Cincinnati is a crucible for believers in Jesus. So many have waited and waited to be a part of what God is doing now. So many are waiting on revival to hit this city. The “cap” has stayed on for far too long, it’s due to explode…it’s time for the gold to come out.

Cincinnati was known as the River Jordan as when slaves crossed from the south into Ohio they were free. I believe this is a parallel to what happens here in the spiritual realm. There is a humility in Cincinnati amongst many believers and a deep deep hunger for more of Jesus (I’m speaking in general terms here). Believers in Cincinnati have sat at the feet of Jesus wanting more and asking and praying for more all along not fully realizing, HE LIVES IN US NOW!!! What we are praying and asking for is already here! We’ve had it all along! Sometimes when one is freed from slavery they can still walk in old slave mindsets that limit them…when a person chooses to believe in Jesus and follow Him they die to self and live in union with Him and with His resurrection power. That one is now a new species according to scripture. They are free!!!! I’ve learned and am learning the lesson of going from slave mentality to what it looks like to walk as an heir in the kingdom where God my Father is the King. There is some undoing that needs to happen. A HUGE lesson is just realizing what’s inherently in me. Also, calling out greatness in others.

In a group recently we were discussing this city and it came up how when we leave and go other places as believers, we feel His presence so strongly and differently than we do in this city. I know this feeling well. I have experienced it multiple times. Why do I feel His presence so strongly outside of this city vs in this city? Don’t get me wrong, I feel His presence here…just not exactly the same as I do when I go out. Now I do more here when I’m speaking about Him. But it’s dawning on me that when you sit in light all day it can be hard to “feel” that light vs when you go out into the world and you arrive in dark places, the light becomes highlighted. It can feel like we are muffled here. Like we are capped. Like there needs to be an explosion to herald in the revival. Christ’s resurrection power lives in us now! What if revival is just us believing it’s already here? Because it is! We are walking revivals! We are waking up to who we fully are in Christ.

We are at the end of the church age as we have known. You know, the one were we sit in pews and are spoon fed messages from someone else’s revelation? Do you know that the same God that speaks to your pastor speaks to you? I’m not diminishing the pastor, in fact, we much like the Israelites elected said pastor because it is easier that way. That’s their job right? They listen to God during the week and then I get fed on Sunday. That is not the way forward any longer and we are getting frustrated internally because it’s gone on too long. And I’m not diminishing church that way, but I believe that we are called to sit with God all the time and glean our own personal revelation and begin to get into community or better yet, families where we can share said revelation. And this is HUGE!!! DO you know that what I hear from Him is going to be different than what you hear from Him? Because we have different lenses through which we hear/synthesize what He is saying to us through. It is VITAL that you get time with Him and then have a place to share. We all carry keys to help unlock more of what it looks like to walk as Sons on this earth and we need each other to help us do that. We need the pastor and the evangelist and the teacher and the apostle and the prophet!

A couple years ago a friend of mine saw a injured bird outside, its wing was broken and it looked near death. She prayed over the bird and released Christ’s resurrection power into it and before her eyes, its wing corrected, it took on a healthy looking form and flew away!!!! THAT IS REVIVAL! THAT IS RESURRECTION POWER RELEASED INTO CREATION!! We are what we are waiting on! We need to see what we have inside of us! And practice releasing it! The more we practice the more will come.

So many times I’ve held back things I felt God was telling me because I felt someone else probably knew better than me. I didn’t have enough training yet. I wasn’t fully equipped, not saying that I am but I am saying that I’ve probably had more training than most people in this world and I’m guessing the same could be said about you. But if the training I receive isn’t put to use it dies inside. I love the analogy of the swamp vs the river…when I keep in what I’m given I become a swamp vs when I release what I have I’m a river flowing with Jesus in union with Him into the world despite results (by the way…don’t stop releasing if you don’t get results! It may take more than one rep or multiple and God will use what you plant so it’s all worth it!) Have you ever felt that way? Like, I’ll hold back because maybe I don’t quite know or maybe I’m not clean enough…shame or inadequacy. Do you know when you’re forgiven by Him, you’re forgiven? Like, it’s gone right then. So no more being held back by either of those! And family in Christ as we all rise up to practice this more lets extend A TON of grace to each other as we practice this! We are infants in some ways in this and that’s okay…better to start than to never try. But if someone gets up to share something and you feel the need to correct them or enlighten them to some better idea, stop yourself…let them have it. They’re trying. We need to give each other a turn, a place to try.

As you step into the new practice bold risks! Pray for a stranger, try something new, speak life into something dead whether that be a creature or a relationship or a failing business, etc. Community will help ground us as we step out. Cincinnati is a hub for going out and welcoming in. There is a unity happening in this city that is unprecedented. This is SO BEAUTIFUL!!! And precious to the lord!!!

Community is turning into family. This new age in the kingdom looks like agreeing to disagree. Letting others have different opinions than us. And not feeling the need to assert ours as the correct one (even in typing all of this, I could be wrong and am aware but have come to the place of I’d rather say something than nothing at all). Family looks like loving each other despite our differences. Family looks like accepting the outcasts or the forgotten. Family looks like a community that walks in love, not in all the same opinions and accepts knowing we may not agree on everything but we love each other anyway. Family honors each other. Believes the best and calls this out. I’ve not been great at this but am wanting to be better. Family forgives. It understands. It listens and hears people out vs scandalizing and casting them out. People carry Jesus in them…when we accept others we are accepting Him. Do you see why this is so precious to our Lord? When we care for others, we care for Him.

I’ve sat in multiple meetings now in this city where multiple churches are represented and my heart soars at the thought! We are stepping into the new! Into unity as a body! We are the revival we have been waiting on! Let’s line up and believe it! Let’s take our authority in Christ over creation and begin to pray as the priests we are called to be. We are called to take authority over weather, over sickness and disease over darkness, over poverty or anything that is out of alignment with our Kingdom of heaven that is HERE NOW ON THE EARTH! Rise up heirs! Rise up priests! You are royal representatives of the King! Ambassadors of love to this earth! It is our responsibility to begin walking as such and helping each other up if we stumble and encouraging each other forward. Lets show this world what it looks like to love! May others come to this city and discover quickly acceptance into a family! May they find a royal city full of royal priests who are walking in their identity in Christ! May signs and wonders and all of what it means to release to creation the resurrection power of Christ be the evidence and mark of this city on the world! May we begin to become the change we have been praying for and are so longing to see! Most of all: MAY WE LOVE WELL!