What matters - in the next few hours, the next few days, the next few weeks or even next few years? Well, isn't it mostly your general well being? So between now and eternity, what matters? Isn't it your connection with God and the knowledge of the Truth? Death to this world can happen in a second. Even dramatic changes can happen. I remember going over to my mother's home and opening the door and seeing that she was gone, she lay dead on the kitchen floor.
There have been many older saints who have gone on to Glory, and therefore new ministers are being raised up. Many have been in the works for years, often mentoring under others, and then are tested by the Holy Spirit for that leadership. And honestly, every one of those ministers (aka, you!) are needed, because not just America is in a hard place. Not only is a big shifting going on in leadership, but God is seeking to advance us as a Body! If you don't feel a kinship to other leadership, you are not ready for your own leadership yet. Not only do we need to go wider, but we also need to go deeper. We can stay in the shallow end and get moved easily, or we can go deeper with the greater skills and understandings and be a part of the fortress.
Be careful taking just one sin and hanging all the problems of mankind and the world on just that one sin! There are trends and fads that happen, even in the Church. America is not right before the LORD but not because of just one sin! Some sins, as it pertains to living life, are worse than others. Stealing is bad, but murder is obviously worse. That does not make stealing okay, because it too is a hurting thieving spirit that robs and harms others. Not taking time to rest and regroup and consider the Lord does not just harm you but also those around you, because you are not on your best (and blessed) game, or posture. Not honoring your parents or marriage with your spouse and thus affecting Godly order can create chaos, being destructive to other families too, and to the children and even the workplace.
I got an unusual word from the Lord today. Every day I ask to hear from Him, and especially to share with others, as a work of my ministry to Him. First I hear for me, and then it is to others. But I have never had a word like this one, and I've been at this a while. Today I heard the Lord say that people are repenting to the wrong thing! They are willing to repent and change, but they are going back to a past or person or situation that will not remedy. I have had situations over my own life where I thought, "This really could go better." When you feel that way, you know you need to get closer to God again. I pray and I go back to the times and mindsets where I felt His pleasure. I've been reading the OT prophet books lately and I listen for His quickening. We have to learn truth in the different ways He presents it.
People who have been touched by God usually want to get the message out there. They have had an experience and want to share it in the ways they can. They press in to press forward and they leave a trail of signposts and input (intel) for others. Is it easy? Usually not. Does it take prayer and energy? Yes, of course. Is it casual? No, not really casual at all, even if it seems that way. We are in a warfare, not just a conquest for self. It's not just "a game" to see if we can get to the next level or not. When there is a commission from Him, it is not just casual conversation with others. It's not entertainment to see if we can find more "luxury." In a war, sometimes you do take hits, but you also gain victories.
I think there can be confusion on some Bible passages. We look for the most "logical" meaning in the moment, but sometimes we need to do more digging, in our hearts and in our understandings, to understand certain passages. I've always known that going "the narrow way" meant I had to say no to some things. I had to thin down, clean out, move things over to a subordinate position, and even give things up. But is all that "thinning out" a permanent thing of less and less for me? Not really, not fully. I feel that I have come to an increased understanding on this. A lot of things were first written to the society of the times, which mostly was an agrarian (farmer related) one and thus the many references to those times. Early pre-king David was a keeper of sheep, or we'd say, a shepherd. He spent many hours in the field tending the sheep and entertaining himself and studying the sheep, and thinking about God!
There were and are prophetic schools for those who had/have interest in the prophetic, but most of the leader prophets, had callings that extended out and beyond the schools. They were noted by others as such and often would teach at the schools. A school cannot make a prophetic calling, but it certainly can yield prophetic support! And called prophets can be helped by attending prophetic schools, but if they really have a calling they will often also be called apart from the schools (and comfortable places) to deliver their messages. Some messages are one-time messages (as we see in the Bible) and some are seasoned callings over an extended period of time. (If you are trying to put God in a box here, it won't work, except in your mind.)
You know that when you bake a cake, you take a number of different ingredients and combine them and then take that soupy mix and put it into a pan and into the hot oven and it changes - into a cake texture. We like that! And if you are hungry for a home cooked pizza, you prepare it from scratch, or you get one that is not cooked from the freezer and you put that in the oven - and it changes form. If you don't put it in the oven, it's not going to taste good or right at all and it's not healthy and you are going to feel sick! No, you need it to change forms. People are changing forms! You see it from the womb to birth, to childhood, to teens, young adults, older adults and to aged adults. There are many processes going on!
I know in my spirit that encounters are so close for many people, it will be the "outpouring" and "revival" that so many are looking for. But honestly, are we prepared? I don't say this to newbies as much as I say it to the saints who have known Him for a while. I am so excited about the coming move and you can hear many of the older ones in the Lord saying they sense it and that it is "at the doors." They "feel" it in their bones! There is a resonance, a "feeling" of it, just like you know it's autumn or spring because the temperatures are changing. You feel it in "the air." The atmosphere is changing. Now when men and women start addressing the wicked ways of the people, that is one clue. But they will not be trying to scathe the people as much as they want them to get right for the sake of all the benefits.
I had a burden of prayer the other day for a dear friend, and it since has turned into a burden for several more because of life events - people who have lost a dear loved one, which can include even more people as the circle widens. Especially when it comes to friends, I always ask what the Lord might be saying. They feel such a loss, and I have experienced that too with both friends and family. Anyway, as I was interceding, the Lord said abruptly - and He will speak in strong ways at times - "You don't get it, do you?" I was surprised by the way He said it. "I gave those people a person to love them. I did that! " (I knew He was including me too.). His tone was not rebuking as much as it was a strong type of correction.
Follow Up
