The Truth About the New Year (part 4 in the revival series)

The New Year for some is a time to press the reset button.  Diets are started, resolutions made, work-out clothes and equipment purchased, and exercise classes started.  For others, the first of January is just another day since their “year” revolves around something entirely different such as a school calendar or even a financial calendar.  

Self-help folks and even those behind the pulpit look to the numerical imagery of our new year 2020, and equate it with the year to have 20/20 vision; changing your outlook, seeing things, or even yourself clearly, grasping a vision and focusing more on self, family, and God. 

But let’s look at the New Year through God’s word.  In all actually, His calendar new year and when the push of our “reset button” are two totally different times from when the Gregorian calendar designates our new beginning!  

Sidebar lesson:  - Exodus 12: 2 shows God’s introduction of His calendar to the Children of Israel. This calendar revolves around the cycle of the moon instead of the sun.  It also has specially designated days for collective worship called holy days (Leviticus 23),. The last three holy days which occur in the fall, Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) have an amazing spiritual and historical significance. It is at the start of Rosh Hashanah, also dubbed “the head of the year”, that our spiritual reset button should actually be pressed.  The three fall observances are marked by collective worship, reflection and repentance, and great celebration which occurs over a course of about three weeks.  God too, also numbers His years. Since each letter of the Hebraic alphabet has a numeric value and meaning of their own, with each year comes a new spiritual meaning.  (Seriously, when you have time study this for yourself. It’s awesome!)

So, back in October, God’s new year actually started!  This year is numbered 5780. It too is also the start of a new decade. However, the focus is not on our eyes and seeing, but on our mouths and speaking (80 signifies the mouth either open or shut, voice, speaking)!  In all actuality, the seeing decade was the last decade. It not that God has moved on and left that behind, but that He’s calling us to pay more attention to what He is saying (His voice) and learning when, where, and how to be His mouthpiece. 

So, are we just supposed to throw the whole 20/20 stuff out of the window? No! It is still important.  We always need to stop and take an account of how we’re doing, make changes and move on, so let’s break this thing down. 

God’s calendar says to focus on what is coming out of His mouth and ours.

Man’s calendar says to focus on seeing things clearly and perfectly.

God’s calendar says to listen for His voice and speak boldly about Him.

Man’s calendar says look intently and see things for what they really are. 

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 

John 10:27

You are the light of the world… Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. 

Matthew 5:14, 16

(Did you get the play on colors?  Blue and red make purple...)

If we start with hearing His voice, strengthening our relationship with Jesus through prayer (which is a two-way communication) and then follow obediently after Him, we will shine brightly as His light.  Aaaaaannnndd if we are shining brightly as His light, then those who do not follow Him can see the benefits of living for Jesus.

You see, it’s not really about us getting 20/20 vision.  This time, this new year, this new decade is about God’s people being able to be seen and recognized for being a set-apart people for God. 

What helps people see in the darkness of night?  The reflection of the sun off of a full moon.  That’s what we’re supposed to do.  We’re not the greater light. We’re not God. But we are, however,  supposed to shine in the darkness of this world reflecting His light. 

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light.   

Ephesians 5:8

As this revival series (part1, part 2, part 3) comes to a close, I urge you to read through this collection of scriptures I got from my Sunday school book, and any others you can find, on how we can help those who cannot see Jesus clearly perfect their vision just looking through the lenses of our lives. How will the world know we’re not just good people, but that we are God’s people?

• By our fruits (lasting effective, seed-bearing work we do for God)     Matthew 7: 15-20      
• By our character                                                          Colossians 3:10-17
• By our confession of Jesus                                          1 John 4: 1-21
• By the Fruit of the Spirit in us                                    Galatians 5:22-25
• By following after Jesus (being obedient)                   John 10: 1-16, 27

Revival is the reset button of our hearts.
Press it.

Peace comes when we are the light of peace.
Unity comes when we are the light of unity.
Love comes when we are the light of love. 
Ask God to speak to you concerning you.
Ask Him to speak to you concerning how to pray for things that need to be changed around you.
 Listen for His voice.

Do what He says if you really want things to change.

Happy New You!!

The Lord is with you and you are loved,

Toni 

A Prayer In and Beyond My Four Walls - (Part 3 in the revival series)

Some time back in October, I came across a prayer on a website that I frequent just about on a daily basis.  It’s called Bless Every Home.  This awesome website allows you to pray a daily prayer for your neighbors. The ultimate goal for this ministry is not just that you are praying for your neighbors, but that you are also caring for them and witnessing to them as well.  I urge you to check it out and sign up.

This prayer is based loosely on a prayer from that website. 

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

_{Isaiah 40: 5}

“In all things and in every home in my neighborhood” especially those whose children attend  _{name(s) of your neighborhood schools}, “reveal Yourself, Jesus, as Savior, Healer, Reconciler, and Restorer.” Prepare the hearts in every home to receive You upon Your revelation. 

Truth Jesus.  Silence the adversary.  We speak a muting of his voice and his agents of darkness in music, television, social media, and movies. 

Truth Jesus. We release Your truth to be manifested and preached in Your churches – all of the churches in this city.

Truth Jesus. We release Your truth to be manifested and spoken over all of the policies, laws, and decision making for our city and schools. 

Lord send a revival for us all!  

Forgive us for our role in what causes you grief about our city, our community, our church, and even our own family. Shine Your light of truth on our hearts so that we may see where we need to repent completely. 

 “Shine Your healing light in broken families, marriages, loneliness, abuse, illness, anxiety, fear, and everything else that is robbing my neighbors”, my family, my schools, my city and all of the homes and families within it of Your truth, love, and peace.  May we see what needs to be healed and made whole and be willing to do the work to activate the change.

In Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen

The Lord is with you and you are loved,

Toni

Photo retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/309552174358917479/

Teaching: It's Not a Losing Battle (Part 2 in revival series)

Happy New Year! I pray that you had a blessed holiday and a restful break.  Depending upon your instructional calendar, you may be either returning to work getting in those final skills before the end of the semester, preparing for a new crop of students, welcoming in the kids who moved over the holidays, or just getting your students ready for the last half of the school year.  Some folks go back to school saying, “Let's get ‘er done!” or “When will this be over?”.

I want to talk to those of you who really didn’t want to go back to work. Not because you would rather stay home with your cute cuddly young’uns or still have housework that lost out to your Netflix binge, but because you really don’t like the atmosphere in which you work; the overwhelming student behaviors, redundant paperwork, unsupportive parents and maybe even unfriendly coworkers.  Been there, done that, so I know how you feel. I also know a solution that I tried once.

Last week I wrote a blog about revival that spoke a little about this solution. But let me tell you a  story first. 

A long time ago, there was a man by the name of Gideon. If you look in the bible in the book of Judges chapters 6-8, you can read about the full life of our story’s hero. Now, this Gideon had been living the last seven years of his life being oppressed. His work was constantly disrupted and destroyed no matter what he or anyone else around him did.  No matter how hard he and his people tried, they couldn’t do their jobs because of the destructive, overwhelming force of the Amalekites and other countries around them.  Seven years! Seven years of feeling like, “Why even bother?  They’re just going to tear it up anyway!”  Seven years of struggling to live and support your family only with little to no evidence of your hard work! 

So, we find Gideon in verse eleven of chapter six in the book of Judges hiding, all alone in a winepress threshing wheat. It had gotten to the point that he couldn’t even do his job the way it was meant to be done! Although he received a visitation by God (whom he doesn’t recognize as such) with the world’s best pep talk ever (which he doesn’t believe) Gideon is reluctant to take on the mantle of leadership that he is being presented with. God has selected him to free his people from their oppression.  Gideon does everything from questioning God’s

faithfulness to His chosen people, listing his reason for being unqualified for the task, to asking for proof (several times) that God will do as He promised. 

I want you to realize that the Amalekites weren’t just some pestering group of people that got on Israel’s nerves. They totally outnumbered the Children of Israel.  Then to make matter worse, the Amalekites joined forces with the Midianite people and more people of the East so much so that their total numbers were beyond recording and only listed as “numerous as locusts with their camels as the sand by the seashore in multitude”.

Gideon armed only with the assurance that God was with him, gathered a force of over thirty-two thousand fighting men. However, God told him to send twenty-two thousand home! Then, to make matters worse,  God ordered Gideon to send all but three hundred back home.  

Why?  

  Israel’s successful outcome of this uneven battle would never be attributed to their own methods and strength, but by God’s and God’s alone.  

If you continue reading Judges chapter seven, you’ll see that before Gideon and his men had the opportunity to employ their own strength, God’s strength and methods were already at work in these three ways:

        -specific instructions with confirmation  (Judges 7:9-11)

        -sound  Judges 7: 16-18

        -light  Judges 7: 19-21

With just trumpets and clay jars holding lit torches, Gideon and his army of three hundred like-minded men watched as God fought their battle for them. 

The impossible became possible because one person answered the call, gathered others, listened for God’s voice and followed the instructions to sound the trumpet and shine the light.

So, do you really work in an environment that’s never going to change?  Will the teaching profession just continually get worse?  In all honesty, the outlook doesn’t look very promising for some who are in those challenging and struggling school systems.  But is it something that one just has to accept, deal with or get out of?  

There is a solution and yes I’m going to say “prayer”.  

Don’t look at me with that tone of voice! Yes, I heard your question, “Well if it worked so well for you, why do you have all those blogs about wanting to quit and being frustrated?” 

Remember in the case of Gideon, there was a lot involved with winning that war; belief, obedience, repentance, unity, and perseverance.  If you keep reading the rest of Gideon’s story, you’ll see that he and his small army still had to pursue their enemy even past the point of exhaustion and were denied assistance from those who could’ve helped. 

I did not pursue to enemy past the point of exhaustion. I was once a

I was once a part of a gathered group of teachers who purposed the enemy together in fervent prayer for our school, our system, our students, and our own families and our prayers were answered.  But the fervor died down when the smoke cleared and some folks moved away.  I was content with focusing on battles in my own classroom because it was out of my comfort zone to actively look for fellow soldiers in my school to join me in fighting the war.  

While I am currently not assigned to any school, I still see the need for revival.  I am no longer on the front lines, but I still hear the cannons in the distance and smell the smoke on my daughters in high school and my husband who is both a teacher and coach.  It is while gazing at my own battle scars that I urge you to rethink the enormity of the issues you are facing as an educator and the power you have to make a difference.   

Meditate on the story of Gideon and know you are not in a hopeless situation.  Remember God’s method involved these three things:

        -specific instructions with confirmation

                Listen to what God is saying to you and obey

        -sound  

                Speak up and out for Him

        -light 

                Be the light so that others can see Jesus with 20/20 vision

The Lord is with you and you are loved,

Toni

Prayer for City Revival (Part 1 in revival series)

Lord God, send a revival to my city/county…

Refine Your churches. I call, in the Spirit, for a “cease and desist” of religious meetings in this city and release in Jesus’ name, assemblies filled with Your presence.

I call for, in Jesus’ name, a unification of the churches – across denominations, race, size, and status – “one new man” in Jesus Christ.

Lord God,  send a revival to my city/county. 

Unify Your people in every section of government, every school, every church, every civic league, our police force, our judicial system, our hospitals, clinics and EMS workers, our social service department…  

Let there be no place where Your people aren’t a unified light for You.

I call for, in the name of Jesus, the faculty and staff of every school who are called by Your Name, to unify themselves to establish Your authority over the enemy and his demons and adverse spirits at their schools and in the families and communities they serve.

I speak and release an angelic and the holy blood of Jesus hedge of protection around my family and all who take this stand.

Send Your Truth to the churches. Soften the hearts of the people. Open our eyes – heal our blindness to see people the way You see them.

Open our ears – heal our deafness so that we may hear AND obey Your voice.

Open our mouths – heal our muteness and stupor that we may speak Your love and truth.

Restore our movement – heal our lameness, weakness, and fatigue that we may walk with strength and purpose in Your will.

Revival starts with us.

Revival starts with me.

Lord Jesus, in Your mercy and grace, send a revival.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen