Dear Friends, There are so many wonderful prophetic words concerning the amazing glory and vindication the Body of Christ is beginning to experience. My heart is stirred with faith and expectancy to see God continue to empower His Body in greater ways and with the fullness of His Spirit! At the same time, there is even greater resistance from the enemy, who continues to do everything in his power to stop the advance of God’s army. Today, I want to share with you a powerful vision the Lord gave me to show us how to overcome this resistance! Early this morning, Holy Spirit awakened me and began speaking about specific types of prophets that are going to arise. He called them “Prophetic Specialists.” 
These "prophetic specialists" will be trained in the School of the Holy Spirit to carry anointings and words of knowledge unique to specific or unusual situations. They will be so accurate in their giftings that the words of truth they deliver will be considered signs and wonders in themselves! The Spirit took me to the book of Ezekiel 40-42, where a description of the unbuilt (likely millennial) temple includes measurements of gateways, the altar, and city and governmental boundaries in highly specific, mathematical dimensions. This, Holy Spirit said, indicated the degree of specificity that the Lord intends to release through a new class of prophets. The Lord will respond to the enemy’s heightened attacks and demonic expansion with increased signs and wonders from heaven. Detailed words of knowledge and specific prophecies will help minimize hindrances as the Bride of Christ moves toward her desired goals and objectives. Dear Friends: In this Jewish month of Tevet, I believe the Lord is challenging His Beloved not just to grow up, but to give up! He is looking for those whose hearts are fully surrendered, or given up, to Him. God's desire for your wholeheartedness is not selfish. In fact, it is your best form of protection. Your choice can be a matter of life and death. As a Christian, the war you fight against a satanic enemy is a war over your heart. All other wars are rooted in this foundational battle over the dominion and territory of the heart. (See James 4:1-4.) God wants you to win this war. Yet in order to win the war, you must humble yourself and surrender to God. To fail to surrender is to become God's enemy. The Lord once said to me: “A surrendered heart is all I need. No matter what you are going through, your surrender to Me is the key to victory. You may not have all the answers; you may not even see the way ahead of you, but a simple surrendering of yourself once again is the yieldedness that will allow Me to move you forward.” 
Dear Friends, During a prayer retreat before Rosh Hashanah / New Year 5783, I experienced several profound encounters in the Glory of God. These are some of the things the Lord revealed to me during that time. Every word from our Lord’s mouth is like a cup of compassion. His life-giving words are liquid love, meant to sustain body, soul, and spirit! While this is a slightly longer word for the year, I encourage you to meditate on each portion of what He’s shared with me, allowing the depth of His wisdom and love to penetrate your hearts. The eight sections of this word are listed below. Feel free to read one section at a time, pausing to pray and allow Holy Spirit to minister truth to you at this significant time!
Deborah Dear Friends,I hear the Lord saying to the weary: “I am your Lifeline and your Rescuer!” In a vision this week, I saw the Lord Jesus holding a thick rope which extended from heaven to earth. His desire was to rescue His people by drawing them up higher with Him in the Spirit. The ones who took hold of the Lord to ascend in this way were deposited on a cloud in the heavens. All around them was darkness. I heard the Lord say that He was a “Lifeline” and a “Rescuer.” When I asked the Lord about the cloud, which was very high above earth and surrounded by a vast space, He spoke into my ears a verse from Psalm 18:19: “He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” 
Dear Friends, Happy New Year! This word for 2022 can be viewed and shared on YouTube as well as on the blog for those who prefer to watch or listen. I believe what the Lord is sharing with me at this time will be a blessing to you as you set your focus on the new year! At the end of this post you’ll also find a link to a companion study sheet which you can download or print for free. On Christmas night, I was awakened by the Lord at 3:16 AM. Throughout that night, I was also given a series of three related dreams, which I will share below. When I awoke from the third dream, I heard this phrase ringing loudly in my ears: “2022 is the year of VISION and PROVISION!” VISION and PROVISION are significant themes for the Body of Christ in 2022. The Lord wants you to know He is releasing KEYS OF DELIVERANCE this year which will UNLOCK your ability to SEE more clearly and RECEIVE more abundantly! Using the “code” of 3:16, Holy Spirit highlighted a number of specific scriptures as He unfolded this word. The verses are included below, woven into the content of the prophetic word itself. 
Dear Friends, I’m sending a brief post today to let you know that during the month of September, His Inscriptions will be offline as I spend extended time in prayer. One of our His Inscriptions readers, a longtime friend and intercessor herself, has graciously shared her home with me while she and her husband travel to Europe. My amazing family has also released me to rest and focus exclusively on the Lord during this time. (Give them some love if you're nearby!) It’s interesting to me that Christians call prayer times like these retreats. I’d much rather call them advances! When we take time to rest from labor and seek the Lord’s face, we tap into spiritual empowerment like no other. Not even an expensive vacation can recharge the human spirit the way time with the Lord can - because it’s the ministry of the Spirit that gives life to both body and soul! As I “advance” to a more private location with the Lord, I’ve asked my dear friend and board member Elizabeth Cartier to share her thoughts with you on the importance of rest, in hope that you’ll join me in focusing more deeply on the Lord this month. Special thanks to those who have sent me encouraging words lately. I value your prayers for protection, refreshment, and clarity as I tune my ears to our Good Shepherd’s wonderful voice! Blessings, Deborah In 2006, author Rick Joyner wrote that a time was coming when churches would look more like military bases than church gatherings. I believe that time is imminent. With the worldwide pandemic-induced shutdown, the widespread demise of church as we know it, and virtually every one of the seven mountains being shaken, those who now take a stand for Christ must be unusually bold and courageous. In these last days we must be as militant about defending our faith as the enemy is about destroying it. God is calling soldiers in the Church to arise as mighty warriors and deliverers in this time. Not all will accept the call, but those who press in to pursue the Lord now are the ones whom God can call upon later. I had a dream from the Lord this week which truly alarmed me. In the dream, I saw that the Church at large, Christ’s Bride, was being systematically seduced by a man who was familiar to her. He was a “believer” and an active participant in countless local and regional ministries. Because this man was working toward the same goals and supposedly serving the same Lord, the Bride willingly gave herself to his service in the deepest sense of the word. The Bride (represented in the dream by a variety of different women) bore his children and nurtured them as best as she could. However, once the children were born, the man returned to each one of the women, exposing himself as a liar, not a lover of God. Though operating within the Church, he was anti-Christ. 
“There is a time for everything,” the Preacher of Ecclesiastes writes, yet one of the hardest lessons to learn is to watch and wait for God’s perfect timing! This week, as I listened to the Lord in the still of the night, I heard Him speak about timing, and the times we are living in. His insights helped me immensely, and I pray they will be a blessing to you as well. Here is what I heard Him say... 
For the past few weeks, the Lord has been bringing to my mind a vision as I’ve reflected on prayer. The scene is so unlikely to ever happen in the natural that it is almost humorous! Yet the Lord is impressing on me that this scenario happens daily in the lives of many believers, and spiritually, it can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Today I’d like to share this vision with you because I believe it identifies a particular problem we face in prayer and gives us a strategy for greater victory. This vision could be the one major reason why Christians are defeated on the battlefield, and I don’t want you to be a casualty! As I listened to the Lord this week, I heard God saying that He is cultivating in His people an ability to work through the noise and distractions of battle right now. It is so easy to be distracted by the sights and sounds of spiritual war! The battlefield can be a painful, ugly place, and not an easy road. For those of you who feel like you are in the middle of a battlefield today, I hear the Lord saying, “I am calling My people to take a higher view of their territory, looking up from those wounded and slain who are past help and returning wholeheartedly to their true mission, which is to make Me known. Do not be surprised by the torments of the enemy! Learn to live and thrive in the midst of his noise, for I will create an oasis of peace for you if you look only to Me. “Ten thousand will fall at your right hand” - you will see My miracles here on the battlefield more clearly than in any other place of your life, and praise Me for My goodness! Your praise will then become a gateway to greater victories overall, as others around you join in your song. I will set ambushes against the one who destroys when you repeatedly surrender to Me on your battlefield. Don’t look around you, but look UP to the heavens and see My salvation. My mercy is always at hand. Only believe and you will see My goodness!" Standing with you for your victories! Deborah 
Happy New Year! This week I am continuing to release a Prophetic Word for 2019. I believe that this lengthier word will be easier to "digest" in smaller portions than as a whole. For those who prefer a "multi-course meal," click here to read the complete word for 2019! Today's portion - part 2 - concerns both strategy and spiritual government for the coming year. Just as Israel moved with the pillar of cloud and fire, which stood between them and their Egyptian enemies, it will be important to stay close to the Lord and move with Him to experience His rest and protection! 
If you’ve been a Christian for even a short time, you’ve already realized that despite God’s promises of both eternal and internal peace, you’re constantly confronted with the enemy’s plans for chaos and suffering! As soon as you begin to get serious about prayer, the enemy gets equally serious about keeping you out of your “secret place” in a bid to rob you of your peace. He knows, as you do, that prayer is the difference between a defeated warrior and a powerful victor. This is one compelling reason why we pray: because we have a supernatural enemy. 
Sometimes the voice of the enemy is LOUD. Embarrassing. Even publicly humiliating. Sometimes the devil is uncomfortably close to home. Like a strong-willed child, he tries to draw you into a power struggle. He hopes you will cave to the factual truths of his accusations against you. Has this happened to you? It happened to King Hezekiah. And it’s happened to me. The question is, what do you do? 
"Freedom from Fear"
In 1943, artist Norman Rockwell created a series of four oil paintings which would become known as the Four Freedoms. Based on a wartime speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, these paintings depicted basic human rights that later became a part of the United Nations charter, including Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. This last painting, Freedom from Fear, is the image that the Lord brought to my mind early this morning. 
It’s easy to be excited about prophetic words, especially when they promise growth, expansion, restoration, or blessing. The prophetic word I released at the beginning of 2017 contained all of those. God is speaking about Kingdom expansion in the coming year. Yet God also gave us a prophetic mandate to re-examine Nehemiah’s “growth strategies,” found in the scriptures. This post on discouragement is the first in a series I will write on combating the enemy’s attacks during a time of growth. 
In prayer this week, I felt the Lord's desire to know His people - really know us, intimately. Sometimes we think this isn't possible because it seems so hard to hear Him. Into this difficulty, God desires to speak hope, because from His perspective, things look VERY different! The following words are what He gave me to share with you. 
As I write to you on this Election Day, the winner of the 2016 election has not yet been determined. Even as this decision unfolds, the Lord is stirring me to remind you that the warfare and deception we have seen on a national level applies to believers at an individual level. Satan, our enemy, is still "seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8.) To forget this would be to surrender again to an apathy far more dangerous. Thankfully, many Christians have been stirred by the election process to wake up from apathy and passivity, and are praying fervently for our nation. If you are one of these people, it might comfort you to know that the fear, complacency or even apathy you have felt for some time is not entirely your fault, although the enemy would like you to believe it is! 
The famous comedian, Woody Allen, quips that "eighty percent of success is showing up." I'm not sure about the numbers, but I do think there's some truth in this. Ask any pastor and you will find that one of their primary concerns is how to keep people coming back to church, week after week, when most people simply crave "down time" on the weekends. We are tired, world-weary, and longing for rest. How do we find the energy to "show up" when we feel like there is nothing left to give? Matthew's gospel reads: 
There is a deception in the church today that concerns me. Like all deception, it is based on a measure of truth. But taken too far, it changes from a helpful tool for understanding spiritual seasons, to a prison in which we lock fellow believers and throw away the key. 
I had the unparalleled joy of running around my yard at 6:48 this morning, half-naked in my robe and slippers, chasing eight mutinous chickens who escaped, somehow, from their coop. I'm sure the neighbors thought I'd lost my mind. 
Above my writing desk in my tiny office at home is a wall-art stencil, a quotation that my husband gave me last Christmas. It reads: “Pray about everything. Worry about nothing.” Like many women – mothers especially – I have a tendency to worry. I think my hubby hoped a “subtle” reminder on the wall might cure me of the habit! 
Last week I shared the story of my relationship with my husband. When we married, he said, “Everything I have is yours.” And later, when God walked us through overwhelming financial battles, God repeated those same words to me: “Everything I have is yours.” (Click here to read previous post). He unlocked strategies for me that I had not seen before. Today, I want to give you three of those strategies. 
One of the most common frustrations believers and church workers express to me is that they feel like they don’t hear from God. “It’s easy for you,” they say, “but God just doesn’t speak to me like that!” It is understandable that an unsaved person might not hear from God, lacking a personal relationship with Him. Yet sincere, seeking Christians can also have trouble being confident in what they are hearing. Hearing God is a skill we develop as we mature in our faith. The Bible tells us that all believers can hear from God. Despite what we may feel, each of us has an innate ability to recognize the voice of God. Jesus’ words in John 10:27 give us biblical confirmation of this truth: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
Yet in the uncomfortable absence of a word from God, how do we go about making good choices in our daily lives? Why is it so difficult to hear Him sometimes, even when we do seek Him?
We find the answer in the context of John 10. It would be easy for a sheep to follow a shepherd if there were no other variables in a sheep’s life. But even in the presence of a shepherd, sheep must still be wary of predators. They have enemies who seek to separate them from their place of closeness to the shepherd. Spiritually, we have an enemy, Satan, whose desire for us not to hear is as great as God’s desire for us to hear. The devil uses any means available to separate and confuse us. It’s his job to distract us enough that we no longer stay in our place of safety and protection within the fold. The farther he pulls us away from our Shepherd, the less clearly we will hear. Enemy InterferenceIf you’ve ever tried to talk to someone in a noisy, crowded room, you know how difficult it can be to focus on your conversation. Now add another person to the mix, someone who joins you and interrupts constantly, and you have a picture of how challenging that one dialogue can become. This kind of situation forces us, in the natural, to sharpen our focus. We move in closer to the speaker. Perhaps we ask the the one who joined us to wait while the speaker finishes his thought. We might even step into another room to continue our conversation uninterrupted. Our goal becomes taking control of our environment by decreasing the background noise. Parents of toddlers know exactly what I’m talking about! When the enemy tries to convince us that we don’t hear from God, our best move is always going to be to move closer, or sharpen our focus on Him. In fact, the Word of God says that when we draw near to God, He also draws near to us. (See James 4:8). Why? Because the One we want to hear is as interested in us hearing Him as we are! 5 Ways to Improve Your HearingSo how do we sharpen our focus spiritually? Here are five keys: 1. Believe that God is always speaking and wants us to hear. Decide once and for all that you are created to hear Him and that He is constantly speaking to you! Read John 10, Psalm 50:1, James 1:5-8, and related scriptures to solidify your faith in this area. Speak the truth: I am able to hear God! 2. Be consistent. The only reason it’s “easier” for some people to hear God is because they have made a commitment to listen on a daily basis. Cultivate a friendship with God and make it easy for Him to join you in conversation, just as you would with a friend. Bring a pen and paper with you into your conversations with God, expecting Him to speak. Write down the scriptures or subtle impressions He gives you as you read His Words. Soon, you will develop a history of hearing from Him. Your journal will help sharpen your focus, and reviewing it will be a source of encouragement to you in the times when you don’t feel as sharp in the Spirit. 3. Bind distractions. Realize that there will always be distractions to hearing. You have the authority in Christ to silence the enemy, just as parent tells a noisy child to be quiet. You must use your authority, or he will continue to interrupt you. The enemy sends two types of noise to hinder us: internal and external.
The remedy for external distractions is to go to your “secret place” and close the door. (See Matthew 6:6). How interesting that Jesus says in John 10:2 that the Shepherd is the one who enters by the door. He is the only one to whom we should open our door in our quiet times. When we make time for Him, he responds in kind. When we step away from the external “noise” of life, we are better able to still ourselves and hear from God.
Sometimes the best way to deal with internal noise is to fill our minds and mouths with something else. Playing worship music you can sing along to is a powerful way to adjust our focus. When worry overshadows our Bible reading, it is time to start reading out loud, praying, or confessing scriptural truths instead. Try listening to biblical teachings on YouTube or the internet. It is almost impossible for our minds to dwell on anxious thoughts when our mouths are busy confessing positive ones! 4. Be committed to fellowship. The more you are involved with fellow believers, the more you will grow in hearing God. When we meet together in home groups and church services, we often begin to see “trends” in what God is saying to His people across the Body. I have heard of Sundays when several pastors in our area spoke (unbeknownst to the others) on the exact same topic. I have also seen God confirm private words from my quiet time in public settings like home groups. Being involved with others helps build our confidence that we are hearing correctly. There is a measure of safety in numbers. 5. Be Bold – Act on what you believe. When all else fails, and you still feel you have not been given a specific answer to your problem, move forward in faith, trusting that the God you serve is big enough to adjust your steps if necessary. Don’t allow the enemy to paralyze you with the fear of doing the wrong thing! Many Christians find it helpful to “follow the path of peace,” since Philippians 4:7 says peace is our guardian. As a general rule, if you have serious or lingering concerns about something, that is not the time to step out. I find it helpful to ask, “does this course of action line up with eternity’s values and beliefs?” God gives each of us unique desires as we serve Him. Making decisions that align with our God-given passions for building His kingdom can be a good place to start. Again, God is more than able to correct us or adjust our direction as needed. ConclusionThe reason Jesus can so confidently say, “My sheep hear My voice” is not because of our ability. No, in fact, as animals go, sheep are pretty dense! But Jesus is confident in God’s ability to guide us, even if we do wander off like dumb sheep at times. We, too, need to have faith in God’s sovereignty - that His voice is able to project above all others to guide us. If God can speak to a Muslim in a dream, He can speak to you. If He can make a donkey prophesy, He can speak to you. If He can convert known persecutors of the faith into committed believers, He can speak to you. Once and for all, renounce Satan’s lie that you don’t hear, and ask the Holy Spirit to turn up the volume on God’s voice! 
Deborah Perkins is passionate about connecting others with God. she writes about knowing God and hearing His voice at HisInscriptions.com. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook, or connect with her directly here.
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February 2025
AuthorA severe hearing loss from childhood caused Deborah Perkins to develop what she now calls her secret weapon: tuning in to God's voice. A Wellesley College graduate and an award-winning writer, Deborah is now a wife and mother of 3 boys. Deborah has devoted over 25 years to professional and lay Christian ministry in New England and beyond. Her passion is inspiring people to cultivate greater intimacy with God. 
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