Month: December 2020

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part series. Find part one here.

Dominion:

We have been redeemed, and our dominion over all of creation has been redeemed as well. “Redeemed” means “to purchase back under threat.”

From the very beginning, God told us to take dominion (see Gen. 1:26). He never rescinded that command. God wants His family to become more fruitful, outweigh the enemy and go forth and take dominion.

Biblical dominion doesn’t refer to domination of people. Biblical dominion has to do with the liberation of people.

Jesus taught us to pray in Luke 11:2, where He said, “When you pray, say: Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Dominion looks like the manifestation of the kingdom of God on the earth. The kingdom of God is made up of righteousness, peace, joy, grace and truth, solidly founded on faith, hope and love.

The Lord laid it on my heart in late February of 2020 that His ekklesia is about to awaken, arise, advance and abound.

According to Matthew 16:18, Jesus says that He is going to build His church—His family, the ekklesia—and the gates of hell will not overcome it. The word ekklesia is the Greek word that means “to be called out to rule and reign.” We are to take dominion over our own promised lands, and God is giving us a spirit of dominion this year.

So it’s time for you, the ekklesia, to awaken, arise, advance and abound.

How We Take Dominion Is Just as Important as Taking Dominion

“Now you are ready, my bride, to come with me as we climb the highest peaks together. Come with me through the archway of trust. We will look down from the crest of the glistening mounts and from the summit of our sublime sanctuary. Together we will wage war in the lion’s den and the leopard’s lair as they watch nightly for their prey” (Song 4:8, TPT).

What we have all been going through, especially over the last 10 months, has prepared us to be able to handle the harvests that He has prepared for us—the harvests of souls, healings, signs, wonders, finances, lands, buildings and more.

Many of us do not feel ready, but know this: You are ready because He says you are.

A level of intimacy has been developed in us, and we are beginning to understand Whose we are. We are beginning to trust the Lord and walk with Him. I love where it says in Song of Songs 4:8 that we will climb the highest peaks together, walking through the archway of trust together and looking down from the glistening mount and our sublime sanctuary. Together, we will wage war in the lion’s den and the leopard’s lair as they watch nightly for their prey.

What God is saying is as we have our focus on Him and not on the enemy, we will walk arm in arm right into the enemy’s camp, unannounced, because the enemy is so caught up in his own diabolical schemes that he won’t even see us coming. We will then crush the enemy under our feet.

The key here is that we are like the calves released from the stall: “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. You will go out and grow up like calves from the stall. And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I do this, says the Lord of Hosts.” (Mal. 4:2-3, MEV).

“Your obedience has become known to all men. Therefore I am glad on your behalf. Yet I want you to be wise to that which is good, and innocent to that which is evil” (Rom. 16:19-20, MEV).

The enemy is trying to get us to pay attention and face him. You cannot face an enemy who is under your feet. Do not allow yourself to be an expert on the enemy. He does not deserve that kind of attention. On the contrary, be excellent at what is good. It’s when we are excellent at what is good and innocent at what is evil that we crush the enemy—once again, not because we are so wise, but because our God is so good!

“Look, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19).

“Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm” (Col. 3:2, TPT).

This war we are in is for the soul of North America and the world.

Whoever runs the soul on the earth runs the show on the earth.

God and the enemy are after our minds. Whoever controls the thoughts fortifies the will and transforms the emotions.

The war is for our attention; the enemy is trying to get our attention. He is trying to push every button to get our focus off of the Lord to keep us from filling our thoughts with heavenly realities.

The enemy cannot be our focus; God must be our focus.

Obedience is our greatest weapon. As we are simply walking in obedience to God, we will walk right into the enemy’s camp and begin to crush him under our feet. Once again, the enemy is not our focus; the fact is, he is without intentionality, and he is inconsequential in our decision-making.

So as the Elohim is a family in heaven, so shall we be a fruitful, dominion-taking family here on the earth.

One Final Point

I urge you to please pray in the Holy Ghost more than ever. Give God something to work with. There are at least 80 different things that happen when you pray in your heavenly language. One amazing benefit is your immune system is boosted.

Once again, Happy New Year! I am calling forth a blessing on you all to become His family, be fruitful and take your promised lands.

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An Atlanta homeless man risked his life to save all the animals of a local shelter after it caught fire.

Running into the blaze, Keith Walker, 53, saved all the animals, six dogs and 10 cats, by carrying them to safety.

Gracie Hamlin, the founder of the W-Underdogs shelter in Atlanta, Georgia, calls Walker her guardian angel.

Hamlin told CNN that on Dec. 18, Walker was inside the building “pulling out the cats and dogs until they were all safe.”

“I can’t thank [Walker] enough for saving my animals,” Hamlin said. “I’m still in disbelief, because I’ve been around a fire and I know how fast they flare up. He is my hero.”

Walker, who has been homeless since the age of 13, admitted feeling fearful of the billowing smoke.

“God put me there to save those animals,” Walker said.

“My dog is my best friend, and I wouldn’t be here without him, so I knew I had to save all those other dogs,” he added.

Hamlin, whose shelter works with at-risk youth to promote empathy and compassion, had been allowing Walker to board his dog, a pit bull named Bravo, on the premises.

Walker was collecting Bravo for a walk when he spotted the fire.

According to a W-Underdogs post on Facebook, the origin of the fire was electrical. While the shelter was not destroyed, the damage rendered the site uninhabitable.

Besides Walker, Hamlin credited Atlanta Fire Department, LifeLine Animal Project, and “kind neighbors” for their rescue efforts.

“In the midst of our misfortune we rest tonight with nothing but gratitude for the community that continuously supports us,” she wrote.

As luck would have it, all 16 animals were scheduled to move to a new facility, elsewhere in Atlanta, at Christmas. A number of volunteers helped transfer the dogs and cats from the burnt-out shelter to the new facility ahead of schedule.

Thanks to Walker’s immense bravery, W-Underdogs’ residents are “happy, warm, safe, and comfortable” in their new abode.

The unprecedented early relocation, however, left W-Underdogs in dire need of animal care and cleaning supplies.

At the time of writing, a GoFundMe page has raised almost $6,000 of a $20,000 goal.

Hamlin said Walker is refusing all offers of help, but the W-Underdogs family is determined to find a way to repay his bravery.

“He is a vital part of our community,” she updated on the fundraising page, “and we will continue to work with him so he is appropriately rewarded for his selfless efforts.”

 

By Tom Ozimek

Americans can expect to start receiving a second round of stimulus checks, with some coming as early as Tuesday night, according to the Treasury Department.

Known officially as economic impact payments (EIP), the checks are part of the implementation of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021, the pandemic relief bill that President Donald Trump signed on Sunday and that includes a second round of direct payments of up to $600 per person.

“These payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight and will continue into next week,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.

Paper checks will begin to be mailed on December 30, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

“This second round of payments will provide critical economic support to those who, through no fault of their own, have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the department stated.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said in a statement that eligible individuals do not need to take any action to receive this second payment, and the agency will use the direct deposit information it has on file to make the payment.

“Anyone who received the first round of payments earlier this year but doesn’t receive a payment via direct deposit will generally receive a check or, in some instances, a debit card,” the IRS said. For eligible individuals in this category, the payments will conclude in January.

The IRS noted that some people “may see the direct deposit payments as pending or as provisional payments in their accounts before the official payment date of January 4, 2021.”

Eligible recipients will receive a payment of up to $600 for individuals or $1200 for married couples and up to $600 for each qualifying child. Dependents who are 17 and older do not qualify for the child payment.

Those with an adjusted gross income for 2019 up to $75,000 for individuals and up to $150,000 for married couples filing joint returns and surviving spouses, will receive the full amount of the second payment. The payment amount is reduced for people with an income above those amounts, according to the IRS.

“We are working swiftly to distribute this second round of payments as quickly as possible,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig, in a statement. “This work continues throughout the holidays and into the new year as we prepare for the upcoming filing season.”

President Donald Trump said last week he wanted to see Americans get paid $2,000 instead of $600 in stimulus payments.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said the upper chamber will address Trump’s concerns about higher stimulus payments later this week. McConnell’s remarks came after he blocked unanimous consent on the higher stimulus check amount.

Follow Tom on Twitter: @OZImekTOM

President Trump has ended former President Obama’s 12-year run as the most admired man in America, edging out his predecessor in the annual Gallup survey released Tuesday.

Eighteen percent of the survey’s respondents named Trump as their most admired man, compared to 15 percent who named Obama and 6 percent who named President-elect Joe Biden. Three percent named National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, while 2 percent chose Pope Francis.

Rounding out the top 10 were Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and the Dalai Lama, all of whom received 1 percent.

The sitting U.S. president has been named the pollster’s most-admired man in 60 out of 74 years, including all eight years of Obama’s presidency and every year of George W. Bush’s presidency except for 2008. Trump had finished second to Obama in 2017 and 2018.

The 2020 rankings are the 10th time Trump has ranked among the top 10. Before entering the political sphere, he made the list in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 2011. Biden made only his second appearance in the top 10 after making the list in 2018.

Among Republicans surveyed, 48 percent of respondents named Trump as their most admired man. No other public figure got more than 2 percent Republican support, according to Gallup. Among independents, both Obama and Trump received 11 percent support. Fauci was the choice of 5 percent of Democrats but just 1 percent of Republicans.

The record holder for appearances in the survey’s top 10 is the late Rev. Billy Graham, who made the list 61 times before his 2018 death. Former President Carter, who has appeared on the list 29 times, is the most-represented living person.

Twenty-one percent of respondents offered no response, while 11 percent named a friend or relative as their most admired.

Pollsters surveyed 1,018 adults from Dec. 1 to 17. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.