Addicted to the Desire to be Right!

  A few weeks ago, I had this dream. I'm going to share a dream with you because there's a part of it that I really want you to hang on to as I share the message that God gave for us today.

  In this dream, I walk into this room. It was like a business that had a large, open entryway with tall ceilings. It was huge and open if you can imagine that. It's almost like you would walk into an expensive type of business. So, I walk into this room and over here to my right there was a group of people, mostly men, and they were gathered together around a table. They were having a meeting, and I knew they were plotting evil.

  Then over here to my left is another group, but it was a group of women, and they were huddled over something like a counter. They were kind of bent over and they were standing around something like a counter.  I decided to approach them and as I made my approached, I heard them singing the Hallelujah song, just the Hallelujah chorus. They were like in half-moon shape, and I walked to the farthest end of the row of women. As I joined them, they were singing softly.  I start singing with them, but I start singing really loud. It startled them, and they all start laughing. After a few seconds of laughter, we resumed singing the Hallelujah course.

Suddenly, and this is the part that I want you to hang on to; Jesus came into the room from above. He floated into the room bigger than life. He was so big. He came down and hovered over that table of men that were plotting those evil things. When I saw Him, I turned and I exclaimed, “Jesus.” Then I ran over to Him like He was my best friend, because He is my best friend. Now, I want you to remember that Jesus is your best friend too. He really is our best friend. And if we truly could get that deep in our spirit, it would change how we live. I firmly believe it would change how we live.

  Many of you know that I'm writing a 52- Week Prayer Guide Planner. I had an encounter with the Lord last Friday while writing. As I was writing this specific topic the Lord showed me something profound regarding this topic. I wrote what He revealed to me and then Dan and I decided to go to dinner. We were dining at a very loud restaurant. We always watch a movie on date night so Dan recommended that we pick the movie while at the restaurant and then we can quickly start the movie once we return home.

  Dan picked a movie and played the trailer. I couldn’t hear anything due to the noise in the restaurant, but from what I saw in the trailer I could tell what the theme of the movie was. We returned home and began watching the movie. Toward the end of the movie, there was a scene where a preacher spoke these words to the main character in the movie. I turned to Dan and said, “that is exactly what I wrote today.”

  The reason I'm sharing this with you is because we have, well, I have this tendency to question when God tells me to do something. At least four times over the course of the last four weeks while writing this prayer guide planner, I have tried to talk myself out of writing it. Friday, before I wrote the profound information He downloaded to me, I was convincing myself that I should not be writing this prayer planner. My thought? There are already countless prayer planners out there. This is just one more thing to put out into the market, and there are tons of these types of things out there. I don't understand why I'm writing this. It must just be my good idea. Well, just in case it's not just Paula's good idea, I'm just going to try to write it. Sometimes writing comes really easy for me, but this project has not been easy. It covers 52 topics that talk about basically every aspect of life.

  So, I'm pondering what this pastor said in this movie and I become incredibly humbled before God. I wasn’t humiliated, I was humbled. I was humbled for a number of reasons. In a moment I am going to share with you what the message is for that particular topic, but first I want to tell you why I was humbled.

  God orchestrated all these events that day to confirm to me this 52-Week Prayer Guide Planner is His idea and that I really am supposed to write it. I was humbled that He orchestrated this in this way and that He picked a movie for us. We thought we picked the movie, but He really picked the movie for us. Then He had this Pastor in the movie say in context, pretty much everything He had me write earlier in the day! I felt so humbled because He's my friend, but He's God. He's my friend and He was able to orchestrate all those events to get me to a place where I was willing to yield to His Lordship and I was willing to do what He said.

  I've had the concept of this prayer planner for a few months now, but I didn’t start writing it until a month ago. While writing, when I came to this particular week, I just kind of jotted down some ideas for what I wanted to talk about. The book is laid out like a daily planner. There is a topic for each week of the year. For every day of the week, I have provided prayers and Scriptures that correlates with that topic.

  I had jotted down these things quickly and sat down to write. As I was reviewing my seven categories of things that I was going to write about, I did what I normally do. I pondered what I'm going to write, then I wait on the Lord to tell me what direction He wants me to go with it.

   I'm going to tell you the topic. The topic is addictions. The title of my message today is “What are you Addicted To?”  So, I am sitting there pondering, and all of a sudden, my mind was flooded with all the different things we can be addicted to. None of them were the seven things on my list. The seven things on my list were the things we think about right away like drugs, alcohol, gambling, shopping, and food. Again, those were not the things that flooded my mind. While thinking about the things that were flooding my mind, I suddenly heard a phrase. I knew the phrase was from the Lord because first, it startled me. Second, I've never said it, and I've never taught about it. This is what the Lord said, “Addicted to the desire to be right.” Below is the full excerpt from Devotional Section of the 52-Week Prayer Guide Planner.

Wow! As I pondered what to write for this topic, my mind was flooded with all the different things we can become addicted to. Suddenly I heard, “Addicted to the desire to be right.” Think about it. All the addictions can be rooted in this one thing. Let me say it another way, “My way of dealing with this pain is the right way.” This gives new meaning to the Scripture that tells us pride comes before a fall. Lord help us see that every addiction is rooted in a choice to do things our way instead of yours.

That's also why I was so humbled. I was trying to write about addictions from a worldly perspective. I was thinking about the common addictions that people fall prey to like drugs, alcohol, shopping, and gambling. I sensed the Lord saying, “No, don't come at from a worldly perspective.”

 Most definitions of the word addictions often refer to being addicted to a substance or a behavior. However, it looks very different when you look at addictions from a biblical view.

With that in mind, we are going go through a list of the types of things we can be addicted to. As I share them, try to keep in the back of your mind that the real addiction is that we are addicted to the desire to be right. Or we are addicted to the desire to do it our way because we think our way is right and the Lord's way is wrong.

  First on the list is comfort zone. We can be addicted to our comfort zone. I've had my own comfort zones related to writing this 52-Week Prayer Guide Planner. For example, I was plagued with questions like, “Why should I write this planner? What if it fails? What if this? What if that?” Addicted to the desire to be right?

  What about being addicted to pleasing mankind? Pleasing another person because you think that by pleasing another person, it's the right way to handle a situation.

  Next on the list is being addicted to a medical diagnosis. I have cancer. I have this, I have that. We talk about every doctor's appointment. We talk about every procedure. We talk about every symptom because we think that's the right way to handle the situation.

  Addicted to grumbling and complaining. We grumble and complain because we are addicted to the desire to be right. That's why we grumble and complain. This is why I was so humbled because what wretches we can be. It was a hard, hard lesson for me, and it should be hard for all of us because we all do it. We all fall into one of these categories.

  Addicted to gossip. Why do we gossip? Because we think we're right and we think we have a right to talk about somebody else.

  Addicted to being critical or judgmental? Ouch.

  Addicted to anger. Do you know why we get so angry? It is because that situation didn’t go the way we thought it should go. The outcome was not the outcome we were hoping for. It wasn't the outcome we wanted.

  And I have a few more things here, but I just want to pause here for a second and allow Holy Spirit to show us how many opportunities to help another person got thwarted because we were addicted to the desire to be right about something. A lot of opportunities are missed to minister to someone else, to help someone else because maybe we don't like how they look, we don't like how they talk, we don't like their lifestyle, or we don't like something. We have all been there. Before I was saved, I was wretched. So we have no right to try to be right. Amen.

Addicted to unforgiveness and bitterness. Unforgiveness and bitterness is rooted in, “mankind has a desire to be right about how they want to handle the situation that brought pain.”

Addicted to drama, chaos, dysfunction. Some people are addicted to that. If there's drama and chaos, it can be used as an excuse to not do ABCD because of the drama, the chaos, and the dysfunction.

Addicted to poverty or addicted to riches. The problem is the same.

Addicted to work. Work was my coping mechanism for a number of years, and I was addicted to the desire to be right; that my way of handling my pain from my childhood was the right way.

Addicted to media binges. I've been on some of these media binges. You know, where you watch YouTube videos for hours and hours. My favorite are the funny animals. I can get lost in that for hours and the whole time I'm thinking, “This is really stupid. I could be doing something more productive, but I am just going to still sit here.”

Addicted to giving up. I’ve given up on a lot of things. We are addicted to giving up because we have an addiction to the desire to be right. Well, this must not be God. It's too hard so it must not be God. It's too hard, so it's probably just my flesh. It's too hard so I'm just going to give up. That's not biblical, is it? No. We're called to persevere. Just so you know, I'm preaching to myself. I was very humbled by this message on a personal level.

   And then here's the last one, addicted to yourself. All our addictions are based on self and how it will affect self. At the end of the day, it all equates to idolatry, so being addicted to the desire to be right, if you break it down to its very simplest form, it's a violation of the first commandment that says have no other gods before me. There are a lot of things in the world that wouldn't be issues if we didn't have this addiction.

Now I know God is full of grace and mercy, but some of us, me included, we've been walking with the Lord for 20 years and we're still addicted to the desire to be right about how we handle our situations. And I believe the word that God gave the pastor this morning about “get ready, He is coming, get ready” is important. The first part of getting ready is acknowledging that we can't look at another person. We must look at ourselves and what we're addicted to. We must look at ourselves.

  Every time we think our way is right, we need to bring that before the Lord and ask Him to give us a picture of how He sees how we are processing the situation. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that the most important commandment is to love the Lord your God, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  

  As you process through just this short list. This is not an exhaustive list, by the way, think about violating the commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Then relate that back to being addicted to being right about your comfort zone. It would sound like, “I'm not comfortable talking to that person over there, because it's not comfortable for me. This is my zone, and I don't want to go talk to that person over there.”

   Is that a violation of the first commandment? I would say yes because you're not loving your neighbor as yourself. I love the fact that I'm saved. In fact, I remember when I got saved, I remember being perplexed that people in my life that were what I would call churchgoers, they never made sure I was saved. I was mortified by that. But do I always love my neighbor as I love myself? No, I do not. You understand why I was humbled? Is it OK for Paula Shaughnessy to be saved and the person down the road to not be able to hear the gospel? I don't get to decide that.

  I'm not trying to make this be a downer message, but I do believe the time is short. I want to go back to the dream and talk about what it represents. I believe the message within the dream indicates that people will plan evil and the way to get Jesus to do something about it is through praise. The women singing the Hallelujah chorus represents the Body of Christ. The word hallelujah means praise. The Body of Christ must not be afraid to let their voice of praise be heard. In the dream the women were shocked by my loud singing. We should be shocked. We do not have to be silent. It’s okay for us to let our voices be heard. We are the light in the darkness. We are the salt.

In general, most of us don’t walk that out. Oftentimes in our prayers we will pray something like, “Lord help this person, Lord help that person.” If we really did love our neighbor as ourselves, if we really did love the Lord our God, and following that first commandment, I believe that the end of our prayer would always end with this, “Lord, show me what my part is to help this individual with their situation. But we don't. I'm guilty. I'm standing before you today because I'm guilty of these things. And although I help a lot of people, I do a lot of things, I do a lot of teaching, etc. but I don't always consider my neighbor. I don’t always love my neighbor like I love myself because often I am addicted to the desire to be right about how I am thinking and processing those situations. The lord doesn't want us to do that.

I want to share a scripture that we hear a lot. It's in Proverbs 3:5-8. It instructs us not to lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge the Lord. I believe He wants us to acknowledge him in everything.  He wants us to acknowledge him every time we need to process pain, or hurt of any kind. Now if we're angry about something, we need to stop it dead in our tracks and acknowledge the Lord in it. Every time we're afraid, stop dead in your tracks and acknowledge the Lord in it. That is a practice that is rarely applied.

  Sometimes with Scripture, what people do is they will declare a scripture which is good. However, some Scriptures instruct us to take action. They are not decree Scriptures, they are do or take action Scriptures. For example, James 4:7 instructs us, “Submit yourselves to the Lord. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” You can't just say that Scripture and have it work for you. You must actively submit to God, and you must actively resist the devil. When you have applied the action, you will obtain the promised result.

  In closing, I think it is okay to have an addiction if that addiction is an addiction to Jesus or If it is an addiction to His presence. Then there is one other addiction that I think is okay. I think it is okay to have a desire to be addicted to do right versus having an addiction to be right.

Below is the audio version of this message

Allow God to Glorify Himself in Every Circumstance

 Are you looking at every situation from a perspective of God's desire to glorify Himself in it? From the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, we see that God has been glorifying Himself. Through the things that He has done, it's been to bring glory to himself. Even Jesus said, “Everything I do is to glorify My Father in heaven, and so I felt like the Lord, wanted us to reflect today on every situation we have faced and those we are currently facing. Do we trust him in every situation? Do we look at every situation that we face and every situation that's happening in the world today, from a perspective that God wants to glorify Himself in it?

  Abraham had an amazing dream. It was a frightful dream, because God told him He was going to make him a father from many nations. Then God gave Abraham an intense dream, and in the dream Abraham saw the Israelites were going to be in bondage for 400 years. It was a terrifying dream. Who wants to have a dream like that? I believe Abraham had to look at that from a perspective that God was going to glorify Himself in it, and He did.

  Then Moses comes on the scene, and God used Moses to bring the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt. As we read through the Book of Exodus we see that God glorified Himself through the entire process. All the things happening with Pharaoh, God did. The plagues and the parting of the Red Sea was all to glorify Himself. God had the Israelites caught between the Egyptians and the Red Sea. There was no way in and of them, to rescue themselves from that situation. Why did God set it up that way? To glorify Himself.

  So why do things happen in our lives; the hardships, the pain, all the struggles? Sit for a minute and think about all the times you were in a situation between a rock and a hard place. Think of places where you couldn’t go back, and in-and-of yourself you couldn’t go forward.  Were you able to see how many times you determined that the only way forward was to allow God to glorify Himself in your situation? Lord, pour out your spirit and show us every situation where we were between a rock and a hard place. Lord, I want to thank You for every situation I have faced in the past, every situation that I'm going to face in the future. I thank You for every one of them because You're going to use them to bring glory to yourself.

I'm going to read Exodus 24:15-18 from the New King James Version.

 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

I sense the Lord wanted me to ask all of you these questions. “Do you want to go into the cloud?” “Do you want to go into the glory?”

 What does the glory do? It heals. It delivers. It gets our mind right. It changes our perspective. It sets things in order. That's where Moses went. He received the 10 commandments while in the glory. The glory sets things in order. If you have a situation in your life where you feel like your life is out of order, get in the glory. I didn't have a message this morning until we were in worship. I received the message during the song called, “Let the Weight of Your Glory Fall.” The lyrics, “let the weight of your glory cover us” stood out to me. Why? Why do we want that? Why do we want the weight of his glory to rest upon us?

So the Lord spoke something to me in a dream a few years ago. It is nugget worth writing down. If you're taking notes, mark this down in your “nugget” section. In the dream I was standing near a car and I was sharing something with someone. Suddenly the Lord came around the car while I was sharing information with this other person. He said, “Declaring a thing is good, but believing what you declare is better.”

I have this teaching series and I call it “The Power of Choice.” This is nugget number two and again worth writing down. This is what the Lord spoke to me this morning.  There are people who read My word. There are people who hear My word. There are people who even declare My word. There are people who preach My word. There are people who sing my word. I am looking for people who believe My word. Which one are we?

Do you know how to get in the glory? You choose to get in the glory. Moses chose to go up into the cloud. Moses chose to go to the top of the mountain. Moses chose to be in God's glory for 40 days and 40 nights. He chose it. The power of choice. Everybody else chose to stay at the bottom of the mountain. Often we want to be victims, continuing to focus on the things that happened to us. Or, we focus on what we feel others have done to us. Here is nugget number three. Your situation may not be what someone did to you. Your situation may be something that God did or is doing for you. Why? We belong to Jesus. Our life is not our own. We don't get to glorify ourselves. Our lives are not meant to bring glory to ourselves. Even though we man have an anointing, it's not about us. It's about bringing glory to God. It's about allowing Him to glorify Himself in it.

I have nine other siblings, and when I was approximately 3 years old, my mom and dad split up. We were taken to our grandparents house on my father's side. Before I continue, I want to say this, I am able to look at this from a perspective of giving God glory. From my perspective, if my grandparents hadn't taken in six kids, we would have gone into a foster care system. Most likely we would have been split up. We were abused, and even though we were in an abusive situation we were able to stay together as siblings. The reason I bring this up is because we all have an opportunity to choose how we are going to perceive what life deals to us. Some choose to turn to drugs. Some choose to turn to alcohol. Some choose to turn to promiscuous behavior. I chose to become a workaholic. I found my value in my work. I found my value in the approval of man. I'm bringing this up because of the power of choice. I was a perfectionist. I did everything that I did, trying to gain approval from mankind. Then I got born again. From that experience I had this aha moment. I realized that my life is not about having a clean house. I used to pull out my stove and refrigerator every week and clean under it. When I got the revelation that being a perfectionist and having a clean house didn’t matter to anyone at the end of the day.  So, with that revelation as I started to learn the word of God, I made choices that aligned with the His word, and I poured myself into reading, learning, and studying the word. But I didn't just learn, read, and study. I do what it says. It's a choice. And when I want to get into the presence of God, when I want to get into the glory of God, it's a choice I make. It's not because I'm better than anybody else. Now God can come down with His glory and smack somebody with His glory anytime He wants because He's God and He gets to do what He wants. But the question was asked, “how do we get there?” The power of choice…

  I have this teaching that I've done over the years. I worked at a place where I was able to do some women’s ministry. We would be talking about different subjects, and one the subject of marriage would always come up. The single women wanted to be married, but fear would begin to rise and they would say things like, “What if I find a husband and he's abusive?” “What if he's an adulterer?”  “What if he's this?” “What if he's that?” So, I went to the white board and drew a horizontal line and then I drew a vertical line down the middle to make a Cross. On one side I wrote, “The truth.” On the other side I wrote, “The Lie”. On the “truth” side under the horizontal line, I would write, “My desire is for a husband that is righteous, just, full of grace, full of love, a man that will adore me.” You know all the good things that we want in a husband. Then I would write all the negative things they were saying on the “lie” side of the Cross. “I'm afraid to have a husband because maybe he'll be abusive.” “Maybe he'll be an adulterer.” “Or maybe he won’t love God.” “Maybe this and maybe that.” “What if, what if, what if?” There was a really long line of lies and a few simple truths listed. Then I would say to these women, “which one do you want?” Of course, they all picked the “truth” side. Then I would reply, “Then choose that. Pick that. Pick one side. Don't ride the fence. You have the choice to pick the truth or the choice to pick the lie.” It was such a revelation to them due to their upbringing or their recent situations.

How much does it glorify God when we are constantly defeated by the enemy when Jesus has already overcome the enemy.  We are already seated with Him in heavenly places. Jesus is not defeated by Satan. He is not defeated by those lying demons, and we are already seated with Him in these heavenly places. The Bible tells us we are co-heirs.

¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba,^[e] Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:12-17

  So, I sensed the Lord wanted you to get a revelation today about the power of choice and the revelation and power of understanding that Moses chose to go up the mountain and he chose to step into God’s glory. When Moses came down that mountain, he brought God’s glory with him. His face was glowing, and people were afraid. Moses chose to step into it, and we can choose that too!

  I see so many are so afraid of so many things. Fear is the number two deception the enemy uses against God’s people. The number one deception is his cunning lies. He is the Father of Lies and his whole purpose is to deceive. The Israelites that were at the bottom of the mountain were afraid of “what if.”  I have encountered many of God’s people that are afraid of “what if.” I believe there's a spirit of “what if” that wages war against us. But what if we made the choice to step into the glory cloud? If we looked at our fears of “what if” and all the negative stuff we think about, we have to ask the question, “how does fear serve us?” How does fear serve anyone? It doesn't serve us. It oppresses us. It causes lack. It causes oppression. It causes depression. It causes us to miss out on tremendous blessings. But what if you just decided to step into the glory?

Here's the beautiful thing and one more nugget. We can choose it, and we should choose it. Why? Because in the glory there's healing. In the glory there's deliverance. In the glory there's nothing but truth.

  I remember being in a meeting one time. I've been in several meetings where this has happened, but this one particular time was the very first time I fully recognized it.  God asked me to put a meeting together where the focus was bringing prophetic people together. This was a meeting for people who had prophetic gifts, but they were in churches where the setting didn’t offer an opportunity for them to operate in their gifts. In this gathering, the worship was so intense because we entered the glory. The presence of God and the weighty glory of God was so powerful that we were worshipping, prophesying, and sharing for hours. I was standing the entire time and after a few hours I realized that I had zero pain in my body. Then God revealed this principle to me about His glory. We left meeting and on the drive home, suddenly my legs start hurting like crazy.

  So, imagine what it's going to be like in heaven. No more tears, pain, or suffering. Why? Because we will be in God’s glory and there is none of that there. My perspective of getting into the glory is this. Telling your flesh to just shut up and realizing it's not about us. We are getting in the glory because we desire to be God's presence. We are not getting in the glory because we want something from Him. We are  getting in the glory because we simply desire to be in His presence.

  That is why Moses didn't hesitate to go up to the mountain. All he wanted was God. All he wanted was God's presence. He knew that mankind could offer him nothing. He came down off that mountain and they had created a golden calf. That group of people had nothing to offer him. Mankind cannot meet our needs like the glory and God's presence will. Getting into the glory is just making a choice to worship. It is making a choice because there's power in making that choice.

  I remember one time I was reading a book by Smith Wigglesworth, a powerful man of God. All he did was read the Bible and believe God. God said it. It was true. God said do it. He did it. Simple. I was reading a testimony in a book that was written about Smith's work and his ministry. Suddenly, I was so overcome as I was sitting up in bed just reading these accounts of Smith Wigglesworth ministry. I was completely overcome by God's goodness, by his amazing ability to work through a yielded vessel. I started sobbing uncontrollably and I just started saying I praise you Lord, I praise you Lord, it is all I could say. I continued, I praise You, Lord. Then, I got down out of my bed and onto the floor and I just started saying, “I praise You, Lord, I praise You Lord.”  I said it over and over. I was humbled before Him. I was humbled before Him because He did the most amazing miracles through Smith Wigglesworth. I was so humbled and all I could say is “I praise You Lord, I praise You Lord.” And the weight of His glory filled my bedroom. It was tangible! It was tangible and I was almost afraid. No, I was afraid because I was humbled and the fear of the Lord was on me, but I was being ministered to in the glory. It was a reverent fear of God. For approximately two hours, I just let Him minister to me while I just rested in His glory. Then I started to feel it lift. It's a tangible thing. His glory is a tangible thing. You really can feel the weight of it. It's a choice, and it comes through praise it comes through simply desiring to be in His presence. If you want to be used mightily by God, push yourself out of the way and yield to what He wants to do. Yield all of your situations, all of your circumstances and give him permission to glorify Himself in it. Give Him permission.

So, just say this with me. “Lord God Almighty, right now in this moment, I humble myself and I make a choice and I give you permission to glorify Yourself in my every situation. In the name of Jesus. Amen!

Thank you for joining us for this teaching. We would love to hear your testimony of how God has ministered to you through this teaching. If you would like to share your testimony, please e-mail us at onlybelieve@paulashaughnessy.com. Bless you, and I encourage you to choose to only believe what God says about you.

Below is the audio version of this message.

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There are so many great individuals and organizations popping up all around us. Many know about those that have already created a large following. I wanted to dedicate this blog post to some up and coming individuals and organizations that have been an incredible blessing to me! I pray you will check them out as I believe they could be an incredible blessing to you as well.

1. Daniel J. Shaughnessy - I admit, I could be showing favoritism because he is my awesome husband. However, he is a bundle of talent. He leads worship at our sweet little church, but much of his talent is yet to be discovered. He writes amazing songs that go well beyond worship songs. He has written a screen play which I strongly believe would be an excellent movie. He can do other voices and could make a career of it if he wanted to. Below is a link to his YouTube channel with a few of his songs. Close your eyes and focus on the lyrics, allowing the Lover of your soul to minister to you. https://www.youtube.com/@djshaug1 Link

2. Inheritance Ministries - Erin, the founder of Inheritance Ministries flows profoundly in the gift of prophetic revelation. So far she is the only other person I have met that is crazy passionate about dream interpretation. We love sharing our dreams with one another, gleaning prophetic and symbolic insight from each other. Erin is a deliverance minister and Holy Spirit led and powerful intercessor. If that is all she had to offer the Body of Christ it would far exceed "enough" status! However, she also flows in prophetic creation gifts that will blow your mind. She has developed anointed fragrance oils with ingredients and revelation given by Holy Spirit. The revelation comes to pass in the user's life. Shut up!! No really, I am living proof! In addition, she does prophetic painting. The paintings are more than just a painting you frame and display in your home. These prophetic paintings manifest the revelation in the painting. I strongly recommend getting her on your calendar to host a painting class for yourself or a group. Seriously awesome saucy! Here is her link. https://inheritanceministries.com/ Link

3. The Nation's Glory Barn, Waldorf, MN - Where's Waldorf? The Nation's Glory Barn is a gem hidden in Southern, Minnesota down a dirt road in the middle of corn fields and soy beans. I didn't know anything about this ministry until June 2022. They are also known as JR's Barn, a popular wedding venue. In His rock star creative way, God told the founders to start hosting prophets because He wants JR's Wedding Venue to be a wedding venue for the Bride of Christ!! Joel and Renae are the founders and this is where the name JR's Barn originated. There are a lot of organizations that host prophets, but they are not all Joel and Renae. Renae's heart for all who set foot on this property and for those that watch online, is for everyone to feel loved. She oozes love. So, pack a lunch and take a road trip to Southern, MN and visit The Nation's Glory Barn so you can answer the question, "Where's Waldorf!" https://www.thenationsglorybarn.org/ Link

4. Kingdom of God Resources & Training - Founders Mike & Leslie Kelzenberg have been providing God-centered resources and training as long as I have known them. Recently, they made things "official" if you will and they know have a building in Cambridge, MN. This building has UNTAPPED potential to say the least. This is an amazing venue for small to mid-size events. I have used it to host my Dream Interpretation Round Table event, Biblical Principles for Ruling & Reigning in the Marketplace conference, and recently we held a Christian Music Concert. This venue stands out due to their Kingdom mindset regarding their fees for renting the building. They use a "free will offering" model versus a large flat rate fee commonly used by venue renters. This makes a way for every believer, rich or not rich yet, to share their message and their talents in a public setting. Check them out here. https://kingdomofgodresourcesandtraining.com/ Link

That's all for now! Thank you for visiting my blog!!

Click on my YouTube Channel to see other videos in this series.

How will God fulfill His promise in Romans 8:28? And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. How can God take a virus pandemic and an economic collapse and work it together for good? It's not our responsibility to figure out how He will do it. It is our responsibility to only believe that He can and will do it.

In May of 2019 I posted a video with the details of this vision. Today I want to share the vision again in a written format. The video share a lot of details that led up to the vision and the process/timeline of the revelation of the vision. Please listen to the video for those details. In this post, I want to focus on the vision and the interpretation only.

I was on my knees praying about the mission trip to Eagle Mountain and I was repenting for allowing a spirit of Jezebel to operate in our lives. Suddenly, I saw the following:

Vision Date: May, 2013

Vision: I saw Washington on the Nickel, Abraham Lincoln on the $5 bill, a chubby face and the word Grant.

Interpretation Date: November, 2018

Interpretation: God put a President in office that will be a "first" like Washington, a President that will free slaves like Lincoln, and like Ulysses S. Grant, this President will focus on justice and reformation of the nation.

Exhortation: God gave me the interpretation after these things were already in motion as a testimony and a "proof" if you will that HE indeed is in control. Yes, we still have to pray. However, I believe we should pray from a position of victory and thanksgiving. We must believe that God STILL has the ability to do the IMPOSSIBLE.

Most can comprehend the concept that President Donald Trump is a "first" like Washington. Most can see the parallel with Grant's focus on justice and reformation. What about this concept of setting slaves free? More to the story. SO MUCH MORE... Pay attention and brace yourself.

There have been several prophetic voices over the past two years delivering prophetic words about God doing a "RESET". I believe we are in the midst of that reset. We have been in a modern day Egypt, held hostage by corrupt people who put corrupt systems in place for dishonest and personal gain. God HATES dishonest gain and unjust usury and HE is doing something about it. So, take a deep breath. Follow the President's social distancing and shelter in place instructions as this has significance beyond what seems obvious. Abide in the Secret Place of the Most High GOD (Psalm 91:1). You will be protected there and that is where you will find the PEACE that passes all understanding.

God bless you all.

On April 2, 2019 I had the following dream. It is both an encouragement and a warning. It is an encouragement to those that have been praying for the United States of America to turn back to God yet, discouraged by the level of wickedness and perceived lack of Godly justice. It is a warning to those that oppose God, but He urges them to repent and turn away from the wickedness. Please pray for individuals but specifically leaders that are ensnared by then enemy, claiming to be Christians but do all manner of evil. 

I dreamt that I used some type of rope to pull ice off the roof of a house. As the ice came down, it pulled off a portion of the old dilapidated portion of the very top part of the roof. Suddenly there were three men on top of the roof restoring this very top portion with new material/wood. This top portion was the part of the roof that is at the point of the roof. The three men were using a lot of strength to repair this roof. It was very hard and difficult to restore this section of the roof. Suddenly I am on the roof with the three men. I was helping but the three of men were doing the hard part.

 Then there was a scene in a basement where I was mixing coffee in three Styrofoam cups. Though I am in the basement, I am at the top of the basement on a shelf. It was like I was full size but also small as I was on this shelf elevated above the basement floor, under the main floor. Some of the coffee spilled out of one of the cups. Then I notice there was a small opening, like a way of escape or a way to "get out". There was a ladder that lead to this opening, but it blocked part of the opening, so the small opening was very narrow. Even though it was narrow, I knew I would be able to get through it. 

The scene changed again and now I am observing. The roof repairs are complete, and the top is now restored. Suddenly, three people that were in the basement were now standing in front of the house. It was daylight and the sky seemed clear. I mention this because in the first scene, it was cold and gloomy.

As I was waking up and pondering this dream, I had a vision of a Scripture and I knew it to be a passage from Isaiah. I also knew it started with "Woe to them" even though I didn't see it long enough to read the words. I fervently asked Holy Spirit to tell me what Scripture it was, and I heard "Isaiah 30".

Isaiah 30:1 NKJV “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin;

I asked the Lord to clarify who the "rebellious children" are. I was prompted to read previous verses in chapter 29. Verses 20 and 21 stood out to me.

Isaiah 29:20-21 AMP For the tyrant will come to an end and the scorner will be finished, Indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off—Those who cause a person to be condemned with a [false] word, And lay a trap for him who upholds justice at the [city] gate, And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

Then He said, "The rebellious children are those that say they are Christians but do all manner of evil. They rebel against My plan, against My anointed, they rebel against My Holiness, they rebel against My Word and My Spirit."

Meaning of the Dream:

• Three men represent God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Holy Spirit.
• In the roof scene, I represent the Bride of Christ and how God intends the Church to function. God wants His Bride, the Body of Christ to pull down the corruption at the top and stand with and come alongside Him to restore and build back up godly leadership in the church and over the nation. God is doing all the heavy lifting to restore things at the top by His Power, His Word, and His Holy Spirit. He is encouraging the Church to stand with Him, to partner with Him in this work, coming alongside Him in Spirit and Truth.
• As godly leadership is being restored/replaced with "new" material/leadership, He is exposing the hidden things and bringing the wicked people out into the open where they will be exposed to the Light.
• In the basement scene, I represent the “rebellious children/believers” that appear to be godly, but they are devising plans/mixing truth with error.
• The three cups of coffee being mixed are two-fold. They represent the mixing of truth and error and they represent three woes. The first woe is beginning to be poured out. However, there is a way of escape, but the way is narrow. The rebellious children must repent from the wickedness that they are doing and come out of the darkness/basement. They must choose the narrow way or woe to them. It is God’s desire that they repent and turn back to Him because He wants none to perish.
• He has provided the way out of the darkness. He has placed the ladder in position that leads to the narrow way but the "rebellious children" must repent and choose the narrow way. They must come out through the narrow way.

Luke 13:24-30 NKJV

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.  When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’  then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’  But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.  They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God.  And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV)

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Revelation 18:4-8 (NKJV)

And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

Prayer Focus: Lord, we pray for the “rebellious children” to receive a revelation from heaven about their wrong doing, wrong beliefs and wrong mindsets. We ask You to give them dreams, visions and whatever it takes to turn their heart back to the Father. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we bind the spirits of deception and release the Spirit of Truth over these rebellious children/leaders. Lord, we ask You to release a spirit of repentance upon them, that would cause them to repent and turn from the wickedness. Father, thank You for Your Love, Grace and Mercy and that You desire that none should perish. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Paula Shaughnessy's Only Believe - paulashaughnessy.com

Happy Wednesday Only Believers! 

There have been a lot of prophetic words over the past two to three years about "The Suddenly's of God". Maybe you have been wondering if "The Suddenly's of God will ever happen to you or for you. Maybe you were moving forward and focusing on what you thought was God's plan for your life and then "all of a sudden", there was a shift and you found yourself in a situation that seemed like you were going in the opposite direction. I want to encourage you today that if and when this happens, please know that God is still for you and He is still very much in control.

Two years ago I was launching the Paula Shaughnessy's Only Believe ministry and suddenly I found myself working at a job outside the home. I was not expecting this and I was not expecting to be working at this job as long as I did. However, I knew in my spirit and by confirmation that came randomly through others that this was where I was supposed to be for this season. Before I started this job, I was making teaching videos, leading prayer calls, and teaching how to "Transform Your Mind to Only Believe" what God says. Well suddenly I didn't have time to make the videos. Suddenly my website would even go into edit mode and I couldn't figure out how to make it work. Then my phone died without warning. I purchased a new phone and suddenly my voicemail stopped receiving voicemails. The phone company couldn't figure it out either. I was so busy with the job that I didn't keep pursuing a solution for the voicemail or the website. In addition, suddenly all of the entries on my blog disappeared one day! You can't make this stuff up!!

I am telling you all of this because I want to encourage you to believe that "The Suddenly's of God" are VERY real. In the past 2.5 weeks the following has all of a sudden happened.

1. Suddenly, I knew I needed to quit this job. 

2. A couple days after I quit the job, my voicemail suddenly started working.

3. Today, I needed to renew my website and suddenly it went into "edit mode" without issue.

4. Suddenly, a friend shared a prophetic word that she received for me confirming that God had me in a season "out of the crowds" for a special time of equipping and preparation for the new season.

You just can't make this stuff up! Stay encouraged and Only Believe that God has an amazing plan and purpose for you and your "Suddenly of God" is just around the corner!

Choose to Have a Great Day!

Paula Shaughnessy