Prophetic Word – Making the Old Defenses New

This prophetic word is based on Matthew 13:52 and titled Making the Old Defenses New.

You know what, no matter how many times you read the word of God there is always going to be scriptures you come across that sound completely new like you’ve never actually read it before.

Here’s one that has stood out to me this week and I am still trying to unpack the full meaning of it.  If you get something completely different after reading the scripture and the prophetic word, please share it below.  We know in part and we prophesy in part so there’s no one person that has all the answers.

Matthew 13:52 King James Version (KJV) “Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

and my favorite…

Matthew 13:52 New Living Translation (NLT) “Then he added, “Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old.”

Even after reading the entire Matthew 13 to see it in context you’ll notice that it can actually stand on its own.

This word is based on a dream and after coming out of the dream I asked the Lord for scriptures and this is the one I was directed to.  This prophetic word is connected to another one that was shared in the past month We’re Moving .  You will want to read it if you haven’t already done so to understand how this one connected.

I first have to share this with you before I tell you the dream so that you have a mental picture of it.

In the 3rd world countries home security systems (defenses) tend to look a little differently than what you see in the USA.  People can freely walk up to your doors in the US, unless you live in a gated community, and knock on the door.  Some people even have glass doors or glass paneling or stained glass as a part of their doors.  Stores are only protected by locks.  In the third world countries, due to crime, you are caged in by steel grill work, padlocks, numerous bolts, exterior lights, sometimes even chains and dogs that will eat you alive if you try to break in.  Stores don’t just lock their doors and go home.  No, they are grilled in, they have alarm systems and armed security guards.. As a frame of reference, I am including some photos so you can get an idea.

 

If you look at this house you’ll see that it not only has the grill work but you can see the motion sensored light bulb outside and I’m sure there is some trusted dog that will start barking if there is someone lurking around outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the inside of the house, some of them have yet another grill door on the inside that is padlocked

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The windows inside also have this grill except they can be opened so you can’t get in or out of these windows

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sharing all of these photos to give you a clear idea that there is absolutely no way you are breaking into these homes.  They are super secure and unless you go to rob a house with welding gear and a steel blow torch, you’re not getting in.  Generally robbers in these countries would need to wait outside the house until one of the occupants get home late at night and then hold them at gunpoint until they open the door.

There’s no getting past these defenses.

Now that you have the picture of the house, I dreamt that I went to visit my mother.  She just moved into a new house.  It was late at night and she went to take a shower and sent me to go secure the house while she showers.  This means that I am to ensure all the padlocks, bolts and chains are on all the grill doors and that we are securely inside.

In this particular house, the veranda area extended to the car port and the entire area was grilled in from the front gate to the front door so that her car was also inside this grill gate.  I go to put on the first padlock (it was very large and had a chain going around the gate which would be secured by the padlock) I pull out the key to unlock the padlock and secure the chains.  I noticed that next to the gate the wall  that secured the grill gate was broken down and there was a pathway, where the grass had been trampled down because it was being regularly used as a shortcut to get to the veranda.  Like the photo to the left.  It’s not the real pathway but a shortcut that is being used to bypass the correct way someone should entire the house, which would be through the gate.

So I didn’t even bother locking the padlock because I thought to myself, why bother?  This isn’t a defense to keep a thief out, it’s fake.  A false sense of security when all they have to do is step over the broken down wall and head straight to the front door.  So I turn around heading back inside the house to go tell my mother there was a problem and the wall needs to be repaired because there is nothing keeping these thieves from coming in.

As  I am heading back I notice that the yard now has all these wild animals roaming around.  They were not there when I was going out to lock up but now they were! Dangerous ones too, cougars, bob cats, all kind of different animals but mostly cats.  As I quickly go by them, with my heart racing because I realized that “they” had already started to come in, I noticed that my mother’s car had the driver’s side door now opened.  Now we know the animals can’t do that so I knew there was already a robber in the yard.  I quickly rushed inside slammed the door and quickly tried to lock it before the thief got in. It was then that I noticed just how flimsy the front door was and that it appeared to be eaten out by termites.

At that moment, I heard a sound behind me so I turned around to see 2 robbers coming through a rusted out portion of the grill work fence in the back of the yard.  And then I looked back to the front to see another one using that shortcut pathway coming across the veranda.

I woke up with my heart racing.  Just imagine being in a house where you felt secure in theory but then when you go to actually activate the security system you realize you actually have no security system.  It is all fake.  Old.  Ineffective.  You’re a sitting duck and there’s nothing to protect you.

I immediately went into intercession just breaking things off in the realm of the spirit (there’s a prayer below) until I felt a release in my spirit that things were made right.  When I woke up the following morning I asked the Lord what it meant practically because quite frankly I was still disturbed by the whole ordeal.  Even though I shut it all down in the spirit through prayer, I just felt this “thing” sticking to me.  Like there was more to be done.

And that is when He led me to the scripture Matthew 13:52 and began telling me how it relates to us individually and as a church right now.

First, let’s interpret the dream.  As stated before this is a continuation to the We’re Moving prophetic word.  And I can’t help but think that this whole defense system has to do with the patio furniture that needed to be changed after the interior of the house got moved.

God is so gracious and really takes His time with us explaining things step by step.

So, the house can be your personal house (you) or the house of God (the church).  And we have a very faulty defense system that is based on old principles that used to work.  The defense system is really the word of God.  Yes, you read that right the defense system is the bible.  It is the belt of truth and it is also the sword of the spirit which is a weapon – offensive and defensive weapons (Ephesians 6:6-10) This house was new at one point did not have a broken down wall, rusted out grill work or doors eaten out by termites.  No, at one point it all worked as it should.  However, over time these things needed to be replaced.  There needed to be updates done. It’s basic maintenance which we all need to do on our homes or they will fall apart around us.

If you have an update on your cell phone and you don’t do it after awhile something won’t work like it should.  You think the phone works fine but after awhile you won’t have access to some things.  When it’s a website you have security updates and when you don’t do your updates, hackers get in.  It all works but updates are needed.  The old needs to be made new.  We don’t throw out the old but we need to apply the new updates.

What happens over time when you don’t do the updates is that you have breaches in your defense system that allows in wild beasts (demonic powers, witchcraft) and also robbers and thieves.  Cats in dreams are generally witchcraft, unless it’s a family pet.  The word of God tells us that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft so when we refuse to move into the new things of God and we continue to hang on to the old and reinforce it through our prayers (living in denial by putting padlocks on broken down places) we start operating in witchcraft because we are in rebellion to the new thing God is doing.  Also, when hackers have figured out the breach in your defenses they use the same access pathway each time to hack you (the trampled down pathway).  It’s like taking candy from a baby.  No skill needed to break in.

The enemy uses it as an access point to steal from you.  But the worse part is that you actually believe that these defenses still work when in fact they no longer do.  A car is personal ministry, so they start to steal what the Lord is releasing to you personally.  The mother is the start of it all.  She is the one who instituted this system of security and still takes comfort in it.  This could be a generational thing for you.  Something that has been passed down through the generations from your parents or grandparents that you have embraced but God is saying that way of thinking or being is actually old and is now an access point used by the enemy to rob you of your future blessings.  Update or upgrade your thinking.  The mother likewise could be the church system.  Old ways of doing things that now need to be upgraded, made new.

The mother needed to take a shower which is a picture of repentance.  We need to repent for this old way of thinking.  Some of us are stuck and not moving forward because we are holding on to the old.

Remember now, we cannot change the word of God.  It is the pure, inerrant, infallible word of God that cannot be changed.  It is OLD but it is to be applied to the NEW.  As King Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.  We need to take the old and apply it to the new.

I am going to give you 3 scriptural examples from the bible that shows how you update the old to the new…without changing the old.  And yes, it is possible!

Buckle in!  I have to tell it to you straight using real examples from our lives today.  These are things you may never hear preached from a pulpit but you need to think about.

First, the biblical examples:

Matthew 5:27-28 New King James Version (NKJV) ““You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

So Jesus took the Old Testament commandment and made it new.  He was basically saying you don’t need to physically touch the woman, you just need to think about her lustfully to commit adultery

Today what this looks like is this, if you watch pornography you have committed adultery.

If you read romance novels and fantasize about the men in the novels, you’ve committed adultery.  Single women, if you’re not married and you want to be married you

may never connect with your God ordained spouse because the enemy has used the fantasy men in your romance novel to paint a picture in your mind of what your spouse should be like.  However, the whole thing is a lie and you will never meet the fantasy man.  So you keep waiting and waiting.  So the romance novel is now an access point to keep you single.  But on the flip side you’re saving yourself for marriage and not fornicating and this is your defense.  The truth is, you’ve been robbed.

It’s not about physical contact anymore,  the enemy uses fantasy to release demonic spirits into your life and rob you.

The second example is:

Matthew 22:37-40 New King James Version (NKJV) “Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus took the Ten commandments in Exodus 20 and turned them into two.  Did He abolish the other eight?  No, because if you read the ten commandments you will see that they all fit into two categories – loving God and loving others.  So if you follow the two, you will fulfill the ten.

This is the old being made new without getting rid of the old.

The third example is:

We know the scriptures in old testament references tithing (Numbers 19:25-28).  In the new testament Jesus didn’t abolish tithing instead he added to it making it new.

Matthew 23:23 The Voice (VOICE) “So woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You tithe from your luxuries and your spices, giving away a tenth of your mint, your dill, and your cumin. But you have ignored the essentials of the law: justice, mercy, faithfulness. It is practice of the latter that makes sense of the former.”

So Jesus is saying don’t be religious in your giving and think that it excludes you from doing the most important thing which is to love Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness because it is in doing these three things that we become encouraged to tithe.  We don’t tithe out of obligation.  No, because God loves a cheerful giver.

You give because you are faithful to God.  You give to someone who is suffering because you are merciful.  You give because you understand Justice.

That’s why you give.  He didn’t abolish tithing, He just said that you should remember justice, mercy and faithfulness too.

If you think about it, church today is very different from church of decades past.  We had no other choice 30 years ago but to go into a building and  give into that house.  Then we had television ministries, and we gave to them. Now that we have the internet, we can be fed, discipled, prayed for, encourage and uplifted by people we may never meet.  So now the church has moved outside of a physical building and is now virtual.  It’s on the internet.  So your tithing today is not only into a physical building but it should also encompass those in your virtual church family who are supporting you.

Think about it.

You should be giving into the ministries who support you online. Through donations, prayers or volunteering your time.

Do you believe that Malachi 3:6-17 which talks about robbing God of tithes and offering was only applied to a physical building?  Selah.

Time to add some upgrades to the old tithing system. Make it new.

Start asking God the question..

Lord, am I holding on to an old mindset when you are trying to implement something new?  What needs to be updated? Show me the areas in my life that are broken down because of old mindsets?  Where does the enemy have access in my life?

These things may not look like overt sins.  They may be “traditional” things past down through the church and our generations that we’ve held on to and God wants to change them.  He needs to change them because you are being robbed.

Here’s the prayer

As I was praying this prayer over all of you and the body of Christ in general, I saw a vision of chains being unlocked from hands and shackles removed from ankles and then tossed aside, discarded.  Like prisoners being loosed from prison. Then I heard a gavel go down in the courts of heaven as it was ruled unanimously that you are being freed by the blood of Jesus from these old things that have held you in bondage and prevented you from moving freely into what the Lord is doing in your life. So, you were being held as a prisoner and accused in the heavenly realms by the enemy because you were participating in the old, unknowingly. More about the courts of heaven (Daniel 7:9-10, Zachariah 3).

This is for anyone of you that will receive this word and pray the prayer…

Abba Father, I come before you and repent for the old mindsets that I’ve aligned myself with for years.  Release me from the generational bondage and the traditions of men that has held me captive in my mind, heart, soul and body.  I repent for participating in it, for giving my time and energy to it and for establishing it in my life through my actions.  I ask that the chains from my hand and the shackles from my feet be loosed now in the name of Jesus freeing me from this old way of thinking.  Let me never take comfort in broken down, old defenses.  I pray that right now you send in angels with reinforcements to build up the broken down places.  Set a guard over my mind and eyes that I may examine every Truth carefully and see how it applies to my life today.  Let me not hold on to old things that are no longer relevant and valid in my life.  Let me come out of this with the treasures from the old Truth and the new Truth.  I bind the robber and thief from entering my life in the name of Jesus.  I post angels with swords of fire to guard my eye and ear gates from any demonic spirits of witchcraft.  Show me where I have aligned my tongue and prayers with a rebellious way.  I repent for any witchcraft I have encouraged in my life through ignorance. Position these warring angels to guard me Lord so that when my Defenses are restored these evil powers will never be able to enter again.  Lord open my eyes that I may see the wondrous things in Your law.  Renew my mind.  Whatever the enemy has stolen or wherever he has taken advantage of me I pray now that it is repaid seven fold according to Your word.  I cancel every accusation that that enemy has against me in the courts of heaven. Thank you for releasing me and restoring me through the blood of Jesus and the finished work of the cross, in Jesus name, Amen.

Every answer to every problem that we will ever have is written in the bible.  We just need to reacquaint ourselves with it and apply it to our lives today.  Here’s an old truth that we can make new and use it with what’s happening in our world today…

Praying this blessed you.

Matthew 13:52 The Message (MSG) “Then you see how every student well-trained in God’s kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it.”