Many people right now are going through intense personal shaking and are struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s different to the refiners fire which feels more like an internal spring-clean, whereas the shaking has more to do with what is around you, the environments you are in, the companies you are running with, and the ground beneath your feet.
Foundations can also be the core beliefs or tenets of what you believe but they are normally defined by how they are attached to things around you.
Think of the Israelites who after 40 years still have Egypt living in their heads. Because of this they weren’t fit to step into Canaan and acquire it, so God had to circumcize them as a natural and spiritual act to cleanse them. (Joshua 5:2-8)
This is what I feel is happening right now.
God is dealing with areas we have been in bondage in that has come through our many seasons in different environments, systems, institutions, and streams.
The church is not currently fit to inherit the new land before us and the new wine season at our doorstep, until God removes the last season from our hearts and from under our feet.
THE NECESSARY SHAKING
Heading into 2024, one of the most clear things the Lord said to me was that this year the church would;
⁃ Have their false foundations shaken
⁃ Have their true foundations strengthened
⁃ Leave places carrying foundational rot
⁃ Step into places carrying foundational health
⁃ Stop building their own thing
⁃ Start building God's thing again.
“For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” Hebrews 11:10
CHIP-BOARD FLOORING
I have noticed a common thread so far this year, where there is the sudden appearing of platforms or places parading as foundations in a time when God is shaking us free from so many old foundations.
They give the appearance of stability and being built by the Lord but they are nothing more than chip-board flooring and many are falling for them.
The reason many are falling for them is because we are in a season where people have never been more desperate for breakthrough.
Suddenly someone appears with a stable platform for you to join and it immediately screams “Yes it has finally come!” only to discover shortly after it’s been another ruse and distraction.
This has repeated itself over the years causing so much pain and flies in the ointment of callings, preventing what God intended for us.
But I say this to say - this shaking is coming to bring us wisdom and discernment to know what is Him and what isn’t in the days to come.
So with this in mind let me define four of the shaking you may be experiencing;
1. THE INSTITUTIONAL SHAKING
The first shaking that has already been happening well and truly before 2024 is the shaking of false foundations that were set during years where you poured your heart and soul out into a church environment and lost yourself.
These were the seasons where you meant well and just wanted to serve Jesus in your city but it came with a lot of pressure to do more than that. Before you knew it you had sacrificed your time, your family, finances, and even health in order to meet the rising demand from these empire environments.
If you didn’t wise up you may be in a dark place right now of regret and realizing how much you were not building God's church as much as you were building man’s need for conquest. And the cost? Often the well-being of your children, your marriage, and your own purpose.
In the wake of this shaking and when eyes begin to open it feels like the deepest betrayal to walk out as well as trying to discover who you are again after it’s been swallowed up by the whale of the institution.
My encouragement to you is this: nothing is wasted and this shaking is your deliverance. Every day you wake up you will get more and more of yourself back until you remember again what you are alive for.
2. THE SHAKING OF YOKES
The second shaking is the shaking of relationships where God is going after wrong yokes that have been like false foundations in your life.
This process can be painful because these are often the people who you see as being crucial parts of who you are, your identity, and even your purpose. That should be an indicator right there that something is amiss.
Often when people have been around long enough to be like furniture in our lives we stop seeing the red flags when they shift into a saboteur instead of a support.
That’s when the yoke shifts and you begin walking in bondage God never intended for you.
He is a jealous God and wants to be the one to be yoked to you but very often we choose to replace God with people who have the wrong heart or intentions, and unless we choose to let him move them on, we will stay experiencing the same dysfunctions over and over and never experience the breakthrough He wants for us.
This shaking is a strength tester to reveal to you who is spiritually keeping up where with God is leading you and those who aren’t. It’s a tester of cling-ons and those after genuine covenant.
Many have been lost in the witchcraft swirl of people who have been playing them over and over. They have not received you but have rejected you over and over and it may be time to shake these wrong people who keep holding you back.
And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Luke 9:5
But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” Acts 18:6
3. SHAKING OFF THE SNAKES
Personally, the shaking of foundations is needed because it reveals the areas where the enemy is trying to set us up for failure through wasted effort, misdirected focus, false expectations, and working with the wrong people. But what about the things we can’t always easily discern?
This is why the shaking is so needed - because so many are stuck under assignments they can't even recognize.
In a dream, the Lord showed me people who were bitten by poisonous snakes but didn’t even know it.
In the natural this was manifesting as;
⁃ A sudden distaste for the kingdom
⁃ Wanting to give up
⁃ A hurt towards God
⁃ Disbelief and double-mindedness.
⁃ Feeling betrayed or misled
⁃ Silenced and blocked.
⁃ Depression and anxiety
⁃ A deep soul sickness
The reality however was that there were many spiritual assignments/oppressors that God was dealing with in one fell swoop and the enemy was not happy about it.
The entry point? Wrong alignments and agreements. Places of hurt and trauma.
This shaking was bringing it all to the surface.
Remember that God will set you free and cause you to not even have any after-effects.
But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god. Acts 28:5-6
Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. Acts 16:26
4. THE SHAKING THAT BRINGS AWAKENING
And we know that the shaking is always a sign of rebirth and awakening which is God's ultimate goal right now.
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Hebrews 12:26-27
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. Psalm 29:18
The shakings aren’t a sign of judgement but a way God gets us back into shape and alignment. It’s a chiropractic technique of heaven to break what is holding you back and lead you into greater health and fruit.
THE POISON IS LEAVING
I feel like I need to make you aware of something I have felt many times during this process when God is removing false foundations.
It’s the feeling of poison in my heart that needs to come out.
It’s the poison of the many seasons and situations sitting there at the surface of your soul and you become highly aware of it.
The problem is that it feels like it’s impossible to move forward in that state.
How do I find my passion and joy again? You have been asking the lord.
The poison feels like a constant reminder of the lost seasons you have been through, the wildernesses you have endured, and the many regrets and failures you have caused.
But they aren’t coming to the surface to condemn you but to leave you!
Don’t take it on and don’t let it rob you of what is ahead. Lean into the process, let him draw it up and out, and move on!
THE HEART RESET
Lastly, let me share a vision I had in January;
In a vision I saw the Lord take a defibrillator and place them over my heart and begin to shock me over and over.
It was such a startling thing to see because at the time I was feeling close to God and felt like my heart was in a good place.
But the more I prayed into i could sense what was coming to the surface as the Lord shook our hearts - the hidden, tucked-away pain and weariness of the previous seasons.
The defibrillator was not only there to bring hearts back to life but to expose what was hidden causing subtle issues.
The shaking was separating what was me and what was something else and that’s what God is doing right now in you.
He is getting YOU back. Where you have felt lost and given yourself away, It’s time to retrieve YOU from the years and be made WHOLE.
God is right now on a rescue mission to bring you back from the battles of other seasons and reconcile you again.
You have been decompartmentalized and scattered throughout a myriad of seasons and it’s left you double minded, fractured, and unsettled in soul.
But as you lean into the shaking, He is gathering you, healing you, and putting you back together.
