The role of Prophets and prophetic people is to hear God, and to clearly communicate God’s heart and plans to His people and to the nation. We are called to sound the trumpet to warn, to call back to holiness, to assemble and help to mobilise God’s people in the right way, and for the right purpose. For us to do that it's important that we understand the times and the seasons, so that we can help prepare the Church to be fruitful and to glorify Jesus.
Often, we don't see a ten-year plan ahead of us, but we should see at least the next step. We are called to bring hope of better days, even when things may appear so dark. To trust God for the next step that we can see but also for all that lies ahead. We are created to bring release, so that people individually and corporately can experience breakthrough, to arise and step into God’s momentum for their lives. Our personal release is important because it brings life, not just for us but everywhere the Lord leads us. Don't ever underestimate the importance and the power of your freedom and breakthrough.
Steve and I recently went to Centre Parcs with our family. In their swimming pool there is an area of rapids. You might be bobbing alone nicely with your feet on the floor, trusting in your own ability to control your movement. However, suddenly you can be swept away, and find yourself moving at a pace faster than you can swim or move yourself! That’s what momentum looks like, when we slide into God’s fast living river! It’s all about flowing in God’s power and not our own strength or ability.
God spoke to us on 7th October 2023 from Jeremiah 6:16-17 twice within one minute.” The Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, “WE WILL NOT WALK IN IT.” I appointed watchmen over you and said, “Listen to the sound of the trumpet!” But you said, “We will not listen.”
Within one hour, Israel was attacked and something very evil was unleashed; not just in Israel or Palestine, but across the nations!
We felt a real urgency to mobilise people to pray for both protection and a fresh move of God, in Liverpool and across the Northwest. In response to that we launched the Mersey Region Prayer Cabinet with no idea of what God was about to do. Wow! Suddenly we slipped into God’s fast flowing river and momentum began!
Since then, we have encountered the holiness of God's presence more dynamically than we have for many years. God's holiness reveals our sin, and we then have a choice to try to hide it and ignore it, or deal with it. In the midst of that we heard the Lord say, “He wants us to have conjoined hearts with Him and with each other.” If my heart is conjoined with God’s heart and your heart is conjoined with God’s heart, then our hearts are conjoined too! This started a journey for many of us of repenting, forgiving and where safely possible beginning a journey of reconciliation even when we have been badly hurt.
Sadly, at times, as much as we may desire reconciliation, however much we are willing to forgive or apologise, some people are simply not willing to meet with us. Our responsibility is to do our part and to move on. It's so important that we don't end up poisoned and crippled with anger, bitterness or overwhelmed by shame.
Let's come to the Lord and ask Him to help us, to deal with those things that hinder us from being one. After all, what would happen if we were actually willing to be the answer to the prayers of Jesus, found in John 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
Wow! What a promise for us, if we will only humble ourselves and lay down our differences. The world is watching us...they see our disunity and reject Jesus because they cannot see Him reflected in our lives. May God help us to have the courage to overcome the blockages and wounds. May we flow in the momentous river of God's love and power.
As a team we have spent time meeting people and getting our lives and relationships right. We have done this because we want our hearts conjoined with God's heart and with each other. We want to experience God's loving and powerful presence. We want to carry His glory and reflect Him so that others will see and encounter Him.
We need to recognise that often disunity is only a symptom of a much deeper problem: pride in our own wisdom. Paul urged the Corinthians to be of one mind, reminding them that the message of salvation through Christ alone was far more important than any of the messengers. The power and wisdom of God are only revealed in Jesus.
Families all experience squabbles. As believers, we’re not just in the family of God, we are the body of Christ. When Christians quarrel, it’s like a body attacking itself; it’s unnatural. Human wisdom and pride are at the forefront of disunity in the church. God’s wisdom always points us to one person, Jesus.
Today there is still a divine urgency across our nations! We are in a radical time of transition as everything around us is shaking, sometimes violently. Many people are afraid and losing hope. Romans 8:22 says, “We know that the whole creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
Can you hear it? Can you hear the cries? Can you see the broken hearts?
However, the good news is we are NOT created to be powerless, victims no matter what has happened to us! Through all of our life experiences, God has been preparing us, moulding and shaping us, to carry His glory and anointing. Romans 8:19 says, "For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed." It doesn't say the child but the children!
We are privileged to be called to stand in God’s awesome presence, close to His heart, so we can love people like He does and be empowered to act on His behalf. To speak His word that releases hope and His life transforming power. The nations need people who have vision, and hope. People who can pray full of faith in an awesome, powerful, and mighty God, who can shift the spiritual atmosphere around us.
We need those who can see the victory ahead, because they are the people who inspire everyone else. They are God’s people, doing what He tells them to do, which then releases the miraculous from heaven to earth!
Then the breakthrough comes, as we humble ourselves 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
We are the ones called by God to manifest His presence and to bring a powerful move of God. Are we ready to have our hearts conjoined to God’s heart, and therefore see a powerful unity develop between us all that releases the momentous power of God through us all.
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