July 2024 Prophetic Word:
The Heat Is On!
As I was heading to bed on June 30th, I asked the Lord, “What are You saying for July?”
Immediately, I heard, “The heat is on!” and couldn’t help but be transported back to the 80’s as I heard Glen Frye singing the song in my head.
I’ve sat with that statement for a few days and waited for Him to unfold what He was saying through it. When someone says, “the heat is on,” they’re saying they’re under a lot of pressure or juggling a lot of activity in their lives. I saw a multitude of people in that place – feeling the pressure and heat of the moment they’re in.
Glen Frye’s lyrics are pretty interesting to read.
The heat is on
On the street
Inside your head
On every beat
And the beat's so loud
Deep inside
The pressure's high
Just to stay alive
'Cause the heat is on
The heat has been just as much internal as external with thoughts roiling like a pot at full boil.
Yet, the lyrics spoke again, this time in His voice, saying, “Caught up in the action, I've been looking out for you”. Can you hear Him speaking that over you? Despite how things have looked, He’s been looking out for you.
Glenn goes on to sing:
The shadow's high
On the darker side
Behind the doors
It's a wilder ride
You can make or break
Can win or lose
That's a chance you take
When the heat's on you
When the heat is on
The enemy will try to loom above us, casting dark shadows of doubt, fear, stress, anxiety, anger, disillusionment, discouragement, and more. These thoughts seem to be in a constant repeat loop and as we look in the mirror, we’re faced with this being a make-or-break moment. Will we win or will we lose? It seems like a chance we take, but there’s no chance in it.
Earlier last week, I heard God say, “I am your dread champion.” I’d heard the phrase before but needed to look up its meaning and search for any related scriptures. This is what I found. “But the Lord is with me like a dread champion; therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed, with an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.” (Jer. 20:11)
A dread champion is someone, like Goliath, who represents a nation (or a person in our case) in a contest for its fate. God has represented us as our dread champion.
He’s gone before us (Deut. 20:4 & 31:8), won the battle (Zeph. 3:17, Ps. 60:12, 2 Cor. 2:14), and declared us the victors (1 Cor.15:57). He doesn’t leave things to chance.
God wasn’t done speaking to me about “the heat is on.” Heat can be produced by fire, and fire is refining and purifying. Will we allow the heat we’re experiencing to refine us, drawing us to repentance as He purifies our hearts, thoughts, and motives? Will we allow His holy fire to burn within us, igniting a greater passion for Him, and let His pure love pour out through us so it touches our communities and even our nations?The heat is on. We know His response to it. How will we respond?
Here's this month's playlist for you to use in your time with Him. It's one of my favorites I've put together so far. Wait until you get to the song by Rita Springer! It's a new fave - I hope it speaks to you as much as it's spoken to us!
Needing prayer or a listening ear during your "hot" season?
Please reach out. Brian and I would be happy to pray for you!
Living for Him,
Andrea (& Brian)
P.S. If you'd like to sow a seed into the ministry
Brian and I are doing by "buying us a coffee,"
please click the link below (more information is
included on the page), and thank you for partnering with us!
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
Let Go of What Used to Be
Recently, I began watching the series, “The Lost Kitchen.” I’m only on the second episode of season one, but God has been speaking so much to me through Erin French’s story of her life and restaurant.As her 2020 story unfolds in the second episode, she says, “I have to let go of what it used to be.” The Lord spoke to my heart in that moment, telling me to pay attention to those words.
I believe many of us have been looking backward at what things used to be like. Maybe without even realizing it, our hearts seem to long for what once was – the familiar, the secure, the known – even if it wasn’t the best.
We’ve been in transition, and it’s taking longer than we’d expected. We knew what to leave and had a sense of what we were moving into, yet we’ve been in this messy middle of it coming to pass and it leaves us looking back, longing for some of the things of the old season.
God has called you out into a new season and He’s asked you to leave the old behind.
Erin French was forced to rethink the way she’d done things. The Lost Kitchen had become an incredibly successful, well-oiled machine; then she had to reinvent everything. She was willing to innovate, think outside the box, and be creative. Because of her unwillingness to not give up and her willingness to transition into what she’d never done before, not only did she “make it,” but so did her family and closest friends (who work beside her), as well as her entire community.
It’s never just about us. Our perseverance in pressing into this new season has a far-reaching impact, but we can’t move into the new still holding onto the old.
Whether what we’re holding onto is “the good old days,” or instead, disillusionment, regret, disappointment, or even the determination to never have things be like they once were, if we’re holding onto it, we’re weighed down by it.
Forget what lies behind. Reach forward to what’s ahead. Press on toward all God is calling you to in this new season. Don’t turn back! (Philippians 3:13-14, paraphrased)
We can learn from the past, but it can’t become an idol we long after. Be willing to let go of what used to be – for your sake and others. Be flexible, think differently, focus forward, and keep taking the next step. All of heaven is cheering you on!
Living for Him,
Andrea
*Photo by Greta Rybus
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
A Word to the Older Generation
(Think 45+)
“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” (Hebrews 11:11)This message is for those who think they’re too old to “birth” something new. It’s for the ones who have had dreams in their hearts for years and decades and thought it would never come to pass after all this time, especially now that you’re older.
Your thought has been, “It’s too late. I’m not as young as I once was. This isn’t the time to take risks, but to have life be steady, comfortable, and familiar. I don’t have it in me to grow something from its infancy stages and nurture it to maturity.”
But…there’s still a longing in your heart, a desire that can’t be denied.
God is willing. His plans haven’t changed, and nothing is impossible for Him, even when it seems physically impossible for you.
He’s asking, “Will you believe Me for the seed planted within you to be brought to life and allow it to still be birthed through you, even in your latter years?”
Will you rest your faith in the One who made the promise to you and believe He’s faithful to fulfill His word to you?
Older mothers and fathers are NEEDED in this era. You bring wisdom and understanding only gained through years lived across times, seasons, and circumstances.
What you’re birthing is vital to this generation. Your example creates a legacy and an inheritance for younger generations. When they choose to tap into the understanding and wisdom you carry, they’re accelerated in the things God has called them to do. Mentor them. “Grow them up” by nurturing and growing what God births through you. Let them watch how you do it and invite them to partner with you in it. The work is worth it.
Like Sarah, receive His strength to conceive and birth the promise you’ve been waiting for and may have even given up on. Like Isaac, it’s going to bring such JOY!
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
When We Return
I’ve been sitting on this word for a couple of months now. I needed to let it develop in my spirit, marinate as I waited in His presence, and wait for the words to express what I was sensing. It’s come out of Ezekiel, and I was gutted in my reading of it in The Passion Translation. This is why I had to let it sit – I couldn’t write out of the grief I was feeling or out of holy fear.
I believe we’re being called into account for things we’ve done and left undone, yet God is merciful, and He’s always pursuing us with His heart of unconditional love. He has the end in mind when we’ll be presented as His pure and spotless Bride, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I could write pages on what He’s shown me out of Ezekiel, but in favor of communicating the message in a readable way, I’m going to be briefly touching on several points. I really want to encourage you to read Ezekiel for yourself in a couple of translations. Use a literal translation, like the New King James, and supplement with The Passion Translation. Read the notes!
While it’s not an “easy” read, I love the KJV of 2 Tim. 2:15: “Study to shew (show) thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (Parentheses mine.) Be a student of the Word – God will absolutely speak to you through it!
When you read Ezekiel, an initial take on it can be one of seeing God as punitive. What we miss is the behavior of the people, and how God had done everything He could to draw them to Himself in love, but they chose everything contrary to His heart and His holiness.
He is a just God and after wooing and warning, He was left with judgment, the goal of which was to once again cause His people to return to Him. It was always for the sake of restoration of relationship. Destruction never causes God joy; it causes Him to mourn.
Ezekiel is called as a prophet and as a watchman. Most already know what a prophet is; a watchman is a lookout and in Hebrew, it means to lean forward, peer into the distance, observe, await (in terms of behold, look up, wait for, and watch). This was Ezekiel’s stance as God began to unfold visions and revelation to him. It’s to be our stance as well. What Ezekiel saw, had explained to him, and was asked to prophetically model to the world around him was hectic, to say the least.
God spoke to Ezekiel of the idolatry of the people and called them into account for it. The behavior of God’s people has never ceased to astound me, but there’s “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NKJV). The truth is we do the same today and none of us is entirely free from being idol worshippers.
Britannica defines idolatry as “the worship of someone or something other than God as though it were God” and an idol as “an image used as an object of worship.” In Ex. 20:3, God tells us we’re to have no other gods before Him – it’s the first of the ten commandments.
Yet, we all have things we place before God in our lives. They’re the things we set our affection on - devote our time and attention to, above the affection we have for God. It’s the things we love and desire more than Him. We can place our spouse, children, ministry, work / business, and even doing acts of service above Him. Promiscuity, drugs, alcohol, and other addictions are idols, along with way worse things than that.
Do you know what came of their idolatry? Violence, plagues, and food shortages, to name a few (Ez. 6). Sound familiar today? Yeah . . .
All throughout the earlier chapters of Ezekiel when God was telling him this would happen, God would say something along the lines of, “And when this happens, they will be convinced that I am Yahweh!” (Ez. 14b, TPT) God’s heart was always to reveal Himself to His people and draw them to Him. It’s no different today.
The United States was founded on godly principles and Christianity. Our currency boldly proclaims, “In God We Trust,” yet we have moved further and further away from God, as have many other nations. Jerusalem’s corrupt leaders were called into account in chapter 11, along with the murder of children for the sake of honoring false gods in chapter 16. Many of today’s leaders are just as corrupt and the murder of children from the womb and beyond is an unfathomable atrocity throughout the world.
As we have all seen, today’s church is hardly a spotless Bride. In his day, Ezekiel was shown the “repulsive and loathsome things” His people were doing within the temple and the “despicable things” the leaders of the nation were doing in secret (Ez. 8:6-13). These leaders were the Sanhedrin, the ones who were chosen to instruct God’s people. God’s light has been shining in the darkness of the deepest recesses of our churches and ministries and more will be revealed in the days to come.
False prophets of Ezekiel’s time were also condemned (Ez. 13). As a modern prophetic company, it’s imperative we allow God to “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Ps. 51:10, ESV) We can’t give words in exchange for accolades, acclaim, “likes”, and popularity. They also can’t be given out of a wrong spirit – one with hidden agendas, an ax to grind, or one that’s divisive. We will be called to account for the words we speak and the platforms we seek to create. An idol is an idol and “truth in love” isn’t always from His heart.
Idols were built deep in the hearts of the people (chapter 14, TPT). We’re no different in this era and, just as in the days of old, we’re driving Him away. We can’t expect to continue as we are without repercussions. This is why I couldn’t help but grieve and mourn and sit in holy fear. We have positioned ourselves for what is already unfolding on the earth today.
In Ezekiel 10, I read how God’s glory left the temple, and I wept. God, please don’t remove your glory from the land and from Your church!
God does sprinkle and pour out incredible hope throughout Ezekiel. For instance, chapter 11 speaks of restoration, and chapter 43 speaks of God’s return to the temple with a renewal of worship. These are promises to us on which we can stand.
We read in Ezekiel 11:18 - 19 (TPT), “When you return, you will purge the land of all its filthy idols and detestable practices. I will give you a new, undivided heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stubborn heart of stone and give you a tender heart that responds to me—a devoted heart.” We can’t continue as we are currently. It’s not a popular message, but we have to repent – turn away from the ways in which we’re walking. The thing is repentance isn’t a bad thing. It’s empowering.
Christina Theodosiadis recently shared an amazing preach on “Repentance and Recalculating the Route.” In it, she defined repentance in the following way.
“Repentance is allowing Me to recalculate the route unchallenged. Repentance is not simply saying you’re sorry…Repentance is a much more empowering process…The Lord is always for us. He’s always fighting for us and sometimes we partner with things that aren’t conducive to those things and repentance is the agent that allows us to prepare the landing place for the Lord to usher in our verdicts on our behalf in our favor. It’s the move…that checkmates the enemy. It’s the greatest weapon we have against the enemy.”
Repentance is key. It’s imperative we turn our hearts back to Him, make Him our first love, and allow Him to purify our hearts and motives as we devote ourselves to Him once again or even for the first time. Revival will ignite. We’ll see the Lord in glorious and loving ways. His Spirit will come in power. Life and healing will flow. His blessing will be on us and on our land(s).
How do I know? I’ve read the end of the book.
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
A Word from Hosea
This is something the Lord spoke to my heart recently and it's stuck with me. We've been seeing this happen, but as many have noted, it's only just begun.
In this time . . . There is a stripping away of structures and resources relied upon.
It will cause people to return to the Lord and seek HIM.
The King who will then sit on the throne will be Jesus.
From that foundation, things will be rebuilt.
I see this playing out through ministries and the body of Christ at large.
We have been the harlot - gone to other lovers. Too many are proclaiming the kingdom, but pursuing the enticing things of the world.
Out of His great love, He's drawing us back to Him, but it will be solely Him, so the rest has to be stripped away.
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
