The Prophetic in Purim

     Purim is a Hebrew holiday that celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from annihilation by the devices of the wicked Hamon. The whole story of adventure, love, betrayal, intrigue, and epic clashes between good and evil is found in the book of Esther in the Bible. The players: Vashti-beautiful Queen of the most powerful Ruler at that time; Mordecai-the Hebrew uncle; Haman-the evil one who wants to wipe out the Jews; Esther-Jewish maiden brought to the palace to the harem; King Ahasuerus-powerful ruler of the known world.
     The story opens with King Ahasuerus having a banquet for the princes, nobles and the army leaders. During this time, he calls for Queen Vashti to come and display her beauty. She refused. This made the king angry. So he banned her from his presence. Then came the gathering of the maidens so that the king could find a new queen. Esther who was raised by her uncle Mordecai was brought to the palace. Her uncle admonishes her to keep her heritage quiet. So Esther does not reveal that she is Jewish. But the favor of God's people is upon her and she is moved to the best place in the harem.  She is treated specially by the keeper of the harem. She is given special food and attendents but mostly she is given advice. Now before she could be brought to the king, she was given a twelve month beauty treatment. She was given six months of oil of myrrh and six months of spices and cosmetics.

     Meanwhile, a plot to kill the king is discovered by Mordecai and the plot is overthrown which saves the kings life. Remember this as it will be very important later in the story. Shortly after this Haman rises to power in the kingdom. And he begins to demand deference and worship from those who come in contact with him. But Mordecai who only worships God refuses. So then Haman discovers that Mordecai is a Jew and decides that all Jews must be wiped off the face of the earth. An edict goes forth and the annihilation begins. Esther learns of what is happening from her uncle Mordecai, who tells her that her appointment with her destiny moment is at hand. He tells her that she is not safe as well as any other Jewish person, and asks her to intercede on behalf of her people with the king. Now the choice is more difficult, do nothing and die with the Jews, OR go to the king who has not called you and face death UNLESS he extends his scepter to you. Esther requests prayer and fasting and also states that she and her maidens will pray and fast as well. Then she approaches the king. At this time Haman is having a gallows built to hang Mordecai upon. And then Esther goes to the king, who extends his scepter to her. He offers her up to half his kingdom, and what does she ask for? She asks for the king and Haman to come to a banquet that she has prepared just for them. That night the king could not sleep and he asks for the chronicles be read to him and that is when he hears about the plot that Mordecai had discovered. The next day he has Haman lead  Modecai wearing the king's robes and on the king's horse through the street proclaiming that this is what is done for the man that the king chooses to honor. Then they go to the banquet, and Esther asks them to come back the next night for another banquet. On the second night Queen Esther makes her request for her and her people. The king is so upset that someone should try to hurt the queen goes to the garden. Haman stays to beg for his life. When the king returns the Haman has fallen onto Queen Esther's sofa. The king has him taken away and he is hanged on the gallows that he prepared for Mordecai. The decree is changed and the Jews will not be annihilated but they may seek vengence on their enemies and a great victory is had!

Where is the prophetic in Purim? Understanding the the enemy of our souls was trying to cut off our destiny at the root. He was trying to stop the Messiah from being born. Because if you have no children of Abraham, you have no lineage for the Messiah to come from. But God protected the root of our family tree, the root of the Judeo-Christian heritage.

Oh and ladies, my favorite part of this story is how Esther prepared herself for her role in destiny. She made herself beautiful. A year of beauty treatments to step into place to stop the annihilation of her people. Amazing! God is so good to us. He allows us to rest and just be beautiful! Now how fun is this!

This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and loving the prophetic!

Your Victory Stone

When you need a victory in your life, you need to get your victory stone. Remember when David went against the giant Goliath in the Bible? Remember that he could not wear King Saul's armor but went to the stream to pick out the smooth stone that he would use in his slingshot to fell Goliath? That's where he found his victory stone. Now there are many brooks in Israel. But based on his past experience, David knew where to go to find the exact victory stone that he needed. As a shepherd boy, he knew where the babbling brooks would be that he could bring the sheep to for a clear fresh drink of cool water . And those same babbling brooks would hold the right kind of stone for this particular battle and that would fit his slingshot.

When you are facing a battle in your life, when you need a victory, the Lord will use what you have been through in the past to help you find your victory for the future. Just like David knew how to use a slingshot, and where the babbling brooks were, the Lord will use your past to propel you to that victory.  Your life experiences mean something. Sometimes hidden in the past streams of your life are the very stones that you are looking for to use in this situation. You just have to know where to look so to speak.  For example, you wouldn't be looking for a smooth stone at the top of a volconic mountain. There would only be hard flinty stones with many edges, some jagged. You look for a smooth stone in  a  flowing brook because the water flowing over the stone smooths out the rough edges.

Now my youngest daughter describes me as a scrapper. She says, Momma, you just keep going and fighting while you have an ounce of strength left. You take nothing and make it into something. I heard a spiritual bell ring in my spirit. I thought where did I learn to be such a scrapper. I learned how to make something from nothing because I grew up in poverty. We rarely had food to eat. We used the oven in the kitchen to store telephone books, which was interesting because most of the time we didn't have a telephone. But I learned how to make something from nothing. I learned how to survive. And from that survival instinct, I became familiar with the brook called Don't Give Up. Trust me there are a lot of victory stones in that brook!

Many times as Christians we are looking for what I call prophetic answer to our questions. We want to know what the future holds for our battles. Will I win? Will I be victorious in defeating this giant? But sometimes the simplest answer is to look at the course of our lives and the battles we have already won. The Lord has walked with us through some amazing trials and we have won. Look in the brook where we found our last victory stones. There is probably another one there waiting for us to defeat this problem.

This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and remembering that sometimes the victory stones are hidden in the oven with the phone books!

Called to be an Anna

Recently I heard a friend refer to the Anna anointing: that anointing which allows one to pray and fast and wait for destiny to be birthed. This is different than the gifting of the midwife which is actually present at the birth. This is the anointing for the waiting room. Now think about your experience in a waiting room at a hospital or birthing center. You are not in the room, you don't really know how far along the process is, or when the baby will arrive. You have to have patience. You have to be able to look into the future and see the end result.
The Anna anointing involves prayer and fasting but also patience and trust. The Messiah had been promised for thousands of years. In the last 400 years in Israel's history the prophet's had gone silent. There was a silence in the land. Interestingly enough it was 10 (the number of the law) times 40 the number of years the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness. Anna was a woman of prayer and fasting and the Bible says in Luke 2:37, that she "departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." In other words she never left the waiting room!The temple was the spiritual hub of the day and this woman stayed there all the time seeking God. Now what happens when you spend time seeking God is that when He shows up in a new way you recognize Him! This is exactly what happened with Anna. She was in the Temple praying and fasting and then Mary and Joseph show up with baby Jesus. But not as the Triumphant King that Israel was expecting but as a small baby. But Anna saw the gift of God even though the gift was not in the package other's expected!  She was one that pierced the current world structure with her proclamation to all who looked for redemption in Israel. She pierced the old structure by pointing to a new paradigm! That Christ had come in the form of a babe!
 So the Anna anointing rests on one who through prayer and fasting will pierce the world's structure by recognizing the gift of God for the new season!
If you are an Anna prepare to take your gifting to the next prophetic activation by decreeing that the old structures cannot hold the new manifestation of God. Prepare to pierce the atmosphere with revelation gleaned from your position in the spiritual hub of prayer and fasting.
This is Pastor Susan calling forth all the Anna's to arise. Decree now that the old has passed away and look for new revelation!

Prophetic Garden

I have been thinking lately about the concept of prophetic gardens and the act of prophetic gardening. Isn't it interesting that the first place named and inhabited by man was the Garden of Eden. The Bible says in Genesis 2:8, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden;" And the description of the vegetation in the garden is designed so that we could see the prophetic picture of what God had in mind for us. He provisioned us with everything that we needed to live abundantly. In Genesis 2:9 it says that , "out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food;" The fruit of the garden spoke of God's love and care for us. And the prophetic picture in the garden becomes greater when we read that "the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." ( Genesis 2:9) The Lord declared our destiny to live with Him and also declared our ability to choose life and good.
A garden is a hopeful place. A place where we believe if we plant seeds God will give harvest. We prophesy to the future by declaring our belief in the law of seedtime and harvest.
Now let's take this one step further. Let's look at what we plant and where we plant it. A few years ago, I planted a lavender plant. Just a small one about 4 inches by 4 inches. Now I have a lavender bush about 3 feet by 3 feet. It became a symbol to me of the Lord's direction in my life of Peace be still. Since the planting and harvesting of the lavender wands I have been able to make many many bottles of anointing oil that I call Peace be Still. So my prophetic garden prophesies into the lives of myself and others an anointing for peace in the midst of the storm.
There is an awesome ministry in Corinth Texas that is in the process of planting prayer gardens. Each element of the garden prophesies to the region that God is speaking life and growth to the area. I love it! The depth of thought and planning that has gone into each element of the garden is an inspiration and it has challenged me to expand my own garden, realizing that I am prophesying to my future and to my ministries future with each plant.
I am going to be doing some research on plants and what they symbolize in the Word. As I do I will put some of that information in my blog. Because winter is a time when gardeners dream of spring, and when prophetic gardeners listen to the voice of the Lord to see what He is saying to His people by a visual display of life.
This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and gathering her heavenly seeds.

Bethel

Genesis 28:16-19.And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel:
Just returned from an awesome conference in Altus, Oklahoma. Such a blessing to be a part of so many prophetic and apostolic ministries. As part of my message today, I spoke on open heavens and open gates. I spoke about Jacob finding an open heaven and hearing God's voice. He saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder from that very spot. And when he realized that he had discovered an opening into the heavenlies, he built an altar of a stone and poured out the oil as an act of consecration and to make a memorial of the site. And so we did the same today. We were given seven stones and we prayed over them and anointed them with oil and wine (symbolizing the new wine of the Holy Spirit) and then we consecrated and made a memorial of where God showed us an open heaven at the southwest gate.
What does this have to do with the everyday prophetic life? It means that in those places that you have found God,(such as in your heart) in those places where you have seen angels ascending and descending, consecrate it with oil (the oil of anointing) and wine (the power of the Holy Spirit). And watch transformation begin! This Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and rejoicing in the open heavens.

Living between the tick and the tock of the clock

Living between the tick and the tock of the clock is living in the present moment. We don't live in the tick of yesterday or the tock that is coming tomorrow, we are living in the pause that is the present moment of our lives. Pastor Marc always says that the past always wins. No matter how many times we review it and how many times we think we might have done something different, history has been written and cannot be altered. So in effect no matter how hard we strive to change the past -the tick- the past always wins because it cannot be changed. So let it go!

When we do that the pause becomes the loudest sound of all. It becomes the sound that we dwell in each day. And then we enjoy the pause that is the everyday moments of the everyday life, the everyday prophetic life.

We are reminded that God holds the future.Because He sees it and He knows what is coming. The sound of the tock is God's domain.

Don't be afraid of the future and don't mourn the past. Let go and let God be a part of this moment in your life.

This is Pastor Susan living the everyday prophetic life in the pause between the tick and the tock.

Understanding the Hebrew months

Understanding the Hebrew months. This month of Elul is associated with the time that the King is in the field. This is the time that Kings would come out of the palace and dwell among the people. To understand the month of Elul, you need an understanding of the Hebrew concept of time. To the Hebrew there is regular time "chol" and holy time "kodesh". The holy times are those set aside for festivals, shabbat, and holidays. These kodesh times are when we leave behind our daily routine and we enter into the presence of the Lord. The regular time is when we do our work, our daily routine, we are in our field so to speak. Remember in Bible times the field was where the farmer planted the seed, grew the produce and harvested the grain. To the Hebrews the month of Elul is considered a combination of times the kodesh and the chol. A time when we don't stop our activities to enter into His Presence, The King comes to us and enters into our field.
Jesus our Messiah is a living portrait of the month of Elul. Jesus came to us, He tabernacled among us. He dwelt among us. He brought the Presence of God into the daily lives of men.
When the King is in the palace there are many protocols to go through to visit with Him. There are many rules and regulations to enter the Holy of Holies if you will. But think of the difference when Jesus came and dwelt among us, among sinners and saints alike. Everyone had access to Him. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the little children who Jesus said not to forbid to come to Him.
My favorite month of the year is the month of Elul. This year it begins at sundown on August 30, 2011. Enjoy you time with the Lord during this month and remember that He has come to meet you in your daily routine, your activities and your work.
This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and meeting the Lord in my field.

Cup of Peace

Sometimes on our journey with the Lord we are in a dry and thirsty land. We are parched and need a fresh cool drink of living water. We are in a desert season and we don't even realize how hot and dusty the road has become. In those times a cup of living water is exactly what we need. The cup that runs over in the presence of our enemies. The cup that we drink from and remember our salvation and our first love of the Lord. The cup that reminds us of simpler times and simpler places before we became battle weary and war wounded in this struggle against the powers of darkness. If you will.... the times that we remember the shire that verdant living green place full of peace and joy. For those of you on the front lines of this battle, may the Lord Himself today offer you that cup of refreshment. Drink deeply and find the rest for your soul. This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and drinking of God's cup of peace.

The Menorah and The Rainbow

Before the establishment of the Menorah in the tabernacle in the wilderness, God set a different kind of  light display in the sky. During the days of Noah, a great flood came upon the earth. All life on the planet was destroyed. After the flood, in the sky God set His covenant sign the rainbow. In Genesis 9: 12-13, And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth." Now you may be wondering what does the rainbow have to do with the Menorah. Well remember in I John 1: 5 " This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." So as the rainbow is a display of light and covenant and the Menorah is a display of light and God's Presence, what then is the correlation between the two? Very simply put it is this: the rainbow has seven colors, they are are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. The Menorah has seven lamps on one candlestick. If you read my blog on the Menorah and the Holy Spirit you will see how the gifts of the Spirit are linked to each lampstand.  Whenever you see a display of light in a prophetic service, you are seeing a display of one of the gifts of the spirit as seen through the rainbow and explained in the menorah. Corresponding to the Isaiah 11:1-2 description, it goes like this: Red is for the spirit of wisdom, Orange is for the spirit of counsel, Yellow is for the spirit of knowledge, Green is for the spirit of the LORD, Blue is for the spirit of the reverential fear of the LORD, Indigo is for spirit of might and Violet is for the spirit of understanding. When you are in a prophetic meeting, close your eyes and open them. What color do you see? This prophetic exercise will help you discern how the Lord is going to display His Presence in your midst! This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and rejoicing when she sees a rainbow!

Prophetic Dreams

Dream a Little Dream for Me!

Dreaming is more than just random thoughts that come to us in our sleep. Dreaming is a language that once you learn it is full of information and guidance from the heavenly realm. Dream images can contain the codes that you need to move in the prophetic in your everyday life. Do you remember when you were a kid you would get a spy kit and it always had in it a secret decoder ring? Well to understand your dreams you need a special decoder "ring", the Bible! Yes the Bible contains vivid imagery and gives us many clues as to the meaning of each image. So how do you create your own dreaming prophetic code? To start with you need a journal in which to write down each dream and each revelation of the image in the dream. After awhile you will begin to see a pattern develop. Just as you found your prophetic voice and your prophetic song, you will find your prophetic dream language. You should develop your understanding of numbers, places, objects, and animals. These will all help you to crack your prophetic dreaming code!
Here is a prophetic dream that I had recently. See if you can crack the code!
I dreamt that I was going to a luncheon at a beautiful tearoom. It was a victorian tearoom with roses and mahagony furniture. There were gorgeous serving pieces of silver and there were large, large cupcakes with blue and pink icing on top. Someone had made me a gift and I was searching the room for it but I couldn't find it. One of my dear friends was the hostess for the luncheon. She was dressed in a blue two piece suit and she had on a pearl necklace.
OK let's start: luncheon...to me means food and a set time for eating. So I had a set appointment for spiritual food. The tearoom has special meaning for me because I am a tea drinker and I love tearooms. So this was going to be a very special set time for spiritual nourishment. The room was beautiful which to me which means I enjoyed the atmosphere. So I know that at this set time for spiritual nourishment I will enjoy the atmosphere. (To me an atmosphere that I enjoy is always prophetic) So it is a set time for spiritual nourishment in the prophetic. Roses... Jesus is our Rose of Sharon, so I knew that Jesus would be there to greet me in my ministry. Mahogany furniture... wood is something that will pass away because it is temporal but mahogany is one of the hardest woods and so where I will be in the natural will be strong and sure. The serving pieces were made of silver... silver is refined by fire and is something that does not pass away. And there was a special gift that had been made from the mahogany that I couldn't find. Which means that the gifting is not in the open yet. It has not been revealed. The huge cupcakes with delicate blue and pink icing to me means a place of children and of childlike enjoyment! It is going to be a place where I can be a child in His Presence. Finally, my friend the hostess, usually people are not the people that you recognize but rather an angelic presence in the midst. This friend of mine is intimately involved in the Healing Rooms and so this place for me will be a place of healing, and the pearls represent wisdom and the blue two piece outfit represents the heavenlies. I have been praying for the Lord to set Marc and I in place and I had this wonderful dream of all that God has in mind for us.
Now you try it! This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and Dreaming in the Night!

Legacy

As prophets we spend a lot of time speaking and contemplating the future. Because the prophetic is a forthtelling, a declaring of what is to come and what can be. But I have been thinking about the word "legacy".  How do I want those I love the most to remember me. How do I want my ministry to be remembered. What am I building that will remain behind for others to build on. God is the God of  generations. What you build will be foundational for your children and grandchildren.
Are you building on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ? Are you building without cracks and scars in the floor?  Think about it. This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life.

Releasing Destiny

I think of myself as a spiritual midwife. It is my role to help you birth your destiny from the spiritual realm into the natural realm. God has a destiny plan for your life and when the appointed time for that destiny to come forth arrives it is good to have a spiritual midwife to help. What are the qualifications for such a position? Understanding the times and the seasons is a prerequisite.  Exodus talks about the midwives named Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus1:15. At that time Pharaoh was ordering all the Hebrew boy infants to be killed at birth. (Exodus 1:16)  These women against the orders of the most powerful man alive at the time, Pharaoh, saved the Hebrew babies from destruction because they "feared God" (Exodus 1:17). So a spiritual midwife fears God and because of her understanding of the times and seasons, she knows that sometimes there is a greater purpose in the laws and decrees of the land. She knows that there are powers in place that would seek to destroy the plans of God. But being in the right position at the right time, she can protect the destiny of a nation.  Moses was one who was saved by the Hebrew midwives. His destiny was to lead the people to the promised land and to perform miracles by God's power and to receive the Torah for the people.

A spiritual midwife is one who will get in between you and the enemies plan to destroy your destiny in it's first moments of fruition. She will stand there between you and everything unholy and tell you that God's timing is now and it's time to push for your deliverance. Because she understands timing you will often find a prophetic anointing as part of the midwife role.

Part of the process of spiritual birth is to create an atmosphere of faith and to help you stir up the gift of faith in you. To create an atmosphere of faith a spiritual midwife has to be one that walks in faith for herself. She must be one who time after time has seen the hand of God move and the supernatural power of God be manifest. She can't just say, I think your destiny is about to be born. She is one who says IT'S TIME TO PUSH! at the right moment.

Now a spiritual midwife doesn't get to stay in one place very long. Because there are always more spiritual births to attend. But when I meet someone new, I am always excited for them because I know that God has made our paths to cross for His divine purpose.  Something is about to change in their life and God is about to break out in a whole new way for them. It's a precious experience to be there when someone is on the threshold of the new day in their lives.

This is part 1 of a series I am calling- Opening the Gate. You may enter your email address for the blog to come to directly to you. Or you may choose to be a follower. As always I welcome your comments and trust that this blog blesses you in your walk with the Lord. This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and encouraging you in yours!

Jesus Loves Me

Jesus loves me this I know. This precious little childrens' song has taken me through some deep tribulations. Sickness, the death of loved ones, loss, and financial hardship have all been softened by singing quietly this sweet little song, "Jesus loves me." It is foundational to the gospel. It is the cornerstone of Christianity. It is the basis and core of my beliefs, "Jesus loves me." It is a statement and a  proclamation. I know that He loves me and I can be at peace in that knowledge. Unconditional love is a powerful force and the unconditional love of God is the most life changing experience you will ever have. When I realized that Jesus loved me, I cried for three days. I couldn't carry on a conversation for the weeping at the knowledge of the love of God. God showered me with His love and I understood for the first time my salvation experience. Just think about for one brief moment how much Jesus loves you. When the storms roll in try singing the song and you will be blessed. This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life and singing about Jesus love.

Prophetic Understanding

Prophetic understanding is a process. It is a gift that you grow into as you mature in the faith. It is like the acorn that grows into the oak tree. It starts small and then it grows in both depth and height. It has many branches such as the prophetic seer or the prophetic hearer or the prophetic worshipper or the prophetic evangelist.

A prophetic seer is someone whose revelations from God comes in pictures. These pictures can be experienced as dreams or visions. A prophetic dream that comes from God can give direction, explanation, guidance or understanding of the next step in your destiny. A prophetic hearer is one who hears the voice of God and is able to with clarity present that to someone so that they may receive the word of the Lord. A prophetic worshipper is one whose worship in essence prophesies in song both publicly and privately. You can hear the song of the Lord come forth from them and find the same type of direction, explanation, guidance or understanding. A prophetic evangelist is one who uses the prophetic gift to evangelize the lost for Christ. So a prophetic word is given and then because of the confirmation of the word the person becomes a believer in Christ.

The prophetic gift has seasons that include prophetic activation, incubation, and growth and fullfillment. These are similar to the seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall and can repeat in a cycle. There are nuances to the prophetic gift that only come in times of maturation. The subtilities of understanding what a symbol or a word means comes with practice.

If the Lord is beginning this work in you then just yield to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to teach you what you need to know. And remember it is a perfect gift in an imperfect vessal. Prophetic understanding is like a fine wine that needs to be aged to ripen into the perfection that God desires. This is Pastor Susan Living the Everyday Prophetic Life. http://www.profeticadeactivacion.blogspot.com