Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
I despise airplane turbulence. Even though I enjoy high-speed roller coasters, there is something about hurling through stormy skies in a commercial jetliner at 37,000 feet that turns my knuckles white. This is why I always ask for a window seat. Whenever we hit rough air and the seat belt sign flashes on, I feel safer if I can look outside.
But that didn't help me on a recent overseas flight. I was not aware that rough weather was raging below. All I knew was that our journey through the dark vacuum of space reminded me of Doctor Doom's Fearfall—a theme park ride I have enjoyed many times in Orlando. (That ride lasts only a few seconds, and it is firmly bolted to the ground. The stomach-churning turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean lasted half an hour.)
It was 11 p.m., and I couldn't see anything outside my window except horizontal rain. I kept reminding myself that the pilot was using radar and other high-tech instruments to avoid crashing into the sea. I recalled a conversation with my brother-in-law, a Delta pilot. He assured me that no one dies in turbulence.
But my knuckles did not believe this. I clutched the armrest, prayed and—for a few seconds—wondered how my wife would plan my funeral.
Of course the plane did not break apart in midair. When we descended below the cloud cover, and the lights of civilization became visible, all my color returned. I breathed a prayer of thanksgiving when I heard the familiar sound of wheels touching the runway.
You may not share my fear of turbulence, but all of us have walked through scary times in life when we couldn't see the path in front of us. Many people I know are going through such times right now. Some are facing job loss, financial hardships, health problems or unusual spiritual challenges.
Meanwhile, many churches today are finding it hard to navigate change. More people than ever are in a season of transition because old business models don't work and ministry paradigms are shifting. On top of that, the world is going though unprecedented political and economic shaking. You can expect more of that in this new year.
It's not going to be easy. There are going to be some roller-coaster moments in this season. My best advice is to put on your seat belts now.
Some of us find ourselves digging our fingernails into the armrest while the plane bounces all over the stormy sky. And when we look out the window, we see nothing but darkness.
I have found my comfort in the words David penned after he escaped from Saul's pursuits. He wrote in Psalm 18:4,6: "The cords of death encircled me, and the torrents of destruction terrified me ... In my distress I called on the Lord, and cried for help to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry for help came to His ears."
In describing God's just-in-the-nick-of-time rescue, David borrowed imagery from the day when God opened the Red Sea. "The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High gave His voice ... Then the channels of water appeared, and the foundations of the world were discovered ... He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters ... He also brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me because He delighted in me" (v. 13,15,16,19).
David's transition wasn't easy. In his most difficult moment, he realized God had "made darkness His hiding place" (v. 11, NASB). We must remember that darkness is not a sign that God is not with us. It became stormy just before the Red Sea split open. Yet God was working behind the scenes, even when the clouds were black and the wind was violent.
As we enter this turbulent time of transition, hold tightly to this promise. You can trust Him. In yet a little while, He will intervene. Don't focus on your job crisis, the bad economic news, your lack of options or the bumpiness of the ride. When His lightning flashes, He will split the obstacles in front of you and make a dry roadbed in the middle of the sea. He can make a way where there is no way.
Don't try to handle the anxiety yourself. Ask the Lord to carry you. Turbulence never lasts forever. Eventually you will hear the sound of wheels touching down on the wet runway. Although you are helpless to make this transition on your own, your Deliverer will safely carry you from your present crisis into a broad place of future blessing.
J. Lee Gradywas editor of Charisma for 11 years before he launched into full-time ministry in 2010. Today he directs The Mordecai Project, a Christian charitable organization that is taking the healing of Jesus to women and girls who suffer abuse and cultural oppression. Author of several books including 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, he has just released his newest book, Set My Heart on Fire, from Charisma House. You can follow him on Twitter at @LeeGrady or go to his website, themordecaiproject.org.
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The Holy Spirit is moving among this generation in miraculous ways. Charisma reached out to nine "new voices" who are advancing the kingdom of God around the world. Each story is featured in our Charisma January issue, and we've posted the transcripts below. This interview has been edited for grammar and clarity. For the full interview, be sure to download the podcast.
Jeannie Ortega Law is a former "bad girl" pop star who was signed to a Disney label. Now, she's the host of In the Mix on TBN Salsa, as well as a prolific writer and musician.
You have quite the testimony. Can you tell me a little bit about how you came to know the Lord?
Sure. It's a long story. I'll give you the CliffsNotes. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Back when I grew up in the neighborhood that I did, it was a rough neighborhood, so I couldn't really hang out outside because of the violence and the danger. It was a hard situation to grow up in, as well as on the inside, because life is life, and my parents didn't know the Lord, and I dealt with violence and all of that as well.
Didn't you also grew up with a strange religion that mixed witchcraft with Catholicism?
My aunt is like a high priestess in Santeria, which is witchcraft. It's like the Latin version of witchcraft. Or Obeah, which is what Caribbean people call it. That was in my mom's side of the family.
I was being groomed early as I could remember to take my aunt's place and be the high priestess when she's gone. That was kind of the upbringing in terms of religious beliefs. It was Catholic as well, which I still don't get and can't wrap my head around how that religion thinks Catholicism or God is OK with it. But whatever.
I had kind of these beginnings of understanding that there was a God when I needed there to be a God, because of the violence outside, the violence inside, I needed there to be an outlet. So as young as I remember, I was always crying out to God. But I didn't know anything about relationship. I didn't know about the redemptive power of Jesus, the saving grace of God. I had no idea. That was just my outlet to cry, and then I started to get suicidal thoughts as young as 7 years old. That's when the Lord used music. I didn't know it was the Lord. I didn't know anything about God. But clearly, I know He intervened by using music.
It wasn't Christian music. I didn't even know Christian music existed. But He used music to get my attention and helped me just cry it out and realize that music has power, that it is an outlet. This made me want to be a singer, because music has the power to help me feel better.
I became this person who just constantly was letting everything out into music. Once I knew music had power, it became my goal to become a famous singer. I went from being groomed for Santeria to wanting to help people feel better through music. I started to really actively work towards that.
How can I reach people? I was going to my neighbors' houses. I was knocking on their doors with my karaoke machine: "Can I sing for you?" It was that serious. I did that for many years, until I finally was discovered.
This is the craziest story, but it is 100 percent true. I was discovered in a taxicab in New York City. I was singing along to the radio. The cab driver was also a limo driver. He pulls up by my house, and it's me and my mom, and we're doing grocery shopping. It's kind of creepy, but he was like, "You're beautiful, and you have a great voice. Do you sing? Are you a singer?"
I was like, "Yeah, I'm totally a singer. I'm from New York." I'm letting him know, "This is what I do. I have a demo. I do all of this.'
He's like, "Oh, give me your demo. I drive around famous managers, and I'd love to give it to somebody."
Lo and behold, two weeks later, I got a call from a major manager in the secular pop industry. That was the beginning. It was then from about 13 till 16, I was working with these top-of-the-line—you would know their names if I told you—top producers, and they were kind of grooming me. I went from being groomed in Santeria to be being groomed to be like this kind of pop girl from the hood version of Kesha.
It was Kesha, but like the hood side. But basically that's kind of what happened. I got a record deal. But before that, I just said "Hey, I write."
You know, my whole heart was always to write. But when you get involved with people in the industry; they try to silence your voice and make you what they want you to be—you know, their little puppet. So the whole Kesha thing wasn't working for me. I said, "Hey, I write. Let me write."
Finally, when I did write, that song was picked up by Hollywood Records for a soundtrack. They wanted to sign me. At the age of 16, I was signed to Hollywood Records, the Disney subdivision record company, and I went from a girl in the hood to a girl in Hollywood.
I had a top 25 Billboard hit.
I was touring with Rihanna.
I was doing all these things that a little girl from where I came from could only dream of, and I quickly forgot that I wanted to make music to help people. I became a product. I became a brand. I was told that "People have gotta want to be you, or they gotta want to be with you." Obviously, I'm saying it very PG, because that's not how it was said to me—and I was a teenager, you know what I mean? So I started to do music. I don't even know if you know that part of me, but my whole life up to a couple years ago was solely music.
But in the midst of my pop career, God got a hold of me. I was invited to a Christian church. I had still been feeling the same things about inside of my home. Although I had money, although I had all these things, nothing had changed. I was still a broken little girl, and I couldn't make my parents stop fighting, and I couldn't make my friends really be my friends and not be jealous of me and all these things that I had no control over.
Again, I was faced with, "You should just end it all." Now I'm a teenager on my way to becoming an adult. Here I am, hearing these voices again to just end it all, like "Look, you have money now. You have fame now. You can have whatever and whomever you want, and you're still broken, and you're still lost."
Then someone invited me to a Christian church. I knew it was the answer. I don't know how I knew. But inside of my soul, I was crying out to go to a church. It couldn't be the same religious church that I grew up in, because that had done me no good. I went to this Christian church, and I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit.
Tell me a little bit about your encounter with the Holy Spirit.
Funny thing: because of how I grew up, I had never seen people be charismatic at all. I walked in thinking, These people are nuts.
But, oddly enough, I was jealous. I had this godly jealousy or something that I wanted to be as free and open with God as they were. I had cried myself to sleep. The shower and my bed were my most charismatic moments up to that point. But I had never been in the religious or Christian setting that I saw people really be that open, and I became jealous of them. I wanted to be that free. But I wasn't. I was still thinking, These people are crazy.
I had kind of given God an ultimatum. So I went to the church. I said, "God, if you don't speak to me, I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to leave my family, and I'm never going to look back. I'm going to just do whatever it is that I want, and I'm not gonna ever look back."
That's how my attitude was going in. Halfway or maybe towards the end of service, the pastor called me up. I remember, I had a gray hoodie on, and I probably looked like a street kid, you know? I didn't want to be noticed. I didn't want anybody to know me. I was just so broken. I was unknown. I walked up to the altar, and he didn't say anything to me. He just simply walked by me, placed his hand on my shoulder and just kept moving. But as he prayed for me, when he put his hand on my shoulder—and I'm assuming he prayed—I became overwhelmed with this emotion. I felt this power come over me that I had never felt before. I fell to my knees and began to weep and weep and weep and weep. It was absolutely incredible, because, understand, I grew up in a spiritual world.
But up to that point, I never felt, I had never even known that there was a such thing as the power of the Holy Spirit until that moment. I knew it was God, because I had felt other things. So when it was God, I knew it was God. I mean, I guess he was just healing me in that moment. Then I get up and I go to my seat. I was embarrassed because I had never reacted that way in front of other people, but it was completely normal to everyone else.
I sat down and I said, "God, that was amazing, and I know that was you, but you didn't speak to me. That's why I went to church. I needed answers."
Then I hear God through His Holy Spirit for the first time, saying, "Go back home and tell your mother and your brother what you encountered."
It was crazy, because I got a ride home, but I could not stop crying. I cried from the moment I fell to my knees till they brought me to the front of my home, and I stayed in the car with them for another two hours because I was weeping uncontrollably. I could not stop. It was just the years of anguish and pain, and I was just letting it out, and I knew it was God healing me.
Then I went upstairs, told my mom and my brother, and then that began their journey with God. from that part, understand, I was already a pop star, so I wasn't willing to give up my dream. I was just like, "Cool. God is along for my life now."
Two or three years after that, I was 21. I had already had this top hit song, and I'm doing all these incredible things. Because I started to fall in love with Jesus so much, I just wanted to talk about Him everywhere. I wanted everyone to know, everyone that I encountered. I didn't care what your resume said, didn't care how popular you were. I wanted you to know that you can feel God and that the Holy Spirit was real, and He was here and He was willing to work with you on your brokenness. So I became a little mini-evangelist. But remember, I wasn't signed for that.
Actually when I was signed, they told me they had signed me to be the bad girl on their label because up to that point, they only had Disney stars: Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez. So I was the bad girl.
That was before they became the bad girls.
Oh yes, this was before. This was even before Rihanna became the bad girl. Up until that point, that was me, but then I became this evangelist, and they're just like, "What's going on here? We didn't sign a Christian artist."
Even the songs—because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks—so even the songs that I was writing, they were coming out from a Christian woman's perspective. Eventually, they just dropped me. No explanation. I obviously understand why they let me go, just thinking about it. They didn't sign a Christian. They signed a bad girl. But you couldn't stop me.
I was wasting precious studio hours for four hours straight, just telling somebody, "You can feel God. I can pray with you right now, and you can have an encounter with God." Like, that was me. I wanted the world to know this. that's kind of how everything else started. I know my story's kind of long.
Basically, from there, I kind of took off, after I lost the deal and everything. I didn't feel compelled to just jump right back in the music industry. I wanted to discover who I was in God. you know how it is: He has to kill all your idols.
Dying to self is the most painful, horrible thing. But it's so worth it.
Oh, it was so worth it. In the middle of it, it's brutal. This is where I was. But it was the first time that I even asked God, "What do you want from me? What are your plans for my life?"
I was a 21-year-old woman at this point. I had already lived a very old life, just because of the life that I had. I had to grow up really quickly. It was the first time that I asked, "God what do you want?" I took a three-year hiatus where I just went to church, and I discovered everything that I could learn about this God, this person I was falling deeply in love with.
I didn't want any relationships. I didn't want any distractions. I even prayed for God to take away my voice, because I was afraid it was an idol. He never took away the voice, and He just continued to pour into me and nourish and love on me.
Then I started to get giftings: hear prophetically from Him, dream dreams, all these incredible things that—I had always been super-spiritually in tune, because of the life that I had. But I never knew that I could use them for God or that they were even from God. I had some church hurt in between that and all that.
I had to learn quickly the reality of church, because I was super naive going in. I thought church was a very safe place, and I'd never get hurt. And there wouldn't be jealousy in church like there was in the world, or all the competition and things like that. So I learned all these hard lessons.
But then I met my husband. Once we were married, the Lord told me, "I want you to go out and share your story now." It was kind of like He was waiting for me to get married, and it was probably for my own protection. Because even in the Christian world, if you're not married, everyone thinks you're their wife. So God knew I needed to be completely covered and secured before He released me again.
Then I started to do singing and speaking and sharing my testimony. That's kind of how I was introduced to TBN. I was a guest on TBN for many, many years as an artist and a minister before I was offered my own show. Then even before I found my voice in the media, because I never thought I would be doing Christian media either, but, you know, when you're a pop star and you have a change of genre, and you start doing things for the Lord, the finances are not the same. It's a very different world when it comes to that.
But I didn't care. I knew the truth, and I was rich in the Spirit. I didn't need the financial part until I did. So God was like "OK dear, time to look for some sustainability." That's how I got involved in media. The finances were dwindling, and I wanted to continue to do what God had called me to do. But I needed the money to do it. So I was looking for stuff that I was into. I'm like, Oh, well, I pretty much went from high school on tour, and then I have this huge career, and any employer who looks at my resume, they're gonna laugh. So I was like, "God, what am I good at?" I just felt this pull toward media. I understand media from art, from the creative side. I did, and I wound up getting a job for a Christian media company and started to do media.
Having been raised in Santeria and then coming full circle and being filled with the Holy Spirit, what is the spiritual warfare in your life like on a daily basis?
Well, the interesting part is in the beginning. It was hardcore, because in my life, because I grew up in this culture, and because it was so close to my family, literally, there were things all over my house that were prepared, if you will. Meaning they were cursed to kind of keep me and lure me into this religion.
So upon becoming a Christian, and realizing I needed to cut ties with anything that was witchcraft, or witchcraft related, or was dedicated to another spirit or god, or whatever, I literally threw thousands and thousands of dollars of things away in my home. I literally walked through my home. I had to comb through it, and make sure it was all clean.
This is a thing Christians don't do. Even when they go on trips, they'll buy things in the Caribbean or the islands, and they think it's cute, and they don't realize that they can have things like spiritual ties.
So my spiritual sensitivity really was heightened, and I have to do a clean sweep of my house and make sure I got rid of all these things that were given to me and, oh my gosh, from my sweet 16 crown. That was a gift to me from my relatives who were in Santeria. I got rid of it all. That was one thing.
It was a rough thing, because I needed deliverance. I had things living in me that were not of God. Just even growing up in the industry, the things that you do open the door to the enemy. I needed deliverance. So I actually got prayed for, and I felt the spiritual battle within me, which was very crazy. [Only] one time in my life before that, I had felt that there was a tug back and forth on the inside of me. It was during one of those feasts, a spiritual feast that my aunt had thrown on Halloween. They were trying to conjure a spirit into me.
Tell me a little bit more about that.
They were like chanting over me—a bunch of adults and I was a teenager—and they're chanting over me and, you know, I didn't want to. I didn't want to feel it, but you know, you just do what your family tells you to do, right? Then in the midst of that, I felt that stirring inside of me, and I just screamed, and I said, "Get away from me!" and I ran out of the house.
That was the first time I felt that stirring. The second time I felt that stirring was that day in church years later, where the pastor was praying for people to be delivered from things that were not of God. And I went up to the altar, and I felt the stirring. And they prayed and they prayed for me, and then I went to my feet and I'm like, "It's still in here! Pray for me!"
It was at that moment that I realized that it was the Holy Spirit years before then who fought for me that day at the feast. That night, it was actually that evening, we went back to my house—the pastor, a deacon, my mom and myself—and we got rid of every tie that I had to that religion. That's kind of like the beginning of how that whole spiritual warfare began. But constantly as you grow as a Christian, you just continue to exercise the truth, and knowing that greater is God in you than any demonic spirit or force or curse or anything that's in the world. Where the blood of Jesus is, the devil has to flee.
I'm very intentional about constantly covering myself like that and my home like that. I don't even know if you know, but now I'm a pastor's wife, and we open up our home to people from everywhere to come and hear the gospel and partake in fellowship with us. We do Bible studies a lot. Even when you do that, you still have to make sure that your home is covered. Because you don't want—and you know people do, they come in with their own things, their own spiritual things, and you just want to make sure that you're sealed, and there's no ties to any spiritual kind of things that are not of God.
You talked about how once you were filled with the Holy Spirit, you began to have prophetic dreams. Can you tell me a little bit more about those?
I never knew that I could even have a relationship with God ever. I didn't know that. I always thought God was this person in the sky and was very distant from me. So as I began to grow in the spiritual, the Lord just started to take me through my life in so many times where he intervened and where he was there and I had no idea.
So that was kind of a way of Him just telling me, "Hey, I've always been here."
Then as I started to pursue him, I would say, "Lord, I want time with you."
Then I feel like I would go to these special places with God that only He and I could go, and He would just pour into me and fill me, because remember, for so many years, I tried to fill my void with all these other things. So in this moment of these incredible moments with God, He started to fill me with Him, and I literally started to see—you know, I felt like he took me all over.
I wrote a song on one of my albums after becoming a Christian called "Loved by You." It's saying, "I can dance across the moon with you/ I can sail across the deep blue."
That's kind of what my spirituality became with this God, that any place that I wanted to be, I could go there with Him and find this moment of intimacy and love and just know that He's God. He's the Creator of everything and holds everything in His hand. He has me. He has me, and He loves me, and He was just pouring into me. That's what being loved by God was like. I started to really go into my prayer closet and have these moments where I could just feel like I was dancing with God across the moon, and beautiful things. Then I started to get dreams where I would dream about things happening, and then they would happen.
It actually still happens. Just this week, I had a dream about a church in New York. I called them to say, "Hey, I was in spiritual warfare for you. The Lord showed me this, this and this. I just want you to know that he's with you, and he's fighting for you. He has people lifting up across the country to pray for you." There was something going on. These are the types of things that God will get me, and I'm so grateful for it. I don't take it for granted at all.
I feel like a lot of people are prophetic, or they're like "I knew that was gonna happen," but they don't know what to do when God gives them these things. my advice would be, "If God gives you something, pray. Just pray. Pray because you never know."
So what is next for you right now? What are you doing with your ministry, with your church, with your TV show?
Oh, gosh. I'm always doing so many different things. It's hilarious. As a pastor's wife, our goal now is to just really utilize what we have: access to social media, access to this live field of media that we can use to reach out to the world, even on Facebook Live.
God has talked, and He's been like, "Get on Facebook Live, and I want you to worship."
I'm like "OK."
"Get on Facebook Live, and I want you to pray against depression."
"Okay." As I am obedient with doing these things, it's incredible.
Because so many people followed me throughout the years. Many of them are not charismatic Christian people, so they have no idea what worship looks like. They have no idea what true praying for deliverance looks like. They don't know anything. So just me, being a voice, even in a digital world, to show them that, it's helping people find freedom and even become curious on how they can access that same power. So that's kind of what we've been doing.
We've just been utilizing everything God has given us, whether it's online or here and just doing that. We want to cultivate Acts 2 communities. We want the fire that's in us to spread like wildfire, especially where we are in Orlando, because it's very different than New York. But we want that same fire to spread. We're determined to do that wherever we go. We travel all over the world, and we do that. So that's what we're doing in the ministry. With the TV show, I'll continue to do what I am doing, using my platform to help highlight other people and overcome the devil by their testimonies. I was offered a book deal. So we're in that.
What do you see happening within the charismatic church as a whole right now?
What I see in this generation is a generation that is not afraid to go out and spread the gospel, the unadulterated gospel. But that's also not, I think, like in the past, where people would be just kind of excluded or shunned. I feel this generation is so bold that they're willing to go in the face of these people who might be living on opposite life than we are to show them, "This is what God has to offer. This is why you want it," and I see that happening.
I feel like obviously, we can't compromise, and we have to show the love of Jesus. That's a fine line. But I do feel like God is raising up a generation that's bold enough and loving enough to do it. I see that that's happening. I know everyone keeps saying, "There's another Great Awakening. There's a Great Awakening coming." I feel like we can all cultivate that. I think it starts with sacrifice. We have to be willing to get on our face and our knees and spend the time.
I think time is a big factor here—to really call on God and be willing to just get in that place and that posture where we're available for Him to pour out himself to what He wants to, but I feel like we all have access to it. I don't feel like it's this wave that's going to come. I feel like it's this thing we need to activate.
That's wonderful to hear. I think the time thing is so important, because so often, I'm like, "All right, God, what can I do now?" I'm reminded of the verse "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord."
Amen. See, that's the secret place. We look at the secret place as this place where we go to find strength for ourselves. But it's in that secret place that we become activated to do really what He's calling us to do. I think for our generation, that's the hard part. But that's where it is.
Do you have anything else you'd like to share with our readers?
I know my story is crazy. It takes all these turns. It's obviously written only by God. But it's not unique, in the sense that we all have our stories. There's pain in all of us. There's a longing in all of us. Jesus is the answer. I don't want to sound cliche or whatever, but it's true. When you come from a place where you've had everything you ever thought you wanted, and it didn't fulfill, and then you lost everything that you thought you wanted, but you found the greatest thing ever that can fulfill you and sustain you and keep you, you'll never let go. My husband and I, we've been through the loss of two of our children. We've gone through miscarriage. We've been married almost 10 years, and you know, we've certainly been through church hurt where we've been so hurt by church people, leaders and faith people that you respect.
But if you never forget that Jesus is the one, Jesus is the one that sustains. Jesus is the one that stills. Jesus is the one that strengthens. If you never forget that, you will be able to get through anything and everything. that's just something I want people to understand. We can't put our stock in anything but Jesus: not politics, not church, not life or successes or even family. It has to be Jesus. Let that be your foundation because when the world cracks around you, you'll only stand if Jesus is your foundation.
Great Resources to help you excel in 2019! #1 John Eckhardt's "Prayers That..." 6-Book Bundle. Prayer helps you overcome anything life throws at you. Get a FREE Bonus with this bundle. #2 Learn to walk in the fullness of your purpose and destiny by living each day with Holy Spirit. Buy a set of Life in the Spirit, get a second set FREE.
“For the Lord God helps Me, therefore, I am not disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 50:7, NASU)
Resolve - something we must have in these days. Resolve - even more so must we possess in the days and years to come.
As our ultimate example and the One we are commanded to follow, Jesus knew He had come for a distinct purpose and was determined to complete the mission, at all costs. When the time came for Him to move on it, He did not flinch, back down, or seek an escape route out of there. He had the resolve, the firmness, the determination to do what it took to get the job done.
As the apostle Luke records in chapter 9:51, “When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;” (NASU) Or as the NKJV translates it, “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”
Isaiah did rightly prophesy about the Messiah Yeshua as written above, “I have set My face like flint.” That is exactly what He did.
To put this in full context, one must read the other verses that come before and go beyond that verse. It gives a wider picture of what He was committed to do.
"The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
For the Lord God will help Me; therefore, I will not be disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. Surely the Lord God will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed, they will all grow old like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God.” (Isaiah 50:4-10 NKJV)
Even as we are commanded to grow deeper in love for one another in our hearts, at the same time we will be required to stand stronger because of that love with more resolve and a greater resolute heart to press on, to push through, to not stop until we have completed our assigned mission from above.
As any toughened combat soldier, long before prepared to engage in battle; or the proven athlete, measured and strengthened through years of practice for his competitive field; or the years of perfected, intense time given the trained surgeon, now performing through the grueling hours in the operating room – these similar years of ourselves being trained, groomed, and prepared for this hour must show itself strong as we stand courageously and boldly in these days of increasing pressure to bow down and give up.
The enemy of our soul continues to use the masses to attempt to tear down, destroy, and eliminate the eternal truths of God Almighty’s Word. And as a roaring lion, he will not stop in his attempts to wear down the saints of God, doing so until we will give up. But we must not give up, and instead stand strong with the Lion of the tribe of Judah, with firmness, decisiveness, and a granite will to hold the line, advance the truth, and see the war won, as it has forever and a day been recorded in the final book of the Bible.
With even more resolve, pressing forward to the mark with increasing strength daily, spending more time in prayer with our Lord, more time in His Word, and more time with His people, we are together working for His Kingdom to come.
I pray you are staying in the battle, standing firm together, committed to the end to see it happen. Do so with even more resolve.
Also, I hope you get my latest book, Adventures in Courage, published in November 2018. Paperback or Kindle versions. This was my 19th authored publication. (Yes, this is an advertisement!) Buy here on Amazon: Adventures in Courage
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I highly respect the voice and ministry of Rick Joyner. He is a father in the Body of Christ and one who has deep understanding of the times and seasons in which we live.
We will continue to bring you the lastest prophetic revelations through voices which are seasoned and respected, along with new voices we know God is rising up in this day and time.
I know you will take the words Rick Joyner shares here to heart, and we look forward to upcoming revelations he will be releasing as well.
Remember this in the new year from Amos 3:7, "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets." With that, we will continue to bring you God's plans through His prophets and what is ahead for the Kingdom at large!
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Steve Shultz, Founder and Publisher The Elijah List & Breaking Christian News http://www.elijahlist.com
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"2019: A Year of Unity and Shaking" Rick Joyner, Fort Mill, SC
2018 was a remarkable and wonderful year. 2019 will be even more so. Every year from now on will be more so, but key elements of a great spiritual critical mass will begin to come together in the coming year. This will begin a spiritual atomic-like explosion in 2020. What are the elements that are coming together for this to happen? A Time of Great Increase
The first will be a growing relationship and union with the Lord. Many have begun to experience the greatest times they have ever had in their relationship with the Lord. For those who seek Him, this will continually increase. There will also be an increasing unity and cooperation between individuals, ministries, and movements. We are told in Ecclesiastes 4 that two are better than one, and a cord of three strands is not easily broken.
Therefore, wherever two or three begin to unite in purpose, there will be a multiplication of power and fruitfulness.
The demonstration of this will cause a cascading affect that will draw others into the great movements of the future. This will release more definition and focus to the Body of Christ than it has had in generations. This is the beginning of what, over the next decade, will eclipse the experiences of the first-century Church.
As this is taking place in the spirit, the fracturing and divisions in the natural will also increase. The verses that I was given for this were Hebrews 12:25-26: "See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on Earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from Heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.'"
This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
"Therefore, since we receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:28-29)
Following the Lord in all that we do is no longer just an option. It will be increasingly costly to disregard the word of the Lord or His guidance in our lives.
This is because of His love for us, as was emphasized earlier in Hebrews 12. He must prepare His people for the time when not heeding His voice can be devastating or even fatal. So the discipline and consequences of this will increase in speed and degree. However, the fruit of obeying will likewise increase.
Standing on the Rock in a Time of Shaking
The national, cultural, religious, and economic fault lines will all become increasingly unstable, and the tremors will grow throughout the world. Major shaking will break out where it was thought to be stable and secure. The right interpretation of the signs of the times is to disengage from those things that can be shaken and resolutely give ourselves to the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. If we have built our lives on the Rock, no worldly storm can bring us down. Those who have built their lives on the Rock will begin to pull many from the shifting quicksands of this world.
Keeping Him first in our devotion and affection, seeking first His Kingdom in every major decision, is the most important principle in how to build our lives on the Rock. Those who do this have nothing to fear from the times, but rather they will grow in the righteousness, peace, and joy. That is the nature of the Kingdom.
A Time of Harvest and of Champions We are now entering "the harvest" that is the end of the age. The greatest move of God that has ever been is now upon us. The greatest ingathering into the Kingdom is just beginning. There has never been anything like it before, and there will not be anything like it again. These are the times that all of the righteous of old and even the angels desired to see, and we are here to live in them.
The deep darkness that is now spreading over the people will only make the light appear that much brighter. Just as the greatest prophets arose during the greatest times of Israel's apostasy, great champions are about to be released throughout the world preaching the good news of the coming Kingdom. The result will be that the nations will come to the light (see Isaiah 60:1-5). Don't ever forget that the light will ultimately win, the truth will ultimately prevail, and we too will prevail if we walk in His light and His truth.
I was given a series of dreams at the end of 2018 in which I was shown that some lines have been crossed that will have significant consequences, especially for the United States. I will begin to share these in our Word for the Week (future articles). Some of these things may be shocking at first, but we must see them, be prepared for them, and understand that they are "inevitable, right, and will be successful."
Rick Joyner is the founder and executive director of MorningStar Ministries and Heritage International Ministries and is the Senior Pastor of MorningStar Fellowship Church. He is the author of more than forty books, including The Final Quest, A Prophetic History, and Church History. He is also the president of The OAK Initiative, an interdenominational movement that is mobilizing thousands of Christians to be engaged in the great issues of our times, being the salt and light that they are called to be. Rick and his wife, Julie, have five children: Anna, Aaryn, Amber, Ben, and Sam.
I highly respect the voice and ministry of Rick Joyner. He is a father in the Body of Christ and one who has deep understanding of the times and seasons in which we live.