186. Use your mouthpiece

 

I love spending time in worship and prayer. They are two of my favorite ways to spend time with the Lord, behind time reading the word. Tonight as we were worshipping I felt the urge to fall apart at His feet on more than one occasion. I am in awe of His presence. I am in wonder at the way He orchestrates everything. Tonight during worship I heard the Lord speak clearly.

It’s time for the mouthpiece of the body to rise up, Ash. My people aren’t speaking, their tongues are bound.

It was a conviction I recieved and had to repent of myself before I could write this out. I’ve been withdrawn and spending time with Him in private but I’ve also been doing fewer videos and blogging a lot less lately. Not because He isn’t speaking, giving me visions, or moving in my life, but because I have been putting bandaids on an old wound and expecting it to heal. 

I’m extremely uncomfortable with what the Lord has me doing with this ministry that He’s given me. I don’t get to heal in private. For whatever reason He has me pour everything out in writing. It’s uncomfortable for me, it is death to my flesh, but there’s a greater purpose behind it that one day I’ll get to understand and I know a few of you appreciate. I’m blessed by that. 

The Lord put on my heart that I flow in obedience and in the Spirit when I’m comfortable with those around me or when I’m with total strangers, yet I freeze up and question myself when I’m with people I’m familiar with or people who I have felt hurt by or been judged by in the past. There is a night and day contrast in the boldness and way I minister. I had to repent for that. I had to repent of fear, fear of being picked apart, fear of man and of perceived rejection. I had to repent for nursing old wounds. I had to thank the Lord for the boldness He has given me. That boldness that shines through when the Spirt of the Lord takes over. I had to repent for hiding away and keeping Him to myself these last few months. I had to repent for caring what people would think over what the Lord was speaking to me. 

Then I had to step up and pray. The Lord put on my heart that so many of us hide away. We retreat into ourselves where it’s “safe” to us. We pray in our heads, minds and hearts but we don’t open our mouths and say anything out loud. We can’t blow the trumpet if we try in our heads. Only when the wind is forced out of our mouths does the sound of the trumpet blow. 

PRAY OUT LOUD. Pray out scripture. Declare the promises of the Lord. Repent out loud, cry out to him with your voices and see what changes happen in your life. 

The body of Christ is riddled with torment from demons. Things like anxiety, panic, depression, sickness, division, animosity, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, etc.. you name your issue. Why? Because we don’t understand the authority that Christ died to give us. We don’t present people with opportunities to use their gifts or if we do, we pick them apart for the sake of “growth” and wonder why people never step out again. We don’t practice repentance, we practice “God loves everyone and sin is no big deal and everyone goes to heaven”, we don’t believe in healing and miracles or speaking in tongues. We don’t go to church and we don’t pray. You wanna know why your family has issues, why you’re struggling every day to keep it together? I can guarantee it’s because you’re far away from the Lord and don’t know Him the way He desires to know you.

It’s time to stop going through the motions and hiding in our churches or in our beds at home, and it’s time to open our mouths.  Why is it that people will know your favorite band, your favorite coffee shop, your favorite sports team, they’ll know everything about you and your job and kids but they won’t know you are team Jesus, or where you go to church?

This is the time for intercessors, prayer warriors, leaders and disciples to pray not in our minds but audibly out of our mouths. We should boldly proclaim what the Lord has done and what He continues to do for us. We can’t hide away because we may be ridiculed, judged, or isolated due to our beliefs, the way we worship or the words we use. We can’t hide away in our prayer closet anymore. We need to create safe spaces where people can use their ministry gifts. Where people can grow and learn and thrive in the freedom of having Jesus. 

It’s time to proclaim boldly that Jesus is Lord!

Use your mouthpiece for a week and see what the Lord does to turn things around. It’s time for the world to hear what the Lord is speaking to His bride. Tongues of fire be loosed in Jesus name! 

If your church doesn’t offer a prayer meeting time, Grace Community Church usually has them Thursdays at 7pm. If you feel the Lord calling you to have worship and prayer meetings with others in your home, do it. Provide people with that safe space where they feel comfortable ministering. It’s not about one church or one ministry, it’s about the Body of Christ rising up to be who the Lord called us to be. 

Exodus 4:16 Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; he will act as a mouthpiece for you, and you will be as God to him [telling him what I say to you].

Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Romans 10:9 - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Jeremiah 15:19 Therefore, thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah],“If you repent [and give up this mistaken attitude of despair and self-pity], then I will restore you [to a state of inner peace]So that you may stand before Me [as My obedient representative];And if you separate the precious from the worthless [examining yourself and cleansing your heart from unwarranted doubt concerning My faithfulness],You will become My spokesman.Let the people turn to you [and learn to value My values]—But you, you must not turn to them [with regard for their idolatry and wickedness]

Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the tower;And I will keep watch to see what He will say to me,And what answer I will give [as His spokesman] when I am reproved. 

Ephesians 6:17 - And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Psalms 144:1 - (A Psalm of David.) Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight

Romans 13:4 - For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

Romans 8:26 - Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 Timothy 3:16 - All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

John 14:26 - But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Mark 11:22-25  22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Psalms 142:1 - (Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave.) I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.

Luke 18:1 - And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

John 15:7 - If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

James 5:13 - Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

1 Peter 3:15 - But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: