Category: Spiritual Growth

“Then those who revere Adonai (God) spoke with each other, and Adonai took notice and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written before Him, for those who revere Adonai, even those who esteem His name.” Malachi 3:16

Oh wow!  What an honor that God takes notice of us when we are speaking together honoring Him, His ways, and His Name. Do you want to be a person that God takes notice of honoring Him? This is our loving Heavenly Father, who longs for a relationship with each of us. His love should evoke a desire in each of us to honor Him and His ways in all we think, say and do.

It is hard grappling with the reality that God loves us so much, but hates sin and will judge all evil. When you are in love with God because of His great love for you, it becomes so much easier to understand that God hates evil because it destroys – it destroys you, me, the world the universe, and others. He wants it all gone, and if one of His beloved creatures decides they prefer evil over godliness,  no matter how many times He has tried to get them to return to Him, they will end up under the judgment of the evil they embrace. It is not God’s will, it is not the prophet or teachers’ of righteousness will. It is the person’s will that produced the judgment. The greatest gift God gave all of us is free will.

Please don’t excuse evil by labeling your actions as “wokeness” because you think you are doing something loving toward someone. You are actually becoming part of or contributing to their fall away from the greatest love ever. We are called to be strong in the Lord, not strong in the flesh’s ability to hash out our thoughts and come up with a belief system that makes us feel good inside. We are called to yield to God’s Word, God’s love, God’s holiness, and in it, we will find joy, peace, righteousness, and will be able to lead others there. Stay anchored in the Word, praying in the spirit, worship from your heart not just to feel good, and above all stay in a place of a repentant heart. There is so much deception swirling around all of us. But greater is He that is in you and me, than he that is in the World. Our mission is that all people will awaken to who they truly are in Christ. Choose awaken over “woke”.

Dr. Lisa Winchell

Are you looking for a breakthrough? Have you noticed that often times many of us are living from breakthrough to breakthrough?  I remember one day recently when I was talking to the Lord in devotions, I said, “I’m done going from breakthrough to breakthrough!” and I heard the Lord say, “Yeah! Because the biggest breakthrough ever lives inside of you!”

Did you know that the greatest breakthrough ever lives inside of us? That’s Christ in us! That’s the mystery of God that was withheld for generation after generation. The greatest breakthrough ever, not just in your life but in the whole universe, is when Jesus Christ came down here as a baby, died on the cross, rose again. That is the greatest breakthrough ever! And the next step is that when you accepted Him as Lord and Savior, He came and now lives inside of you. What an amazing breakthrough! Let’s read it! Colossians 1:26-27, “The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

That’s powerful! Christ in you is the hope of glory! Jesus prayed in John 17:21 to the Father God and He said “…even as I am in You and You are in Me that they would be in Us…” So the Word of God is telling us that if you are born again that Christ lives in you and you live in Him. That is the greatest breakthrough ever! As we learn to live in Christ, in His identity in us, in His image in us, we become overcomers. The Bible also says it’s our faith that overcomes. Let’s read this! 1 John 5:4, “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world even our faith.”

As I was reading this the Lord began to show me that it is our faith—believing that what God has said is true—that overcomes the world. It is not what we get with our faith that overcomes the world. Think about that for a minute. A lot of us are believing for this and believing God for that and we end up waiting to feel like we are living in our breakthrough or living in the kingdom of God or even living in Christ until that thing shows up.  When that thing shows up that we are believing for, then we feel like we are really in Christ now and we really have a breakthrough. But the reality is the Lord is trying to teach us that we overcome by our faith, not by what our faith gets or receives over time. So how do we do that?

In another Scripture, the Word of God says–it is actually Jesus who said this—He said, “…in Me you have peace but in this world you will have trouble. Be of good cheer because I have overcome this world.” I asked the Lord one day, “okay, you have overcome the world, so how does that work for me?” And He said, “Lisa, this is an invitation to live in Me, vicariously, to live in and through Me. Do you see? You are seated in the highest place ever.” As the Lord began to minister to me and began to show me, He said “…Lisa, I am seated above the universe, in the highest place ever and you are seated in Me. Do you get that? You are seated in the highest place ever! You are above all of these things in Me. Your job is to learn how to live in Me in your thinking, and your emotions, and your heart.”

We do this by faith.  We do it by intentionally putting our hearts and our minds on Christ in us. Pulling up the Word of God and what it says about who you are in Christ. You are seated in heavenly places, you are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus, and you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. There are over 300 Scriptures in the New Testament that teach you about who you are in Him!

Our purpose is to empower people through this ministry to walk in God’s image in them, Christ’s image inside of them. When we live there, here is the difference: if I am focused on Christ in me and throughout the day I am dealing with something and I stop and say, “Wait a minute! Where am I seated, Lord? Oh yeah!” and the minute I go to that place with Him I end up walking in this sense of value and strength and significance and authority over the thing in my life because I chose to take the time to yield to realizing to where I really sit and where I really live which is in the Kingdom of God.

If we focus on the trouble around us or even focus on trying to get rid of the trouble through our faith, then we are still really not living in Christ right now  We are working to get rid of something instead of living in what we already have. Now as we live in what we already have, many of these things we believe for begin to start happening. But some of them are not because Jesus said we live in this world and there will be trouble. And oh, do we see trouble! We see trouble in our personal lives. Other people see it in the world and the country around them. So it’s time, it’s always been time, but it’s time to learn how to live in and through Christ in you and Christ in me.

Jesus said that the work of God is to believe. Now think about that – many people don’t know that Scripture. The work of God is to believe, Jesus said that. That is our labor, our labor is to believe. And we will talk more about this in the identity moments and all of the scriptures that lead to this.

So how do I believe? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It is important to take the time to get in the Word of God – not just other people teaching you but you personally in the Word of God. I want to encourage you this week to get into 1 John. Read and write down every concept that God shows you about your life in Him. As you write it down say, “Lord, show me more about that. Tell me more about that.” And write down whatever He gives you.

We are going to learn how to engage in these truths, not just hear them in a service and go, “Wow, that’s great!” and walk away and go yell at somebody or get offended at the news, or get offended at this or that. All of those are signs that reveal I don’t know who I really am. When we know who we are in Christ, we are not walking around offended because we know our value and our significance and our authority over all of it.

I encourage you to get into 1 John this week and read through it.  Invite the Lord to reveal to you and your heart these truths. Until next time, remember, it is Christ in you that is our life and our hope for glory.

Blessings!

Dr. Lisa Winchell

As I ministered to a client about the spirit, soul, and body the Lord began to show me something in Genesis 2:17. Many see that verse as talking about Adam and Even eventually dying. But I have always seen it as much more than that, as the death of the spirit. But the spirit could not have actually died, because a body apart from a spirit is dead, as Paul said. But what did they die too, they died to their full connection with God and their ability to walk in His freedom, love, and holiness, thus peace and joy. They were now slaves to fleshly passions, and could not freely go into the presence of the Lord anymore. I began to think that the word die is a strong word for God to use for this. Dead is dead, gone for good, without a resurrection. Then I began to see that the connection they had with God was so full of life and flowing freely back and forth, that God saw fit to use the word death to describe what would happen to them if they disobeyed. Ponder that for a moment, they had a connection with God that none of us have ever experienced consistently, day after day. They had no bad thoughts that got in the way, just pure connection, love, relationship with the Father! That is what we were meant to have, we are born for that. We are born created in His Image, and were meant to reflect that image through our relationship with Him!! Wow! Lord I long to have that depth of connection, don’t you?

Dr. Lisa Winchell