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This study is broken into these sections:
- The Season We Are in Now
- Generals of the Lord and the Military
- Seasons of Shifting and Change
- The Prophetic Journey of Joseph, a Deliverer
- How to Handle Betrayal
- Other Deliverers: David, Esther and Anna
- Deborah, Another Deliverer
- A Generational Anointing of Men and Women
- Denmark's Example to the Church
- The Blue Coats and the Gray Coats
- Are You a Burning One?
- How Does the Jezebel Spirit Operate?
- Needed: Servant Leaders, Both Men and Women!
Part 1: The Season We Are in Now
It is so important to know the hour, the times, and the seasons that we are living in. It is obvious that we are in a time of war, but the potential for war on other fronts looms before us as well. When you look at the earth, there are radical shakings in many places! Even in America, just a few years after 9-11, we realize that there really is nowhere on planet earth that is safe. The Lord is moving with radical holy alliances to bring us, as men and women, into places of divine connections and moving into radical prayer and fasting. He is helping us to cry out for the fresh legislation from the heavens to bring it down from heaven to earth.
It is "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We are in this dramatic, incredible time of history. What is so wonderful is that there is a changing and a shifting of the guards governmentally that is happening world-wide.
I think it is important to come to the table and eat. So if we are looking at the times and the seasons we are in, we will see that we are in radical shakings of the Lord. Every once in a while, we can feel that "volcano" under the surface.
The Lord is calling us into these houses of prayer all over the earth to begin to move into lives that are holy before Him and crying out to hear His voice. "Lord, what are You doing over our cities and over our families and communities? Lord, we need to hear You!"
We need to be able to legislate from heaven and bring it down to earth. So as we are looking at the times we are in, my question to you is this: where are you positioned as a watchman on the wall? What is the Lord saying to you?
Part 2: Generals of the Lord and the Military
What we are talking about is a shifting and a change. In the last few years, we have had several generals in the faith go home to heaven. Dr. Bill Bright, who was an old war general, went home to be with the Lord. He moved radically in evangelism and with the youth. He also was a cutting edge man in media with the Jesus film, which was translated in languages all over the world, and he evangelized probably more people than anyone else.
We then have Derek Prince, who moved as a revelation teacher and had a real anointing and revelation for Israel. Kenneth Hagen Sr., an apostle of healing, also passed away.
Billy Graham and Oral Roberts are two other apostolic five-fold ministers. We all know and love these beloved war generals. They have pioneered and broken through into global evangelism, teaching, and healing. A few prophets have said that when these two old generals go home to be with the Lord, then there will be a world-wide revival of souls with powerful signs, wonders, and miracles following. But remember that revival and war are running mates, as the two governments of God and Satan are colliding and fighting for the souls and passions of men.
Whenever you have several old generals going home at the same time, it is a governmental shift in the Spirit. So there needs to be that cry in you that says, "Lord, we want to move as radical apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. We want to mobilize the generations for global warfare with a radical passion and love for Jesus."
"Lord, we want to move with revelation on Israel. We want to be able to come up to the next step. In other words, when our forefathers go on before us, it brings all of us up to the next place."
The reality is that we are in a season of coming to the edge of World War III. Just like the Lord raised up Eisenhower, McArthur and other mighty generals in WWII, He also will raise up officers and generals now of every nationality – both men and women - for the hour we live in.
Do you realize that even as children, these men played war games, and as they grew older, they also studied military books and strategies! They were ones who would watch the patterns and movements of the enemy and learned to strategize at a young age for global warfare.
I feel that in this time the Lord is also raising up end time global war generals. This is part of what the Lord is doing. There is a shifting in the government of God. We are already beginning to see a shift across denominational lines.
Part 3: Seasons of Shifting and Change
We are starting to see a shift across cities and nations. Part of this involves the capabilities of Internet and television. Suddenly, the Body of Christ is more like thirty-one flavors! Jesus owns the ice cream shop, and we know that He loves all of the ice cream!
We are not as prejudiced anymore, and we are beginning to love the whole Bride! We are starting to love the church with all the different aspects and personalities of the Body of Christ.
While we are in this season of change, the Lord also wants to bring us up into the next places. So, how do we deal with the thought of global warfare on the horizon? How do we get prepared as men and women of God?
When we start to see the shakings - the financial shakings - and we start to see war looming, how do we deal with it? Let's bring this into everyday life … if we had been in Europe in 1930 and we were around twenty-five years old, we'd be thinking of getting married and having children; we would have had NO idea that suddenly Hitler would be on the scene in 1933 and that WWII would be advancing by 1937!
Neither would you have known that during that period of global warfare, fifty million people would die - people who were educated, Western people, Europeans, Eastern Europeans, doctors and attorneys. You would have said back then, "This is not possible! This could never happen!" But it did.
I am telling you that we are in a place where there is going to be radical shakings. We are in a place where the heavens are going to move. Just like there is going to be great judgment, there is also going to be a great revival and a great harvest! The Lord is also allowing these judgments to stir people to be radically in love with Him.
Part 4: The Prophetic Journey of Joseph, a Deliverer
I have such a heart to talk about what it really means to be a deliverer! What is the prophetic journey God takes each one of us on to prepare us to suddenly be a deliverer on the world stage? It is a suddenly of how God starts to position us, isn't it?
Psalm 105:16
"Moreover, He called for a famine in the land.
He destroyed all the provision of bread. He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters,
they laid him in irons until the time that his word came to pass.
And the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him.
The ruler of the people let him go free. He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and
to teach his elders wisdom."
So let's talk about Joseph. He was a young man. It says in Genesis that Joseph was greatly favored by his father and was given a beautiful multi-colored coat. We know the story well, and we know that this coat is really a reflection of the revelation of the multi-faceted gifting that was on Joseph's life.
Joseph was a dreamer. He was also a prophet. He dreamed and literally saw his destiny, didn't he? But then, when he was given this coat and was so loved by his father, it made his brothers jealous.
You see, when you have great giftings, when you start to have dreams and visions, when you start to get your head a little above everyone else, the "brothers" and "sisters" will get jealous. Many times, it comes from those in the house of the Lord! All of a sudden, they see this special anointing and gifting that is on you, and they get jealous.
Joseph then shared this dream of how all of his brothers would bow down before him, including his father. Have you ever shared something that was not in the right timing? You certainly learn after awhile not to do that! Why? Because it stirs jealousy and jealousy results in murder.
We know the story of Joseph very well. The brothers tore the garment, the robe of authority that was given to him by his father, and they threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery.
You see, this is part of the prophetic journey of a deliverer. A king can be put into place in one day, but the deliverer goes through decades of the fires of God to be trained in the prophetic journey.
This happens so that when you are put into place, it will not only be the beautiful colored "robe" that you will wear, but that you will also wear a garment of humility and meekness with all the glory going to the Lord!
In Psalm 105, it said that God allowed the famine. In others words, it was God who set the world up for an international crisis. It is just like where we are today! The Lord is setting up the earth for an international crisis like we have never seen before.
He is going to be the One who is going to stop the rains. He is going to be the One who will bring the earthquakes. He is going to be the One who will bring the shakings of governments. He is the One who puts evil rulers in place like Hitler and Stalin.
He is also the One to put godly men and women strategically into place! We are dealing with a huge global chess board with the Lord moving the players in this time and in this hour for such a time as this.
When Joseph was being taken into slavery, it says that his feet were put into irons. In other words, God allowed him to be hurt. It wasn't just that his brothers put him into the pit and sold him. The Lord allowed Joseph to have his feet put in irons.
Are you with me? Now he has lost his family and his culture and he was brought into a foreign land. How many of you have been brought into a "foreign land" where you didn't geographically want to go?
All of a sudden, the Lord has shifted and changed you! The Lord is in the place right now of His wind coming and moving and shifting the players strategically. The suddenly of God will uproot many of you out of your homes, out of your jobs, and shift you to another city "for such a time as this".
You see, God said, "I need a deliverer! I need to put him in Egypt and get him before Pharaoh because this deliverer is not only going to save Israel, but this famine and world-wide crisis is going to hit all the nations of the known earth."
You cry out, "Lord, I want to be a forerunner! Lord, I want to be deliverer!" I tell you, there is a prophetic journey in being a deliverer! We know that Joseph went to Potiphar's house, and the Bible says that the goodness of God was with Joseph. The favor of the Lord was with him!
Joseph was given a second robe of authority. He was given another robe where the people would do whatever he wanted. In the midst of this pagan culture, he had also been sold, but he still followed God. He still had a secret testimony. He still knew who his Lord was.
Part 5: How to Handle Betrayal
Are you in the midst of being in a "foreign land?" For instance, do you walk a journey, like a marriage where your husband is not following the Lord? Are you still seeking the Lord, or are you starting to compromise a little bit? Are you not as hot, on fire and pressing in for the voice of God for your life?
As we know, Joseph was once again betrayed, but the Lord allowed it. Strategically, Potiphar's house wasn't the right place for where God needed Joseph. His garment was literally torn and ripped off. He was accused of being a rapist.
How many of you have had witch hunts come against you where you have been accused of being a Jezebel, or you have been unjustly betrayed or misunderstood, and your character has been assassinated? The Lord has even allowed that to test your heart. Are you going to be bitter or sweet?
We know that Joseph was in the royal dungeon, and once again, the favor of the Lord was with him. Once again, he was strategically placed in the royal dungeon, even though it took years to be brought out and put before Pharaoh.
Pharaoh had a dream that none of the magicians could solve. Suddenly they remembered Joseph, who had interpreted their dreams, and he was brought before Pharaoh. He interpreted his dream and was given a robe of authority.
I am talking about a garment change. I am talking about a shifting governmentally where many times you lose your title, you lose your place of authority, God shifts you, and you don't understand why you are being led away in irons.
Or suddenly, you are wrongly accused. You have done a good job to the best of your ability, and suddenly you are put in the dungeon where you are forgotten for years. But the Lord has set this up strategically because if you are called as a deliverer and a forerunner, the Lord has to work His heart of humility in you.
There are two seats in heaven. There is the judgment seat, and there is the mercy seat. When you have been wrongly accused, whipped beyond recognition and you are bleeding from betrayal and assassination with false accusations coming against you, if you go to the judgment seat, the accuser will be there waiting. He will give you partial truth, and you will start to move in bitterness and anger. Your wounds will become infected, and you could be disqualified … until you deal with your unforgiveness!
If you go to the mercy seat, and you cry out and throw yourself between the horns of the altar and onto the precious splattered blood of the Lord, then your wounds will begin to heal, and the scars will begin to glow with the resurrection anointing of Jesus. It is as though you pray, "Lord forgive them, they don't know what they are doing," This brings promotion in the Spirit.
Then when you go to the city gates - being marred beyond recognition, looking just like the suffering Servant, Jesus, and glowing with the resurrection anointing from the Cross of the Lamb - then you can say, "Open up the gates! Open up the gates for the King of Glory! Open up the gates!" You can cry this out because you look just like Jesus!
So part of your journey as a deliverer and as a forerunner is the changing of garments. What season are you in? That is part of the divine strategy of the Lord - to kill us so that we look more like Him!
The only problem is that it is a custom-designed death for each one of us. We don't get to choose how we get to die! We think it would be easier if we could choose our "death", but the Lord strategically sets it up for each one of us to deal with the motives of our heart, so that we love Him; so that we will be desperate for Him and press into Him - no matter what!
Part 6: Other Deliverers: David, Esther and Anna
How about King David? He was seventeen years old, and he was anointed by the most powerful and well known prophet of that time, Samuel. It took seventeen years, though, from the time David was anointed as king, for him to be put into power.
He had to be chased by demonized King Saul, who had three thousand soldiers out to take his life … and we worry about one pastor or person in the church coming against us! Maybe we worry about a husband who doesn't understand us. How would you like to have an army come against you? It is all a matter of perspective!
Let me get to where I really want to go. This is not just an article to talk about deliverers. Are you a deliverer? Are you called into the prophetic? Are you called as a mother of Israel?
Some of the things that have been on my heart involve the Esther generation. How many of you have heard about the Esther generation? I am talking about the Esther's and the Mordecai's.
Esther was a Jewish orphan who was in captivity and was raised by her uncle, Mordecai. She wound up being brought into the palace. She also had to leave her own culture. She had to leave her Jewish culture and be strategically placed into a pagan palace.
Once again, the Lord said, "I need a deliverer." Esther shifted out of her place in the Jewish community and into a pagan, hostile palace. Wouldn't a palace be nice? Not for Esther. Her palace was a prison. Suddenly she was alone.
Mordecai, her uncle, was outside the palace as a gatekeeper, but she was still in the harem of the Persian king. The Lord used Esther powerfully four or five years after she became Queen to take out the Prime Minister, Haman, who wanted to genocide the Jewish people. God had to strategically take her out of her comfort zone and move her in order to bring her into place to be a deliverer.
Let's now talk about Anna. Anna was eighty-four years old, she was an intercessor, and she also was a prophetess. She was married for seven years when her husband died. She went to the house of the Lord.
For years and years she interceded that The Deliverer would come, and He came! She was one who would be the first evangelist, the voice that said, "Here He is - The Deliverer!" We talk very often about the current day Anna's and Simeon's in the church.
I started to ask the Lord about this because I could see how we can talk about the Anna's and the Simeon's, about those who are older in their sixties, seventies and eighties. We can talk about the teenagers, the Esther's, and how we need to bring them up.
But what about the mothers? What about the mothers of Israel? It isn't just that the Lord is bringing different kings and end-time generals into place, the Lord is also putting women into place governmentally, "for such a time as this."
Part 7: Deborah, Another Deliverer
As I was pondering the anointing of Deborah, the Lord was showing me that Deborah not only was a prophetess, but she was also a Judge during the time that Israel was living in Canaan, which was later known as Israel.
Deborah was called a mother of Israel. For twenty years, she would sit under the palm tree, which means "righteousness", and she would intercede and stand in the gap for Israel. The palm tree was in between two cities.
The one city was Ramah which means "the seat of high adultery" and the other city was Bethel which means "the House of the Lord"! She lived in the valley of Ephraim, right in between these two cities, and she interceded in that place of the seat of adultery and the house of God.
She was an intercessor, a Judge and a radical prophetess of the Lord. As a Judge, she would take care of all the civil jobs, etc. She worked in the realm of the secular and was handling disputes. She moved governmentally. She was also a tender of the lamps - she would light the lamps every day.
The Bible says that Deborah arose when the city gates were at war. Many times, the Lord raises women and men prophets in various places during times of war. We are in a season of war. Just like the Lord is bringing home end-time generals, so He is also raising up a whole new army of men and women, young and old, and putting them into place.
I feel the Lord is saying that this is the time not only for the Esther's, the younger generation, but for the Anna's and Simeon's, as well as being a time for the Deborah's, the mothers of Israel, to come up into place.
Part 8: A Generational Anointing of Men and Women
We are dealing with a generational anointing. If you don't have mothers in the house, the daughters will not be safe. It isn't good to only have the fathers raising the daughters. You need to have the moms in the house, too.
For the generation of women that are thirty-five and older, I feel that they have been oppressed and shut down because of our church culture. I feel that the Lord is saying, "Arise Deborah's! Awaken! I want you to start taking territory and have that radical heart as a deliverer!"
You will be ones who will be watchmen on the wall. Deborah was a deliverer. Esther was a deliverer. There needs to be a cry for the Lord to take all three generations - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God Needs All Generations Together
If we raise up just the young people, instead of seeing that it is really a trans-generational movement, the youth will move into pride. Give them five or ten years, and they will be wiser.
We need not only the grandfathers, fathers, and sons but also the grandmothers, mothers and daughters, intermixed together, giving and taking from each other. We all need to be put in a place of being radical voices with wisdom, counsel and a fresh anointing of the Lord.
I understand that this can involve all ages for each one of those places, but I also feel in my heart there is weight and government that God is releasing on the women. Deborah, for instance, was a prophet who moved with tremendous prophetic strategies.
The Lord told her to tell Barak to arise! I feel that God is calling women to go to men and tell them to arise. What I loved about Barak was his great humility. He recognized that she was a prophet of God, that she had the word of the Lord for the hour.
He said, "If you will go with me, I will go into battle." Deborah said she would go with him. She didn't know how to run a military invasion or to run the army, but she was able to go as a standard bearer, as the living word of God, legislated from heaven. She was able to stand with Barak, both of them coming together governmentally.
The other wonderful thing is that Deborah's husband, Labridor, means "shining lamp". The Bible doesn't say that Deborah went into battle with her husband. She went into battle with Barak, whose name means "thunderbolt" or "lightning flash".
When we talk about Anna and Simeon, we need to point out that they were single. I think so often in the church we say that if women are married, and if their husbands are in position in the church, then their wives can be put into place.
But if we start to look at biblical examples, the Lord doesn't look at your status of life. Is that right? If you look at Esther, she partnered in God with her uncle Mordecai, but was married to a pagan king. What you see is old single saints, radical intercessors before God, powerfully used in prophetic proclamations.
You see a married woman teaming with a commander in chief, a general. You are not put into place because of your husband or you are not put into place because you are single, divorced or widowed. These things do not disqualify you!
There are strategic assignments that God has for each one of us!
One time you might be suddenly put into place with a Barak, taking territory together. All of a sudden, your garment has changed from the garment of a Judge and a priest who lights the lamp, to the garment of war.
Suddenly you are putting on armor, getting on a horse right next to the military commander, saying, "I am going to look to God! I don't know how I got here, but You gave me the word of the Lord. Here we go! Okay, God!"
The thundering of the chariots and the horses are coming down the battle field and all you can do is say, "I heard God. I stand on that. I stand on the prophetic word." When Deborah went out to battle, it broke open the heavens with a creative anointing, so even the stars started to turn and move.
"Yes, there's going to be blood! Yes, there's going to be fire! But there is going to be the radical glory of God, the chariots of fire, the chariots of salvation, deliverance and healing like you have never seen!"
God Uses Unusual Combinations!
So what we are talking about is the unusual combinations that God puts together in these end times. It is combinations where the Lord will take someone who is married and someone who is single.
You have to get back to the Word and say, "Wait a minute, Lord. You say that You use those who say, 'Here am I Lord, use me. Lord, here am I. I can hear the sounds of humanity crying.'"
How the enemy would love to take out the harvest! If he could take out two thirds of the workforce of the army of God, he would! Those two thirds are the women of God. The Lord, in this hour, is raising up the mothers of Israel.
We are in that place of saying, "Wait a minute! We are called to take territory!" One minute we might be sitting under the palm tree, that tree of righteousness, hearing radical strategies for different people around us who have wisdom and counsel. The next minute we might be getting on a horse and going into battle.
"But Lord, here am I, send me!" What we are saying is that you could lose your life! When you start to move in the power of Holy Spirit, it starts to bring a shifting and changing to old religious systems.
You see, when Deborah got on that horse, she knew it was a suicide mission, and she needed heaven to be able to do a miracle. They were ten thousand coming against the enemy's army of one hundred thousand men and nine hundred iron chariots.
What is your iron chariot?
As we're talking about this, what is your "iron chariot"? Jaban's name, the king of Canaan, means "intellect". Part of what we fight is an intellectual spirit that starts to take out the fire of Holy Spirit.
There is a battle in the house of the Lord these days for the radical fire and presence of God. When you look at the church, you see Holy Spirit being oppressed just as women are being oppressed.
Usually when you see Holy Spirit being put in the back room, women are not put in any real place of leadership. They aren't put into place as pastors, elders, or deacons. They are barely allowed to even pray at the altar, if that is even allowed.
But I tell you that there is a place where the Lord is saying, "Women, arise! Deborah's arise! You need to be mothers. You need to bring up the next generation of Deborah's. You need to be there for the Esther's. We need to be there for the Anna's."
We are generational, especially those of you who are in your forties and fifties and are an arm to the Anna's and to the Esther's. We need to be able to move with clarity and a counsel and not let fear, legalism, and intimidation shut us down.
Part 9: Denmark's Example to the Church
When I was in Denmark, I heard about this Nigerian healing evangelist. It was ten o'clock at night, and we were guests at the dinner table and some people were telling me about this Nigerian who was moving in signs and wonders.
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Only 1% of Denmark residents are born again Christians, but they told me that he was pulling crowds of two thousand people. They said he is a phenomenon. Everybody rushes to see him and there are radical healings and salvations.
"Well Jill," they said, "Did you realize that he is here in town tonight?" I said, "You're kidding!" They told me he prays until three or four in the morning, and I told them I wanted to go! Linda Valen, who was with me on the road, came along too!
This couple drove us downtown and we eagerly entered the church. There must have been fifteen hundred people in the meeting that late at night! Signs, wonders and healings were happening, and the room was alive with excitement and curiosity!
I couldn't believe all the New Age people who were there. I couldn't believe the witches and the warlocks, the prostitutes, businessmen and women that were obviously not saved, but they were there!
As I looked at this group of unsaved pagan folks, my heart cheered! I said, "Oh, how did they get these people here? This is a church. Why would people come to church? Why would the lost come to church? What do we have for them? If we don't have the power of God, why do they come?"
As I talked to the pastor, he told me to look at it this way. The people who have been hurt in the charismatic and Pentecostal churches often end up going to seeker-friendly churches. They have their music for a certain amount of time, then a forty-five minute sermon, and they go home. There's no mess. It's nice, neat, sterile and barren.
You see, there's no fire on the altar. There are no sounds of birthing and travail. And, oh my goodness, we wouldn't want a demoniac, someone who needed radical deliverance, to manifest because, after all, we might offend people.
So we ration out and decide that we are going to pastor Holy Spirit. He is only God, you know! What happens is that we wind up with names on churches that Holy Spirit doesn't even go to! It is a form of religion, but it doesn't have the radical presence of God.
Most of these guys are Spirit-filled and were very hot and radical in other decades, but they have learned, through a lot of pain, to build a church with programs and models. They have applied different methods because after all, they don't want people to continue to go out the back door.
When I talked to this pastor, I asked him how he got all of these unsaved people there. He said, "Jill, the unchurched, the heathen, are just hurting people. They are broken, demonized and they need to get saved. Their bodies are hurting so we just advertise in all the New Age papers. We just said if you need to get physically healed, just come."
We have the lost coming because they haven't been taught by the church to hate Holy Spirit yet. They haven't been taught to be offended because someone happens to tremble, or someone happens to go through deliverance, or someone happens to shake and get radically and physically healed.
They haven't been churched that way so they just come and ask if the God of the Bible is real? Is Jesus really who He says He is in the Bible? If so, I want Him! He told me they had over eight hundred people sign up for the Alpha Class just that night! They were unsaved people who didn't know God at all!!
That very night they were saved and signed up for discipleship classes. You see we, as the church, have decided that the unsaved will be offended but the reality is --- we are so religious that we are the ones who have gotten offended!
Part 10: The Blue Coats and the Gray Coats
There needs to be a cry in us for the power of God, for the presence of Jesus, for radical salvations, for a breaker anointing! We need to be catalytic! We need to have the fire of God! We need to be holy revolutionists! We need to break open territory. We need to shift, change, rattle and shake systems that are not of God!
We want to see the power of God come in and shake those systems and bring in the fresh move of God. The Lord is saying to not play church. An old prophet years ago had a vision of the church, and it was like the Civil War in America.
He said in this vision that the gray coats represented the intellect ("gray matter") and a spirit of slavery. It was a form of religion without the power of the Cross and Gospel.
He also said that the blue coats represented revelation of the Holy Spirit like in the book of Acts (blue often means revelation and freedom).
The gray coats moved with a religious spirit and they didn't mind having people in a form of slavery because, after all, they needed them for their tithes and offerings and to build their systems. The principle is just as it was in the Civil War days - they needed slavery for all of their cotton plantations.
If you move with revelation, it doesn't mean that you won't have big buildings, but what you are doing is mobilizing the troops coming in and out, being filled and equipped. It's the mothers and fathers and children of all ages, colors, and ethnic backgrounds.
There is no problem with money for the blue coats or freedom fighters. It says in Acts that there was so much money that they kept putting the money at the feet of the apostles. You see, if you have a real move of God, people have a gift of generosity.
They start giving to the poor. The mercy anointing starts working. They start having open heavens and visions. They start being able to speak words of radical revelation, even words of holiness, like Peter did with Ananias and Sapphira, and the glory of God begins to come.
Are You a Burning One?
So how hot are you? Women, Deborah's who have been in slavery for decades, are you willing to come up and be mothers? Are you really willing to come up and get the strategies of God? What is your destiny?
Are you burning with calling and destiny in the midst of your spirit? Yet, because of religious legalism and wrong interpretation of the word of God, you believe that you are not allowed to preach.
But it says that the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene and she was the first one to preach. You remember her, the one who had seven demons? He appeared first to a woman, and she went running with the good news as a radical evangelist preaching, "He has risen!"
You need to look at the Word. There is freedom through Jesus. There is freedom through the Word of God. Nothing should stop us from being able to move radically in the things of the Lord.
There needs to be a cry that says how much of Holy Spirit is burning in you! Have you gradually, over the decades, become seeker- friendly? Did you use to be more radical and wild in God? A little more on the cutting edge?
In the Jesus People Movement, of which I was a part, we would go out and tell everyone about Jesus! We were broken, and we knew it. We came out of sin, and we knew it.
We would go up to people and say, "I was broken and I was hurting, but I met a man and He loves me. I met a man and He loves me and His name is Jesus! He can heal you. He can set you free. I met a man and He loves me!"
This is the simple Gospel. It has that radical cutting edge. God wants you on the edge again. He wants a radical abandonment as lovers again. He doesn't want you to have to weigh everything out so that you are no longer a living testimony.
He wants that radical heart that cries out, "Lord, I love you! I love you, Lord! I want You, Lord!" That radical cry, that burning heart, where you used to love with such a radical fervency! You had passion! You were alive in every sense of that word! You were contagious and people wanted what you had!
We have now become churched. We have now become too polite. We have become too religious. We have learned, as women, that we better not speak. If we really say what truth is, and if it messes up the politics of the church, we will be judged as Jezebels. Some of you know what I am talking about!
How Does the Jezebel Spirit Operate?
Why not be judged as a Deborah? The Lord is calling for the Deborahs to arise. Most women I have met are not Jezebels. They might have father issues. They might have to work through some healing issues, but that doesn't mean that they are demonically worshipping in front of idols with sexual perversion.
Jezebel was a governmental principality. She goes after government. And because most women, even though you might have government, are not in a place of government so it doesn't hit you as hard as the men.
Most of the Jezebels I have met have been men. Jezebel is not male or female; it is a spirit that works through people. You need to look at that and then compare it to Deborah.
What did Deborah do? She moved in government. She is what you call a five- fold minister. The Lord is raising up women as apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors.
Yes, there is a corporate apostolic anointing that is starting to move, and we will all move in it like Christianity 101. This is a realm where the government and weight of God come and people get saved, healed and delivered. That is part of what is moving now, but God is also moving people into office.
Jezebel moves governmentally. Deborah moves governmentally. Jezebel would kill anyone and take away everything it could if it got its own way. Deborah moved as a team player. She moved with Barak.
Deborah's husband's name means, "Shines like a lamp," and she was one that tended the lamp. You could see that there was relationship. Her husband was like a Christ figure, and she was like the Bride of Christ.
Jezebel moved with a murderous contempt. Deborah had the heart of a deliverer. She wanted to deliver the nation from oppression. She saw the people under heavy bondage, and her whole motivation of the heart was to serve.
So how hot are you? Women, Deborah's who have been in slavery for decades, are you willing to come up and be mothers? Are you really willing to come up and get the strategies of God? What is your destiny?
Are you burning with calling and destiny in the midst of your spirit? Yet, because of religious legalism and wrong interpretation of the word of God, you believe that you are not allowed to preach.
It says that the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene, and she was the first one to preach. You remember her, the one who had seven demons? He appeared first to a woman, and she went running with the good news as a radical evangelist preaching, "He has risen!"
Needed: Servant Leaders, Both Men and Women!
You see, if you have a five-fold gifting, then YOU wash the feet of everyone else. Yes, you equip everyone else. You put the apron around your waist and you wash everyone's feet and cheer them on as a mother and a father in the faith. It is a call to servant-leadership! Many want to be exalted, but few want to really serve the body of Christ!
Jesus is our supreme example of a Servant-Leader in washing the feet of His disciples (John 13:5). The Word says, "And He sat down and called the Twelve [apostles], and He said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he must be last of all, and servant of all." (Mark 9:35 Amplified)
As a servant-leader, you encourage others and tell them it doesn't have to be as hard for them as it was for you. By uncovering some of the lies that you experienced, the whole next generation of young men and women won't have to be under the same terrible oppression. They won't have to be under the lies.
The Role of Women
Most women I have met have hearts that want to be so right before Jesus that they will submit and grovel in order to honor and not offend. Women have hearts that are soft and want to honor, but sometimes this leads to false submission.
We can be giving false honor - to the point of idolatry to the men - just because they are a guy. Ladies, idolatry is sin. The Bible says that in the garden man and woman were made in the image of God. They were co-equal, and they were both part of the Bride of Christ.
Women, you need to see that you are also made in the image of Christ! The enemy would like to come against the image of Jesus, the image of the Bride. We talk about the Joel 2 army coming forward, but it will never come forward unless the mothers also come into place.
When it says the "sons and the daughters," we aren't just talking about daughters that are fifteen years old. It also means the daughters that are eighty or ninety years old - the mothers! Mothers also need to prophesy, and we need to have mothers in the house of God. This is healthy and an essential part of the Bride.
Man and Woman Were Both Created in His Image
The image of God has been distorted when we only look at it as male and not man and woman, who are both part of the Bride of Jesus. Are you willing to have a voice? The enemy hates Holy Spirit because Holy Spirit brings radical salvations.
The enemy also hates women because the Bible says that out of the seed of women, the head of the serpent would be bruised. Out of woman, came the Deliverer. You see, women have a special anointing in warfare, I feel, to be able to discern and see the enemy. Therefore, our voices also have to come to the table of God.
How radical are you going to be? Have you gotten so churched that you won't even talk now? Have you gotten so churched that it is easy to just give in? We move with so much passive aggression. We get our own way in round about ways, which is manipulation.
Are you willing to be clear and clean and put your heart on the table? We all have to weigh our own hearts. It doesn't mean we will "get our way" (that is not the point!), but we can sure be part of a team. We can sure be part of an army of the Lord!
There needs to be something in you that is going to be a voice again; something in you that is willing to be a cry, a shout, a sound; something that is willing to see the enemy defeated. Mothers are protective. If they see someone coming after their kids, they yell or go into a watchman stance! There is a cry as watchman on the wall. These cries provide protection for the children in the house. And when the men team up with the women, supporting them in their place as mothers, great battles can be won!
You need to come into place to protect the seed of the covenant! |
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