2018: the New Year!

Hey guys I am so excited to share with you all what God has put on my heart for 2018 I am gonna be busting with the excitement for probably the past three years the Lord has had me study the last number of every year and this year it's 2018 so I studied the number eight and the number eight means new beginning new order or creation or man's true born again resurrection and as I've sought him the thing that he keeps saying over and over and over again is there's just new this is all new everything will be new about 2018 and it's not in some kind of cliche way though new year new me no there's like a real manifestation of the gospel that's going to be just seen in our lives and and rot in our hearts and I am telling you guys it's happened in me there has been such a change in my heart and manifestation of what it means to be a new creation in my life and that's what I'm excited to share with you all as soon as I was giving the message the Lord had me sit on it for a few weeks because there was trial and testing that came and so that's what I was like okay this is the Lord and of course when we press into that place of trial and testing we come out with victory and breakthrough and great great great revelation and that's what he's given me to share so just a little bit of a backstory on my my testimony is I had a radical salvation just seven years ago and I came to the Lord I got into a car accident and almost died I was internally bleeding and had to be rushed to the ER and had major stomach surgery and I had in every sense just change in my life from from my old lifestyle and just the power of God was manifested everywhere I went I was praying for everybody seeing signs and wonders and miracles I went right out into the nations as a missionary for iris ministries and it was just really a radical salvation but there were things in my life that I just for years did not see the gospel manifested in just relationally broken and just with communication just really really practical things I I couldn't see the reality of the gospel in my life and even though my heart was pure and I so badly wanted to and I didn't know what that missing link was and I was just reminded of this scripture in Romans 7 where Paul was talking about I'm gonna read it he says I do what I don't want to and he goes on and on about that and about what a wretched man he is and then he says who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death and basically sin he says thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord and really sitting on that scripture I was like wow what are we delivered by how can even in these places where for years we haven't seen then the reality of a new creation and the gospel manifested the missing link is we're delivered through the Lord Jesus and our union with him and I think a lot of times that message is preached of well where we're just wretched humans and and we're like Paul and we do the things that we don't want to do but that key part is left out where Paul says but thanks be to God because he has the power to deliver me and and let me walk out this new reality that's been so graciously given to me by the Lord Jesus and so I just wanted to dig in a little bit with you guys and basically I was when I when I first got saved I was just so lit on fire with the revelation of the new reality and what we've been given and and the union we've been given in Christ and I remember one of the one of the visions that he gave me that were very transformative for me in that time when I was in South America as a missionary traveling with iris I woke up one day and Jesus was just right there with me in a vision and I said Lord I'm just struggling like there's so many things that I'm not like I'm not patient and I'm not kind and I'm not all of these things right now Lord and I need I need you to speak to me and in that place of intimacy the Lord looked me right in the eyes and he said Nicole everything you aren't I am so you are and that just radically changed me it's scriptural from the Bible it says just as he was so are we in this world he made us like him he made us one with him and that that reality really transformed me in that time and that's what I believe he's calling us back to - to manifest that reality in this world everywhere where we lack we don't really lack there's a higher reality and the higher reality is he doesn't lack he is kind he is good all the things that we struggle with we have and we are through our union with him and that was really the missing key that I lost through all those years of testing and trial and a lot that I came under was a lot of condemnation because in those times there was a lot of just gossip and persecution that I went through and people just really but just so Lots it was a spiritual battle there was a of blame and and a lot of things that weren't the Lord and through all of that I just started enable gays and I became so turn inwardly that I lost it I lost the key I lost the revelation that I am made new in him and I am one with him and I feel like a lot of people watching this right now have been through the same thing just a lot of condemnation persecution just heaps of blame and shame from people so much that they lost the reality of the gospel and that is not one that's not the church we're called to call up people were called to call out the reality of the gospel and that is just really an attack of the enemy on people's life that are called to proclaim what Christ has done and so what he's calling us into is really that reality again a return and so in all of this I've been studying and digging in the scripture about what it means to be Co crucified with Christ and one of the scriptures I wanted to read was Romans 6 4 through 6 it says we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father we too may live a new life for if we have been united with him in a death like his we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his for we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin and so I looked up what crucified men in their original language in that scripture and it says the death of Christ upon the cross has wrought the extinction of our former corruption our former corruption was made extinct on that cross when he crucified sin and the effects of it that's scriptural if we could just get that if we could just be those that he longs for that truly believe and step into that and walk in that in faith man this world would be changed so as I've been as I've been manifest or Amon as I've been manifesting this but as I've been meditating on this I had a an intense vision during worship recently and as I'm worshiping the Lord the Lord shows me his side as on the cross he was punctured on the side and his flesh was torn and blood and water came out and that part where his flesh was torn it was like a door that opened to me to come inside of him and live and move and have my being inside of him and I just got wrecked by the revelation that he was torn as our access to live inside of him and to live that reality of being one with him he was torn for access not just to heaven but our access into him to live literally live through him in him and that reminded me of this revelation that I've heard by Brian Simmons just this reality of living in him and it says where it talks about how we were hidden in the rock we're hidden in the cleft of the rock he said who is Iraq who is our rock in Scripture a rock is the Lord our rock is Jesus and when it's talking about how were hidden in the cleft of the rock it's talking about how we're hidden in his son and disis reality has had me the 1i just outside of my mind with praise and adoration for the work that he's done and returned me to the fear of the Lord and that's my prayer for the church is that we would we be returned a fear in their original language isn't about fear in a negative context its fear as in a restoration of awe and wonder in its power and sovereignty and all that he's done for us and so this revelation restores that truly when you when you allow it to settle and take root and meditate on it and that just reminds me of the scripture in Colossians 3 where it says when Christ who is our life appears he literally is our life and that is what we need to be captured by again it's not about us it's not about our ministry it's not about any of these things that we can gain on earth it's not even about the good things like ministry it's not about what we can even do for him it's about Christ literally truly being our life my prayer is that we would return to that and I am zealously in this season another scripture that I wanted to share it was Galatians 2:20 and it says I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me ah thank you Jesus and so the word I looked up again in this verse is crucified and crucified means by the death of Christ upon the cross I have become utterly estranged or dead to my former habit of feeling and action guys if we can get this if we can get that we have become utterly estranged not just from sin but our old way of thinking and feeling if we can just agree with that truth and live from that truth we would live out the new creation reality we would live and look just like him and that is my lifetime goal um so with all of that being said I know it's a lot it's glorious but it is a lot and when the rubber hits the road it can be a hard thing to continually renew our mind back to and continually agree with and and for a time it is a realigning realigning realigning and it has been for me at the beginning of this revelation and so I wanted to just give some practical tips for when it is a struggle how to implement this truth because even when we struggle on this earth there is always the higher reality and what what we do is it does it never Trump's the reality of what Christ did and and the and the reality that we have in that so one of the days when I was struggling with this and just had a lot of old feelings come up I was just feeling so broken and so messed up and like God just this this nuke reality thing feels really far away right now and I and I really need you to speak to me and he showed me like in this place of just feeling so broken he showed me myself walking in to my heart and it was a stark room and I just flipped the switch and it was flooded with light instantaneously and on the switch it said and the Lord just spoke to me about how it's easy and he hasn't made it hard it's as easy as having faith and just putting that flate faith switch on and agreeing with the truth wholeheartedly and I mean it says that Paul was his his Paul is talking about how how we attain righteousness by faith and that that was just a vision that I go back to regularly when I when it seems like oh my gosh is gonna do this healing order this wholeness is gonna take so long it takes faith he made it that way he made it that simple on purpose because he knows he knows us he knows house and he knows what we need so another another thing that I've been thinking about recently is and throughout years past and in all the years of struggle that I have had prior to this revelation that he's working out and me now I it was hard for me in some ways to see like God how could you forgive me I know that's a reality and and how could I be made new like I knew these things were real and I believe that the gospel with my whole heart but it was like a place of struggle for me just after everything that I had been through just so much trauma and so much heartache and heartbreak in betrayal and I just it was hard for me to grasp like god I know it says in the Bible that I'm I'm made new and I'm a new creation and the old has gone and the new has come and and I'm forgiven but but I'm having a hard time and I was recently reading the Bible and in Galatians this just kind of jumped out at me like never before and it says he's he's talking Paul is talking in the Church of the Galatians and he says foolish Galatians who has bewitched you and he goes on to say having me beat having being perfected by the law are you now being perfected by the flesh oh no I'm sorry I totally had that wrong he's stuck he says you having been perfected by faith I was trying to say you having being perfected by faith are you now being perfected by the flesh and I was like oh my goodness that's the answer that I've been looking for this whole time we are perfected by faith in the work that started in the spirit is completed in this spirit so no matter how far we fall from grace or how far we messed up or how many sins have been done to us no matter how broken that we get in this life we are perfected by faith and we are perfected by this spirit not by the law not by the things that happen not by the things that we do we are perfected by him and faith in Him alone and that's where we can put our unfailing hope oh I just love that reality I'm still I just letting it sink in I love it so I wanted to share this I briefly shared touch on this the last the last YouTube but I had this dream right before the New Year's where I was the Holy Spirit took me on a car ride and I was trying to take off these old clothes and the Lord was preparing me for this revelation that he wanted to do in this new year being you and in the dream I had such a hard time taking off these old clothes to put on these beautiful new clothes and I had just four weeks sought the Lord on that and what he was taking off and how and why I was struggling and one of the things he spoke to me is he said little one you've had these things on for so long that they feel like they're a part of you like like it wouldn't just be taking clothes off it would be taking your very skin off and he said but I promise you those things are not a part of you and it really was just a picture I'm a very visual person but it was a picture to me to say wow even though all these things like shame and condemnation and rejection and all these things had felt like they had become a part of me we don't serve our feelings we serve Jesus and there's a greater reality as I've been saying there's always a greater reality and I can take it off easily because it's not who he created me to be and it's not a part of me and that is the gospel so there was one other thing I wanted to share with that and in all of us I just it's burning in my heart he wants to make this a reality he wants to make this something we're living out and really truly not just something on a paper that we say we believe but don't manifest and I like I said I'm really seeing this in my life where even old ways of thinking and feeling they've tried to come back up again and I'm starting to get to a point where it's so far removed from me that I almost want to go back to it I'm almost like wait no no I I should be feeling this way like I'm comfortable with that I'm used to feeling and thinking this way but within myself I'm like but that it's not there anymore it's just not there all these old feelings it it's not a part of me anymore in that it's kind of like it was kind of a prophetic dream what he was showing me that was going to be a reality that I'm living and walking in and that's truly what I am proclaiming today is that he has that for his church to walk out and manifest in this season just the newness the reality of the gospel one of the last things I wanted to share was a vision that I had when I very first got saved that has just radically radically revolutionized the gospel for me the reality of what Christ has done for us I was in Africa on missions I was actually at iris ministry school harvest school and I'm in worship just adoring Jesus and I see this vision and it's Jesus on the cross and he is a mirror he's glass and he's he was crucified he gets crucified and then the glass Falls the crucifixion falls and when it falls it breaks up into a million pieces it breaks and then with one breath of God every single piece starts to shake and it comes together in one swoop and it's me and I'm shining and I'm whole and Jesus said to me his voice has reverberated inside of me he said Nicole I was broken to make you whole and that is the reality of what he has done for us and it's something that he told me recently as I've been like really agreeing with this reality of wholeness and what he's done he said Nicole not only have I made you whole but you are radiant and you're shining with my splendor and it's just coming out but everything that I am in you usually shine and that is what I feel like he's saying to us it's it's a revelation pass what we have manifests up into this season that he's walking us into so with all of that it is a just to renew your mind renew your mind in in scripture it says the only place that we we are ever enemies to God was in our minds and so all it is is a realigning and Anna coming back to the reality of Scripture to the reality of the gospel one last thing I really feel like I'm supposed to share I have a sweet powerful powerful friend she's a woman of God that as I was trying to really like grasp this revelation and walk it out in my life I was struggling and she came up to me and she looked me right in the eyes and she said Nicole you need to know that you're not broken you're new and you're powerful in him and she said the same the same power that raised Jesus from Christ from the grave lives in you and then she went on to talk to me about this power and how I need to walk in it and own it and about how everything that's happened me my testimony it's not something to be like oh poor me all these things happen but it's your sword your testimony is your sword it's an offensive weapon it's not for me it's it's your power what you've been through is your power it says in it says in Revelations that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb the word of our testimony and not loving our own lives even on to death so if we overcome with a word of our testimony it's our sword and we need use it and that impacted me so much and the last thing I want to share she said that when you're resurrected with Christ there is momentum because again I was struggling with thoughts of the past and what I've been through and how painful it was and she said when when you're resurrected there's momentum to Ford she said don't even talk about anymore don't even let it come out of your mouth because you don't look back when you're resurrected you move with momentum Ford onto unto Christ unto the gospel unto what he's called us to and so I challenge and encourage everyone reading this to truly do that to just be resurrected and move forward with that momentum in that reality that newness so 2018 guys he is genuinely really wanting to make everything new not just us in our hearts but everything in our lives like he's wanting it to be unrecognizable to the past and what we have been this far so I bless you guys I am constantly praying in this reality for myself and and for the church and so your glorious that's your new your whole that's the reality of what he's done for us I love you all and I just pray incredible revelation and blessing to walk out your ninis in 2018 bye guys