Tribe Church. Byron Bay

We can find many incredible examples and promises throughout the bible of the power of God’s Word and ways in which people were used by the Lord to release his word in order to bring breakthrough into impossible situations. In the New Testament Paul wrote to the Ephesians exhorting them to take the sword of the Spirit which is the “Word” of God and to pray. In the Old Testament God told Moses to "speak to the rock" so that its water would be released. As we take hold of the word of God over our lives, we are able to speak to different situations in our lives and in the world around us and release the promise, provision and breakthrough of the Lord into seemingly impossible situations. This is part of our mandate and inheritance as children of God.

In today’s live stream and podcast, Serena Gallagher unpacks Isaiah 60:1-7 as a template for having hope. Through this teaching, Serena opens up a revelation of how knowing the truth of God’s character and His Word is then knowing God’s goodness in the midst of any darkness that might surround. For that to be a consistent change agent in our lives, we need templates. A template is an example that is useful in knowing what something should look like or how it works. Good teachers will always provide their students with a template for them to look to, to gain further understanding on a particular topic. God is the most masterful teacher, who has always provided templates for us to see what the Kingdom looks like. For example, His creation is a template. An Old testament example of a template is the story of Abraham and Isaac. In this story we see the gospel narrative. The Father sacrifices His only son for the sake of the world, or in this case in a model of obedience. Jesus used parables as templates to teach us in the New Testament. As “God students” we need to see a model for Kingdom life, so we know what the template is. In the prophetic book of Isaiah we see not only the mandate for Kingdom life, but Kingdom hope. Friends, we can have confident hope that God’s dwelling place will have fruit that will cause our hearts to throb and swell with joy regardless of what is happening.

The Isaiah mandate is the call to live the exchanged life in Christ. It is also the call to Kingdom ministry that Jesus inaugurated in Luke 4. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us to break the power of sin, trauma, shame and even our bad choices or sinful patterns. Kingdom ministry is prayer ministry, and it’s meant to be our normal everyday prayer life! Shame is an internal response and narrative to our sin and failure. All humans suffer from it, as it’s basically the human condition. It is also a toxic and unhealthy response (emotion), to this flawed state of being, and causes us to hide and avoid. The bottom line is that shame says, “I am bad,” however, that narrative is not true! The truth is “I did bad” and now I need to be healed and washed clean! It’s a relief that the powerful message of a “shame-free culture” is getting out there. Shame needs definition. If we say that “all bad feelings” are the same as shame, then that does away with the powerful need for conviction and guilt, which help us come to a Godly repentance. A “feel good” culture has no place for bad feelings like repentance, and will cause us to slip into false grace, away from discipleship and ultimately Lordship. God uses our shortcomings to bring us to repentance. It’s then we experience sonship! Knowing I am loved, worthy of His grace and that I cannot be separated from Him because of that love is a phenomenal freedom. Coming into right relationship with God is everything. He loves us and is calling us to live as His adopted kids – filled with His love and grace, able to discern shame and step away from it to the fullness of a double portion.

Isaiah 61 is the call to the live the exchanged life. Jesus came up out of the wilderness in Luke 4 and declared this at the beginning of His ministry. He commissioned us to be a redeemed people who shine because we are healed in our hearts to carry His presence. In verse three of this chapter, we read that we are to have the “oil of joy for mourning.” Beloved, it’s a season of stepping into a greater anointing of joy. We acknowledge the radical suffering going on world-wide, but without joy, we will not have strength to overcome and be part of His healing team! Instead we will wither and die. There is a Spirit joy that is violent. It is overwhelming and completely not of this world. It’s the heavenly joy of Jesus and it’s time for the church to be anointed again with this joy. Joy will heal you. Joy will fill you. Joy will make you feel well and able to do all that He has called you to. Sorrow may last for a night but His joy is coming!! It’s time to plan for a joyful response as we walk through the calamity and suffering of this world. We are not able to control the next thing that goes on. You can’t stop the trauma, the loss, the pain, the grief, and suffering. It’s all around us. But we can control how we respond to the tribulations that are upon us. He is calling us up. He is asking us to pray and be anointed afresh with new joy and new hope and new life. Don’t despair. Pray. Don’t give up. Pray. Don’t look around you and try and figure it all out. Instead pray and keep on praying and joy will be our outcome. We are a people marked by Heaven. And Heaven is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. I pray you hand over your pain today and let the new joy touch you and fill you!

We are in a unique season and therefore it requires unique responses. I believe the Father is giving keys on how to position our hearts to overcome in this time! It’s not a time to be passive but strong. It’s not a time to burn out - but burn on! It’s not a time to quit but keep going. Keep praying! Keep building the House for His glory and being filled with His grace. In time, the fruit of this season will be evident. Are you in training alongside Jesus to reign over all the enemies plans? There are 10 key areas I believe the Lord is giving keys in during this unique time! 1. Relay your covenant relationship foundations with Him- intimacy and first love anointing. 2. Passing your fruit inspections – eg your love tests and battles. 3. Go through the gates and thresholds God has for you in this season. 4. Invest into the prayer movement – the House of Prayer. 5. Receive fresh intel from Heaven – not from the world. 6. Overcome the fear and intimidation manifesting as conspiracies and "hear say". 7. Sit under the Spirit of Wisdom and of Revelation. 8. Get Healed from past wounds, traumas etc. 9. Pick up your prayer assignments and align yourself to His plans. 10. Position your heart for fresh Waves of Grace and Glory as persecutions and troubles increase in the earth

As we journey with the Lord we grow to realise that there is an ongoing work of healing and restoration that He is doing all of our hearts. As we walk this out over time, we see that this is not only a work of healing but also a work of preparation that is unfolding within us for the sake of the world around us. In this word Rosie looks at the life of Nehemiah and the role that prayer played in preparing him to step into the mandate on his life to repair and restore the walls of Jerusalem.

The Isaiah Mandate is the call for a full restoration of our hearts now. Isaiah prophesied that the power of the gospel was for the healing of the broken places – the broken-hearted places. In modern terms, brokenheartedness is the traumas we have been through. Most likely there are many traumas from your huge life - some of which have not been processed nor healed yet. Some of the deepest traumas, are not things we want to revisit ever, however,  when we push those things down in our trauma tank, we are doing the worst thing ever for our hearts. The good news is, God wants to heal you firstly because He loves you, secondly because you must deal with the lies that hinder you moving forward, and thirdly because your traumas will only fester and increase when left. Further to all that, the mandate to process our hearts, is actually evidence of our self care or sense of worthiness (ability to receive His love). The Father wants to build up our love tank or self worth tank, so that we can process all the hard things - not avoid them! Beloved, the bad news is - additional traumas are coming! Yes… that’s right.. more traumas are on the way! This is not something you can avoid as a human, nor is it something you can control! Life is hard and becoming an expert at resilient responses to pain, betrayals, disappointments, sickness, death, loss or even persecution is our address. Of all the people on the planet we need to be learning “healing”… it’s not an add on extra but a necessity to life! Some might say a survival skill. Jesus simply calls it love! Feast on His presence today and allow His love into the journey, by processing, forgiving, receiving revelation and the key thing- through receiving prayer ministry! Jesus heals ! 

Isaiah 61 is the call to the live the exchanged life. Jesus came up out of the wilderness in Luke 4 and declared this at the beginning of His ministry. He commissioned us to be a redeemed people who shine because we are healed. The year of Jubilee is our inheritance in Christ! By His grace, we are given back a healed life (beauty) for the ashes of our brokenness. For this to occur, the gospel must be applied to our souls for the fullness of Isaiah’s mandate to be fulfilled. Beauty for ashes comes because dead places within our hearts are restored and resurrected. This is a call to New Testament prayer ministry! Humans are like “lie magnets” and often internalise experiences as lies which exacerbates them. For example, most people struggle with a root of rejection from childhood. The fruit of rejection unhealed, often looks like deep insecurity and a sense of self-loathing which can manifest as envy, comparisons and even as criticism and judgements. Right now, there’s a shaking going on, and its revealing all the unhealed things. Our mandate is to keep on being healed (it’s not over yet) and then become an army of heart healing specialists! One of the best ways to begin to heal, is to first validate our own heart. If it hurt -then it needs to be validated and healed. Beloved, of all the cultures in the world, we should be the most validating culture, that brings this healing! Let’s remember the admonition from James 5: “Pray for one another that you may be healed!” Let's receive this ministry and give it away this week!

Today’s message from Liz is about the fire and the fragrance and how important they are to our prayer life individually and corporately. Drawing from a prophetic picture the Lord gave Liz, comes a model for the house of prayer. Our lives are like incense ascending to His throne. We become a great picture of His heart as our homes or households become individual houses of prayer. The work that Jesus does in our lives, of transforming us by the fire, produces such a sweet fragrance and incense that goes to His throne. As we yield to Him as a “burnt sacrifice” His Holy Spirit breathes on it and produces something of beauty. The importance of getting healed is so we can carry more of Him to others. He is amazing! He takes the dead wood in our lives and with His fire burns off the judgements, attitudes and wounds that need to go, so we can display His love and glory on the earth. Through the prayer room or houses of prayer, we are becoming portals where we bring heaven down to earth. The fire and the fragrance rising from our hearts and our houses of prayer produce a brilliant light, like a beacon on a hill. Our best days are ahead as we see how powerfully His work is in us. He will do all that He said and more! Get ready by attending to the fire in your heart today!

Everyone loves that feeling of finally reaching the mountain top and having a clear, vivid vision of the surrounding region. We stop and gasp at the view, taking in all the beauty of the landscape below! We breathe in deeply, the beautiful crisp mountain air and instantly feel incredible! Like Jesus, we are called to live from the mountain top. The Christian life is an elevated one. High above the earth, not on the ground where you can not see with the chickens, but like eagles we rise up in the thermals and glide about in the Spirit - living free and unencumbered from this world with all its stresses, issues and neurosis. Ascending the “the hill of the Lord” is the way David referred to the life of prayer and worship in Psalm 24. What are the benefits of a life of ascension? Apart from being refreshed and invigorated, the body of Christ will be filled with an unusual discernment that comes from sight. It’s time for a much greater seer gift to kick in for the church, but it will not happen if you don’t turn the TV off and enter the worship zone where the Master mountaineer, Jesus, will teach you to ascend the high places. When we live like this, no matter what the devil throws at us, we will overcome, and we will do it with great joy and a sense of lightness as we leave behind the warfare below. My prayer for you in this teaching is that the glory and grace of ascension comes on you and over you -lifting your heart and even your head to a realm where He dwells. Leaving you feeling as light as a feather and addicted for more!