Many things bring life to a church, such as great preaching, prayer, worship, and fellowship. However, three things seem to bring the most life to the church—hearing from God, miracles, and new believers. In our local church, we have been blessed by an increase in each of these, which has come in waves. It seems that we may be in the first stages of yet another wave, which is creating a lot of excitement. A few weeks ago, I was also given a promise from the Lord—He said He is going to release a double portion of prophetic revelation to us.
Since then, we have begun to experience a fresh and powerful anointing on the prophetic gifts. For this reason, I will be sharing a lot this coming year on the prophetic gifts. We will also be devoting much more of The Morning Star E-Journal to the prophetic revelation that is coming forth. We also will be teaching on knowing the Lord’s voice and sharing what He is saying to His people that we discern to be His word.
In its most basic form, prophetic revelation is simply hearing from God. As we are told in John 10, His sheep know His voice, and they follow Him because they know His voice. Knowing the voice of God has always been basic for walking with God. Even under the Old Testament, we read repeatedly that the people were exhorted to obey the commandments and heed His voice. Here are just three of them, which contain some remarkable promises:
And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer” (Exodus 15:26).
Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (see Exodus 19:5-6).
However, there shall be no poor among you, since the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you (Deuteronomy 15:4-6).
As we now have a New Covenant that is “a better covenant” (see Hebrews 7:22), we are no longer under the law, and we have even better promises, but the ones listed above are also promises in the New Covenant. The Lord is still our Healer and has given gifts of healing to His church. We also have the New Covenant calling to be His kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We also see in this last verse that obeying the Lord and heeding His voice resulted in there not being any poor among them—this is fundamental to eradicating systemic poverty.
If we are hearing the voice of the Lord more it is because we are getting closer to Him. This should be our main devotion even more than getting prophetic revelation, but that does not mean that we do not seek His voice. In I Corinthians14:1, we are commanded to “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” Often I have heard preachers say that we should not seek the gifts but the Giver, which may sound more noble and wise, but is actually contrary to the Scriptures, as we see in this verse. The truth is that a basic way that we seek the Lord is by seeking to hear from Him. Communication is the basis of every relationship. Few things will draw us closer to the Lord than hearing from Him. We also seek the Lord by seeking all of His gifts. These gifts are not toys but tools for doing His work.
A second promise that I received is that this year He is going to draw His church twice as close Him as we have ever been. The way I saw this was that some may get only 10 percent closer, some may even backslide, but others will get many times closer so that the net result will be His entire church getting twice as close to Him as we have ever been. The implications of this will be great. How much impact could the church have on this world if she were twice as close to the Lord as she is now?
As we might find typical in Scripture and history, we can expect the enemy to be increasing his work during this time, too. We are in the time of Isaiah 60:1-5. While darkness is covering the earth, and even “deep darkness the people,” the glory of the Lord will be manifested on His people. We are entering the time of the ultimate clash between light and darkness, but as we also see in this text—the light wins! The nations do not turn to the darkness but to the light.
Another rising wave of the Spirit is happening now. Ultimately it will be an irresistible tsunami, recapturing backsliders and multitudes of the heathen in its path. The Lord speaking to His people will be a catalyst for this. Today you can get a head start on this great year by seeking Him, asking for more prophetic dreams, visions, and prophesy, and being faithful to what He speaks to you.
