Lighthouse

“We are born to burn.” ~Bill Johnson, Hosting the Presence

There is one house that is built to burn. It is the lighthouse. It’s whole design is for that one function: to burn with intensity, fierceness, and purpose.

It’s commonplace to look at a lighthouse and think: yes, a fire burns inside it. But what a fire! It’s a fire that burns day and night, in the blistering heat of summer as well as the deadly blizzards of winter. This fire blazes so high and so fierce that small pieces of kindling from the forest just won’t cut it. No, this fire requires massive logs, severed by the sharpest axe and carried by the strongest lumberjack up grueling flights of stairs to the highest level of the lighthouse.

A lighthouse is also a glass house: a house that everyone else can see through. It’s windows around that fire are transparent and clear. They have to be because the light is meant to pierce storms and ink-black darkness. This light is so strong and fierce that going near it could mean death, but to those at sea, it is life-preserving and even life-saving. It’s a light that illuminates the way.

A lighthouse without a fire blazing is an ornament of the past. A lighthouse with pulsating flames serves with relentless determination its greatest purpose. The lighthouse keeper lives within this house, may even have a family in its abode. But if the fire goes out, the lighthouse keeper no longer operates in his true identity and calling.

Jesus called us to be consumed with Him. He is the fire that burns within us. His presence is warm and comforting, but He desires us to remember that He is meant to be more than a fire that flickers in an interior hearth. He designed our lives to be demonstrations of His love and fierce desire. He gives us His Holy Spirit to live within us as the Master LightKeeper, to empower us in our identity and teach us the skills necessary for the trade. Even our successes—those great oaks that are monuments of our most diligent efforts in God’s field—must submit to the Holy Spirit's greatest purpose: keeping the fire of abandonment ablaze in our hearts.

The One Thing

"Rejoice! Rejoice!
Everywhere you see the fires.
Don't ask: Why not me?
Don't look at yourself.
Don't fix your gaze on anyone but Me.
I'm the One who does it.
And I choose--I choose what anointing to pour through each of My vessels: My Beloved children.
Striving. Fighting. Envying each others' gifts. Stop it!
I can't spread My fire when you're constantly looking and comparing.
Look at Me!
I'm the One you need.
I'm the One you've got to fix your gaze on!
Daughter, get this!
Church, get this!
What do you have that I haven't given?
And if it's Mine, why do you judge and compare as if it's yours?
I want My Church pure, blameless, spotless.
You are Mine!
There should be nothing more important than this one thing."


One thing only have I desired, oh Lord, to abide in Your house forever, to gaze upon Your beauty, to be captured by the love in Your eyes, to be enraptured by the glory upon Your face. (Psalm 27:4, my paraphrase)

Breakout!!!

Wow. Saturday night's church service was  SO powerful. The Presence of God was so thick, all I could do was keep trying to soak in every drop.

It made me think of double-the-atmospheric pressure. Science has researched how creation would have to have been to keep dinosaurs alive because they are these mammoth creatures with nostrils no bigger than a horse’s. The larger the creature, the more oxygen it needs to live, but today’s level of oxygen wouldn’t be sufficient for muscular health. It would be like breathing through a straw for them. However, the giant plants, bugs, and animals that have been found fossilized show that the atmosphere back then would have had double the amount of oxygen in it.

That’s what I felt like at Faith Center this weekend: like I’ve been breathing in Jesus at home, soaking in Him, and then bam—when I enter church, I get hit twice as hard. Wow! There is something to the whole thing of gathering in one accord, with every heart and gaze focused on adoring Him.

Interesting too, because when people are placed in a hyperbaric chamber with double the atmospheric pressure, guess what happens? Healing!!! Intense, saturated oxygen enables the physical body to rapidly replace damaged cells. A little girl had fallen down a pipeline years ago and by the time they rescued her, one leg had turned completely black from the lack of blood flow. Instead of cutting off the limb, they placed her in a hyperbaric chamber. They saw pink flesh return and soon her entire limb was functioning in full strength again. Isn’t it amazing?

I think God’s doing the same thing with His Church. He’s upping the level of grace-filled atmosphere, flooding it with His Presence, like Bill Johnson at Bethel Church has said, bringing more and more into the House. And He’s going to keep bringing more, filling the place with His glory, flooding our lives with His peace, saturating our hearts with His presence so we can’t help but “leak all over the place” (Kevin Dedmon, founder of FireStarters) and people who just walk into Church will be smitten with His love and healing power.

Last night, the Lord kept soaking me at home as I meditated on what we’d prayed over at Corporate Prayer, and I saw fires breaking out all over. Not literal ones but symbolic of the Holy Spirit in people who are saturated with Him, and then all the sudden in the midst of our everyday stuff—bam! God is going to strike us with supernatural anointing. He’s already doing it! He’s breaking out in our midst.

I heard Him say in my spirit, “A wave of My Spirit is going to hit My church and it will be like the breaking of a dam or like the leaping out of flames from a wildfire that can’t be contained. In that moment, the last shall be first, the first last. Those who joined late will see the same effects of My Spirit as those who have been toiling and learning. Don’t let jealousy, resentment, grumbling, or complaining overtake those who have worked long and seen little. Now everyone will see together the results of the fire of My Spirit on a people dedicated to worshipping and adoring Me. Don’t dam it up or try to contain it. Young and old, men and women, learned and unlearned will all be hit by My Spirit together—an outpouring of My passion and goodness that will sweep across America, breaking asunder the religious spirit that has plagued this nation for generations.”

I can’t even imagine what this is going to look like! But I’m all in!!!

DNA Calling!!!

I think I grew up in a culture of the Church that said, “You’re not…” much more than “You are…” Perhaps that’s why I’ve struggled with insecurity about my identity in Christ’s body for so much of my life. You see, I know who I am to Jesus, but who am I to people in His Church? Whenever I step into a new church group, I usually put out feelers to see what peghole they put me in and conform to it.

But I’m tired of surviving, tired of fearing what people think, tired of cringing every time I try stepping out of the little box the enemy puts me in. I’m going to let other people off the hook and admit it’s me—it’s me listening to the lies of the enemy. He’s the one whispering the accusations and shaming me into keeping to ‘my place’. Seriously?

Our place is in Christ! Seated in the heavenlies at Daddy’s right hand! Our place is in the center of His heart and saturated with the love of His Spirit! So what about those times when Godly correction is needed? During last week’s prophetic worship conference at Faith Center, Graham Cooke said it wonderfully: “Accountability isn’t calling people out on their stuff but calling them up into their true identity.”

So let’s apply this to calling. What if God’s callings on our lives aren’t positions to be attained to but Spirit-infused DNA—the same spiritual DNA that transformed us into new creations the moment of our rebirth? What if spiritual growth isn’t advancing through categories (like church worker, deacon, teacher, pastor, prophet, apostle) but maturing in our ability to express the calling God infused into our spiritual genes from the get-go: the Bride of Christ?

I think that if we, the Church, can see each other as ALREADY who we are meant to be and simply growing in our ability to operate in our Spirit-fused callings and giftings, we won’t be so hard on each other. In fact, I think we’ll say, “Yes, you are…. Let me help you” rather than saying, “Who do you think you are? You can’t do that. You haven’t earned the right to do such and such.”

Granted, increased responsibility comes with increased maturity. We aren’t going to put a baby or child in charge of a church. But a child will seek to act like his Father. A little girl will do her very best to copy Daddy. So let’s show incredible kindness and joy as we see each other stepping out in faith and desire, doing what Daddy has put in our hearts to do. After all, the Holy Spirit is within each of us, and He absolutely delights to do what the Father is doing and help us grow in the calling we were created to walk in.

So maybe a baby lion can’t protect the pride. He’s sure going to practice his roar…and one day, he’ll be big enough to do what he was born to do!

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we ALL come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children…” Ephesians 4:11-14

No Holding Back

Tonight while we worshiped during service at Faith Center, I saw a picture: a great dam, a strong dam, like the dam at Niagara Falls with a great big, beautiful, peaceful lake behind it. I felt in that picturesque moment, the power of the Spirit suddenly burst upon the lake.

As the power was released, I saw people in the water and the water felt like the souls of the people filled with such radical, absolute passion that they could no longer stand being held back. The people and the water rushed at the dam and broke through it, pulsating over the rubble fast and strong.

I felt in that moment that my heart wanted to burst. Yes, Lord! Let there be such intense breakthrough that nothing can hold the church back.

Then I felt, but I’m not sure, that the Lord said, “The dam is holding My church. It is built to create the lake, a quiet, peaceful place to learn and grow. But get ready! Get ready! The power of My Spirit is about to be released in a new way, a way unparalleled in history.

"It will seem as if the whole dam is breaking—the whole structure upon which you, My dearly beloved, lean. Upon which, you My dearly beloved Church, lean. Because I cannot be held back by anything man-made. I must have a glorious Bride—a Bride created for excellence, released by the Spirit to expect more than mind can see or heart can imagine.

"I’m coming again. I’m coming for a Bride washed, redeemed, and sanctified, wholly one in heart with Me. So I’m doing a new thing. I’m doing a radical thing. I’m taking the old and breaking it apart to allow an even greater impartation of grace by My Spirit.

"See, I’m doing this thing, here, now. And I’m letting you know so you can get ready! I want you ready so there’s no hindrance, no obstruction to grace. Don't fear, Beloved. Perfect love casts out fear and My love is perfect for you, My beautiful Bride, My beautiful Church.

"I say, 'Get ready!' Rush smooth and strong in perfect sync with the new wine I’m bringing, the passionate grace I’m imparting, not just to one or two but a dispensation of anointing upon everyone from the youngest to the oldest, from the wisest to the simplest so that everyone may see and know that I am the Lord your God.”

In the Trenches

Early on this week as I worshipped and prayed in my living room, God showed me a picture in the spirit realm. I saw a strong, powerfully fit man, the Holy Spirit, digging a trench in a dry, barren land. It was back-breaking work, toiling in the hot sun. The land desperately needed water.

I begged God, “Send rain. We’re waiting. We’re oh, so thirsty. Send rain.” The Lord said, “I have sent rain—time after time.” I said, “Oh, God, we need more…so much more.” As I cried out, I saw a prophet to the nations. I begged for him to come because I knew he carried God's anointing and would bring a deluge—a huge, torrential deluge that Papa God had reserved to be poured out upon this place.

I gasped in air as I saw the so-badly needed water about to be released, and in that moment I understood how it would just rush off, because it would move too fast, passing over the land before the hard ground could drink it up or stop it. I cried, “Oh, Daddy, the trench isn’t deep enough. It will have to be so much deeper to hold that much water.” Because a very, very deep trench could take in the water, hold it, store it, save it so it could irrigate the land as it soaked into the rocky soil.

The Holy Spirit leaned on His shovel, gazing just over the top of that trench He had dug by refusing to give into the heat, refusing to stop in His grueling, monotonous effort. He smiled, and Father said, “It’s deep enough. Let it rain.”

Let It Go...

"Let it go. Let it go. Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go. Let it go. Turn away and slam the door. I don't care what they're going to say. Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway."


This chorus from "Let It Go", the award-winning song in Frozen, strikes a chord deep inside of me. Elsa's ordeal is so well-portrayed that we ache with her, and the ache resurrects a longing deep inside for us to truly be free.


Let it go...


Jesus promised we would be free in Him. Free from everything Elsa longed to escape: fear, pain, other people's condemnation, the name 'monster'. Don't you ache to be free of the cruel names people have called you? Free from the fear that they're true? Free from the pain of hurting others. From the fear that we'll hurt and be hurt again.


Let it go...


The Apostle Paul said in II Corinthians 3:17, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." He tells us that liberty is meant to be used not for vice but for love. The movie Frozen carries this theme through to the end: the antidote to fear is love (I John 4:18). The power not to hurt others is found in the ability to bless. Can we bless even when others have imprisoned us, shamed us, judged us, been vindictive toward us? Ana's sacrifice brought Elsa freedom, and so does Jesus' sacrifice for us. His love conquered death. He showed us the better way. And He did it through the shedding of His own innocent blood on our behalf.


Let it go...


Do we hold onto what we want others to think of us? Or do we accept what Jesus already says about us? We're chosen, forgiven, beloved, set free. Let it go...


Let's not be one with wind and snow but with the Prince of Peace, King Jesus. Let's give Him our hearts and surrender all our life to Him. He won't disappoint us or fail us. He embraces us just as we are...just as He made us to be. He covers our failures and washes away our stains. Don't you know? He's made us for more than this world can offer...He made us for Himself.


Beloved, let it go.... Let it go... Let's believe Him and stand in Him today. Nothing can steal His love away. The Psalmist shouted in triumph that Jesus is the refuge, the hiding place, the secret place, where the storms can't touch. Elsa thought isolation was her haven of peace, but she discovered that she couldn't live separate from her people. Neither can we. Beloved, Jesus is our Cleft of Safety today.