Hi Team! The busyness of the holidays is over and I’m finally getting back to routine! I have been thinking and praying on this and am happy to be getting back to it.
First of all, we mentioned in our meeting we would share some resources that we feel are valuable for where we are headed as a team. Here are a few of those to get started.
- We highly recommend sozo ministry and believe anyone in any place can benefit from it. For more information http://bethelsozo.com/ or contact FCC leadership.
- Keep Your Love On by Danny Silk-great book giving practical examples to set up healthy boundaries for safe, healthy relationships with God and others.
- I Will Not Leave you as Orphans overcoming the orphan sprit-by Pat Holloran- tools to discern the orphan spirit, finding who we are in Christ, and identifying spiritual fathers, to live as an adopted child of God reaping the benefits of our inheritance.
Attached is a printable document of some of the prophetic words that have been spoken over our team. Please print out or put it somewhere where you can reference and be praying over them.
Also, at the end of this post is a copy of what I spoke about at our meeting in November, so we have it documented for you all and for any newcomers 🙂
I would also also like to encourage you to make a point to be at our team social nights. We surrendered a practice night so it wouldn’t add more to everyone’s already busy schedule. We believe covenant relationships will develop during these times that will be a vital part of this team’s growth.
Thank you all for your commitment and flexibility as we step into where God is calling us.
Jennifer and Jeremy
November 8, 2015 -Jennifer Saglimbeni
In May of this year, my mom told me she had heard the word “covenant” while praying for us but hung on to it because that’s all she heard, she shared with us a few days later, after my aunt told her she had a dream that Jeremy and I were pregnant with something. We prayed about it and kept asking each other, “what are we pregnant with? I don’t know, do you?” About two weeks later, I had a very detailed dream that Jeremy and I were renewing our wedding vows at the church we were married in. This dream had much to do with my preparation, getting others in board with what God was wanting to do, and a reminder of Gods calling on our life. The next dream our family was moving in with the Flynn family, it was going to be an awkward move into a small house for two families, kids sharing bedrooms.. Lots of details to figure out but it was going to be a smart move for our futures ( saving money to move into a bigger place) I had one more dream where Jeremy and I were renewing our wedding vows at FCC, we were getting ready and there were other girls in the apartment getting ready with me. It was going to be a group of couples renewing, including Heather (evergreen-eternal life) Franklin. We prayed about this some more and weren’t hearing anything much.
One afternoon, we sat down with Bill and Eslin and shared with them. She reminded me of a picture she had seen while praying for us back in April, an evergreen wreath, (eternal life-covenant). We knew God was doing something but really had no clue.. for a long time. I continued to have dreams and Eslin started. We knew there was something we were both called to, one day I said “I’m just throwing this out there because we’ve got nothing still.. Our family is called to a deliverance ministry”( which I had no clue what that looks like, just something we know). She said, I am too. Hmm… Hmm… Still nothing for a long time. I dreamt of us needing to really take on our own vision, not to hold back any longer on the things God put on our hearts for the team, dreamt of broken and hurt people made beautiful through Christ, of God preparing me and my voice, and more that I’ll talk about.
Eslin then had some dreams, maybe sometime in July having to do with pregnancy, birthing and David-we then began viewing all this information through the lens of worship. Then things started coming together, the messages, books, prophetic words all the things that have always come right away when God puts something on my heart started pouring in.
I then had dreams of you all using your testimony, bringing freedom through your experiences.
One of these was of Melissa singing her testimony and a progression from Jeremy and I trying to communicate it to others then they being able to see it for themselves. The other was of Tiffany-Eden was with us and Jeremy brought her home, he was taking a while so I came along to see why. Tiffany was locked out of her house, and there were also a lot of people waiting in this open garage to get in. She was waiting on Tori Spinning who had the keys. While we waited, she took me around the back of her house and there was some damage, she told me someone was coming to fix it, but it sounded like slap some paint on it kind of fixing, but this was major concrete upheaval and major work needed to be done. I got the idea of this dream right away but it wasn’t until just a few weeks ago the Lord prompted me to look up the name Tori-which I found means victory! So, all these people, and even the prophetic-(Eden-children representing prophetic) are locked out and the keys to freedom come with victory. We need to dig deep and take care of any issues, our sins, sins of our forefathers, things from our past, not just slap on some fresh paint. (In the dream, Tiffany’s house was a house of my best friends when I was a child , who were foster children and adopted when I was around 9-we believe this, along with some other dreams and things, have to do with the orphan spirit)
In conversations with leadership, it’s come up that our worship is anointed and God shows up-but we feel there’s more. This made me think of the dream Eslin had of Jeremy where he had many tattoos (symbolizing worldliness-temporal enjoyment) she asked how many he had and he told her “you couldn’t even see them all-Holy Spirit covers some.” I believe Jeremy (as the leader) represents the team and we all have “stuff” and there is such a strong anointing on our team that you all do an amazing job and God shows up despite things we have been hanging onto (.. Unforgiveness, Bitterness, offense, rejection etc.. and these are not necessarily “big” or traumatic events) There are also things we may not be aware of or directly responsible for, this is where ministries such as sozo can be an incredible tool.
There was a dream about us renovating our house, moving the bathroom away from the children’s room.. Children can represent the prophetic and bathrooms cleansing, repentance, confession of offenses.
There’s a shifting, (renovation) things aren’t going to be totally different but some things need to be done differently. As we step into this time of confession of offenses, repentance and cleansing, there will be a smoother flow of Holy Spirit activity, those things that hinder will no longer be in the way.
I was also thinking on how He covers us.. But it seems so bold to say we can hinder Him. Jeremy and I were talking and I think someone living in hidden sin would have a hard time following HS and letting HS flow through him/ her. Even those things from the past, they hold us back. On the other hand, someone working through something would be connecting with God and after His heart, and that would flow out. It would not block the conduit from them out to the congregation.
Part of a word Pastor Tim gave me on August 12 said I would be a lightning rod for answers, Jeremy, Eslin and I were so ready for some answers! Up until now, I’d had these dreams I’ve shared but I didn’t have much revelation of what many of them meant. 12 days later I had a dream that really brought a lot of answers and tied a lot together. I was walking through a store like Wal-Mart, I bump into a worker and all these little stuffed animals go flying out of his hands, I help him pick them up and start to see all this dirt and grime on the floor, I think to myself “how do they clean a place like this? They’re open all the time-you really have to move everything out to get it clean like it should be”. The dream then shifted to a section of the store that was being prepped for this deep cleaning. The Lord quickly revealed to me that the store represents the members of the team and we are often involved in ministry and rarely ministered to. There are the everyday offenses that we take to him in repentance (stuffed animals easily cleaned up) and there’s stuff that’s built up over the years that need a deep cleaning (dirt and grime) I felt strongly He was leading us to have a night of ministry that may facilitate this “deep cleaning” and to pursue other opportunities to grow and build the team up.
This is when he led us to the book of Nehemiah which we have shared some with you, and I believe there is a lot in that book that will help us on this journey. We gave a brief overview of this in the blog post from last month, and reading through during the fast last month I saw after all that happened in chapter 8 & 9 that I discussed, they drew up a covenant outlining godly behavior, signed by the leaders, Levites and priests. From Matthew Henry’s commentary, “Those that lead in prayer should lead in every good work” We have a responsibility to pursue a right lifestyle, “Those that are above others in dignity and power should go before them in the way of God”
Many of the prophetic words we have received talk about “living a right lifestyle”, “purity on the platform”, confession of sin and repentance” when you have a team that will bear their souls…”. These words could be intimidating, but we aren’t under that old covenant and there is grace for this. As we step into this powerful things will happen in our lives and through the team. Nehemiah instructed the Israelites to not mourn or weep, the Lord wants us to be joyful because we’ve seen our sin, changed our path, and are moving closer to him, not living in a state of sorrow over the past. In Nehemiah 9:5 NLT, it says “Then the leaders….called out to the people “stand up and praise the Lord your God for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!” They then prayed and thanked God for what he’s done over the generations, at the end of the chapter, they respond saying “in view of all this, we are making a solemn promise (covenant) and putting it in writing” Neh 9:38 NLT. If you read on in chapter 10, they drew up this covenant, a long list of does and don’ts, we can be encouraged that we are under the new covenant and he is after our heart not just to have a group of rule followers. This will look different for each one of us, as we are all in a different place and have different struggles.