Prophetic Word – Determination, Perseverance and Persistence

Prophetic Word is titled Determination, Perseverance and Persistence.  This is what it will take when you are Going Against the Current.

Who is this word for?  Everyone

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I’m convinced that the only way to succeed as a Christian in today’s culture is to completely swim against the current.  You say and you do the opposite.  This requires determination, persistence and perseverance.

Determination – firmness of purpose; resoluteness.

Perseverance – continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.

Persistence – the ability to keep doing something difficult

These are the qualities you will need if you intend to fulfill the purpose God has on your life.  One of the first things that we have to be determined to do is spend time in God’s presence.  There’s already a 3 part series written on getting into the Presence of God and this will help you start the process if you don’t already know how to do this.

I believe this simple discipline – and it is a discipline – requires your determination. You also have to persevere through all the distractions the enemy will put in your path to stop you from doing it and you have to persist in it on a daily basis.

Once you achieve breakthrough in this area, it becomes easier and easier each day to tap in to God.  The first time you do it, it is hard but it gets easier the more you do it.

This will require a sacrifice from you.  A sacrifice of your time.  A sacrifice of you complete mind.  A sacrifice of your physical body because you will need to sit still.  A sacrifice of the things that are captivating your heart and emotions.  A sacrifice of your needs, wants and desires.  Just to focus on HIM and nothing or no one else.

Can you do it?

This is why it is going against the current because nothing in society pushes you to do this.  No, they want you engaged in the distractions!  Completely glued to the screen of your phone. As a matter a fact, going to church isn’t even doing this, neither is serving in ministry.  This is something you do on your own without anyone else being involved.  It is between you and the Lord.

Deep down inside you also know this is what you need to do but we’ve been fooled into thinking there must be another way to get this done without completely disconnecting from the world and just sitting in God’s presence.  So we create all these systems, steps, conferences, seminars, workshops, courses, prayers, affirmations, impartation meetings, prophetic words, goosebump worship sessions, emotionally tantalizing sermons to fill the void….but they don’t provide something that last more than a few hours.

Yeah, I love a good prophetic word…I write them too!  They are encouraging. HOWEVER, it’s like fast food.  You’re hungry, you drive through and you grab something.  When you get a word directly from the Lord is like having a 7 course fine dining meal.  There’s a whole experience and that meal tastes like nothing you’ve ever tasted before.  You remember it because it was so good.

Fast food you’ll forget!  It fills the need in a moment but there’s nothing memorable about it.

Let me prove it to you…..how long have you been following this ministry?  How many of the prophetic words you’ve read here do you remember off the top of your head?  Think about it, then name them.

How long have you been going to your church?  How many of your pastor’s sermons do you remember?

But I’m pretty sure when you heard the message you thought it was the best one yet!  But somehow you can’t remember them!!!!

You know what you NEVER forget?  That time the Lord spoke to you directly.  It’s like He leaves an imprint on you that never goes away.  You never forget it.  The encounters, you never forget them.  Funny, as I’m typing this I hear Natalie Cole singing with her dad…

And, yes YOU are unforgettable to Him as well (Isaiah 49:15)

NOTHING can replace being in the presence of the Lord.  This is life changing.  One word from HIM can turn whatever is wrong in your life, right.

If you’re honest with yourself, you know there is something more.

This is your spirit man recognizing that there is something missing.  You know that you haven’t tapped into your full potential yet.  The place we were born.

Jeremiah 1:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own]; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Read it like this…

“Before I formed you (insert your name here), in the womb I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own]; I have appointed you as a ___________ to the nations.”

All of us are looking for what is written on the blank line.  It is said that Jeremiah was around 20 years old when God said this to him.  Notice, he doesn’t find out who he is until he gets into the presence of God.  He doesn’t run off doing things that he’s not called to do.  He steps directly into his calling.  Everything else that he does outside of this would be useless, unfulfilling.

There is an ease and a grace that comes with walking in what you were purposed to do.  Because you were wired from birth for it!  Up until the point when God reveals it to us we long to be understood and to find that place that feels like home.  In this place you can be yourself.  You can be transparent.  Authentic. You feel loved.  Cared for.  Valued.  Secure. And, more importantly you find purpose.  Rest.

As they say, you don’t keep searching for something that you have already found.

How will you ever find your purpose if you don’t go back to the ONE who put the purpose in you?  People can’t give this to you, only God can.  And, this is why He’s constantly wooing us to Himself.

Jeremiah 31:3

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.

But it is fight to put everything aside and go back to God in the quiet place to figure out, where you are, what you should be doing and how to go about fulfilling your purpose.

This year you are destined to be fruitful.  That means you will have to stay connected to the Vine for that to happen.

John 15:5, 7

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Voice activated.

When we are fully in Him we can ask for what we want and He will do it.  Remaining in Him means, remaining in His word.  You’re only going to know what you can ask for if you read your bible. Otherwise you’ll ask for things selfishly and things that are not biblical. Jesus IS the Word because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us so there’s no abiding or remaining in Him without reading the Bible.

In the moments when you know you are about to birth something, you have to go back to the place where all things are birth…in the presence of God.  It’s the same place where you were birth.  Your environment has to be conducive to giving birth…in the presence of God… far away from the predators of this dimension.  Every and all predators to what you are to birth need to be cut off and kept outside of the whole birthing process.

Think, Salmon.

The Salmon starts out in the river, freshwater.  Then it hatches and spends about a year, depending on the type of salmon, feeding in the same place where it was born (think of this as discipleship).  As it is starts to change in size, it goes through a process called smolting (this require a lot of energy/effort), the scales start to change as they have to get acclimated to migrating into the ocean and the salinity of the ocean.  A different type of environment.  Then they head out to sea for years, again a different time is associated with the type of salmon.  They get stronger during this time, feeding so they can grow (yet another level of discipleship) learning how to avoid predators. When it is time for them to spawn (give birth) they migrate back to the place where they were born!  They know the exact spot!!  They now have to adapt again, going in the reverse from saltwater to freshwater.  They stop eating (fasting) in preparation for the journey to give birth. And then all their training now comes into play when they have to go against the current and swim upstream.  Against the tides, the currents, the waterfalls, they have to jump, accelerate, avoid predators to make it to the place where they give birth in safety.

And, they never stop.  Over and over again, year after year, they go through the same life cycle.  I think of the determination, perseverance and persistence that it must take to get to that place to birth. Going back home where they came from.  The thought of never making it back to this place never enters their mind.

How do they know where to go?  The exact stream… temperature, tides, and the solar/lunar cycle, the earth’s geo magnetic field, vibrations of the currents and they also leave a scent imprint on their environment along the way that tells them when they are closer to where they were born.  The eyesight plays a small role.  In other words, all of their senses are being used to determine when they are at the correct stream of their birth.  You too have spiritual senses that if you were to pay attention to them, you can determine whether or not you’ve found your “stream”.

Instinctively they know that there is a place where they were born that calls to them when it is time for them to give birth.  They have FAITH that this place exists and they use their senses to pick up on when they have arrived at that place.  They never lose hope that they will get there despite all the adversities, predators and accelerated jumps they have to take to get up stream and if the first jump fails, they jump and jump again until they are successful in getting to the place where they know they are safe to give birth.

Watch this…

You need to make up your mind that it requires determination, persistence and perseverance to get there.

Hebrews 10:36

For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised.

In order for you to give birth you must go UP.  In order for you to be fruitful you must REMAIN in Him.

Blessings