On March 18, Ashley, our daughter, who was 17 at the time (just three weeks before her 18th Birthday), began to experience three consecutive nights in a row of dreams and visions with strong prophetic undertones. The first evening, she was awakened by a presence that touched her and a voice that clearly said, “Wake up!” She shot up questioning what was happening, but realized instantly it was the Lord getting her attention.
She would go on to have a dream about Vice President Pence and arose with an urgency to cover him more specifically in prayer. As Ashley was sharing the dream and the sudden wake-up call, she went on to say that the Lord had put Leviticus 21 and 22 in her heart. She shared with passion and concern. “Mom, the pastors and preachers have to get back to holiness, and we all need to get back to honoring and living by the Ten Commandments.” That is what the Lord is saying. The following evening she was awakened again with the same words, “Wake up, wake up!”
I felt the urgency to share this with my husband as he, too, had been getting dreams and downloads from the Lord. He was and still is part of many Zoom calls with leaders and pastors from across the nation and throughout the globe who are interceding and encouraging others during this unexpected detour and pandemic season.
At the time, I had started a new bible study and was beginning the book of Exodus. As I was reading and pondering history, I couldn’t help but feel like we were living out a drama that had a familiar storyline. The month of Nisan, Pesach, Good Friday and Easter were all around the corner.
Our nation and the world is experiencing a pandemic of epic proportion. In the beginning, it seemed to affect only a few states in our nation. The eyes of the world were observing and praying for Italy and other European countries as an example of what could happen to us in the United States, as they were in quarantine. There was an obvious concern, but for many of us, life went on as usual. With every passing day and more so with every passing week, our lifestyle was being altered no matter what part of the nation or globe you live in.
Every sphere of the culture of life was being affected: arts and entertainment, education, government, media, business, religion and family.
I was reading about the plagues of Egypt and about Pharaoh’s hardened heart toward the people of Israel and disobedience to let God’s people go. I began to question and process how this compares to plague-like circumstances for us today. We have some in leadership who seem to have hardened hearts, much like Pharaoh. Some refuse to acknowledge the need for the Lord; some even show open disdain for the worship or acknowledgment of Him. Even so, as Christians, we acknowledge that Jesus stood in the gap for us, so likewise, we are to stand in the gap for those who are unwilling to see or hear.
Many of us value and worship the Lord, but we haven’t surrendered our lives to His will. We still manipulate the reins to move according to our will and not His. Let’s face it, has the Lord ever told you not to do something, and you did it anyway? He closes the door on a job, and we force it back open, only to regret it later. We do this with our families, relationships and so much more. I have heard my husband share it this way, “How many of us say to God, ‘I give my life to You. Let Your will be done in and through me.'”
Doug compares it to a guest to whom you give the keys to your house and tell them, “Make yourself at home.” Your guest would not feel the freedom or liberty to rearrange the furniture in your home, remove and replace the paintings on the wall and so on, because they understand that they are just a guest, not the owner of the house. You see, there is a distinct difference in being a guest versus being the owner. Likewise, Doug goes on to remind us that often many of us have God as a guest, allowing Him to dwell under our rules and with our limitations, rather than giving Him full ownership of our lives. In so doing, we give the Lord the right to rearrange the furniture of our lives, the paintings on the walls of our hearts and our minds, and to allow Him to truly abide in us and with us.
With that said, I am convicted. God put on Ashley’s heart that we were to get back to living and honoring the Ten Commandments, not in the letter of the law, but in an understanding of God’s love and guidance provided by the Spirit of the Commandments, as my husband would say. The very first says, “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” I think many of us recognize that we have, perhaps unintentionally, acted as though we had other gods before the One true living God.
Too often, even in the Christian world, we become so enamored with the fame, talents and success of others that we can lose perspective on the One who is worthy of our adoration and worship. We are to worship the God of the house of God, yet often we can be tempted to praise the institution itself, rather than the Lord Himself. We might be found worshipping the worship, celebrating the presentation and forgetting who is worthy of our worship, and who the presentation is supposed to be about.
Within a short window of time, many idols have been temporarily cast down. The question remains when this is over: Will we return to our old ways? Can the games be enjoyed, and the athletes’ skills be admired without them being idols in our life?
I could continue listing the Commandments with examples of how we have strayed as a nation, but I think you get the picture. Take the time to read them, memorize them and live them out. The Bible says they were written by the very finger of God and given to Moses before Israel entered the promised land. Doug has taught us that the highest form of worship is not with musical instruments and songs, but simple obedience to God. It’s time to obey, and it is not an option.
When my husband ministers in any capacity, whether at a leadership training or Sunday service, I always hear him pray, “God, give me a clean heart, a right spirit and a sharp mind.” Daily we must ask God for just that. If, throughout the day, jealousy, disappointment or anything that could hinder you from His presence and guidance finds its way in your heart, ask God for a clean heart. We don’t have time to waste.
Pastors, preachers and leaders, God is asking for you to do as Scripture says: Be holy, with a heart after His; be found blameless, faithful and disciplined. We are praying for you, and need your leadership.
To the body of Christ, God is speaking, and as Scripture says, “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28). Let us honor and live by the Commandments of God, for His Word says they are “holy and just and good.” Imagine the kind of world we would live in if we would obey.
Let’s not be a people separated from God, but instead put on the full armor. May we remember that God doesn’t come only to judge, but to save. We join the many who are praying for multitudes upon multitudes to be saved. May we “wake up” from our slumber.
Interestingly, over the last few weeks, Doug has been reflecting and teaching on the book of Nehemiah and how he wept over the state of the circumstances of his people. Nehemiah’s prayer was in the Jewish month of Kislev, which would’ve been equivalent to November/December in our Gregorian calendar. He wept and prayed for four months before the divine orchestrated moment of favor and breakthrough began in the month of Nisan, equivalent to our March/April this year.
Doug has been strongly sensing that if the body of Christ would continue to cry out in intercession like Aaron and Moses did in Numbers 16, something would shift in a divine intervention from God. Nehemiah received his breakthrough during the month of Nisan, which ends this month on the 24th of April at sundown. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all might completely stop, but that a divine intervention would take place and that the process of the breakthrough would be obvious. For example, a vaccine, or a divine turnaround; something of such significance that many would know that it is God’s intervention.
Ashley’s dream was a confirmation to what we have been seeing and Doug had been saying for some time regarding the four-month process that Nehemiah experienced, from the exposure to the breakthrough. He shared on podcasts, at church and on social media. So as I was praying about and processing the significance of the dream, I couldn’t help but thank God for His faithfulness and encouragement to keep praying with confidence that our breakthrough is coming. {eoa}
Lisa Stringer is the wife of Doug Stringer, the founder and president of Somebody Cares America & International, a network of organizations impacting their communities through unified grassroots efforts. Lisa travels with Doug as they minister to many around the globe, ranging from those of the persecuted church to those suffering in the aftermath of human tragedy, such as the Haitian earthquake, the tsunami in Japan and Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. Lisa enjoys opportunities where she has been able to interpret for her husband as they minister throughout Central and South America. She and her husband are regular guests on various television programs that air throughout the world. She is also the author of God Did Not Do This to Me: Finding Hope, Courage, and Faith to Face Our Toughest Challenge.
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