He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Ephesians 4:16
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
John 17:20-23
“City of Seattle, I have been forming your land for thousands of years. For thousands of years, I have used my word through the wind and the waves to shape you like Potter’s clay. I have walked around your coast again and again, in constant dialogue, like I walked with Adam and Eve in the garden.
In the same way, for hundreds of years, I have assembled people in this region. I progressively brought ethnic groups from faraway places and grew them in a similar atmosphere for this particular time in history. Look and see how I have called people into position.
But Seattle, you have looked at the shape and texture of your people, the rugged shape of your land, and instead of perceiving the treasure that I have hidden there, you have called yourself “The Land of the Misfit Toys.” You looked at the ruggedness of your terrain and envied the neat, clean, tidy borders I’ve given other cities. You looked at the ruggedness, the broken aspects of your people, and did the same.
City of Seattle, today I am challenging you to perceive yourself and others rightly. I know your shape, the specific gifts, and the limitations of your people, and I will show you how you fit together.
Condition: If you will repent of ways you have pre-judged and mischaracterized one another, I will send you further relational building strategy to become a standard for Healthy Community in this city and region.”
Church, I will build you as a house of glass panes, soldered together with gold. City of Seattle, let me be the one who holds you together.
Activation
Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind individuals or groups that you have rejected because you have not considered them God’s best for the region, or understood their role in his building plan. Repent, ask God to help you see them the way he sees them, helping you value and perceive their fit in what he is building.
Prophets, ask me to bring to mind nations and cities that you have rejected because you have not understood their importance. If you allow me to show you new cities that you have not noticed before, I will make you a jewel within my crown within the Pacific Northwest, and you will become a training hub for community wholeness.
Today, I want to share the first article on a topic that I believe is crucial for the Church to understand in 2023 and during a tumultuous time in history when the World desperately needs an authentic encounter with Jesus.
In this era, in response to greater unrest in the world, Jesus is calling his Church to embody his glory. He is inviting us to participate in his incarnation to a greater degree of oneness which will result in our participation in greater miracles, signs, and wonders. All of these manifestations of the glory of God will be a result of our intimacy/oneness with Jesus. They will not be the fruits of our direct effort but the organic outcome of our purity of heart, sincere love, and genuine faith in Jesus by the Holy Spirit (1 Timothy 1:5, Romans 12:10).
I’ve decided to write this article because, during this era, the Church must understand the history of what God has revealed to us about embodiment in order to effectively co-labor with him. In order to illustrate and introduce how God is calling us to embody his glory, I’m going to start by sharing a dream I had in August 2022 that I’ve named “Jesus on the Runway”.
“Jesus on the Runway”
I was in a temporary place. I was with youth, and was a youth myself. There was an organization that wanted us to dress up and be part of a production [like a theater performance]. I had to dress up and embody Jesus.
All I had to do was walk out onto the center of the stage, stop, lower my blue hood to reveal myself as Christ, receive cheers, and then go into the hallway off-stage. I was nervous about when to lower the hood to my costume, but the attendants reassured me to go for it anyways.
After I got off stage, I received a reward for having participated. I wanted to know how many rewards I could accumulate, not out of greed, but out of the desire to collect more of Jesus.
In this dream, God is calling his Church to embody Jesus, reveal Jesus’ glory to the world, and receive a reward. In purity, the Church’s role is simple: to reveal Christ through us.
We are entering into an age of visitation where the Church will need to operate in greater co-partnership with God. There is an even higher requirement for Christlikeness among Apostles and Prophets, whose words will cause seasons to shift as God backs them with external circumstances.
In order to understand how God is calling his Church to embody his glory now and in the coming years, we must talk about two events within the story of Jesus: the Incarnation and the Transfiguration.
Within Christianity, “the Incarnation” is when Jesus took on flesh to enter into the human experience.
The Word became flesh and took up residence among us…
John 1:14
The Incarnation was a sign of Christ’s decision to be with us. We Christians celebrate Jesus’ decision to forsake the comfort of Heaven, take on flesh, and choose us at Christmas, calling Jesus Immanuel (God WITH us). We celebrate how Jesus so loved us that he chose solidarity with our human weakness so that we could escape sin and be restored in the love of God. He is the best gift any of us will receive.
Though Christians celebrate the Incarnation at Christmas, Jesus said that he would be with us always (Matthew 28:20). Christians believe that Jesus is always near: he is just as available to meet with us today as he was when he physically walked the Earth. Sometimes, Christians refer to God’s nearness as his “presence”. We recognize that while Jesus is currently seated in Heaven (Hebrews 10:12-13), we can also regularly experience Jesus “in our midst” because we can experience and interact with him by the Holy Spirit. That means we can have encounters with him here on Earth, wherever we happen to be.
Today, we as Christians participate in Jesus’ Incarnation. We believe that by the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives inside of us (John 14:20). We believe that because his Holy Spirit lives in us, we have the great privilege of being his hands and feet on the Earth (1 Corinthians 12). Because Jesus lives in us, we are swept up in his mission to love, serve, and gather the lost, thus establishing the Kingdom of God (Matthew 28).
The Incarnation: Historical Strengths and Limitations
Traditional denominations have given the Church a valuable perspective on the Incarnation. Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Episcopalians have long sought to embody the life of Christ through traditions, spiritual direction, and sacraments. In traditions like the Stations of the Cross and Advent, these groups have earnestly sought to retrace the steps of Jesus through the Church calendar, remembering and attempting to embody his earthly journey through special yearly celebrations (such as Lent, Easter, All Souls Day, Advent, Christmas, etc). In spiritual direction, they have appointed Counselor Priest conversationalists, who act as skilled guides to help ordinary people hear God in a style of reflective, contemplative scripture study and prayer. In sacraments, they celebrated the life of Jesus and sought to meet him in every life season.
These groups have rightly celebrated God’s power to heal, and have at times experienced genuine eucharistic miracles because they believed in the healing power of God present in the concrete elements of communion/eucharist. These denominations understood that God can transform everyday objects like water, wine, and oil into miraculous means of grace for healing the sick, baptizing the new believer, and demonstrating the power of God (James 5:14-15, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 11:24). Jesus also used natural means to work miracles in multiplying fish and loaves of bread (Matthew 14, John 6), using spit and dirt mud to heal (Mark 8:22-26), and fabric (Matthew 9:20-22). Later, his Apostles used similar means (Acts 19:11-12). In the Old Testament, Prophets like Elijah (1 Kings 17:14, 1 Kings 17:22) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:41) used grain meal + oil, their own bodies (touch), water, and salt to produce miracles.
However, the miracles of Jesus, the Apostles, and Prophets did not happen solely through concrete means, just as often outside of concrete means by the Spirit. By overemphasizing concrete means, Traditional denominations may have unintentionally limited people’s expectations of God’s power.
More specifically, traditional denominations have tended to over-focus on the Eucharist/communion as a special category of miraculous healing material. While the eucharist/communion/bread + wine is precious, limiting the presence of God to one kind of concrete means misses the creativity of God and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit available to all Christians for healing.
Furthermore, retracing Christ’s footsteps only through sacraments or rites of passage misses something of the flexible, continuous, ever-moving nature of the Holy Spirit. Lastly, while the spiritual direction is a valuable style of Holy Spirit-led counseling because it takes a more pensive approach and relies on a spiritual director as a kind of Counselor Priest, it may limit people’s expectation of God who moves spontaneously and wants to speak to them directly.
There is More
Despite the right aspirations of traditional groups to emphasize Christ’s presence and retrace Christ’s footsteps in every life season, in the past, the Church entered into only partial embodiment. While the Church understood the first half of John 1:14…
The Word became flesh and took up residence among us.
John 1:14
They experienced an Incarnation that was devoid of glory. You see, based on the second half of John 1:14, Jesus’ incarnation and his divine gloryforever go hand and hand.
The Word became flesh and took up residence among us.
We observed His glory,the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
Today, God is inviting the Church into a greater experience of the Incarnation. He is inviting us into the fullness of God’s character, and participation in a greater measure of his glory. He is inviting us into a further, evitable outworking of Jesus’ Incarnation: The Transfiguration.
Glory and Transfiguration
Today, God is inviting the Church to participate in the Transfiguration by embodying his glory.
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3
John 17:1-3
The Transfiguration of Jesus was the moment that God revealed Jesus for who he truly was: fully born of God. Jesus waited until a time when his divinity was externally recognized by his disciples (not going to fast for them to understand) and he was near the end of his ministry. He knew that if he fully revealed his divinity, Satan through other people would be that much more zealous to kill him. This demonstrates God’s heart for waiting for the right time for people to be able to partner with him in his story, both the evil people (Judas had reached the full measure of his greed, Herod had reached the full measure of his envy) and the good (the disciples confessed him as the Messiah).
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:6
At the right time, the Transfiguration was the event that displayed the marriage of God’s divinity and our humanity in Jesus’ body. It demonstrated what man “full of God” could look like.
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3
John 17:1-3
Whether the Church knows it or not, God has waited until this era to reveal the fullness of Christ in us. In the past 50-70 years, God restored the ministry of Apostles and Prophets. Now, he is establishing maturity in the Church so that he can manifest the full measure of Jesus’ glory in us. This maturity (purity of heart, sincere love, and genuine faith) is the condition that will allow Jesus to marry his glory more fully to his people.
The Church has been caught in God’s nearness, but now must CHOOSE to transition to embodying God’s glory. We have been satisfied with only a partial manifestation of the fullness of God, and remaining in our own human appetites and desires. We have been satisfied with a fraction of the divine life of Christ, and only part of the divine character and emotions of God.
This is an Age of Embodiment where God will back his Apostles, Prophets, and Church with external signs AND indwelling Christlikeness, with traditional practices AND spontaneous outpourings of his Spirit, full of God’s presence AND his power.
For such an era, we need a fuller revelation of how Christ wants to live inside us.
By the Spirit, will you enter in?
What does Glory Feel like?
I recognize that to a Church that has only tasted glimpses of the glory of God, what I am describing may be cause for panic or fear. So I am going to do my best to describe what participation with God’s glory would look and feel like under an Age of Embodiment. As you will see, it is great news for the individual believer, the Church, and the world.
In essence, glory feels like being filled up and overflowing with the vibrant life of Christ. Like when you thank God for your food and suddenly can taste and savor more of the flavors, glory is the depth of sensory aliveness that occurs as a fruit of worship.
Jesus’s glory flows from his life, and our participation in his glory flows from connection to him.
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
John 14:19-20
When you are “in glory” (not just in Heaven but as a state of being on Earth), your senses become fully alive. Colors pop, sounds resound, and you experience an experiential glimpse of what the Earth will be like when it is like Heaven (Matthew 6:10). You become hyper-aware of and participate in God’s vibrant life all around you, which can feel like weight and richness. At the same time, there is a sense of supernatural internal purity and lightness, because of God’s grace to allow us as humans to navigate his embodied glory. God pours out grace so that it is not more than your body or emotions can bear.
We see this internal lightness and purity in Stephen’s reaction to the threat of death.
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7:54-60
More than die, Jesus’s purpose in life was to display God’s glory. In his servant Jesus, God “displayed his splendor” (Isaiah 49:3). This word “to display splendor” is a Hebrew verb paar which means “to actively glory in someone” (Strong’s 6286). In this same way, God wants to actively glory in us!
He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
Isaiah 49:13
The robustness of God’s glory life transcends death and leads to resurrection.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
Jesus was so full of glory that he resurrected. He was impossible to kill because, in purity and self-sacrificial love, he superabounded with the life of Heaven.
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Phillipians 2:8-11
Living in this vibrant state of life is pleasurable! It is what God always intended for humans.
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Proverbs 16:11
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10
For Leaders During an Age of Embodiment: Incarnational Leadership
The outworking of God’s glory in us will cause a thing called “Incarnational Leadership” within the Church. In a nutshell, this is a greater degree of embodiment of Jesus that makes greater Christlikeness available to the individual, the Church, and the World.
Incarnational Leadership is leadership that is so full of the life and love of Jesus that people feel like they are meeting Jesus in and through us.
Based on Jesus’ love, Incarnational leadership means a degree of communion with Jesus that individuals experience revelation as though they were having a face-to-face conversation with Christ. It signifies such a vibrant, extreme embodiment of Christ through communion with his emotions, wisdom, knowledge, and his power that people are transformed. Under these circumstances, the organic outcome of our purity of heart, sincere love, and genuine faith is physically embodied glory (1 Timothy 1:5, Romans 12:10).
When Apostles and Prophets embody this degree of the vibrant life of Christ, people can encounter the purity, gentleness, righteousness, intensity, and power of God in and through revelation.
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
John 14:20
When we speak, they hear the voice of Jesus that was full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
From purity of heart, we see God.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8
And by the glory of God, they see Jesus in us.
All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 6:15
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
John 4:29
Next Up: Implications for the Structure of Ministry
In this article, I explained both where the Church has been and where it is going regarding the full embodiment of God’s character and glory. I linked the Incarnation and Transfiguration to the Church’s past and future embodiment of Jesus’ glory, described what embodied glory feels like, and presented Incarnational Leadership as an intentional style of leadership that will likely be important in the coming years.
In my next article (2 of 3), I will share how Incarnational Leadership will affect the Church structure, as it relates to:
Worship
Increase in Miracles
Culturally Diverse Moves of God
Healthy Organizational Cultures
Healing the Land
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In both of these situations, Jesus went before me to do things I couldn’t do for myself.
This month, I went to Scotland for one last training before I graduated from the Global Prophetic Alliance’s Emerging Prophets Program. Graduation marks the end of a 2 year journey that has left an indelible mark on my life. During this program, I met and befriended some wonderful people, started a training nest for people interested in Youth + Young Prophets, developed a social group to keep in touch with prophet friends, and explored my calling across contexts and countries.
Balanced Pace
As this program comes to a close, this month I processed some of the highs and lows that my journey as a prophet has taken over the last calendar year (not necessarily related to this program, but in general). While there were many beautiful things that happened in 2022, I faced others’ jealousy, competition, usury/consumerism, rejection, and bitterness periodically. I saw both loss and risk, even when risk was worth it.
Part of me feels like I’m experiencing Revelation 12:14, in finding a new Church community and being tenderly nurtured by God.
The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.
I love how this church is quietly apostolic and missional. I’ve joined a small group where worship and practicing the gift of prophesy are routine, and am excited to continue practicing the gift of prophesy while on team outreach to Seattle’s homeless population. I’m also hoping to start volunteering with their ministry to teens. I am still continuing to develop national prophetic words and resources related to Youth and Youth Prophets with friends, but this Church gives me a grid for how prophets can function within an Apostolic Center setting. In general, I feel like this Church has more opportunities for robust ministry than I could possibly explore, and seeing the hyper-abundance of good choices feels like grace after feeling like I was lacking room to expand for so long. I feel that God has brought me to this church to learn from how fluidly (and subtly) they do apostolic ministry, as part of developing range, especially for regions of the world who need a gentle introduction to prophetic ministry because the Prophetic Movement hasn’t yet touched them.
As I worship Jesus, I’ve been delegating some responsibilities and my timeline back to God. While it’s true that my faith has taken me through so pretty wild experiences of God’s power to rescue and provide over the years…
As I process where I’m going and where I’ve been, I’m finding a new degree of acceptance of the unknown that outpaces all of my previous seasons. It’s wonderful, and feels a little bit like freedom and floating. While I’m still getting used to this degree of peace unknown, I feel a greater measure of trust developing. It feels like the beginning of a period of seeking and finding, where God intentionally conceals part of the solution in order to have greater dialogue about the process.
That being said, in order to stay present in this season, I’m needing to push back performance pressure and rigid expectations (externally from others, internally from myself) about my development process. I’m looking for work, but am hesitant to not rush timings, even though taking control and forcing something that isn’t God’s best is tempting.
Defining the Time and Season
In this specific season, I’m still primarily focused on allowing God to reset and redeem family dynamics. Apart from themes of quality of life, balance, and community, I sense God calling me to hold salt and develop resources, develop maturity, and expand skill sets. In general, it’s a season where I’m letting the ground lay fallow so that I can gain strength to keep swimming up current.
Another focus of this season is laying the groundwork for my doctoral thesis. When I started my Doctor of Educational Ministry in Educational Leadership degree (D.Ed.Min.), I was 25, working out of my apartment in DC, and really hungry for Jesus. I applied and was accepted to doctoral program just a year after finishing my Master’s in Early Childhood Ed because, even though I had set out to not get another degree for a decade, I was just too hungry to learn.
I’ve met some wonderful friends and have loved the historical grounding and focus on cultural engagement of Virginia Theological Seminary’s doctoral programs. The way they teach students to engage with society should be a standard for the Church and in the Prophetic Movement.
It feels really good to come to the point in my studies where I can lay the foundation for my thesis (which will take another 1-2 years). I’m grateful to be so aware of my own interests and identity that I can use the final assignments in my other courses to already start to explore potential topics.
As of today, I’m hoping to build a framework based on interviews that bridges a Contemplative, Traditional understanding of Christian Mysticism and a Charismatic, Active understanding of Christian Mysticism, asking individuals to “describe a time when they were near to God.”
This framework will hopefully:
provide common language for encounter
provide a sense of balance/counterbalance to both groups AND
provide an on ramp for charismatics and contemplatives to understand one another’s mystical experiences
I will likely focus on themes of vocation and childlikeness. I hope that this thesis ultimately strengthens charismatic’s focus on identity, community, mentorship, and comprehensive individual internal robustness (Deut 6:5).
New Seeds
As I stay in the peace of God, I am noticing God draw my interest towards several new subjects.
Foreign Policy and War: How do nations prepare for war? How does a nation’s culture influence it’s tactics?
Governance How can leaders subtly respond to high intensity situations? In positions of high ranking national governance, what does discretion, collaboration, and a right use of networking look like?
Business How do governance and business administration overlap? How does discretion, strategy, producing a quality product, and leadership look similar and different within these spheres?
Embodiment and Connections between Nations How can God form the internal dispositions of an apostle/prophet to be an embodied bridge between countries? How do we as individuals become the highway?
Prophetic Cooking (more to share soon) How can traditional storytelling through ceremonial foods be a model for contemporary prophetic words through cooking?
Worshipping God Who Doesn’t Rush Me
As learn to slow down, I can’t get away from worshipping God who isn’t rushing me towards an outcome or the things he’s prophesied over my life. This month, I listened a lot to Travis Greene’s “You Waited”, in awe that Jesus waits until his Bride is ready instead of rushing the Church’s timing on the earth for his Second Coming. You never rush your Church to be fully ready, but you warn her that she is responsible for making herself ready (Rev 19:17), because the time is short (1 Co 7:29).
I remember when I was in my early 20s, I hated this song because it seemed like a let down. Truthfully, I hadn’t lived long enough to learn to appreciate process and understand that good things have to be built slowly.
Navigating Gender and Healthy Ministry Friendships
As I reflect on Jesus’ unwillingness to rush me, I’ve also been reflecting on the healthy friendships I have with guy friends in the Church. As someone who has dealt with stalking and sexual harassment in the church as a woman, I’ve had to think more than I like about gender, safety, and healthy masculinity.
I used to wonder how I would keep myself safe (especially while traveling) from questionable men in the church. Yet as I look back on the supportive friendships and ministry alliances I’ve developed with healthy guy friends, they all have similar traits:
Purity of heart that leads to sincere words and actions
Honoring right boundaries for friendship; purity and honor as a standard
Appreciation and respect of women’s limits (ie, respect for emotional sensitivity), value for women’s strength
Solidarity without sameness, true cooperation
These men have allowed me to be feminine while authoritative at the same time. It has been awesome to be able to support one another in ministry in healthy ways.
Reflecting on Leadership
As I reflect more on leadership this month, I can’t help but quote my favorite leadership quote of all time, fromBoundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. The analogy between stewardship, marriage, and church governance is powerful. It makes me think of Ezekiel 34, about what it looks like to develop resources, protect people’s weaknesses, help them invest their talents, provide inner healing, support them under trial, and restore them from failure.
What does Leadership look like? It is basically leadership Christ provides the Church:
He died for her and makes her whole
He looks out for her growth and best interest
He cleanses her from guilt
He provides resources for her growth
He protects her from the world, the flesh, and the devil
He helps her to invest her talents
He heals her hurts
He takes her suffering on himself
He supports her in trials
He comes alongside of her when she falls
Favorite Books
This month, I read Escaping the Maze of Spiritual Abuse by Dr. Lisa Oakley and Justin Humpreys, and was blown away by it’s wisdom. It helped named some trends I’ve noticed in former experiences with healthy churches, and made me more aware as an emerging leader of how authentic leadership guards people from manipulation and usury. The authors cite several other authors (like Margaret Bailey) whose books I’ve read for seminary, in Ethical leadership or Governance and Mission courses. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to raise healthy organizations and values safeguarding for adults and youth.
This book reaffirmed my conviction that sincerity is the ultimate witchcraft antidote. Because sincerity requires purity of heart, exudes servanthood instead of toxic manipulation and control, and focuses on relational investment, it heals. Love that surrenders its own agenda for the sake of others can’t be faked.
Worship this Month
Prayer Requests
Practical: Clarity, direction, right pacing, and favor to find a new job
Intangibles:
New levels of purity → in prophecy, in friendships, and pursuit of God in general
Even more curiosity to seek and find, finding God in mystery
To remain expanding and remain led by the Lord in the midst of tremendous change
Today, in response to the current season many of my friends face in building new things, I’m going to be writing about navigating timings with Watchman prophesy. Like the post I wrote on strategic ways God has increased my measure of faith across life seasons, I’m choosing to write this article from the measure of experience I do have, accepting what I don’t know, as part of a call to authentic scribal ministry.
individuals who receive “a great percent of dreams and other revelation about non-personal issues…pertaining mainly to areas of a Watchman’s call.” (Ch 3)
“Spiritual lookouts” who have a future-oriented prophetic leaning, “peer[ing] into the distance, spy[ing], keep[ing] watch” regarding both the plans and purposes of God Almighty and the Enemy (Ch 3)
Strategically organize and “prepare the people to receive the coming King” when revelation is related to God’s future plans. (Ch 4)
Issue well-timed warnings to leaders and individuals when revelation is about the plans of the Enemy. “Watchman ministry has the potential to bring strategic revelations and insightful knowledge of the exact time, name, and place of operation of specific evil forces or principalities that come against the people of God.” (Ch 4)
“Postman and not enforcer of the warning” (Ch 5)
Named examples are Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk, with other prophets performing a Watchman function throughout scripture (for example, check out Amos and Isaiah)
The specificity of Watchman revelation means that much of the call is related to timings (hence, this article). The “Issachar anointing” discussed in charismatic circles relates to a collection of individuals in the Office of a Prophet within Issachar who functioned in a Watchman capacity.
From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives. All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.
1 Chronicles 12:32
As prophets mature, they tend to develop other areas of prophetic gifting, so that they become a mix of different elements of the Office of a Prophet (Seer, Nabi, Watchman, etc). Therefore, if a prophet does not mainly receive Watchman revelation, they may still periodically. It’s good to know about the gift in context.
Making Peace with the Puzzle
Both the sense of urgency and the future-focused revelation that Watchman receive make it absolutely necessary to know your timings. For example, Watchman prophets may steward puzzle pieces for regions, organizations, and individuals that relate to 1, 3, 5, 10, 30+ years out all at once. Making peace with the puzzle requires both personal responsibility and surrender to God who keeps watch as a Master Watchman (Ps. 127).
Instead of abdication or overwork, it’s better to learn exactly what is your seasonal assignment regarding each of the part of the puzzle. Some of the revelation will require no inquiry and no present action. That’s because Heaven likes to teach us about the puzzle pieces that correspond to the particular (thematic) lesson we are learning right now, not necessarily those events that will happen most immediately. For example, I had a long term calling/inheritance dream related to Supernatural Youth Ministry in April 2021 when I cried out to God, saying, “How exactly do you want to use all these skill sets?” I’m still in the midst of the outworking of that word, somewhere between where I’ve been and where I’m going. But Heaven decided to give clarity well in advance because God wanted to paint a picture that would relate to those deepest desires and questions, not external circumstances. Glory to God, I don’t need that dream to come true overnight. I’d probably panic if it did. But because I know where I’m at in the process and am making proportionate steps towards that dream in accordance with the objectives God has for this season, I have peace.
It is very common in the life of a Watchman Prophet to perceive or communicate an event happening well in advance of it’s natural timing, with a sense of extreme urgency. For example, when I got this word on increasing witchcraft requirement among youth in the UK this April, I felt the urgency of parsing the word. However, I’ve mostly just needed to have it on hand for conversations so far. I am glad that I did the work in season to prepare the word, even if I’m still waiting to see how God will use it.
Heaven Uses Different Language and Different Metrics
As I’ve gotten more timelines and maps in my dreams, I’ve needed to rely on Jesus and accept partial understanding.
“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.”
1 Corinthians 13:9
God shows us as much as we need to know for the timing we are presently in. When the puzzle pieces come together, they often do so in a sequence or by methods we don’t initially perceive.
“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”
1 Corinthians 13:10
Furthermore, Heaven will highlight details about the spiritual significance and meaning of events without over-focusing on their natural appearance.
“Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”
John 7:24
What God highlights to you about a person or situation may still be emerging (such as character traits). For me, this has most often been an awareness of mantles or anointing on individuals’ lives, that don’t yet have any natural evidence. It can be a little disorienting in that you show up to talk with someone and recognize that they don’t se themselves yet through the lens of word. And that their insides still need time to come into formation for them to be able to walk it out.
If God has shown you future-reaching revelation about a region, a ministry, or an individual, what role do you need to take in this current moment to respond appropriately? Is this information future oriented or present oriented? Is it conditional or certain? Remember, this is about proportionate action. As you go, the tension between living outside of natural timings decreases because you get better at navigating your role in the moment.
The Further the Scope, the Greater the Need to Stay Grounded
The further out in time the revelation, the more you have to stay focused on the present moment. God will have you conserve your energy, which can be wasted in pressing in for information that is too distant. At the same time, he can timings effortlessly through word of knowledge if you are rightly positioned. It shouldn’t feel exhausting, but conversational. At the beginning of new assignments, I have found special grace to ask and answer questions, just as Mary did in receiving the news of her pregnancy (Luke 1:34). Some questions God will answer when you explicitly ask (sometimes that same day, sometimes over time). Other times, God knows what is on your heart and will fluently share information because he knows that you’ve quietly been “pondering them in your heart” (Luke 2:19). He loves you, and he doesn’t want you scared. Those who seek will find (Matthew 7:7-12). And if you’ve been seeking and haven’t found the specific answer yet, you probably don’t need it (or need it yet).
In the following paragraphs, I’m going to share three types of historical context, ministry, yourself as a leader.
Ask about Your Historical Context
While a great deal of Watchman revelation relates to the future or present, some relates to pieces of the past (former spiritual wells, assignments over regions) that need to be changed or restored. Since God layers his present work on past action, knowing the specific timings for your labors in a greater context of his story is useful.
Questions for Your Historical Context:
What is the larger context of ministry that you are called to?
Why has he put you on the Earth at this particular time period, as compared to the past or future?
What is the larger tapestry of activity that he’s producing on the earth, and how can you come under the scope of that vision?
What other trends or movements currently on the Earth do I need to be aware of, either because this calling is connected to them, or in opposition?
In each of these sections, I am going to be sharing examples from my life on how God has helped me navigate these questions. During my time in the classroom, I found that people learn and feel supported best when they have practical examples they can use as points of reference. I’m taking a risk to share, because I believe it’s ultimately more helpful to readers than leaving it hypothetical.
Example: Youth and Young Prophets Movement
In preparation for some of the work of intergenerational ministry God will have me do with Youth and Young Prophets, God has been showing me glimpses of what he is preparing for 0-18s, but from a long distance. If the revelation is accurate (ie, specific words related to time lengths in dreams), the Youth Movement he’s building will rest on about 200 years of history, and will affect the next 210 years of history.
Ask about Your Ministry
God in his context may reveal various puzzle pieces to help guide the formation of your ministry. Again, he will do this gradually as you have the capacity to handle more information and are at the ripe maturity level to hear it. Like nearly everything in the Office of a Prophet, it presumes that you are co-laboring with God and remain in conversation with him.
Questions for Your Ministry:
What are your “front line” sectors, regions, and age groups? Where are you currently called to invest your energy, and what seeds is God currently adding to you that you need to begin to explore?
Which individuals are you called to partner with, and in what capacity? For each person, are you called to support their leadership, co-minister with them, mentor them, or develop an alliance between five-fold or regional structures?
What strategy has God highlighted, to build each aspect?
Example: Thirty Years of Building
Glory to God, he has been gracious in sharing timings, strategy, regions, people alignment, and sequential details about the ministry he will develop through me and others.
I believe God counts 2022 as my first year in ministry, based on the abundance of imagery related to ministry vehicles and him telling me, “Well done for stepping into the story” when I left my teaching job in February. In a series of dreams in October, he mentioned that building my ministry will take 30 years.
If I’m 28 now, I will be 58 in 2052, when the ministry will be established. Isn’t that nuts?
I have a rough sense of where we’ll be in the world (including some surprises), some of the languages we’ll need to incorporate, and some of the sectors it will intersect with. While it’s not exhaustive, I put together a circle map of some of these elements because visualizing the information helps.
Ask about Yourself as a Leader
Lastly, it’s important to know what dispositions God will cultivate in you as a leader as part of your journey. In which ways do you need to transform in order to hold the position and develop the right community?
Questions for Yourself as a Leader:
What attitudes do I currently have related to working with people or managing my responsibilities?
Which attitudes need to change? What new, healthy seeds of disposition is the Holy Spirit planting in me?
If I continue on the exact same trajectory I’m on right now for the next ? years, what will be the fruit? Will that honor God? What little adjustments can I make now to honor him even more throughout my career in ministry?
Example: At Middle Age
You know, when I was about 9-12, I was so nervous to grow up. I spent my last years in elementary school scanning adult leaders in my vicinity and considering which aspects of the adults I admired. I was well aware of some traits from role models I didn’t want to emulate, and other aspects I loved. When I was about 11, God actually used this period of soul searching to speak to me in a vision, where I saw an older version of myself (20-30s) who was involved in youth work. This experience powerfully shaped my identity.
Well, now I’m in my late 20s and doing the same kind of soul searching. It’s a season of examining different apostolic and prophetic ministries and leaders, and gaining vision for who I want to be as a mature leader (at a slower pace). Just like when I was young, God in his grace has been pouring out the same grace to see older versions of myself. These characters aren’t just cool older women, but they carry the same resonance, texture as myself in the Spirit. As in, they feel like it’s the exact same cloth, the exact same tone and perspective as me, just older.
In one episode, I saw a version of myself in my 50s. She understood my longing for open space and to grow quickly, and was a writer, a prophet, and an academic. She was relaxed, open minded, legitimately humble, and had enough experience to not need me to translate much. She just understood. It was awesome.
In another, I saw a version of myself in my 60s. She was a public speaker who was authentic, but no nonsense. I saw her in the middle of giving a lecture encouraging people to surrender and let God work out his formation process in them. She reminded me of the straight-talking culture of the Midwest, of Kansas where I was raised.
Lastly, I saw a version of myself in my 80s. She was relaxed. In seeing the long but positive arch of her story, I felt a new degree of freedom just to lean back and leave the timings to God.
Seeing these women made me legitimately excited to embody a more mature version of myself. It made some of the pressing, crushing, and clay molding that God’s been doing on my insides seem more worth it. And it made me more aware of the amount of permission that I have to let go and simply trust. In his kindness, God wants that degree of freedom for everybody.
Know Your Specific Assignment, Role, and Timing
This month, I graduated from the Global Prophetic Alliance’s Emerging Prophets Program, a 2 year long training for individuals called to the Office of a Prophet. As people prepared for graduation, it felt like some of us were scrambling to come up with a plan for the next steps of our journey.
One man asked very earnestly, “How do we find opportunities in [insert area or geography of ministry here]?”
I held myself back, but nearly said, tongue in cheek:
“Be the Bride. Wait for men to open doors for you.”
You will need both God and other people’s support to reach places you can’t get on your own.
It’s a dumb joke, but it’s the same as saying:
Going through the process with God matters.
More seriously, I’ve been asking the same question myself, but in different words. You see, after two years of gathering puzzle pieces, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. A question I’ve struggled with is, “How do I make peace with all this information?” And as I’ve stayed listening, I’ve found that the answer is:
“Know your assignment and stay within your present timings.”
You have got to know your season, because strategy follows season. In Ecclesiastes 3, there are timings for everything and specific actions that suit each timing.
Now as I settle for the foreseeable future in Seattle, Washington, I’m in a season of gathering stones together.
This next dream demonstrates the importance of knowing your season.
I saw a man in clothing that was all wrong for the weather. When it rained, he wore no protective clothing. When it was sunny, he wore heavy clothes. He was out of continuously out of step. I wondered what could be done to help him get in season.
The man that I saw in that dream struggled in real life to take proportionate action, which put him at risk of missing his timings. However, we all are in danger of missing our timings if we don’t know our role and remit (assignment) for the season we are currently in. Know exactly what is required, and let go of the rest.
For every crop, there is a growing season. A good farmer learns to visually estimate the progress of his crop. Jesus compares the capacity to visually estimate the progress of something to discernment.
But He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’ 3and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’
Matthew 16:2-3
If knowing timings relates to discernment, proportionate action belongs to wisdom. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees because instead of discerning that he was the Savior and rightly responding, they expected clarity to drop from the sky as a sign.
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times.a4A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.
Matthew 16:3-4
Are you waiting for things to just magically work out? Or are you committed to going on the process?
God is gracious. He isn’t going to give up on you or the promise if you remain seeking after him. However, missing your timings can put you out step with what he wants you to build in the moment. For example, if you focus too much on a future season, you will not know how to build the right friendships and trust so that future ministry and relational alignments can happen. Moral of the story: Discipline yourself to respond to your present timings well so that you don’t botch your present opportunities. From there, just continue to be led. Focus on taking just the next right step. It will accumulate.
If you’re seeking, he’s speaking. It’s not rocket science. Sometimes, it’s about being okay with listening to what God wants to share, and not forcing him to talk about an irrelevant puzzle piece. Have you ever been talking to someone, and they made you tired because they needed to relentlessly steer the conversation, instead of letting it emerge organically? God can change the subject, and for good reason.
Let him.
Example: My Current Season
In this season of growing in Seattle, I am legitimately thrilled to rest. After a year of rapid growth, I need to move at a slower, more moderate pace.
God called me to Seattle to focus on restoring relationships with family. After praying for this for nearly a decade, it surprised me in July when the time had finally come for there to be accelerated grace on family healing. But after all that time waiting (and setting boundaries so that things could come to the surface), you better believe I jumped at the opportunity. As I have spent time with my mom, sister, and our 2 dogs, I’ve noticed surprising improvements all around (in me too). They are my primary ministry focus right now, and everything else is secondary.
In addition to Family and Community, some other themes for this season are: Balance, Holding Salt and Developing Resources (including designing mydoctoral thesis), Blessed Expansion, and Developing Maturity.
Like bark stripped back, I need time to change and mature. I will still remain involved in facilitating a small group of prophets interested in Youth and Youth prophets, in participating in another small group to receive, in friendships with my prophet community and in passing trainings. But generally, it’s a time of exploration and formation, not intensity. The ground needs to remain fallow for a while, and stillness is what progress looks like.
In the stillness, there are things that I’m realizing I value as a leader that I might not notice otherwise. For example, I’m watching myself gather people based on character instead of gifting.
I know plenty of talented people, but the people I’m bringing closest in this season and investing in the most are incredibly pure of heart. I value their sincerity and want to be the kind of leader who can go on a long term process with people, as lifelong friends. The forbearance God formed in me as a child is something that I can draw from when people need more time to grow. I knew that long term investment based on character was my natural inclination from years in the classroom, but it’s cool to see that become a pattern. God willing, it will become a legacy one day.
God wastes nothing. During “waiting” periods, you aren’t really waiting, you are transforming and allowing God to add parts of the puzzle that you did not previously realize that you need. Relationships, regions, and skill sets. None the process goes to waste if you remain engaged.
Let yourself be led.
Just in Case it Comes Up: Naming the Timings
As God trains you and brings you into greater co-laboring partnership, there may be times where he asks you to name the timing of something, and then backs you.
I had a dream recently where God told me to name the time frame of a process, and made it clear that he trusted me drive. I was in awe. And shocked. But mostly, awe.
My suspicion is that maybe greater authority to set timings is God’s way of empowering people when there is a power imbalance.
In the story of Elijah, Elijah was a prophet of Yahweh in a context when the religious state had given itself over to Ba’al worship. In this context, Elijah makes his recorded debut by informing Ahab that he had sole authority over the time period of the drought.
A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, “In the name of the Lord, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so.”
1 Kings 17:1-7
Later in the story, the word of the Lord comes to Elijah, and provides specific instructions directing him to confront Ahab. Elijah has a show down with the prophets of Ba’al, the prophets of Ba’al are killed, and Elijah calls in the water (1 Kings 18:42).
Looking at the story, now I wonder:
Did Elijah just sense (estimate) the time period? Or did God give him the authority to name the range of time, and then back him?
I don’t have answers necessarily, but either way, the trust that developed between Elijah and God is beautiful. God, would you give us the same grace to be trustworthy.
Pitfalls
For the sake of the fact that we are all still learning, I want to devote this last section to talking about some common mistakes it seems prophets make in navigating timings. I’m hoping that we all can recognize our own natural inclinations in this list and if necessary, pivot. I’m sure my closest friends could tell you which of these I tend toward. That’s okay, we need each other.
Going too Fast
One of the simplest ways you botch your timings is by rushing them.
Restricted Vision, Restrained Fruit: Rushing will keep you relying on Your own strength. It will make you myopic and focusing only on what you already understand. You will fail to notice additional puzzle pieces that God wants to add before you pass on to the next thing. Like trees that produce before they have been sufficiently pruned, your fruit will suffer if you fail to receive all that he wants to give you.
Goal: Receive what you need to receive and let God expand your vision.
Lack of Worship, Lack of Mirroring Jesus: Rushing causes us to place ourselves instead of Jesus at the center of the process. It is no surprise then, that what we build mirrors our personal weaknesses more than it mirrors Christ.
No matter what you build, there will always be some weaknesses. However, when you build on Christ as your foundation and pursue his timing by pursuing him, you start to worship idols of performance, popularity, and human strength. Intimacy suffers, and revelation becomes an idol instead of a means of revealing Jesus.
Goal: Pursue ministry as a fruit of loving Jesus. Let his strength be the source.
Undervaluing Relationships, Not Investing in People: If you go too quickly, you can alienate people. A good leader knows how to take a moderate pace so that he or she can enlist and bring people with him/her. They know that their strength is in numbers, and that preparing the Church for Christ is ultimately a prophet’s mission. If you go too fast for the Bride to align with what you are doing, they will not be ready.
Jesus’ ministry was relational. He was a prophet sent to Jerusalem, and Apostle sent to build the Kingdom of God. In spite of the eternal and salvic importance of his work, he focused on building people and let structure develop from community. He only selected his twelve disciples after he had collected a crowd (Mark 3:7-19). From gathering people, he sent others to gather people (Matthew 28). People were always he mission (Isaiah 54:13, 60:4).
Without bringing the people with you, you can risk creating an echo chamber where aren’t able to rely on others support or sharpening. Ultimately,
Success comes through many advisors.
Proverbs 15:22
and
In an abundance of counselors, there is safety.
Proverbs 11:14
When a leader is very passionate, people drawn to that passion. But in order to truly influence the world, leaders must invest in empowering people to participate in their measure of the outworking of the vision.
Passion alone will only attract 2% of people. The rest of the Body of Christ needs us to be an accessible friend. They need us to be balanced, emotional robust, and friendly. These are the people for whom Christ died. They are worth the effort.
I know that as a person, I am so passionate about my areas of calling that if I don’t intentionally slow down, I will burn others out. Lately as I’ve been working with friends, we’ve talked a lot about personal limitations with pace and timing, and balancing other responsibilities. The majority of my friends are between 40-60, and have responsibilities with family to juggle. I’ve found that we do more meaningful work when I discipline myself to keep pace with what they can manage. By keeping in pace with older people, I find that I leave more room for myself to grow at a reasonable rate, instead of the the tendency to rush that comes with youth.
Goal: See your mission as a prophet in submission to Christ’s mission of gathering the lost. Make serving, loving, and empowering them the foundation of your ministry.
Undervaluing Relationships, Not Building Bridges: There is no movement than can be successful without creating alliances between various people, networks, and territories.
When we rush timings, we can prejudge people instead of going on the process with them in long term friendship. We may dismiss them based on their surface level deficits and fail to see the gold that God has put in them. We may fail to honor them or recognize how we have room to learn from them. Over time, that can limit a ministry’s remit.
The thing about people is, they have a context. They have communities, regions, resources, wisdom that we lack. Building bridges starts small, with individuals who are closest to us. When we choose to go the distance with people and press in to understand people we don’t yet understand, we advance the Kingdom of God. As ambassadors, we should always be asking, “Is there a way I can bring this person on board?” It may not *always* be possible, but trying will grow you quite a network. When you grow with people over various years, walk alongside their families, their kids, you establish a level of trust that you can’t otherwise easily replicate.
Goal: Connect with a variety of people, relying on them as you develop long term friendships. Let alliances emerge organically.
False Responsibility
Another way to botch your timings is by taking on false responsibility.
Letting Other People Rush You: Especially within a North American context, sometimes it feels like speed is all that modern Christians care about. Instead of letting wine mature, we’d rather train people to talk loudly, quickly, and without developing substance.
North America, we have got to learn a deeper value for process.
When you take on false responsibility, it can relate to fear of man and people pleasing. Maybe you’re feeling pressure to go quickly after a few early successes in ministry. Maybe you’re surrounded by a community of people who are eager to take advantage of your gifts, who don’t know their own limits.
This isn’t always true, but many of the people challenging you to rush are likely to be those who avoid going on their own process.
It is better for those people for you to model what long term process looks like. By abstaining from toxic pressure, your actions challenge them to do their own internal work. Model healthy expectations. You were not created to be consumed. Let Jesus kill the part of you that responds to toxic pressure and set a different standard.
Furthermore, there is a such thing as false responsibility for God. God doesn’t need your help to make things happen [artificially]. He has his own ways of doing things and will send you more details as you need it. God doesn’t need you to give him ideas. He’ll let you know.
Goal: Set a healthy, flourishing, vibrant pace for yourself and the people around you. Go on your own journey with the Lord and empower others to glean from observation.
Unclear about Assignment: Another aspect of false responsibility is that you make yourself responsible for everything, because you don’t actually know what to focus on and where your responsibility ends.
Consider assignments through the lens of school. Assignments have specific starting and ending points. They have guidelines, and they will relate to specific subjects. If you don’t know what the perimeters of your assignment is, you will be in hyper-vigilance. You will not be able to check out, because you wont know where to focus, and when you have permission to check out.
In order to not become burned out as a Watchman, you have to know exactly when a situation is no longer your problem. Just as actual Watchman sleep, eat, and generally relax at the end of their shift, so should prophets. Ask Jesus to show you the limits of your assignment, and savor your life when you’re not on the clock.
Everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
Ecclesiastes 3:13
Goal: Less is more, know when to let go.
Over-sharing Information: When you feel too responsible for others, you will feel like you have to report back to them. That is ultimately insanity.
Apart from trusted few, most people can’t handle more information. They are great observers of the process, but cannot logistically help you make decisions because they aren’t called to take that role in your life.
Privileged information is precious. Most people cannot handle timings. Timings fall under the category of privileged information that also includes names, dates, mates, babies, regions, countries, denominations, organizations, and length of assignments. As you mature, less is up for public consumption. That way, you can celebrate sharing with those who can both handle it and have earned your trust. Either way, recognize that first and foremost, you are accountable to God. Steward your revelation accordingly, and seek council from those who will help you obey him.
Goal: Celebrate sharing with the right people. Don’t feel the need to overshare with others.
Fear
Now, you may be aware of your need to go through the process with God, but feel paralyzed to action it. Believe it or not, Jesus stands poised, ready to help. You will need to put words on your fears and bring them before God. You will have to admit that you need help, to yourself, to God, and to others. You will have to stop relying on your own capacity over overcome and ask for God to be God, making a way. He will empower you to face your fears if you let him. Let him show you how his strength is sufficient in your weakness.
There are two main kinds fear-induced avoidance that we see in the bible.
Avoidance as doing the WRONG thing: Jonah as example of actively running from what God told him to do in Nineveh by getting on a boat to Tarshish (John 1:3).
Avoidance as not doing the RIGHT thing Barak as example of hesitating when God through Deborah told him to lead an army against Sisera (Judges 4:8).
These examples demonstrate that sin can be in both what we do and fail to do. However, if your fear of the Lord is greater than your fear of loss or fear of man, you will ask God for help, and he will give you give you the grace to overcome.
Goal: Ask God for help when you get scared, and name your fears. Fear the Lord and rely on his strength to overcome your fears.
Poor Record Keeping
Ultimately, poor record keeping is related to stewardship. Poor stewardship can relate to fear and chaos, so I’ve put it last.
Poor stewardship can happen when life gets chaotically busy. You have a sense that you need to move forward, but loud external voices and circumstances get in the way of your capacity to commune with God and respond in proportionate action. Yet in communion, you find both the clarity and the endurance for the road ahead. God will give you the capacity to diligently steward what he says, but first you must make seeking him first a non-negotiable rhythm. Whatever it takes, staying close to Jesus must be the first priority.
Side Effects
Miss your Visitation: With enough neglect, you will fail to inquire about important puzzle pieces (of revelation) God sends you. Not doing the internal work will cause you to miss the time when God is expecting you to respond. Or, you may miss opportunities to participate within your present timing. You must do your internal work to be aware of opportunities to build trust, to network, to dialogue with the Lord about your questions/concerns, or generally scout out the territory.
Delay: Furthermore, God will often delay telling you things or allowing things to happen until you are willing to put in some elbow grease. Actioning a word, even dipping your toes in the water, comes from faith. Faith is the currency of the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 11:6, Mark 11:22-24, 2 Corinthians 5;7). If you stay tuned into his voice and diligently track your revelation, you will be in position and ready for appointed times.
Goal: Stay close no matter what the cost. Ask God for help to block out distractions, redirect your schedule and rhythms, or free up time.
A Secret…and a Solution
Can I tell you a secret?
Usually when we think that God’s timing, God’s methods, or God’s purposes are insufficient, it’s more about our insecurity than God’s ways.
Are you insecure about your capacity to wait?
Are you insecure about your capacity to lead?
Do you believe that he will equip you to be the person you need to be to participate in this part of the process?
Jesus knew that you would need incredible amounts of help. Life as a Christian, from day one of salvation onwards, is a life of dependence. How much more so as a pioneer, trying things unprecedented?
The virgin birth is a classic example of God providing for a young leader going through something unprecedented. Mary was always going to have a potentially harder pregnancy than most women. When she went into labor, her body wouldn’t just be passing an infant through the birth canal for the first time, but it would do so without having any former experience of penetration. God let her spend time with Elizabeth, who would have had a better grid to understand what Mary because she was also going through a prophetic birthing experience. Mary continued to develop physical symptoms, she went through the potential loss of her betrothed, traveling extensively during her third trimester. And yet, God’s grace really was sufficient. Even when they had no community nearby, no one to confide in, no where to stay, and were figuring it out in the moment.
God’s power to help you through a challenging situation will always be greater than your power to untangle it. Learn to rest in his chords of love for you. Learn to trust the process and know that he wont put you in danger that he cant rescue you from. If you let him do the heavy lifting, the mountains really will move. But you have to let yourself be treasured and internalize that he will help you.
Do you need a fresh revelation of sonship, to know that God cares? Ask him to meet you again today in the process. He knows the exhaustion of the birthing process. Allow him to meet you in the fatigue, just as Jesus relied on the strength of his father.
Closing Thoughts: Accept the Unknown
Ultimately, as much as these puzzle pieces are helpful, they are not as beautiful as simply trusting God.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:8
You know, I bet Jesus chose not to know all the details sometimes. He had all access to information, as part of the Trinity. Even in his humanity, he could probably press in and discern just about anything he wanted to know with a little inquiry. And yet, I bet there were times that he preferred to not know and simply trust the Father.
If he is laid back enough to not even know his own wedding date (Matthew 24:36), he probably took the same posture in his time on Earth.
Jesus, would you give us the capacity to be like you, and welcome the unknown? Would you help us define our lives not by what we know or don’t know, but how much we trust you. Amen.
Age of the Unexpected 