?
From the desk of Steve Shultz:
I want to share some hard memories from my childhood, but they have some good endings and lessons. One day, my oldest brother Warren interceded on my behalf because of a bully in school who was picking on me. Warren, my brother, paid a dear price by taking the blow that was meant for me. That was something!
Even more dear and profound than that, I recall a moment when I was in third grade. I was the third child of six children (and the least favored by my father), and I remember this moment as if it was yesterday. In one of his fits of rage, my father (who went to be with Jesus in 1991) was banging my head against the carpeted floor. I have no idea what I had done this time. In fact, I rarely knew what I'd done to provoke my father's anger--for which he would later apologize to me in my adult life.
But at that moment, as my father was banging my head against the carpet, my mother came in like an untamed lion, screaming at the top of her lungs--demanding that my father STOP--and STOP RIGHT NOW. I had the feeling there would be consequences from her if he didn't. She was tiny in comparison to his huge size, but he stopped instantly...and then he went after HER!
My mother, you see, was being "a Mother in Israel" just like Deborah. A woman of righteousness, my mother would not stand for the abuse whenever she had it within her power to stop it!
She is still alive and well, and probably doesn't think of herself as being an intercessor, now or ever. But for me on that day, she was the greatest intercessor and was an earthly savior anointed with a Sampson-like anointing from the Lord Himself. I had two saviors that day. A Savior with a capital "S"--Jesus or Yeshua, and an earthly one, my tiny mother--who carried HIM, the Savior with her. On her demand, my abuse instantly stopped! My father stopped!
And to this day, because of my life experiences with my mother (and my brother too)--don't let me see you picking on someone as a bully would. I haven't gotten it all right, nor am I all that righteous, but I know bullying when I see it and if I see it, watch out if I'm within your reach!
Probably 30 years ago, I was driving along and saw one older boy picking on another little boy on a vacant lot. I turned my car around and headed for the lot. The bully saw me and ran like the wind! I got out and yelled in his direction to knock it off. And then I drove away. That was a great day for me and for that little boy!
So, on this Mother's Day, I would like to honor my mother as a Deborah in Israel. My mother is the same today, and it's from her that I've continued to learn and to love many who are rejected in this world. I received that love from her--it was passed down. I caught it like a good virus.
This Mother's Day, CALL YOUR MOTHER and thank her for interceding for you and thank her for all you can remember that is good. I can tell you for certain, most of those who were mothers in my generation (and even more recently than that) would love to redo things and correct the mistakes they now feel are uncorrectable. But what they can't correct, YOU CAN--with a simple "thank you."
Just take a minute and thank her for INTERCEDING for you when she could. To all you mothers I want to say: Happy Mother's Day!
?
?
?
Blessings,
?
Steve Shultz
?
?
Jill Austin:
For Twenty Years, Deborah was called 'a Mother in Israel'
--SHE WOULD SIT UNDER A PALM TREE...AND INTERCEDE FOR ISRAEL!
Deborah, A Mother of Israel
As I was pondering the anointing of Deborah, the Lord was showing me that Deborah not only was a prophetess, but she was also a Judge during the time Israel was living in Canaan, which was later known as Israel.
Deborah was called "a mother of Israel." For twenty years, she would sit under the palm tree, which means "righteousness," and she would intercede and stand in the gap for Israel. The palm tree was in-between two cities. The one city was Ramah, which means "the seat of high adultery" and the other city was Bethel, which means "the House of the Lord!" She lived in the valley of Ephraim, right in-between these two cities, and she interceded in that place of the seat of adultery and the house of God.
She was an intercessor, a Judge and a radical prophetess of the Lord. As a Judge, she would take care of all the civil jobs, etc. She worked in the realm of the secular and was handling disputes. She moved governmentally. She was also a tender of the lamps--she would light the lamps every day.
The Bible says that Deborah arose when the city gates were at war. Many times, the Lord raises women and men prophets in various places during times of war. We are in a season of war. Just like the Lord is bringing home end-time generals, so He is also raising up a whole new army of men and women, young and old, and putting them into place. I feel the Lord is saying that this is the time not only for the Esthers--the younger generation, but for the Annas and Simeons. It's also a time for the Deborahs--the mothers of Israel to come up into place.
Women, Deborahs, who have been in slavery for decades, are you willing to come up and be mothers? Are you really willing to come up and get the strategies of God? What is your destiny? Are you burning with calling and destiny in the midst of your spirit? Yet, because of religious legalism and wrong interpretation of the word of God, you believe that you are not allowed to preach.
But it says that the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene and she was the first one to preach. You remember her, the one who had seven demons? He appeared first to a woman, and she went running with the good news as a radical evangelist preaching, "He has risen!"
You need to look at the Word. There is freedom through Jesus. There is freedom through the Word of God. Nothing should stop us from being able to move radically in the things of the Lord. There needs to be a cry that says how much of Holy Spirit is burning in you! Have you gradually, over the decades, become seeker-friendly? Did you use to be more radical and wild in God? A little more on the cutting edge?
In the Jesus People Movement, of which I was a part, we would go out and tell everyone about Jesus! We were broken, and we knew it. We came out of sin, and we knew it. We would go up to people and say, "I was broken and I was hurting, but I met a Man and He loves me. I met a Man and He loves me and His name is Jesus! He can heal you. He can set you free. I met a Man and He loves me!"
This is the simple Gospel. It has that radical cutting-edge. God wants you on the edge again. He wants a radical abandonment as lovers again. He doesn't want you to have to weigh everything out so that you are no longer a living testimony. He wants that radical heart that cries out, "Lord, I love You! I love You, Lord! I want You, Lord!" He wants that radical cry, that burning heart, where you used to love with such a radical fervency! You had passion! You were alive in every sense of that word! You were contagious and people wanted what you had!
We have now become churched. We have now become too polite. We have become too religious. We have learned, as women, that we better not speak. If we really say what truth is, and if it messes up the politics of the church, we will be judged as Jezebels. Some of you know what I am talking about!
Deborah vs. Jezebel
Why not be judged as a Deborah? The Lord is calling for the Deborahs to arise. Most women I have met are not Jezebels. They might have father issues. They might have to work through some healing issues, but that doesn't mean that they are demonically worshipping in front of idols with sexual perversion.
Jezebel was a governmental principality. She goes after government. And because most women, even though you might have government, are not in a place of government so it doesn't hit you as hard as the men. Jezebel is not male or female; it is a spirit that works through people. You need to look at that and then compare it to Deborah.
What did Deborah do? She moved in government. She is what you call a five-fold minister. The Lord is raising up women as apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. Yes, there is a corporate apostolic anointing that is starting to move, and we will all move in it like Christianity 101. This is a realm where the government and the weight of God come and people get saved, healed and delivered. That is part of what is moving now, but God is also moving people into office.
Jezebel moves governmentally. Deborah moves governmentally. Jezebel would kill anyone and take away everything that it could if it got its own way. Deborah moved as a team player. She moved with Barak. Deborah's husband's name means, "Shines like a lamp," and she was one who tended the lamp. You could see that there was relationship. Her husband was like a Christ figure, and she was like the Bride of Christ.
Jezebel moved with a murderous contempt. Deborah had the heart of a deliverer. She wanted to deliver the nation from oppression. She saw the people under heavy bondage, and her whole motivation of the heart was to serve.
Women Were Also Created in His Image
Most women I have met have hearts that want to be so right before Jesus that they will submit and grovel in order to honor and not offend. Women have hearts that are soft and want to honor, but sometimes this leads to false submission. We can be giving false honor--to the point of idolatry to the men--just because they are a guy. Ladies, idolatry is sin. The Bible says that in the Garden, man and woman were made in the image of God. They were co-equal, and they were both part of the Bride of Christ.
Women, you need to see that you are also made in the image of Christ! The enemy would like to come against the image of Jesus, the image of the Bride. We talk about the Joel 2 army coming forward, but it will never come forward unless the mothers also come into place. When it says the "sons and the daughters," we aren't just talking about daughters that are fifteen years old. It also means the daughters who are eighty or ninety years old--the mothers! Mothers also need to prophesy, and we need to have mothers in the house of God. This is healthy and an essential part of the Bride.
The image of God has been distorted when we only look at it as male and not man and woman, who are both part of the Bride of Jesus. Are you willing to have a voice? The enemy hates the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit brings radical salvations. The enemy also hates women because the Bible says that out of the seed of women, the head of the serpent would be bruised. Out of a woman, came the Deliverer. You see, women have a special anointing in warfare, I feel, to be able to discern and see the enemy. Therefore, our voices also have to come to the table of God.
How radical are you going to be? Have you gotten so churched that you won't even talk now? Have you gotten so churched that it is easy to just give in? We move with so much passive aggression. We get our own way in roundabout ways, which is manipulation. Are you willing to be clear and clean and put your heart on the table? We all have to weigh our own hearts. It doesn't mean we will "get our way" (that is not the point!), but we can sure be part of a team. We can sure be part of an army of the Lord!
You need to come into place to protect the seed of the covenant! There needs to be something in you that is going to be a voice again; something in you that is willing to be a cry, a shout, a sound; something that is willing to see the enemy defeated. Mothers are protective. If they see someone coming after their kids, they yell or go into a watchman stance! There is a cry as watchman on the wall. These cries provide protection for the children in the house. And when the men team up with the women, supporting them in their place as mothers, great battles can be won!
Jill Austin
Master Potter Ministries
Email: info@masterpotter.com
