And the Watchmen Gather...

I was on my way home today when my family and I started to notice hawks… lots of hawks! In about an hour’s time we counted approximately 30 or so hawks along the interstate, in three states… AR, MO and TN! I have watched hawks all my life and often on this same stretch of road where I grew up… the way they always seem to be on guard, yet how graceful they seem when they are floating on air above the ground… how the swoop down at an alarming speed when they have spotted that one thing they cannot live without! How even when they are at rest on a fence post or on a tree limb they are ever vigilant, ever watchful. However in all the years I have traveled in this area I don’t remember ever seeing this many at one time. Or in this case today how close some of these hawks were to each other… some of them just a few feet from each other! I also saw something I have never seen before… two hawks side by side… I have read hawks mate for life, but to see two of these beautiful creatures side by side was awesome! I am not sure I could explain my fascination with hawks, there is just something so regal almost spiritual about how they appear and how they carry themselves.

Let me back up for a minute before I continue on about the hawks today…I recently had the privilege of seeing a beautiful bald eagle between Union City and Newbern, TN along the highway just sitting atop a tree watching the world go by! He was definitely out of place and to see one in this area is rare… there are some close by at Reelfoot Lake but even then you have to be really looking to find them. This eagle was in the same place facing the same way with it’s back to the road when I passed it going north and again when I passed it an hour later heading back south toward home. It appeared so regal atop the tree watching with single mindedness this stretch of field it was focused on. Just like the hawks it never appeared to turn to the right or the left and or acknowledging all the traffic just a few yards away…

Now back to the hawks… as my family and I were counting and watching all these hawks… I kept hearing… watchmen on the wall… the watchmen are gathering, the watchmen are gathering…and it hit me suddenly that as watchmen on the wall for the Kingdom we to are to be just as dedicated as this eagle to his watch and these hawks along the road. We are not to look to the right or the left…we are not to be distracted by the noise and the rush of traffic that passes us in this world!

I believe this next season is a coming together of the watchmen of the Kingdom. Are we going to willing to lay aside and go to our post and be the alert, on guard and obedient to what GOD is calling us to in this New Year? Are we going to shut out the distractions of the traffic and the noises of the world and focus on that one thing we can’t live without… the will of our FATHER and not let go till we have it in our grasp? Are we willing to be satisfied with our post and our watch and stop craving others? Some of us will sit quietly and simply pray, some of us will sound the alarm to warn of the enemies approach, some of us will be part of the tactical unit and help plan the battle, some of us will provide the arms and the means to fight the battle and some will be called to lead the battle! Are we able like the eagle and the hawk to find our post sit and wait till our time and talent is needed and called upon… are we willing to work together to create a whole army of watchmen and warriors or will we be as a buzzard and simply swarm around dead things trying to feed on others leftovers in our jealousy and laziness… and the true watchmen gather!

“Sound the alarm

Awaken the watchmen

Open their ears

Let their voices be loud”

(Holy Visitation)

Whose seed...

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen 3:15 KJV

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." Gen 3:15 NASU

From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Gen 3:15 NLT

Let me confess… I am not a regular reader of the Old Testament as a whole. I love to read in the Books of Prophecy and this and that of the History Books…but I tend to stay away from the rest of it. However I am currently taking a Survey of The Old Testament class… so of course I got to read it and this is the key verse for Chapter 5 of this course. As I am reading I like most people understand this verse as (depending on your perspective / understanding) either a fulfilled prophecy of Jesus or the verse we refer to as the “why” there will always be strife between us and the enemy or both. But on the second reading of this verse this morning it hits me. The enemy has seed… the enemy has seed… THE ENEMY HAS SEED! I am going to stretch a few of you here… I am stretching myself at the moment to be honest so bear with me for a second! I am of the camp of “the devil can not create anything” he only mimics and perverts what GOD has done, and I still believe that for the most part… but if the enemy, the devil has seed then that means he can plant and produce a crop, can plant a seed and produce offspring. So what immediately came to my mind is whose seed are we pregnant with and what is it producing? I have heard and firmly believe that many of us are pregnant in the body and GOD is getting ready to birth a great awakening in this land, so there are many running to and fro hollering this is what GOD is birthing / has birthed in ME… my question is what is your pregnancy looking like and for those who have already birthed who does your offspring look like! Is your impending seed causing strife or unrest in you? Is it peace you feel or fear as the time draws near? Are people who you used to trust suddenly concerned or are they helping you prepare for the blessed event? To those new “parents” did your spiritual off spring cause rejoicing in your spiritual family or did it cause a split and bitterness. Did you have to rebel against your current or former spiritual authority to give birth or did they bless your new offspring? Now don’t misunderstand there are some in the body who will never bless or accept something new or different even when it is of GOD. But you may want to check yourself if your upcoming or newest spiritual seed / offspring is legit if you are met with continual distrust or no confirmation from people who in the past you trusted, but all of sudden in your eyes woke up stupid one day. When your current or impending offspring is causing confusion, distrust or chaos… I think you may want to check the source of your seed. Another way of looking at it is, as an amateur gardener I am learning from my husband that all seed is not created equal and you need to buy your seed from a trusted source to produce a good crop!

So the question I am now asking myself is can the enemy reproduce or is his simply cloning and perverting what GOD has done or will do…hmmm? While writing this my mind took a quick day trip and this is what I heard…we are horrified at the thought of human sacrifice that was practiced long ago in our land and I believe secretly even today but this land is also tainted and cursed because the of millions of children that are legally aborted each year in this country. Our country is awash in the blood of the innocent, we have traded our seed for his…so what kind of seed has the enemy grown in the place of all we have destroyed. What illegitimate things has been produced because we are unwilling to stop the sacrifice of our children on the alter of satan, when do we start aborting the enemy and his seed and remove the curse off our land.

What do you hear in your spirit about any illegitimate seed or offspring in your life you need get rid of?

Thought this was so worth sharing... June 4th.
	THE NEVER-FAILING GOD
"For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5 What line does my thought take? Does it turn to what God says or to what I fear? Am I learning to say not what God says, but to say something after I have heard what He says? "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." "I will in no wise fail thee" - not for all my sin and selfishness and stubbornness and waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never fail me? If I have listened to this say-so of God's, then let me listen again. "Neither will I in any wise forsake thee." Sometimes it is not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me, but drudgery. There is no Hill Difficulty to climb, no vision given, nothing wonderful or beautiful, just the commonplace day in and day out - can I hear God's say-so in these things? We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing, that He is preparing and fitting us for some extraordinary thing by and bye, but as we go on in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute. If we have God's say-so behind us, the most amazing strength comes, and we learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways. Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest

Where are your Kingdom Keys?

I have read several things about Spiritual Keys over the last year or so and thought I understood the concept in my mind, but today God showed me clearly in my Spirit the importance of keys in the natural and spiritually.

I moved into my husband’s house in 2005, a house that is over 30 years old and a house that I am not the first woman to call home. I moved in a lot of my own stuff and combined his and mine and tried to make it ours. I have done some redecorating as money has allowed and I have bought a few things for our home. I have done the best I could with what we have… but the house is still pretty much as I found it almost 4 years ago. I have learned to live with other people’s idea of decorating and I have learned to accept those things we cannot change at the moment. Over the years locks have changed and keys were lost or misplaced and until today I only had a key to the door by our carport. It just didn’t seem important to locate the keys or replace locks on the other doors, until a few weeks ago when the lock on the only door I did have a key to messed up and I could not get into my own house. Sometimes I could get in and other times I could not, sometimes I had to stand in the dark and jiggle the key until I hit just the right spot and the door unlocked. I started wishing I had taken the time to find the lost keys or that I had replaced the locks so I had keys to all of the doors in my house. We finally replaced the lock on the carport door the other day… but I went on a hunt to find the rest of the keys just in case! I finally found the last key today and I bragged to my husband that after 3 1/ 2 years of marriage I finally had all the keys to his house and that meant I finally had some authority around here! We laughed and I went to find my key ring to place the additional keys with the one key I do have. While I was sitting in the floor of my home office putting the keys on the my key ring I heard very clearly in my spirit these words…

“Anything spiritually that was here before you came to this house or was brought in by a past resident no longer has the right to remain here. Anything that tries to gain entrance to your home in the future does not have the legal right to stay and you can remove it or block it from coming into your home. You finally have the authority in the spirit to remove any and all things that would harm your family and your home, that until now you did not possess because you were never willing to claim it.“

Talk about an AH HA moment! It hit me that until this very moment I had still been looking at this house as my husbands… because I could not make it look in the natural the way I wanted and I could not remove the physical traces of the past women who lived here. Some where in my mind and spirit I never took possession of what became mine when my husband gave me his name. Truthfully, I have not maintained and updated this house with what I do have available to me in the way I should because I have never felt in my heart it was / is my home. My fondest wish is to gut the inside of this house and start from scratch and do it to suit my taste… but alas money has not as yet allowed that. So somewhere along the way I sat down because with my natural eye I could not see how this house can someday be when we do have the means to change it and make it what I want it to be! When I sat down in the natural I also sat down in the spiritual and never picked up my natural or spiritual keys that I needed to help keep my family protected… how sad and how dangerous!

We as believers often fail to realize or locate the keys we are entitled to as children of God because in the natural we cannot “see” what we are entitled to and what HE has for us down the road so we sit down and allow the enemy to lie to us and steal from us our rightful inheritance. We never find and use all the spiritual keys that GOD has for us to use for the Kingdom and in our lives… keys that open up the blessings of heaven, keys that give us the strength and authority to remove unwanted spiritual predators from our home and community. Keys that can lock up those things that need to be bound and keys to unlock those things which need to be loosed so that we can be effective in our Kingdom work we have been assigned to. We often fail to seek the things of the Kingdom first because we could not or will not get past what our carnal natural mind sees or in many cases want. We haven’t yet learned to just look until we find all the keys that are ours to possess! We need to understand that when we do press in and find these keys… with these keys, with these weapons we will be able to be effective watchman for the Kingdom, our communities and our families! Do you know where your keys are? Are you even looking for them?

The Abyss and Character….

Let me quote a friend…. "when a man stares into the abyss and there is nothing looking back..........that is when he finds his true character.”

I found this so profound… dear friend I hope you find your true Character soon!

I looked into the abyss that I called my life back in Nov 2004. I found a void so big it scared me almost to death… literally. For the past several weeks, several things have happened to make me revisit that place once again and what I found this time was radically different.

In 2004 I had no sense of who I really was, my identity depended on if I was accepted by or wanted by people or persons. I had suffered much rejection in my life… most of it my own creation. The things in this world are temporal and people, places and things will let you down at some point. The sad truth is I let myself down more than anyone or anything else. I looked into the abyss and saw nothing looking back… because I was looking for something that did not really exist… the me I thought I was.

When I accepted everything up to that point had been a pointless illusion in that moment HE spoke and showed who I really was… HIS CHILD!

When I look back today this is what I see…I am accepted in the beloved, without reservation. I have nothing to prove… no one to con. I do not have to sell my soul to get, I gain it back instead. I am a daughter of the KING OF KINGS… my LORD and SAVIOR died for me while I was yet a sinner. No question about it… all I have to do each day is accept it.

My life is far from storybook perfect at the moment… the enemy still wishes to tamper with my family, my friends and me. I have troubles just like everyone else… no better or worse than the next, they are what they are. I am fighting battles I had no clue 5 years ago I would be fighting and battles that would have destroyed the illusion I was in the past. The difference is those battles no longer include me fighting me or GOD, because I know who the enemy is and it is not me or Father GOD!

I am a warrior and I have battles to fight for the Kingdom... the abyss does not scare me anymore, when I look in there I find my true character staring back at me… JESUS CHRIST!

Junk Food, Goats & God

Okay first let me give you a little background so any of you who may read this will have a small chance of understanding the rumblings of my mind and body this week.

1) The first week of February I started a 12-week course that will hopefully help me balance my body, mind, emotions & spirit. The goal is to lose weight and understand how all these various parts of me should work together as God designed. The bonus is of course that by the end of the 12 weeks I hope to be a few dress sizes smaller before summer hits! YEAH!

2) The same week I began this course I also attended a conference at our sister church in Southaven, MS… The School of Prophetic Activation.

What follows is what happens when you put weight loss, the prophetic and a picture of a goat together! LOL!

We, the body of Christ are so much like goats… we have no discretion about what we eat or the source of what we haphazardly munch, graze or wolf down. We gobble up without thought anything & everything that comes down the road that claims to be "of God". We so desire the thrill & quick fixes that we skip over the real food our Father offers us for spiritual junk food to feed our flesh, we want to sway to the music and have “moments” but we don’t want or desire to spend time in the Word or in prayer which is of the utmost important to our spiritual health and vitality. Just like we will skip a real balanced meal to feed our body cause we don’t have time but we can’t pass up the bag of chips or a twinkie! The Word clearly sates what real food is… JESUS and the only way you are going to get to know Jesus is to stay in the Father’s Word and in regular communication with HIM, aka… prayer.


“For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” John 6:55

The conference I attended in MS had “moments” and they were awesome but I came away satisfied and healthier because of the meat of the Word and teaching I received there. Long after the moments are a memory, the healthy spiritual food I was fed will continue to be beneficial to my spirit and walk, just like my whole wheat toast I ate this morning instead of the donut I wanted.

I really think that God is getting really tired of the body running to & fro looking for the next great thing, the next bag of chips to feed their carnal hearts. I believe with all my heart HE is saying, put down all of your spiritual junk food and get back to the basic food that the Word teaches us, we need to stop striving for the quick & easy and instead work for the food that last forever!

"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal." John 6:27

If we, if I am going to be of any use to God in furthering HIS Kingdom then we / I must be physically, emotionally, mentally & spiritually balanced and fit. That is not going to happen until we the body stop answering the cries of our flesh and start answering the cry of our LORD to get about the business of our FATHER!

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Heb 5:14


Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. John 4:34

We need to back away from the twinkies and pick up the spiritual meat of the LORD!

Bon Appetit!

Ponderings of the Heart

The last week has been filled with revelation into just about every area of my life... and part of me wants to shout from the mountain top all that I heard, but my spirit softly whispers that now is a time for reflection on all that I have heard. As I was on my way home from MS on Saturday this verse kept running through my mind....

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

I think often times we want to brag about what God has revealed or is planning for us and we forget that those around us are not always ready to accept or hear about the great revelation for our life. Sometimes we forget to take into account that the very plans God has for us, will affect those around us. We need, I need to be very careful not to run ahead of God (an awesome example I heard the other night about this was interesting) and cause myself and others undue worry or confusion. If God has spoken (and I consider the sources to be true and of God) then HE will prepare those around me, and will tend to those whose hearts need tending to... including preparing me to handle what is to come. I am still very much under construction and as I heard the other day... God has been reformatting me over the last year! LOL big job it has been too!

I am at a beginning, a next level of something that when it starts is going to change my life yet again and some part of me wants to just talk for days about all I believe is coming into my life.... but on the other hand I want to hold all that was spoken to me close to my heart for a time cause once I do let it go it will never just be mine again....

I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for Mary... to know from her womb came the Savior of the world yet she kept those things she heard & knew and pondered them in her heart.... WOW!

Past, Present & Future...

I went back this week to an old blog of mine... 2006-2008 at yahoo360 looking for something specific and came across this blog... it is mind blowing to me to say the least. I remember vividly the things that were going on at the time and how far I have come since then... yet everything still applies as if I had written this blog yesterday. I am still on the journey, I am still being plowed, planted and watered. I have come thru one season and have entered another... My God how awesome YOU truly are. I am still just as in awe of having a face to face with YOU as I was 3 years ago, no I am more in awe of YOUR greatness Father... Thank YOU! Entry for February 09, 2006 Following written in my forum at crosswalk.com last night: John 1:1…"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This has come up twice today for me…. Once when going over a study that HanC has posted on John (btw awesome study go check it out in Christians Only…The Gospel According to Saint John) and then tonight at church, where we are doing a study about personal revival and here is how this played out… I was reading to hubby the HansC. Study after dinner and we are discussing the “Word was with God…” and agreeing with Hans that this is the clear declaration of Christ’s deity…and we found it interesting that the word “with” meant…face to face. Fast-forward and hour later and we are on step 3 of six steps to personal revival… 1. Humility - got to get humble and submit to the authority of GOD, IMHO putting aside our agenda and seeking HIS! 2. Prayer – coming to HIM, which usually means asking for something for ourselves or others…and staying there til we hear from HIM, which is why our pastor says you should always pray with your Bible in hand…i.e. the answer BOOK! 3. Seeking God’s face…. meaning just being in HIS presence without petition or plea just enjoying HIM … AND THEN pastor whips out the verse and gives the same Greek translation…now the translation is pretty standard, my new Bible has the same info…but for me it was a WOW moment! I realize that somewhere along the way I have put aside my agenda and humbled myself to what HE wants and desires from me and I have been in prayer and I have been answered on several occasions and… NOW I feel HE is clearly telling me to just come and enjoy HIS presence…come fellowship with me and let us build upon this relationship (big steps for the tiny feet that are attached to me let me tell ya!)…. See the last few weeks in Praise and Worship I have just let go and been there in the moment and I just start to weep and I can’t explain how it feels cause it isn’t about a feeling it is as the pastor has said it is about a knowing…a certain knowing that I am in HIS presence and that it overwhelms me. I just realized tonight that I am somewhere I have longed to be and I have experienced a face to face with HIM! I am overwhelmed and amazed that I have been granted the privilege! Anyway I just wanted to share how it feels to be blown away by the hand of GOD! So I don't get to puffed up (GOD has a "wicked" sense of humor don't ya think)...here is the next step we will study next week... 4. Turn from our wicked ways...well lets just say next weeks study ought to be real fun LOL! Then today: SO this morning in an effort to be more prepared for next week's study I start at Hosea 10:12 which was the text cited last night from the pastor...being from a large farming area of course the wicked ways would translate into turning over fallow ground...tearing out the roots (of sin) and getting down to new soil (letting GOD into areas that we have become hard in over the years), so you don't keep working the same ole soil (which is not good for a crop or new growth at all).... My new Bible is awesome and the study notes lead me to Hosea 6:3 and gives me a complete look at the meaning of "former" and "latter" rain... which of course is just as important to farmers... former.... the rain that comes in the fall to soften (prepare) the ground for planting latter.... the rain that comes in the spring that causes growth after the seed has been planted BINGO BANGO...here I go again.... I have been struggling to really understand some things in my life of late like why I "seem" not to be moving forward in career or life in general and how I feel almost afraid to move and each time I start to there is the "knowing" that the time has not yet come.... serious twilight light zone moments I can assure you and yet thru all this I keep coming back to this peaceful place...no jumping thru hoops, no fear. just this place of contentment. It gets stranger by the minute and y'all admit it, when HE is dealing with you it gets strange in the natural sometimes...I know I am not the only one who thinks this stuff! Anyway I have come to the thought that I am in the middle of the former and the latter rain or maybe just the beginning of the latter rain...i.e. I am at the beginning of a growing season...like my seeds that I started last night... btw beautiful blueberry (lavender) Impatiens, petunias and Larkspurs...OH I can't wait for them to grow up...for some reason gardening, working the ground and spiritual growth go hand and hand with me right now LOL! Anyway, that is where my crazy head is today!!! Later Nora Thursday February 9, 2006 - 12:47pm (CST)