2019 – 2024…
Our leadership team recently attended a conference in Pennsylvania where the opening speaker started with story from 2019. They were in the middle of an airport when God interrupted their day with a jolting vision. Essentially, they saw a clock stopping. They sensed this was a kind of “delay” being put on certain things happening with the world. In the midst of this was a revelation about the year 2024 and coming into a “completion of time.” She saw God put his hand on a dial and restarting the clock. From there, a totally new era opened up.
Now I can’t begin to describe the awe and clarity that hit my heart as I heard these words. At the end of 2019, I received a very public prophetic word in the middle of a service that spoke of some incredible things God wanted to unfold over the next 12 months going into 2020. When this word was given I was already coming off one of the most wild prophetic things I had ever experienced. It had to do with…
whales.
Some of our readers will remember this. Throughout 2019 there were a series of signs and wonders involving these massive sea creatures. It got so intense that I decided to give a message to the church about it one Sunday. I was going to connect it to Jonah and how we were getting swallowed up by grace–but only to be spit out of God’s mouth as his KISS to the nations (just like Jonah being spit out of the whale’s mouth to go to Ninevah with a message of mercy). That morning, as I nervously prepared to share some of the crazy things God was saying in confirming this message, someone who had no idea what I was going to talk about walked up to me during worship and told me that a man was swallowed by a whale off the coast of Africa earlier that morning! (Here’s the message from that morning where I called this person on stage to share what happened … and here’s the news story dating to the same time as the message.)
This is only the tip of the iceberg of what happened that year. God was speaking powerfully about his people coming out of the “whale’s mouth” and how this connected to the Bride of Christ coming out of the wilderness with a fiery revelation of grace and union. All of this merged with that public prophetic word I received and it led to a great sense of promise and breakthrough going into 2020.
Then 2020 came . . .
. . . and everything seemed to shut down, literally.
In many ways, it was like the entire world went into the belly of the whale during that season. I personally went on a sabbatical (by request of our elder team) to work on issues in my life and heart that were affecting my marriage. On the same exact day, the entire country was put on sabbatical as the governors of different states began to call for mandatory lockdowns. This led to an intense season across every sphere of society while at the same time our church community went through a difficult time of pruning. Suffice it to say, it appeared as though a great delay had occurred.
Well, here we are today in the last quarter of 2024 and over the last number of weeks there have been a resurgence of words from 2019. God has been speaking about “redeeming the time” from this past season. You can imagine then why I was blown away when we heard this woman in Pennsylvania speaking about the clock stopping in 2019 but a new beginning erupting and “a completion of time” coming into the end of 2024.
Ok, so what does this mean??
Well, to start, here’s one of the more important things I know…
A spiritual “delay” is an opportunity to learn rest. While all these prophetic promises are exciting, this past season has been about learning to rejoice in the present. For me, it was also about prioritizing my family and marriage….and recognizing how much God is in the small everyday things.
There is a timelessness to the Kingdom of God all of us are called to enter into. When we talk about the “finished work of Christ” there is an absolutely settled reality of victory that transcends all the “times and seasons” on earth. In this realm of eternity, we can truly rest knowing sin has been dealt with and victory is assured for humanity. This enables us to receive a love that transcends prophecy (see 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul talks about a day when all prophecy will cease because we’ve entered the fullness of love).
Part of entering this timelessness involves the ability to just be . . . which also involves enjoying those around us. This was part of the redemptive beauty behind the Covid season as individuals and churches were forced to be at home. A call to reprioritization was certainly on the docket for people across the nations. For those with eyes to see, God was at work way more than the devil. (It’s easy to see the manipulative hand of darkness in 2020….it takes a sharper [20/20] vision of faith to see the good hand of the Father.) So, like Jonah in the belly of the whale, there has truly been a lesson of trust and surrender…
On that note, I recently had a word for a young couple entering into a new season of ministry which I feel is relevant to this point. I told them about this sense that God was bringing them into–
“Rush Hour.”
And I feel this extends to some who are reading this right now… Rush Hour speaks to me of great acceleration. Things are going to dramatically shift in the world over the next year. Great breakthroughs and the beginning of a global harvest is truly upon us. There will be a “rush” of new activity, new relationships, new miracles, new provision, and new people to disciple and lead into the revelation of union. Get ready!
Ironically, Rush Hour also speaks of that annoying time of day when we are NOT moving because we’re stuck in traffic. In the midst of the “Rush,” there’s this reality of just doing nothing. Waiting. Being.
I believe this is part of the call in this hour. There is truly an invitation to take the lessons of the past season and apply it to every part of our lives. We may still struggle with these things (I definitely do), but I believe an open heart to prioritizing rest and relationship is all God is looking for. He will give the grace for us to walk it out.
Part of walking it out involves the simple practice of his presence day by day. It’s tapping into that eternal realm of rest which also involves embracing a greater enjoyment of those immediately around us.
This is the fullness of time in action. We enter into the joy of being present and blissfully aware of the people God places in front of us. We are sensitive to the Hoy Spirit and focused on the ONE! Out of this place, we advance the Kingdom and see massive change and breakthrough occur. It’s a divine tension of heaven’s rest and earth’s labor joining together as One.
Are you still with me??
If so, here’s one last thing to take away from this message on the completion of time and its implications for the earthly side of things… For the past few weeks, we’ve been speaking into the next twelve months with a particular focus on the winter and spring. I believe there’s some practical things we can do to prepare for the season ahead. For one, here is a link to a recording of a presentation I gave to our church about this. Though this was addressed to the Almond Branch, it has relevance to our entire Elisha’s Riddle community. The vision laid out in that presentation can be applied in any setting. We simply see people getting equipped in bringing the message of awakening to the world around us.
But I will also add here that there is also something God is speaking about redeeming creative gifts.
Artists, writers, and other creators are key to this new era opening up before us. One of the ways we are being released from the “mouth of the whale” into this Rush Hour is in the creative sphere. So, I want to issue a clear call to stay connected and be ready to embrace a new depth of creative collaboration.
Part of “being present” and “entering rest” is being open to the creative spark within. As those sparks fly, get ready for a new flame to ignite.
🐳 🔥
P.S. On this last note, check out this message from Mic Montalbano where he covers a number of these topics as it related to rest and creativity.
Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash