Probably the most common phrase I have heard all year people saying is “I just don’t know what’s ahead” and it seems that God has been very strategic in this because:
- He knows we love to be in control and have our ducks in a row so we can plan, vision, and cast our nets, and
- He knows that if we knew what was ahead we would be intimidated by the magnitude of the growth he is moving us into.
Like children wearing adults shoes, there has been the uncomfortable stretching, re-aligning, and maturing to allow us to fully step into what is ahead. So with that said, I want to share what I believe is a directional word to give some grid for the next few months.
EXPRESS DELIVERY
On Friday night the Lord spoke clearly to me about a two-month period between now and Rosh Hashanah on September 30 th where there will be a FAST-TRACK of the processes many have felt like they have been walking out slowly. God is putting an EXPRESS postage on ALL facets of your life that need to MOVE and speed up and get into place for what is coming.
I saw this in two ways; One was like a chiropractic “clicking” into place of what needed to get into alignment, and the second was the actual speeding up of answers, information, and downloads that many had been praying for to be able to make this major life-changing decisions.
CONNECTING THE DOTS AND FINDING LOST PIECES
I saw lost and shattered pieces of a map suddenly beginning to come together. Where you have felt very confused about direction and the small, finer details of where you are headed, this is where those pieces will start to come together quickly. God is connecting the dots that have felt spread out and confusing, where you have struggled to reconcile the unfinished seasons behind you, the debris, and the mess you are walking out of - here is where things begin to connect. There will be an ease. There will be a grace in the process where it has felt like you have had to be orchestrator and work hard to juggle all these mismatching fragments of your life, NOW they will begin to connect and merge. Clarity is coming to the madness, and you’ll feel pulled forward rather than feeling like you are pressing forward into opposing winds.
ACCOMODATING WHAT YOU CANNOT YET SEE
On Saturday, the day after God began to speak to me about this, we took our girls to see Lion King at the cinema, and out of all of the highly prophetic scenes one line was like the word of the Lord speaking directly to my heart. It was the simple line “BE PREPARED” from the song of the same name. So right there in my chair I began to have a conversation with the Lord and I want to share one part of that which I believe applies to many of us. He said;
“Do you believe that I will do what I said I would do? Are you living like it is? Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t close. Just because you have no understanding of my timing doesn’t mean it won’t suddenly be before you. What you can’t see is closer than you think!”
I began to really search my own heart in that moment. Had I been really living in 100% belief that what He said was coming was about to arrive? Were my priorities reflecting that? Was I truly in preparation mode to accommodate what was about to manifest, or was I still stuck in the moment, in survival? I was stirred.
GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER
Then as Holy Spirit does he reminded me of a powerful moment that took place in the hours before midnight of New years Eve 2018, when an amazing friend of mine looks at me with those eyes that when I see I know Holy Spirit is about to speak, and He says “Nate, GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER!” I couldn’t shake those words and God keeps using them to keep me focused when I feel stuck or unsure about what is ahead.
You see God has been getting your house in order. What does that mean for you? This represents the things in your life that need to get FINALISED and PACKED UP, COMPLETED before you can MOVE into the new place, the new assignment, the new anointing, the new metron, the new OFFICE! Whatever ends need to be tied up, whatever needs to be checked off your list, God has been stirring and shaking your life to “CLICK, CLICK, CLICK those things into order, EMPTY the old house, and MOVE you into the new BIGGER place HE has been preparing for you.
NESTING IN THE STORM
God has been preparing many people in this season to actually physically shift and move into new suburbs, cities and regions, and even countries. I keep feeling a strong sense that HOMES are really on the Lords heart right now. He is moving in families, healing dysfunctions, and resetting legacy and with that is Gods desire for people to find their PLACE, a HOME, a physical representation of stability. Because so many have felt like nomads for a long long time, moving from place to place, people to people but now God is going to move you to a place where you can SETTLE, and drive your roots down deep.
As I was writing this down I suddenly had a strong sense of grief and frustration that I was picking up that many were feeling. Then I heard the phrase “The feel like they are nesting in the storm”. It’s the strange tension between this overwhelming impulse to settle down and establish, in preparation for the birthing of something, but with the frustration of not seeing any or little evidence of that being a reality. In fact many are looking all around them and only seeing storms and are madly racing around trying to pick up whatever fragments they can to feel settled and safe with the impending delivery while there is only shaking and crazy chaotic change swirling around them. There is a temptation in this tension to SETTLE your nest in the barren place instead of CONTENDING for the BIRTHING place.
I heard the Lord say “Keep listening to your spirit. Keep leaning into that nesting because it is PROPHESYING into the season you are stepping into that you are coming to a STABLE, FIXED, and SECURE place!”
FURNISHING THE FUTURE
Imagine moving into a larger home than you are used to, and after you have unpacked all your boxes and arranged the furniture you would discover that you don’t have enough to furnish the new house and you will need to get more furnishings to fill it properly. In the same way right now God is STRETCHING you and I to furnish a future place we cannot see right now. Its not just uncomfortable - it feels unnatural and almost ridiculous, but its what the life of faith is. We don’t live bound by the NOW and the moment we are in, but as children of God are called to be architects of a world not yet seen. Look throughout the pages of the bible and you will see example after example of crazy faith that ushered in a new reality.
Dig deeper - inside of you past the discomfort and the tiredness of trying to figure all of this out is a mustard seed more mighty than you realize. This isn’t just a doable prospect - you were BORN for this!
PREPARATION STRATEGIES
I feel what God is saying to you and I in this hour is so simple yet if we grasp It we will step into this faith that dares to believe God and see Him do incredible and even grand things in the next few months. I feel that these four strategies are going to be key for us. Let me explain;
- As I drove home that afternoon pondering what God had said He reminded me of the story of blind Bartimaus from Mark 10 who was begging by the roadside when he heard that Jesus was walking nearby and began to calling out to Him. “What are you trying to say?” I asked. “All you need to know is that I AM MOVING!” Maybe you feel blind, lost, hopeless, and begging for sight because you just aren’t used to not seeing two steps ahead, but part of the strategy in this hour is TRUST! Sometimes you don’t have to know all of the details, sometimes all you need to know is that HE IS MOVING! You can sense it. You don’t know how or with what, but its out of your hands, so TRUST HIM! Keep leaning into the unknown. Think of it this way, it may have been in your control in your last transition, but where you are going it is not within your abilities to orchestrate so the logistics manager role has to go someone HIGHER!
- The second impression I got was through the story of Naaman who had leprosy and was given instruction by the Prophet Elisha to bathe in the river 7 times. It didn’t make sense but He was at his absolute point of desperation so he was willing to do anything. The key here is that in the next few months God will ask you to do things that make no sense at all, but your OBEDIENCE is going to PIVOTAL in speeding up the process and unlocking doors.
- And thirdly I was reminded of 1 Timothy 1:18 where it says: “So Timothy, my son, I am entrusting you with this responsibility, in keeping with the very first prophecies that were spoken over your life, and are now in the process of fulfillment in this great work of ministry, in keeping with the prophecies spoken over you. With this encouragement use your prophecies as weapons as you wage spiritual warfare by faith and with a clean conscience” The key here is to ALIGN ourselves with what God has said is coming. Its intentionally tethering ourselves to the promise at ALL costs. Like the scripture above says “Use it as a weapon”. This is literally a powerful form of warfare and will cut through so much confusion or adverse circumstances you face.
- The last key is my favorite and really an extension of the last one. In Revelation 4:1 it says: Then suddenly, after I wrote down these messages, I saw a heavenly portal open before me, and the same trumpet-voice I heard speaking with me at the beginning broke the silence and said, “Ascend into this realm! I want to reveal to you what must happen after this.” The key here is to LEAN IN to heaven. Make it your hobby, love, and constant preoccupation to “COME UP” and plant yourself in the place of His presence where it is IMPOSSIBLE to not see change and things move in our life.
"Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them” Ezekiel 38:7
