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“The weighty glory of God filled the room as we sang and prayed in the Spirit. Tears streamed down his face as he fell to his knees and began to cry out in the presence of God. ‘I’ve done horrible things. I’ve kidnapped children. I’ve been involved in sex trafficking. I can hear their voices, I can see their faces, I can hear their cries. How could God ever forgive me for what I’ve done?’ I watched as Jesus saved an evil man’s soul. Forgiveness was being given to this man for things I didn’t know if I could even forgive. I have little girls, and you have little girls.”

Chris Burns, with tears in his eyes, recounts the miraculous salvation of a man who most of us would ask God to strike dead.

“To be clear, this man was not actively trafficking anyone to our knowledge; he was speaking of things he had done in the past,” Chris clarifies. 

Chris Burns leads worship in the Saints and Sinners bar in New Orleans

A man by the name of Saul had a similar encounter with Jesus. He was en route to murder, arrest, and destroy believers in Christ. He was responsible for the brutal persecution of many Christians—men, women, and children. His encounter with Jesus’s presence physically blinded him yet caused his eyes to be spiritually opened. He was suddenly profoundly aware of his wretchedness. This man surrendered the rest of his life to preach the gospel. He endured persecution and beatings and eventually died as a martyr. We know this man as the great apostle—Paul. 

 

Can it be that Saul-to-Paul conversions are beginning to spread like wildfire all over the earth? Jesus has been appearing to ISIS fighters, Kurds, and Muslims in the Middle East for many years now, and we are learning of their stories through worship leaders like Sean Feucht who risk their lives to enter refugee camps with guitars, the power of God, and the gospel. 

 

Maybe the sound of intense worship, prayer, and releasing the glory of God in the darkest places of the earth is the key to ending sex trafficking. Could it be those wretched individuals encountering the beauty of the Lord are the firstfruits of the next awakening? Would the church embrace these conversions, or will we condemn the sinner even as the love of God falls?  

As Chris shared, I was reminded of the story told by Jesus in Luke 18:13–14:

“But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

How often have we cried out to the Lord to break into pedophile rings, end abortion, feed the hungry, and stop child abuse?

Could it be that the fire and glory of God are about to sweep the nations of the earth and shake every religious and political system and everything we thought we knew about the state of our own souls?

Will we find ourselves in the position of the Pharisee saying, “Thank you, God, that I am not like that man?” or, even worse, persecuting the messengers the Lord has sent into the dark places?

Excitement overwhelms our hearts as we pray for a much-anticipated revival, but are we really prepared in our hearts for sex traffickers to receive mercy instead of justice? If this doesn’t challenge us, our hearts have surely grown cold.

God Is Healing Hidden Trauma

Listen to the Full Interview with Chris Burns

Some 600 million people have been swept into the kingdom of God since 1906, when the Holy Spirit was poured afresh on the world through the Azusa Street Awakening. Historically, Azusa is considered one of the greatest movements of the Spirit of God since Pentecost. The weighty glory of the Lord would sweep into a room of nameless and faceless people on their knees in prayer. Drunks, drug addicts, prostitutes, and everyday people walking down the street would fall on their faces, repent of their sins, and be swept into heavenly encounters. As it was in biblical times when the Spirit swept into the land (1 Chronicles 7:2; 5:14; Acts 2; 1 Kings 8:11, etc.), no one was safe from the presence of God! The Lord revealed Himself with tangible fire, glory, and conviction. 

 

For the past year, the glory of God has fallen in the Saints and Sinners bar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The weight of the glory and the fruit could be compared to Azusa. Countless people have wandered into the bar looking for a drink but found Holy Ghost fire, tangible glory, and salvation in Jesus Christ.

As Chris and the band sing and prayer warriors intercede, the Spirit of the Lord does the work. “Yes, there is alcohol.

It’s still a functioning bar,” Chris says. “We are not doing some hipster Jesus thing where we have a beer and sing songs. We are hosting the presence of God. Sometimes we forget we are in a bar because of the intensity of intercession through worship that is being released.” Chris and the team are living love-filled, set-apart lifestyles. 

 

The next great move of God will exceed all others. Within the Lord’s messengers, the DNA of the Nazirite and the Shulamite must come together, meaning a humble, lovesick intimacy with Jesus that leads to a set-apart lifestyle, forming vessels fit for the Lord to pour Himself through.

  • Will we mobilize if we know what we must face?

  • Will we receive the wretched into the kingdom as readily as the beautiful?

  • The glory of the Lord will fill barrooms and prayer rooms, stadiums and tents, homes and churches, but will we yield to the fire as it purifies our hearts and to the glory that reveals our pride?

  • The invitation is open to all, but are we willing to humble ourselves enough to receive it?

 

 

Full Interview with Chris Burns here:

God Is Healing Hidden Trauma

Bourbon Street Revival Interview with Chris Burns PODCAST

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voice-of-the-burning-ones/id1495723534?i=1000467445898

Tammie Southerland is the author of the Book Permission to Burn 

 

 

God is Healing Hidden Trauma

Click to Listen to This Week’s Podcast

for The Full Word

God Is Healing Hidden Trauma


God is healing Hidden Trauma in His Messengers!

 

 

When you are called to birth something that can only glorify God, you may endure a time of barrenness and provocation from your adversary. You might suffer accusations from friends, family, and even religious leaders in your life. The torment of seeming fruitlessness can press you into abandoning the desire for the earthly blessing. But it is never the desire of the Lord for you to lose faith.

In 1 Samuel 1, the mother of the prophet Samuel helps us see the struggle of barrenness and the process of birthing something in which only God could get the credit. When Hannah couldn’t conceive in the natural, she became a lightning rod for God’s glory.

 

 

 

“But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her though the LORD had closed her womb, her rival would provoke her and taunt her severely. And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat” (1 Samuel 1:5-7).

 

Hannah’s husband could not comfort her with earthly love or a double-portion blessing.

Seasons that lack visible fruit will stretch you. They will cause you to pray, fast, and seek the Lord, casting out things not of eternal value. Even a double-portion temporal blessing will not comfort your aching heart. This frustration becomes a groaning for justice on the earth. This is a good thing (Romans 8:26). 

 

God is at work, removing the deep wounds suffered from being misunderstood, rejected, accused, and abandoned during the season of seeming barrenness. He is ministering deeply to His children and shining the light of His glory, exposing the hidden pain and delivering those dear to His heart! Your sorrow and pain do not go unseen. 

 

The Lord is saying, “I am the God who sees. I am the God who hears the intense petitions within your heart! I see the pain and abuse you have walked through, my child. You have said in your heart, ‘I have forgiven them and moved on.’ This may be so, but I see the wounds that remain. Today is the day of your freedom! I am restoring your compassion for the lost, wounded, and sick, and reigniting your faith. Your time of birthing is near. Let me expose the scars and heal your wounds! My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Your season of barrenness has made you a lightning rod for my glory to be revealed and my power displayed through you. I will cause you, like Hannah of old, to birth forth my vision. From loss will bloom life more significant than yourself. From brokenness, healing will flow.”

 

Many have suffered through trials like those Hannah endured.

 

But the desire to remain pure before the Lord produced an inner longing and humble heart. Know this: the humble will be exalted. The Father is far more concerned with our godly character, love for others, and devotion to Him than our success before men. 

As you heal, you will see that the Lord is stretching out your tent pegs! His plans for you are to mature and not harm you. The tension has increased your capacity to rightly handle His promise. You will find yourself in His powerful grace receiving beauty for ashes. 

 

“Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth into song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD. “Enlarge the site of your tent, stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not hold back. Lengthen your ropes and drive your stakes deep. For you will spread out to the right and left; your descendants will dispossess the nations and inhabit the desolate cities.” – Isaiah 54:1–3

 

The season of barrenness made you a lightning rod for God’s glory! 

God, not the enemy, had closed Hannah’s womb. God was the One she had to pursue; the throne was where her appeal was made. So it has been with many who are passionate about awakening, revival, and a genuine move of God. 

He has been delivering us from needing the approval of man, purifying our desires, and calling His people higher.

He has been preparing His people, like Hannah, to birth something that would change the nation and glorify Him alone. 

Prayers are not pretty or peaceful when we are passionate for God to do something beyond our control. Hannah’s prayers were not religious, but they were pure. She was not drunk with wine but intoxicated with longing. Her cries were for the gaze of the Lord, not her husband, not the priest, and not her rival! Her intercessions were for God’s leadership and defense and a gift she could consecrate and dedicate to Him alone! (1 Samuel 1:12–16, Romans 8:26.) 

Hannah’s barrenness produced a groaning that caused heaven to stop and respond.

 

In her weakness, His might and power were evident. The Spirit of the Lord knew her heart and mind, and He moved from within her, even moving Eli the priest into agreement with her prayers.

 

The Lord is forming within His bride, through the stretching, groaning, and purification process of prayer and fasting, more than she could ever ask, think, or imagine. He caused Hannah to cry out for a child who would restore a defiled priesthood. He has formed within His global bride the desire to birth an undefiled movement that will usher in His return.

We have been marked by God to birth something greater than ourselves.

 

The season of barrenness has been working in us, preparing our character and pressing us into the place of deep intimacy. Our gaze has been set on the Bridegroom King! Beloved, He has seen your pain and is moving to heal the trauma of your barrenness. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5)! 

 


Read Permission to Burn, get back on the mountain God gave you, and take your place in setting this world on fire with love for Jesus in your generation.

The vast majority of true Christians recognize that winning souls is essential. At the same time, too many of us have fallen asleep, or at least have become numb to, the Bridegroom’s alarm to awaken and send us out as laborers in the massive global harvest. 

The well-known passage of Scripture, commonly known as the Great Commission, bombarded my soul with deep conviction at The Send in Brazil:

 

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

 

Tears streamed down my face, and sounds that can only be described as wordless groanings moved from my belly and through my vocal cords (see Romans 8:22-27). I felt an indescribable urging from the Spirit of God to rouse  His sons and daughters from their slumber and to send them out as end-time messengers. For an instant, I experienced what He felt and understood His desire to send out a multitude of workers to establish justice on the earth. He invited me to repent on behalf of those who have rejected His commission. He asked me to identify in intercession with the disobedience of generations past and of my nation.

As I wept in repentance over our slumber, He then told me to prophesy to the dry bones of the American Bride to come alive and to declare that she would move in power!

The time of harvest and the Third Great Awakening is upon us. Jesus is sounding the alarm. He is commissioning His messengers and His church with His presence and power like never before. As when one is woken from a deep sleep, he or she will first realize their inactivity and either be agitated and rushed or return to the state of slumber. Repentance will come upon the sleepers, and they will be granted understanding that the prophets who were sent were correct. As awakening takes place, a choice must be made.  His power and coming are upon us. The mark of a church that is genuinely waking up is great and joyful repentance.  

As He spoke to me in this encounter, it was as if he were comparing the sleeping American church to the disciples in Mark 16:

 

“Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name, they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:14-18 

Listen to The Voice of the Burning Ones Podcast

Click to listen to Tammie’s Podcast “God is Moving in Brazil and Around The World”

These friends and disciples of Jesus followed Him and witnessed the brutal death that He foretold. In their grief and unbelief, they went back to their old routine, eating and hanging out together. Additionally, they had not accepted the message sent to them by the women who witnessed Him resurrected. These foolish women were dreamers, they thought. Suddenly, Jesus shows up and proves His resurrection, then rebukes the men and commissions them! It was time for them to get back in the game! 

In Mark’s account, we see Jesus saying more than “go and preach”; He gives them the promise of His presence and movement of power through them. He dispels their fear and vows to protect them from poisoning and other attacks. The emphasis is on sending out and the demonstration of the gospel that they would preach. 

Over the past 20-30 years, the Lord has restored the fivefold ministry gifts and birthed a movement of worship and intercession. Now He is shaking His people into action. The ministry gifts were restored to set the foundation for the global harvest, not to give the rest of the body of Christ a pass to disobey the commission of Jesus!  

 

He is showing up as He did in the account of Mark 16. He is reminding us He is alive and that we were saved to finish the task of reaching the unreached with the message with power.  All of us are to heal the sick, raise the dead, and freely give what we have been given. In the coming days, Jesus will show up in our gatherings; we will be shocked at our own unbelief as the alarm sounds. Once again, we will realize that He is not dead but alive!  

 

Indeed, the revival streams are coming together, but more than that, the global Bride is being awakened. The fiery revival that is striking the nations has only begun. The fullness of the gentiles is coming in, and the chosen Israel will soon be provoked to jealousy and receive her Bridegroom Messiah (Romans 11:11, 25-26).

We get to be a part of this!

Will you wake up, repent, and answer the call? 

Will you believe?

Will you go? 


Be Equipped and Be Ready! He is Calling You! 

Want to be equipped to live a lifestyle on fire for Jesus? Get Tammie’s New Book
Permission to Burn

 

 

“We Were Family Before Ministry”

Ending Competition, Racism, Sexism, and Healing the wounded with One Revelation

My sister (in-law/ BFF) and I love the Voxer app. It’s an audio walkie talkie app that we use to chat, pray, and make one another laugh all day. As busy moms, we function using apps but it’s not what connects us. Prayer and our passion for Jesus binds our hearts together. We both have three children and are very alike in how we process the world’s problems. I knew when she walked into the room with my brother-in-law years ago; she was going to be family. ( Although she didn’t know it yet) I told her when they were dating, with tongue-in-cheek, that if he didn’t marry her, I’d disown him and adopt her. God gave me such a passion for seeing her know Him deeply. Now, she travels and serves in the ministry; when we are together, I introduce her has my sister —not my sister-in-law; or with a ministry title. It is so much fun to watch the expressions on the faces of people. 

 

Why? She has a lot more melanin than I do. Yep, she’s black, and I’m white. But we are sisters! 

 It’s not the personality or natural ties that make us family; although we have a blast together. If you hear her tell it, she was quite intimidated by my fire for Jesus when she first met me. Eventually, she was ablaze and hungry because of Jesus’s love for her. I’m not that great, but for some reason, my hunger for Jesus makes others hungry, so I’ve been told.

  On Voxer one day, we were discussing the pains of broken relationships and misplaced lingo used in current streams of ministry. We didn’t think about the connection between the misplaced lingo and reconciliation issues. We talked about guarding our hearts, keeping prayer and family at the forefront as ministry work is increasing. 

(She’s quite the inner-healing guru- she is always analyzing the root of issues to understand why there is bad fruit. She’s pretty awesome. You need to know her.)  

FAMILY & RECONCILIATION:

LINGO OR A

THIS IS OUR FAMILY!

UNBREAKABLE BOND? 

Sometimes the word family is used to identify commonality instead of a deep bond in Christ that stands through the storms of life. Relationship in the body of Christ is often predicated on ministry affiliation, skin tone, gender, denomination, and the like; making the need to define our use of the word family even more urgent. 

The issues in our society like racism are rooted in sin and the fallen nature of humanity. All evil stems from the sin nature. As Christians, we say that Jesus is the answer, and we are His representatives. Absolutely! Truth, but we need to step up our game and grab ahold of Jesus’s intercession for oneness in John 17. Also let us intercede for the true manifestation of John 13:35

35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 

Broken Family in the Church Culture

Prayer alone has a way of binding hearts spiritually, but also we must weep with one another, rejoice with one another, eat with one another, and help one another. Heart motivation is key! When I’m with my sister, we are not looking at one another’s skin tone or background. We don’t care about our past differences we see our likenesses in Christ. We are truly family. 

Serving one another is from the motivation of love not out of obligation to an organization or club. 

Jesus gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 

Reconciliation removes from within our hearts the worldly point of view. We are new creations in Christ- together. 

His healing work made us family. 

“14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,the new creation has come:[a]The old has gone, the new is here!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b]for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

Taking Back the Word Family and Healing the Wounded

I’ll repeat it: Family has nothing to do with organized ministry! 

In my life, the word family represents strength and unmovable relationship. I have parents that stayed together through the worst and best of times. Conflict and confrontation were not pretty, but with understanding and forgiveness, it made the family stronger. 

 CHURCH!

Spiritual bonds in Christ should supersede natural relationships. 

It profoundly pains my soul how those who once enjoyed being a family in a church or ministry walk away bitter as the seasons or circumstances change. My parents didn’t break up when their business or jobs changed. They didn’t disown me or get offended when I grew up, moved out, got married, and started a family of my own. 

They celebrated these changes as milestones. 

My father didn’t set speaking limitations on me because I am a girl. He didn’t sit me in a different part of the home because my hair and skin were lighter than my brother’s. That would be absurd. But some experienced natural family as abusive and painful. ( I am so sorry this breaks my heart… Keep reading) 

My sister and I discussed how the word family might not be as healing as we intended it. Therefore, we need a reformation! 

True Family Sees No Color or Gender

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28  

Racism or sexism is not the issue sin is! 

Many people’s natural association with mother, fathers, siblings, and such, seasoned with brokenness, is more of a wound than healing balm. We must see the healing that is desperately needed. We must resist the desire to cut one another off or become superficial because of differences. Jesus was drastically different from his disciples, yet he laid down His deity and life to identify with the weakness of man.

“But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” Philippians 2:7 

Ministry or Similarities are Not the Ties that Bind- Jesus Is

There is nothing wrong with drawing close to people that you ‘”click” with especially when you are hungry to grow closer to the Lord. I love hanging with people who are fiery, love truth, and love to pray! I want everyone to be on fire and I love begin around people who are on fire. 

I say all the time: 

“I don’t want people to just come watch me burn I want people to burn with me.” 

But, I keep people around me that are very different from me purposely. Not to be religiously correct, but I long to increase my ability to see like Jesus sees and love as He loves. Being around people from different backgrounds opens our eyes to the many facets of the beauty of God! 

Breaking the Ministry Family Association 

  • If you have been hurt by the ministry or church and have disassociated yourself. Allow the Lord to heal that place of brokenness. You need the Body of Christ as crazy as it might be!
  • If you are a ministry leader and have cut people off or formed biases because they are not the same as you and your denomination, race, nationality, or gender, repent. Seek the heart of God!
  • If we are going to see true revival, we must get this right in the church culture first. 
  • If you are trying to get it right but have been misunderstood, you are in good company. Jesus was misunderstood too! Keep pressing into His heart. 

The ministry we lead is ever-changing, but the message or Messenger never does. We must learn to minister to God before we minister to man. We must get His heart. When we are lead by the Spirit of God, we must yield to His voice moment to moment. We must stay tender before Him and allow Him to search and tenderize our hearts. 

Anyone noted for their faith within the pages of the Scriptures radically obeyed, and their acts benefited others more than themselves. We must always be willing to work with our hands open. Real family in Christ is not rooted in commonality, ministry organizations or church memberships, but the bond of Christ.

I cry out for the broken today. Will you cry out with me and allow the Lord to search your heart and heal it? Will you forgive those who hurt you? You are not family because you are the same as someone else, not because you are a member of the same church or network but because of Jesus you are a child of God. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Can we contend for a movement of family and repent of our discord in the body of Christ! It’s time for an awakening! 

Matthew 5: 23-24

Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar.First go and be reconciled to your brother ;then come and offer your gift.

So many of us are going through difficult times on the earth right now and our burdens appear to be more than we can bear. Now more than ever, seeing beyond the situation is necessary to endure whatever we are going through. Jesus was such an amazing example to follow.

He went through severe mental and physical torment.

They attacked His identity as the Son of God and King of the Jews by placing a crown of thorns on His head. He was taunted, spit on, His beard was pulled out of His face, beaten until He was so disfigured that He didn’t even look like a human, and nailed to a cross. How was He able go through that?

The moment I wrote that paragraph,

I immediately had a vision of Jesus on the way to Golgotha.

I was seeing through His eyes and experienced some of what He experienced.

As I was weeping, I did my best to type what I saw, heard and felt:

“I can’t see.
Blood is running in my eyes.
My eyes are burning.
I try to open them.
They are swollen shut.
My head hurts so bad.
I am so tired, I can hardly move.
I’m trying to drag this cross.
My body is burning from the beatings.
It is getting harder to breathe.
I have lost so much blood.
My heart is failing.
I am so cold,
But I am sweating.
I hear laughing.
I hear yelling.
I hear screaming.
I hear cursing.
I hear mother wailing.
Oh, Father, they know not what they do.
Father, are you there?
Where are you?
Why can’t I hear you?
I feel so alone.
Keep moving.
I am almost there.
It is almost finished.
Soon, my Bride will be one with Me!
Oh, the joy!
I would do anything to be with her!”

Hebrews 12:2 tells us how He endured the cross—by the joy set before Him.

What was the joy set before Him?

The joy of us being one with Him, He being seated at the right hand of the throne of God, returning to the Father. The joy of bringing deliverance, healing, freedom, and good news to the human race. The joy of conquering death, hell and the grave for the love of His life; His bride. The joy of giving Himself for us to have that position—that seat of victory with Him at the right hand of the throne of God.

Tammie Southerland passionately expresses this point in time, saying, “In this painful, yet joyful moment when Jesus sees our faces, He is in the agonizing climax of the crucifixion! In that moment when He gives His life, His longing to rescue her is finished!” She exclaims, “Each of us individually must hear these words resounding in our hearts, ‘You are His joy! It was your face He saw! You were the joy set before Him when He endured the cross!’”

She declared recently in a Facebook post:

I hear the Lord saying, “Come Up Here!”

“Come up here and see what I see! Rise above the junk and see from my perspective!”
Ephesians 2:6 says that we have been given a seat with Him in heavenly places!
We were not created or given salvation to continue to wallow in a mess or even to fight our battles in the flesh! We have been called to ascend and agree with Jesus as HE prays for us from the victorious, heavenly perspective!

Rise up and pray!

Not from the place of defeat or struggle, but from the heavenly place of victory!!
He has invited us to respond!

Say this: “Father God! I submit my wrestle with the things of this world and rise Higher! I take my seat with Jesus! Help me to see what you see and pray what you are praying! I receive peace and a new perspective! I receive victory in You!
AMEN!”

Scripture References: Isaiah 50:6-8, 52:14, Luke 14:18, Ephesians 2:6, Hebrews 12:2,3.

By Angie Woodard