Each year at this time the Lord lays before us certain guidelines. The Spirit has again been speaking through the prophecies of the things that will come to pass during the coming year.
The year before us will be a year of persecution. We are already experiencing it in a few rumbles, but the stage is being set to see it accelerated greatly. It will also be a year of establishing the churches that God has raised up, and persecution is very effective in establishing them. The churches have come up rapidly and now we must see them firmly established in the Lord.
It will be a year of growing unity and a flowing together in the Body, even though Satan will fight it.
Spiritual warfare will be on a new level. It will be more of an advanced type of warfare in which we take the aggressive role, instead of being on the defensive.
God will bring forth the apostolic ministry and the entire apostolic company. One by one those who are called to be apostles and prophets will find themselves breaking through into a flow of ministry throughout the Body and throughout the earth.
The School of Prophets will come forth and be established. This will be the greatest thing to come forth in the Walk, to this point.
The Lord has indicated a release of finances. The country will be going into difficult times financially, but God is going to release the money to us. During the past year we were tested a great deal in this area, as God laid upon us a ministry of sacrifice. The ministry of sacrifice is the prelude to God’s fullness. Until the small lad has surrendered his five loaves and two fishes, God doesn’t start the miracle of multiplication, of the supernatural flow. It’s when we have done everything we can do and have laid it all in His hand, when the drastic measures of discipleship have been wrought in the people, that God will be faithful to see that we have a miraculous supply. God will not tell us to do anything without making adequate resources available for us to accomplish it. We have so little, but in the dedication of that, we will have everything we need.
This was the key in the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira. They held back in the day when they should have been giving, and the Holy Spirit caused them to drop dead. The churches drop dead in their selfishness too; they drop dead spiritually when they hold back and live selfishly. I believe the miracle of Ananias and Sapphira is returning, but in a positive instead of a negative way. I don’t relish people dropping dead. It takes too much time for funerals, and I’m not really believing for funerals in the next few years; I’m believing for the Body to sustain one another in love. Ananias and Sapphira held back and dropped dead, but I believe God is going to reverse it in the end time, and as the people give, the Body will spring forth to life.
As never before, we will be speaking the Living Word of the Lord, instead of talking about the Word.
The gathering clouds of tribulation will be very evident upon the earth. But there will also be a growing awareness of the Parousia, the presence of the Lord. It will become more of a reality to us, just as the dawn stealing upon us. Our fellowship with the Lord will be closer than we have ever experienced before. We are standing on the verge of things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart imagined.
The fulfillment of many promises, held in abeyance, will spring forth—things for which you have been trusting God for a long time. It will be a time of great fruitfulness in the Lord. Believe for all the things God has spoken. Somehow they will come to pass—even yet.
I don’t believe these prophecies will be exhausted during this year or that the Lord will say, “That’s all you get.” I believe they will be real to us next year also, but in an accelerated form. Believe God’s Word and walk accordingly. Prepare your heart for everything God has.