Hello friends, I have two thoughts on my mind today to share with you and we’ll see if they mesh together into one congruent blog post. First, I sought the Lord for a word for 2022 and I will share that small bit with you, and second, an exhortation for the body of Christ.
I, like many of you, take some time at the end of every year to consider the year past and seek the Lord for the year to come. I note where I have grown, how I faced challenges, and how I followed through on the prior year’s commitments to the Lord. Last year I wanted to grow in love. Not the nurturing love, but the love of Christ flowing through which nourishes and sustains beyond what nurturing can do. I felt I did grow, but I also see how far short of the mark I am. This is a characteristic we can all grow in every year until we are taken up to glory. Yes?
I’m proud of the progress I’ve made and give all credit to Jesus, and at the same time, I know I have so far to go. I’m just not going to beat myself up over the shortcomings anymore. I’m getting up, dusting myself off, grabbing the Savior’s hand, and getting back in step with Him. I think this is a good plan.
I sat with the Lord on December 31st which was down to the wire. I usually try to take one to three days to seek Him, but this year just worked out this way. Funny to me is how I often thought I need to wait for Him to get my attention to tell me something. You know, a small unction of the Holy Spirit. Like it is too selfish to sit at His feet and ask Him for a word. What I have learned is He is always here and always ready to speak, I only need to get still and ask the question.
When I sat down with the Lord on December 31st and asked what 2022 held, this is what my pen wrote: “This is a year of recompense. I will repay, says the LORD. I will bring My balance and I will weigh countries, leaders, and My church in My balance. Some will be found wanting, others will find reward. I will repay what is owed to each and they will reap what has been sown. It is not yet too late to repent, but soon is coming more quickly than you think. Get ready. The final reset and recalibration are about to take place and it will be painful for the moment, but the residual effect will be beyond what you can ask or imagine. I Am the LORD and I will do this for My Names’ sake. I will restore My Bride.”
I will say I never give a word with a “thus sayeth the LORD”. It is interesting to me to have this word come with the “for My Name’s sake” and the Old Testament phraseology. I’m not sure what it means except to say I can feel an ancient authority attached to it.
As I write the former, I see how this second piece fits the first. I have been mulling this over in my mind for months and have not been sure it is a for-sharing or for-praying word. Not everything the Lord shares with us is for broadcasting. Much of the time He is inviting us into an intercessory prayer experience with Him and for Him. We need to learn to discern the difference going forward.
This reset and recalibration will do more than restore the Bride to the position she was always meant to occupy, there will also be political resets. Those prayers we have been praying for corruption to be exposed whichever direction you have been praying will come, as well. The thought has been, God cannot answer those prayers for the exposure of corruption and bring the victory until His Bride can receive victory with grace, mercy, and humility. If victory came today, I confess, I am concerned about how the Bride would behave before a lost and broken world. I believe this is one aspect of why God’s hand being stayed.
This, of course, is not the only thing holding victory at bay, but it is an important thing for the Bride to consider. The post-pandemic world does not need an angry-faced, finger-point, I-told-you-so Bride spewing hatred and arrogance. The world is being prepared for harvest. We have two choices: participate in harvest or participate in condemnation. Winning feels good, but it is ugly when the victor demeans the defeated.
Let us keep our hearts tender before the Lord, especially amid this crazy, messed-up world. Then we can graciously extend a hand to our once-deceived brothers and sisters and lift them up to see Him and all He has done for them. This is our all.
He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8