This week, I want to share what I spoke on recently, at Heaven’s Invasion. I went through my last blog post, explained why I wrote what I wrote and made declarations from it. You can view it here. Enjoy!
Jesus
For You Dear Reader, With Love
Last week, before I traveled to spend a few days with family and friends in DC and Maryland, I told the Lord that I wanted my next blog post to be centered around you. I asked Him to give me ideas and thought naively that I would write this blog post while I was down there visiting. Of course, that didn’t happen. Here’s what has happened… This morning, I looked at my Facebook newsfeed’s, “On This Day” section and saw the memories I made on this day, last year and years before, and I found the perfect thing for you! It’s a prayer that I wrote. Instead of just writing word for word though, I’m adding to it and changing it a bit, as I want to make it more of a declaration for you than a mere “wish list”. So, here it is, for you, with lots of love, my dear reader.
I speak peace and joy over you. No matter what is going on in your life and around you, may you always remember that you are never alone, never without options, fully surrounded, and deeply loved. May every trial you face, push you further into the arms of your Father until the enemy refuses to waste any effort and/or resources targeting you.
I command healing over your body, from top to bottom. His blood flows through your veins. You are His family and because healing is the children’s bread, eat up and savor every morsel, dear one. I decree that not only are you healed, but you are transitioning to walking in divine health because as a child of God, it is your right, your inheritance. Jesus left no one sick. His will is always that you be healed, so I declare that over you, in Jesus name.
I speak encounters with the Person of Love over you, knowing that perfect love casts out all fear and I pray that you would give the enemy nothing to agree with in your life, thereby giving him no room to enter in and run rampant.
I decree that all chains and strongholds over your life are broken and destroyed. You are free. You are free to be you without apology, fully being who you were called to be before the foundations of the earth.
I decree that your mind is being daily renewed in such a way that you don’t suffer from that old, ugly orphan spirit. I decree that you walk in an ever increasing measure of revelation regarding who you are and Whose you are, so that you are free from being critical, bitter, depressed, worn down and out and lonely. The truth is, you are loved with an everlasting love, fully surrounded and cherished, just for being. There is nothing you can do to make God love or value you any more or less, so I declare that the religious spirit is not a part of your life, making you think you must do something in order to get something from the Lord. Before you knew Him, He loved you, chose you, appointed and called you. Before you were born, He died for you and gave you His all. You did nothing to deserve or earn it, He did it because He loves you.
I declare that you are wise as a serpent but harmless as a dove. You don’t easily fall for the enemy’s tricks to get your focus off God and onto yourself and your faults. If your focus shifts to your faults and makes you feel like you are back to square one, “Just a sinner, saved by grace”, I ask that Holy Spirit would pull you back from that religious way of thinking. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus now, no longer a sinner, no longer a slave to sin. Your focus is ever on your Father and His immense love for you. No distractions. When you focus on you in this way, you’re missing out on what God has for you and what you are to give others around you. This is self-centered, not at all as holy as it seems. The Father does not want us beating each other or ourselves up over sin. He doesn’t do this to us. He paid for every single one of our sins long before we were born. Focusing on your shortcomings does not help you to get better, as what you focus on is what will grow in your life. Focus on the Father, confess all to Him and allow Him to change your focus. Be filled and stay filled with all that He has for you.
I declare that wisdom and understanding be your closest companions. I ask that you become adept in stepping back, outside of yourself, when things happen. That you would climb into your Heavenly Father’s lap and see from a higher perspective, what is truly going on and behind every situation you face. I pray that you take to heart the fact that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. I declare that you see with greater clarity than ever before and can have compassion and wisdom in every circumstance. May your eyes be opened to the enemy at work so that you don’t fall for his tactics. I speak a constant flow of Holy Intel over you, straight from Holy Spirit. You won’t miss a thing. You have the mind of Christ.
I declare that you are filled to overflowing with every good thing- so much that you can’t help but affect and infect others with the goodness of God.
I declare that you live, truly live, not just exist. You will not just reach your destiny, but you will enjoy the journey and help others do the same.
I declare a holy unrest over you that causes you to refuse to stay where you are forever, that you would be both content but also rise ever higher in life.
I declare all the best for you, as I want for myself. Let’s rise together. There’s no ceiling. There are no walls. If you have built any for yourself, my prayer is that you would break through them and be free. I love you, dear reader.
It’s All the Body of Christ
I absolutely love where I am right now. I am speaking of the weekly services I attend at Heaven’s Invasion and more. I must say that every other church experience I had, held this sometimes spoken, sometimes unspoken but definitely understood notion that everything you needed was all “in house”. If you missed service there, to go elsewhere, you were missing out. It was almost seen as a sin to go elsewhere for your spiritual needs. Almost as if you literally stepped outside the Faith and dabbled into some other religion.
Now, it is totally different, I see the body of Christ on a much broader spectrum and can go to other churches and know that I am still home. I have two such homes besides Heaven’s Invasion. One is Calvary Tabernacle and the other is The Sanctuary Fellowship in the Bronx. Gary Fishman is one of the pastors at The Sanctuary Fellowship. He interpreted a dream for me, and I learned that he has an annual prophetic summit in September (this year it is September 17th), so I went. I swear, when I walked in the building, I immediately felt at home. I was in no way, a mere visitor, it was so comfortable. I immediately fell in love with the people and the worship was other worldly. I actually met my pastor, Russ who led a workshop there but I didn’t realize he was actually 20 minutes away from me in NJ. Gary later invited me to Heaven’s Invasion to give a testimony during their Thanksgiving dinner celebration. That was my first day at Heaven’s Invasion and we have been going ever since.
Anyway, Gary has these amazing workshops and classes every 3rd Saturday in the Bronx. As much as we are able, we are front and center for them. These are people who exude the nature of Jesus so well and completely, one can’t help but feel welcomed, loved and at home with them. I have met many there who are invaluable to me. It is my home in the Bronx!
Then, we have Calvary Tabernacle… (((le blissful sigh))) Calvary is so very special to me for several reasons. First, this is a place where Pastor Clem has allowed several churches to occupy the same building. That speaks volumes!! Heaven’s Invasion is one of the several ministries that meet there. Again, this is a place that is so comfortable. There is so much love there. My favorite part is the youth. Oh, my word!! I have never seen such an amazing group of children. Children who truly love the Lord and each other with an openness that makes me tear up every time I see them. My two oldest daughters joined the youth group last year and loved it. This spoke volumes to me because my oldest has been a part of many youth groups and she never stayed with any of them because they were very superficial. The kind that says don’t have sex, live holy. They plays games, eat snacks and that’s about it. She wanted more and found it at Calvary. These children are learning to hear from God for themselves and others, they are learning to go deep with the Lord and are truly world changers.
I tried to stay away. My children are all homeschooled and I wanted them to have something that I wasn’t a part of, but of course, God had other plans and my girls are thrilled that I am there. Last July, the day after I had the first of 5 consecutive miscarriages, the prophetic evangelism group that I was a part of was invited to attend a meeting with the high schoolers of the youth group and prophesy over them. What a night that was for me!! There was one boy that I immediately loved, named Aaron. God revealed to me that although he had been through some serious and strenuous things, he has an amazing calling and future ahead of him. I prophesied over several others that night but at that time, he stuck out to me. I was also touched by the leader, Dennis. His love for the children was almost palpable. I was amazed.
I used to drop my girls off on Wednesdays and just sit in the car, trying to stay away but slowly, as I sat in that parking lot, reading or talking on the phone, God began to speak to me about various kids. Sometimes I gave them what God gave me, other times, I just stood back. Eventually, I ended up inside the building, but in another area as I waited for them to be done each week. Then, I don’t even remember how it happened, but I ended up sitting in the back during their service with my son who is normally asleep.
By this time, God started to speak to me about them, directly and through others. My friend Evelin and so many others gave me words about them. Evelin and my girls were the only ones who knew I was secretly in love with these people but trying to stay away. Eventually, I became a leader and I have never been happier. When I considered asking about being a leader, I hadn’t said anything but I remember Will, another leader, coming to me saying, “Have you ever considered becoming a leader? It’s obvious that you love them and have a lot to offer.” I said something snarky like, “Prophetic much?” because I’d literally just heard this from God.
When I finally went to Dennis, of course after needing so many confirmations from God, (such faith huh?) he said yes, and said that I was an answer to prayer and that he wanted to speak to Russ first. I connected him and Russ thinking he wanted to speak to Russ and make sure I wasn’t a lunatic. I later thanked Russ saying, “Thanks for the good character reference, they bought it, I’m in, lol!” Russ said that Dennis never asked about my character, he simply wanted permission to have me. Russ, told him of course, he didn’t own me anyway, lol. I was floored. I still am. We don’t even attend this church but we all understand that we are the Church and are therefore, family. I thought that because I wasn’t a member there, I would need to go through some protocol but no. I can’t tell you how honored I am to be among them and how very much I love them.
All this to say that I am so happy that there are parts of the Body that know that we are all family and truly live this out. There is never any mess about denominations or anything divisive. It’s all love. It’s all Jesus. I couldn’t be happier to be here in NJ, at this time. This is how the body of Christ should live. Together. United, in and by His love.
Heaven’s Invasion
I deleted the post that I published yesterday. I started that post a few days before but around 4am. I couldn’t sleep, so I ended up erasing it all and writing something different, and publishing it from my phone. The problem is, what you received was the incomplete first draft that I thought I’d erased. So here goes round two. 🙂
When I’d moved to NJ from DC, I was a staunch word of faith girl. You couldn’t tell me anything. My goal was to pretty much find my church in DC, here in NJ, and live happily ever after. Of course, that’s not at all how things went. Over around 7 years or so, we went up and down NJ and NY, visiting churches. Some, we stayed at for months, others, weeks and some, we visited once. Although I didn’t realize I was prophetic, I knew God always told me definitively what church I was to join as a member. He said nothing as we visited these churches, but I tried to make a few of the churches work. Eventually, I saw how silly it all was and just gave up. We stayed home and worshiped and studied the Bible and attended whatever church related events we were invited to. We were believers without a home base. At first I was upset about it but after a while, I began to hear from God more regularly, for myself.
I began to realize that I didn’t need someone to tell me what God was saying for me, I could hear from Him myself. As I read the Bible, things that I had seen so many times before, jumped off the pages at me as something totally new and different. It was amazing.
Then, I began to miss what I had growing up in church, community. I felt confident that I could hear from God for myself and others, still not realizing that was prophecy, lol, but I missed people. I love people. So, after visiting The Holy Land experience in Orlando, FL, I began to ask God for the community I longed for.
Here’s the thing, God is a total show off. To say that He gave me more than I bargained for is a gross understatement. In this moment, I have to chuckle and admit, that He never did give me the church I wanted. He did so much more. He gave me Heaven’s Invasion. Heaven’s Invasion is nothing like any church I have ever seen or heard about, other than the first century one in the Bible. In fact, it isn’t a church. It’s not a business at all. It’s a regional gathering of believers. It’s a place where Holy Spirit is Boss. Where our pastor who we simply call Russ, is famous for saying that he isn’t in charge and asks, “What’s God saying?”
The mic is always open, it is never policed, and because we can all hear from God, people coming up to share what they see, hear, or sense, is a regular occurrence. There are flags and dancing. The worship is literally intoxicating. Angelic visitations as well as our resident angels fill the place every Sunday. Prophecy and healing and miracles flow freely there. In fact, when you come for the first time, you are bombarded with prophetic words from God that leave you feeling so loved and important to us and to God, because the truth is, you are.
Heaven’s Invasion is a very different place. Firstly, we meet Sunday nights at 6pm. Then, instead of starting with praise and worship, we start with the preaching/teaching, saving the best part for last. No two Sundays are ever the same there. One of my favorite things is that although we are a group of prophets, evangelists, teachers, pastors and apostles, you won’t hear anyone putting their function in front of their name. It just doesn’t matter. Everyone understands that those offices are simply functions. Just as my husband doesn’t go by Air Traffic Controller Jermaine, there is an understanding that you simply do the job, there is no need for a title. Jesus never stressed the importance of titles. Because everyone is shedding old mindsets that are a result of the orphan spirit, we all agree that our favorite title/position is that of sons and daughters. That is what Jesus modeled.
The best part of Heaven’s Invasion though, is the love. My friend said, “Heaven’s Invasion is not a church, it is a family.” She also said that she and her husband were really impacted by the obvious love that abounds there. This is a place where there are no cliques, no hierarchy, no made up “office of the elder” (I mentioned the five fold offices above, better yet, see Ephesians 4:11), it’s just sons and daughters coming together and man… It is beautiful. I have never been to a place like this before. Never imagined it could exist, but it does. We all chat daily, we go out to eat together, this weekend, there was even a sleepover! Together, we are doing what Jesus did and called us to do. Just today, we received a video message from a guy who had Leukemia. We have prayed with and for him, some of us visited him in the hospital. We commanded sickness to leave his body and today, he sent us a video saying that the doctors can find no cancer in his blood any longer. Hallelujah!!!
I am so overjoyed to be a part of this family. The people here are truly my family in every sense of the word. My prayer is that more gatherings that truly exemplify the heart and nature of Jesus become more popular than the more common modern day pharisee movement we see happening. I would love to see the places that hold such great significance in seating arrangements, costumes, titles and degrees, fade away. I would love to see the bride of Christ arise, shed this orphan spirit that permeates so many facets of the Church, and be content with being sons and daughters, knowing that this is the best position ever and is without a doubt, more than enough.
How Do You Esteem Others?
The anniversary of the death of the guy who raped me when I was 14, recently passed. It did not pass without my noticing it. I can’t say that it made me feel anything at all. Not happy, but neither was I sad about it. Rather, I felt kind of pensive for a moment, re- read and shared a blog post I had written about him with a few people, but otherwise, I went on about my day.
Weeks later, I found myself scrolling down my newsfeed on Facebook and decided to look at a mutual friends wall, to see if anything was written about him on that date.
Here’s the weirdness in this… I am not normally a nosy type. I am not one who feels the need to be in the know about things, I really don’t care to. I much prefer keeping to myself. This time though, I felt led to search.
My feelings towards the guy who raped me are peculiar too. I loved him. He was my friend, but that all changed with one bad decision-mine and his. I decided to have friends over in my mother’s absence, against her wishes and he took that opportunity to rape me. In the end, here’s how I feel about what happened: He had some things going horribly wrong inside of him. The act of raping me was more about that inner mess in him than it was about me. I was just there and unfortunately came face to face with his inner turmoil. If it wasn’t me, it would have been another.
Anyway, I looked at the mutual friends’ page and saw that a video had been posted where they took turns speaking about him. They honored him. I watched. After I finished watching, I noticed a few things, big things… Not only had I watched the entire video, I did not have a scowl or frown, nor did I feel angry or bitter or upset in the slightest. By the end of the video, I was smiling! They all had such good things to say about him, and, barring the transgression he committed against me, they described the guy that I loved dearly. A good guy. A guy who was protective, kind and caring. A guy who was fun to hang out with. Someone to know. Someone to love and be loved by. An invaluable human being. It felt good.
Skip to this morning… As I spent time with the Lord, I ended up reading Philippians 2. When I got to Philippeans 2:3, I stopped for a moment.
“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself”
“Let each esteem others better than himself”… I stopped to think about how I treat others. Admittedly, I am one of those people who loves people so it’s not as hard for me as it is for some to treat people well, complete strangers included. I love surprising people with kindness. My mind wandered though, to the harder to love types. The people who are mean, vindictive, hateful to the core. The ones who make you want to lay hands, steel toe boots, fists and chair upside their heads.
I asked the Lord, how on Earth was I to esteem such a person as better than myself. He answered in pictures and words. He played what I can only call a video, in my mind of exactly how to deal with one person who is being difficult should the need arise. It was beautiful, I hope I have the opportunity to minister to that individual. As the video played, He said that when people ‘act a fool’, they are not behaving in a manner that is consistent with who He created them to be, they are, in that moment, not being who they really are. Haven’t we all had those days?
I asked Him to give me eyes to see (and ears to hear) people as they have been created to be and to be able to treat them as such, not as their behavior indicates or warrants. Now, I’m not saying I’ll be stupid, so let’s get that out on the table. There are people who need to be forgiven from afar. There are people who it’s best to love from afar, lest they cause physical, emotional or spiritual harm to others. I just want to make sure I am doing my part in loving God’s creation. How someone else behaves, has nothing to do with my reaction or response. I get to choose that part. Hallelujah!!! People like to think they have no control. They don’t want to take responsibility for their behavior. They say a person made them mad or act ugly or whatever. I won’t be anyone’s puppet in that manner any longer. I have a choice. So do you.
Another thing to consider is our faulty hierarchy of sin. Rape warrants death or close to it, while lying warrants a slap on the wrist. What’s the difference really? Is it not all under the category of sin? Is it not all wrong and punishable? One thing that saddens me is how soon we can forget our own transgressions and latch on to someone else’s, ready to crucify them when truly, we did something very similar, or perhaps the same or “worse”, once upon a time. Oh, the stories I could but won’t share in order to protect the not so innocent!
Anyway, my prayer is that we all remember that all have sinned, not just they or them, all, including me, including you. We can’t control how others behave, but we can control ourselves. Let’s work on loving others into who they truly are in Christ. Let’s find out who we are in Christ, gain freedom and help set others free! Let’s allow our Heavenly Father to tell us who we really are and what we are here to accomplish. He’s the One who created us and has all the answers right? Let’s ask Him! Who’s your Daddy? 😉
Empowered To Live Supernaturally 