SWIM AGAINST THE STREAM - JUNE 2013

The Battle is in the Gate

Swim against the Stream

Genesis 22:17

"In blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore.  And your Seed (heir) will possess the gate of His enemies."

Dear Friends, I greet you in the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ!

I praise God that He is changing our valley of trouble into a door of hope!

The VISION/WORD God gave us for JUNE:

I saw a door in the door frame that can swing open to both sides.  The Holy Spirit gave me the understanding that we must now take our stand against the enemy in the gate.  You will either go forward into the promises of God if you hold on to your faith, or you will fall back into the old things that kept you from moving forward into God's destiny for your life.

In Biblical times the battle was always the fiercest in the gates, because the one who took the gate took the city.

I understood that the battle will be for our FAITH.  Truly believing what God promised in the previous months and through the prophetic words we received throughout  our lives.

We need to hold on to God's promises and the hope and expectation that He birthed in our spirits.

The Lord also said that this will be a change of season.  When I asked Him what kind of change, He spoke to me about salmon and trout.

When salmon/trout are born they swim downstream and the salmon even swim straight to the ocean.  At a certain moment: a change in season and a level of maturity they suddenly turn around and start swimming against the stream to exactly the place where they hatched.

They will use all their strength to swim against the tides and the streams, and even jump up over waterfalls until they get to the place where they will spawn.

We, as believers, reached a certain level of maturity and the Lord is saying, now is the time to bring to birth that which I conceived in you.

We must swim against the streams (strongholds) of the world to get to that place in the spirit where we will give birth to what God conceived in us. 

When I thought about it, I realized how difficult it was going to be.  The Holy Spirit spoke softly into my spirit 'your strength and sense of direction is in your DNA, just as it is in the DNA of the salmon.  Don't doubt it, it is Christ within you.'

Hebrews 13:20-21

"Now may the God of peace, Who brought again from among the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood the everlasting agreement,

Strengthen (complete, perfect) and make you what you ought to be and equip you with everything good that you may carry out His will; [while He Himself] works in you and accomplishes that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ (the Messiah); to Whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

It is a time to respond in the opposite spirit.  It is a time not to be in reaction to the work of the enemy but to respond to God.

There are strongholds over our nation that we will have to withstand in the spirit, to swim against them in the opposite direction.  The Lord revealed one of them to me:  UNFAITHFULNESS

A superficiality crept into our lives because our word and our promises became worthless.  Often we break our promises or don't keep our appointments and we think it is ok because others do the same to us.  We see unfaithfulness in relationships, in businesses.

We even see the manifestation of this in the highest levels of leadership in our nations.  People are in uproar because leaders and governments do not keep their promises.

This is not the character of God.   God is a God Who keeps His promises forever and ever and His promises stand forever and ever!

LET US RISE UP IN THE CHARACTER OF GOD AND BE FAITHFUL IN EVERYTHING WE DO!  Let's swim against the strongholds of the enemy so that Christ, the power in us, can establish His Kingdom here on earth, n and through us, to His glory alone!

Carol Singleton

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Thankfulness

                                    EUNICE VAN DER MERWE

I know of many people who are, like us, experiencing challenging times. On every level, we are shaken as Hebrew 12:26 - 28 prophesied so many years ago!

Heb 12:26 – 29 " … but now He has given a promise: Yet once more I will shake and make tremble not only the earth but also the [starry] heavens.  Now this expression, Yet once more, indicates the final removal and transformation of all [that can be] shaken--that is, of that which has been created--in order that what cannot be shaken may remain and continue.

Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe; For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire."

YET, in this all, God is working in me a spirit of thankfulness! I found myself saying ‘thank you’ more often than usual during the last few days. And I discovered that the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me something! So, I started making a study of THANKFULNESS and found the following which I just can not wait to share with you all!

As I read Psalm 100, I discovered that thanksgiving opens … His GATES.

“Psa 100:4  "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering …” That is not where it ends.

Opened gates allow me to enter … His courts. I enter His courts now, with PRAISE!

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise!

And guess what David did as he stood in the Court of our King: He was thankful! And in his thankfulness, he blessed and affectionately praised His Name! proclaiming His goodness in spite of shaking circumstances. He proclaimed that God’s covenant keeping faithful 

Love and mercy are everlasting throughout every generation yet to come…!

Psa 100:4-5  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.

As I started doing that, the gates to His Kingdom (that cannot be shaken) started opening up, and His unshakable Truth brought stability to our hearts and started manifesting in our circumstances!

Derek Prince summed it up this way:

THANKSGIVING honors God’s GOODNESS,

PRAISE honor’s His GREATNESS and

WORSHIP honors His HOLINESS!

I challenge you … start saying:

THANK YOU for HIS GOODNESS in EVERYTHING, PRAISE GOD for HIS GREATNESS in EVERYTHING and then, WORSHIP His HOLINESS!  Kingdom stability will be yours!

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INDIVIDUAL

1 Tim 1:18

Lord Jesus, we declare that we hold fast to our faith in You, GOD, and having a good conscience.

Lord, I declare that I choose to believe in Your Word and in Your promises and I choose to reject the lies of the enemy.  I declare that You are the Rock, the Foundation on which I stand!

NATIONAL

1 Pet 5:9

Lord Jesus we declare that SA will stand firm on Your Word throughout the world.  Where SA embraced a standard which is not Yours, we call her back to Your Word and Your standard! 

INTERNATIONAL

1 John 5:4

Lord Jesus we declare that whatever is born of God is victorious over the world and this victory conquers the world, even our faith.  Thank you for stirring up a new measure of faith in the hearts of the believers all over the world!  Faith will rise up!

GLOBAL

Ps 60:4

Lord Jesus we declare you God have set a banner for those who fear and worshipfully revere You, a standard displayed because of TRUTH.

Blessings

We bless you in the wonderful Name of Jesus, to operate in you God-given ability to respond in the opposite spirit and to swim against the stream until you reach the place in the Spirit where God will bring to birth what He conceived in you!