A word through Dominique Francois Dominique's email: freedom9@wanadoo.fr Paris, December 28th, 2000.
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Dear Steve,

Warmest greetings from France.

After three months of what you could call the dark night of the soul, the agony of God's purifying process with all the painful steps it involves, the Lord spoke to me yesterday in a way that could help more than just one person.. I submit it to your judgment.

Another blessing came when at noon, I received your awesome tape of the month, that I had ordered almost a month ago. Talking of God's perfect timing!

With my thankfulness and deep appreciation for the great comfort your ministry brings to the Body of Christ.

Dominique
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WHAT IS THE USE OF A DEAD LION?

After three months of unbearable loneliness, dryness, despair, depression and the death of a vision during which I couldn't help but search my own heart to see what needed to be purified, somebody wrote me two days ago that the promises of God are YES and AMEN and that we have to trust Him no matter what.

After I read that, I felt a brooding in my spirit. Just before I went to bed, God said to me :

"Ask me to release you into your calling."

I went to bed having made the decision that I would seek His face regarding this matter the next day, which was yesterday.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I received the image of a dying lion on his flank in his cage... A lion which had been created for wide spaces and freedom, a lion which was called to reign, a lion which was supposed to be strong and fearless... and yet it was now dying. This emaciated lion had been restlessly pacing the floor of his cage back and forth, as trapped animals do in zoos just because their lack of space and freedom drives them insane, but now life was escaping him and he was just lying on the ground with no desire to fight anymore. And I said to the Lord : "That's me Lord, what should I do?" He answered :

"You need to feed yourself. What is the use of a dead lion?"

BUT DAVID FOUND STRENGTH IN THE LORD

This thought brought to my spirit the Hebrew word "HAZAQ" found in 1 Samuel 30 when David's men were thinking of stoning him. It says in verse 6b: "But David found strength (HAZAQ) in the Lord." This word conveys the idea of gaining inner strength, boldness, courage, security, to stir up oneself, acquiring a strength that springs up from the inside.

David found such a strength when he remembered what the Lord was to Him and had done for Him. Then a powerful anointing came on him after he put the Ephod on his shoulders to inquire of the Lord. No one then thought about stoning him anymore... Instead, David and his 600 men went after the Amalekites to get back what this enemy had stolen from them and they succeeded.

DESTROY COMPLETELY THE WORK OF THE ENEMY IN YOUR LIFE

Amalek typifies Satan in the Old Testament, and this name means "THE ENEMY FOREVER" in the Jewish tradition. This thought led me to the famous passage of 1 Samuel 15:3, when the Lord asks Saul to go against Amalek and verse 3, "To completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation, men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, camels and donkeys." (New Living Translation) A few verses later we read in 1 Samuel 15:9 : "Saul and his men SPARED Agag's life and kept the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and the lambs, everything in fact that appealed to them. They destroyed ONLY what was worthless and of poor quality." (Caps mine [Dominique]) It is because of this very great disobedience --declaring pure what God had already rejected as impure and letting the enemy keep a foothold - that Saul lost his anointing and authority and that his kingdom was given to another. There was no coming back possible for Saul.

Because Saul disobeyed the command of the Lord to completely destroy the Amalekite nation, David had to fight against this "enemy forever" and take back everything he had stolen from him. Not only that, but because Saul spared king Agag, one of his descendants, the Amalekite Haman (Esther 3) purposed to destroy the Jews.

RISE UP, TAKE BACK FROM THE ENEMY, AND HAVE VICTORY!!

In the same way, the Lord calls His "dying lions," his tired and depressed servants, the radicals who are possessed with the Spirit of the Lion of Judah, those who, like Mordecai, will not bow down to the enemy forever, to "HAZAQ" themselves, to rise up, to get inner strength in recalling His faithfulness, love and blessings towards them. He asks them to come against their "enemy forever" and not compromise with anything He has declared impure that gives the enemy a foothold in their lives.

Like Saul, we are asked to destroy every work of the enemy in our lives and not spare what looks good or appealing lest we lose our anointing and miss our destiny. And as David covered his shoulders with an Ephod before heading for the victory, God will cover us with His powerful anointing to go against our "enemy forever" and take back everything He has stolen from us. AND WE WILL SUCCEED!

Yes, Lord, purify our lives and release us into our calling!

Ms. Dominique Francois