Prophetic Words & Directives for 2006
At the beginning of each year, we like to seek the Lord regarding corporate prophetic words for the body of Christ, as do a number of other ministries. We believe that by looking comprehensively at what the prophets are saying, the church can gain a better perspective of what the Lord is doing and how to better participate with him in the times ahead.
On this note, we would like to recommend a few other messages from respected ministries regarding 2006 in the links throughout this article. Some of their insights I have interwoven here, to give further perspective on what the Lord has been showing us.
Divine Alignment
Some have rightly pointed out the prophetic significance as the Jewish Feast of Lights (Hanukkah) coincided exactly with New Year’s Day 2006. On New Year’s, the eighth candle (representing new beginnings) was lit during this feast, which commemorates the cleansing and retaking of the temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees from the pagan Greek authorities, in the years prior to Christ’s birth. Rick Joyner has posted a more extensive explanation of this. However, we would like to accentuate the point that this is both a year of new beginnings and a year of purification for God’s people. Patricia King has released a timely word for the year, pointing out that the book of Malachi is for this hour. This is because the Lord is revealing Himself as the Refiner and Purifier. It is critical that we take this strategic opportunity to receive purification and deliverance while it is available. We will discuss this further below.
Year of 'natural' preparation
The most prominent word we have been receiving from the Lord is that 2006 will be a year of natural preparation. As the sixth year of the new millennium, we should remember that six is the number of man. This, of course, is different from the number 666, which represents an unholy trinity. Adam was created on the sixth day, and his humanity is symbolic of the “natural” man. For many, this will be a natural year. The Lord wants to plant our feet solidly on the earth, so that we will have a healthy foundation from which we can soar to the heights in the days to come.
For many, there will be a rooting in “normalcy” this year, in order that the Lord can afford to trust us with ascending supernatural heights. We want to be a supernatural people, but not a super-spiritual people that lose touch with the basics of life. Many feel over-extended in their ministry endeavors, and others are experiencing outright burnout. This is largely a result of not having the natural house in order. First the natural, then the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:46).
There is a measure of earthiness that is required to live a healthy life and conduct adequate service for the Lord. We are not talking about “worldliness” but “earthiness.” There is a big difference. Jesus had a human nature, but not a sinful nature. He was fully God, but He was also fully man. Many of us try to become spiritual, but we have not learned how to be a healthy human being first! I have heard it said that we often forsake the lower rungs of Jacob’s ladder. Before we can ascend the heavens, we must have balance within our natural lives. “Balance” is not a good word really, as it is often associated with watering down opposite extremes. But God likes extremes. He desires that we become extremely natural and extremely supernatural at the same time. Jesus was both, but He was not a “balanced” hybrid of the two.
On a practical level, this will entail setting homes in order, building budgets, strengthening family relationships and getting ordinary/mundane things accomplished. These things are necessary, in order to make a platform for coming release of divine power and “super” natural activity in 2007.
Cancellation of debts
This strengthening in the natural activities in life is going to be accompanied by a grace to get out of indebtedness. The Lord will be canceling, as well as helping believers to pay off their debts this year, especially as they work toward implementing better stewardship and organization.
Focus on families
The Lord is about to curb the divorce and abandonment rates of the church. For years, the percentage rates of divorce in the church pretty much resembled those of the world. But as the true church emerges from the false religious fronts of nominalism and apathy, we will begin to see her shining in purity and true love. We are truly at a turning point where these rates are about to bounce backward. This is a year to invest in family relationships.
Year for relationships
This is a strategic year for balancing and building relationships in general. The more time and effort we put into relationships this year, including selfless acts of kindness, the more the Lord will begin to move on our behalf supernaturally.
This is a year for selfless giving. Horizontal relationships need to be strengthened, even as we strengthen our relationship with the Lord. Too often, believers seem to be pursuing the Lord wholeheartedly, but meanwhile they are accumulating a poor reputation for integrity in interpersonal relationships. But as we learn to stop fending for ourselves like fearful orphans, and fend for the needs of others, the Father will begin to give us good gifts this year on an unprecedented level.
Person-to-person relationships have much to do with the “natural” focus of this year. Understand that “natural” does not entail an absence of the supernatural. The Lord will be awakening the ears of His servants morning by morning, and there will be an overwhelming abundance of revelation for the people of God this year. In fact, God wants to be involved in our natural, everyday affairs far more than we realize. God Himself is about to step into our grocery lists, our clothing selection for each day, our conversations at the drug store and just about everywhere we go. There is going to be a merger between our natural lives and our spiritual experience more than ever before, as Heaven and earth draw closer and closer together in these last days.
Many have also labored under pressure, because of the spiritual urgency of the hour. But this must be balanced with the fact that God remembers we are but dust (Ps. 103:14). The spiritual demands for the coming age are so intense, in fact, that they are beyond our natural limitations. This year, God will be setting us in order, so that we do not bear spiritual burdens in our natural strength, but learn how to properly release them to Him. Amid the calamity and storm of the last days, God wants a people of peace and repose who ride firmly in the eye of the storm.
Birthing in secret
In the coming year, the Lord will be issuing a “silent release” of ministries, business, leadership and promotions in the body, as He will be “birthing destinies in secret.” More specifically, He will be birthing ministries “in the Secret Place.”
We see in Revelation 12 that the dragon is waiting to destroy the child just as the woman is giving birth to him. In the same way, the enemy is seeking to take out those new expressions of Christ being birthed into the earth by the church at this time. But just as the child was taken up to God and protected, so will the Lord be drawing many up to Himself, just as their destinies are being birthed.
Moses and Jesus were both hidden at birth, to protect their lives and God-given destinies, both of which would impact all of mankind for the ages to come. In the same way, the Lord will be birthing and releasing this year, away from the spotlight. Before we know it, there will have been an assumption of power for many who have been held back in the body in prior years. This relates to ministry, business, government and other spheres of influence. For many, it will come unexpectedly, and for most, it will be the fruit of developing a secret relationship with the Lord.
We must understand that the Lord is looking for purity, faithfulness and preparedness, in order that He might hand over the keys of the Kingdom to trusted servants. In the same way, this will be a major year of preparation and restructuring. I would also recommend an article by Dutch Sheets on this coming, comprehensive restructuring. The church is headed for drastic shifts, and Dutch is right in emphasizing the severity of this restructuring. It is primarily part of the transition from the church age to the Kingdom age. He makes a valid point that if we pray more this year, we will have less work to do.
It is critical that we do not waste time this year, and that extra time be taken to prepare for the future. We should remember that preparation time is not wasted time. It is critical to trim our wicks and get oil in our lamps, so that we will be ready for the Lord when He moves.
Maturity of both light and darkness
As we are entering the new apostolic age, the gross darkness of the world is getting darker, even as the light of Christ is shining brighter on His people. Both good and evil are coming to their full maturity, together. The wheat and the tares have been growing up alongside one another, and never has the contrast been so extreme between the two.
This year, there will be an even clearer separation of the sheep from the goats. Hypocrisy is being shaken from the church. Everything that can be shaken is being shaken. The true church will be emerging brighter than ever before, as nominal church goers will be brought to the point of true decision, whether to go with the gospel or to reject it.
America still being chastened
Earlier in 2005, prior to the hurricanes that struck the south, the Lord showed us bodies stacked up like cordwood from at least 12 cities in the U.S., primarily smaller communities that felt safe and far removed from potential danger. While this was partially related to the coming storms (honestly, we did not realize it at the time), we had the impression that the Midwest/breadbasket area and East Coast would also be involved as target areas – and this has yet to come to pass. We do not enjoy sharing hard words of this nature, and I want to clearly indicate that God’s heart is for intimacy and restoration. His judgments are only levied in order to remove every hindrance to love. Nevertheless, this is serious business.
With this being said, I should relate that the Lord is still “disciplining America like a Father disciplines a son.” This is not a call to panic, but it is a call to intercession. It is common knowledge that we have the blood of millions of unborn children on our hands. America has also spewed immorality and worldly values across the globe through its media. And despite America’s foreign aid and humanitarian efforts, its economic policies have equally ravaged and oppressed the third world throughout the years.
The Lord loves America, and still has plans to bless her. He still honors our godly heritage, the prayers of the church and our support for Israel. Nevertheless, there is still potential for more natural disasters and terrorist activity. This can be delayed, if not prevented through strategic intercession, but this is a critical time for repentance on a national scale. And the hour is at hand when the people of God will need to pay attention to the prophetic arm of the church like never before.
Healing anointing to increase
In many ways, it may seem like another refining year for the Western church. But the Lord will be preparing us in 2006 for a greater release of the supernatural in 2007.
The healing anointing will continue to increase corporately over the next three years, and if we handle it properly, the Lord can entrust us with a whole new level of the miraculous never before witnessed by the modern church. What we are currently seeing, in terms of the healing anointing, has been “done before” in previous revivals. But right now, we are in a jubilee period of restoration of the Voice of Healing revival that tapered off 50 years ago. If we handle this healing deposit properly – better than they did – then we will be entrusted with an even higher level of supernatural power than they walked in.
This will require greater personal integrity. And the church is being called now to come out of an entertainment-based model and into corporate mobilization. This means there must be willingness for the body to activate and exercise healing prayer in the marketplace. We must also cease to elevate individual ministers who operate in the supernatural and instead, intercede for them. This will be key to seeing these wells of old open further and broader than ever before. Otherwise, we risk another decade or more of setbacks, as well as the potential fall of more prominent ministries.
Release of harvest angels
This is going to be a year of answered prayers – things we have contended for and seeds we have sown over the past 10 or 20 years are going to come to fruition. This is specifically related to a harvest of souls, facilitated by the angelic hosts. Many have noticed an increase in angelic activity in their lives in the past several months, but were unsure of the reason. The reason is this: the harvest!!
I was recently with my 1-year-old when she simply said, “Angel.”
Then my 8-year-old further elaborated, saying, “There’s an angel in the corner.”
After that, my 4-year-old came in with the best part, “There’s five angels and five angels and 10 angels and one angel and two angels.”
Most parents would write off such talk as babble from a child who cannot yet count, but the Lord quickened something to me regarding the number of angels he described:
5-5-10-1-2
Then the Lord led to me Isaiah 55:10-12:
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
There is a return coming on seeds sown long ago, and there will be a rejoicing that accompanies the harvest. Lost loved ones you have been praying about for years are about to come into the kingdom. This is a year of returning prodigals. Families are about to come into the kingdom en masse. This is a year of families. God wants us to focus on families more and more, even as the world will show greater disparity. Prophetic words released over the souls of the unsaved are about to see their fulfillment. Overall, this is a year of the Lord’s divine mandates coming to completion and being returned to him.
Worship and warfare
One of the most important issues at hand is a call to strategic spiritual warfare this year, and those who heed it will receive breakthrough. The enemy is launching specific attacks against the prophetic movement this year. For some, this will be intimidating. For others, the challenge will be viewed as an opportunity for significant advancement. The enemy is about to use some of his best intimidation tactics, so it is important not to get defensive, but remain on the offense.
More precisely, the enemy is now in a state of panic, launching an assault against the merger of the prophet and the evangelist. He seeks to cut off the emerging movement of prophetic evangelism that is paving the way for apostolic reformation. Much of this attack will be on the grounds of personal integrity and holiness issues.
However, what the enemy intends for evil, the Lord plans to use for good. He is far above the coming onslaught, and He is not wringing His hands with fear. Old forms of ministry are sinking like the Titanic, and several months ago, the Lord showed us an angel called “Sovereignty” which actually ministers the sovereignty of the Lord! The Lord intends to use this season of warfare to purify us, deconstruct old wineskins and bring us to the next level.
The restoration of the prophetic office is still relatively new, and the Lord is intent on keeping it refined and purified. As the movement continues to gain acceptability in the church over the next several years, those who operate in deception and immature prophetic giftings run the risk of gaining too much influence. In this sense, the Refiner and Purifier of the book of Malachi is emerging. Although this may seem like a harsh word, the Lord gave me Isaiah 28, which speaks of the Lord’s priests and prophets becoming drunk on the things of the world. It is critical that the church continues to contend for a pure prophetic word, without settling for our current degree of “types and shadows” revelation.
Obviously, there is a grace for growing and developing in our gifting, and I am not talking about “prophets in training” here. What the Lord is cracking down on is personal integrity issues. Nevertheless, there is also a grace from the Lord to develop a “passion for purity” this year, and for those who return to the Secret Place of the Most High, there will be an increase of favor.
This coming attack will take a number of forms, but our strategy for combat is sweet and simple. In a dream I was given Psalm 95:2-4. We must remember that worship is our primary tactic for successful warfare. The Psalmist writes:
Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
Worship warfare is going to bring us to victory this year, and the assaults of the enemy will serve to draw us closer together. Above all, we should contend as our primary goal to draw closer than ever to the Lord’s heart this year. His love is our compass and our guide in the days to come.
Overall, 2007 will be such an intense “spiritual” year, that we need all of 2006 to prepare for it. First the natural, then the spiritual. For those who are faithful in getting their natural houses in order this year, the Lord will entrust reservoirs of spiritual blessing and higher heights in the following year.
On this note, we would like to recommend a few other messages from respected ministries regarding 2006 in the links throughout this article. Some of their insights I have interwoven here, to give further perspective on what the Lord has been showing us.
Divine Alignment
Some have rightly pointed out the prophetic significance as the Jewish Feast of Lights (Hanukkah) coincided exactly with New Year’s Day 2006. On New Year’s, the eighth candle (representing new beginnings) was lit during this feast, which commemorates the cleansing and retaking of the temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees from the pagan Greek authorities, in the years prior to Christ’s birth. Rick Joyner has posted a more extensive explanation of this. However, we would like to accentuate the point that this is both a year of new beginnings and a year of purification for God’s people. Patricia King has released a timely word for the year, pointing out that the book of Malachi is for this hour. This is because the Lord is revealing Himself as the Refiner and Purifier. It is critical that we take this strategic opportunity to receive purification and deliverance while it is available. We will discuss this further below.
Year of 'natural' preparation
The most prominent word we have been receiving from the Lord is that 2006 will be a year of natural preparation. As the sixth year of the new millennium, we should remember that six is the number of man. This, of course, is different from the number 666, which represents an unholy trinity. Adam was created on the sixth day, and his humanity is symbolic of the “natural” man. For many, this will be a natural year. The Lord wants to plant our feet solidly on the earth, so that we will have a healthy foundation from which we can soar to the heights in the days to come.
For many, there will be a rooting in “normalcy” this year, in order that the Lord can afford to trust us with ascending supernatural heights. We want to be a supernatural people, but not a super-spiritual people that lose touch with the basics of life. Many feel over-extended in their ministry endeavors, and others are experiencing outright burnout. This is largely a result of not having the natural house in order. First the natural, then the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:46).
There is a measure of earthiness that is required to live a healthy life and conduct adequate service for the Lord. We are not talking about “worldliness” but “earthiness.” There is a big difference. Jesus had a human nature, but not a sinful nature. He was fully God, but He was also fully man. Many of us try to become spiritual, but we have not learned how to be a healthy human being first! I have heard it said that we often forsake the lower rungs of Jacob’s ladder. Before we can ascend the heavens, we must have balance within our natural lives. “Balance” is not a good word really, as it is often associated with watering down opposite extremes. But God likes extremes. He desires that we become extremely natural and extremely supernatural at the same time. Jesus was both, but He was not a “balanced” hybrid of the two.
On a practical level, this will entail setting homes in order, building budgets, strengthening family relationships and getting ordinary/mundane things accomplished. These things are necessary, in order to make a platform for coming release of divine power and “super” natural activity in 2007.
Cancellation of debts
This strengthening in the natural activities in life is going to be accompanied by a grace to get out of indebtedness. The Lord will be canceling, as well as helping believers to pay off their debts this year, especially as they work toward implementing better stewardship and organization.
Focus on families
The Lord is about to curb the divorce and abandonment rates of the church. For years, the percentage rates of divorce in the church pretty much resembled those of the world. But as the true church emerges from the false religious fronts of nominalism and apathy, we will begin to see her shining in purity and true love. We are truly at a turning point where these rates are about to bounce backward. This is a year to invest in family relationships.
Year for relationships
This is a strategic year for balancing and building relationships in general. The more time and effort we put into relationships this year, including selfless acts of kindness, the more the Lord will begin to move on our behalf supernaturally.
This is a year for selfless giving. Horizontal relationships need to be strengthened, even as we strengthen our relationship with the Lord. Too often, believers seem to be pursuing the Lord wholeheartedly, but meanwhile they are accumulating a poor reputation for integrity in interpersonal relationships. But as we learn to stop fending for ourselves like fearful orphans, and fend for the needs of others, the Father will begin to give us good gifts this year on an unprecedented level.
Person-to-person relationships have much to do with the “natural” focus of this year. Understand that “natural” does not entail an absence of the supernatural. The Lord will be awakening the ears of His servants morning by morning, and there will be an overwhelming abundance of revelation for the people of God this year. In fact, God wants to be involved in our natural, everyday affairs far more than we realize. God Himself is about to step into our grocery lists, our clothing selection for each day, our conversations at the drug store and just about everywhere we go. There is going to be a merger between our natural lives and our spiritual experience more than ever before, as Heaven and earth draw closer and closer together in these last days.
Many have also labored under pressure, because of the spiritual urgency of the hour. But this must be balanced with the fact that God remembers we are but dust (Ps. 103:14). The spiritual demands for the coming age are so intense, in fact, that they are beyond our natural limitations. This year, God will be setting us in order, so that we do not bear spiritual burdens in our natural strength, but learn how to properly release them to Him. Amid the calamity and storm of the last days, God wants a people of peace and repose who ride firmly in the eye of the storm.
Birthing in secret
In the coming year, the Lord will be issuing a “silent release” of ministries, business, leadership and promotions in the body, as He will be “birthing destinies in secret.” More specifically, He will be birthing ministries “in the Secret Place.”
We see in Revelation 12 that the dragon is waiting to destroy the child just as the woman is giving birth to him. In the same way, the enemy is seeking to take out those new expressions of Christ being birthed into the earth by the church at this time. But just as the child was taken up to God and protected, so will the Lord be drawing many up to Himself, just as their destinies are being birthed.
Moses and Jesus were both hidden at birth, to protect their lives and God-given destinies, both of which would impact all of mankind for the ages to come. In the same way, the Lord will be birthing and releasing this year, away from the spotlight. Before we know it, there will have been an assumption of power for many who have been held back in the body in prior years. This relates to ministry, business, government and other spheres of influence. For many, it will come unexpectedly, and for most, it will be the fruit of developing a secret relationship with the Lord.
We must understand that the Lord is looking for purity, faithfulness and preparedness, in order that He might hand over the keys of the Kingdom to trusted servants. In the same way, this will be a major year of preparation and restructuring. I would also recommend an article by Dutch Sheets on this coming, comprehensive restructuring. The church is headed for drastic shifts, and Dutch is right in emphasizing the severity of this restructuring. It is primarily part of the transition from the church age to the Kingdom age. He makes a valid point that if we pray more this year, we will have less work to do.
It is critical that we do not waste time this year, and that extra time be taken to prepare for the future. We should remember that preparation time is not wasted time. It is critical to trim our wicks and get oil in our lamps, so that we will be ready for the Lord when He moves.
Maturity of both light and darkness
As we are entering the new apostolic age, the gross darkness of the world is getting darker, even as the light of Christ is shining brighter on His people. Both good and evil are coming to their full maturity, together. The wheat and the tares have been growing up alongside one another, and never has the contrast been so extreme between the two.
This year, there will be an even clearer separation of the sheep from the goats. Hypocrisy is being shaken from the church. Everything that can be shaken is being shaken. The true church will be emerging brighter than ever before, as nominal church goers will be brought to the point of true decision, whether to go with the gospel or to reject it.
America still being chastened
Earlier in 2005, prior to the hurricanes that struck the south, the Lord showed us bodies stacked up like cordwood from at least 12 cities in the U.S., primarily smaller communities that felt safe and far removed from potential danger. While this was partially related to the coming storms (honestly, we did not realize it at the time), we had the impression that the Midwest/breadbasket area and East Coast would also be involved as target areas – and this has yet to come to pass. We do not enjoy sharing hard words of this nature, and I want to clearly indicate that God’s heart is for intimacy and restoration. His judgments are only levied in order to remove every hindrance to love. Nevertheless, this is serious business.
With this being said, I should relate that the Lord is still “disciplining America like a Father disciplines a son.” This is not a call to panic, but it is a call to intercession. It is common knowledge that we have the blood of millions of unborn children on our hands. America has also spewed immorality and worldly values across the globe through its media. And despite America’s foreign aid and humanitarian efforts, its economic policies have equally ravaged and oppressed the third world throughout the years.
The Lord loves America, and still has plans to bless her. He still honors our godly heritage, the prayers of the church and our support for Israel. Nevertheless, there is still potential for more natural disasters and terrorist activity. This can be delayed, if not prevented through strategic intercession, but this is a critical time for repentance on a national scale. And the hour is at hand when the people of God will need to pay attention to the prophetic arm of the church like never before.
Healing anointing to increase
In many ways, it may seem like another refining year for the Western church. But the Lord will be preparing us in 2006 for a greater release of the supernatural in 2007.
The healing anointing will continue to increase corporately over the next three years, and if we handle it properly, the Lord can entrust us with a whole new level of the miraculous never before witnessed by the modern church. What we are currently seeing, in terms of the healing anointing, has been “done before” in previous revivals. But right now, we are in a jubilee period of restoration of the Voice of Healing revival that tapered off 50 years ago. If we handle this healing deposit properly – better than they did – then we will be entrusted with an even higher level of supernatural power than they walked in.
This will require greater personal integrity. And the church is being called now to come out of an entertainment-based model and into corporate mobilization. This means there must be willingness for the body to activate and exercise healing prayer in the marketplace. We must also cease to elevate individual ministers who operate in the supernatural and instead, intercede for them. This will be key to seeing these wells of old open further and broader than ever before. Otherwise, we risk another decade or more of setbacks, as well as the potential fall of more prominent ministries.
Release of harvest angels
This is going to be a year of answered prayers – things we have contended for and seeds we have sown over the past 10 or 20 years are going to come to fruition. This is specifically related to a harvest of souls, facilitated by the angelic hosts. Many have noticed an increase in angelic activity in their lives in the past several months, but were unsure of the reason. The reason is this: the harvest!!
I was recently with my 1-year-old when she simply said, “Angel.”
Then my 8-year-old further elaborated, saying, “There’s an angel in the corner.”
After that, my 4-year-old came in with the best part, “There’s five angels and five angels and 10 angels and one angel and two angels.”
Most parents would write off such talk as babble from a child who cannot yet count, but the Lord quickened something to me regarding the number of angels he described:
5-5-10-1-2
Then the Lord led to me Isaiah 55:10-12:
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
There is a return coming on seeds sown long ago, and there will be a rejoicing that accompanies the harvest. Lost loved ones you have been praying about for years are about to come into the kingdom. This is a year of returning prodigals. Families are about to come into the kingdom en masse. This is a year of families. God wants us to focus on families more and more, even as the world will show greater disparity. Prophetic words released over the souls of the unsaved are about to see their fulfillment. Overall, this is a year of the Lord’s divine mandates coming to completion and being returned to him.
Worship and warfare
One of the most important issues at hand is a call to strategic spiritual warfare this year, and those who heed it will receive breakthrough. The enemy is launching specific attacks against the prophetic movement this year. For some, this will be intimidating. For others, the challenge will be viewed as an opportunity for significant advancement. The enemy is about to use some of his best intimidation tactics, so it is important not to get defensive, but remain on the offense.
More precisely, the enemy is now in a state of panic, launching an assault against the merger of the prophet and the evangelist. He seeks to cut off the emerging movement of prophetic evangelism that is paving the way for apostolic reformation. Much of this attack will be on the grounds of personal integrity and holiness issues.
However, what the enemy intends for evil, the Lord plans to use for good. He is far above the coming onslaught, and He is not wringing His hands with fear. Old forms of ministry are sinking like the Titanic, and several months ago, the Lord showed us an angel called “Sovereignty” which actually ministers the sovereignty of the Lord! The Lord intends to use this season of warfare to purify us, deconstruct old wineskins and bring us to the next level.
The restoration of the prophetic office is still relatively new, and the Lord is intent on keeping it refined and purified. As the movement continues to gain acceptability in the church over the next several years, those who operate in deception and immature prophetic giftings run the risk of gaining too much influence. In this sense, the Refiner and Purifier of the book of Malachi is emerging. Although this may seem like a harsh word, the Lord gave me Isaiah 28, which speaks of the Lord’s priests and prophets becoming drunk on the things of the world. It is critical that the church continues to contend for a pure prophetic word, without settling for our current degree of “types and shadows” revelation.
Obviously, there is a grace for growing and developing in our gifting, and I am not talking about “prophets in training” here. What the Lord is cracking down on is personal integrity issues. Nevertheless, there is also a grace from the Lord to develop a “passion for purity” this year, and for those who return to the Secret Place of the Most High, there will be an increase of favor.
This coming attack will take a number of forms, but our strategy for combat is sweet and simple. In a dream I was given Psalm 95:2-4. We must remember that worship is our primary tactic for successful warfare. The Psalmist writes:
Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
Worship warfare is going to bring us to victory this year, and the assaults of the enemy will serve to draw us closer together. Above all, we should contend as our primary goal to draw closer than ever to the Lord’s heart this year. His love is our compass and our guide in the days to come.
Overall, 2007 will be such an intense “spiritual” year, that we need all of 2006 to prepare for it. First the natural, then the spiritual. For those who are faithful in getting their natural houses in order this year, the Lord will entrust reservoirs of spiritual blessing and higher heights in the following year.
posted by John Crowder at 11:56 PM
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