As the people of God assemble today may they be confident of the fact that Jesus, Who was crucified, has risen from the dead and is seated at the right hand of Majesty on High. May they rejoice in His being on the throne and His intervention for His beloved. “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;” (Heb.8:1, KJV)
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The Word of God Penetrates
If you know someone who is living outside the Kingdom of God but they have had the Word preached to them or they have been taught a scripture or two, take hope, 
for that Word is alive and active. Once the Word is in them, it cannot be extracted. They may presently be yielding more and more to their soul drives than they do to the Word but the Word penetrates between soul and spirit and our job is to pray they will respond to the life of the Word at those moments when there is a cleaving between the soul and the spirit. Sins of the flesh, crime, even prison cannot nullify or extract that Word. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb.4:12, NKJV)
Character and the Heat of Trials
If we study the progression of Romans 5:4, (trials then perseverance then character then hope), we begin to understand the real issues. Threshold wars are waged when 
the heat of trials gets our character to a red-hot blaze, like the point when metal can be changed and re-shaped. That is the point when the heat makes it tempting to quit and run to the nearest place of relief rather than complete the process by submitting to the Blacksmith’s hammer. So these wars are screaming the question while we’re in the heat of battle: “Will you do the right thing, let God change your heart and mind where necessary? Will you choose to respond to trials with wisdom and develop godly character; or will you remain the same person, refusing to be conformed to His image?” And our answer at this point will either propel us on to hope and toward promise, or cause us to fall short of hope and promise.
Not Dependent on our Reach Alone
Have you ever been in a swimming pool and reached for a leaf only to have it move away from you because of the movement of the water under your hand, still out of 
reach? It seemed to be just beyond the reach of your fingers and only a small amount of effort would bring it into your grasp, yet it evaded you. I have also seen a parent holding a child and extending them forward so they might reach something otherwise unreachable. We are not dependent upon our reach alone. In Christ, in His purposes and plans, which include sons/daughters of the Most High, we are enabled to reach and shall reach what has been unreachable before now. Just as the parent held the child out so its little hand was able to grasp, our Lord wants us to grasp that which is within His Kingdom purposes. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.” (Isa.59:1)
Persevering on the Path
Paul said we glory in tribulations. If we do not learn to glory in trials it is probably because we have not persevered down the whole path of Romans 5:4, from 
tribulation to perseverance to character to hope. For we learn to glory if we do not stop along the way and we reach godly hope that is steadfast and unshakeable. Admittedly that is not an easy lesson. There seems to be a crucial threshold, a line of demarcation drawn between character and hope. That threshold is where the enemy comes in like a flood. Wars flare up there, in that threshold of darkness just before dawn. Wars rage there, on the threshold of our deepest weariness. Standing on that threshold, one step away from godly hope that will get us to promise, we can be overwhelmed and exhausted and become so hopeless that we run or quit. That’s why the enemy wages war at this threshold, to drive us aside into hopelessness; for the hopeless will not persevere, will not pursue promise . . . no matter how close it is. —Kathy Gabler
The Word of God is Alive
The emphasis left us in Heb 4:12 is that the Word that is alive and the Word that is
indescribably sharp, will leave nothing in us alone. The Word of God cannot be anything but alive, active, operative and penetrating and addresses everything in us. That powerful Word is going to leave nothing alone in your life. The Word of God is going to get after sin. It’s not going to leave the destiny of Jesus that is in you alone. It’s not going to leave the prophecies that are in you by the laying on of hands alone. It’s not going to leave the songs alone that God inspired and brought to you in worship concerning His greatness to be and greatness to act.
Experience and the Future
Sometimes all the enemy has to do is remind us of old battles. It is easy to allow experience to decide our future, but it is not the will of our Father. Experiences 
should mature us… not rule over us. If we allow experience to be the final authority and dominate our thinking, we forfeit hope. According to the Word, we must persevere through experiences to get to hope: Rom 5:3-4 “…but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.” (KJV) It is interesting that several translations substitute the word “character” for “experience.” “Endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” (RSV). Experiences are meant to process and strengthen our character, not become a set of expectations that overshadow our future. —Kathy Gabler
Turned the World Upside Down
As the people of God assemble today may the order of the Lord Most High prevail over the order of religion. May He truly be able to take His liberty in spite of the 
agendas of the western mindset in order that we may know, experience and emulate Him who birthed, invaded and empowered the church in the upper room–the church that “turned the world upside down.” May our Lord’s version of “decently and in order” prevail as freely as it did in Acts 2 for the purposes of our Lord getting the results of Acts 2. “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:2-4, NKJV)
When Unity Increases
The “you” in “you shall chase your enemies” (Lev.26:7) is a plural you. Watch how Jehovah’s plan for unity and agreement works. While v.8 says that five of you shall 
chase 100, it shows the unpredictable increase of 100 putting 10,000 to flight. This scripture shows us the principle that the supernatural kicks in and increases as unity increases. The enemy simply cannot predict that kind of outcome. When unity increases, you throw off the devil’s strategy; what he developed doesn’t work any more. Now, maybe we can see why he doesn’t want us having the same mind, moving in the same direction with the same heart. “And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.” (Lev.26:7-8)
Obedience and the Much Bigger Matter
Standing on the steps of our state capitol in the place where inaugurations are held, the team sang, “I will remain confident in this, we will see the goodness of the 
LORD.” We were there to witness an inauguration, a startup of a new era that opened our government and politics and moral and legal standards to the goodness and purposes of God. Suddenly, Melissa turned and pointed at the capitol building and prophesied in song, “You will not abort this time . . .” The stirring within Melissa to prophesy those specific words to the legal and political heart of Texas were not random or coincidence. While the prophecy was a general directive from the Lord for our government to not abort the will and purposes of God, it was also a specific directive to reverse legal history. The worship team had been unknowingly set-up for this timely obedience that was in no way premeditated on their part. Melissa had no awareness of the famous abortion case of Roe vs. Wade having its roots in Texas. Nevertheless, her obedience was the appointment of God to release agreement with heaven to uproot and change its fruit. The little “piece” she got and released was a part of a much bigger matter than they knew in both the state and the nation.
Whether the government of God alters the direction and details of history through a world-shaking miracle or incrementally through a series of events, our lives and obedience are meant to be instrumental in this ever increasing Kingdom. —Kathy Gabler (Last excerpt from “Ever Increasing”)
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