At the Voice of the Prophets (VOP) 2012 conference, there were several great speakers and many great messages. I know that I received a blessing from each of them. But the two messages that impacted me the most was from Larry Randolph and Graham Cooke. Larry emphasized how God was moving in the “suddenly”; that this is a year to posture our hearts and lives for God’s next “suddenly”, and that God is about to move in unprecedented ways in the earth. Graham Cooke’s message was that we need to lay hold of God’s promises and prophetic words that He has given us. Graham emphasized that prophecy is not an event but rather a calling from God to enter into a divine process to become that which God has declared. I believe these two words were divinely sent for my heart to lay hold of.
Larry’s message was so timely for my wife and I because of how God was “suddenly” moving us from Pittsburgh, PA to Charlotte, NC. We moved to Charlotte at the end of April 2012. In fact it was just two weeks before coming to the VOP conference that we had sold our home in PA and bought a home in NC. God moved so quickly that I felt like I had to sprint just to keep up with Him. This move was so not on my radar up until a month or so before we put the “fleece” out for God to confirm things for us. My wife and I had labored in the ministry for the past 12 years in the Butler, PA area. We had founded a home church during that time, then got connected with a new church plant. We led youth ministry, an outreach ministry, missions ministry, and had led a move in prophetic evangelism. We had prayed for some time before hand and felt in our spirits that God was speaking change to us; but we had no idea what form that would take. Then we received so many sudden changes and door openings and literal miracles in such a short amount of time. It was no mistake that God was calling us to move to Charlotte, NC. It was such a God thing.
God has moved in our life to geographically posture us in the place where He will reveal move of His divine destiny for our lives. I also am focusing on posturing my heart for God to speak to me. SInce the conference I have been often pondering the messages I heard there and have been walking in a renewed focus on what God has been speaking to me.
Graham’s message is a challenge to my heart to believe and pursue. I’ve had a tendency in my life to seek after God but then believing that God was interested in blessing others but not so much myself or family. The last several years in the Pittsburgh region were years of a lot of sowing but not much reaping. I think this put me in a state of hearing God’s word and speaking it or showing it to others, but not believing it would come true in my life. Graham emphasized that God’s promises and prophetic utterances are not as much an event as a divine invitation to enter into a process that will transform us into His image and become that which God has spoken. I have received many prophetic words over the years, some which have been manifested in my life and many others that have yet to occur. I have seen the first fruits of some of these prophetic words, but the fulness of them is not yet manifested.
I especially was encouraged by the thought that when God declares to us that which currently is not, He is saying that we will survive the “transformation” process that is needed for us to inherit the fulness of the promise. When God spoke to David he would be the next king of Israel, David had no idea what awaited him and what he would go through before sitting on the throne. I suppose if David knew everything at the time, he might have hesitated and not embraced what God said. Thank you Jesus, that you don’t show us everything! I’m beginning to appreciate more God’s wisdom in hiding some things from us.
In Hebrews 11, we have a picture of ordinary people accomplishing extra-ordinary things because of one thing – faith in God. They were persuaded by God’s promises, God’s word. They didn’t quit although difficult circumstances were in their lives. They kept pursuing the promise because they maintained the vision of what God had said before them. We know in reading about their accounts in scripture that several of them had doubts, made mistakes, and battled discouragement. Yet at the end of the day, when the curtain was going down and their day had drawn to an end, they ultimately decided to believe. These in Hebrews 11 have run their course. Their test is over. But our race is yet to be completed. In my heart I hear God saying that wherever I find myself “around the track” there is still opportunity to run hard and win. So…how about it? What will be my legacy? I hear God saying “Do hard things! Believe what God has said about me! Be extra-ordinary! It’s only a matter of persuasion!”
After hearing Larry and Graham’s messages I went back and began reviewing the prophecies God had given me over the years. Graham encouraged us to read them often and recite them before the Lord. Enter into a divine conversation with God about them. Whenever we receive a word from God, God is giving us an invitation to begin dialoging with Him about these words. What is so amazing about God, is that when He speaks, the words evolve over time and take on new meaning. We can hear a word from God that we received 10 years ago and at the time think that we know all that God wanted to communicate. And then review it again and the word takes on a whole different dimension than what we previously understood.
When God speaks, His words are full of life and a well that never runs dry. It keeps giving life. Very similar to this thought, the Lord gave me a dream a few weeks ago where the Lord said to me, “David don’t you know that there are 850 points of grace?” As part of the dream I saw a diamond turning over showing the different facets of its cut and shining brilliance. With each turn, something new and brilliant shined that had not been seen before. I don’t think God was telling me there are 850 different angles of grace, but that I need to consider that there are many aspects of His grace that He wants to show me. He is calling me to live in new dimensions of His grace than what I had previously considered. God’s word is an unfolding abundance of blessing. It makes absolutely perfect sense to stand on His promise and pursue them even if we happen to be going through a dry time or difficult period where we are tested. Soon, He will reveal more and cause us to see where we have not seen before.
On June 2nd I woke to the Holy Spirit telling me, "You are exceedingly rich." I have all the promises of God saying to me that they are “Yes! and Amen!” in Christ. He has given all these promises so that I might be a partaker of His divine nature. He is calling me into His God life...a realm that supersedes natural laws and earthly thinking. He has told me “I am rich” because I’ve heard the wonderful report and I am pursuing Him. How rich is the man who has God as his divine mentor? Its the fathers good pleasure to give us His kingdom. I want to see more of the manifestation of God’s kingdom through my life. And I believe that I am just on the cusp of seeing God’s glory revealed so much more acutely in my life.
Psalms 145:10-13 says that “All he has made will give thanks to the LORD. Your loyal followers will praise you. They will proclaim the splendor of your kingdom; they will tell about your power, so that mankind might acknowledge your mighty acts, and the majestic splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.” We get the privilege of speaking about God's glory and his power. Guess what that means? He's going to reveal His glory and power to all His loyal followers! I'm pumped cause that means more divine encounters for us! We get to prophesy and testify of the glory of the Lord. He has made us for this! This is our moment! This is our time! We shall shine in His brightness because He has declared it to be so!
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