But somewhere along the way of pursuing the fulfillment of the dream, you fall into the dry valley and experience total defeat and discouragement.

I feel so strongly that this is a message for today and one the enemy does not want shared. This word encompasses the keys to help you make it through today’s headlines of financial upheaval in our nation’s economy, and to help you make sense out of it so you can fight your famine. Even as I type, my wireless keyboard stops working.

The little techy squirm bug of the devil is not going to stop this message of hope and victory . So I plug in my USB keyboard and continue!

So here’s the scenario. See if you can relate.

You get a vision, an idea, a clear picture of what you know you are assigned to carry out. This vision has your passion coupled together with your God given gifts and anointing. It might be your music, your preaching, your ministry….And you know the end result is people’s lives being powerfully impacted and changed. You also realize part of the picture involves your own growth in prosperity. Prosperity as defined by:

“…the aptitude to use God’s ability and power to meet the needs of mankind-regardless of what those needs may be.” (Dr. Jeffrey Burell, Kilough Church By The Lake)

If you are providing a service (ie ministry) or a product (could be your music cd) or information (the Word!) of value, which someone needs, you will be rewarded financial. That’s a basic marketing principle.

If you are planting seeds in other people and ministries at the same time in the pursuit of your dream, you will reap a harvest. That’s a basic Biblical principle!

But somewhere from the vision you fall flat into the valley of dry bones which is your personal famine. Your finances might be dead, your marriage may be crumbling, your kids are in a state of rebellion, or you just heard the bad report from the doctor.

What are the keys to go through the valley of famine to the place of victory in walking out this divine destiny?

Some clues can be found in Ezekel Chapter 37.

In verse one we read how Ezekiel was “set down in the midst of the valley” that contained dry bones. It was a picture of total devastation and death.

In verse 4, God commands Ezekiel to prophesy the Word, to speak life. Part of the definition of prophesying is to speak!

• Obedience To God’s Word

Notice Ezekiel obeyed this command. He didn’t whine or ask questions. I can imagine a picture of an exchange that could of taken place:

“Lord! Don’t you see these dry dead bones? This is an impossible situation”

“I can’t! I don’t have the ability to do that. I’m not ‘called’ to speak to dry bones.”

“You want me to do what?”

Any of these phrases sound familiar. I’ve been there…said that…

Notice though, what happens when Ezekiel obeys and speaks, prophesies, to the bones:
The bones started to rattle, it got noisy and the bones were put back together.

Obedience brought about a change. Obedience to the Word of God to speak life activated a higher level of God’s Spirit into the place of death, desolation and famine, and things were shook up for the better.

If it’s noisy in your life right now with discouraging circumstances, desperate feelings, but you are obeying God.
Take heart. Your breakthrough is coming!

• Speak the Word By Faith To Your Dry Places

This is not some name it and claim it mumble jumble. This is one of the most powerful principles of God! It is a pivotal key to your vision. Ezekiel spoke the Word to those dry places. He spoke life and the skeletons went from petrified lifeless bone beings to living flesh and blood! So, find scripture that matches your need in the valley and speak! You may have to tell your checkbook: “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree…”

Or tell your body, “I am healed by the stripes of Jesus…..”

You might feel awkward at first. You may feel stupid. But as Joyce Meyer has said, “Better to feel stupid than be stupid”.

For every place of famine, find Scripture that speaks the truth. Call those things that are not as though they were, as it says in Romans 4:17. Spoken words can carry God’s anointing and power to break the chains of poverty, to literally heal your body, and to put into action the promises of God’s Word into this natural realm to bring you out and through the valley to victory!

• Remain In Faith

We know from Scripture that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The Word is the source of the power to cause what it says to come to pass. Kenneth Hagen once said, ” “Faith begins where the will of God is known.” If you keep your faith in God’s Word, and use it as God intended for you to use it, then the Word will begin the process of bringing you out of the valley.

Remain in faith means staying in church where the Word is preached, stay in connection to God’s principles of sowing, and stay in motion walking out what you profess. Jentezen Franklin, a anointed preacher from N. Georgia, says you fight your famine by getting back to the Father’s house. “God blesses where His reputation is safe, ” Franklin states.

Like the prodigal son you may have to return to your Father’s house. Return from the cesspool of the flesh of the world’s ways, to the fatted calf of provision and robes of glory found in God’s ways.

Finally, as you go from that vision to the valley, something amazing can happens. God uses the fire of your trials to purify you. Your flesh, doing things in your own strength, gets pruned. Parts of the “old you: die and the new anointed you rises up.

You experience a suddenly, as in Ezekiel 37:7, where your circumstances start to turn around. You know then that your journey from the vision down to the valley is coming up to victory! You go through the famine and come out more blessed. You go from dry empty bones to life full of joy.

God’s victory for you amidst the fulfillment of your vision maybe coming as an opportunity, an invitation,
a new strategy, or a previously unknown or unidentified association. Remain obedient to His principles, keep speaking the Word in faith, and watch expectantly for the ways which God may choose to deliver the victory to you in His due season.

It may be today!

For more encouragement with your God given destiny, feel free to visit the Ministry Marketing Strategies home page.

Can God prepare a table in your wilderness? Is there hope?

If you look in the Old Testament, you see Moses leading his people to the promised land. The children of Israel whined and cried and complained amidst their struggles. What did God do? He provided water, bread with the manna and meat from the Quail that dropped from the sky. They continued to grumble even amidst such miraculous provision and missed out on the greater things God had planned.

We can learn from their experience and walk with a different mind set.

Because of the finished work of the Cross of Jesus Christ, God is offering us a seat at the wedding table. Jesus once and for all offered Himself up in our place for sin, enabling us to walk in new life. Jesus said He came to give us life, and life more abundantly. That sounds like a table, like a feast that we can experience amidst our struggles.

Here are some keys to find that table in your wilderness:

1)Be Ready For God To Move

How do you prepare? You look at every situation in your wilderness through the eyes of faith. You look for God’s presence, and His will. The best way to describe this is you assess every circumstance according to God’s Promises. So, for example, you
have a lack of finances. You asses that situation with the Word of God that says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33).

Maybe you are lonely, or you feel all alone. You look at that situation with God’s promise: “I will never leave you or abandon you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

You might be faced with a family problem or a struggle where you don’t know what to do or where to turn. So you replace that anxiety with the Word of God which says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

2) Be Prepared For the Battle

In Ephesians 6:10-20, you find the keys to face the battles. You might be facing something in the midst of your wilderness that is crawling, consuming, chewing you…like the locust in the book of Joel in Chapter 1. You may feel like the battles
are ravaging your strength and hope. So what do you do?

First, you stand, and be strong in the Lord. Know WHO’S power you have. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13).

Secondly, you have to know your enemy and know who you are fighting. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers,
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

You are going to have to do battle in the spiritual realm.

To fight in this demonic realm, you have to maintain a battle stance with the whole armor of God as described in Ephesians 6. The main part of battle is prayer. Prayer is the fight you can win! In addition, your armor is not
just defensive but also offensive. You have the Word of God to cut through your struggles and pierce the life out of the worries you face in your wilderness!

3) Be Persistent To Stay In Relationship With God

A myriad of things keep us from seeking God and maintaining that relationship which, in turn, keeps us away from the table. In the parable in Luke 14:16-24, we read how a man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready and the table set, he sent his servant to tell the guests that the feast was ready. But each one invited began making their excuses.

So this was one incredible wedding feast! I don’t know about you but when someone in my family gets married it is one incredible event. It’s filled with laughter, a sense of belonging to a great family as stories are relived from the past….It’s filled with good food, good drink, good friends….A real party worth remembering!

That is what God is offering every day! We are invited every day to a feast at the table of His Son, no matter what is going on in our lives.

The key amidst your wilderness is your relationship with God. It’s the main ingredient to experiencing that table in the wilderness.

As you see from this parable, each one had an excuse.

One had a piece of land he wanted to cultivate. Sometimes in the midst of trying to provide for our family, getting up early in the morning with a list of things to do as we tend to our “land”, our business, we miss those quiet times alone with God. We miss out on soaking in the Word before facing the giants in our work.

Another man in this parable had five oxen. He was toiling, focused on making some money! Sometimes you can get caught up in the rat race of life. You are so focused on what you want and what you need that stress takes over. Then comes the fear and anxiety as you fixed your eyes on what you lack, rather than WHO you have in Christ.

The third person in this parable just got married and has lots going on with this new venture. I think this represents how the responsibilities with our families can take a toll on us emotionally and physically. Your children may be rebelling or you
have strife in your marriage, and it all demands your time and strength. Instead of running to God, you let the trials run over you and your relationship with Him is
left on the back burner.

So in the midst of your wilderness, will you seek the Lord Jesus Christ and maintain that relationship?

I believe that in this time we are living, when the economy is floundering, that God’s people can flourish. They are getting out of debt and experiencing massive success in their business. While other people are surviving, God’s people are thriving reaching new heights in their family life, and business…..

God is raising up an army of believers who are stepping up to the plate of His table. They are finding peace and provision amidst the wilderness. When others ask them how, they are quick to give God glory. Then, they take them by the hand and lead them to the banquet hall of God’s table of love, mercy, and forgiveness.

Click on “Keys To Be Free Financially” below:

“God’s Love at Work is a marketplace outreach purposed to share God’s greatest power source–the love of Christ. We are dedicated to:

· Empowering women to advance to their God-given potential in their
work lives and beyond.

· · Fulfilling God’s Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22:37-39) and His
Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). “

More interviews to come on marketplace ministry by clicking here!