2017 - Wielding His Victorious Sword by Paulette Reed

By Paulette Reed
At the end of October 2016, I shared a message about how 2017 was to be a year of extreme sensitivity to the Spirit of God. According to the Jewish calendar, we are in the year 5777. We are still in the decade of the 70s, which is represented by the letter ayin. Ayin, in the Hebrew alphabet, is characterized by a pair of eyes, which give clarity and vision. Recently, Holy Spirit began speaking to me more about this year—5777—being the year of the sword of the Lord. The fact that the number 7 is repeated three times and the crown on the pictograph caught my attention. Biblically speaking, seven represents perfection, maturity, completeness, wholeness. The pictograph in the Hebrew alphabet for zayin also shows a spear or a sword, a weapon, an arrow, or a royal scepter.
 
 
 
 
MP3 Teaching Download
By Jeremy Lopez
Price: $10.00
Sale! $6.99
Click HERE to order.
 
 
At the end of October 2016, I shared a message about how 2017 was to be a year of extreme sensitivity to the Spirit of God. According to the Jewish calendar, we are in the year 5777. We are still in the decade of the 70s, which is represented by the letter ayin. Ayin, in the Hebrew alphabet, is characterized by a pair of eyes, which give clarity and vision.
 
Recently, Holy Spirit began speaking to me more about this year—5777—being the year of the sword of the Lord. The fact that the number 7 is repeated three times and the crown on the pictograph caught my attention. Biblically speaking, seven represents perfection, maturity, completeness, wholeness. The pictograph in the Hebrew alphabet for zayin also shows a spear or a sword, a weapon, an arrow, or a royal scepter.
 
What does a scepter symbolize? A scepter embodies the authority of the king. In the book of Esther, for example, when Esther approached the king without being summoned, the king stretched out his scepter, thereby accepting her and hearing her request: "The king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king" (Esther 8:4). The king told Esther that he would grant her petition—whatever it was—even up to half of his kingdom. The outstretched scepter was a sign of the king's authority to grant her petition.
 
The year of the sword will include the church walking in the authority of her King. As we approach the King through bold intimacy, He will stretch out His scepter and grant us what we desire. As we operate in the authority He gives to us, we will be confident, praying according to God's will. John tells us of this confidence: "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him" (1 John 4:14–15). This will be a year that the bride of Christ will arise and be "a woman of valor (strength), the crown of her husband" (Proverbs 31:10).
 
Operating in the Seven Spirits of God
 
As the bride makes herself ready for her King, coming into a place of purity, a place of abundant life and completeness, the Lord is inviting us to fully operate in the seven Spirits of God. These seven Spirits of God are the multifaceted dimensions of Holy Spirit—the different ways in which He manifests Himself.
 
In Isaiah 11:2 we read, "The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding (revelation), the spirit of counsel and strength (might), the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD." When John the revelator visited heaven, he saw seven lamps burning before the throne of God, which were the seven Spirits of God (Revelation 4:5). He also speaks of them in the opening verses of Revelation: "Grace to you and peace from Him who is and was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before the throne" (Revelation 1:4).
 
It was this same Spirit of God that rested on Jesus. In fact, when Isaiah talked about the seven Spirits of God, he was prophesying of the righteous reign of the coming King—Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So when the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus, He began to operate in the multidimensional reality of God's Spirit—He began to operate in "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:2).
 
Now, under the New Covenant, God's precious Spirit abides in all born-again believers. John writes, "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit" (1 John 4:13). And Paul asks the Corinthians, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). How many believers can testify that we are truly activating the intensified, seven-fold Spirit of God? The bridal army that's arising from the valley needs all the dimensions of Holy Spirit—in order to operate in His power, becoming an exceedingly great army for God's glory.
 
Friends, 2017 is the year of the victorious sword of the Lord. It is the year where the bride of Christ rises up with new authority, wielding God's heavenly sword to bring his kingdom to earth. It is not a year where we hide and prepare ourselves, but a year where we boldly approach the King of all kings with our requests, asking Him to save the people and cover the earth with the knowledge of His glory. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon us and manifest the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord as we echo His request, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
 
Paulette Reed
 
 

Visitor Comments (0)

Be the first to post a comment.

Related Articles • More Articles

Some of you feel like you've been wrestling with God so long now that you feel like you just can't do it any longer. Your hip hurts, your heart hurts, and it's been a long, long night. Much like Jacob, you are striving and wrestling with God, not wanting to let go until He blesses you. But you're tired and you're weary; you don't know if you can hold on another moment. But rest assured that you will prevail: "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob [deceiver], but Israel [strives with God], for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed" (Genesis 32:18 AMP).
As we step into the New Year, it's often good to ask ourselves questions, thereby taking inventory of where we have been and looking forward to where we are heading. A question I like to ask at the head of the year is this: "What is the prophetic indicator in my life for this leg of the race, as I run with endurance?" For me, I received an answer to this question during Rosh Hashanah when I had a vision from the Lord while standing in my kitchen. This experience of "seeing" more clearly into the spiritual realm has led me into a whole new level of the prophetic. As we honor supernatural experiences like this, the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on, encouraging us to continue to fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith.
The Lord has been speaking to me recently about the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church. As the disciples were gathered together in the upper room, waiting for the promise of the Father, God's Spirit was poured out upon them and released dunamis power in each of their lives. The pouring out of God's Spirit on the day of Pentecost reveals three distinct experiences the disciples had on that day and that we can have, also. First, a violent wind filled the house where the disciples were gathered together. This breath or wind is symbolic of the Spirit of God. Ezekiel 37 tells the story of the prophet's vision of a valley of dry bones that came together when the breath of God entered into them.