Proclaiming Freedom

to proclaim freedom for the captives…

I just released a new podcast Proclaiming Freedom (click this link to go listen). This was all the Lord’s idea. I never would’ve chosen to do a podcast….to me it just seems like adding to the already deafening noise of so many voices. God had to bring up the idea three times before I even considered it. Once I took a few moments to consider this idea from the God, I realized, it’s kinda perfect. I can just talk about all the things I’m on fire about! The Holy Spirit, missions, revelations from God…pretty much anything having to do with The Lord. My mind was going 1,000 miles per hour thinking of all the cool things I’d like to talk about.

I had to pause, though. What is it that God wants me to share? What is it that’s the most important to Him about this podcast idea?

My Testimony.

I’ve always felt such a strong desire to tell everyone about what God has done in my life. It’s miraculous. Done in an unconventional way, by my limited perspective. It’s a treasure I hold close to my heart. Hearkening back to it, so I’ll remember how good and how great my Father is to me. I knew I needed to share my testimony first and foremost on this podcast. It’s the foundation built on God, from which I advance through life in obedience.

It’s extremely vulnerable to share this story of healing and deliverance, that God brought through a seemingly antithetical process. Especially when the noise of the world is desperately trying to drown out any voice telling of the glorious salvation in Christ. My testimony is a battle ax. I’ve added it to my Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). Every time I share my testimony, I’m destroying the strongholds of the enemy. I’m declaring to everyone, “God will save you and He will do amazing things in your life.” The enemy hates that. This is how warfare works against the principalities of darkness and evil (Ephesians 6:12)…Hope decimates deception, Joy annihilates depression and Love obliterates shame. Every testimony proclaims God’s compassion to save and His authority to liberate.

I encourage you to seek God to set you free and heal every wound. He promises to do this for you. And when He has, I urge you to be bold in sharing the testimony of Jesus Christ in your life.

Isaiah 61

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

    because the Lord has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

    to proclaim freedom for the captives

    and release from darkness for the prisoners,

2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

    and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

3     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

    instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

    instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

    instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

    a planting of the Lord

    for the display of his splendor.

4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins

    and restore the places long devastated;

they will renew the ruined cities

    that have been devastated for generations.

5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks;

    foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.

6 And you will be called priests of the Lord,

    you will be named ministers of our God.

You will feed on the wealth of nations,

    and in their riches you will boast.

7 Instead of your shame

    you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace

    you will rejoice in your inheritance.

And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,

    and everlasting joy will be yours.

8 “For I, the Lord, love justice;

    I hate robbery and wrongdoing.

In my faithfulness I will reward my people

    and make an everlasting covenant with them.

9 Their descendants will be known among the nations

    and their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will acknowledge

    that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

10 I delight greatly in the Lord;

    my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up

    and a garden causes seeds to grow,

so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness

    and praise spring up before all nations.

A Reflection on Perception

I recently started taking pastoral courses. The initial course covered the historical and cultural background preceding Christ and His ministry. The Hellenistic movement was seeping into every aspect of life and culture some 300 years before Christ was born. This was perceived as a threat by the Pharisees and their value of the Law and Jewish culture/tradition. Growing up, I had never learned the motivation for the Pharisees and other groups, given the cultural atmosphere. I had never understood the difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The latter valued their priestly positions only insofar as the political status and wealth they could gain. The Sadducees weren’t threatened by the culture as long as the political stability remained.

After learning the details surrounding this time in history, it’s like I am seeing the New Testament in color. It’s understandable that the Pharisees would react to the Hellenistic culture so fiercely. Anything that wasn’t the Jewish tradition and was also popular among society, posed a serious threat to the importance of the Law as they lived it out. As is true with most believers…often our intentions are good but our expression can end up pushing people away. The Pharisees weren’t the bad guys I was always taught they were. They’re people who were trying their best to obey God and defend the importance of His instruction. I can relate to the Pharisees. As I was reading all the historical and cultural color of the time leading up to and during Christ’s life, I began to see similarities in the present period of the United States.

            I can see people around our country with similar ideologies to the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and Essenes. I can see an anointed movement of God that is extremely offensive and threatening to the “normal” that we’ve been living in up until this point. Jesus, His purpose and His ministry was in direct opposition to whatever people had built their lives on that wasn’t God. If the Pharisees couldn’t recognize the new way Jesus was introducing, they would see Him as a threat to their tradition. If the Sadducees couldn’t see that the true Kingdom of God arrived in Christ, they would see Him as a threat to the political stability and their status. For those who were open to God in any way He wanted to come and move, as well as those who came into contact with the new way embodied in Jesus Christ, the cost and opposition was worth the revelation of eternity.

            Every move of God will elicit extreme offense and opposition as it challenges everything people have put their faith in that is apart from God. I see a leader, imperfect and unexpected, anointed by God to realign a nation to the Kingdom of God. I see the violent offense and opposition to this leader and the direction he is guiding the nation. I see God introducing a new way in every aspect of life – a reawakening. I see those who are closed-minded to the movement, perceiving a threat. I see those who are open to God and the new way struggling in earnest to realign and find the path. I pray the Church will regain its position of leadership in society. I pray God will bring revelation, to believers and unbelievers, of the way He is leading our nation. I pray believers will be relentless in seeking God and humble in receiving Him however He wants to appear and move.

God, the adventure designer

This is a testimony from a trip I took in December of 2019. I’m not able to disclose the location of this trip or any identifiers of the person I met because it is considered a restricted access country. For everyone who supported me in prayer and financially, here is how God showed up on this trip.

Off we go…

The Beginning:

In January of 2019 I was at the Healing Rooms of Loveland, Colorado. During my visit, one of the volunteers got a word from the Lord for me. It was only the name of a country. She said, “I’m not sure if you’re supposed to go there or just pray for the country. Check that out with the Lord further and see what He shows you.” At the time, I just brushed it off. I had never had any interest or desire in visiting this country. It came out of left field and I wasn’t sure how to hold it. I prayed and asked God to reveal more to me about this country and any purpose I had concerning it. After that prayer, I mostly forgot about the word.

Eight months later:

            I was having a conversation with my friend, whom I have been on short term mission trips with. She mentioned a trip later in the year and said I should go. I blew it off. I told her I didn’t have any interest in the location and I didn’t want to fundraise for another trip. She kept hounding me about it and questioning my reasons for not going. Exasperated, I told her “The only way I would go, is if I had a specific word from God.”

Instantaneously, I remembered the word I had gotten in January. The name of this country.

“Oh no…”, I said in shock as I stared at my friend. “I have a specific word from God. I have to go on this trip.”

That is the coolest “gotcha” moment of my life, so far…God giving a word eight months before I would need it! I love that moment and I love God being playful in His invitation to me.

I want to thank and bless everyone who supported my trip to this country. All of your belief in what God would do on this trip, all of the finances given and all of the prayer you surrounded me in. Each of you supported my opportunity to be obedient and bold. The spiritual oppression in this country is intense. I experienced the spiritual warfare each day I was there. Thank you for all your prayers.

This trip was difficult and nothing that I expected. I questioned the purpose of it daily. I felt unhelpful. I felt extremely restricted and I was constantly afraid I would make a mistake that would put others in danger of serious persecution. I filled a lot of my time with prayer over the country. I came against strongholds in prayer and asked the Holy Spirit to move through each small interaction I had with people. Still, I questioned and doubted. “Why am I here? I shouldn’t have come.”

It was our last day in country. I was relieved to be leaving soon and looking forward to having space to process everything I had experienced. During our last event with the local community, I remained present and watchful. There was still time for God to bring an opportunity.

A young person visiting the event began a conversation with me. They asked where I was from and why I was there. In caution, I lied and said I was here to help support some vocational opportunities in the area. We continued our conversation and then they asked, point blank “Are you a Christian?” I paused, shocked. I’d been so careful not to say something like that out loud during this trip. There is an expectation that everyone is being listened to and watched most of the time in this country. This truth is too important…I told them, “yes.” Their face lit up and they leaned over the small table, “Me too!” They began to tell me their testimony and I shared some of mine. I was sitting in the presence of a believer who I revered. They know God in ways I haven’t known yet…they risked their life when they chose God and every day since. I haven’t felt a violent reality like that. I want to. Someday I will. As we continued to talk, I had a realization.

Rewind to September, 3 months before the trip:

My friend, who was also going on the trip, shared a Holy Spirit vision she received. She saw both of us in a specific type of shop in this country, talking with someone from that country and praying over them. I held on to this vision as we looked forward to the trip.

Back to the conversation:

I looked at my new friend and fellow child of God. I told them I had something to share with them. I described the Holy Spirit vision three months prior. I smiled and said, “You are the person in that vision, from Our Father.” They started to cry. I did, too. This was an intricately orchestrated moment of God’s love that we were both sitting in. They began to tell me how earlier in January of this year, they had been wrestling with God and asking if He really loved them. They said this was an answer to that question. I sat back and took all of this in. As I see it, God asked someone from the other side of the world to show up for another person and embody the message that He sees them and loves them and hears them. How can we fathom His love for us as we sit in this moment? When God shows up in deafeningly intimate moments, all doubts turn to dust. As we sit in His glorious presence, I can’t help but laugh at our doubts as they blow away in the wind. To receive the invitation, to witness God showing His child how much He loves them, is such an extraordinary honor and blessing.

Please, continue to pray for this friend and fellow child of God. Pray that God will open doors for them and provide the resources needed to follow what He has put in their heart to do.

My Reflection:

As I’ve been contemplating this experience, I felt the famous line from the book of Esther coming up over and over. 

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” – Esther 4:14 NIV (emphasis added by me)

I used to think about the “for such a time as this” moment as an earth shaking, massively climactic event. Now, I think it can appear as quiet as a whispered conversation and an illegal prayer with a new friend, Holy and ordained by Our Father. Who can say that Nations aren’t born out of that moment? Who can say that the edification of faith both of us gained in that moment doesn’t shake the unseen and fuel panic in the army of the enemy? Who can say that moment didn’t drastically shift the atmosphere on that block, in that city and in that country?

I believe it’s not for us of limited understanding and perspective to decide how “big” a given moment of obedience is in the Kingdom.

In addition to that contemplation, I have been meditating on the significance of God’s spoken word. Every word God speaks to us comes with the ability for that word to come to pass. This is an explanation I’ve heard Pastor Bill Johnson speak of multiple times. When God speaks a word, He has now given authorization for everything needed for that word to happen. His spoken word shatters the chains of impossibility. Bill Johnson compares a word of God to a seed. Everything the seed needs to grow and become a tree, is contained within it. All it needs is good soil to grow in.

May we carry every spoken word of God in our hearts, eternally precious and powerful. May our obedience release the Holy Spirit and bring the Kingdom of God everywhere our feet touch.

My hands are full, clutching to my chest all of the seeds He’s given me. I’m in awe and humbled as I think of all the impossibilities that are broken before me. I’m comforted knowing I will never walk this path alone. I’m eternally blessed by the treasure He’s given me every time He speaks.