Five quick tips to get prepared for your "suddenly"

Reading Time 5 mins 30 secs –

What can you expect in 2021?

Buckle your seatbelt friend!

You may have heard me talk about how God gave me several dreams concerning the direction of our country over the last year. The first one was on New Year’s Eve 2019 and was a prophetic glimpse of what would spiritually occur in 2020.

In the dream, I was in a major city that was empty of people. From building to building hung spider webs. And on one skyscraper sat a huge spider. The city was vacant of people except for one young guy who was headed directly toward the spider’s web. In the dream, God said, He doesn’t understand the danger of this deception. You need to tell him.

I never expected to see anything like that happen—cities vacated and Satan bringing such deception.

The dream didn’t end there. I heard the words Rosh Hashanah bellow, and the power of God knocked me down.

What does Rosh Hashanah mean? Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection, prayer, and repentance. Rosh Hashanah was symbolic of repentance and the power of God coming into the situation.

The other two dreams I had in 2020 were warnings for America that I felt I needed to share publicly.

The second dream was of socialism coming into our nation, and God instructed me to tell people the danger of this agenda. Drenda and I took that very seriously and launched out together on television and in daily updates to warn and instruct people about what was happening.

It’s critically important that the Body of Christ understands the dangers of what we’re hearing and seeing in our culture.

In the third dream, I saw our United States Constitution under attack and our guns being taken away. Russia and China were somehow involved.

Since then, God has spoken to me TWICE more concerning the future and about 2021.

Before I share what He showed me, I want to remind you that God’s Word does not change no matter what is changing in the world. God does not lie, and He cannot fail.

We don’t need to look for a prophetic word to help us know our future. His precious promises already tell us our future. Many times, though, God sends a prophetic word to encourage us amid our battles. He gave me an encouraging word for you for 2021 on September 4, 2020.

We celebrated Faith Life Church’s 25th anniversary that night with a banquet with some of our church leaders. During the evening, several people gave Drenda and me cards and gifts and thanked us for the impact Faith Life Church has had on their lives.

One family walked up and handed me a container that held 25 one-ounce silver coins. The minute I laid my hands on the container, the Spirit of God spoke to me. I knew there was more to the gift. I opened the container and was surprised to see that the front of each coin had an image of a prospector mining, or panning for gold, on them.

Instantly, I remembered a dream that I had many years ago when we were building The Now Center, money was very tight, and I was under a lot of pressure.

In the dream, I saw two mining carts that were each completely overflowing with silver coins. At the time of the dream, I was confused as to why the carts were full of silver coins instead of gold coins.

After a bit of research, I understood.

Silver is used as currency in everyday life. Gold is used primarily as a way to hold wealth. I understood then that those two carts full of silver coins meant that money— provision —was going to come in and take care of our needs. And the second cart represented God’s promise of double portion, overflowing provision, more than enough.

As I held those 25 silver coins in my hands that night and reflected on that dream from years ago, the Lord spoke to me:

In this season, I am going to bring great prosperity to my people, to the ones who know My Voice and follow My Spirit. They will be as the ones who came out of Egypt.

He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold and from among their tribes no one faltered. - Psalm 105:37 (NIV)

To be “laden” means to be heavily loaded or weighed down. Think of the Hebrew slaves coming out of Egypt—they were weighed down with gold and silver. They had one chance to carry the wealth of Egypt with them. They were loaded up with prosperity!

Think of the boats in Luke 5, when Peter, James, and John caught so many fish that their nets almost broke and their two boats began to sink from the weight. Those nets were laden with prosperity.

Of course, overflowing prosperity is already a promise for every child of God, but God wants to use this as a sign:

God is going to bless His people in this season.

There will be a distinct difference in how God’s people—YOU—live in 2021.

Just before Christmas, I had another dream concerning 2021. It was a simple one. I just heard the word “contend” and saw a picture of the communion table with the bread and wine and heard the word “covenant.”

Of course, a covenant is a legally binding agreement. But what does contend mean? It means to struggle or strive to overcome a problem or difficulty.

I know that definition sounds negative, but God didn’t mean it that way.

He said:
You contend and I will show up.

You step into the chaos, to where I lead you, and I will meet you there. I will back you up.

You have an enemy that wants to stop you. Spirits and demonic forces are real, and satan wants to distract you, deceive you, and discourage you.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Do not fear. You have a covenant with the Lord Almighty. You can resist the devil and his lies.

The culture keeps telling us to back down and back off, but that is NOT what God is telling His people to do.

This is the time to go forward and CONTEND.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Friend, no matter what you faced in 2020, God STILL has a great plan for your life.

He wants you to live a full, supernatural life in 2021, and to leave room for the SUDDENLY!

He wants to defend His people and show Himself strong just like He has time and time again—when the walls of Jericho fell; when Goliath fell dead from a stone—when situations looked impossible, then… SUDDENLY!

How can you CONTEND in 2021?

How can you posture yourself for the SUDDENLY God wants to bring you in 2021?

Here are five quick tips:

1. Make sure you have a faith picture. Know in your heart what the Word of God says about you and your situation.

2. Spend time in His Word and hear His voice. He has instructions and encouragement to give you.

3. Reject anything that doesn’t line up with what God says. Keep the Word in your heart and take every thought captive. Cast down negative, toxic, fearful, and lying thoughts. Stay in agreement with what heaven says about you and your situation.

4. Exercise your spiritual authority. CONTEND! Stand boldly on the promise that God is for you and no one and nothing can stand against you. Stay the course. Don’t let discouragement set in. Persevere with the Word!

5. ALWAYS be in agreement with your spouse. Never, ever march out into battle without being in total agreement and faith with your spouse.

Agreement with your spouse is required in order for you to see Heaven move in the earth realm. We can’t stress enough how important it is that you and your spouse are in agreement and that your family is on the same page spiritually.

Friend, our nation is at a crossroads. The world is growing darker. You are called to be a light in the darkness. You are called for such a time as this.

Contend, and release the Kingdom of God into the earth in 2021!

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The Power of Choice: How to Choose Happiness in Every Situation

By Gary Keesee • 08 May, 2024

Reading Time 3 mins 43 secs – Are you happy right now? Or are you feeling a little grumpy, or negative, or sorry for yourself? We’ve all been there. Years ago, I had one of those months. Yes, I said months , not days. I was negative. I was feeling sorry for myself. The weight and pressures of life and certain situations were bearing down on me. For some reason, during that time, I went to a conference I really didn’t feel like going to, and the speaker got up and said he was going to talk about being thankful. Great , I thought. Just what I want to hear. What I really wanted was for someone to join me in my pity party. But that wasn’t happening. Because God knew that wasn’t what I needed. He knew I needed someone to tell me the truth. See, I had taken my eyes off of all of the blessings of God. I had stopped remembering all of the amazing times He had come through for me. I had taken my focus off of His promises and put it on my problems. That message was just what I needed. The Holy Spirit dealt with me right then about my heart and how I had been ungrateful. I had to repent. God set me free that day. Here’s the thing: studies show that when you’re happy and thankful , you have 17% more friends. When you’re happy, you live longer and you have less health problems like heart attacks, strokes, colds, the flu, and even pain. Being grateful also strengthens your emotions, makes you more optimistic and less self-centered, improves your sleep, increases your self-esteem and your energy, helps you bounce back after a setback, reduces feelings of envy, helps your marriage, makes you look better, and makes you more productive. Proverbs 17:22 (KJV) says, “ A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones .” See that? Happiness is like medicine. Discouragement sucks the life out of you. Are you reading this and thinking, “ Gary, you don’t know what I’m going through. I have serious problems” ? I understand. But here’s the thing: happiness is not circumstantial. Happiness is a choice you make. I hear it all the time… “Gary, you don’t understand. I hate my house.” Sell it. “Gary, you don’t get it. I hate my job.” Quit it. Find a new one. “Gary, I just hate my life.” CHANGE it. You’re not stuck. You have options. Every single day, you make choices to do something or NOT do something. And you have plenty of reasons to be happy. Stop thinking you can only be happy when everything seems “perfect.” Because “perfect” is really rare, and I do mean really rare. In fact, odds are there will always be something in your life that isn’t “perfect.” The good news is, no matter what you go through or deal with in life, you can still be thankful and happy, because you can always trust God despite your circumstances. Philippians 4:6 (NIV) says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God .” Wait. Did you see what that said? Notice it didn’t say, “Only be anxious about the big things you can’t handle on your own.” Nope. It says don’t be anxious about anything . It also says by prayer—and with thanksgiving —present your requests to God. That means you should be thanking Him for all He’s already done and for what He’s about to do in your situation. You should be thanking Him before your answer shows up, because He’s faithful and good. Look at Judges 20:19–25. There, we see the nation of Israel suffering great loss after a huge battle. They had lost 22,000 men. 22,000. Can you even imagine? I’m sure you’ll agree that that was a really bad day. Then, on the second day of battle, they lost 18,000 more men. 40,000 men lost in two days. The Bible tells us they took a day off at that point. They stopped and regrouped. Then, in verse 26, we see that the entire army presented offerings of thanksgiving to God. Things had gone really wrong, and they needed to remind themselves that God was for them, that He is good and faithful, that He was with them. And the next day, they went out and won the battle. So, what about you, friend? Do you need to stop? Do you need to take your mind off the negative and remind yourself that God is for you, that He is good and faithful, and that He is with you?

5 Steps to Release the Kingdom in Your Life

By Gary Keesee • 10 Apr, 2024

Reading Time 2 mins 13 secs – In John 6, we read the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Do you know it? It’s where we see Jesus teaching the disciples how to release the Kingdom of God into the earth realm. Basically, a large crowd was following Jesus, listening to Him teach, and watching Him perform miracles. It got to a point where the people needed to eat, and Jesus asked the disciples what they planned to feed the people. Of course, Jesus knew the disciples would freak out. They couldn’t feed 5,000 people. In fact, they started talking about how it would take more than half a year’s wages to buy just a bite for that many people. Jesus was teaching the disciples, and He was teaching us— the Kingdom of God has all the answers you need . How can you release the Kingdom of God into your life? Here are the five steps Jesus took. 1. Look at what you have. Jesus asked the disciples what they had to feed the people. What do you have in your life that you can give God to work with? Jesus multiplied bread into bread and fish into fish. What do you need multiplied in your life? Find some of it. That’s your seed. Also, remember that money can be named. You don’t sow money to believe for more paper or digital money. Money represents your life and can be named to be the thing you need multiplied. 2. Make sure you’re in faith. “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1, GNT). You have to know how to judge whether or not you’re in faith. How? Do you have the right picture? When you close your eyes, what do you see? Do you see yourself with the thing you’re believing for? Can you defend your position? Why do you believe it? Prove it! Because you can be sure that between the “Amen” and the “There it is!” the enemy is going to contend for it, so you better be able to defend it. Do you have joy, expectancy, and peace? Are you in agreement with your spouse? 3. Confess over what you have, and release it in faith. Be specific. Say exactly what you’re believing for and release the seed to God. 4. Get the plan from God. Be ready for new direction, new ideas, and new concepts by revelation from the Holy Spirit. Carry a notepad and a pen. Write everything down. 5. Act quickly! When God gives you the plan, MOVE! It’s wise to have counselors and get wisdom, but you need to act swiftly on any direction you receive from the Holy Spirit.

Want Growth and Success? Here Are 10 Steps to Help Take You There

By Gary Keesee • 13 Mar, 2024

Reading Time 2 mins 34 secs – How can you make sure you’re equipped for the growth coming your way this year? Here are my 10 steps to posture yourself for opportunity and success. 1. Ask yourself how you’re handling your current responsibilities. Don’t run from your responsibilities. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you should be a success. People will still see the evidence of God even if you think you’re in the wrong spot. 2. Detox your life of the things that keep you from having time to think. We live in a fast-paced world. There are plenty of things that can keep you distracted. But it’s in the moments that you stop to think that you’ll find ways to solve problems, and that’s where the opportunities are. So figure out what is consuming your time. Start saying no to some things. Find time to think. 3. Don’t hang around people who are always losing. I know people hit rough spots, but if the people in your life are chronically losing, it’s time to expand your circle. Hang around people who are better than you are, who don’t see things as impossible, and who have vision. It may be uncomfortable for you, but their influence will cause you to think differently. 4. Write down EVERY idea that you have, no matter how strange it seems. Most people filter opportunities and ideas through what they perceive their ability to be. This means most people discard ideas by the dozens because they don’t think they can do them. But God isn’t limited to what you know how to do. The ideas He gives you might seem so weird to you that you can’t process them fully. Write them down so you have time to think about them. 5. Research. Research. Repeat. You don’t need to know how to do something; you need to know how to learn how to do it. Research until you find what you’re looking for. 6. Count the cost before you jump. A lot of Christians hear God and jump out too soon, resulting in catastrophe. There are seasons for everything. God will prepare you for where He wants you to go. Be patient. 7. Always be in agreement with your spouse. Never, ever march out into battle without your spouse being in total agreement and your faith aligned. 8. Ask God for direction. Ask Him to help you, to show you where to go, and what to do. And always remember that prophecy from other people shouldn’t lead you; it should only confirm what God has already said to you. 9. Commit to never quit. Quitting is not an option. Once you’ve moved, don’t move again until God speaks to you. Stay with it. Walk it out. Don’t quit. So many people have so much potential, but they get uncomfortable and they quit. If you want to win, you should always be stretching. 10. Get ready to embrace bigger things. Your ability to see the big picture will keep growing as you change and grow on the inside. You’ll pick up on even more opportunities. For more principles, check out this FREE video on success.