Presidential Message – Easter 2008

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.” -John 11:25

(Washington, DC)-The following text is released by the White House:
Laura and I send greetings to all those celebrating the joyful holiday of Easter.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ reminds people around the world of the presence of a faithful God who offers a love more powerful than death. Easter commemorates our Savior’s triumph over sin, and we take joy in spending this special time with family and friends and reflecting on the many blessings that fill our lives. During this season of renewal, let us come together and give thanks to the Almighty who made us in His image and redeemed us in His love.

On this glorious day, we remember our brave men and women in uniform who are separated from their families by great distances. We pray for their safety and strength, and we honor those who gave their lives to advance peace and secure liberty across the globe.

Happy Easter. May God bless you, and may God bless our great Nation.

President George W. Bush (March 23, 2008)

Receive My Voice

“Many have cried out: ‘Lord, I long for the new, I long to go through. However, I don’t have the strength to advance because the season has pulled the plug on my strength, and I feel I cannot stand and advance.’ But hear Me! I will energize your blood and cause My Spirit to touch you and go into places in your heart that have not been touched. I will cause the joints in your body to begin to have new energy and cause them to move in ways they have not moved. Do not despair because by My Spirit and new energy will come upon you.

The warfare that you’ve been contending in, the conflict that you’ve been standing in, will not overtake you. Stand still! In the midst of your stillness, I am beginning to release new mantles; you will stand face to face with Me, and then your enemy will see My reflection in your face. I AM rising up within you a sound that will come through you and cause the enemy to shake. Where the enemy has held your gate closed–the gate will come open. You will say, ‘A new day has broken.’

Some of you are saying, ‘I hate this storm that I am in the midst of riding out.’ But hear Me again! Because you won’t spread your wings and catch the wind of this storm, you are having trouble coming above its fury. Catch the wind! Catch the wind! My Spirit is blowing. Do not fear this economic strategy and structure that the enemy is voicing in the nations. Catch My wind in this economic storm! The dips and the lows will cause you to soar high. Throw your chest into the adverse winds and allow the wind to catapult you to a high place.

There are things that have been chasing you. Turn now and face that adverse wind. I will come with grace in the adversity and catapult you to a new level. You will see every movement in the field–the snakes, the rodents, and the treasures. Soar, see, and be catapulted into an enlarged place.

The Potter’s wheel that you have been on has been a necessary season for you. I AM doing a chiseling work to give you a new identity. Receive what I am creating. I AM placing My mark, My design, on your next season. One smooth blow will release the diamond that has been hidden in the rough. Look at the design that I have laid for your future. Look at the Craftsman’s hand because as I come down upon the chisel, you will see the breaking away, and what’s been hidden will be seen. Do not be afraid of that blow to come! I AM sending forth a sound into your inner being that will break up the dams that have held back your waters of Life. These waters will aid Me in your forming.

I am causing new languages to arise in My people. This will thwart the enemy’s plan to defile My purposes in you. If you will trust Me to do this one thing in you that has stopped you from being transformed into a mind of prosperity, you will succeed and failure will leave you. One small hit will change the course of your life and your direction. Your compassions have grown hardened. I must release this blow. I must cause the very depths of you to roar and to roar again. I AM creating a movement within you so you can digest what I will be doing in the four months ahead. Let the depths of your being roar with My sound. This sound will create the ability for you to absorb what occurs in the next four months.

Your inward being must embrace My THUNDER! This is a season that you shall hear thunder in the Heavens. As I thunder from the Heavens, know it is the voice of the Lord that is coming to you. For the thunder would create fear in the hearts of many. But for those of who fear the Lord, you will hear this thunder as a new sound from Heaven. This sound will cause you to come into the new place! My voice is coming to break you from all that would hold you in an old place. The thunder of the Lord is My manifest sound in the Heavens!

Do not fear what the enemy would do. For I Am thundering a new place for you and a new protection for you! Many would even run and hide in the day of storm. But you shall run into the storm and have victory over the storm! Let My thunder roll and break every place of fear from you. This will cause you to come into the new season where My light and My sun shall break forth out of the storm, out of the thunder. A new day is arising and the sun shall come and rest upon you. Do not fear this season of storm. This is your season to break through. Overcome the storm and rise up in a whole new place.”

Blessings,

Chuck D. Pierce
Glory of Zion Ministries

The Processes that Lead to High Places

When God develops your character He takes you through several processes. He loves you too much to let you stagnate at any one stage of development. As my friend Mark Chironna says, “don’t settle for less when your heart is crying for more.” Every new level with God requires you to meet Him in a new way, and every new way exposes you to a manifestation that is different than what you have seen previously. On a personal level, this expands and enlarges our view of who He is and what He does in our lives.

The story of David exemplifies what God is advancing now in many of our lives. There are three areas of development that the Lord took David through. His ultimate goal is to make you a leader who fits this description:

David “fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of hands” (Ps. 78:72)
                  
The first area is located in the heart, and deals with the issues of integrity and motivation. Motivation reveals the reason why you do something. When it comes to divine assignments a divided heart tries, but a unified heart does.

The second area is knowledge; this measures your understanding of your assignment, yourself, life and most importantly, Gods ways. It represents your insight into what a person is going to do.

The third area involves an individual’s skill, which determines how well one can execute a task. Your gifts, talents and acquired skill reveal how you will accomplish your assignment.

Initially, David warred with the house of Saul. This is the drama of two competing systems. One exemplified commitment to a future that God wanted to manifest through David, and the other, a commitment to a past that Saul did not want to let go of. David was promoted to authority supernaturally through divine appointments and the favor of God.

The processes through which God took David, enabled him to receive three anointings. David’s first anointing came when Samuel anointed him. Saul fell out of favor with God because he was unfaithful; thus, the favor went to David to carry out the Lord’s assignment.

Consider some of Gods unique ways:
1. When the King couldn’t sleep at night he called for David to play music, and the anointing that was upon David caused the demons to flee the king’s chamber.
2. God used the natural talent that David had with both a harp and sling shot, anointed him and then used him to carry out his Mission.
3. God used the arrogance of Goliath in a national crisis to promote David to national influence. There are national problems that God has set up that can only be solved by a person He anoints with a solution. This is the way He takes His chosen people into a place of power to influence nations. When that giant came down and David beheaded him with his own Philistine sword, the strongman and all of the demon forces that were over the Philistines were cut off as well.

The first anointing from Samuel provided divine enablement, but it was God’s processing of David in circumstances that developed his integrity.

God allowed David to be driven from the King’s circle into a cave. This time of immense discomfort and stretching became necessary for the formation of the great man that God needed David to be. In order to do this and stay sane, young David needed a comforter – the Holy Spirit. He built this extraordinary relationship by worshiping God during his ordeals. In essence, God enlarged David when he was in distress:

“Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress”

His second anointing came from the tribe of Judah when he graduated from the school of divine stretching!

The third anointing was released when all of Israel came to Hebron. Curiously, the people declared that they knew he was king all along. This anointing of recognition becomes active when the body of Christ sees what gift God has given you and activates what has been dormant in your life by simply recognizing the gift. This third anointing moved David to the next level, the high places of Jerusalem and Mt Zion. Their agreement released him to lead all of Israel to possess the high places as well.

Dr. Bobby Clinton, a celebrated Professor from Fuller Theological Seminary has spent thirty years documenting the journey of Christians. He says, “Eighty percent of believers do not consider themselves to have succeeded in fulfilling their ultimate calling.”

God provides revelation and anointing for people, but not all choose to step into their greatness. In order to get there one must have to go through deep processing, just like David did. Most, however, give up one third of the way through the journey!

In spite of difficult processing, it is critically important for God’s people to never lose heart! There is not one vessel who was significantly used by God who was not acquainted with chapters of great conflict and contradiction. You must continue to climb to the high places, because the ones who are going to advance the kingdom can only do so when they overturn Hell’s counsel in high places. These noble warriors see a clear vision of the future God is seeking to make manifest. They carry the future with them and they bring the future into the present. As David saw our day of unhindered access to Gods throne, he was able to bring David’s Tabernacle it into his own. Current day David’s see Christ’s future glory revealed in the nations and actually begin to bring that glory into the realm they stand in today. God allows them to taste the powers of the age to come so the nations might see and know the gospel of the kingdom demonstrated before their eyes as a witness.

David time-traveled out of the limitations of the old covenant by entering the presence of God through his worship. He prophetically saw the future of our coming into the presence of God with unveiled access to his glory, by traveling out of the limitations of the old covenant and entering into the presence of God himself.

With your new covenant, take action and call upon the Lord for the increase of His anointing! Expect great process events, but equally great rewards! Now, more than ever, the earth needs Christians who are willing to tread through the valleys before conquering the great mountains. Accept your mission, embrace your anointing, and take your mountain!

By Dr. Lance Wallnau