Arm Wrestling God

“A Man wrestled with Jacob until the breaking of day…” Genesis 32:24

Recently the Lord showed me a picture of Him and me seated at a table across from each other. He smiled as He placed His elbow on the table, arm propped forward, fingers spread. He said, “Arm wrestle Me.”

In shock, I said, “I don’t want to wrestle You. You’ll win!” His eyes danced with merriment. “That’s not the point. Arm wrestle Me.” So I placed my elbow on the table and gripped Jesus’ hand. When I did, He exerted only a small amount of His strength. I pushed against Him, but I knew that the moment He applied all the strength of His arm, I’d go down in a flash.

As we wrestled against each other’s grips, warmth saturated my hand from the heat in His. Love radiated from His eyes, and suddenly I knew—the point of this encounter wasn’t to beat God or convince Him of anything. The point was to be in a relationship with Him, one that was intimate and personal, and to know the power of His strength.

Love burst forth in my heart for Him and all I wanted was to be in His arms. In that moment, our touch ceased to be competitive and became that of Lovers. I swept my thumb against His skin in an intimate caress.

Instantly, He leveled my arm as the fire in His eyes changed to that of fervent desire. He stood and walked around that table, pulling me right into the cradle of tenderness against His chest and the safety of His arms.

“Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip…” Genesis 32:25

In His relationship with us, God is a gentleman. He will be a gentleman even when it means that it looks like we’re stronger than Him. He’ll let us 'defeat' Him, let us do things our way, and even let us go about boasting that we're tougher than Him. He’ll stand and watch as we walk up to the neighborhood bully or the biggest thug on the block and brag about how strong and skilled we are, about how we’ve even beat God. Then Jesus watches soberly as the thug takes us down.

Have you been there? Has life hit you in the face? Have circumstances flattened you on the back? Are the wounds and bruises still aching on the inside of you? Rest assured: God isn’t cruel. He examines our hearts and sees what we've been trusting in, outside of Him. He’s waiting for us to come back to Him and ask Him to defeat our enemies for us. But will we? Would you ask someone you believe to be weaker than you to stand up for you? Doubtful.

But then God murmurs again, “Arm wrestle Me.” Anger flares, and we demand, “Why? So you can beat  me when I’m down?” God says, “Arm wrestle Me.” So we do, in the hope that we’re still stronger than somebody.

And this time He doesn’t let us win.

In our pride, we think, “It’s just because I’m so weak. I’ve been beaten up by life. I need to recover.” So God lets us regain our strength. In fact, He fosters it. He nurtures us and feeds us, shelters us and medicates us. Then He says again, “Arm wrestle Me.” So we do. This time, He lets us almost beat Him. We use all our strength—every ounce of it. Then He takes us down.

He does this over and over and over again. Why? Because every good trainer knows that muscles have to be conditioned to gain strength. They have to be exercised and manipulated and massaged. Then God says, “Arm wrestle Me.” It’s the final test. He knows it’s time. Time for us to realize just how strong He is.

We’re strong now too. We know it. We can feel the force of our strength. In fact, we’ve been wrestling some smaller bullies and taking them down. But there’s still that big thug. Are we strong enough to stand up to him and not get taken down? So we take God’s challenge. We exert all our strength. We pour out sweat and blood and suddenly it dawns on us: As we’re sweating and struggling and intensely fighting Him—He’s just playing with us.

His eyes begin dancing once again. He starts laughing, rejoicing, delighting in our health and strength. Wonder grows in our heart, spills out from our lips. “Jesus…Jesus…You’re that strong?”

“Yes, Child. Yes, I’m that strong. And now—I will defeat your enemy for you. Do you want Me to?”

Our whole heart expands. We breathe the air of sudden, amazing freedom. “Yes, Daddy! Yes! I know how strong You are now. I know that if I try on my own again, that thug will call all his cronies and they’ll gang up on me and blindside me. But they can’t do that to You. That thug will go down in an instant when You take him on. Yes, Daddy, be my Defender, my Bodyguard, my Lifesaver, and my Friend!”

And God does what He’s always promised to do: He takes down the villain, the bad guy, the tormenting bully in our story. And we realize in that moment, with the thug thrashing in death throes on the floor, that we need never be afraid again.

Hallelujah! Our God is that strong!!!

“The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1

Stewarding King's Gold

For this is the will of God, your sanctification… I Thessalonians 4:3

No matter where we are in our lives—young, old, married, divorced, widowed, single—there is one area that all of us must steward with care. The area of sexual/romantic passion.

For some of us this resource, a gift from God, exists in its potential, hidden underground like untouched reservoirs of petrol. Others of us who have participated in an intimate relationship have discovered the gushing, almost overwhelming power of sexual desire, like the force of a petrol spring. Like an unexpected strike while we are cultivating friendships, suddenly the oil gushes out with abandon, heedless of everything and everyone around.  For others among us, the oil has ceased to surge out with relentless force, yet the reserve still exists, deep under the surface.

For generations, men and women have built oil rigs—the institution called marriage—over these forceful springs. They recognized that the thick, murky substance, called black gold, was a bountiful resource upon their land, and they respected the truth that both petrol and sexual/romantic passion must be handled with care in order to benefit the owners. If handled carelessly, God's gift of passion, King's gold, creates great harm rather than great good, acting just like crude oil, coating land, animals, and people with its toxic, gooey texture, ruining the crops growing in the area, and forming a mirey bog.

Instead of respecting the reasons behind tradition, recent generations have been exhorted to exude a laissez-faire attitude toward sex and romance. They’ve been told by the leading gurus in human wisdom, “Go ahead! Frolic in it! Have fun! It’s natural—enjoy it!” Then they’re even handed matches to light a fire and dance in the flames. After all, passionate love is explosive. It’s amazing. It’s the black gold everybody says will make us rich and famous and above all—make us feel loved. It’s also black and ugly and deadly for those coated in the oil when the fire ignites.

Just like petrol, sexual passion requires special equipment to reap the benefits we all know it has. The Bible says clearly that the special equipment needed is marriage. Worldly gurus wave aside the significance of a legal ceremony, blithely declaring that a wedding certificate doesn’t make a difference. But God says with incredible clarity that marriage matters. When we enter into a marriage covenant, we bring God into the union—along with His oil rigging.

The oil rigging plunges into the oil well and brings up the natural resource for the benefit of all. The owners of that field can then use the oil to fuel their ovens, their cars, their lamps, and their homes. Petrol converts into many forms for many uses, all of which produce dividends for the couple who submit to God’s covering of marriage. The oil rigging also enables the couple to drill deeper and bring up the petrol sitting in reserve even when the first rushes of passion have subsided.

God’s oil rigging makes sure the passion doesn’t destroy the good seed He’s placed in our souls, the strong character He’s developing within us. However, those who refuse to enter into a marriage agreement are like farmers who refusesto invest in drilling equipment. They let the oil keep pumping out until the whole land is coated with black tar, unfit for man or beast to walk on. In the same way, sexual activity outside of marriage dumps toxic petrol all over the insides of our hearts, clogging our receptivity of Living Water.  When oil covers a land, water just runs right off. It can’t penetrate the earth or enable plants to grow.

Some of you may be like me, knowing that the force of a petrol spring exists and wondering how to contain it since the oil rigging is not in place. In these cases, the Lord has said to me, “The powerful force of this desire must be covered by a huge, heavy stone so that the oil does not contaminate the land.” I cried out to Him, “What stone is strong enough to withstand the force of desire when it hits?”

The Lord said, “I am the Rock. I am the One who covers you.”

Ah, Lord, how amazing and wonderful You are! Jesus is the Rock who covers our desires, reserving us for the union that will bring honor to Him. Until that day, He requires obedience and faithful trust. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God…For God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (I Thessalonians 4:3-8).

Jesus doesn’t ask what can’t be done. He wouldn’t say to abstain and wait for marriage if we were unable to obey.

Nor can He protect our land if we keep edging the Rock off in order to please ourselves. The oil will seep up and contaminate our hearts, building into a toxic wasteland within our souls if we do not take a firm stand against all sexual activity while single. Once married, only sex for the sake of the marriage partner will please the Lord. Removing the Rock to gaze at pornography, masturbate, contemplate love-making scenes within the mind or on TV, or any other activity that pleases the flesh rather than the Lord, will all pump that black oil into the deepest crevices of our souls.

And eventually toxic exposure will destroy us. (Romans 6:15-23)

Praise God, though, that when we come to the point of repentance, the place where we’re sick of all the pretenses and self-gratifications, Jesus is there to wash us clean. Ephesians 5:26 says Jesus cleanses and sanctifies us by the washing of water by the word. What word? The word of truth. The word of righteousness.

Father, Spirit, and Son will never contradict the Scriptures that testify of them.  No one can say that God has authorized their unmarried or extra-marital sexual activity. If they seek to claim a special privilege, they have deceived themselves. Nor can we claim that since God is so forgiving, we’re allowed to wallow in the mire of unrestrained sexual passion anytime we want to then be washed clean. The toxicity of the land will testify to the Law of God: “What a man sows, that he will also reap. He who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. He who sows to the Spirit, will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Galatians 6:8)

That life is for today. Now. Abundant life.

Praise God for redemption! Praise God for repentance! Praise God for second and third and fourth chances! But let us also choose—choose—to walk in joyful obedience, knowing the great price He paid for our cleansing.

Lord Jesus, today cleanse us, wash us, sanctify us, and place the strong Rock of Your very Person—our relationship with You—over the desire for intimacy that exists within us. We choose this day to submit to You.

Make us a people ready and useful for the outpouring of Your splendor!

(For further Spirit-filled studies and counseling on the stewardship of Biblical sexuality, visit http://www.masteringlife.org.)

Beautiful Person

To everyone on my journey—

You’re not just a face that I see.

You are more than a stranger to me.

You’re a person.

A person with wounds and needs,

A person with longings and pleas.

Just like me.

You’re a hopeful new friend—

Never a means to an end.

You’re a beautiful person.

How long between visits?

How long between chats?

A day? A month? Or a year?

No matter what, no matter where

Our paths may go from here,

Whether parallel or perpendicular—

You are worth this present moment.

Finding Prayer

Sunshine warm upon my face—this is prayer.

Raindrops lighting on my skin—this is prayer.

Breezes blowing on my frame—this is prayer.

Every day an act of worship—this is prayer.

Loving You and loving others—this is prayer.

Kneeling, standing, bending, walking—these are prayer.

Hugging, holding, touching, talking—these are prayer.

Happy moments, spacious breathing—all around is prayer.
Joyful thoughts and desperate pleas—in this moment, prayer.

Retching, crying, bleeding, fighting—even these are prayer.

Watching, waiting, sighing, staying—all I do is prayer.

...pray without ceasing... I Thessalonians 5:17

Every Fire Needs Grace

In the natural, every fire must have two ingredients to keep burning: fuel and oxygen.

Firefighters pre-burn an area of land with smaller fires they can control so that when the raging wildfire arrives at that strip of land, it finds no more fuel. With no more trees or brush to consume, the fire turns back on itself and dies. In his book Welcoming a Visitation of the Holy Spirit, Wes Campbell, pastor of New Life Vineyard Fellowship in Kelowna, British Columbia, shares, “In the same way, the fire of the Spirit must be touching new people every day in order to keep blazing.” I would add that the fire within our souls must stay in continual connection with God to stay alive.

Isaiah 9:18-19 makes this same correlation, although in a negative sense. Remember, what is true spiritually applies both in the positive and negative. The prophet writes, “For wickedness burns as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and kindle in the thickets of the forest. They shall mount up like rising smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire. No man shall spare his brother.” The emphasis of the passage is not on physical fire devouring natural trees but about how spiritual wickedness devours people.

Spiritual passion operates by the same principle. Love for the Lord ignites in our hearts when we offer our lives as fuel for the Lord’s flame, the flame of Yah. This fire then leaps forward, blown by the wind of the Spirit, to the next willing heart—the next person hungry for God’s love and personal Presence.

Jordan Fowler conveys this principle with beautiful and powerful imagery in the song Fuel:

“I have no silver and no gold to give.

No frankincense or precious myrrh.

But what I have to You I give: a heart that’s broken for the world.

Consume me for Your fire and use me for Your heart’s desire:

To spread Your flame to every tribe and nation.

I give up my life to You to burn as Your holy fuel.

Ignite my heart to burn up for the nations.

My life can be Your fuel—my hopes, my dreams, my wants, my all.

My life can be Your fuel.” 

Second, fire must have oxygen. We can have all the wood in the world, but if the atmosphere is sucked dry of oxygen, every fire will instantly extinguish. That’s why small fires can be suffocated with a heavy blanket or stomped out by a tough boot. The same truth applies to us as people. In the realm of spiritual analogy, oxygen represents grace. Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “There is nothing but God’s grace. We walk upon it; we breathe it; we live and die by it; it makes the nails and axles of the universe.” Ole Hallesby said, “The ‘air’ which our souls need also envelops all of us at all times and on all sides. God is round about us…on every hand, with many-sided and all-sufficient grace.”

Without grace, we perish. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:8). Without grace, our passion for God suffocates. “Our sufficiency is from God…not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (II Corinthians 3:5-6). The fastest way to kill passion for Jesus is with legalism. Will we still love Him? Yes, but our strength to serve Him will be gone. Why? Because “The joy of the Lord is our strength” (Nehemiah 8:10) and “Desire gave you renewed strength” (Isaiah 57:10 NLT). This spiritual principle also applies in a positive and negative. We can be passionate for things that are not of God, pursuing them, such as Isaiah talks about, because desire spurs us on. Or we can crucify sinful passions and cultivate passion for Jesus. This passion becomes our strength to keep running after Him and keep pouring ourselves out to others. Proverbs 11:29 says, “The way of the Lord is strength for the upright.” Why? Because He is our delight and greatest pleasure (Psalm 16:11).

However, legalism kills desire. When we “ought” to do something and are critically judged by others around us, or even by ourselves, when we fail to get it right, our mistakes become a towering wall of perfectionism—an impassable barrier between us and the joy of the Lord. The Apostle Paul writes with rejoicing, “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” Why is he rejoicing so greatly? Because Christ paid the cost of all our mistakes! Every sin and failure and misunderstanding was laid upon His shoulders at Calvary. He hung upon that tree to make sure we’re never trapped behind the Wall of Perfectionism again!

Does His incredible grace mean we can sin and not be called to account? No, but grace means that when we realize how badly we’ve blown it and that we’re on the wrong side of the wall again, we can leap over it, back into the place of right fellowship with the Lord (Psalm 18:29, I John 1:9). The Holy Spirit declares to us with beautiful invitation, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). The Spirit calls out again to us through the prophet Isaiah, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price…. Let your soul delight itself in abundance! Incline your ear and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live!” (55:1-3)

We come to God through grace. There is no other way. Anyone who tries to live by the law must keep every part, but there has never been a man or woman who can (Galatians 6:13). Nor can the law make anyone perfect, even after salvation through faith (Galatians 3:3). Grace alone is God’s tool to form His Son in us. Grace is the oxygen of the soul.

When grace abounds in a life, a church, and a community, then the fire of the Spirit will blaze free and strong. Our hearts will be ignited with a holy thirst to partake freely of the waters of life (Revelation 22:17).

Then we will be the Bride who calls along with the Spirit in her, “Come! Everyone who thirsts, come to the River of Life!!!”

The Holy Spirit's Oil

In the previous post, I mentioned that I was unsure of what the black oil in my vision represented. After all, petroleum isn't in Scripture. However, lamp oil is found throughout the Old and New Testaments, and I sense that for the Lord's purposes, they are the same.

In the natural world, oil is turned into kerosene and gasoline for fuel for both private and corporate use. If this black oil is the same as lamp oil referred to many times in Scripture, then the Word says, “There is desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it” (Proverbs 21:20). Each of us has oil, but not every one is saved nor do all use it wisely.

So what is oil? I believe oil represents passion. It can be passion for Christ or the squandered passion of recent generations. Desire needs to fuel our walk with the Lord, or we soon burn out and begin to stray in our hearts, no longer passionate for the things of God. Zechariah 4:1-14 talks about two oil trees which supply continual oil to the lampstand in the temple. We are the temple of God (I Corinthians 3:19), and throughout the Old Testament oil represents the anointing and presence of the Holy Spirit (I Samuel 16:12-13, Isaiah 61:1).

Jesus also speaks of the wise having oil in their vessels and lamps while the foolish took no oil with them. Those who did not bring an extra supply of oil  went to buy more, but when they returned, they were not allowed into the bridegroom’s chambers (Matthew 25:3-13). We know that those who are not born again do not receive the Holy Spirit, and therefore do not have eternal life in them (Romans 8:9-11). They pursue fleshly passions, which do not qualify them to enter the kingdom of heaven, but are in fact in opposition to it (Galatians 5:24, Ephesians 4:22).

The Holy Spirit longs to fuel our passion for the Lord just like the sun is fueled by an interior energy source. Daniel 12:3 says the righteous will shine forth like the stars. I deeply believe that this word applies today. Jesus said we are the light of the world, because He is in us and He is Light (Matthew 5:14-16, John 1:4,9, 12:46). Natural light always comes from either fire made from natural resources such as oil or wood or from nuclear energy, such as the fire of the sun and stars.

Today the Holy Spirit yearns to burn within us, fusing our natural desire to His so that we will radiate so much heat that we become nuclear power plants of holy fire!

Let's seek His passion so we can live our lives on fire for Him!!!

God's Heart for His Church

Dear Friends,

How amazing to be writing to you in the area of prophecy. Many of you have known me for years and have walked with me through hardship and adversity. I hold no ministry position, no prophetic office, yet the Lord speaks to me, at times in visions and analogies, which need much help with discernment to understand; at other times in words that He speaks plainly, to my heart and face to face (Exodus 12:6-8, John 15:14-15).

For those of you who are uncertain about the validity of claiming to hear a prophetic word from the Lord, I share quickly Amos 7:14-15: “I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.”

Concerning myself, the Lord says, “You are not prophet, you are bride.” This reflects the promise spoken in Acts 3:16-18: “It shall come to pass in the last days says God that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy.” A bride listens to her husband’s voice and responds wholeheartedly to His smallest whisper, even as sheep listen to their Shepherd (John 10: 3-5). How wonderful to know that everyone of us who believes in Jesus, our risen Savior, is also His Bride (Isaiah 54:5, John 3:29, Revelation 19: 7-8)!

I’m writing to all of you now because of several words I’ve received that are much bigger than me. As I’ve trembled and sought the Lord concerning them, He has said this to me: “When a farmer hits oil in his field, what does he do? He calls for the big oil rigs to come, otherwise the oil sprays over the field and hurts both animals and grain. Without the skills and expertise of the oil riggers, the oil cannot be contained, refined, or distributed to those who need it. When will the big oil rigs come? When they are summoned by those who have struck oil.”

I do not know what this black oil is in the Spirit, only that in the natural world oil is turned into kerosene and gasoline for fuel for both private and corporate use. So I am sharing these words and visions with all of you because I sense strongly in my spirit that the Lord is giving them for His Church on a worldwide scale. When I pray, “Lord, heal our land!” immediately the Holy Spirit says, “The land of the Church is the world.” Please join me in prayer concerning these visions as dear friends in the faith whom I greatly respect and love. I am so excited about all the Lord is doing in us and through us--our individual lives, our fellowships, and the world.

January 6, 2012

The first vision is this: I am standing at the edge of a great forest. Fire has consumed the sacrifice upon the altar near me, and I take a burning ember from the ground. I stare at the forest, and the Lord says, “When an ember is not sufficient to draw attention, it is time to start a fire. Let it blaze and consume the forest, these great oaks planted for My righteousness. Let the fire blaze out from the edges into the deepest parts, leaving no tree untouched, fanned into engulfing, wild flames by the wind of My Spirit. Let the fire declare My great glory, My jealousy for My people, My burning passion for them. For I am a consuming fire, and My glory I will not give to another.”

The next word is similar to one He gave me over a year ago, but I didn’t have the strength then to speak. Now I’m sharing so that we might lift up our churches and fellowships together. The Lord said to me: “My Church is selling bottled water. They have bottled it up from the springs I opened for them years ago, but now the water is going stagnant and in some places has even become contaminated and polluted. Oh, My Church, open up your veins again and let My fire run through you! I tell you, now, in this day, I am going to do a new thing. Where there has not been clear, fresh water, the people have begun to slip back into atrophy. But I am stirring up My passion and My zeal as before. I am coming into your midst, and I am burning up for you like a mighty man. Behold and watch the new thing I will do—I will burst forth fountains of water in the backyards of ordinary men and women. I will shoot forth My water out of the ground in the individual prayer closet and small group gatherings so that My Church will again become alive. Yet I have not forgotten My oaks, planted for My righteousness. Yes, I would spare you too, so repent and cry out for the latter and former rains once again. Then My fire will burn but not destroy the great forest of many generations, which has declared My glory. My Spirit will burn as He did in the burning bush, and the trees will blaze with holy fire yet not be consumed. And then My Spirit will be well-pleased. Yes, I Myself will rejoice exceedingly and be greatly glorified. This is My word for My people. Oh, My people, hear Me!”

I also saw a wall—a great wall, the wall of Berlin, which came down many years ago. I said, “Lord, this wall is torn down.” Then He showed me that towering walls still exist in the hearts of His people, one group against another. He pointed at the wall, commanding in strong warning, “Tear down the wall. Tear it down with your bare hands in the power of My might. Do I not have the right to give to one group the faith to suffer and to another group the faith to stand in healing? These walls are not of Me, nor the accusations, fears, shame, and jealousies that exist in the people whose hands built the walls. Repent and reach out to those who are weaker than you. You who have great faith, would you condemn your brother who has only a small measure? Have I not given to him the faith to stand as well as you? Why do you boast about what you have not earned? Are you not all equal in My sight? Is not My blood alone the way of access into My presence? Who are you to set up boundaries and laws and decrees that are not of Me? Offices of prophet, apostle, teacher, and shepherd are all very well, but today I say this: I will come into your midst as a consuming fire if you do not repent. I am coming into the homes and fellowships of My Church as Her Husband, and she will be My Bride. There will no longer be any distinction between one who is appointed into spiritual office and one who labors alongside children or who kneels to repair kitchen sinks. I am Almighty God, and I am zealous for My Bride. I am zealous for her with great zeal, and it is My fierce intent that she become One once again.”

Even as I go to send this email, the Lord is opening before me a word that sends me to the floor, weeping. I share it now from the very depths of my heart, and I believe from the Lord’s, though of all the words, it is the most disturbing. Please seek the Lord concerning its meaning in your personal life since it utilizes incredibly sensitive and personal imagery.

January 7, 2012

“Oh, Church! Oh, Church! You’re My Bride, but you won’t even take off your wedding garments for Me. Where was the passion you once had to sit and wait for Me to come to you? Where has the passion gone that you once had as a young bride who yearned and ached for the Lover of her soul? I tell you—I want you--body and soul. And don’t just flash your wedding ring at Me. It’s glorious, I know. I gave you the very best. In My passionate love for you, I went all out and splurged lavishly on you, My bride. But now tell me, you who desire My presence, why do you cover up when I come near? Why are you hiding in shame in the closets of the homes I built for you? Don’t you know that the bathroom is necessary and good? But you refuse to enter it, to go into the inner prayer closet and empty yourself out completely of both good and bad. You say, “I’ll hold it; I’ll wait. That will make a mess.” Oh, My Bride, how I long for you to come to Me as in days of old! How I long for you to let me wash you and purge you with the water and wine of My love instead of tightening your sash around your waist. Dearly Beloved, should not a man see his wife? Should not a lover see his mate? But you have hidden yourself from Me in the folds of your righteous acts and well-meaning intentions. Enough! I’m overturning the temple tables once again—the long banquet tables you have set up in your souls and your churches between you and Me. I kneel beside you, but you don’t even slip off your chair to cradle My face in your hands as you did in days gone by. I yearn for you, but I must cut up your food into tiny pieces for you to digest. Ask, therefore, for the apples and raisins of our first love that the wounds within your stomach might heal. Ask for love and I will give it—the sweet, honeyed wine of My presence. See how I long for you!

“And so I am doing a new thing, a thing to astonish and horrify the proud and self-righteous, the ones who have not dealt with their hidden sins and outrageous lies. I am stripping Myself down and walking among you naked. Yes, I am coming among you utterly naked with not even a loin cloth on, and I will fight for you as a berserker in the days of old, clad only in the zeal of the Lord of hosts. Do you doubt this? Look in My Word and see. See for yourselves the Mighty Man I have vowed to be when My Church wanders in her heart from Me. Have you prayed for revivals? Good! I am glad that you call out to Me to come again with a downpour of My Spirit. So know this—I will surely come, but not until you have thrown off your linen garments for Me. Yes, even your good reputations and righteous deeds which I have given to you. I want it all—I want you! Make an altar—pile up the stones, pour water over the wood. Call out to Me as Elijah did. Call out to Me before all the world and tell them—The God who answers by fire is God! Would you discard your reputations for Me? Surely I discarded Mine for you when I hung upon the Cross at Calvary. Will you cease selling bottled waters from My wells? For surely, I see what you do and it greatly displeases Me when you charge your neighbor to drink from My fountain. Do you know what I speak of? You charge them a visit to the bathhouse, a change of garments, and a scented bottle of ointment to come see Me. Oh, My Church! NO, NO, NO!!! I want the poor, the unclean, the naked, the abused. I want the dirty, the ragged, the boisterous, the maimed, the ugly! Don’t charge them to enter My dwelling place! Fling open the doors and let them come! I am telling you now, if you do these things, then, then heaven itself will not be able to contain Me. I will burst open the floodgates of heaven upon your families, your little ones, your fellowship gatherings, and your fields. I will pour out such blessing that there will not be room to contain it! Test Me now in this and see, see if I will not do all that I have said. Lest when you walk in your proud finery, your wedding robes that you donned for Me, your enemies come and strip you naked and mock you before the eyes of all. But you were made for Me, Beloved. Your nakedness is for My eyes alone. Only come to Me. Let the pretenses fall, the good works and reputations you depend so heavily upon. Cry out to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you did not know. Cry out to Me and I will water the vineyards with My presence and gush forth in every valley My overflowing springs. For I am the Lord!!!

“And now I say to you who have courage, to you who desire to take heart: Strip away the soiled garments clinging to you that they might be washed in pure water and I will give to you the robe of many colors—the beautiful radiant colors of the soul when you are purified and healed and made whole. For this is the garment I want: the beautiful gown of light that exudes from a soul in which I dwell without restraint. Then you will walk before Me naked and not be ashamed. Then you will go out before others to fight with Me and will be invincible in the mightiness of My Spirit. Not armor or weapons of flesh but the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Do you not know what David did when he was offered the armor of another? He would not put it on.‘How can I fight like this?’ he asked. And so he went to face the giant with only his staff, his sling and stones from a brook, but I was with him. I was valiant within his soul, and he stirred up his passion for Me like a lion. So do not be afraid, you who yearn for My heart. Walk in boldness before Me, depending upon Me and Me alone to be your refuge and salvation. Will I not open the windows of heaven and rain down upon your land? Better than that, I will most surely walk among you, and I shall be your God and you shall be My people.”

Scriptural basis: Genesis 2:25, I Samuel 17:38-47, I Kings 18:21-45, Psalm 45:10-15, 68:7-11, Proverbs 28:1, Song of Solomon 2:4-5, 7:9-13, Isaiah 42:12-13, 59:6, 15-17, 64:1-6, Jeremiah 33:3, Ezekiel 14:4-7, 16:8-14, Daniel 12:3, Hosea 2:9-15, Zechariah 3:3-4, 10:5, Zephaniah 3:14-15, Micah 1:8-12, Matthew 5:40, Luke 14:13, 21-23, John 2:14-17, 3:29, Romans 13:11-14, I Corinthians 6:13-20, Philippians 2:5-11, Hebrews 4:13-16, 5:12-14, Revelation 3:17-22

How I love you all! May all these words stir up within us passion for the Lord to have His way in our lives, our hearts, and our churches, and may we see revival come!!!

All my love and prayers, Ayrian

Scriptures that accompany the January 6 words:

The Lord's jealousy and consuming fire: Luke 12:49, Isaiah 64:1-2, Amos 7:4, Zeph 1:18, Isaiah 10:16-19, I Kings 18:21-46, Song of Songs 8:6, Hebrews 12:28-29

Mighty Man and Roaring Lion: Isaiah 42:13, Hosea 11:10-11, Jeremiah 25:30, Zechariah 10:7-8

Wall of Division: Ephesians 2:14-18, I Corinthians 1:10-13, 3:3-11, Romans 12:3-8, 14:3-23, Hebrews 11:30-12:2

Selling Bottled Water: Jeremiah 2:13, John 2:13-17

New Fountains of Water: John 7:37-39, Acts 2:17-18, Isaiah 43:18-21, 44:3-4

Rain: Acts 3:19-20, Hosea 5:14-6:3, Psalm 68:7-11, II Chr 6:26-27, 7:12-14

Bride/Unity: John 17:20-24, I Cor 12:12-13, Ephesians 4:3-7, Revelation 3:19-22, 19:7-8, Hosea 2:16-23