The night of December 9th, the day before my 47th birthday, I was asking God what He Had planned for my next year and what I should be pursuing in this next season so that I could align and cooperate with His plans for me.
He gave me a word, through a vision and then a dream, but I will share the dream in my second post because it would be too long of a post. I feel that this word is not just a word for me, but it is a word for The Church. It represents what we, as The Church have gone through and are still going through. It represents the different seasons in our lives: The wilderness, The refining, The honing.
It is where Chronos and Kairos meet!
He spoke and said:
“Your 40 years in the wilderness are over. Forty years of testing, stretching, lack. These years were meant to humble and stretch you so that you could be totally and wholly dependent on Me! The next 6 years were meant to purify and transform you into my image so that you would become who you were meant to be in Me! This year, the 7th year, is the year in which you will own, hone, and perfect your gifts. You will walk into the fullness of who you are in Me, and reach your full potential as my child! You will accomplish that which I have prepared for you. “
Then He showed me a red ball of yarn. He dropped it to the ground and it started to unravel. He then said:
“I know that for many of you things seem tangled, jumbled, and confused. The recent events have caused you to doubt, second-guess, and lose hope. You keep asking yourself: “Did God really say what I think He said? Will His promises ever come to pass? Have I missed His timing? Will things ever recover? “
“My child, you are experiencing “a dark night of the soul”, because hope deferred makes the heart sick! But I Am telling you to pick up those promises, pick up those dreams, pick up those Rhema words that I have spoken into your life, because My plans for your life are about to unravel! Just as this tangled, jumbled, knotted, useless ball of yarn unraveled so easily as it hit the ground, and can now be used to fulfill its purpose, so will this messy, confusing, upside-down season fulfill its purpose in your life, because it is The Time! You have hit the lowest point! Watch as I start unraveling the plans, blueprints, prophecies, and promises I have for you. Just as you’re about to give up, I will intervene! You have been bought by The Blood of My Son, therefore I will never leave you nor forsake you!”
The color red represents the blood of Jesus, by which we have been bought and have been purified.
WILDERNESS: A time of testing and dependence on God.
The Number 40 MEM is the number of trial or probation. When viewed as a time cycle, we find that Israel spent 40 years being tested and tried in the wilderness.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tested of the devil. The number 40 can be viewed negatively in terms of the full 40 days/years of trial, but it can also be viewed positively in that it is the END of the time of trial or testing. In the positive sense, then, forty speaks of Israel crossing the Jordan River (water) after 40 years in the wilderness.
In that sense also, Israel came from the wilderness and flowed into the Promised Land.
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”Isaiah 43:19 NLT
THE REFINING: A time of purification and becoming one with God.
The number 6 VAV is a nail or peg in Hebrew. It is also a conjunction (“and”), for it takes a nail to connect two things.
Six is the number of man, for man was created on the sixth day (Gen. 1:24-31). Man was also to labor for six days
before entering into the Sabbath rest (Ex. 20:8-11), and the Hebrew slave was to serve for six years (Ex. 21:2).
Moses had to wait for six days before he was allowed to go up the mount to meet the Lord (Ex. 24:16-18). Even so, has man had to wait six thousand years to meet the Lord in the second coming of Christ.
I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.”
Isaiah 48:10 NLT
THE HONING: A time of walking in the fullness of who we are in God.
The number 7 ZAYIN is a weapon in Hebrew. The perfect weapon is the Sword of the Spirit, by which spiritual warfare is accomplished, for “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Cor. 10:4).
Seven is the biblical number of completion and spiritual perfection. As such, Psalm 7 speaks of the two floods by which the earth is cleansed and brought to the perfect order of the Kingdom.
(The Biblical Meaning of Numbers from One to Forty by Dr. Stephen E. Jones)
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:10 NLT
The appointed time is about to converge with our time and you DON’T want to miss it! If we keep the course, don’t give up on His promises and follow His leading, we will accomplish what we are meant to! OBEDIENCE IS KEY!!! It will unlock the FULLNESS OF TIME!!
Many of us have been surrendering to circumstances, giving up too soon!! Literally steps away from our Promised Land! Keep your eyes on Him!! Set your face like flint and do not be moved by what you see and hear. He Is about to turn things around for you. He Is The God of the 11th hour, never forget that! Just as you’re about to give in, He will come and provide a way out at the perfect time!
The fullness of time is now!
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on The Rising of the Esthers
Featured Image by Wil Stewart on Unsplash
