Category: Shaking the Heavens

When an issue comes up we typically act quickly to solve the problem, to take away the pain. We sweep the dirt under the rug and never deal with the root of the problem. As the roots grow deeper, they cause more issues. “His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” For generations, we have been praying this prayer, and for generations we have not seen this happen on a global scale. Yes, for many in their personal lives they have seen kingdom principles manifest, but Jesus says to pray “on earth,” not just our personal lives. 

We are in a time now where everyone’s life has been uprooted in some way, in income, safety, health, food, job, socializing, everything we thought that was in this world is truly not stable. For many, all of their roots have been ripped out of the ground and they are left with nothing but fear, anxiety, as well as emotional and physical pain because what they thought was their life was torn away. When we look at roots and finding the problem, we find that this weed came in. Covid-19 has made its way through the earth and choked the life out of many and destroyed the livelihoods of many. As any problem we quickly go to survival mode and start removing the weed where it hits us hardest, relieving the problem for a moment but not removing it, like when you get a headache and you take ibuprofen to take the edge off and get you through your day. 

The only way to remove this weed and for life to return to safety is to get to the root and rip it out, leaving no trace of it to grow back. The world and the church have quickly acted to ease the pain, to cover it up and get through this pandemic but the root has not been dealt with. Scientists are working around the clock to find the cure and the governments have done a great job in easing the pain while looking to science to find the cure. Christians have prayed, as they should, and some have fasted, but to no avail. The question is, does Jesus or science (aka the devil) get the glory? I am not saying here that science is completely evil in any way, I believe that science proves how creative our Creator is. But the longer we Christians sit back and let scientists find the answer to Satan’s creation, instead of acting on the power of Christ to cast out this virus, the more people will turn to the world instead of Jesus. 

Jesus Himself said that we would do the same things He does and greater works. Jesus raised the dead, cast out sickness and disease, and fed the multitudes, not by His own hand but having faith and doing what He saw His Father in Heaven do. It’s not until we humble ourselves and come together with Him the way He and His Father are, that we will see His kingdom come and will be done on earth. Sickness, disease, and poverty are not in the kingdom of God, so why do we allow them to be? If we only take care of ourselves, or our church, or our community with the resources that we have, instead of with faith and walking as we see our Father in Heaven walk, how our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ walked, we will not see His kingdom come. 

We have a chance here to show the world Jesus is alive. That His power is still evident today as it was yesterday and will be forever. It can only happen if the faith of His people will rise up. He is the all powerful, the miracle worker, promise keeper. We sing songs about Him, let’s believe in Him and join our faith together and remove this virus from the earth. To Jesus we give the Glory and Honor and all praise!

How many times have you prayed to God for an answer and He put it right in front of you and you didn’t take it? 

Life is rough! Life as a Christian, at times seems even worse. The bible says that we will face trials and tribulations, we will experience hardships, and that we will be chastened by the Lord. All of these, no matter how hard it is, makes us stronger and brings us closer to our Creator. It means He loves us and wants us to rely more on Him and come closer to Him. Many times in our lives we look for answers to things hoping that this problem we have in front of us will have a solution appear so we can get through it, around it, or just make it go away. So many times we find ourselves in these situations and when the answer presents itself we look the other way because it wasn’t the answer we were looking for, it’s not a conventional idea, or it came from someone else and it just wasn’t our idea. His ways are not our ways.

Sometimes we have to look beyond our own understanding and see what God puts in front of us and move on it. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;” Proverbs 3. Some times these solutions show up and it will be something that no one else agrees with or it’s some off the wall idea. Other times it will come from an unlikely place or it presents itself as the first step of a line of steps to get through it. Almost all of the time the solution is requiring you to step out in faith and trust in the Lord. When you rely on God even when it takes you outside of your comfort zone, you find a bigger blessing there.

I have found often in my life the easy way can sometimes lead you down the wrong path, or the long path, relying on yourself instead of God. God is a jealous God and wants to be with us and to seek Him out. The answer will often present itself from the most unlikely of places in a way that you never saw coming. God wants us to get closer and bond with Him and His word and He will use any circumstance to do it, we just have to look for it. Seek and you shall find. Many times God will use people to give you that answer, or you’ll cross paths with something like a billboard or bumper sticker. His answers come in many ways but you have to look for them and always bring it back to His word. His word, like His love is unfailing, and never changes. You can always count on Him to be there because He will never leave you or forsake you. 

We can run to our church leaders looking for the answer but God doesn’t want to give it to them, He wants to give it to you. He wants to hear you and see you seek Him out for the answer, and the great thing is, that He will be with you as you step out and walk the path He gives you. One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever had is that God won’t tell you something He doesn’t want you to do. He gives it to you, to pray and move on. It’s not how other people react that matters, it’s your obedience to what God wants you to do. Sometimes He is testing your faith and other times it is something that needs done. Regardless, it’s your obedience and act of faith that God wants to see.

The answers always present themselves if you look for it, the outcome is up to you and what you do with it.

Lord, forgive us for looking to ourselves instead of You. Help us to see the answers in front of us. Help us to know your voice and accept the wisdom you give us. Increase our faith to act obediently on the path You put in front of us. Make Your steps clear that we can walk in Your footprints. You are the mighty living God that desires us. You are the jealous God that will do anything to get us. Help us to live with Your heart, see with Your eyes, and walk in Your footsteps. Amen

To all believers in Jesus Christ,

It’s Time for War! A Call to Action!  

Death, sickness, and disease have always weighed heavy on my heart and this virus is all three. I continually cry out to God to see what can be done to stop this and He has responded every time with Matthew 17:20-21 “for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

The church is missing out on a wonderful opportunity to show the love, power, and glory of Jesus. It is great that churches are responding and acting to this pandemic with love and care for the people and seeing people rally together all around the world to help. Our family has been extremely blessed by the church we go to. Through it we are seeing the power of unity and love. There is another way, a more powerful way, to not just get through this but to end this pandemic without more sickness spreading and more people dying. The way is a unified body, coming together in prayer (which I am sure everyone is doing, at least they better), fasting, and communion. 

Throughout the bible, when things looked too big, or too intimidating, or too strong, God’s people went to fasting. Even the demon that couldn’t be cast out by the disciples Jesus said it could only come out by prayer and fasting. “Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening;” When a decree to kill God’s people was in place, Queen Esther and Mordecai requested all Jews fast, God saved His people!

Churches have been asking for this opportunity for a long time. There is a very popular song played by many churches for the past couple years called Oceans. The verse in it says over and over “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, Let me walk upon the waters, Wherever You would call me, Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, And my faith will be made stronger, In the presence of my Savior”. We are in a place that our faith can be made stronger and we have no choice but to put our trust in Him.

Long story short, I truly believe that we can move this mountain (Covid-19/Coronavirus) if we get all of the believers with just a little faith to stand together, pray, fast, and seal it at the end with communion. 

God wants His people to take this seriously and stand by faith because without faith it is impossible to please God. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world. The devil came to steal, kill and destroy and he has done that through Covid19. Jesus came to give life and life more abundantly and He gave us the answer through His word to pray and fast, that we would humble ourselves and become one in unity with Him and each other.

It’s time to mobilize the troops and fight this war head on with the most powerful weapons we have: unity, prayer, fasting, and communion. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world. We have an enemy to conquer and it is trying to steal our livelihood by killing, and destroying everything we have. It is our time to bring Jesus Christ front and center. Our time to humble ourselves and focus on the kingdom of God. 

Please help end this virus and mobilize Christians to take this fight seriously. This mountain cannot be removed by prayer alone, but with prayer and fasting. We can go over the mountain or we can move it. Regardless, I know it will pass, just how many more lives will it take before it does.

The only thing that should be spreading is the prayers of God’s people.

We have an opportunity in front of us to honor and please God in the midst of celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by unifying and obeying His word by faith! 

I tell my kids this all the time, that whatever you do and how you do affects everyone else in the world. We can learn a lot from this virus about ourselves and others around us. And we have been forced into a great opportunity to help figure that out. God made each of us with very unique qualities, although we may be alike in many ways each one of us holds a particular piece of the puzzle for the master plan God has for His kingdom. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing can change the lives of someone around you instantly.

We are seeing this today with this Covid-19 virus (coronavirus), that just being around someone can infect them without ever knowing who or how. Daily, as I am driving to the office or to the store, always praying, I think about when an accident happens how it snowballs down to so many, not just locally, but all around the world. Living in Columbus, OH we have a lot of traffic at times and when one person decides to stop paying attention and gets in an accident they hurt themselves and their family members. If another car is involved they just hijacked another life by slowing them down and causing them to take their time and resources to fix everything. Then traffic starts slowing down and eventually comes to a complete stop and the thousands of other people on the road have just had their life delayed. This snowball effect then goes into the places these people were going whether to work or the store, to pick someone up or make a delivery. It delays delivery drivers hauling toilet paper and delivery times that people and companies were depending on, meetings that people needed to be in, income is lost because they are late for work, and so on. This one little instance that happened on a road in Columbus Ohio now has impacted thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people across the world.

By making the choice to pay attention and think about others more than yourself can make, build, or destroy the world around you. We have watched this virus spread from China to the ends of the earth unknowingly at first then knowingly people made choices that allowed it to spread. Now most of the world is on lockdown with the stay at home orders that have been placed throughout many countries and people are making choices not to obey their governments and allowing the virus to spread even more. Trust God, you hear some say as they disregard their government because it made life inconvenient for them. When, if you step back, you see that God has given us warnings, options, and a way to keep us safe from this virus spreading further. Not to mention that the bible says to obey the government (Romans 13, 1 Peter 2). At what point are you testing God. 

“Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and,‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

Life is a very precious thing and bad choices are killing people. Even though we are in our own little bubble, thinking locally, or in our own little world, we need to think of the effects it has on a global scale. Like this little virus that started in a small area and quickly has spread throughout the world so do our daily choices. If we think outside of the box, humble ourselves and view life through the eyes of, how will my action today affect others and the future, we can change lives for the better, we can build up instead of tearing down. We can bless and not curse. We can spread life, not death.

Father, Forgive us for being a selfish generation that thinks only of themselves. Help me to be humble and think of others before ourselves. Help me to know your will for our life and continually guide us each and every step and breath we take. Your amazing plan is what I want mine to be. Your kingdom come Your will be done here on earth as it is in Heaven. Help us to see others the way You do and walk humbly before You and man that they may see You in me. In Jesus’ precious and mighty name. Amen!