Begin
Digging! God is Releasing
New Wells
of Hope!
by Sandie Freed
There I will give her back
her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will
sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.-Hosea 2:15
(NIV)
While in prayer this week I
heard the Lord say that He was releasing new wells of hope to His Body. Now all
we have to do is to begin digging! Obviously, wells have to be dug-so that is
our responsibility. But more than that is the need for our faith to become
activated in this season. In other words, we need to get busy digging with
greater faith as God releases a restored hope.
I know it's been a very
difficult season-for us all. However, there is an astounding power in the
passage from Hosea 2:15 which discusses a new door of hope. This door of hope
can also be prophetically seen as a fresh "well" of living water, because
hope releases life. In fact, hope is similar to a seed that when planted can
spring up into fruitfulness. Without hope we begin to lose vision...without
vision we cannot run and finish the race; neither can we live in faith (see
Habakkuk 2:1-4).
He says several things to us
in Hosea 2:15 which are encouraging in this season:
1. God will give us back vineyards.
This means that obviously
our vineyards have been stolen. Since in this passage God states that Israel
was ruined by her own sin, we must conclude the seductions of the devil had
enticed Israel to backslide. The enemy is always relentless when seeking to
steal our harvest and breakthroughs of increase. In my book Destiny Thieves
(order through ElijahList), I go to great lengths to expose the evil seductions
of our enemy and how the Amalekite spirit seduces us into sin and apostasy.
Many pastors and leaders have lost their Aarons and Hurs to the evil seductions
of the Amalekite stronghold (see Exodus 17). Leaders, believe me when I say
this: You can believe for their release from this enemy and take back your
vineyard!
To the Aarons and Hurs, the
servants in the House of God who are called to hold up the arms of your
"Moses" (see Exodus 17), know that you can be released from the
Amalekite spirit that has risen up against you. God promises to empower you
with new strength and determination to win the war against evil and apostasy
and, therefore, fulfill your divine potential.
For many of us, the Jezebel
spirit has "teamed up" with the sons of Belial and have stolen our
vineyards. There has been a death assignment against the Naboths of today (see
1 Kings 21), those who have an inheritance and yet are targeted by evil spirits
in attempts to kill, steal, and destroy.
We are also at war with the
spirit of Antichrist which has attempted to defile our belief systems, pollute
our minds with doubt and unbelief and cause us to fear. In my most recent book,
Conquering the Antichrist Spirit (available through The ElijahList), I
purposefully target the lies of our enemy that attacks our belief systems. This
is a very strong, territorial spirit which is operating today. The Antichrist
spirit will attempt to change your seasons of breakthrough and wear you out so
that you have no strength to birth the vision God has given you. However, God
has promised to give us the victory over all opposition...it's time to take
back our vineyards (promises)!
2. God will make the "Valley of
Achor" a "Door of Hope!"
The Lord wants us to regain
vision of His ability to restore all that has been lost or stolen in our last
season. The word "Achor" means trouble. I don't know about some of
you, but I must confess that I have been troubled lately. It has been a deep
valley, a troubled season. I have personally endured more stress in this last
year than I have the entire time in ministry. It has not been only financially,
but emotionally as well. At times, it has been difficult to see beyond the
closed doors. Have you felt the same? And, how can we receive faith for
"hope" when the door appears "closed"? God promises that we
can.
One way to regain hope is to
use our keys of David which open doors that no man can shut (see Revelation
3:7). This key unlocks what has been closed. If you recall, David was given
keen prophetic insight concerning the heart of God...in fact, he was a man
after God's own heart. Therefore, I believe he possessed the heart of God by
seeking God. David had the ability to see breakthrough. Remember Goliath? Even
up against tremendous opposition (and Goliath could have been considered a
closed door to Israel's victory!), David could visualize a victory for God.
Having no fear, he challenged what stood in his way. A closed door can be our
enemy. However, if we use our keys, an ability to see, we can unlock the door
that hinders our breakthroughs. See the victory...have hope again!
3. We will be released from captivity
(Egypt) and sing again!
I felt as if I lost my song
in the past season; did you also? It's important that we don't lose our song
because we have the divine ability to sing over barren places and experience
breakthrough. In other words, even if we experience barrenness, we can sing
with hope to experience breakthrough and enlargement (see Isaiah 54:1-5). In
this past season, my joy, my hope, my life...all was challenged in every way!
Hope deferred almost completely captivated my faith. But God! God is promising
that He is releasing a renewed hope, a fresh well, and I simply need to get
busy diggin'! Begin to sing with faith over your circumstances. Just as He was
able to give Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age, He can birth hope in
you for fruitfulness. Abraham and Sarah were beginning to lose their
song...they had lost hope concerning their ability to have a child. But God
said that He would give them a son, even way past their childbearing years. And
He did! Romans 4:18 says that "In hope against hope he believed..."
This means that during certain hopelessness Abraham was able to hope again.
Believers, let me continue
to encourage you. God will come through for you and He will use ever tear shed
in your past season as a testimony of His glory. I continually find great
comfort in Romans 8:28 which says, "And we know that God causes all things
to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose." God is promising each of us that no matter what
"bad" has occurred, He will use it for "good." In other
words, every time the enemy tried to rob you of your faith, steal your
vineyard, steal your goods or abort your destiny...God will miraculously use it
for good. All He wants is for us to give Him the glory for doing so...Wow! Now
that is what I call trading my sorrow for joy!
What is Our Next Step?
Confessing His promises is
our next step as we defeat hope deferred. Once we realize that God desires to
open a new door of breakthrough, we immediately receive renewed hope and
vision. We are now to use our faith and begin to confess our breakthroughs. When
I studied the word "confession," I became more excited when I
realized that it implied that when we "confess" the Word, we are also
saying the same thing as what the Word declares. I am certain it is more than
just picking out a Scripture and repeating it over and over. It is my personal
belief that to confess His Word in faith requires that we truly spend time with
Him and draw near to His presence. Vain repetition is Pharisaism-religion and
no relationship.
If we are intimate with God,
we can become impregnated with seeds of faith and speak His Word out of divine
relationship and understanding. Confession comes easy when we know Him
(implying intimacy). Confessing the Word is simply declaring what God has
already spoken concerning you and your situation. If we believe, then we can
boldly confess. Jesus said that if we had faith as a tiny mustard seed we could
speak to any obstacle (including a demon that blocks our breakthroughs) and it
has to move from "here to there." I want to move to that
"there" place, don't you? Let's get busy digging that new well of
hope, okay? I just know that you are being released into your new season where
hopelessness has to flee!
See you at the well,
Sandie Freed
Zion Ministries
Visitor Comments (0)
