conflicts ('fears within') simultaneously. The great man of God simple enjoyed no respite from the battle at that time.

Through the prism of this powerful revelation that Paul penned, I want you to see the portrait this prolific giant of the faith; the preeminent Kingdom leader of his generation and the greatest voice of prophetic New Covenant Truth completely spent in every level of his life due to the totality of the wars he was fighting in that season.

While each of us expects some degree of resistance and opposition as we pursue our visions, dreams, destinies and assignments, I suggest to you that it is the unanticipated 'Internal Conflict Dynamics' that have a deeper, unsettling impact upon us.

I want to draw your focus back to Paul's statement of battling 'fears within'.

The word 'fears' that Paul uses is the Greek word 'phobeo' (meaning 'terror and dread') from which we get the word 'phobia'.

It is interesting to note that Paul said the season he was in had the affect of releasing a hellish assault of internal phobia upon his mind and within his emotions. These phobia served to create unrealistic, irrational, illogical images and feelings of terror and dread in his imaginations and emotions.

So relentless were these phobias Paul was battling that they touched the core of his soul and left him exhausted from the stress of the conflict, hence his statement that his 'flesh had no rest'.

Indeed, spiritual warfare is psychological warfare. Your enemy is adept at working to create unhealthy stress levels in your mind and emotions in order to awaken phobias within you so as to further exacerbate your season of conflict. His goal: to overwhelm you with exhaustion and to create a state of 'Soul Paralysis' within you.

'Soul Paralysis' is the inability to focus and move forward in your mind and emotions after experiencing a significant setback or an unforeseen blow-back of the enemy against you.

The enemy's real agenda in affecting a 'Soul Paralysis' in your life is to break your focus and to thwart your forward motion in the direction of your destiny, assignment,visions and dreams. He will use phobias as a secret weapon against you when the Lord has opened or is in the process of opening a door of expansion in your life.

The bottom line is that phobia (unhealthy, abnormal fears that create a sense of dread and terror in your emotions) are the enemy's secret weapon in his attempt to stop you from fulfilling your assignment and achieving the victories that the Lord has set before you. The enemy always pulls out the Big Guns when the Lord has opened a Big Door!

I also want to point out that Jesus used the word 'phobia' in Mark 6:50 when He was walking on the Sea of Galilee during the storm and his disciples thought He was a ghost, or specifically, the death angel, a demon or the soul of a dead sailor.

You will recall from that account that Jesus was walking toward them after they had been wrestling with a strong contrary wind for over eight hours in the dark of night,. They were physically and emotionally drained and their fears became exaggerated to the point where they could not physically recognize Jesus.

Indeed, their night season in that storm created 'exaggerated fears' with them. When Jesus told them 'do not be afraid' He literally told them 'do not surrender to your phobia'!

The point here is that an extended season of external pressure, stress, battle and personal warfare will stir up phobias within the mind, emotions and imaginations. This occurs when your natural fears become hyper-exaggerated by unrelenting stress and an opponent who is assailing you on every side.

Let me stress the difference between fears and phobia. Fear in and of itself is healthy when it's in balance in your life. God uses fear to preserve and protect us from danger. Fear is a natural element of human emotions.

Phobia on the other hand are illogical, irrational and exaggerated fears that create terror and dread in the human soul in seasons when one is encountering an extreme season of stress, exhaustion and conflict.

You will note from that exhaustion leads to exaggeration. This is a critical point because the enemy uses exhaustion to create unrealistic scenarios of defeat, doom and destruction in your thoughts and emotions.

I want to be clear right now on a prophetic level:
The phobia you've been battling in this season will not be the outcome of this season!

The enemy has been suggesting things to you by speaking into your life through phobia but he does not have the authority to 'declare and decree' your outcome!

The expanded influence and breakthrough that the Lord told you was yours is going to manifest in your life as He told you it would. The Word of the Lord NEVER returns to Him void and victory will be born out of the ashes of this seasons storms and struggles.

Again, it is essential to recognize that Paul's 'Territorial Entrance' was accompanied by an intense season of personal internal conflict with phobia in his mind and emotions.

The truth is that the Lord gave Paul a great deliverance that empowered him to break through the battle of that season and he moved forward into a greater dimension of enlargement and effectiveness in his life and ministry.

In spite of the headwinds of resistance you've been battling, the door is open, and you've been granted a great 'Territorial Entrance' by the Master.

The ashes of your losses will not keep you from breaking through and possessing the 'God-Things' that lie ahead of you!

Stay Connected!
Pastor Howard

Follow the Flow

2009-09-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I introduced the concept of 'Destiny Keys' that are central to the process of co-creating your destiny and giving life to God's purposes for you.

Moving forward I want to further develop the concept of destiny keys. Of course, a key is necessary to unlock a door. In the process of co-creating destiny with the Master, one must Unlock, Unblock and Up Lift. Recognizing and utilizing destiny keys in your faith walk is essential to seeing the right doors open in your life.

Many times we pray for God to open doors for us without realizing that every door has a lock and that He has given us the keys, (Jesus said that He would give us the keys of the Kingdom of heaven: heaven is the atmosphere of God) or more appropriately, the destiny keys, to open destiny doors.

These phases (unlocking, unblocking and up-lifting) of transition are essential in being able to step into new arenas of authority, fields of favor & vision, new levels of living and new dimensions of destiny.

Destiny Key #2: Follow the Flow

Given the Ruth Paradigm as our model for destiny processing and possessing, I want to draw your attention to the flow factor in her life.

First, the Scriptures tell us in Ruth chapter one that 'flow' (or the lack of flow in Judah due to famine, which is a type of a blocked flow) was the key factor that repositioned Naomi's family into Moab, the place of Connecting and Coming Out.

In other words, God was using the issue of the 'flow' of food (famine) to begin positioning right people in right places. Naomi had a divine assignment in Moab that was much more significant than just surviving a time of famine, or a blocked flow.

As you continue to read the narrative of Naomi's family's travails in Moab you soon learn that her husband and her two sons died there. According to Ruth 1:4 Naomi and her sons remained in Moab for ten years after they had married Ruth and Orpah. It becomes clear in the Scriptures that there was a 'flow' issue for Naomi in Moab like there had been in Judah because her husband and both sons died there.

Furthermore, for ten years neither Ruth nor Orpah could conceive children. The flow of conception, blessing and life was blocked in Moab. Essentially, Moab speaks to us of a season of barrenness and loss. Barrenness and loss are reflective of a flow that is blocked.

Barrenness is symbolic of a 'Blocked Flow'

Let me qualify what I mean by the term 'flow'. Flow is the evidence of blessing and favor in your life.

As long as Naomi was in Moab, her personal flow was blocked. Because her flow was blocked she endured an extreme season of hardness and loss. This season took such a toll on her sense of identity that she renamed herself 'bitter' stating that God had dealt with her bitterly and that He had shattered her world.

The Ruth Paradigm would be one of tremendous hopelessness and grief were it not for the 'Flow Factor'. Just as it was a flow issue that repositioned Naomi out of Judah, God began turning she and Ruth in the direction of destiny when He restored the 'flow' of food in Judah.

It was the restored flow in Judah, coupled with the absence of flow in Maob, that repositioned Naomi and Ruth in Bethlehem-Judah, which is reflective of the place of a destiny inheritance.

While I will be qualifying more regarding a destiny inheritance in upcoming articles, I want to focus here on the destiny key of 'following the flow'.

From our perspective we know that Ruth had a destiny inheritance awaiting her in Bethlehem-Judah and that she had to leave Moab. From Ruth's perspective however, God had plans for her that had not even entered her mind.

Like Abram being called out of Ur, Ruth went out from Moab 'not knowing where she went'. She wasn't aware that a 'mighty man of wealth' named Boaz was waiting in her future and that God would shift her from poverty to prosperity and include her in the lineage of the great kings of Israel.

You will recall that when Ruth and Naomi began the journey from Moab to Bethlehem-Judah, they were accompanied by Ruth's sister-in-law Orpah. Along the route into Judah, Naomi began raising opposition to both of them, encouraging them to return to Maob, trying to convince them that they had no future in Judah.

Oprah eventually turned back and retreated into the obscurity of Moab, never to be heard from again.

If you are going to be heard from in your future and by your enemies you must follow the flow of God in your life!

Don't miss this critical truth: Naomi resisted Orpah and Ruth, yet Ruth survived the resistance, the opposition and the shaking by following the flow of the prophetic within her.

Naomi was Ruth's only conduit to the Kingdom of God, her only source of Word and her only access to matters of God's Spirit. In this sense, Naomi functioned as a prophetic covering/voice in Ruth's life even though Naomi herself was in a pagan country and walking through a season of personal dysfunction and loss.

When Ruth arrived at the crossroads of destiny she encountered a critical time of shaking and testing. This played out in the form of Naomi twice pressuring her through negativity, hopelessness and pain, to return to Moab.

The decisions Ruth made at the crossroads of destiny would determine whether or not she would end up 'achieving destiny and possessing her inheritance'. Ruth overcame the testing and emerged to possess an uncommon inheritance because she followed the flow in her life.

Somewhere along the course of their relationship, the things in Naomi's mouth regarding her God and her heritage awakened, provoked and pulled-on things in Ruth's mind and spirit. Ruth had learned a central Kingdom truth: the voices that stimulate you are the voices that will elevate you.

The voices that provoke you are the voices God has assigned to promote you.

Ruth had discovered that Naomi's voice provoked and stimulated her. Ruth relentlessly pursued the flow that Naomi's voice released in her life and ended up living a life that God used to become a prophetic paradigm for how He uses His favor to shift the living of His people.

The destiny key here is clear: follow the flow, for it's assignment is to set you in right places, with right people, at right times!

Furthermore, you must learn that when flow ceases in your life it means that the favor of God has shifted. I will be qualifying this in detail in my next posting, however I do want to drop this in your thinking:'When your Assignment Shifts, the Favor Lifts'.

In my next posting I will delve into this in more detail. Suffice to say however that the shifting and the lifting of the flow of favor was at play in Naomi and Ruth's lives.

The resulting breakthroughs, miracles and recovery that they both began experiencing in the place of their next assignment was life-changing. This dynamic season of recovery and reversal was only made possible by the repositioning of the flow that had shifted into their future.

So, learn to follow the flow of God's favor: it will take you places you've never been and open doors you've been destined to walk through.

Stay connected,
Pastor Howard

Destiny Keys

2009-09-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

Those of you who follow my ministry know that one of my consistent points of focus is in the arena of destiny.

Over the course of my journey of personal discovery and leadership development, Holy Spirit has taught me that one of the dominant assignments upon my life is to equip people to discover their destiny in God by bringing insight, revelation and understanding regarding the prophetic Word of the Lord and it's central role in the life of a believer.

By 'prophetic word' I am talking about the dynamic principles of the Scriptures that reveal the patterns and processes of the Kingdom of God that are at play in the life of a believer, a family and a church.

The prophetic word is the dynamic, vibrant, 'right-now' word from the Lord that:

Awakens things in you Understanding, Knowledge, Insight, Perception
Releases things in you Wisdom, Anointing, Gifting, Power, Divine Deposits
Empowers you supernaturally Repairs personal brokenness; Revives dead visions, drives and dreams; Rebuilds faith, focus, fortitude and fight
Reveals new dimensions of truth to you Transcendent Kingdom Truth as well as Personal Direction Truth
Releases you experientially into those new dimensions of truth Kingdom patterns and principles begin manifesting or appearing in your personal experiences

In other words, when you receive a 'prophetic word' (regardless of the method God uses to get the word to you) you are hearing directly from Holy Spirit about His plan and purpose for you (your destiny).

This is what I mean by the prophetic word being a 'right-now' word: I mean you are hearing the Lord 'right now' in the real time of your present situation. The prophetic word therefore plays a central role in your ability to perceive destiny and achieve destiny.

The assignment of the prophetic word is to set you in new realms, dimensions and spheres of revelation, direction, communication, wisdom and authority so as to further your development in the direction of the destiny that God has designed you to co-create with Him.

Subsequently, the prophetic word is a proceeding word from the Lord and it contains the life of God in it. When you receive a 'prophetic word' the Lord is engaging you in a destiny event or a prophetic contact moment. Destiny events and prophetic contact moments must occur in your life in order for your destiny to be created.

Before you can create the destiny that God has for you, you must perceive it. The function of the prophetic word is to reveal destiny perception to you. God births every process with a word so when He wants to create something new, He says something to someone!

With an understanding in mind of the centrality of the prophetic word in the life of a believer and its role in furthering the development of one's destiny, I want to begin sharing some prophetic principles that you must grasp and embrace if you are going to co-create with God the destiny that He has planned for you.

Lately the Lord has been focusing me on the Book of Ruth and showing me the numerous 'Destiny Keys' that are revealed in Ruth's personal journey from pain to power, from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to notoriety and from significant loss to substantial recovery & restoration.

Having been positioned by the circumstances in her life as an obscure Moabite widow who suffered great loss and was surrounded by deep sorrow, Ruth's destiny (to become the wife of Boaz and to be the wealthy, influential great-grandmother of King David) seemed impossible to possess circumstantially speaking.

As I like to say however, when God's got a plan to include you, it doesn't matter what life has done to exclude you!

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting some of these 'Destiny Keys' here for your edification and enlightenment. I would encourage you to being studying the Book of Ruth personally, asking Holy Spirit to reveal His patterns in your life in light of Ruth's journey.

Destiny Key #1: Creating or Achieving Destiny is the Result of a Divine Process

Today, I want to start by developing the concept of 'The Process'

‘The Process’ is the totality of the events, scenarios and seasons playing out in your life that are being orchestrated by Holy Spirit to empower and position you to create your destiny and to access places of divine appointment, assignment and purpose’.

In other words, God is up to strategic things in your storms, your struggles and your situations. He is orchestrating events in your life even though His orchestration may well be invisible to you. You must know that there is a process to the flow of events and seasons in your life and that He is the God of that process.

Remember that destiny is a progressive journey over time, not a singular moment in time, and the process serves to bring order out of the seasons and scenarios of chaos that occur at intervals along the journey.

The process means also means that you are not alone and that God is working through your warfare to build a champion out of you.

I will be unfolding this dynamic Kingdom principle to you along with additional Destiny Keys over the coming weeks. In the meantime, stay connected with me here at bishophoward's blog as I'll be posting frequently over the coming weeks.

I pray that this article will become destiny event and a prophetic contact moment for you. Be encouraged today to know that Holy Spirit has a strategy in your struggle and that His process in your life will bring you to the places that He has appointed for you.

Be Blessed,
Bishop Howard
PS. You can access my sermon catalog by logging onto my website @ www.howardbass.com. Click on the 'Ministry Products' tab on the home page to access our message catalogue.