We are living in a time where everyone has a voice.

Social media is loud.

Podcasts are everywhere.

Opinions are constant.

But here’s the real question…

Are those voices actually echoing Heaven?

In Gospel of John chapter 12, Jesus makes something incredibly clear—He did not speak on His own authority. He spoke what the Father commanded Him to say.

That means every word Jesus released carried the weight of Heaven.

And if we’re going to have real impact in this generation, it won’t come from clever ideas, trending content, or cultural relevance…

👉 It will come from becoming echoes of God’s heart.

There Are Many Voices… But Not All Are Truth

Right now, there are countless voices claiming to speak truth.

But not all truth is truth.

There are alternative gospels rising—messages that:

* Remove the power of the blood of Jesus

* Downplay the resurrection

* Reject the work of the Holy Spirit

* Dismiss the gifts and power of God

That’s not just error…

That’s a form of godliness without power.

And the danger?

It sounds close enough to truth that people follow it.

But friend—if it doesn’t align with the Word of God, it’s not from God.

You Cannot Replace the Word of God

We live in a time where people are replacing Scripture with:

* Podcasts

* Social media clips

* Personal opinions

* Cultural interpretations

But the Word of God is not optional.

It is:

* Living

* Powerful

* Transforming

* Unchanging

You don’t outgrow it.

You don’t edit it.

You don’t reinterpret it to fit culture.

You anchor your life to it.

The Holy Spirit Is Not Optional

There is a growing resistance in some circles against the work of the Holy Spirit.

People want salvation… without surrender.

Christianity… without power.

Truth… without transformation.

But you cannot separate:

* The Father

* The Son

* The Holy Ghost

Salvation is not just a decision—it is a transformation empowered by the Spirit of God.

We don’t need less of the Holy Spirit in this hour…

We need more.

Jesus Was an Echo of Heaven… And So Are We

Jesus didn’t come to speak His own message.

He came to reveal the Father.

And now, as believers, we carry that same assignment.

We are not called to:

* Build our own message

* Create our own gospel

* Follow cultural trends

We are called to echo Heaven.

That means:

* Speaking what God says

* Standing on the Word

* Walking in the Spirit

* Living with authority

The Remnant Must Rise

This is the hour for the Remnant Church to rise.

Not passive.

Not silent.

Not compromised.

But bold.

Anchored.

Spirit-filled.

We need believers who will:

* Pray with power

* Speak with authority

* Believe for healing

* Walk in bold obedience

* Open their mouths and declare truth

Not just in church…

But online, in homes, in conversations, everywhere.

Don’t just consume voices.

Become one.

But not just any voice…

👉 Become a voice that echoes Heaven.

Let your words be shaped by the Word.

Let your life be led by the Spirit.

Let your message reflect Jesus.

And watch what God does through you.

🔥 If this message stirred your heart, share it with someone who needs truth in this hour.

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast for more messages like this.

📲 Let’s get the Word of God out to as many people as possible.

#StrongFaith #RemnantRising #HolySpirit #TruthMatters #KingdomVoice

There will always be a battle for your time with God. Distraction, busyness, weariness, spiritual resistance, and the pressures of life will always try to pull you away from prayer. But the secret place is not optional for the believer. It is where your heart is strengthened, your future is shaped, and your life is prepared for the purposes of God.

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This message is a call to move beyond occasional encounters with God and into a daily, heart-deep life of prayer. If prayer has become a checklist, it is time for it to become a heart connection again. If you already spend time with the Lord, it is time to press in for more. Prayer is not just something we do. Prayer is our life.

This episode also carries a strong call to the remnant, the watchmen, the intercessors, and the prayer warriors God is raising up in this hour. Prayer is not only about personal needs. There are assignments from the Lord. There are families, churches, communities, cities, and nations that need believers who will stand in the gap and contend for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now is not the time for powerless Christianity. Now is not the time to drift, coast, or depend only on occasional moments with God. This is a vital hour for the Church to pray with perseverance, seek God with fresh hunger, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Little prayer equals little presence.
Little presence equals little joy.
Little joy equals little strength.
Little strength equals defeat.

But prayer equals victory.

The secret place will cost you your time, your attention, and your surrender, but it will also sustain the weight of everything God wants to do in your life.

Scriptures in this episode include: Matthew 6:5–6, Matthew 6:10, Matthew 11:12, and Ephesians 6:12.

Listen to the full episode, share it with someone who needs the reminder to pray again, and subscribe to the podcast so you do not miss future messages that strengthen your faith and stir your hunger for God.

• Matthew 25

• 1 Thessalonians 5:9

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16–18

• Mark 13

🔥 Overview

In this episode, we dive into Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25—a powerful and prophetic warning to the Church today.

Jesus reveals that not everyone who looks ready is ready.

Half of those waiting for the Bridegroom were unprepared because they lacked oil—symbolizing a real, ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit. This message is a wake-up call for the remnant to stay spiritually alert, pursue intimacy with Jesus, and live ready for His return.

⚡ The Big Picture

We are living in a time where the Church is being divided:

• A falling away from truth

• A remnant rising in power and purity

This message calls believers to choose which side they will be on.

🕯️ Breaking Down Matthew 25

1. This Is About the Church (v.1)

Jesus is speaking to the kingdom of heaven—not the world.
This is a message for believers.

2. Lamps Without Oil (vv. 2–4)

• All ten had lamps → outward appearance of faith

• Only five had extra oil → inward reality of relationship

The difference wasn’t appearance—it was oil.

3. The Danger of Spiritual Sleep (v.5)

• All the virgins fell asleep

• Even sincere believers can drift into complacency

4. The Midnight Cry (vv. 6–7)

• Suddenly, the Bridegroom comes

• Everyone wakes up—but not everyone is ready

There can be noise, excitement, and movement…
but only those with oil will endure.

5. You Can’t Borrow Oil (vv. 8–9)

• The foolish tried to borrow from the wise

• But oil is personal—it cannot be transferred

Oil costs something:

• Time in prayer

• Obedience

• Surrender

• A daily “yes” to Jesus

6. The Closed Door (vv. 10–12)

• The prepared go in

• The door shuts

A last-minute relationship with Jesus isn’t possible.

7. The Command: Stay Awake (v.13)

Jesus’ message is clear:

👉 Be watchful
👉 Be ready
👉 Stay filled

📢 Supporting Truths

• 1 Thessalonians 5:9 – We are not appointed to wrath

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 – Jesus is returning

• Mark 13 – Stay alert so you’re not found sleeping

💡 Key Takeaways

• Outward Christianity without inward oil is not enough

• Spiritual sleep happens when we neglect intimacy with God

• Oil is built daily, not borrowed last-minute

• Readiness is a lifestyle, not a moment

• Jesus is coming back—and we must be ready

🙏 Your Response

• Prioritize daily time with God in prayer and Scripture

• Ask the Holy Spirit to continually refill your life

• Turn away from complacency, distraction, and sin

• Give Jesus a full, surrendered “yes”

• Encourage others to stay awake and be ready

🔥 Final Word

This is a wake-up call:

Stay awake. Keep your oil. Be ready.

The cost of preparation is nothing compared to the cost of being unprepared.

🙌 Prayer

Lord, awaken Your Church.
Stir hunger for Your presence again.
Refill us with fresh oil of the Holy Spirit.
Help us stay awake, stay ready, and stay faithful.

Heal bodies, restore hearts, and prepare Your remnant for Your return.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I want to take just a few minutes and talk about something I believe God is dropping into my heart for you and for me in this hour.

The other day I was listening to a podcast, and like many of you, I have a few trusted voices that I listen to. I’m very selective about that, and I believe you should be too, because we are living in a time of great deception. In an hour like this, we cannot afford to casually open our ears to just anything. We need discernment. We need wisdom. We need the Holy Spirit guiding what we receive and who we allow to speak into our life.

And as I was listening, I felt something rise up in my spirit.

I believe God is raising up a bold remnant of people who have strong faith—people who are willing to step fully into the things of God, willing to move forward courageously, and unwilling to bow to the pressure of the crowd, culture, or the noise happening around them. God is looking for men and women who will march headlong into His purposes with courage, obedience, and unwavering devotion to Jesus.

He is raising up watchmen.

He is raising up watchmen on the wall—prophetic watchmen who will do their part to pray into existence the plans and purposes of God. And I believe many of you need to be stepping into that right now.

But here is what I felt specifically in my heart: there are many people right now who feel confused about their call, their mantle, their purpose, or their assignment—whatever word you would use to describe it. You are crying out in prayer, “God, would You just show me? Show me what to do. Show me where to go. Show me how You want me to speak. Open the door. Open the window.”

Your heart’s cry is, “Lord, I do not want to do this thing on my own. I want to be obedient to Jesus. I want to follow the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

And for some of you, that has left you feeling almost deadlocked. You don’t want to move ahead in your own strength. You don’t want to get outside the will of God. And because of that, this lack of clarity has made you feel stuck.

But let me say this first: that is actually a very powerful place to be.

Why? Because when your heart genuinely desires obedience, God honors that. He sees you.

Friend, God sees you today.

He sees your desire to obey Him. He sees your longing to follow His lead. He sees your hunger to let the Holy Spirit guide you purposefully into the things you are supposed to do for the kingdom of God.

And let me encourage you with this: there is a specific call for your life.

There is an open door for you.

There is a future and a plan that the Lord is putting in place even now.

For some, that calling may be in a hidden place. It may be a hidden place of prayer, where you are an intercessor praying into existence the plans and purposes of God. People may never know your name. They may never see what you do. But what you do in the Spirit is vital. It is necessary. It is kingdom work. It matters deeply to the heart of God.

Others are prophetic watchmen who not only pray into existence the plan of God, but who will also be given doors on personal and corporate levels to boldly declare and speak the word of the Lord—to friends, to family, to communities, in pulpits, through videos, podcasts, social media, YouTube, and all kinds of platforms.

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So what do you do in a season like this?

You keep pressing in.

You keep pressing into the things of God. You keep seeking His heart. You keep obeying what you already know to do. Don’t let yourself become overly distracted by what you don’t yet understand. Don’t let yourself be paralyzed by what you don’t yet know. Lean hard into what you do know, because the Lord is about to move in your life.

And this is one of the main reasons I wanted to share this message.

I feel like the Lord is saying that He is in the process of marking people for Jesus right now.

You may not fully realize it, but in this place where you’ve been calling it confusion, it may not really be confusion at all. It may simply be a lack of clarity because your appointed time has not yet fully arrived. But while you wait, God is not absent. He is marking you.

He is setting you apart.

He is sealing you by His Spirit.

He is placing His oil on your life.

He is anointing you for the things He is calling you to do.

I feel this deeply in my spirit: God is raising up John the Baptists in this hour—voices who prepare the way of the Lord. He is raising up Elijahs—powerful prophetic voices who will speak into the narrative of this generation and call people back to God. Some of these voices will have broad visibility. Others will operate quietly but powerfully in families, churches, friendships, and communities. They will confront darkness, expose false authority, and help bring people into freedom.

I also believe God is raising up Hezekiahs.

I’ve talked about this before, but I believe it again strongly right now. Hezekiah was a king through whom God brought revival and reformation. The Bible speaks of him in a remarkable way. Though he made mistakes near the end of his life, God still used him mightily to bring sweeping change.

And friend, that is what I want you to understand: some people will be used on a national level, yes. But many others will be used in places that seem smaller to the world—your family, your marriage, your children, your church, your school, your community, your region, your state.

And those places matter.

God has John the Baptists, Elijahs, Hezekiahs, Esthers, and Deborahs on many different levels, all making kingdom impact in the areas where He has placed them.

So again, what you have been calling confusion may simply be this: you are being marked.

You are being sealed by the Holy Spirit.

You are being prepared under the oil of God.

Some of you have lived for years under the weight of a promise, under the weight of a prophetic word, under the weight of a deep inner sense that God has a destiny for your life—and yet you have not seen it come to pass.

Friend, do not give up.

Remnant person of God, do not give up.

Men and women of God, do not give up.

You are a warrior. God has called you. And in this season, He is marking you as He develops character in your life, as He forms things in the unseen realm, and as He builds His kingdom within you so that you can carry the weight and responsibility of what is coming next.

And please hear me: you cannot compare your calling with someone else’s.

You cannot compare your visibility, your timing, your platform, or your assignment with another person. There will be many people operating in similar roles in this hour. There will be many who carry a John the Baptist-type call, many who prepare the way of the Lord, many who sound a similar trumpet. Some may be more visible. Some may be less visible. But all are necessary.

You do not need to compare yourself.

You simply need to wait on the Lord to open your door.

Wait on Him to open your window.

And while you wait, know this: God is for you.

I said this in an episode a long time ago, but let me say it again here:

To have a voice, you’ve got to be a voice.

There have been times even in my own life where I began to draw back because I didn’t sense that God was doing something in the moment. But God is not asking us to wait for a feeling before we obey. He is asking us to obey what He has already said.

So many times we wait for the sense of something, while God is looking for obedience.

And simple obedience to the things of God often brings a fresh awareness of His presence.

So yes, to have a voice, you’ve got to be a voice.

You’ve got to be willing to stand up.

You’ve got to be willing to use your voice.

You’ve got to be willing to use whatever influence God has placed in your hands.

You’ve got to be willing to use whatever medium He gives you.

You’ve got to be willing to walk through any door He opens.

Ultimately, it means giving Jesus your absolute, unreserved yes.

And that is what I do not want you to miss: you are being marked in this hour for destiny and purpose.

I believe you are on the verge of stepping into a moment where time begins to catch up with what God has been doing in your life. Suddenly, things are going to begin to open. Suddenly, you are going to see the Lord begin to move in ways you could not have orchestrated yourself. Suddenly, the things your heart has longed for and the things you have sensed God preparing you for are going to begin to come into view.

This present season of seeming confusion, lack of clarity, or even limited discernment will dissipate as God opens things for you that you could never open on your own.

That is why you must have strong faith.

That is why I talk to the remnant.

That is why my wife and I talk about strong faith.

That is why at our church we talk about revival.

Because all of this is connected to what the Lord is doing right now. He is raising up a remnant across the earth.

And I remember when God first began to deal with my heart about this message of the remnant being raised up. I remember where I was when He spoke it to me. I remember wondering, “Lord, what am I supposed to do with that?” And over time, we’ve preached messages, recorded podcasts, created videos, written articles, and kept sounding that message.

And at one point I asked the Lord what was happening with it all.

He spoke to my heart so clearly: “I’ve got people all across the earth right now hearing that same call.”

Friend, I want you to know you are not alone.

You may feel like you are in a season of limited clarity. You may feel like you are in process, waiting, hidden, stretched, or uncertain. But there are people all across the earth in that same place right now. You are not forgotten. You are not disqualified. You are not behind.

You are being prepared.

You are being readied.

You are being cleaned.

You are being fitted with the character and nature of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is stirring gifts in you—some that may have been there all along, lying dormant until now.

He is getting you ready for the things of God.

Do not take that lightly.

Pray into it.

And if this resonates with you, then begin to pray specifically:

“Lord, give me clarity.

Lord, give me purpose.

Lord, help me lean into the marking of Jesus on my life.”

Jesus is marking His remnant for what He is about to do in their lives and for the doors and windows He is about to open.

So let me encourage you: stay faithful in the process. Stay obedient in the hidden place. Stay ready in the waiting. And trust that when the time comes, God will open what no man can shut.

I literally just walked out of a prayer moment, and I can’t shake this sense that a message needs to be released. In this present moment where we live, it seems like the enemy of our soul will do anything he can to knock us off course—to cause us to veer off track—anything to keep us from fulfilling the plan of God for our lives.

But I want to encourage you: don’t fall for it.

He’ll try tactics of fear. He’ll try intimidation. He’ll try to confuse you, wear you down, and make you second-guess what God has said. But friend, you don’t have to live in fear and intimidation—because greater is He that lives in you than he that’s in the world. The God on the inside of you is so much greater.

And I’m telling you… right now is a prime time.

Men of God, women of God, remnant people of God—this is the moment to pick up the mantle God has placed on your life. This is the hour to be a voice. To be a watchman on the wall. To be a prayer warrior—somebody who prays into existence the plans and purposes of God.

The Lord has been bringing this back to my heart over and over: we are to be people of prayer, first and foremost. Above everything else, we’re to seek His face. We are called to co-labor with God—to bring into existence what His heart desires.

And I know some of you are dealing with fear. You’re afraid. You lack clarity. You don’t know what to do. But let me reassure you: if God has given you a word, you keep pressing into that word. You keep doing what He’s called you to do—what He’s planted in your heart.

For some of you, God has called you to pray over your cities and your towns. And you need to do it with relentlessness. You need to do it with a heart that refuses to back down or give up.

Because every time the enemy tells you, “What you’re doing doesn’t matter,” you need to answer that lie with truth: it does matter.

Your prayers matter in the Kingdom of God.

You’ve got to be willing to be a voice and press out, instead of listening to the enemy. I was thinking about Elijah—how he ran at Jezebel’s taunting words. You know the story. He ends up in a cave, discouraged, despairing, wishing life could be different.

And praise the Lord, God met him in that still small voice.

But here’s what I was thinking… what if there was more for Elijah than what Elijah ended up doing?

Right after that moment, God speaks and tells him to go anoint the next prophet—Elisha. Elijah obeyed, yes. And we know Elijah ended up in heaven. We know Jesus spoke with Elijah at the Transfiguration. I truly believe he’s probably one of the two witnesses in the book of Revelation.

So hear me: I’m not knocking Elijah at all.

What I’m saying is this: what if there was more potential on the earth that he could’ve walked in… but fear and intimidation pulled him back from it?

That’s my opinion. I don’t think the Bible says that anywhere. But it’s a thought that grips me—because it connects directly to you and me.

Friend, we live in a pivotal moment. You live in a pivotal moment. And you may not consider yourself on the level of Elijah, but I’m telling you: your prayer matters.

Your call from God matters.

Your obedience matters.

You listening to His voice and doing what He says—that matters so much in the Kingdom of God. And we don’t want to throw away our potential because of fear or intimidation—because of the things the enemy whispers to our mind.

No. We want our hearts in tune with heaven.

We want to listen to the sound of heaven.

And we want to be the kind of remnant warriors who say, “I’m not leaving anything on the table.”

• No, I’m going to pray for my community until my community sees revival.

• I’m going to pray for my family until my children and grandchildren are saved.

• I’m going to pray for my spouse until my spouse is saved.

• I’m going to pray for my church and the leadership of my church.

• I’m going to pray a protective hedge around my church.

• I’m going to plead the blood of Jesus over my church and its leaders—because they need it right now.

• I’m going to plead the blood of Jesus over my town.

One of the things my wife and I have grown accustomed to doing is taking prayer drives around our community. We love it. God prompted our hearts to do it.

But I’ll be honest—when we first started, I felt silly.

I thought, “Is somebody going to see me driving around here, raising one hand, praying?”

Then I began to realize something: the One who is inside of me is so much greater than every enemy planted in my town.

So what do I have to do?

I have to pray over this ground.

I have to claim it for the Kingdom of God.

I have to declare that everywhere my car drives belongs to Jesus and the Kingdom.

I have to declare that men and women in my town are going to be saved and experience the presence of God and the revival of God—that they’re going to be touched and healed.

And I’m telling you—there have been times on those prayer drives where things would drop into my spirit. I’d start praying against addiction. Against alcohol. I remember one time being in a certain spot and out of nowhere I began to pray, “God, destroy every spirit of witchcraft that tries to operate in my town.”

And we live in a small town.

It’s not some massive city where you’d think, “Oh yeah, that kind of stuff happens there.”

But friend, I’m telling you: there is more demonic oppression and agenda of the enemy operating around you where you live than you might even stop to consider.

So if God lays something on your heart—do it.

For us, it’s driving around and praying.

For you, maybe it’s praying for your church.

Maybe it’s being a voice on social media.

Maybe it’s writing blog posts or articles.

Maybe you’re a pastor or preacher, and your call is to stand up in that pulpit unashamed, bravely, courageously declaring the Word of the Lord.

Maybe God has put prophetic words in your heart, and you haven’t done that before. That’s been happening to me lately—and I’ve had to say, “Lord, give me courage to release what You put in my heart.”

So I’m encouraging you: put your faith and trust in Jesus. Rise. Be a voice. Be a warrior.

Because Satan will always try to tell you what you’re doing doesn’t matter. He’ll implant thoughts that say, “You’re not doing anything valuable. You’re not doing anything important.”

Friend, that is absolutely untrue.

God has a plan for you.

He causes all things to work together for your good.

And this relationship you have with Him—it’s not just so you can get to heaven when you die. No, no, no.

This is an hour for men and women of God to rise with boldness—to go against the grain of their fears, to go against the grain of their apprehensions, and courageously lift up truths that matter in this timeframe we live.

Your voice is necessary.

There have been times God has moved on me to take stands against certain lifestyles or activities, and I’ve done that. But more often than not, one of the main things He’s impressed me to do is not only release prophetic words—but call the remnant into action. Call other prayer warriors into action.

And let me say this about prayer.

Prayer gets a bad rap sometimes because if you do it the way Jesus prescribed—go into your closet, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing—it’s not visible. It’s in secret.

But hear me: what’s done in the invisible place is not only rewarded openly—its effects are felt openly.

I’m telling you, demons tremble when you walk into your prayer closet.

So you may be reading this and thinking, “What could I do?”

Friend, prayer is an ultimate weapon. The Lord is looking for men and women who will give themselves to it.

And I’ll be transparent… I do podcasts and videos and writing, and I feel called to do it. I try to be obedient. But deep in my heart, I also know it’s visible. And that can conflict me sometimes—for right or wrong.

But I know this: when you go into your prayer closet and it’s just you and Jesus, and nobody sees or hears… it’s the most freeing time there is. Because you have an audience with your Father. You have an audience with heaven.

And what you do in that unseen place changes realms and territories. It changes outcomes. It changes what the enemy meant for bad into something God can use for good.

So the point of this episode is simple: I want to call out the remnant.

I feel like there are grandmas and grandpas who feel like you’ve missed your day—or you’ve outlived your usefulness. That is a lie of the devil.

I feel like there are young people caught in tension: “I don’t have time. I don’t have space. I don’t have visibility. I don’t have experience.”

That’s a lie too.

Every believer has something to offer the Kingdom of God.

You and I just have to be obedient to the Lord—do what He says, and release what He wants us to release.

If it’s a word—release it.

If it’s prayer—pray it.

If it’s to boldly declare—do it.

If it’s to pray for somebody in the grocery store—do it.

If it’s to pray over your children, your grandchildren, your family, your spouse—do it.

Whatever it is… do it.

That reminds me of that passage where Jesus is about to turn the water into wine. Mary comes to Him and basically says, “They need you to do this.” Jesus is like, “My hour hasn’t even come.”

And then Mary turns to the servants and says that famous line: “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.”

Because she had seen enough to know: when we’re obedient to Jesus, amazing things are going to come forth.

Friend, no matter what He tells you to do—do it.

I believe there are some Elijahs listening to this. There are some people God has an amazing plan for your life, and you feel stuck in obscurity right now—but God is setting you up.

He’s going to use your voice.

He’s going to use your prayers to impact Kingdom realms.

And there is authority placed in you by Jesus that will accomplish His purposes.

A Prayer Over You

Father, thank You for the opportunity to speak to Your people. I pray encouragement would be released into them. Let the fire of God pour from heaven onto their lives. Give them boldness to openly declare what You long to declare through their lips.

And Lord Jesus, I pray that You would work all things together. Let clarity come where it’s needed. Let these words be confirmation to people. Lord, as I’m trying to be obedient to You, let these words confirm what You’ve already been saying.

Use it. Put it where it’s supposed to be.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Thanks for being with me on this episode. You know what you’re supposed to do.

Subscribe—then share. Help me reach more people.

Hey, friend—let me take just a little extra moment today to reach out and encourage you.

Because I believe there’s somebody reading this right now, and you feel alone. You feel discouraged. And honestly… you don’t feel like anyone sees you. You don’t feel known. You don’t feel noticed.

But I was reminded just a few minutes ago, listening to a message, that God does see you.

And that’s not just a “nice thought.” That’s the truth.

All through the Bible—Old Testament and New Testament—we see it again and again: God sees people. He sees what they’re walking through. He sees what they’re carrying. He sees what nobody else understands.

And I just felt like I needed to stop and tell you plainly today:

God sees you.

When you’re at your lowest.

When you feel like nothing is working.

When you feel like nobody’s aware.

When you feel like even God Himself isn’t aware…

Friend, please hear me—don’t fall for the enemy’s trap. Don’t fall for his lie. That discouragement is a scheme. It’s a setup to wear you down and make you believe you’re forgotten.

But the God of heaven truly does see you.

He loves you. His face is always toward you. He desires to reach out and bless you. And even right now, through something as simple as this post, I believe God is sending a confirmation to some, and a reminder to others:

In your midnight hour…

In that moment where you feel the weakest…

In that vulnerable place where you don’t have all the answers…

The God you serve does have the answer.

He sees you, and He’s for you.

And if you don’t know the Lord…

Maybe you just happened across this. Maybe you don’t know anything about the Lord, or you’ve never had a personal relationship with Jesus.

I want to tell you: God is for you too.

Maybe you’re in the depths of addiction.

Maybe you’re fighting depression.

Maybe your family has so many problems you don’t even know where to begin.

Maybe you’ve got personal health issues, emotional issues—things that feel bigger than you.

Friend, the beginning point for everything you need is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

He died on the cross for you—in your place—for your sin. And if you’ll open your heart to Him and receive Him, He will come in with love and gladness and kindness.

He’s not pushing you away. He’s not looking for a reason to reject you. He’s waiting for you to open the door.

The Bible says it like this:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man opens the door, I’ll come in.”

Pray this simple prayer with me

Lord Jesus, I receive You as my Savior.

Come into my heart and save me.

Forgive me of my sins.

I confess my sins.

I turn from my sins, and I choose You, and I desire You to be the Lord of my life.

And from this point on, I commit to follow You with all the ability You pour inside of me.

Friend, Jesus will come and help you—in Jesus’ name.

If this encouraged you, drop a comment and just say, “God sees me.”

And if you need prayer—tell me what you’re facing. I’ll be praying for you.

If you know someone who feels alone or discouraged, share this with them today. It might be the reminder they’ve been needing.

This morning I woke up to a thought running through my mind repeatedly.

It went like this: “Your only protection from deception is to stay in prayer and in My Word.”

Usually, when I receive a word from the Lord similar to this, there seems to be some sort of backstory idea He also seeks to communicate with me, and this word did have another idea attached to it. The unspoken impression I received from the Lord was just as immediate as the thought had been—the word and prayer are linked. You cannot trade one for the other; you cannot only read the word or only pray.

These two spiritual activities will never work properly when they are done in isolation from each other. The word works in us as we pray, and as we pray, we respond to the word. In my heart, I felt the Lord’s emphasis was on prayer. The message He seemed to be conveying was, “Many read the word, but few actually spend time in prayer, actively listening for My voice and seeking to pursue My presence and know Me.”

The implication was that if we read the word but never pray, we come to a place where we think we know the Lord well, but actually, we only know about Him. Reading scripture but never spending time in prayer is like reading a biography about someone famous—we learn all about them and feel acquainted with them, but we do not fully know them on a personal level.

Reading scripture while coupling it with sincere daily prayer sets our hearts before the Lord, transforming the word from a biography into a text message. Prayer causes the word to become an active conversation between God and us.

I’ve read many blog posts and Facebook posts over the years, and I’m sure you have too. But these are only one-sided unless I leave a comment. Many times when I have commented, the author has responded to me personally. Prayer is our place to have dialogue with God. It is not a one-sided request session, although requests are accepted and encouraged. Prayer is the place where God communes with us by His Spirit and speaks the life-giving truths of His word in our hearts on a personal and applicational level.

Furthermore, without prayer, we cannot say we truly have a dialogue with God. It is no longer enough to simply know about Him; we must truly come to know Him on this personal level.

Let me also say that prayer without the word is also unbalanced.

When we never take time to read scripture, our prayers become more than just superficial and selfish; they can become dangerous to us because when we think we hear the Lord speak in our hearts, we do not have a foundational basis of truth to weigh our impressions against.

I’ll be clear: God still speaks in our hearts.

His voice always supports His written word, and what I hear in my heart must always be weighed against what He has already revealed about Himself through the written word.

Our protection from deception takes on its greatest strength when the Holy Spirit has been given a resource to draw from in our lives—when the Holy Spirit has scripture available that we have hidden in our hearts, He will use it to communicate in the present tense by using what was written in the past.

Scripture that is over two thousand years old becomes fresh and new when the Lord pulls it from the recesses of our hearts and breathes upon it to make application in our present.

There is so much swirl and contradiction happening in the earth and in the church at the present moment. Voices you have looked to for guidance seem shaky, and you can be left feeling overwhelmed by what you see, hear, and feel. Instead of retreating from the battle and giving in to your fears, start drawing close to the only voice that will never change—Jesus.

This is an hour when deception is at an all-time high, and this deception will only increase as the last days wind down to their conclusion. The only voice that we can ultimately trust is scripture, coupled with the internal voice of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to what Jesus says in scripture about the Holy Spirit.

John 16:13-15 NKJV—”However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. [14] He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. [15] All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

Prayer is vital because through prayer, the Holy Spirit takes the words of Jesus and uses them to guide us. As we take time in the Lord’s presence—just being there, spending time, worshipping Him—the Holy Spirit softens our hearts and works in us what is well-pleasing in the sight of God.

During prayer, we submit our hearts to the Lord and come under His Lordship, and the Spirit speaks in our hearts. What He speaks always agrees with the written word. The litmus test of hearing God’s voice is: Does this word align with scripture? If not, throw it out!

Our time in prayer and in the word, when it is sincere and truly desires to seek the Lord, develops in us a protective wall against the deception of the present age.

Friend, deception is not just something that will happen after the rapture, but it is something that is already at work and will only grow stronger.

Listen to what Paul says to the church in Thessalonians.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 NKJV—”The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, [10] and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. [11] And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, [12] that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Prayer and the word breed a love for the truth in our hearts. This love for truth and the desire to walk in it is used by the Holy Spirit to create a firewall against the deception of the present age.

When you can no longer discern which voices are godly, ungodly, safe, trustworthy, or true, turn to prayer and the word. Let the most influential voice in your life be the Lord’s voice.

We’ve reached a point when every voice and every message must be weighed against the truth of scripture. God’s people have always been called to inspect fruit. The message of truth is backed up by the holiness of fruit.

Friend, don’t throw away your desire for an experience with God.

No, we cannot build our foundation for faith on experiences. We build upon the word. But experiences of the Lord’s voice, His presence, His power, and His love serve to add reality to the word that speaks to our hearts in a personal way.

This moment in history demands a church that will pray and soak in the word.

Here’s what Jesus said would happen in the last days:

Mark 13:21-23 NKJV—”Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. [22] For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. [23] But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.”

Remnant, it’s time to put on our protection from deception.

It is the waiting time before the movement. For me, I feel like I'm in a moment before the moment.

The last vestiges of things past are swirling, and something new is coming.

There is a tangible sense that time has paused for a moment.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise; He is precise. At the exact time He created for the coming moment, the moment will come.

The promises, dreams, and long-awaited prayers that have yet to express their fruit and the joy of Heaven's tangible response will soon erupt with the overflow of movement that shifts directions of people and establishes new works.

In the midst of the waiting period, it can be easy to drift from focus.

I feel it personally—the press that comes consistently against your heart, the tension of knowing by faith, yet not seeing in the present, and the question asking, "Did I do everything He wanted and required?"

There is an atmosphere thick with the expectancy of God's movement in this moment—a moment that turns the tide and reveals the heart of the Lord in the final seconds of history.

This is time we have longed for!

The harvest, the revival, the awakening.

Dawn is on the horizon, and things are about to change forever.

Jesus is preparing His bride and challenging His church.

Repentance is the cornerstone of what's about to take place.

Restoration follows the repentant remnant.

Then a revealing of promises and hope received will happen.

The Lord is raising His remnant.

They are the remnant that will pay anything, any amount, any price to see the fire and experience the glory of the Lord's revelation to the earth in this hour.

We have sought the Lord, many of us since the days of our youth. We have longed and waited for the days of John the Baptist—those days that brought pure repentance and fire just before the revealing of the Anointed One.

Today is the day.

Wilderness prophets are rising. The remnant is rising. They are holding onto the only hope they have: Jesus.

Messiah came, and He is coming again. He is returning for a harvest of the ages prepared by the hands of those who sought desperately to work in His field.

Will you rise? Are you ready?

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Yes, the Lord Still Moves in Miracles, Signs, and Wonders.

There is a huge swirl and controversy surrounding the truth of supernatural ministry and the things of God. It seems everywhere we turn, someone is trying to defend another person, or a church is trying to declare why they are the one that has a corner on truth.

Openly, I admit that I do not have all the answers.

My prayer in this hour is that my Heavenly Father would grant me a wise and discerning heart.

We need hearts that remain open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to the leading of His hand. With this being said, what I hope to do in this short article is shine a light on what I perceive as truth, whether you agree with me or not.

My debate is not about a person, a church, or a group.

It is about the truthfulness and veracity of scripture, which is what I feel is being undermined in quiet and also overt ways.

The whole Bible is true cover to cover. There isn’t a piece of it that is untrue. If one book, one chapter, or one word of scripture is a lie, then the whole book is worthless and to be thrown out. The problem is, instead of looking to the character and nature of God, we are looking at the fallibility of man and judging the truth of God by the deeds of men.

Man has never been the measuring rod by which we are to judge the goodness, mercy, character, gifts, or love of God. So often, man gets it wrong, but God never does.

There is a growing push to actually remove the things of the supernatural from the hearts and minds of those who would believe in the miracle working power of God. Allow me to say that from Genesis to Revelation and everywhere in between, the Bible is an unapologetically supernatural book.

From water flowing out of a rock and food falling from heaven to the judgment of Satan and the new Heavens and new earth, the Bible is built upon a bedrock foundation of supernatural truths and experiences that go beyond the comprehension of man’s limited understanding.

God Himself declares, “For I am the Lord. I do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)

If the Lord never changes, it also means that His character never changes. Who He is and what He does is part of the makeup of His nature. We trust in a changeless God because His unwavering nature gives us strength and stability in a shaky world.

But what this changeless nature also means is that everything written about Him is still true. The entire ministry of the New Testament church was built around the supernatural moving of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came and fulfilled the Old Testament law, becoming the embodiment of what it means to live in true obedience to the Father. Then Jesus introduced a new covenant based upon better promises. One of those better promises was the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the church. This took place on the day of Pentecost when the early disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit and power, with fire. They spoke in tongues, and the entire city ran to see what had taken place. (Acts 2)

The entry of the Holy Spirit into the world did not happen in a quiet stable like the way our Savior came. Instead, the Holy Spirit came with power, wind, and fire. He moved the city, and His ministry through the church turned the world upside down.

People were healed, delivered from demons, and set free from bondage. Entire cities burned their witchcraft books and dark art materials. Scripture declares that even the very shadow of the Apostle Peter walking down the road caused people under the shadow to be healed.

Not once was it even hinted that all the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit has or would just disappear from the church one day.

With this being said, it also makes sense that the gifts of the Spirit listed in First Corinthians are still real and available to us today.

While we should not build our spiritual life upon experiences, to claim that God is so silent that we never have experiences is to reduce Him to a dumb idol. Just because there are excesses by some does not mean there is not truth that Scripture supports.

I am personally thankful for every experience I’ve ever had with the Lord.

Several years ago, my earthly dad, my father-in-law, and I built the house my family now lives in. We contracted out parts, but most of it was built with our own hands and hammers. We crawled through the trusses and helped hang the sheet rock. We drove nails, cut boards, and put in windows. Not everyone has this kind of experience with their dad, but I did. It is something we shared. To say that because most people simply buy a house, that my experience of building a house never happened would be crazy.

Your experience cannot erase my experience, neither can my experience erase yours.

As a young believer I sincerely desired to be filled with the Holy Spirit along with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. I prayed and prayed, yet nothing ever seemed to materialize. I grew up in a church where this was practiced, and I personally knew the lives of those who prayed in tongues. It was a small, close-knit church where everyone knew all about the others in the church, so I had no reason to doubt their experiences or to disbelieve it when they prayed in tongues, even though my experience had yet to happen.

I vividly remember having a dream one night. In the dream, I could see myself outside, and it was night. All at once, the Lord filled me (in the dream) with the Holy Spirit, and in the dream, I began to speak in tongues. I could hear my own voice praying in the Spirit in the dream. This seemed to last for hours. When I woke up, there was a tangible presence of God in my room that I will never forget.

As I sought the baptism in the Holy Spirit, another experience began to happen. I would have glimpses in my mind of myself praying in tongues. I could hear my voice praying loudly in the Spirit in an unknown tongue. At one point, I thought, “This is crazy. I don’t know anyone else this has ever happened to.” I hesitated to tell anyone but eventually told my fiancé about what was happening, but I told no one else.

At one particular church service, everyone was being prayed for. Usually, back then I was a shy person who never sought to be in the fray or have any attention drawn to me, so I sat back and tried to be as invisible as I could. A trusted, precious friend, a man of God much older than me at the time, called me out and wanted to pray for me. I never told him that I desired to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I never told him I had never prayed in tongues. But as he prayed for me, suddenly he stopped, looked intensely into my eyes, and said, “The Lord is telling me you are hearing it in your mind, and if you will let it out, He will fill you with the Holy Spirit.”

The fact that this man knew what was actually happening inside my head freaked me out! Had I not known him personally, and still know him today, I might have thought something crazy was happening. However, I knew instantly the Lord showed him something about me.

I didn’t “let out” what was in my head.

What I did do was pray when I got alone in my car on the way home. I told the Lord, “You know that I didn’t tell that man about what I’m hearing. That had to be You. Lord, I’m going to try it.” So I quietly began to say the words of the Holy Spirit I heard in my mind, and all at once, a rush of power filled my body, and I began to pray in the Spirit more deeply. I cried out, “That wasn’t me! That was YOU!”

Since that day over thirty years ago, I have prayed in the Spirit nearly every day of my life.

Now, not everyone has had the same experiences I had. Not everyone has had a dream or received a prophetic word of knowledge to be filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Apparently, these were things my Heavenly Father thought I needed for whatever reason, so He gifted me an experience that was mine alone.

Not once have I ever preached that my experience was the norm or the biblical way in which everyone has to be filled with the Spirit. Yet, my experience does not undermine the truth of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, all the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit are still true, real, and available. We cannot pick and choose to simply throw away certain fruits or certain gifts because of the excesses or even abuses of some. Scripture is still true from cover to cover.

My experiences with the prophetic gifting have largely been positive, but not completely. For instance, my wife and I were once prophesied over, being given a very specific personal word. This prophetic word was given in front of the whole church. Guess what? The word did not come to pass.

However, as we prayed about this specific area of our lives on a personal basis, God gave us specific words of knowledge about it. My wife and I received these prophetic words during a prayer time in our home between just the two of us. These words didn’t come through someone else; they were given to my wife and me as we prayed over our desire and need. Guess what? The words He gave us came to pass. They proved true down to the last sentence.

When we received a word that should have and could have disrupted our spiritual walk, we were left with a choice.

We could either judge that all prophetic words were not from God, lay down our belief in the supernatural nature of God, and walk away, or we could realize that men and women are never perfect, and they will undoubtedly “miss” it sometimes.

Let me also say, prophetic words are in NO WAY on the same level as scripture. Scripture will always remain superior to any prophetic word a person may receive.

If a word is not backed up by scripture, you should not believe it. If a prophetic word speaks to the supernatural nature of God without having a certain scripture, you should pray into it.

We prayed into the word we received many, many times.

Ultimately, we felt the Lord had a different plan for our lives.

When you plant your faith in man, you will always be led down a pathway that is shifting and swaying. But when you plant your faith in the unshakeable nature of God and His word, there is no reason to be shaken when someone comes along with a “word” that seems off.

Scripture says something very important about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 14:31-33 NKJV—For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. [32] And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. [33] For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

We are supposed to judge the gifts of the Spirit, and we should. It also declares to us what Gifts of the Spirit are meant for: encouragement. They are not meant to bring confusion, but encouragement.

As believers, we all have the Holy Spirit inside of us. He speaks to us. He leads us. He gives us guidance.

What this means for us personally is that we do not need another person to come along and give us a “word” in order to hear from God. Your Heavenly Father will personally speak to you. Prophetic words come alongside in order to confirm or bring clarity to what the Lord has already spoken.

There are many believers who do not believe God can still speak.

If you mention something about how the Lord spoke to you, they roll their eyes in disbelief, yet I wouldn’t trade my experiences of the Lord’s voice or His presence for any amount of money. His voice is my precious daily delight. He speaks in my heart like a Father, and I would never want to give up His presence or His voice. I know it is real.

If ever there is a moment, and there have been, when it seems that what I heard may not agree with scripture, I instantly begin to pray into what I heard. I ask for clarity and discernment. I don’t assume I get it right every time. There have been a few times when I’ve had to say to myself, “Maybe I didn’t hear this correctly.” I’ve also had to say on occasion, “I don’t completely understand what the Lord is trying to say here.”

So I set aside those “words” and go back to “the Word” and seek His face.

But what I do not want to do is mistake my fallibility for God’s inability.

He is supernatural in every way and able to speak. I am fallible, not always hearing correctly. However, if scripture is my bedrock, I will declare along with scripture, “You will work INTO me what is well-pleasing in Your sight.”

Never assume you have arrived. Never assume you know scripture perfectly. Never assume you get it right every time.

But always assume there is something more about the Lord you can learn. Always assume that you have been given an ability to hear His voice, and cultivate your hearing. Always assume that the Lord seeks to press you more deeply into the things of God and into His nature.

I’m not really sure how to end this article, other than to say, “I pray for those who have been blatantly abused spiritually. I pray their hearts and lives will come to a place of healing. I pray that they will still cling to the goodness of God even though they have experienced the hurt and sinfulness of man.”

But I also pray that the church will not throw away the gifts of the Spirit or the supernatural nature of God because of the excesses or abuses of man.

Man’s stupidity and ignorance never cancels the Lord’s wisdom and power.

We are in the beginning stages of the greatest revival in the history of the world.

Jesus is about to return.

The church wins!

Let’s do everything in our power to see lost people come to repentance and for the church to wake up spiritually.

Let’s pray like we have never prayed in order to see the miracle-working power of God reach people who are hurting, truly heal them, and bind up their wounds.

Let’s allow the precious Holy Spirit to be who He longs to be among us and not quench His working or stop His hand.

Today is still a day of miracles, signs, and wonders for those who will press into the Lord and seek His face.

This quote powerfully reminds us, as the people of God, that we have been positionally placed in a place of great authority.

Through Jesus and His shed blood, we have been named ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. There is authority in your declaration and decree to change situations and release life where everything seems dead.

Scripture teaches us that there is the power of life and death in our words.

When you, as an ambassador of heaven, speak and pray the words of the King, all things of the enemy must begin to obey. They have no choice. The devil and demons are subject to kingdom ambassadors.

As you pray, you have an audience with the very King of Heaven Himself.

The King listens and responds. He sends forth His Spirit. The angels move in response to your faith-filled prayer declaring the words of the King.

What this means for us in a practical sense is that we are no longer to approach prayer like beggars striving to gain just a morsel or scrap of food. Instead, we approach our prayers as avenues of connection to the Kingdom of God, knowing that the King Himself has granted you authority and that He longs to hear from you.

What a difference it will make as you pray for your children, your home, your spouse, your job, your resources, and more when you see yourself the way Jesus sees you. Jesus told the disciples He sent out, “Do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rather that your names are written in heaven.”

Friend, your name is not only on Heaven’s entrance list, but it is also recorded as a duly appointed and qualified ambassador with all the rights and privileges of praying to the King and expecting a response.

How you view your life of prayer matters.

Your perspective is a direct reflection of your faith and how well you listen to the Lord. If Jesus has filled you with His own Holy Spirit, and if the Holy Spirit intercedes for you and on your behalf, how will the Lord NOT listen to your prayer?

The answer is, He always listens. Because He has placed you in a position of authority, not only as an ambassador but also as one of His own sons and daughters, the King of Heaven cannot wait to hear and respond to your prayer.

• Pray in faith today.

• Pray with the deep-seated belief in your heart that God hears you and will answer you. In fact, He longs to do what you are seeking of Him.

Jesus issues a powerful challenge to us as His ambassadors in the book of Mark.

Mark 11:22-24 AMP—Jesus replied, “Have faith in God [constantly]. [23] I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea!’ and does not doubt in his heart [in God’s unlimited power], but believes that what he says is going to take place, it will be done for him [in accordance with God’s will]. [24] For this reason, I am telling you, whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given to you.

Will you trust Him today and begin to speak and pray with authority? Remember, you are God’s ambassador—pray like it’s true.

“Satan has effectively disarmed us when he can keep us too busy doing things to stop and pray.” — E.M. Bounds

Friend, here is my plea to the people of God today: “Never surrender your weapons!” What are your weapons? The Word of God flooding into your heart, mind, and spirit as you read it. The Word of God coming from your mouth as you SPEAK it. And your life of prayer.

Often, we read the Word but do not pray.

Looking for wisdom to navigate our situations or strength in times of weakness, we turn to the Word, as we should. However, the connection point between heaven and earth is a praying man, a praying woman, and the praying church.

Prayer is the weapon that moves heaven on behalf of your family, your unsaved friends and neighbors, your sickness that God longs to heal, and your problems that God desires to solve.

Prayer is the Master’s weapon of choice that destroys the works of the devil as it draws men and women closer to the heart of God and develops in us the qualities and fruit of Jesus Himself.

Our cunning enemy has always tried to deceive us, making us think it is more effective and noble to do things for God than to spend time in prayer with God.

But the secret place is the place of power!

The Holy Spirit unleashes His anointing and fire upon praying people.

Do not allow your enemy to trick you into believing that serving is more important than praying. In fact, do not believe the reverse of this lie either. Prayer that does not lead us to humbly serve is rooted in selfishness.

Real prayer that touches the heart of God strengthens us and weaponizes our humility, releasing us to serve others while keeping our focus on Jesus and refusing to neglect the importance of time in His presence.

Every minute you spend in prayer, seeking the face of God, is a transformational moment in which the Lord works into you those things that please Him. Prayer is not transactional; it is transformational! Prayer molds and shapes you into the image that most pleases the Lord.

Our praying equips us with every weapon we need to overcome the powers of hell bent on the destruction of our families and the Remnant of God’s people.

So friend, do not neglect your most potent and powerful weapon—prayer.

Let me challenge you today:

1. Spend 10 more minutes in prayer than you usually would.

2. Pray in the Spirit (in tongues) for 90% of your prayer time.

3. Worship the Lord in prayer instead of only asking for things.

These three practices alone will bring transformational change to your spirit and provide you with the weapons built for overcoming the devil’s schemes.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 AMP—For though we walk in the flesh [as mortal men], we are not carrying on our [spiritual] warfare according to the flesh and using the weapons of man. [4] The weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood]. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. [5] We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ, [6] being ready to punish every act of disobedience, when your own obedience [as a church] is complete.

“We need to receive daily new grace from heaven through fellowship with the Lord Jesus. This cannot be obtained by a hasty prayer or a superficial reading of a few verses from God’s Word. We must take time to come into God’s presence, to feel our weakness and our need, and to wait on God through His Holy Spirit to renew our fellowship with Him.” — Andrew Murray

This quote drives right the point of our deepest need.

Spending time in the presence of the Lord is the place of renewing and fellowship with Him. This time is an investment in the life of our souls. It carries a wealth of dividends that richly equip us to fight every battle and weather every storm.

Withholding this life of prayer we cease to fight. Prayer IS the fight. It is the great battle of the believer’s life. All the combined schemes of the evil one will unite under this one banner—stop the Christian from praying.

When you prayer it releases the power of heaven on earth. God is in heaven, but His Spirit empowers you upon the earth to receive and accomplish the will of heaven.

Prayer is not simply a tool to request what we want from the Lord, it is much more a revelation of our deep need of God. We need to be humbled and emptied of self in our time of prayer, realizing our need for the formative hand of God to change us and shape us into the image of His Son.

This does not happen quickly, but over time and through fellowship, Jesus Himself works into us the things that are well-pleasing in His sight.

Be encouraged to take up the mantle of daily fellowship with the Father today. He loves you and cannot wait to be with you.

A Word To The Remnant—A Prophetic Company of Believers Is Rising

The Lord is calling out a prophetic company of people as we move into 2026 and beyond.These will be ones who hear His word because He will speak to their hearts.

This is something new.

Many have not experienced what they are about to encounter. The word of the Lord will begin to come to their hearts and minds.

When you pray, the Lord says, “I will drop My word into your heart, and you will feel compelled to release it.” For many, it will be through spoken words to and over people, whether in a church setting or in the grocery store. You will begin to sense and feel a word from the Lord.

When this happens, you need to speak it, for this is the Holy Spirit opening a door for you to obey in the moment toward the one who needs the word.

Others will sense these words coming to them, and they will need to write them down.

Share them online.

Share them with family and friends.

Release the words He speaks, “for in doing this, you are becoming obedient and setting in place the tools and messages I need to reach those upon whom I am about to move,” says the Lord.

If it means recording a video, do it. If He moves upon you to write, do it. Move without fear and let go of any apprehension about what others will think of you.

The message the Holy Spirit puts in your mind is intended to reach people, and in some instances, it serves a particular purpose. You must let go of the fear of man and not be bound by what others perceive about you. The Lord is doing a new work, so let Him complete it in you.

He is not calling you to be the most eloquent or the smartest person in the room. The Holy Spirit does not need the influence and wisdom of man to reach those He is seeking to reach. What the Lord needs from you as you sense this new experience is someone who will have a willing heart and an obedient hand.

For some, this could mean that the Lord gives you very specific words for another person, and you may feel led to text them the message. This will be hard for some of you to do, but be obedient and be ready. Do not add to what the Lord gives you. Let it stand for what it is and allow it to stand on its own merit. God’s word never returns void.

You may have never considered yourself someone who would walk in a prophetic company because of the teaching that has been done about prophetic people. However, in these last days, the Lord is waking up His Remnant and pressing His thoughts and words into their spirits to prepare the way for harvest before the return of Jesus. His return is soon.

As you release these words the Holy Spirit plants into your mind, they will reach God’s intended target, and He will prepare the way for a massive harvest.

The harvest will come on a large scale, but it will also come to individuals—one person at a time. This is one reason it is vital for the Remnant to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as they sense Him placing a word in their minds.

The word God gives you may be the exact word that a specific person needs to hear in order to come back into alignment with the Lord and become prepared for the return of Jesus.

This is a massive release of people into the prophetic company all across the earth.

Be ready.

Do not be afraid to step into something that feels new.

The Lord is about to use you as His mouthpiece to reach people, and for many, this is something you never even saw coming.

Let me pray for you…

“Abba, use and equip those You are calling and about to call in this hour. Let their hearts become open to something they have never experienced before. Holy Spirit, let Your presence become more real to them and instill in them a ready and obedient heart to perform what You ask of them. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Psalm 45:1 NKJV—My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.Remnant, allow your tongue to be the pen of a ready writer!

Something is happening in the spirit realm—a shaking, shifting, and sifting is taking place.

Those old systems you used to live by are being replaced.

They are being torn down so the dreams of My heart may take root.

What you have thought was the end is only the start. Watch and see and do not fear.

My heart is releasing a sound in the earth. The sound is those who lift their voices in private before they open their mouths in public.

Those who place great value on the secret place of prayer will be the ones I use. They will be voices of influence. Their greatest spiritual influence will come from the fire released in the secret place with Me, but this only prepares their voices for the moments when I choose to release their words into the fray.

These moments will be ones of impact and anointing that rattle the gates of the enemy. His structures will fall as I release My army into the battle.

It is never a battle with man, flesh, and blood. The battle is spiritual as My intercessors intercede over cities and nations.

Sometimes you think so little of your prayers, when you are actually influencing outcomes of situations weightier than you can imagine.

These are My prayer warriors doing battle for My Kingdom!

They seek My face and honor My presence, so I will honor them with an outpouring of My Spirit. Even now I am working and establishing things which will not be uprooted, though they will be tried with wind and fire.

So rise up prayer warriors!

I need watchmen on the wall now!

Those called to prayer and spiritual influence through the Spirit must get into position.

Prayer warriors, rise up and prepare to fight in prayer over the plans and purposes of My heart for 2026.

Do not neglect the call and unction I have placed in your life. Through the busyness of daily activities, do not allow My press in your heart to go unanswered.

Lean into your prayer.

As you pray in the Spirit, it is intercession over your city, your family, your nation, My callings, My open doors to My people.

My Spirit labors with you in prayer to see the impossible come into the earth realm.

As you pray, worship.

Worship pushes back the darkness.

Worship is your weapon against the thoughts that battle your mind in prayer.

Press into Me in this hour as I release My power through your secret intercession.

Everything that I have spoken into your heart over the years is coming to pass as you pray.

Prayer is your mission.

Prayer is your legacy.

Prayer is your great reward with the honor of My presence graced upon you.

Prayer warriors and intercessors, arise.

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The Lord is calling us back to a place of faithfulness to Him. He is faithful and true. He never breaks a promise. The Lord is sure to keep every good word He has spoken to you or over your life, and Jesus seeks a bride that will be faithful to Him.

It is not enough to have faith; faith is only the beginning. Our deepest faith is transformed into our salvation when it manifests in our lives and becomes faithful to the Lord.

The Bible addresses this faithfulness in the book of Matthew, where Jesus shares a parable about those entrusted with talents (money).

Matthew 25:20-21 NKJV—”So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ [21] His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Becoming faithful to the Lord is important because, as we are faithful, we reflect the Lord’s image. The Holy Spirit creates in us the image of God. This transformation occurs not just because we are His children, but because we choose to act like Him. Faith and faithfulness are closely linked, yet it is entirely possible to believe in God without having true faith.

Hear me in this: Belief in God without faith is possible.

And without faith, God is not pleased with us. Scripture declares that even the demons believe in God and tremble at Him, but that belief does not save. The only belief that saves a person is the one that expresses itself through faithfulness.

Someone might ask, “But what about the simple belief that Paul speaks of in the book of Romans?” Let’s read it together.

Romans 10:8-10 NKJV—But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): [9] that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

There are at least three forms of the word believe, or faith, that Scripture teaches. We often view them only from the perspective of our culture and how we understand belief. But these words are tightly linked, and each time they mean the same thing: belief or faith that DOES something—that takes action.

In this instance, Paul speaks of a faith that places weight on the work of Jesus.

The fact that Jesus died and was resurrected is truth upon which our active faith rests. It is not a belief that simply acknowledges something as real. Faith becomes faithfulness as it actively operates by the truth it knows. Until we operate by that truth, we do not have real faith or faithfulness; we simply have head knowledge that asserts we know God is real. Knowing God is real does not save a man or woman. Salvation comes from recognizing that God is real and that He has done the work needed to bring us to Himself, and then placing the weight of this belief upon the Lord through active faith that trusts Him daily and even moment by moment for salvation.

God does not operate from simple belief. He operates toward us in faithfulness. In the Old Testament, this faithfulness is expressed by the word emunah.

’Emunah (אֱמוּנָה) — em-oo-NAW

Meaning:

• faithfulness

• firmness

• steadiness

• reliability

• fidelity

• a life of steadfast trust that expresses itself in consistent obedience

’Emunah conveys the idea of being steady like a pillar, reliable like a rock, and faithful in one’s covenant commitments.

It is not just believing something—it is being steady, stable, and loyal.

This is how the Lord operates toward us!

Key OT uses

• Exodus 17:12 – Moses’ hands were “steady (emunah).”

Exodus 17:12 NKJV—But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

The picture is of unwavering strength.

Habakkuk 2:4 – “The righteous shall live by his faithfulness (emunah).”

Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV—”Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.

A life of loyal trust in God.

Psalm 33:4 – “All His work is done in faithfulness.”

Psalm 33:4 NKJV—For the word of the LORD is right, And all His work is done in truth.

Psalm 33:4 NLT—For the word of the LORD holds true, and we can trust everything he does.

God is consistent and reliable.

’Emunah is faith that expresses itself in loyal action.

Faith that is accompanied by action is God’s kind of faith! God’s kind of faith always, without fail, expresses itself in action that aligns with what it believes. The fact that God is faithful is rooted in the truth that He acts in benevolence and kindness toward those who love Him. He will fill your life with good things and offer you help. The Lord will be your pillar and rock of strength. He is the reliable One who never changes or wavers. The Lord is always faithful to His covenant commitments in your life.

What God seeks is a man who is after His own heart, a bride that will mirror and reflect His faithful commitment and believe in Him, not with words that often prove meaningless, but with actions of steady, consistent love that transform us from who we were into who He created us to be.

The bride falls in love with the groom. Generally speaking, the groom is the one who proposes marriage and asks for the hand of the one he loves. Jesus has done this for us.

Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV—Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

His invitation is to come and “take His yoke” upon us. To be yoked together is essentially to become one. He wants us to be one with Him, and as we are, we become like Him. This is why faithfulness is both required and rewarded.

We become like Him: steady, reliable, loyal. Not just believing something, but acting upon what we believe.

The Lord is calling His bride back to this place of faithfulness in Him.

Faithfulness is often seen as mundane, boring, and unchanging. The culture discards faithful people and replaces them with those who are always shifting and changing, looking for the next shiny thing. But God is not like this. He is not after a bride with roving eyes, constantly searching for someone or something that is new and better. The Lord desires that we recognize the power of His steadfast love and commit ourselves to it.

In Matthew 25, when we read about the good and “faithful” servant, the word faithful means this:

pistós = faithful, trustworthy, dependable, loyal, one who can be relied upon.

This is not just having faith; it’s being a person God can trust.

He placed something in your hands, and you were steady with it, allowing it to grow. You kept it safe, watered it, and it multiplied in your hands. This is the faithfulness that the Lord is calling the church back to. It is a faith that manifests in our lives and grows, not only in our own hearts and for our own benefit, but also for the increase of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God hinges on people who seek the Lord and act upon their faith in Him.

They become the faithful ones who expand the Kingdom with their words, actions, thoughts, and reliance upon the Master. If you want to see the increase of God in every area of life, become one who is faithful with the little and joyful over what the Lord has placed in your hands.

God rewards faithfulness because it is an expression of our trust in the power of His name. Our faithfulness reflects our belief that the Lord will be faithful to us.

Notice that the master did NOT reward the steward who did not produce.

Matthew 25:24-28 NKJV—”Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. [25] And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ [26] “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. [27] So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. [28] Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

Let’s take note of the difference between faith and faithfulness.

• The Greek word, pistis → faith (the belief)

• The Greek word, pistós → faithful (the lifestyle that flows from belief)

We must cultivate a lifestyle that flows from the belief in our hearts.

Without a change in direction and life, we are not walking in faith; we are also not being people who are faithful.

Jesus isn’t praising: “Well done, good and believing servant.”

He is praising: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Faith that is not acted upon does not receive the reward.

In the Kingdom of God, increase is connected to faithfulness. Faithfulness in the kingdom produces increase. God is pleased with this. It is in the nature of God to increase Himself in our lives in every single area without fail.

And the church must return to a place of wholehearted belief and faithfulness to the Lord if we are going to experience what He is seeking to pour out in this last generation. We must be people who seek Him with all our hearts and align our lives with the desires of His will. The church must be those who steadfastly hold onto the things of God and consistently allow the Lord to work His character and nature into us. We are to be those who are closely linked to Him and become one with Him. He must be able to trust us as we trust Him.

For revival to break out and for you to experience a breakthrough in your life, you must be faithful.

Your faith must transform you from the inside out and impact every part of your life. It cannot be merely a list of what you believe to be true about the Lord. Faith and faithfulness are qualities of His nature that we must act upon, allowing them to redirect the course of our lives.

How do we return to a place of faithfulness? How do we get back to a point where the Lord is ready to reward us as good and faithful servants?

You and I must repent our way back into faithfulness.

This does not simply mean saying we are sorry; it means changing our minds and then changing our direction. Faithfulness is something you embrace and allow to manifest in your life. Repentance involves changing your mindset about how you have lived and deciding to let Jesus help you transform through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is why coming to the altar and confessing doesn’t always seem effective, because confession must be more than superficial words. Our confession must stem from a faith that takes action and repents. Our hearts must change direction and begin walking toward the Lord instead of away from Him. Please also understand that Jesus has completed His part of the work and will help you walk in new life, but you must repent. Repentance is a work of the Spirit in our lives that only occurs as we cooperate. You cannot repent if you expect God to do all the work.

God is working to call back His remnant people to a place of faithfulness that He can reward. His desire is to reward, restore, renew, replenish, and refill.

Hear a word from the Lord:

There is a tension to divine expectation that we encounter as we realize the Lord is stirring a dream in our hearts. This tension arises because we feel the dream so close now, in the present. It’s as if it were already accomplished, yet as we look at our lives, nothing seems different. The circumstances have not changed, the healing hasn’t yet occurred, the miracle is still in process, yet in your heart, it feels like today could be the day, and if not today, surely tomorrow.

Forced waiting produces a tension between what we know God is doing and what we see being done.

But friend, never forget that the miracle is growing. Dreams from God are like a pregnancy. From the moment you find out a baby is on the way, there is much joy and celebration. Everyone is happy and expectant about the future life that will be birthed—then the waiting begins. Month after month of expectation, often toward the end of the pregnancy, there will be hospital trips because it feels like today is the day—only to be sent back home again.

This is the divine dream of God and the pathway of purpose He so often leads us down: waiting, hoping, expecting, tension.

Friend, be assured the birth of your dream is coming! Just as a baby refuses to stay in the womb, your dream will also refuse to remain there. There comes a time for birthing.

Although a mother may not have given birth yet, there are clear signs that the miracle is on the way. In the same way, the Bible says that God speaks of the future, yet unborn, and calls it into existence.

Romans 4:16-18 TPT—The promise depends on faith so that it can be experienced as a grace-gift, and now it extends to all the descendants of Abraham. This promise is not only meant for those who obey the law, but also to those who enter into the faith of Abraham, the father of us all. [17] That’s what the Scripture means when it says: “I have made you the father of many nations.” He is our example and father, for in God’s presence he believed that God can raise the dead and call into being things that don’t even exist yet. [18] Against all odds, when it looked hopeless, Abraham believed the promise and expected God to fulfill it. He took God at His word, and as a result, he became the father of many nations. God’s declaration over him came to pass: “Your descendants will be so many that they will be impossible to count!”

Tension arises because what God dreams for your life is already released in the heavenly realm, but in our life they are still in the spiritual womb.

In the spirit, the dreams of God are already active. They are moving at full force toward His desire for your life. The divine tension expresses itself in longings for what we do not yet see and an extreme desire for more. His active dream for your life, released from the recesses of His heart, runs up against the seen reality in your life.

If viewed through the lens of emotion, our most valuable God dreams could lead us to discouragement because we do not yet see them becoming reality, but the dreams of God’s heart for you were never designed to be seen through human emotion. Clarity and hope come when we see our lives through the lenses of faith.

Romans 4:19 TPT—In spite of being nearly one hundred years old when the promise of having a son was made, his faith was so strong that it could not be undermined by the fact that he and Sarah were incapable of conceiving a child.

Abraham is the best example. God called him to go out into a place he did not know or recognize. It would be years before any hint of the promise from God began to unfold in his life, yet every step on the journey was one ordained by the Lord Himself. Abraham had an incredible encounter with the living God that left him marked for a lifetime. But what God uses to mark us, seen through the lens of the present, will always lead to an Ishmael instead of an Isaac.

In moments of discouragement, when the promises of God or the prophetic words of God seem so distant from what is happening in your life, you may be tempted to do or say something to produce the promise on your own. Friend, be aware that your attempts will lead to nothing but heartache. Ishmaels are the product of our own effort to accomplish a work that only the Lord can produce.

Isaac is the son of promise. He is the one that comes through the inability of our lives and the weakness of our own circumstances, but born from the strength of God. The promise of Isaac, your purpose and dream from God, often produces laughter as it did in Sarah because the magnitude of His word seems completely unattainable. Still, Abraham is the greatest example because he never stopped believing what God promised, even though it took much longer than he thought it would.

Romans 4:20-21 TPT—He never stopped believing God’s promise, for he was made strong in his faith to father a child. And because he was mighty in faith and convinced that God had all the power needed to fulfill His promises, Abraham glorified God!

We have to be like Abraham. We must believe that God will do what He promised and that the waiting time is producing in us a valuable determination. God’s promise for you is running toward you and growing every minute. It will come to pass.

It’s as if the Lion of Judah Himself is pursuing you with a determination to overtake you—and He will at just the right moment.

I remember as a teenager who had just given his life to Jesus, receiving a word from Scripture that altered everything about my life. The Lord used a passage I had never read before to mark me and begin a process of shaping me.

Habakkuk 2:1-3 TLB—I will climb my watchtower now and wait to see what answer God will give to my complaint. [2] And the Lord said to me, “Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others. [3] But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!

I will never forget the emotion and happiness I felt when the Lord spoke this passage into my heart and ignited a purpose I had never had before. It was like water to my soul and fire in my heart. Like many, I thought surely this would happen very quickly and the plan of God for my life would begin to plainly unfold. Somehow I bypassed what the passage actually said, “slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.”

Over the years, this passage has molded and shaped my passions and desires. It has walked with me through dark moments and steadied me in storms. Other times, this same passage has brought the pain of unfinished promises that seemed like they would never actually happen. But something about the word of God, released in your heart, exposes a willingness to trust when everything looks bleak and lifeless.

I could never escape the last sentence, “they will not be overdue a single day!” If I have repeated that sentence once, I’ve said it 1,000 times.

Promises are not measured in months. They are measured in years. Sometimes decades.

Many in Scripture faced the promise process: a word given—a promise spoken. Excitement. Waiting—often coupled with difficult situations designed to build a foundation of character that will undergird and support the magnitude of what God is going to bring about through the promise. For Elisha, it meant serving Elijah. For Joseph, it meant being sold into slavery, wrongly accused, and serving time in prison. For Jesus, it would cost His entire life.

Each of these and more went through times of pain, loss, and discouragement on the way to the promise—but the promise did come. Elisha found the God of Elijah. Joseph was promoted to second in command over the same nation that imprisoned him, and Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God.

The birth of your promise will happen. Let the process do its job.

Friend, one thing is for sure: if the Lord spoke it, the promise is running toward you. Right now, it is speeding toward you like a hungry lion, roaring with potential and destiny. Do not lose heart in the tension of the wait.

If this episode has encouraged or inspired you, please help us reach other people with it!

This is our mission: To raise, build, and encourage Strong Faith in the Remnant and see them rise up with boldness and pursue the mission of God for their lives.

Help us in this mission by SHARING this episode on your social media.

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Obedience is the real test of our faith.

All the problems and spiritual attacks in the world cannot and will not separate us from Jesus. They do not have the authority, power, or spiritual resolve to wear us down enough to pull us from our life-giving relationship with the Lord.

The choice to obey the Master separates those who walk with Him from those who pause along the pathway to promise.

Jesus has created a road for you to walk. It is a path that ultimately leads to greater intimacy and communion with Him, and those who walk the path also inherit the promises of God. We fully realize the reward of our faith when we follow Jesus in complete obedience.

The enemy of our souls only needs to place something in front of us that makes us pause on our walk. Many will never step into overt sin or wander away from the Lord in their belief about who He is. However, these same individuals, if they simply pause along the road and stop fully following Jesus, will find themselves in a place where the Lord used to be, but is no longer.

Jesus is always moving, walking, and leading. He is on a journey to take us to the place of promise and obedience He created for us. When we stop obeying Him, even if it is slight, it breaks our union with Him.

All disobedience to Jesus is sin. Sin separates us from God.

Jesus clears the confusion when He states in the book of John 14:15 NKJV, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” It really is that simple.

What separates those who fully inherit the promises of God from those who do not is their willingness to love Him in obedience. This is the test of our love.

The book of Hebrews gives a clear picture of this idea of separation by disobedience.

Hebrews 4:1-11 NKJV—Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. [2] For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. [3] For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. [4] For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; [5] and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” [6] Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, [7] again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” [8] For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. [9] There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. [10] For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. [11] Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

Friend, Jesus desires so deeply to walk with you. He wants you to abide and live in His tangible presence. For this to be the reality of your life, obedience is the requirement. Again I say, disobedience in its simplest form is just pausing along the way while the Lord continues to walk on.

Disobedience causes you to live where God was, instead of living where He is.

Often, we are fooled by the memory of how God delivered us or brought us through our troubles, and we pause for reflection, holding those places as the high-water mark of God’s work in our lives. All the while, Jesus declares and yearns to lead us into more, greater, and deeper places of intimacy in His presence.

We find, then, that obedience is much less of a list of commands and much more of an intimate walk with the One who loves us and takes the time to extend His presence into our lives.

Jesus never leaves us.

When we feel distant, it is because we paused along the way.

My prayer is that you stop viewing obedience to Christ as a legalistic ritual that you can check off a list. Obedience is the highest privilege of any relationship. When we obey the spoken or unspoken expectations in a relationship, trust is formed. This trust leads to deeper intimacy and the privilege of knowing the One we are in relationship with.

Obviously, I am not saying that all the expectations that come from earthly relationships are always correct. Some have found themselves in toxic or harmful relationships with wrong, ungodly, and hurtful expectations.

But the relationship we have with Jesus is built upon His perfect love and His perfect expectations. What He expects of us leads us to the highest version of ourselves. He is always seeking to implant His will into our hearts, which the Bible calls “good, pleasing, and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

Friend, there is something good the Lord is pursuing in your life.

Follow Him with abandon and obedience and see if you don’t find the deepest yearning of your heart fulfilled in Him.

This is our mission: To raise, build, and encourage Strong Faith in the Remnant and see them rise up with boldness and pursue the mission of God for their lives.

Help us in this mission by SHARING this post and following our podcasts!

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There is a cry rising in my spirit in this hour:

It’s time to wake up.

It’s time to rise up.

It’s time to encounter the living God again.

Not just for ourselves—but for the next generation.

Recently I heard Pastor Russell Johnson say, “We owe the next generation an encounter with the living God.” When I heard those words, something leaped inside of me. I found myself saying out loud, “Yes, Jesus. That’s what we need.”

Those words have not left me.

They have pushed a question deep into my heart that I can’t shake:

What am I doing—personally—to make room for an encounter with the living God so the next generation can encounter Him too?

That’s what this whole conversation is about.

We Owe Them More Than Stories

I grew up around the move of the Holy Spirit—Pentecostal roots, the gifts of the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, healings, the presence of God. None of that was strange to me.

As a teenager, when Jesus saved me at fourteen, I had a burning hunger for His presence. I used to read old books I found from my great-grandmother—testimonies of miracles, healing, evangelistic crusades where people were saved, delivered, filled with the Holy Spirit. Those stories stoked the fire in my heart.

But somewhere along the way, something shifted in the wider church.

We went from powerful moves of God—salvations, healings, mass repentance, deliverance—to… almost silence. Not because God stopped moving, but because many stopped pursuing what it takes to live in continual encounter.

A generation stopped tending the fire.

We stopped putting wood on the altar:

• Sacrificial prayer

• Costly obedience

• Persistent hunger for God’s presence

And when you stop feeding the fire, the embers begin to die.

We cannot do that to the generation coming behind us.

They don’t just need our sermons, our nice church services, or our Christian culture.

They need a living example of what it looks like when a man or woman truly encounters God.

The Secret of Encounter: Travail and Obedience

John Hyde—known as “Praying Hyde”—once said:

“The secret of revival is travailing prayer.”

I believe that.

If we want a genuine encounter with God, it ultimately comes down to this simple question:

Am I willing to pour my guts out in prayer before God?

Not a token prayer.

Not “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer.

But the kind of prayer that consumes you.

Prayer that lays your life on the altar as a living sacrifice—holy and acceptable to God. Prayer that refuses to be conformed to this world but is transformed by the renewing of the mind. Prayer that positions you to discern and live out the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

And true prayer always leads somewhere:

• To obedience

• To surrender

• To humility

• To a pre-decided “Yes, Lord”

Not “Yes” after I hear the assignment.

“Yes” before I even know what it will cost.

That is where encounters are born.

Seek First the Kingdom—For Real

Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God…”

It sounds simple, but it cuts deep.

Seeking the Kingdom first means:

• Asking, “Lord, what are You doing right now?”

• Letting His priorities rearrange my priorities

• Saying, “Use my life to speak to this generation. Let me be a voice, not just an observer.”

People are hungry for truth.

They are starving for the real thing.

The truth sets people free—but someone has to speak it.

So I have to ask myself—and I invite you to ask with me:

• Am I seeking God first, or fitting Him in?

• Am I seeking what He wants above what I want?

• Am I willing to say, “Here is my yes. Use me however You want”?

Because Jesus also said:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst… for they will be filled.”

Not might be.

Will be.

The real issue is not, “Will God fill me?”

The real issue is, “Am I actually hungry enough to pursue Him?”

Stop Comparing Your Walk—Start Obeying

One of the enemy’s favorite tactics is comparison.

“I don’t pray like them.”

“I can’t get up as early as them.”

“I’m not as bold, as smart, as deep, as spiritual…”

I’ve been there.

I’ve looked at men and women I respect—intercessors, revivalists, pastors—and thought, I could never do what they do. Social media amplifies this. We see highlight reels of other people’s devotion and feel disqualified in our own.

One day, God confronted that in my heart.

In prayer, I sensed Him say:

“I don’t want to have someone else’s relationship with you. I want to have My relationship with you.”

That changed me.

I can never be Lou Engle.

I can never be Lester Sumrall or Smith Wigglesworth.

And I’m not called to be.

But I can be fully mine—fully His.

I can be a man who walks in obedience with the exact measure God has placed on my plate.

Whatever God puts on your plate—that’s what He’s asking you to steward.

Don’t disqualify yourself because you don’t pray exactly like someone else, fast like someone else, or serve like someone else. Start where you are. Be obedient with what you can do right now.

God isn’t asking for perfection.

He’s asking for your yes.

What Is an Encounter, Really?

We make the word “encounter” sound mystical and complicated. But at its core, an encounter with God is simply:

Drawing near to Him—and letting Him draw near to you.

Scripture says:

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

That is encounter.

Sometimes that looks like a deep, quiet awareness of His presence as you read His Word.

Sometimes it’s tears while you worship.

Sometimes it’s electricity in your body or overwhelming joy.

Sometimes it’s conviction and repentance.

We don’t get to script how God moves.

But we do get to choose this: Will I draw near?

Prayer is the ignition point. Not the length, not the method, not the perfect structure. Just this:

Go be with Him until you sense His release.

For me, I’m on a personal quest:

“How much prayer will it take to live in continual personal breakthrough and personal revival?”

That’s not about earning God’s presence.

It’s about aligning my hunger with His heart.

If that means getting up earlier, lingering longer, or praying with more intensity—I want to do it. Not to impress God, but to posture my life for encounter.

Everyone Is Needed in This Hour

This part has been burning in me:

Every age, every race, every tribe, every tongue is needed to build the Kingdom of God.

You are needed.

• Where are the praying grandmothers and grandfathers?

• Where are the praying moms and dads?

• Where are the aunts and uncles who will stand in the gap?

We need you.

The Kingdom of God needs your voice, your intercession, your example. The next generation needs to see what it looks like when a 16-year-old burns for Jesus—and what it looks like when a 76-year-old is still contending in prayer.

I can look back at multiple moments—encounters with God that have marked my life. Those encounters have held me when I wanted to quit. They’ve reminded me, “If God did it before, He can do it again.” They’ve anchored me in seasons of shaking.

Your encounters will do the same—not just for you, but for those who watch your life.

When you encounter God, you are never the same—

and the people around you can’t stay the same either.

Jesus is coming. Sooner now than ever before. This is not the hour to sit back and coast. This is not the time to believe the lie, “They don’t need me. My voice doesn’t matter.”

If you don’t say what God puts on your heart—who will?

A Practical Challenge: Do Something With This

You can read all of this and say, “Amen, that’s good,” and still stay exactly the same.

But I believe the Holy Spirit is pressing us in this hour:

Wake up. Rise up. Do something.

So here’s a simple challenge:

This week, intentionally pursue an encounter with God.

Pick at least one of these and actually do it:

• Set aside extra time for prayer.
  Go beyond your normal. Ten more minutes. Thirty more. An hour. Whatever God leads—but stretch.

• Change your environment.
  Get alone with God in a room, your car, a park—somewhere you can focus and be honest.

• Pray the Word.
  Take a passage (Psalms, Ephesians, Romans 8) and turn it into prayer line by line.

• Turn on worship and fully engage.
  Don’t just listen—sing, lift your hands, kneel, weep, rejoice.

• Pray in the Spirit.
  If you have a prayer language, use it. Let the Holy Spirit pray through you and set your heart on fire again.

The point is not the method.

The point is movement.

If you will move a little toward God, He will move much toward you.

He is incredibly faithful to respond to hunger, obedience, and simple, childlike faith.

If You Don’t Know Jesus Yet

Maybe as you read this, something in your heart is burning, but you’ve never actually surrendered your life to Jesus.

An encounter with God starts here:

• Believe that Jesus died for your sins.

• Believe that He rose from the grave on the third day.

• Confess Him as Lord with your mouth.

• Turn from your old life and begin to follow Him.

You don’t have to have perfect words. Just a sincere heart.

Start where you are. Call on His name. Ask Him to forgive you, save you, and lead you. Then find a Bible-believing church that loves Jesus and begin building your life on Him.

If you have questions or need someone to stand with you, you can reach out to me at larry@strongfaith.co. I’d love to connect.

Final Word

We owe the next generation more than good church services and Christian clichés.

We owe them a living example of what it looks like to know God, walk with God, and encounter God.

So here’s my prayer—for you and for me:

Lord, let a raging fire from Your Holy Spirit burn in us.

Birth a hunger for Your presence that we cannot control.

Wake us up. Use us as living sacrifices that burn with Your love and glory.

Make our lives an encounter that points the next generation straight to You.

If this resonates with you, share it with someone who needs to be reminded: You are needed. Your prayers matter. Your yes matters.

If this episode has encouraged or inspired you, please help us reach other people with it!

This is our mission: To raise, build, and encourage Strong Faith in the Remnant and see them rise up with boldness and pursue the mission of God for their lives.

Help us in this mission by SHARING this episode on your social media.

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I truly believe we are living in one of the most critical moments of spiritual history. And I’m thankful you’re walking this journey with me—choosing to follow the Lord, choosing to arise, choosing to say, “I will wake up and follow what God is doing in my life.”

This episode is a call to awakening, alignment, and boldness. It is a call to live as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, echoing the very heart and voice of heaven into the world around us.

Awakening as Ambassadors of the Kingdom

I begin by sharing a simple but urgent truth:

The people of God cannot afford to sleep.

We are surrounded by voices—from culture, from our flesh, and from the enemy—trying to dull our spiritual senses. But Jesus is calling us higher. He’s calling us to stand in our assignment as ambassadors for His kingdom, living and speaking in a way that reflects heaven on earth.

Just as Jesus only spoke what He heard from the Father, I talk about how we are meant to become echoes of heaven—not repeating our own opinions or desires, but declaring the heart of God with clarity and courage.

Hearing and Speaking What Heaven Is Saying

One of the foundational Scriptures I highlight is:

Matthew 10:27—“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.”

This is the pattern:

1. We hear Him in the secret place.

2. We carry His words into the public places.

3. We release the kingdom everywhere we go.

That means your “housetop” moments may not look like a stage or a microphone. They could happen:

• Around your family dinner table

• At your workplace

• In conversations with friends

• In a grocery store aisle

• Or through a simple Scripture shared on social media

Anywhere you carry His voice becomes a place where heaven touches earth.

Moral Clarity in a Confused Culture

In this episode, I also address the moral convictions we must be unafraid to echo.

Not because they’re political. Not because they’re controversial. But because they are biblical—and heaven’s truth has not changed.

I speak plainly:

➡️ Abortion is wrong. Innocent life matters to God.

➡️ Marriage is still between one man and one woman. This is God’s design.

➡️ Homosexuality is not God’s plan. Scripture is clear, and love calls us to truth.

And I also talk about the personal holiness that shapes our witness:

• Guarding our speech

• Avoiding curse words

• Refusing drunkenness or any substance that clouds our mind

• Pursuing purity in conduct, attitude, and lifestyle

We cannot echo heaven if our lives contradict heaven’s message.

Maintaining a Living Connection to God

To walk in this kind of clarity and boldness, our hearts must stay connected.

That means living a lifestyle of:

• Prayer

• The Word of God

• Repentance

• Listening for the Holy Spirit

• Yielding to Jesus daily

Our effectiveness as ambassadors flows directly from our secret place with God. Everything Jesus spoke publicly, He heard privately. The same must be true of us.

Releasing the Kingdom Everywhere We Go

One of the core themes of this episode is the phrase: “On earth as it is in heaven.” We weren’t saved just to escape earth—we were saved to transform it.

I talk about what it looks like to release the kingdom of God into:

• Our families

• Our marriages

• Our children

• Our workplaces

• Our communities

• Our platforms

• Our digital spaces

Whenever you bring the truth of God into a situation, heaven invades that place.

Boldness Like the Early Church

This message carries a call to courage.

Just as the early church prayed, “Lord, grant to your servants boldness,” I pray that over you in the episode. Boldness is not a personality trait—it is a work of the Holy Spirit inside of us.

God is raising up a remnant that will not back down from truth, that will not compromise, and that will not stay silent when heaven is speaking.

Practical Ways to Echo Heaven

I give several real-world ways we can live out this calling:

1. Speak what God shows you in prayer

2. Share Scripture boldly on social media

3. Declare truth in conversations at work or home

4. Refuse to align with cultural trends that contradict Scripture

5. Stand for righteousness with grace and conviction

6. Live holy in speech and conduct

7. Let your everyday interactions become your “housetop moments”

You don’t need a microphone. You need a mouth yielded to heaven.

A Call to Alignment and Awakening

At the heart of this episode is a simple message:

Align with heaven. Not with culture. Not with feelings. Not with the flesh. Everything changes when we choose His voice above all others.

I close the episode with:

• A prayer for boldness

• A call to stand firm in truth

• A reminder that your voice matters in God’s plan

• An invitation to share this message to awaken others

• And gratitude for every listener who is co-laboring with me to reach this generation for Jesus

My prayer is that this message stirs deep within you. That it awakens you. That it clarifies your assignment. That it pushes you to rise as an ambassador for the kingdom.

This generation desperately needs to hear the voice of heaven—and God has chosen us to echo it.

Thank you for listening, sharing, supporting, and standing with me.

Let’s continue to echo heaven together.

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If this podcast has encouraged you and stirred your heart to seek the Lord, would you help me reach more people with this message? Subscribe to the podcast and share this episode on your social media or email the link to a friend. Together we can help people be raised up, built up, and encouraged to pursue God’s presence more than ever before.

I hear the Spirit of the Lord saying over and over, “I’m not finished with you yet!”

In the spirit realm, there is shifting and movement. Something is taking place, and the Lord is preparing to do a work in His people. Where you thought the time was up and the plan was complete is only the starting point.

You have no idea the magnitude of the Lord’s work and plan for the next season. With God, there is always a next. He is creating ways and means where they currently do not exist. So what does the Remnant need to do in this hour? We need to prepare ourselves.

We, the people of God, need to spend our time soaking in His presence and seeking His face for an outpouring in our lives, allowing the Holy Spirit to renew strength and vitality within us.

People of God, the time to make things ready is NOW!

The kingdom of God is enlarging and moving, and our part is to continue the work of the Kingdom. As the Lord prepares and clears pathways of blessing, outpouring, and salvation, our role is to faithfully act and sow His Word as we always have.

This is not the time to stop and simply watch. We need to awaken to see what the Lord is doing, and with a watchful eye, a working hand, and life-giving words, keep ourselves engaged in the business of the Kingdom. The book of Mark contains a passage that speaks to what we must do in this hour.

Mark 4:26-29 NKJV—And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, [27] and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow; he himself does not know how. [28] For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. [29] But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

We are ambassadors in the Kingdom of God. This is a new mindset for many. The fact that we are actually invested with authority and given power through the Holy Spirit to speak words of life over dead situations and expect them to rise up is significant. This is what He has committed to the church.

It is a message of power and reconciliation. We are drawing the lost with every word we say, as we echo His words over our lives, families, and situations. God is creating a harvest from your words as you plant His words in the soil of your life.

From the previous scriptures in this chapter, we know that the seed being sown and spoken of is the Word of God. How easy it is to forget to sow the seed in and over your life. The church must take greater care to sow life instead of thinking and speaking death. As you read scripture, you find that the kingdom has always hinged on the spoken word of God, and for this reason alone, Satan wants to silence you.

Mark declares that the Kingdom is like a man scattering seed on the ground. The ground represents our hearts. From the previous parable, Jesus makes this clear. What does the Bible say regarding our hearts? Scripture teaches us that out of the heart flow all the issues of our lives. Our heart is the starting point for everything that happens in our lives. Sowing the words of the King into and over our hearts not only affects our present mindset and thinking, but also begins to shape our actions and abilities. His words spoken from our mouths influence future events and outcomes as they change the makeup of our hearts from which the issues of life flow.

Sowing the Word of the Kingdom initiates a process of growth in your spirit and in your heart, and as long as you keep sowing the Word, God is not finished with you yet! The word you’ve sown simply sprouts and grows. I love how the scripture says, “sleep by night and rise by day.” It means that every day, something is happening in your spirit man whether you sense it or not. The Word is working, growing, strengthening, producing, sprouting, and multiplying. God set it up this way.

For those who have faced hardships, loss, disconnection, and the pain of suffering in various areas of their lives, the word of the Kingdom is at work right now. Day by day, and night by night, what you have sown is growing. Do not stop sowing the Word in your heart!

We often cannot see the effects of our faith until the time of harvest. We cannot see the potential and the groundwork for life change that is taking place as we remain faithful to sow the Word, pray, seek God, worship, and release the Kingdom of God by faith.

This word has been resonating in my spirit for days now—stay faithful.

There are many distractions that seek to pull you away from simple faithfulness. Remnant, hear me in this. It isn’t that the devil will pull you from Jesus, but that by drawing back from your faithfulness to seek the Lord, seeds stop being planted. This work of harvest is a cooperative effort. It is you and the Holy Spirit partnering together to see the multiplication of harvest begin to change the direction of your life for the good.

Faithfulness touches God’s heart, I believe. When a man or woman lives with a heart of faith to do what pleases God, getting alone with Him when no one else sees and speaking over their lives when no one else hears, God always sees it. He is drawn to those who will sow in faithfulness.

I would say that there are many who have sown their seed, letting go of precious, valuable seeds when it seemed like nothing was happening. Your heart was sorrowful, and you did not see the end result of what you were doing. The promise seemed so distant that it felt like nothing. But God saw you. God heard you. God was moving when you didn’t see Him or feel Him.

The Holy Spirit was cooperating with your obedience and faithfulness when it was hard to remain faithful. Now the reward is close!

Listen to what the book of Psalms says about this time in our lives.

Psalm 126:5-6 NKJV—Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy. [6] He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.

Let’s read it in the Passion Translation as well.

Psalm 126:5-6 TPT—Those who sow their tears as seeds will reap a harvest with joyful shouts of glee. [6] They may weep as they go out carrying their seed to sow, but they will return with joyful laughter and shouting with gladness as they bring back armloads of blessing and a harvest overflowing!

Did you hear what it said? “Armloads of blessing and a harvest overflowing!” This is what we should expect. Don’t let your focus be swayed. The harvest is coming. The harvest is ripening. The harvest for many is here!

The Book of Mark teaches that the earth yields crops by itself. What the scripture means is that once you sow the life-giving word into your heart, an unstoppable process begins. The soil of our hearts and lives begins to sprout with life. First, the blade—almost invisible at first—the harvest begins like a tender baby, easily broken. We must continue to water it with faith and sprinkle it with more life-giving seed. Then, the head begins to form, and you can see that something is happening. With joy, you begin to sense that God is fulfilling His promise. Harvest no longer seems like a dream. You start to awaken to a new reality that something is changing in the spirit. After that, the full grain appears in the head of the wheat. It is ready.

I believe many in the Remnant are at this point now.

We can see that something has shifted, and awakening is occurring. Seeds are still growing, changing moment by moment. Day by day, the Lord is enlarging and multiplying the effects of what you have sown in the dark of night. Through your prayers, faith, and declarations of the kingdom word, growth is happening, and you have reason to take up joy!

Let me draw your attention to Mark’s last verse in this passage.

Mark 4:29 TPT—“Then, when the grain is ripe, he immediately puts the sickle to the grain, because harvest time has come.”

Notice the word “immediately.” Jesus won’t wait when harvest time comes. This is why we MUST STAY READY. It can be easy to experience great joy as you see the seeds growing and notice the life change occurring. However, do not focus solely on the present, because even the joy of what is taking place is no match for the power of the harvest that will come. The harvest will be huge—multiplied by the tears you’ve sown and the words you’ve spoken. Your faith, which has been tested, will be found ready to carry armloads of blessing, favor, and reward. What is the greatest reward of our faith? It is to see and carry what we have believed for.

Friend, Jesus is about to put in the sickle.

What I have felt from the Lord is that something is happening now in the unseen realm. This word is meant to encourage you to press on and press in. Friend, keep moving forward in your faithfulness and work.

The Holy Spirit has been speaking to my heart that “blocks are being moved into place—ready for construction. He says, “you will see that I do a quick work!”

Again I say, when harvest comes, it moves fast, so be ready.

The Holy Spirit is communicating that, “the heavens are moving and shifting on your behalf. Do not think that I am done. NO! I have not even started yet!”

Listen to the closing part of this prophetic word from the Lord. It is meant for our encouragement.

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If this podcast has encouraged you and stirred your heart to seek the Lord, would you help me reach more people with this message? Subscribe to the podcast and share this episode on your social media or email the link to a friend. Together we can help people be raised up, built up, and encouraged to pursue God’s presence more than ever before.