This morning I awoke a little later than normal. It frustrated me. Part of the reason was Tina had fallen asleep downstairs looking at pictures and praying. It was “quieter” than normal. When I came down and sent her off to sleep, I heard the word, “familiar”. The Lord said “I am breaking off the familiar”. I am not talking about spirits but familiar, “foot warn” paths we have carved in our walk. So deep we do it by rote. We do not look up or down. In fact we know every step, every response, every answer. Truth be told some of the paths for many have become a “rut”. Now a rut in my mind is simply a coffin with the ends kicked out.

Maybe your rut is how you pray or when you pray. Perhaps it is your response to tragedy or situations. I believe God is requesting a change and removing somethings. “Why” you might ask. Maybe it is because things have become ineffective. Maybe God wants to impart a fresh set of eyes on a problem affecting generations. I am truly not sure why, so much as I am sure He is.

And I sense the frustration in the air as people read this. There is nothing more frustrating for many than to do something we have always done and have it change. Now, whatever that is may have worked for the last few months, years or decades, but please think about this. Have you been an overcomer every where you go? Have you been overcome in areas you want to win? In which case “we have always done it this way” despite “this way” not winning the battle is rough.

Many have taken their understanding of grace and laid down their weapons. Given in and given up. The Lord is here to say to you, that “failure is not an option”. What are the battles you may have been losing? Ask God for new thinking. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal”.

In Jericho they marched around 7 times before the walls were shouted down. What if that is pattern of getting your orders and waiting for the right time? What is the time? God will tell.

This week we “gain an hour”. Every where I turn the last few weeks I hear these words “sleep deprivation”. Why are we denied that place of rest? God has done some miraculous works in the sleep of men. (Abraham and Adam.) I think the gaining is important. Something will change. Not just your sleep, but God is asking something of you to give you something new.

“There is a change coming.” Anyone can say that. People can tell you where the change might be coming. Finance, healing, health. But here is what I am hearing…It is time to change what you are doing it and how you are doing it. Years ago a friend of mine said “people could bring a dead tree branch into church and call it life. People would dance and shout over it and walk away happy”. I listened to him. My charismatic “ire” rose and then the Lord stopped me. My friend was contending for results and I was contending for the miraculous. We wanted the same thing. Healthy people. We might not have then and perhaps do not now agree on how we get there, but the point was made to me. “Change it”. The same thing was said to him.

Today is a day of “change it”. If you have no peace, change it. No money, change it. Poor health, change it. And before you tell me to “do nothing with urgency” I agree. I am not changing it cause I have to but because I can. From my heavenly seated place with God, I am like a painter with a brush. I can paint in health. I can brush in finance. I can over lay it with peace.

To not change may well be comfortable but it may no longer be God. And as one who changed things and became comfortable with changing everything I am not advocating change for change’s sake. I am saying today is a day to change it. Overturn poor health, lack of peace and poverty. Change it. Paint and color the atmosphere with love. (In the last week or so I am amazed at how many are being drawn back to 1 Corinthians 13. Do not think you get it, but change and make sure you are love.)

Today God is asking you to break the familiar. What used to work and has not worked, maybe this the change for you. The real question about our practices is, “is it working”. I am not a “generational curse” guy, but I do believe the thinking of generations can cause us problems.

Today God is asking you and I to come out of the rut of our existence and calling us into a place of newness. There may be new challenges but there will also be new breakthroughs.

I met with a man and he shared with me how the “same thing always happened”. I told him to “stop”. He looked at me as though I had slapped him. I said “stop. Stop your thinking that way. Change it.” A while later he connected with me and said he had new hope. Some of you need some new hope, some fresh manna.

Today, God is removing the familiar and replacing it with the familial of His family, of His lineage. No longer to be boxed in for no longer is there a box. He is calling you out of the grave and into His marvelous light.

God is taking your experience and making it His experience. He is taking the mundane and making it magnificent!