There are certain toys that stick out in the memory of everyone who grew up in the 70’s. As a guy, I have fun memories of Stretch Armstrong, Rock’em Sock’em Robots, GI Joe with the Kung-Fu Grip. I loved my Evel Knievel action figure; you’d wind up the launcher and Evel would jump off our flat carport, land on the driveway, and take off down the street after the neighbor’s cat. Totally cool. Most everyone I knew had a Toss Across, a Spirograph, a Six-Million Dollar Man or Bionic Woman, and everybody had a Magic 8-Ball.
It’s human nature to want to know what’s coming. Whether it’s simple curiosity, some deep-seeded fear, or a desire to profit and control. The Magic 8-Ball may not have been the best tool for predicting the Super Bowl, but every kid (and their parents) asked it a question about life, shook the ball, and waited for the floating 20-sided die to pop up in the window; the answer was usually: “Ask Again Later”.
In a time when many people are tentative or outright afraid of the future because of economics, politics, or some other-ics, we tend to shake whatever 8-Ball we can find to give us some kind of stability. Many people had their worlds shaken in the past year, and those that were looking to 2008 to be a year of new beginnings weren’t really prepared for the way those new beginnings began. Prophetic words aren’t a Magic 8-Ball, and we must be careful not to use them as such. Every year, we look to prophets to predict what kind of year it’s going to be, and if we don’t know how to receive a word, we can get hurt.
The point, the goal, is always Jesus. A really honest reading of the Bible leads us overwhelmingly to Him and any word from a prophetic voice should also draw me closer, and increase intimacy with Him. If it doesn’t, then I have to ask why. If some fear is in control of me, then it becomes a filter for everything I hear. If I believe that the world is going to end next Tuesday, everything I read or hear I can pass through that fear filter and adjust the truth to justify my belief. If I feel that nothing ever goes right for me, that something terrible is bound to happen, then no matter what good I hear, I will feed the fear which controls my world.
Before God gives you any word through the Bible, through a person, or straight from His heart to yours, He wants to deal with any fears, judgments, or filters that could alter what He is wanting to tell you. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 14.3 that prophecy builds up and encourages and comforts. If you aren’t often encouraged and built up, you need to find out why! Even in the Old Testament when Nathan confronts David with his sin concerning Bathsheba and Uriah, it is to ultimately restore David, not to destroy him. God is not out to punish, He is giving life, and restoring hearts, and equipping you for destiny. God is not the one who kills, steals and destroys, but we act like He is.
Let Him examine your heart; where are your fears coming from? Where is my anger rooted? Why am I judging that person? Let Him take you to the core of each one, with the understanding that conviction is always to bring you closer to Him, not to push you away. It is His delight to restore you, His joy when we allow Him to go into our hearts and tear down the filters. Whether He leads you to repentance (changing the way we think), forgiveness, thankfulness, healing, worship, joy, creativity, or all those and more, a life lived in and from His Presence like this means we never need a Magic 8-Ball. Even if we don’t know what may come tomorrow, we just don’t care like we used to because we know He is there tomorrow.
Ok…so having written that, I actually do believe that I have a word for this upcoming season. But I want you to test it. Does it bring you closer to Him? Does it encourage and bless you as it is intended? Does it build you up? Because if it doesn’t, then toss it away. But if it does, then take it to Him and ask how it might apply to you.
What I have seen in my time with Him is an outpouring of wine on fire. Maybe in the next blog I’ll detail that vision, but the main point is this- as millions of us worshipped Him, caught up in how amazing He is and how He is love itself, there was an overflow of blazing wine from heaven to earth. What I believe He is saying is this: a new wineskin is needed for a wine that no one can contain. It is a paradox. Wine is joy and healing and life and love, and fire is holiness and purification and renewal and change. No man is able to create a structure to adequately contain both. Only Holy Spirit can do that. I believe that there is a season coming, that is here, in which we can be “drunk” in the Spirit, and yet totally sober about the tasks in front of us at the exact same time.
I am convinced that God loves paradoxes because there is always an element of faith necessary for a paradox to be grasped. In Hebrews 4 the author writes for us to be diligent, work to be at rest. How does it makes sense that I work to be at rest? That’s just it- He has to teach us; we have to live in His Presence so that the paradoxes of His Kingdom are normal, that the supernatural is normal.
He is giving His beloved rest, and yet training our hands for war at the same time. We are to be carriers of rest, joy, and peace while we are kicking in the gates of hell. Drunken warriors that scare the daylights out of every demon in your path.
His word is strengthen yourself (rest, restore) in Him, and then pursue, overtake, recover all that the enemy has taken. In I Samuel 30, David and his warriors were doing what they thought they should, fighting the enemy. When they came back from battle they found that the enemy had taken their families and all they owned. Nothing was left. They were already exhausted, and now were wracked with fear and anguish and depression and confusion, and blamed David.
David apprehended God. He could have chosen depression, rejection, fear, rage, or suicide. Instead, he strengthened Himself in his Father. David poured out his heart and found God’s Presence. From this place God told him to pursue, overtake, recover all. In that covenant, David was to pursue the enemy. In this covenant, and in the word I feel He is giving us, we are to pursue Him.
What are we recovering? Jobs? 401ks? He cares about those, absolutely! But He is first after the recovery of our hearts. He does not want any political, religious, or fear spirit in control of His children. He wants us to recover words He has given us in the past that have not yet come to pass, many that we have forgotten. There are some words you have in old journals that pass the test of encouraging and blessing and equipping that are soon to be fulfilled if we will learn to live in and from His Presence. If we will live in the paradox of resting in that Presence and yet apprehending every opportunity that is in front of us to bring His life and love and power, we will see our lives and families thrive no matter what the circumstances may be around us. In creating a new wineskin for your life, part of the paradox will be in the recovery and restoration of much of your past.
The best part? When we are seeking to be with Him, you don’t have to worry about Him telling you to “ask again later”! Let’s look forward to 2009 as the year that we learned to live in His Presence.
