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Tammie Southerland

The Hannah Groan: Barrenness that Produces Purity

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When Hannah couldn’t conceive in the natural, she became a lightning rod for Heaven’s Dream. 

“…But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved her even though the LORD had closed her womb. Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s 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)

When you are called to birth something that can only glorify God, you will endure evident barrenness and provocation from your adversary. You will suffer accusations from friends, family, and religious leaders in your life. The torment of seeming fruitlessness can cause you abandon desire for earthly blessing. Hannah’s husband could not comfort her with carnal love or even a double-portion blessing.   

Let the barrenness stretch you.

Friend, yield to the season. The plans of the Lord are going to blow your mind!

That’s Easier said than done, right?

We must understand as we walk through this valley that our adversary is not flesh and blood, but “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9, ESV)

We are in a war, but not against people. (Ephesians 6:12) 

Be careful to not attack the attackers. Cry out for a humble and pure heart. The humble will be exalted.

Lord is stretching out your tent pegs dear burning one! His plans for you are to mature not harm. The stretching increases your capacity to handle more.

“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

Let the barren season refine you.

  • God had closed Hannah’s womb. Not the enemy.
  • God was the One she had to pursue, the throne  was where her appeal was made.
  • Rebuking and binding, warring, and fighting the rival would not work in this circumstance.
  • He was calling Her higher.  
  • He was preparing her to birth, something that would change the nation.
  • He was delivering her from needing the approval of man.
  • He was purifying her desires.

The Hannah Cry is an Ugly Cry

9-10 One time, after they had finished their meal in the house of the Lord at Shiloh, Hannah got up. She was deeply distressed, and she cried bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. Meanwhile, Eli, the priest, was sitting in his place by the door. 11 Hannah made a solemn promise: “Lord Almighty, look at me, your servant! See my trouble and remember me! Don’t forget me! If you give me a son, I promise that I will dedicate him to you for his whole life and that he will never have his hair cut.”

Her prayers were not pretty or peaceful. They were not religious but neither were they impure. She was not drunk with wine but intoxicated with longing. The priest thought she was drunk. Her cries were for the gaze of the eyes of the Lord, not her husband, not the priest, and not her rival! Her cries were for His leadership, His defense, and a gift that she could consecrate and dedicate to Him-alone!  (See 1 Samuel 1:12-16) 

Have you ever groaned and cried out in intercession and been misunderstood? It’s a glorious experience to be misunderstood because of  longing for Heaven’s vision to be manifest in the earth.

Right?! ( I can hear you shaking your head, NO!) 

Well, it will be later! Hold on just a little longer.

These groanings impregnate us for the will of God! 

…25But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently. 26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.…” Romans 8:2

 

Hannah’s barrenness produced a wreckless groan that caused Heaven to stop and respond. In her weakness He was made strong. The Spirit of the Lord knew her heart and mind and He moved from within her.  Eli, the priest rebuked her. But,  he took notice and eventually came into agreement with her prayers! 

 

When Hannah couldn’t conceive in the natural, she became a lightning rod for Heaven’s dream.

 

The Lord struck Hannah with His dream through the stretching, groaning, and purification process of prayer and fasting. He was forming within her more than she could ever ask, think or imagine.  Soon her mourning would be turned to joy.

Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”

Beloved, do you have a Goan like Hannah’s? You are not alone!  You have been marked by God to birth something greater that yourself.  Allow the season of bareness to have it’s work in you! Allow the groan to prepare your character and press you into the place of deep intimacy. Place your gaze on the Bridegroom God! Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning!( Psalm 30:5b) Keep groaning! 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tammie Southerland

The Worship of a Burning Heart

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Photo by Alex Woods on Unsplash
By Tammie Southerland 

The Worship of a Burning Heart

It is the presence of God that changes people—not our services.

“One thing I have asked from the  Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the  Lord  all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple,” (Psalm 27:4 NASB).

Even in all of David’s failure, he resolved his life to one thing; just one thing. I mean, he was a king! He just asked to dwell in the house of the Lord, gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and meditate in His temple for the rest of his life.  

When we sit in an atmosphere of pure authentic worship, not mere musical entertainment, we are transformed and begin to hunger for more. He is drawing us into deeper proximity to His heart. He longs to take us into a place where we’re not just looking to gaze upon the next big thing; the next thing that we want, or something that will feed our flesh. He’s training us, our generation, to learn how to focus our hearts on things of His Kingdom and focus on Him like we never have before! Right now, the Lord of Glory has released a spiritual desire to catch us up into a place where we will begin to long for that one thing that we never knew existed.

That One Thing

This man, King David, before Messiah was sent, gained the revelation, that in all of his setbacks and in all of his successes, it boiled down to setting his life focus on “one thing” (Psalm 27:4). This one thing consumed all else. All he wanted was to gaze on the beauty of THE LORD all the days of his life. He longed and desired to build a dwelling place for the Lord in the land of Israel. He was ruined with the holy desire and insatiable hunger to solely look at the beauty of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He knew there was a King that was greater! He knew there was a Lord that far exceeded his own lordship. David wanted to give the rightful King the throne above His own.

In Psalm 110:1 he declares, “The LORD said to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” In Matthew 22:44, Jesus quotes this verse in a discussion with the Pharisees in order to prove that the Messiah is more than David’s son; He is David’s Lord and David knew this deeply.

I believe with everything in me that there is a depth of the holy, beauty, fire, and of holy hunger in which David longed for, that is for available to us. David could only prophesy of what we have access to in Christ today. The Father wants close proximity to mankind. He wants closeness in a way that we can’t imagine. I believe our level of pursuit of this closer proximity to Him actually determines the level of our tangible intimacy with Him.

If we’re not willing to come close, then we will always be standing on the sidelines looking at others who are coming close and saying, “Why not me?” He did everything that we ever needed Him to do when He came down and gave His life for us. He died, resurrected, ascended and gave us full access to be filled with His own Holy Spirit so that we could to come close. That part of the work is finished. We just have to hunger and drawn near to Him. We must ask for more than we have at this present moment, every day.

You Don’t Need An Instrument to Worship-You are One!

David had 4,288 musicians and singers set up day and night, playing songs in intercession and worship in a tent (See 1 Chronicles 16). This non-stop atmosphere of worship must have been powerful. Even though it was his personal desire, David stored up money and materials his whole life for his son, Solomon to build the temple because God told David that it would be his son who built it (2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 28:3). I have personally longed for the same things as David but I understand legacy! I want to build a place for the Lord. I want to gaze on His beauty all the days of my life! I want to host His presence day and night in my city. I want to see Him King and Lord over my city, state, nation, and world! I believe this is His desire also and just as David was able to host Him in a tent, so can we—but in a much closer way! 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” We have the glory of God ever-present in and with us in a way that King David merely dreamed of. The Spirit and the presence of God Himself has made us His temple. When He poured out His Spirit in Acts 2, He put Himself into us so that we could be in non-stop communion with Him. We don’t have to have an instrument to worship, because we are one.

We Are the Sound!

I believe God wants us to know that we are the sound! You and I are His instruments of worship!  If you haven’t experienced encountering Him outside of church or a service in which someone else is leading you into worship, just ask, and get ready! Surrender and entering into a depth that we’ve not previously experienced calls into learning how to be okay with awkward, silent moments.

As soon as we get comfortable, He is going to make us uncomfortable because there’s more. There is a higher place of knowing Him that we are going after. As soon as we think we’ve got it figured out, He is going to show us that we don’t, because He wants us to get into that place of lifelong increasing revelation of Him. We were created to be in constant communion with Him; now and for eternity. This means we get to learn more of His unsearchable beauty forever. The angels that are seated around the throne are constantly saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come” as they look upon His beauty because they are in a place of revelation all of the time (Revelation 4:8). They never get bored and life around the throne never gets mundane for them. I am amazed that He created us to know Him and gain even greater revelation of Himself than the angels in heaven (1 Peter 1:12; 1 Corinthians 6:3).

In order for us to be able to ascend into that place of knowing God in a greater way, than even the burning ones around the throne of God-we have to begin to hunger for more than a mental understanding of the written word of God.  The spiritual revelation of His heart, mind, and character are essential elements to knowing Him personally.  Prayer, scripture study, worship, being still and listening for His voice are important disciplines in the life of the follower of Christ.  All of this develops depth into sustainable spiritual growth. The angelic hosts of heaven know His amazing holiness is real and unsearchable. We too must know that there is more than cerebral knowledge of Him. The experience of knowing Him spirit to Spirit is extremely important. He’s given us the ability to know His worth and power contained in “The Word” who is the person of Christ.

Silencing Distractions Could Take us into Highest Place of Wonder

Some of the most powerful encounters I have ever had with the Lord happened when I forced my mind to be still. I turned off all of the electronics, and yes even the music, and listened for His whisper. It takes a little while to learn to be still in your mind and tune your ears to His voice in this crazy world, but it’s a discipline of one who hungers. Prayer both in tongues and in the your native language is powerful and should be a practiced daily! I encourage you like the Apostle Paul to pray in the heavenly language of intercession (tongues) often and for, at the very least, 20 minutes a day when you are starting out. I also encourage you to learn the discipline of being still and listening to His reply.

Truthfully, as we learn the discipline of living life in His presence and in prayer, we learn how to abide in Him and He in us (John 15). We will begin bearing Spiritual fruit in abundance. We will be able to sit in a room with absolute silence or in a room with crazy chaos and be with Him. We can learn such a lifestyle of proximity to Him that we can be in a place where others are leading a worship gathering and we are on the floor helping bring people closer to Him without touching a stage or microphone. We will learn how to abide in our heavenly seat that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6:2, “we are seated with Him in heavenly places,” and we become fully active in our HOLY spiritual existence.

As we live this way, we are made free of being dependent on another person to take us into His presence. We just abide there. The supernatural grace of God is falling upon His people right now in such a way that we are able explore places of His heart  that no other generation has known. He has given us access, but He has also called us to lay down the distractions and cares of the world on a daily basis in order to enter into this place of deep relationship. Many have been so frustrated with their life and relationship with God recently. This is because He has been allowing the rubbing, pressing, and stripping away of temporal pleasures to prepare us for the deeper knowledge of Him. We must know that there is a greater responsibility to carry out the plans of His heart as we begin to understand the deeper revelation that He’s giving to us.

“The Lord our God has secrets to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” (Deut. 29:29, NLT)

“When someone is given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted  with much, even more will be required.” (Luke 12:48, NLT)

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Tammie Southerland

Come Out of the Caves

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Over the past few weeks I have been hearing the longing of the heart of  Bridegroom Jesus calling to His beloved Bride to be “made ready”(Revelation 19:7). He is longing for her to come back to a place of “first love”  passion  for Him above all else! (Rev. 2:4)

In a time of prayer on August 12th, 2015 I began to experience the awakening and passionate voice of the Lord Jesus speak the words written below.

And He said to me “Write the message my beloved and release this longing of Mine! Make ready my Bride; call her to AWAKEN to me in this hour”

This message is an out-cry to the church and to those whom He is raising up to be end time voices in this hour!

Who Has Bewitched You?

I hear Him saying:

“I am the rewarder of those who diligently seek me (Heb. 11:6)! Return to me ( Joel 2:12) and seek Me with all of your heart and you will find me.

They say their churches are for the seekers but I say that they are houses of lukewarmness-a mixture of hot and cold.  The hot gets put out and the cold just barely warmed.  The fire of the longing ones is doused.  Lamps “without oil” are sold to the cold hearted.( See Matthew 25)   I will spew them out of my mouth in the time of judgement (Rev. 3:16). They are “white washed tombs with dead man’s bones inside”( Matt. 23:27). They are seeking but finding something other than Me. I will not share my glory with another says the Lord.

Oh were are the real seekers?

Where are love-sick-longing ones?

Oh were have you gone?

Oh How I long to gather you like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matthew 2:37)

Why did you go away on your own way?

Why do you reject my messengers?

Why do you look in all other places?

Who has bewitched you My Beloved? Have you not heard?  Have you not seen? Do you not know?

You are my beloved and I long for you!

I AM  here!

I AM in secret in the secret place (Psalm 91)!

COME!  I AM calling! COME!

Return to the deeds you did at first (Rev. 2:5).

Return to your first Love (Rev. 2:4)! Be ye Holy as I am HOLY (1 Peter 1:16)!

Come away with me while there is yet time! Come! (Song of Solomon 2:10)

A Greater Glory for Laid-Down Lovers

Then I heard The Lord proclaiming!

There are some that have laid it all down in this hour.  They long to be lovers laying  down everything and desiring  to be hidden in MY heart.

I am revealing to them the mysteries of heaven– the jewels of heavenly mysteries that will shake the earth. To you I say: “Pull back and write the very pulse of my heart.  For eye has not seen and ear has not heard the things  that I have in store for those who love Me!

Oh my beloved ones, some of you look for me but do not find me.  You are looking in all the wrong places.   I am in the secret places.  I speaking through the mouths of the unknown ones. Through the ones who hide themselves in my heart and under my wings ( Psalm 91)! I am trumpeting the very beat of my heart from their lungs! Do you hear them?

Most of them  are not on national stages, they are still  hidden like jewels in the cleft of the rocks! The are voices crying out in the wilderness places. But I tell you this -the seasons are changing! They are the ones whom I will use to lead a generation into the promise of My coming.

It is time!  They are being revealed, but be aware all ye peoples, they will follow the very whisper of my voice, yes even the whistle the wind of my Spirit.  They will only go where I tell them to go and say what I say.  They will quickly pull back in the seasons that seem to bring them the most fame. They will arise in times that may seem to cause the most upset not caring about their reputation.  They will not take my Glory says the Lord- for they know there is a greater glory in store! I have put a trumpet to their mouths!

Do you hear them? He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says!

They are obedient to deliver the Word in power, in demonstration, but this is merely their adornment says the Lord- for they are lovers of my presence and they are chasers of My Face.

Signs and wonders they do not chase, but they chase after me!

Know this therefore, signs and wonders will chase them down!  Fame is not their desire. They want to take My Name as their own and worldy fame will not phase them! They only  want My presence as their reward and MY Name to be of great fame!

The seasons are changing!

The seasons are changing  and like a whirl wind I AM coming quickly.

In the night- like a thief in the night (1 Thes. 1:2).   I am coming and I will draw all men unto myself.

Come into my chambers, says the Lord.

Who will come?

I am calling you into my chambers! I am calling! COME says the Lord- come to me!

 Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.  Revelation 2:12.

We are in an hour now that the seeker friendly light shows,  hyper grace messages, and social media superstars  will come to a close. They will fade into the pages of history.  All fame and glory belongs to the Lord!

To whom much is given much is required! In this hour we must die to the claim to personal fame and  take HIS Name, but not HIS Glory!   There is a greater glory! The Lamb is coming and His reward is with Him!

Greater! Greater Glory belongs to the Bride than this world can ever give!

Arise out of the caves you lovers! You longing ones, it is time to sound the trumpet!  But make it your hearts cry to say  “May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering” 

Come Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:17)

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