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Prophetic Insight for 2015

As we make the transition from 2014 into 2015, I wanted to share a few things the Lord has been speaking to me about over the last couple months…

In September, at the beginning of the Jewish New Year, God began to speak to me regarding the year 5775. The number 5 standing for Grace and the number 7 standing for Completion. It was God’s Completion wrapped and sealed in his Grace. Or the double Grace and double Completion. Throughout 2014, the year was so full of revelation and breakthroughs; that when we hit Rosh Hashanah it was a completion of things promised for the previous year and many began stepping into the new, even at that time.

The double doors of destiny, or your destiny doors began to open even in the months to follow which brought us to October, November and December. Now going in to January, as you begin to walk through those doors, the vision God has written on your heart will begin to unfurl. I saw it as a destiny scroll. A scroll that has already been written, yet has not had the seal broken and the pages read. I saw many who had un-opened destiny scrolls.

Psalm 139 declares in verse 14 – 17 (Amplified)…

“I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery]. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”

In 2015, I see the unfurling of destinies. I see strategic implementation of God’s specific design for many lives. I also see a year of Compound Interest and Compound Harvest. That the seeds you have sown out of your life ~ Not restricted to only financial seeds, but also your time, energy, love, prayers, etc. ~ … these seeds you have sown this past year and even going back into previous years where you have only seen the desolate and barren fields… NOW they will produce. And not only will they produce this year, but it will be at an exponential rate. The compounding affect will create a harvest that actually produces a harvest.

I saw Amos 9:13 (Amplified) …

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt [that is, everything heretofore barren and unfruitful shall overflow with spiritual blessing].”

So this year in 2015, I declare anything barren in your life will produce fruit. And I decree anything unfruitful will now overflow with God’s abundance! You are moving out of your dry season and into a season of abundance, and while others may still look to the ravens to sustain them. You must now look to the dove and receive a fresh manifestation of His Spirit in your life.

Hipsters, Beards & The Elf on the Shelf

Christmas is just around the corner and with that, for most men, comes what I call the “Santa Complex”…

Let’s face it, we are all knee deep in these burly man beards by now. I’m not sure at what point in the year it turned from that super sexy GQ stubble version of a 5 o’clock shadow into the grizzly, backwoods lumber-jack version. But it happened. And by late November, Middle Tennessee is crawling with them. Like the good wife that I am, your facial hair is your business. I love you clean shaven- as the day I met you or with your oiled up hipster facial hair. But let me warn you men… at some point, just like the light up reindeer display on the front lawn, it will have to go.

The question is HOW? How in this crazed society, enthralled with this creepy beard movement, do we as women, rid ourselves of the hideous hair? Your wait is over ladies… I have had a breakthrough of epic proportions and I am about to let you in on the biggest secret ever…

The Elf on the Shelf.

What’s that? Oh you don’t know? You don’t have kids or have never walked the aisles of your local Target nor Barnes & Nobles. Let me fill you in… this “Elf on the shelf” comes in a fabulous box with a story book accompanying him or her. He comes with a variety of hair and eye color options these days, so you can select the perfect little elf to keep your adorable munchkins in line before Christmas. For all intents and purposes he is just a Christmas tool, used to enforce Santa’s Naughty or Nice list. He watches your kids and then when they fall asleep he heads back to the North Pole each night to report on the daily activities. He comes back and then positions himself in a new spot around the house. The fun is in finding what he has done or where he is hiding the next day.

Let me just admit something to you… I have been a lazy parent. The first year we got the elf, we didn’t even name him. My son was 6 and my daughter barely 1. I had sleepless nights, days filled with homeschooling a reluctant Kindergartener and no motivation to be the super parent with ultimate creative powers used to display the elf in extreme theatrical scenes. He was not found sitting on our couch watching movies with a bowl of popcorn spilling over or fighting off toy dinosaurs with my son’s nerf guns. Nor was our elf ever found being held hostage, taped to our walls by mini army soldiers. Last year, the elf didn’t even make it out of storage…

But not this year! “Viva La Revolución” I cried in my little heart as my OCD tried to take over the joy of decorating the family Christmas tree. Our Thanksgiving plans had been derailed due to the large accumulation of snow in upstate New York last week and we were now staying in Nashville for the Holidays. So what better to do than unpack the tree and set up the lovely Christmas decor. Deep within a box, underneath stockings and cookie cutters laid the Elf On The Shelf’s shiny packaging. My now 3 year old daughter reached in and pulled it out saying, “What’s this Daddy?”

The magic unfurled. The story read and little eyes lit up with delight as they were fed the mythical tale of Santa’s elf. Together with Dad, the kids picked his name. Freggle. I’m sure it’s a mix of Fraggle Rock and Freggly from Diary of A Wimpy Kid, but either way, both kids were satisfied. And so it began 2 days ago…

Now I am pretty certain things started a bit too early. There was no pre-game warm up for Freggle. He was just thrown into it cold turkey, right before Thanksgiving. I’m not positive on this, but I don’t think his elf duties are supposed to start until December 1st, or at least until after Black Friday! But we went in hard… we had a pep talk with him and we decided “Go Big or Go Home” would be the Christmas motto this year. After all, it is our first Christmas in our new house and there was no time to waste on subtleties.

Since we all have Thanksgiving meals to prep for, let me cut to the chase. Ladies, remember the beards? Let your Elf make quick work of it!

Here is what happened last night in my home…

In the morning my husband awoke to a text message from the elf along with those images, it simply said…

“Hey Old Man Hipster, this Christmas, Santa is the only one with a beard!”

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? What does your family do with him? Or maybe you have other family Christmas traditions… leave a comment with what you do or plan to do this year!

China, Cheesecake & The Great Wall

As the airplane screeched to a halting stop, I breathed deeply.

My husband, who had been fast asleep for majority of the 13 hour journey, gazed over to me and lovingly said, “Welcome Home, Brynn.”

A moment that had hung in the stars for over a decade collided with Earth’s knowledge of time and we stepped into destiny; placing both feet on the ground in Beijing.

Let me go ahead and say that again… We stepped off the plane and onto the martyr’s blood-stained land of China. The 7,013.7 miles away from my two children, China. A land that missionary forerunner, Hudson Taylor, gave over 50 years of his life to, China. That is where I stepped, when He turned and whispered those words of invitation and comfort.

You see for nearly the entirety of our marriage and even before hand we had discussed a vision and heart we both had for the Asian nations of the earth. To proclaim and preach the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to the unreached people groups of the 10/40 window. At last, a dream was becoming a reality.

Early on in my life, as a young seventeen year old, I spent the summer before my Senior year of high school in China and Hong Kong. In fact, it was because of this trip to China that I based my college decision on. Which in turn lead to my heart for Missions growing, expanding and engulfing all my major decisions for the next few years to come.

I had walked the streets of Beijing, stood at the great monument in Tienanmen Square, prayed to my God in the midst of Buddhist temples and climbed the Great Wall of China. All the while declaring Joshua 1:3, “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.”

See, I had been here before.

Fourteen years later I was returning with my husband to minister and fulfill a mandate and promise God had placed over our lives. We spent the next 8 days going full-force, non-stop with no time for jet-lag to set in. Though at times I truly felt like the walking dead; a zombie of sorts, not knowing what time it was nor where I was… This gave me even greater appreciation for my husband who travels every weekend out of the month changing time-zones regularly.

The morning after our arrival was a particularly special time for me on this trip. My dearest friend of over 10 years, Rachel, was able to be in China at the same exact time I was with only a few days overlapping! Aside from the conference Charlie and I were ministering at, the ladies had gathered in a home for a time of ministry, lattes and cheesecake. That’s right, cheesecake! Rachel had ministered at the Women’s Tea the week before and so there was already an expectation in hearts.

As I reached for my Bible, and asked the ladies to turn to Psalm 139, the room filled with laughter. I thought… what just happened? Unknowingly, I had asked them to turn to the exact scripture Rachel had shared from the week before. The key verses out of this passage that the Lord had been highlighting the weeks before this trip were found in verses 15 – 17.

“My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery]. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”(Psalm 139: 15-17 AMP)

God kept saying to me over and over again, “Destiny scrolls, destiny scrolls, go and unlock their destiny scrolls.” I thought to myself, okay… what does that even mean? This is when Psalm 139 began to explode inside of me as I meditated on how much God loves each one of us and has created us in our uniqueness. He has written His thoughts about us even before our days began. Wow! I had to sit there a moment and actually re-read this passage. Not because that part of scripture is new to me, but rather because, I was reading it in a new light with clearer vision.

I shared this with the women and we began to worship God, diving deep into his Love, soaking up his presence and asking him to reveal our true identity and destiny. The atmosphere in that small living room was electric, weighty and bursting with purpose… everyone there was touched by the power of God. Some had visions, others were in trance like states, still some weeping with tear stained cheeks. Yet there were those of us bubbling over with so much joy we could not keep our laughter in.

In the midst of all this, the most powerful moment that happened was the salvation of a young Chinese woman. She shouldn’t have been there. In fact it was illegal, but there she was anyway.

It was then that The Divine pierced the veil of time, penetrating a fog of illusions that had left her in a haze, and grabbed hold of her soul refusing to recoil. He cloaked her with Mercy and kissed her with Grace. It was a transaction so precious and I was honored to simply be a part, a witness to God’s furious love.

The Art Of Marriage

It’s cute, right?

I mean, that’s what I thought as I saw this quote repeatedly while searching the topic of love & marriage on the internet.

Except, I have a problem with it…

Love is not an emotion, a fickle feeling that comes and goes as it pleases. Like a roller coaster going to extreme heights and then on to severe lows. Love is a person, and that person is God himself.

1 John 4:8 says, “He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.”

When we know that our spouse was created in the image of God, it becomes infinitely easier to love them. Whether there are differences of opinion or obstacles to work through, ultimately when you chose to see the face of God reflected in the eyes of your spouse, you’ll never lose respect for them.

“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 (NLT)

“This is the family tree of the human race: When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race.” Genesis 5:1-2 (MSG)

When you make a choice to love someone with a God-Love, there’s no need for falling… together you will stand as one for eternity. There will come a recognition that you are no longer two individuals roaming like nomads through life’s uncertainties, but you are now one. You become a force of divine connection; spirit, soul and body.

“The Man said,’Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh! Name her Woman for she was made from Man.’ Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.” Genesis 2:23-25 (MSG)

“Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’” And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” (Matt. 19:4-6 NLT)

So the secret to my marriage is seeing God, the personification of Love, in my husband’s eyes. No matter what circumstance arises, to step back – take a breath- and realize we are one. To be angry at him is to be upset with my own self. If you are married or even single and waiting for the right one God has for you, remember that love is a choice. Choose to love with the God-Love.