When
the word of the Lord comes to a church it can be the greatest blessing or
greatest danger because just like this city that was under captivity and famine;
the word always brings two choices…to believe or not to believe…to act or not
to act.
The prophetic promise that came to bring a breakthrough can be
stopped through unbelief. What if they would have hesitated, procrastinated in
believing? Unbelief is disobedience to the Word of the Lord to your life. Be bold and step over into your time of fulfillment!
Miracles
are always released by acting upon faith. Jesus said,
“Come” and Peter got out of the boat. Jesus said, stretch out your hand and
the withered hand was healed. Go wash in the pool of Siloam and the man
did and he could see. Pick up your mat and the man got up. The point is there has
to be a corresponding action to the word of the Lord in faith for a miracle. So the city had a choice to believe the word of the Lord or
continue in famine and accept their captivity.
My friends there is a gate that everyone stands at daily and we
are the gatekeepers. Let's look at the gate.
Psalm
141:3 Set
a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door
of my lips.
Proverbs 21:22-23 A wise man scales
the city of the mighty,
And brings down the trusted stronghold.
23 Whoever
guards his mouth and tongue
Keeps his soul from troubles.
In the old times keeping the gates guarded was important part of keeping the
city fortified. It may seem that our gate is very small compared to the size of
that city; but in the book of James it gives this perspective.
James 3:3-5 "Indeed,
we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole
body. 4 Look
also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they
are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even
so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.: We will either boast in the greatness of our God or talk about the
greatness of our circumstances.
Faith
will not consider the circumstance it is experiencing, the personal limitation its dealing with or the physical condition its facing. It will believe contrary to what is sees.
Romans 4:18-22 Who, contrary to hope,
in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to
what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 And
not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since
he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He
did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in
faith, giving glory to God, 21 and
being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And
therefore “it
was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Ecclesiastes 11:4 He who observes the wind
will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.
Scripture: 2 Kings 7: 19-20 Then
that officer had answered the man of God, and said, “Now look, if the
LORD would make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?”
And he had said, “In fact, you shall see it with
your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” 20 And
so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
What is the word that stands at the gate of your mouth?
Mark 11:23 For assuredly, I
say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the
sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says
will be done, he will have whatever he says. By his
confession of unbelief he slammed the windows of heaven shut over his life. Understand
if you choose not to believe it will not keep others from receiving. Will we
trample underfoot the words of unbelief or stay in a fortified city of famine
and captivity? Who’s the gatekeeper in your life? Is it your
friends, your kids, your unbelief, your spouse, your circumstances or your own
confession? Trample underfoot unbelief by confessing, agreeing and acting in
faith with God’s promises.
Scripture: 2 Kings 4:8-37
Has your prophetic dream died?
The Shunammite woman received her prophetic promise because she
made place for the Lord in her life through inviting the man of God to stay
with her. Prophetic
destiny is birthed in the place where we have made room for God and it is
sustained by intimacy. Sometimes it seems that we don’t even ask for a word
from God or a dream when all of the sudden it seems that dream has died. The
woman was wise in being a doorkeeper and saying, “It is well.” Elisha did
not allow Gehazi to speak to anyone on to restore the promise so that no one
could speak into the situation.
If we allow ourselves to go back into the bedchamber and put our
eyes to God’s eyes, our mouth to His mouth, and allow his hands to be our hands
we will see our promise came back to life again. It will only happen in a
place of intimacy and prayer.
2 Kings 7:5-6 And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the
Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their
surprise no one was there. 6 For
the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and
the noise of horses—the noise of a great army; so they said to one another,
“Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and
the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!”
Earlier in the chapter Elisha had prophesied about the turnaround
of events that were about to take place and a guard had mocked him. He was
trampled underfoot for not believing the Word of the Lord by the people who
were running to their new found provision.
Like all prophetic words in order to activate them one must
step out in faith to receive them. It's going to require that
we take some risks. We cannot allow ourselves to be immobilized by fear or
indecision. We must step out into the realm of faith to gain access to God's
blessing. If God give us something and we don't act on it someone else will. In
this next move, God will use whoever is bold enough to believe Him! He does
care about degrees or ordinations or the approval of men. His kingdom is not
run that way. He will take two loaves and five fish to feed the masses. He will
use what little you have and bring multiplication to much needed provision if
you will just be concerned with feeding God's sheep who are faint from following
Him. God will even use your own brokenness to pour you out and distribute you
that you might become bread to the hungry. Don't count yourself out. The four
lepers didn't. All they knew was that they were hungry and knew they had
nothing to lose. Some of us need to stop making excuses and consider not the
weakness of the flesh but the strength of our God. It's time to plunder the
enemy's camp!