Prophetic Word – 2019 & Beyond

In prayer today I sensed the Spirit of God speaking into several themes, some are areas where He has been speaking to me for some time, while others are new for 2019:

New Innovations

The Spirit of God and prophecy are being released upon the body of Christ to innovate new ways to reach people with the Gospel, new ways to build church, new creativities.

New businesses, new outreaches, new communication means and new ways of influencing the influential are being released on the earth. Now is the time for God’s innovators to be released from the bonds of “the olds ways”. The Church must allow experimentation, adventure, exploration and risk. We will find the prophetic purposes of heaven living there!

There are new genres of worship music and art about to be released in the church. Whole new ways of doing worship services. New ways of encounter. The current service styles that have filled our church buildings are about to be stirred and changed, as innovators and pioneers head off in new directions. Even singing in tongues will resurge again in ways not seen since the early days of the Pentecostal revivals just over 100 years ago. I see many thousands lost for hours in glory filled encounters, where Spirit-infused worship overwhelms programs and plans.

Great Accelerations

Everything is speeding up. In recent years there has been a divine “holding back” as God has been preparing, aiming, cleansing and adjusting the church ready for a new launch period.

Many have tried to run ahead of God, begged Him to speed up, longed for more fruit, blamed themselves, each other, church leaders and denominations, but we are exactly in the purposes of heaven, exactly in the timing of heaven. We cannot be released in the new day until God’s hand releases us. We must not blame man for God’s restrictions. No man can truly move “unless God…”

Long-Awaited Suddenlies

And when He does, some things will move like lightening. I see an explosion, like a firework, as many people that He has been positioning into place, suddenly get released across the earth, releasing the divine purposes of heaven to infiltrate, fill and ultimately occupy and flood cultural spaces with the glory and the wisdom of God.

Great Amplifications

In order to bring the body of Christ to perfect alignment, the prophetic gift and anointing on the body of Christ is being amplified in this season. It is time “to seek the Lord while He may be found” and as His presence is intensifying, so His voice is amplified.

Details, details, details are going to fill the minds of leaders searching for the wisdom of heaven.

God is bringing many leaders to the planning rooms and the war tents of heaven. New scrolls are being open, saved from the beginning of time for this era of church history. Many have been through pain, stalling, waiting and cleansing in order to see these days and understand these strategies of heaven.

Take time to rise in the prophetic and for your eyes and ears to open, to higher realms of communication from heaven than ever before. Give yourselves to worship, to encounter, to protracted time in His presence, to listening, to giving space in your diary for the lost art of seeking His face.

New Generations

A fresh wave of inter-generational anointing is about to break out upon the body of Christ. As in the days of Christ and John the Baptist’s early ministries, God will move again in preparation “before the day”…

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Malachi 4:5-6 NIV

I see churches that have been focussed mainly on a single generation, suddenly recapturing the beauty of inter-generational culture. The beautiful inclusion of intergenerational families will rise afresh, bringing with it a new sense that the Church truly is home to a family.

New models of church leadership succession are arising: No longer will retiring pastors simply depart at retirement age, but rather they will remain as fathers and mothers in the house, honoured and powerful, while sons and daughters rise, with no sense of restriction, to lead into new innovative days in God.

Many young people, even in their teens, will begin to take powerful places of leadership, leading churches, innovative ministries and remarkable outreaches, supported, fathered and held stable by deep and trust-filled relationships with generations that have gone before.

The rise of the young in this day will astound many. There is a grace on the generation coming through, that will enable them to carry the presence and glory of God like never before. Many of the attributes of the new generation that some have seen as weaknesses, God will use as a strength for the sake of His kingdom.

Powerful Partnerships

It is the day of new partnerships. Churches, ministries, even those labelled as “para-church” (such a label will fall away) will begin to work together in ways rarely seen before. The Spirit of Christ is bringing a state of holiness and reverence for each other like never before. A realisation that the days are urgent and the harvest is ready, will lead churches across regions to form deep bonds, crossing denominational boundaries and swamping old feuds with a greater vision of the Kingdom coming to a town, a city, a region, the nation.

In this day denominationalism will give way to a spirit of partnership, friendship and fellowship. Many historic denominations, once birthed in revival, will restructure, revive and recapture the fire of their beginnings. The emphasis will be on smaller, relational, inter-generational, fast-moving teams and friendships.

For the next season, there are several behaviours that will help us align with God:

End Well – There are many things that have had their day, and God is ending these things. Do not be caught still in what God “once said” but missing what He is “now saying”! Listen carefully, bravely, for the Spirit of God to speak about things that must end. Projects, plans, old connections – many things need to be readjusted in the season.

Seek Well – Give time to God’s presence, to worship and to listening to God’s voice. It is out of intimacy and worship that a new season in the Church is being birthed.

Relate Well – There are many things about church that have been “good”, but God is about to call us to “even better” ways. There is an upgrade in how we relate as teams, churches and generations coming upon us. Give space and time to discover these.

Explore Well – At the edge of the Promised Land, exploration was part of the process of “entering in” (Joshua 2). We must allow “faith-filled exploration” to take place. To try new things, some of which may fail hopelessly. But in the movement of exploration, a new wisdom and new ways beyond the limits of our history can be found. Even failures will lead on to new favour, when we learn and listen “as we go”.

Do not allow the spirit of the nay-sayer to speak the “We cannot do it, there are giants” into the spirit of the Church, for God’s innovative, prophetic, pioneering Spirit wishes to do something new among us all.