Snapshot: Water onto the Path

Yesterday God gave me a vision where I saw water being poured from a glass.  In past visions this has represented being "poured out" for the good of others.  But this time, there was another element added to the message.  I saw that the water was being poured out along a path, forming a pathway.

I realized that He was showing me His will for me.  He was teaching me the way I should go (Psalms 32:8).  This path was designed to bring me to my spiritual inheritance--which is abundant life, everlasting life.  It is rivers of living water, found firstly within us, and then within the city of God.

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High."  Psalm 46:4

In the meantime, though, He is pouring out streams of water step by step (Isaiah 41:18).  These streams lead us onto the fulfillment of all the blessings we first received.   They lead us on towards Zion's river, towards Heaven itself.  He is faithful to guide us there!

The water poured out is the Spirit.  The water distributes itself and widens once poured out, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17).  There is so much freedom found in walking with God and going where He wants you to go.  The feeling of pleasing Him awakens us to the freedom that He gives us.  Like Bill Johnson says, the Kingdom of Heaven is bigger on the inside than it appears from the outside.

So I saw from the vision that He's taking me towards my destiny.  He's pouring out a path, which I can then follow by the Spirit.  He's equipping me with every spiritual blessing along the way!

"And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God."  Deuteronomy 28:2

When you're on that path, that well-watered path, you can't help but pour out abundance to others.  We give because He first gave to us.  And God is always enough.  You can't help but overflow with the Spirit and impact others with the Love of God.  You can't help but be bold for Him.  This is where God wants to take us--not to physical abundance, but to spiritual overflow.  

Snapshot: Binding and Loosing

How do we pray?  God teaches us how to pray.  Often in street ministry God will speak to me and tell me how to intercede for people.  Over time I've noticed that these directed prayers combine two different steps.  God will instruct me to pray against something, and then pray for something from Him to be brought in.   For example, I might be told to pray against someone's judgmental attitude and for the healing of their family relationships. Now, I don't know these people, nor do I usually talk to them, but I just have to take my guidance by faith.  His sheep hear His voice.

In the spiritual world, there are both Godly and ungodly forces.  Remember, whoever is not for Jesus is against Him (Matthew 12:30).   When praying, God will lead to dictate accordingly.  This takes two steps, like I said above--binding and loosing.  We need to pray against the forces of darkness and have God eliminate  them, and then we need to pray for good things and have God give them.  This is what it means to bind and loose.

Of course, we need to be led in this.  We should only bind things that are bound in Heaven, and we should only loose things that are loosed in Heaven.  How do we know the reality that exists in Heaven?   We don't-- but God does.  We need to be close enough to Him so that we can be led by His Spirit and discern His voice.  He will tell us what it's like where He is--His Spirit will search this for us and reveal to us just what we need to know (1 Corinthians 2:10).

So we need to identify how our current reality differs from that in Heaven.  And we need to pray for God to bring in complete alignment!  We need to pray His Kingdom come.  Let's bind what is not for Him, and loose what pleases Him.  This is our spiritual warfare.

Confirmed:  Two days ago I had an opportunity to do some street ministry in an absolutely packed grocery store.  I was in Heaven!!  This isn't just entertainment--it helps me believe and gives me God's purpose.  Anyways, God had me intercede for some people that I didn't get a chance to talk to.  He was having me do just what I've described in this post--first praying against darkness, and then praying into the Kingdom.  The more you are operating in faith, hope and Love, the more rewarding this is.  Wigglesworth said that you only need a touch from Jesus to have a good time.

Right after this errand we got back into the car and I resumed reading Bill Johnson's new book.  He was talking about binding and loosing...how in the past he would bind the oppressors, but then mistakenly not loose anything!  As a result, his prayers seemed to lack the power that he felt like they should have.

As believers, as sons of God, we have been given spiritual authority.  Our words have power, and binding and loosing are the commands of Heaven!  These two phrases contain power to restrain the enemy and release angel armies.  There is power of life and death in our tongue (Proverbs 18:21).  There is power to build up and to tear down according to the prayers we pray.  As Christians we need to step into the will of God through targeted prayer.  We need to work on behalf of His Kingdom!  Let's allow Him to give us a heart for intercession.

Snapshot: A Divine Exchange

Two mornings ago, God distinctly told me something in my quiet time:

"...It's a divine exchange; your flesh for My Love."

And this hit me.  I realized God wasn't saying I had to earn His Love--no, that was a free gift at salvation.  But I knew that in order to realize His Love again, I had to die to my fleshly desires.  I had to die to myself.  God's taken me to a place of warfare where He requires my drawing closer before He reveals Himself.  He's taken me to a place where I realize that He is so pure.  If I come to Him and want to abide in Him, I need to be pure, also.  So He told me that I needed to give up some things to live in an awareness of His Love.

"For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live."  Romans 8:13

This is the exchange.  We give up our lives in order to find life.  But He allows us--by the Spirit, He helps us!  And again,

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."  Matthew 16:25

Confirmed:  Later on that very same day (1/3/2015), I was reading a book by Bill Johnson --"The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind"--that I got for Christmas.  Below is the very last sentence in the book:

"Any price you pay in claiming territory for God is well worth the exchange."

He even bolded it!  The word "exchange" struck me, and I realized that this really went along with thw word God had just given me.  Let's claim the territory of God's Love, first, so that we can be taken onto greater heights and greater victories!

Experiencing and walking in God's Love is worth anything.  It is worth counting any cost for.  Is there an exchange that God's waiting on you to make?  If so, give Him that desire today.  Allow the Holy Spirit to put that thing to death.  Allow God to eliminate any distraction.  The rewards will be divine (Matthew 19:29).