Get ready

I just want to start this first blog for 2022 by saying that my hope for you for this year is that you fully experience what it is to walk with God this year; that you know how close He is to you, how much He cares for you, how much He has invested in you and that you know that He has a plan which includes you, but is far bigger than you.

In preparation for this coming year I took 3 days away in a little apartment in a small out-of-the-way village in Cumbria. I wanted to have some time alone with God and to get some sense of direction for what lies ahead.

The very first thing that He showed me was in Psalm 67, which starts like this:

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us – so that your ways may be known on earth and your salvation among all nations”

God’s purpose and plan is to make His ways known on earth and also to make His salvation known among all nations. This is a far bigger plan than simply one of blessing us believers. Yes, He does bless us, and make His face shine on us. But that is not the end of the matter. He has bigger fish to fry.

I believe that we are going to see a major outpouring of God’s presence and power across the earth. We are going to see a massive harvest, an exponential growth of His Kingdom. At the moment we are in the preparatory stage. We are supposed to be getting ready. Individually that means turning our focus and attention fully onto God and onto his will for us. Letting go of things that have distracted us. Setting our hearts and focus on Him as Number 1, and away from our comfort and entertainment.

We are going to see such a powerful move of God that healings and miracles, signs and wonders are going to become normal again among God’s people. Do we want to merely spectators of events, or do we want to be those filled with Holy Spirit and boldness who are bringing freedom and salvation to the lost? The time to get ready is now. Waiting until we see the full manifestation of Gods power and glory moving across the earth will be leaving it too late.

For the Church I believe that this is also a time to get ready. A time to look at all,that we are doing. Is it working? Is it relevant? Is it what God wants us to be still doing? Are there things we should be doing differently? Are there things that might have been good once, that we need to stop doing? Who is leading? Is Jesus the Acting Head, or the Titular head? Is Jesus building the church at are we? Where does one stop and the other begin?

It is worth pointing out, by the way, that for a farmer, harvest is the busiest time of the year. It is a time to be working dawn to dusk. It is the culmination of everything the farmer has worked for all year. He doesn’t simply open his barn doors and then go back inside to watch telly while the harvest makes its way into the barns on its own. He has to work, and work hard. No time for sitting about.

In our preparation, I believe we have to do more than just be ready for a great harvest. We have to be ready for more than the hard work and effort involved. We have to be ready for trouble, opposition and persecution.

It’s interesting that while that Church as a whole appears not to be too aware of what God is planning, Satan certainly is. He pays close attention to the prophetic stream, he watches and reads the times closely. Wouldn’t you if you knew your time was limited? He has been preparing his opposition strategy to the coming move of God for a while now.

As part of this process we have seen fundamental shifts in society. The list of views and opinions that can no longer be publicly voiced grows. It is accepted more and more as normal that people will be “cancelled” for stating what used to be self evident – sacked from their jobs, written out of society. In the last two years we have seen a shift in Europe to far more authoritarian styles of government coupled with censorship of opposing views. That includes the U.K. to a certain extent too. The enemy is subtly preparing his defences, preparing for a society and an atmosphere that will (he hopes) hinder the gospel that he fears so much.

The time will come when the gospel will again turn the world upside down, but not without opposition. For many it will be unacceptable. Those who seek to silence the gospel will be seen as acting for ‘the greater good’ of society. I believe that the Church will once again have to become more flexible, more fluid; meeting in homes, permeating streets, villages, towns and cities ‘under the radar’ of the authorities. The established churches may well have to radically change rather than accommodate the new received ‘wisdom’ of the ‘new normal’. These are lessons that we believers all need to learn now, not waiting until the pressure comes. Now is the time of preparation. Not 6 months time. Not next year, or the year after. Now.

So, God, be gracious to us and bless us, and make Your face shine upon us. Will You show us how to get ready. Will You show us how to make Your ways known on earth? Will,You show us how to make Your salvation known among all nations? Will You? Please?