Hope that you have all had a chance to take a breath and a break for the holidays. In spite of all things, God continues to refresh and renew the strength of His children. I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support through reading this blog. This is not a sponsored site; I don’t make money in any way. Instead, it is money I spend in order to do what God has called me to do, and I am happy to spend it.
It is crucial that you learn to hear the voice of God for yourself, through reading the Bible, spending time and developing a relationship with Him in prayer, and taking time out of the busyness in order to share with God and relate to Him in a less formal way. When you are actively engaged in this, and you read something that resonates with what He is saying, it provides greater confirmation that you are moving in the right direction.
I am not a prophet, although I have been given grace in certain situations to pray prophetically and release a word from God. I have a healthy love of prophecy, and a strong discernment that accompanies me wherever I go. I have met many well-meaning people who deeply desire to speak prophetically into the lives of strangers and see God work through this way. It is good to love and desire prophecy. It is dangerous to experiment with it as though it is fortune telling. When people “train” you in that way, be careful. Anyone who is helping you understand this gift and how to use it needs to be able to provide information about what is happening and why it is happening. Certainly there are mysteries in the ways of God, but even more than that, there is responsibility that we owe to all of God’s children to not mislead, deceive or damage them as they live to be more like Christ.
With that preamble out of the way, I want to say that I received a word concerning the Hebrew new year in October, and I kept it to myself. I tried to listen and follow generally how people were discerning the meaning of the year 5781. It seems like there are three sources of data that are not revelatory or feelings based, they are: phonics (the sound of number), numerical values (and sometimes adding those values together) and seeking meaning through the written images within the language. From this, people come together and pray and seek God concerning the upcoming year. And as our own New Year dawns, many prophetic people will do the same.
I admit that I lack education in this area, and I do not usually release the personal word that God gives me about the year. I don’t know if what He says to me applies globally, so first I must caution you that if this is interesting, please do some research and pray and look to verify it in the Word. I believe that prophets speak in context of regions and territories and I would not want you to think that this is prophetically God’s word for you, but I am sharing it because the time has come to release it.
I’m going to back up to last year, when the numerical value of the Hebrew New Year was 5780. The word that was summarized to me was about opening of a mouth, with implications of having the wisdom of when to speak and when not to. I won’t go into all of the other things I was told about that year, I will only say that I felt there was not an interpretation that I could rely on, so I just filed all of this away, waiting to see if God would ever bring it back. What ensued was life changing for all of us, no matter where we live.
The interpretation I align myself to concerning the year 5781 is “Widen Your Mouth in Silence”. You can Google it and you will start to see a trend emerging. I have not followed all of it, but I can share the following in support of this way of thinking as we move into another year.
In Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus says “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” For context, feel free and read that entire chapter.
In this year, I believe that God wants to remind us that it is important for our words to be aligned to His truth. Grumbling, that is, uttering negative words that align with the enemy, cost many who were in the wilderness their opportunity to see the Promise Land, and they literally paid with their lives. When you do this negative 2020 nonsense, or Corona ruined my social life rants, you are choosing to use words in a way that will weaken your position to stand strong for Christ in what is coming.
I openly admit that this revelation came when I was mid-rant one day, and the Lord reminded me that I can’t believe in Him, His power and authority and also with my words give greater power to this phenomena in the same way some rely on luck and fortune. I am not excluded from any of these charges and must steward the words I post to you. On the other hand, it is a different thing to speak about what has happened for the purpose of addressing its impact in your life, and to get it out and over with. Tone and attitude will reveal the heart of the speaker.
Let me add to that- the heart of the speaker can be revealed without saying anything at all. Actions and motives reveal the heart of the speaker.
When I asked God for more information, He spoke to me about the posture of the heart. I find the phrase hard to break down- literally, it means, with your true love in mind, how you can position your heart to best serve (give) and receive from God. God has always encouraged us to be open, even when our humanity may cause us to be afraid, He insists that His protection is enough and that we are to be strong and courageous when facing adversity (Joshua 1:7). In this year, God wants us to remain open even if we think we might be hurt, attacked or lose friends and trust that He will defend us. Regardless of what is done to you, or said about you, get yourself into a position of openness towards Him and see how He will defend you. Friends, you don’t have to like what other people say about you, but it is beyond your control. God has reminded me of all the times when I didn’t even know what was being said about me, and all by Himself, God mounted such a strong defense for me, the harmful intentions of others never came to fruition. There was a time when my mother’s mother lined up her children across the room from me, and told them, “Everything she does, you will be better than her.” She called out various gifts and areas of talent that she wanted them to excel in. The moment she uttered that curse, God began an elaborate plan to turn it all around for my good! It has nothing to do with me- the intention of her words to harm me were immediately met by the blessings of God. Even now, when people come against me in a similar way, they find themselves frustrated and drained of energy. I want you to know that healthy competition is welcome and fair, it is when someone dislikes me for what God has put in me, and wants harm to come to me because of jealousy, malice or spite, it will turn back on them. God is my defender.
To obtain His defense, your heart has to be postured towards humility. God works best when you don’t have pride. Last week, someone intentionally hurt me, and I had a decision to make. I could publicly hide that the action hurt me, or I could let it go there and then and not have to carry the hurt with me for the rest of my holiday. I chose to let it go, and by the next day, I was able to genuinely bless the person who wanted to cause me pain. I watched how God defended me in the situation, and still allowed me to be open to receive love from others. If we are afraid of being hurt, and believe that God will not defend us, we will not be able to be open and continually receive from Him what we need to live from day to day. Just like the Bible says, new mercy is there for us every day, but people don’t know how to access it. You also can’t take mercy for yourself and not be merciful to others… it doesn’t work that way.
This is not a hard concept, but we have trouble explaining Christian perfection or sanctification in reasonable ways. I believe that the work of the cross is complete, but I also see the difference it makes when Christians, in their earnest desire to be more like Christ, wrestle out the hard stuff and allow Him to change their lives. You can shut down that process by being unteachable. When no one can tell you that you’re wrong, or you can’t say sorry, or you need to have the last word all the time, your attitude is incompatible to receive the fullness of what God has for you. People who are like this chase charismatic prophecy because they want to only hear about the plans God has for them, but all of that word is hot air that is puffing them up, because their attitude is so stinky and prideful. God is close to the broken hearted because broken hearts have nothing left to lose and can afford to give all those shattered pieces to Him. Some people who have built hollow platforms for themselves believe that they are above the reproach of even God… well, what’s the point? We are all called to serve, and that doesn’t mean selectively choosing who you serve and dictating the terms and conditions before ordering a hazmat suit.
God has promised to fight battles for you and defend you. However, this does not absolve you from the responsibilities we all have as humans to live effectively and to the best of our abilities. Did you know that God can see when your heart is not in what you’re doing? He has much to say about what our attitude should be when we work with unbelievers and also within the church. I am struggling with the empires I see Christian ministries building, where an anointed person regards the church as their personal family business and biology dictates succession. If I were leading a church, I would want my successor to be spirit-filled, with a greater mantle than me, the way Elisha walked after Elijah. If succession must be biological, then at least have the decency to get the necessary clerical credentials to legitimize the work. But even better, I believe that all able-bodied people should work in order to cultivate work ethic. Too many people are calling themselves to full-time ministry without denomination (that means someone to answer to) and definition of the job description (that means only doing what they want). This kind of sickness stems from poor leadership and will undoubtedly affect the entire church and the way the individual members live for Christ.
However flawed I am, I don’t have much pride. I can tell you that comes from undergoing two years of very public deliverance. To date, deliverance has been the most humbling experience, where the moment something shows up that I question, I run to God and tell Him to do whatever it takes to get rid of it. I never want to be so far gone, so unaware of my behaviour, my unconscious habits and my blindspot that I won’t go boldly to God to ask if I need correction. God is loving, but will also tell me if there’s something that needs to be addressed. I know how to read His word and seek His face for confirmation. I fear Him with reverent fear and take to heart all of the things He charges me to do for His sheep. People who don’t know me may praise me for having great self-awareness, but they don’t know how painful the pruning process has been at times. If you trust Him and you allow Him, God will make you a better person in the most authentic way.
Widen your mouth in silence. Weigh this word and investigate it. I am thinking fondly of you and praying that this year draws you closer to the One who made you.
