Strength in Brokenness

10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.

John 21:10-11

We are continuing with John 21 and the prophetic insights it holds for the times we are in. I invite you to refer back to the previous posts to get the most out of this one.

The Strength of 10 Men

Jesus invites them to bring some of their catch to join him by the fire. I love how extra Peter is in this moment. The operating word that Jesus uses is “some fish” and yet Peter decides that he must with his own bare hands, drag an entire net of fish to the shore to where Jesus is. You have to love Peter.

Math wasn’t my favorite class in school but firing up the calculator, at 153 fish at an average of 3 pounds each equals roughly 459 pounds. That’s some major strength demonstrated by a man that just a few hours earlier was fishing with no clothes on in the pit of depression.

Moving Through Pain

The advice many give us when we are going through a dark season is to keep on going in spite of what you feel. Someone puts a hand on our shoulder and offers something along the lines of “we move from glory to glory but boy, it’s hell in the hallway.”

This is only part of the equation to getting through a broken season. The other part of this puzzle is knowing who you are moving through the brokenness to get to. Your “WHY” behind moving past your pain is not to bring the pain to an end, it is meant to lead you towards the ONE that seeks to bring you wholeness.

Sometimes we think we are moving past our pain when we are really just avoiding the brokenness until the pain passes.

Strength to Pursue Jesus in the Midst of Brokenness

Paul, second only to Judas, was the disciple that was in the toughest spot. He had denied Jesus three times and everyone knew it. He was wrapped in shame and in a tremendous amount of pain. However when he hears Jesus beckoning them to come eat with him, the boats cannot get him to shore fast enough so he jumps out hauling a massive amount of fish with him.

Paul was endowed with supernatural strength (over 400 lbs of fish in a net all of which were most likely swimming and flailing frantically to get away. Think about the scene from the movie Nemo of all the fish swimming together to break the net) in his pursuit to get to Jesus.

Hear What Jesus is Saying and Receive an Impartation of Power

You might be feeling more aware of your shortcoming and brokenness now than ever before. I encourage you that it is especially in a season like this that Jesus’ voice is closer to you than ever before and He wants to share with you things that beckon you closer to Him. Not just for relationship but also because in that point of connection, there is tremendous healing, above and beyond just an ending the pain you might be feeling. There is also an impartation of strength for you to run to where His voice beckons to encounter Him. You aren’t to do this on your own, you aren’t to trudge and claw and scratch uphill to get to Him. He isn’t cruel, He isn’t a tyrant, He is a loving savior that wants to bring you freedom.

In Jesus’ name I declare that today, it is Your heart Lord, to make your voice known to your people. I ask you to speak to them so clearly that it will be unmistakable that it is you calling them through.

Right now, raise your hands up and declare that you are receiving that fresh impartation of strength to run to Him. Now RUN!!!!

Seeing Jesus in the Dark

John 21:7

“Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord…”

In this week’s writing about John 21 and the prophetic revelation and strategy that it holds for this season, we pick up the story of Peter, John and some of the other disciples as they return from a long, cold and ultimately unfruitful fishing trip.

If you haven’t checked out the post from last week, I encourage you to check that out before continuing however for those that just want to dive in, remember that the story begins with the disciples that are still discouraged and in anguish. Even though they have seen an empty tomb and many of their friends have witnessed Jesus having risen, they are still broken from the trauma of what has taken place. Peter especially is going though it because regardless of whether Jesus has risen or not, he’s in the dog house in his own mind. If Jesus had not risen, his leader, friend and the only one that truly understood him was gone. If Jesus had indeed been resurrected, how could he face the one that he so adamantly and devoutly denied not once, not twice but three times? Rock and a hard place indeed. (You see what I did there? #biblicaldadjokes)

Peter and a few others, in the pressure cooker of an uncertain future and a less than stellar week, take to what is easily accessible and familiar…which produced NOTHING.

On their return trip from this exercise in futility is where we see another golden nugget of revelation come.

Discerning Jesus, and Your Breakthrough in the Dark Night of the Soul

It’s dark out, the disciples are cold, wet and miserable. While it is of their own doing, they have caught nothing. A man calls to them from the shore and asks them if they had caught anything. They tell the truth about their catch and say no, which for a fisherman to be wholly honest about his catch means things must be pretty bleak.

The figure tells them to put their nets on the right side of the boat. Wait a second, this sounds familiar. There was another time long ago when an upstart Rabbi asked them, after a fruitless night of fishing, to also cast their nets down.

4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, y“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, zwe toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, athey enclosed a large number of fish, and atheir nets were breaking. Luke 5:4-6 ESV

I’m sure the disciples’ ears were perked at this, remembering the events from long ago. They cautiously place their nets in the water. Sure enough, just as before, their nets creak from the massive amount of fish in their nets. As they fight to hang on to the catch, John, the one who leaned his head on the chest of Jesus, gasps, “It is the Lord”

Hearing this, Peter leaps into the water and heads towards the man on the shore. They saw something familiar in the encounter they were currently in and that educated the way in which they should respond. That response, based on what Jesus had done with them years earlier, positioned them to be obedient in the moment of darkness and turn around their failure into a massive harvest.

Remember Your History with Jesus

In this moment, things are not going according to what many of us expected. We look back at our prophetic words and scratch our heads asking, “did I miss something?” These are the moments when we should take inventory of all that we have gone through in our prophetic journey with Jesus so far. Many of us think that we have this continually in the forefront of our minds, until we sit down with pen and paper and begin to list all the things we have walked with Jesus in just the last six months let alone years. When we do this, we become ultra sensitive to the whispers of the Holy Spirit beckoning us to realize we are in a divine moment.

A helpful activation is this:

1. List the top 5 things that God has spoken over your life.

2. Think of situations over the last 6 months where God has either confirmed or opened up opportunities in those 5 things. List them as sub-points under your main headings which are the 5 things.

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate situations and moments that you had not previously known were Him moving on your behalf in those 5 things. List them.

4. Allow God to show you how you responded and interacted with Him in those moments. Allow Him to teach you ways in which you could have been more aware or sensitive. Allow God to immerse you in this so you come to a whole new awareness of His hand on your life. Write this out in detail. Don’t remain on the surface, have the curiosity to ask the deeper questions and the courage to sit and hear the answer.

5. Go about your daily life with these now-heightened spiritual senses. Pay attention to all that happens and take note of how they confirm and open the way for those main themes that God has spoken over your life.

There is nothing especially unique or original about this activation, one simply needs to read about King David’s prayer life of meditating on the thoughts and words of God (Psalms 139:17) to know that this has been around for a long time. This practice which served the greatest King Israel would most certainly help all of us in recognizing Jesus in the midst of our dark season and serve as a light house to lead us to the other side.

Life Boats or Destiny Anchors

John 21:3

Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately and that night they caught nothing.

Beware of Destiny Anchors Masquerading as Life Boats.

Setting the stage, the verse above happens after Jesus has been resurrected and showed Himself to some of the disciples. However in this chapter, we see that sorrow and despair is still very much what Simon Peter and several other disciples are living under. They are down, dejected, isolated and despondent.

Peter is in an especially dark place. He saw Jesus whom he loved, hung on a cross. Beyond his affection for Jesus as a mentor and friend, He represented the entirety of Peter’s hopes and future. As if that were not enough, his own personal failings had compounded things even more. In Jesus’ darkest hour, he had denied him not once, not twice, but three times.

It is in this moment, that Peter declares that he is going fishing. Curious that of all the things Peter could do, he chooses to return to something that resembles his past life. The verse takes care to point out that they went into the boat “immediately”. Funny how in our darkest moments, our past is always eagerly available to us, beckoning us into the embrace of familiarity.

FRUITLESSNESS

The writer makes a point to tell us the grand total of the disciples night of fishing. Zero, zilch, nada, nothing, goose egg. In our effort to reduce the pressure of the moment or to try and gain a foothold in an out-of-our control situation, if we retreat to the familiar or what may have worked in the past season, we make a covenant with fruitlessness. This is the opposite of what God wants for us. Momentary relief will come at a huge price. As we see in this story, the only way to the other side of something, is by confronting it face to face.

FAMILIAR AND AVAILABLE DOES NOT = DIVINE OPPORTUNITY

Many will be deceived into selling their birthright in the marketplace of the familiar and the comfortable. Be careful in this season when doors begin to open to you. Discern whether what is opening before you is exciting and feels good because it is the Holy Spirit leading you or whether it is because it looks familiar and comfortable and along the lines of what you have been called to before and in your own assessment, being the next logical step.

DO NOT GET INTO THE BOAT

When you are on the verge of stepping into your new season of promise, it is a very tumultuous moment. You will find yourself in a sea of activity happening around you, underneath you, above you and inside of you. Still yet, others on the verge will find themselves in a moment where they perceive everything is pointing to the death of their destiny and future rather than to the beginning of it. It is in these moments that God is saying, “Do not back away from your promise or your future”

DO NOT DISQUALIFY YOURSELF

Peter has disqualified himself from his destiny and future but not in the way you might think. It is not his actions that have done this, it is his own assessment of who he is and how royally he has messed things up.

When things are crazy, we are rarely the best versions of ourselves. We say things we don’t mean, we do things we aren’t proud of, and for many of us, much of our time is spent rehashing ways that we could done things better. This results in us declaring to ourselves, “You know what, maybe this isn’t for me. Who would want me now? Who could use me now?”

In getting in the boat, Peter is declaring to himself and the other disciples that he is not worthy of the investment that Jesus had placed on him. When he immediately gets into that boat, he is giving up on his future.

EMBRACE THE GRACE

It is in this dark place that Jesus must intervene to save Peter from this difficult season of self sabotage. We have the benefit of being able to read ahead in the story and see the beautiful way in which Jesus leads Peter out of his shame and into his future as a pillar in the Church that is about to be birthed into existence. If we have not behaved the best in our season of transition, if we wish we could have done things differently or flat out failed, we have to be willing to embrace the grace that Jesus wants to extend to us.

This will be one of the hardest things we have to do in this season but it is essential if we are to trade in our anchors for sails. (sorry that was really cliche)

I encourage you to take some time out to allow God to illuminate areas in your prophetic process that you might need to grab a hold of His grace and let go of some toxic beliefs about yourself and how you’ve been doing that have been keeping you from transitioning into the new. Also, my prayer for you is that God would illuminate your eyes with a greater level of discernment in this season to see from His perspective how to navigate as doors open to you.

God Doesn't Do Re-Runs

Over the next few weeks, I'm excited to share with you some key prophetic insights from John 21. It is a rich chapter especially in the context of where we are. The story in this chapter is after the death and resurrection of Jesus, however it is a scene where the disciples are still in a state of mourning and scattering. What happens in these verses serves as a prophetic strategy for us to be able to come out of 2020 as warriors and overcomers.

Bad Habits

In order to do this we have to be willing to break some bad habits and mindsets that may have been taught to us in a previous season. My first violin teacher was Mrs Warfield. This lady was awesome! Every time I played a few notes correctly, out came a large bag of M&M's and a few pieces would be placed in a paper cup on my music stand with my name on it. On my way out of her house, I would take a few swings at a whiffle ball tied to a string off her front porch and give her elderly, morbidly obese golden retriever and gentle pat on his head.

One fateful day my mother told me that I had just had my final lesson with Mrs Warfield and that the following week I would be with a new teacher. I had hit a wall and wasn't getting better. It only took a few minutes for my teacher to declare "David, you've got some bad habits we got to deal with" Turning to my Asian mother who was sitting very tense as if fearing a terminal diagnosis she said "these bad habits are getting in the way of his development. Don't worry, once we fix them, he's going to be off to the races"

My mother was relieved as her dreams of me becoming a world class violin playing neurosurgeon millionaire doctor remained on course. After 12 months of breaking bad habits and learned playing patterns, I joined my first college orchestra at the age of 12 years old.

God wants to set us up for a period of rapid acceleration and advancement, however adjustments to our mindset, our perception and our posture have to be made.

We will address this in our first post in this series and then with those fresh eyes we will dive into John 21 regarding the prophetic strategy for this season.

Sunshines, Rainbows and Clear Skies Ahead

Before the start of 2020, many people were saying how this was going to be the most triumphant year the Body of Christ had ever seen. Themes included "20/20 Vision for 2020," "prosper in 2020", "2020 the beginning of the greatest revival in human history". It was all over Christian websites and on the blogs of many prominent prophetic voices. While I found these sensings very encouraging, I was hesitant to wholeheartedly agree with the picture that many were painting of the days to come. This runs opposite to my nature as a human being.

I'm going to get transparent with you about one of my greatest shortcomings as a human being. With diligence and perseverance, I have gotten better, however in moments of weakness or great overwhelm, it will rare it's ugly head. Sigh, here it goes, the truth is that... I will fall for almost anything.

I am the person that buys stuff off of informercials, gets on the waiting lists for products that I see online. When people create Super Bowl ads, they are thinking of me. I bought DVD's before I even owned a DVD player. My wife has told me that I am not allowed to go to any timeshare resort sales meetings with her when we are on vacation because salesmen can sniff out that kind of weakness.

I am not naturally skeptical about anything. I've been known to enjoy a Youtube marathon or two about conspiracy theories because hey, there might be some truth in there after all. This is why when all these words were being released, it was odd to me that nothing lept inside of me like, "oh my goodness yes that's it! Let's do it!" I didn't paint my body blue, I didn't jump around the house, and I didn't google how to purchase middle eastern currency.

Instead, I felt, silence, I felt a hollowness in what was being said. When I got to the root of it, much of what was being said, had an opposite effect on me. It placed a sour taste in my mouth. And then, rumblings came from the East.

With all these prophetic sensings about entering into a season of triumph, many of us were taken by surprise and felt like we had woken up to an alternate reality. I was one of them. We are deep into 2020 and all signs seem to be pointing to the opposite of what we were expecting.

Even worse, in the United States, churches have not only remained the same, most of them are fighting for their right to even open, hold services and freely worship. When all words in 2019 were that 2020 would mark the start of one of the greatest expansions in The Church, tens of thousands of churches are shutting their doors as rulers, leaders, and communities deem them not only non-essential, but harmful to their health and wellbeing. Even more outrageous are churches that have even taken grants from the state to cover overhead and payroll in exchange for their commitment to hold no in-person gatherings or meetings until their state tells them they are allowed to. Alternate reality indeed.

With all that has happened, it is natural for all of us to look sideways at those prophetic words from just a few months ago, I know I did. Did I feel that these voices were wrong for proclaiming these things? No. Do I think that they heard incorrectly? No. I actually believe that what they heard is something that is truly in God's heart. However where it got twisted was in their interpretation and commentary on what the expression would look like.

This Ain't Your Momma's Chicken Pot Pie

Just because Momma made a good pot pie doesn't mean that it's the best it's ever gonna' get. Nostalgia can get you to forget that Momma actually got that off a Swanson’s truck. If you go in with that nostalgic, romanticized, closed mindset, when your wife makes you pot pie and it doesn't taste like your childhood and you decide to verbalize as much, you might find yourself relegated to a steady diet of hot pockets and Little Caesars pizza until the second coming.

In regards to what was being prophesied and shared, they felt more like personal imaginations and assumptions as to what God was saying would come to pass based on past moves of God and what they had experienced in their lives in previous seasons. In fact, reading some of the transcripts, you see phrases like “A new Jesus Movement” “a Third Pentacost” “Just like God did in the times of Smith Wigglesworth”. A lot of pointing to past moves going on.

More moves of God have been derailed by people trying to fit it into a box of the past than from any demonic attack of the devil.

As a prophetic people, we have to be careful when we attempt to draw approximations from what we see God doing in the future to what we have experienced in the past. Yes there can be similarities but if we are not careful, we will cause those we are prophesying to, to look in the wrong direction for the wrong thing. It's like someone inviting you to go on a picnic only to realize that you're actually getting ready to step into the ring to do 9 rounds with Mike Tyson. Not cool. I believe that this lapse has caused a lot of people in the Body of Christ to be confused, discouraged and even downright frustrated.

So here is the main takeaway I want to share with you in this post::::::

God does not do re-runs, he does not do sequels. God is Doing a New Thing!

Our Father in Heaven composes epic, multi-faceted symphonies that build one measure after another towards an epic crescendo that causes every nation to bow its knee in awe of His greatness, might and limitless love. With every season, He declares from His throne over His people, "You Haven't Seen Anything Like What I'm About to Do!"

When we know that God is going to do something we haven't seen before, we move from a position of observation and contemplation into a posture or readiness to engage for whatever comes. I call this active expectation for the unexpected.

For example, if I told you that on the other side of that door, was your friend that had just stepped out a few minutes ago, you would take on a certain posture. But if I told you that what was coming through that same door was not like anything you had ever seen before, notice how your posture becomes much much different. Active expectation for the unexpected.

Family, I want to encourage you that if you have felt discouraged because things have not turned out like what people had prophesied or how you thought it was going to come to pass, please shake off that heaviness and know that God is doing a new thing! With that are going to come a lot of growing pains and learning new things in order to be ready to contain all that He is pouring out in this season.

Now, with that in mind, let our hearts our minds and our soul recalibrate to how the Holy Spirit is saying we need to flow, bend and roll in order to be positioned for the future. Let’s look with anticipation at what all this uncertainty only seeks to remind us of, that we are not in Kansas anymore and that’s a good thing. (Unless you currently live in Kansas to being with… in which case..)

In my next post, I will be sharing about the importance of remembering your prophetic history in a way that propels you into your future rather than keeping you in your past.

Our Ultimate Allegiance

When we declare Jesus is Lord, it is a cultural and political statement.

The question we must ask ourselves is how do righteous men and women respond to those in authority who make unjust, immoral laws or decrees that fly in the face of our declaration? Especially when there is nowhere in the Bible that says that Kings are always right?

It isn’t that we want a conflict with civil government. However when civil government interferes with our freedom to gather peacefully than we have a duty to resist. Elected officials are equally bound to distinguish between good and evil in the area of civil government as are unelected citizens.

We can never forget that the world has been fashioned by God’s justice. Beloved we belong to God, not the government. We can’t sit back and accommodate what the federal, state or local governments say when they go against God’s law. Laws that dishonor God harm society.

If I am to give the state unlimited submission, then I am bound to obey every ungodly order even at the expense of my own conscience. Then what we have is two kingdoms which then substantiates dualism; a kind of dualistic ideology that justifies the disassembling of truth.

One can recognize what is wrong only if one has an intimate sense of what is right. For instance investigate occasions when religious leaders have questioned the ideology or actions of their government. This took place when those in power attempted to live beyond the reach of danger. Because they incorrectly believed that they were anemic when it comes to Heaven’s rule.

For instance if governing authorities are sanctioned by God with unlimited power and authority then any King, Governor, civil leader could justify any action wether good or evil. We as believers are not called to oppose government. We are called to oppose evil in government.

Governing authorities' responsibilities are to enforce God’s will and God’s law, not their own. Civil authorities have a conscience for what is acceptable but do not have a conscience to know what is evil unless God’s rule has been revealed. We as believers must be revealers of God’s rule.

Since when is a governor, health official, or mayor the head of the Church? I thought Christ is.

Colossians 1:18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Our ultimate allegiance isn’t to the state our ultimate allegiance is to Christ. Because when we give the state unlimited authority it is an invitation for evil. Now more than ever in our generation we need to stand for what is right. We need to get our heads out of the sand and declare not ourselves but the absolute supremacy of Christ. We have to be willing to risk our security for the sake of divine justice. Otherwise our world globally will not know the preeminence of Jesus Christ.

When the Father knocks on the door of our Hearts

God’s rejection of Cain’s gift had nothing to do with the gift, but the attitude of the giver. One example is when Cain rejects divine counsel because of being so self absorbed by his emotions. Swayed by the anger that burns within his soul, Cain can no longer reason. He incorrectly believes that he is alone and is given the right to sabotage his brother.   He fails to understand his responsibility to care for his brother’s life. What he chooses and what he pursues is in opposition to the Lord’s gracious leadership.

The Lord requires you and I to serve our brothers interests in order to walk in integrity. How then can we bend our heart’s towards the Lord’s counsel? I believe the first truth is, at times an attempt to remove anyone who causes us pain. For example, Cain has to experience the pain of facing his faults in order to be healthy. Another example is, I’m sure that the Lord allowed Cain to experience rejection so that he would develop his faith so he could conquer his anger.

One major problem that still is evident today, just like in the days of Cain, is that we don’t know how to live with ourselves and with each other. Yet I can’t focus so much on Cain’s behavior, I must focus on the Lord’s heart towards an unrepentant individual. Cain’s actions can confuse us, however God’s dealings moves our hearts to want to know the Lord more. The Lord protected Cain even though he embezzled his future. What Cain did was make a decision when he was angry, disconnected, offended, rejected and resentful. However the Lord isn’t an angry Father, anger isn’t His default. The Father lives with a conviction and when humanity lives without moral conviction they cease to live.

The loving Father puts our conscience in check so we would pause and listen. Simply because our Father doesn’t want us to fail to inherit His promises. The Father came to Cain because He wanted him to live well, otherwise Cain would fulfill his own lust and then ask God for mercy. We have to realize there are moments when the Father knocks on the door of our hearts.

So why is Cain protected? Why are the guilty protected and yet the innocent unprotected? Is this justice? Why isn’t the innocent warned? Why wasn’t Abel warned about his brother’s plan to end his life? By not allowing Cain to be killed, is the Lord disregarding the standards of justice? In other words, does the Lord have a defect in His justice? Does the Lord delight in hurting Abel, does He delight in hurting us? Disregarding the standards of justice?

I believe the answer isn’t as complicated as we think, the Lord doesn’t just give us a revelation of Himself, the Lord graciously gives us a revelation of us. Because there was greater evil in Cain then when he murdered his brother, it was his indifference to murder. Cain had become indifferent towards the evil in his own heart. Indifference is the the opposite of the Lord’s heart towards humanity simple because indifference is self centered. Indifference is idolatry because it doesn’t consider its neighbor. Simple concern for our neighbor is the greatest act of justice whether that neighbor shares our ideology or not. So what is the answer? Abel is still speaking Cain isn’t. Hebrews 11:4: “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” Abel’s offering cost him his life, what am I giving that cost me my life?