Faith in Holy Spirit perfecting me was not just fun when I was awakened to God’s voice, it became joy unspeakable. Jesus’ yoke truly is easy and His burden is so, so light. I felt like the earth, in all of her imperfections, was a gift God had given me, and I had real power to impact it.
When we receive God’s empowering grace, our faith grows and we begin to take on our sphere of influences with power. Grace doesn’t empower you to be lazy; it calls you to rise up and become a change agent! Praise God that Jesus gave us back the authority to have dominion over the earth! When you truly know God and walk with Him, the world becomes your oyster! Obviously, we have opposition and tension, but those become opportunities to walk in your identity at a greater level, increasing your faith in God at new depths!
Because of Jesus, we are an entirely new creation. Placed on this giant Garden of Eden that we call earth, we don’t hide when we hear the voice of God calling out to us as Adam and Eve once did. When we feel the vibrations of His footsteps coming in pursuit of us, we recognize that this is the process of Him making all things new! Whatever impossible circumstance we face as God’s children will indeed bow its knee to King Jesus! It’s being back in God’s presence, hearing the word that He is speaking over your life when everything has the hope of becoming new!
I remember when Holy Spirit began demonstrating what I was learning about impacting my spheres of influence naturally and supernaturally.
It was around 7 A.M. on a crispy fall morning, and I was awakened by an angel bouncing the end of my bed. As soon as I opened my eyes, I heard Holy Spirit say, “Let’s go for a run.” I don’t run, first of all. I’m not an exercise person. I don’t really trust people who are. (That’s a joke.) But, the suggestion to spend time with God while running certainly made me question if I heard correctly. Maybe that was actually the devil trying to give me a heart attack. No, I kid, I knew it was God, and I argued with Him—but He nudged me out the door.
As I began to warm up with a quick-paced walk, He made mention of the dogs that I’d be passing on this familiar one-mile loop. There were about four or five dogs on this routine walk that gave me a momentary scare even though I knew they were there because they’d pop out and ferociously bark at me through the fence as I walked past their yard.
Holy Spirit told me to point my finger at the dog and say out loud “hush” and the dog would be silenced. I giggled out loud. At this point I was starting to think that I was making all of this up. First running and now silencing unruly dogs with a point of a finger. But I was entertained and thought, Let’s test this out. I rounded the first corner and knew a dog was waiting in the upcoming yard. As I approached the fence, per usual, he rushed the fence and began his gnarly bark. As ordered, I pointed my finger and whispered “hush.” I mean, only I’m allowed to think I’m crazy. I didn’t want to give anyone who may be watching evidence that I’m loony toons by commanding a neighbor’s dog to hush. To my surprise, the whisper and weak pointing silenced the dog. As if on cue, when the words rolled off my tongue the dog sat right down on his bottom and watched me pass by in silence. I laughed and thought that maybe he was a well-trained dog that silenced and sat on command.
As I approached the next house, the dog, like the first, rushed the fence and began barking. I wasn’t quite to his yard yet, but I thought if this is God then proximity shouldn’t matter, and I pointed my finger and said hush—again in a whisper. The dog instantly silenced and sat. I started laughing. I got closer, then right in front of him, and then walked right past him and he watched me clumsily jog by. Could this really be God? If so, why is this happening? I didn’t really understand, but it made me laugh. I got to the next house and the dog ran up to the fence, but this time as I approached, before I could do the whole point and hush thing, he laid down and didn’t move a muscle as I ran by. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I had walked this mile loop almost daily and these dogs were always obnoxiously protecting their backyard patch. Miracles were happening, and it wasn’t just because I was actually moving my body faster than a walk. I finished my jog and not one dog barked as I got near them.
When I got home, I plopped myself down on the couch and asked Holy Spirit what that was all about. I heard Exodus 11:7. So I picked my tired body off the couch and hobbled over to my son’s New Living Translation Bible that was sitting on the table. As soon as I read it, I sat down at my kitchen table and began to worship God!
But among the Israelites it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites (Exodus 11:7 NLT).
This moment, as silly as it seemed, became an anchor point in my life. I began to see clearly that God was defining me as His own, and as His very own I would walk with an authority simply by being marked as His.
Walking with God still requires walking. There is an effort on our part that is required, but He has marked us as His own, and anywhere we go the enemy will cower in acknowledgment of who our Father is! The only question is, do you know it? The world will see it and call it many things, but do you see it and know that you’ve been anointed with authority and given a voice to powerfully live your life and impact the lives around you?
This brings me to an important point in not only awakening your prophetic voice but in learning to abide in your prophetic nature. You’ve been chosen first! This is no small revelation. God wants you to experience what it’s like to walk with Him unhindered. He wants you to learn to walk with Him knowing you’ve been marked and made new. His love for you is not because of what you can do for Him but because of who He is. You are not God’s ultimate project. You’ve never been a project. You’ve been His child. He’s not wringing His hands hoping you’ll behave correctly. I sincerely believe that God wants you to experience being known by Him through personal prophetic encounters with Him. He wants you to experience knowing and being known. It’s a powerful posture that Jesus has put you in—to see and know God, abiding in perfect love and learning to reign from Heaven.