The Shift.

Yesterday I shared how when I came to pray that morning, I had been overwhelmed by two things: Jesus, and the sense that we had entered a new season. As promised, I’m here to share more on the latter.

As I shared at the weekend in The Coming Flood, on Saturday I saw a short but clear vision of gathering storm clouds and a dam that was holding back floodwaters. The dam broke, and the earth was flooded with dark, troubled (spiritual) waters that had been held back until now. There was a sense that God was allowing the flood because of His mercy, to wake us up to how much we need Him to save us. However I missed out a part, and when a brother commented on my blog page that he felt the dam was man-made, I knew I needed to reply – because he was absolutely right.

I also felt the dam in my vision was of our own making – that the Church (largely in the West) has been pursuing comfort for decades, rejecting trouble as ungodly, and trying to hold off anything that looked dark. But the problem with that is this: in avoiding all trouble, we also cut ourselves off from the grace of God that always accompanies difficult times.

So the brilliant news about that is that now the dam has been breached, and troubles are being poured out over the earth, so too is the grace of God that accompanies it. This explains why I felt that the vision of the dam breaking was actually a positive one: yes, overwhelming troubles are on their way, but for those in Jesus, we are saved, carriers of His grace to a drowning world. Grace is abounding in this season.

And when I came to pray this morning, I felt that shift again. Suddenly, where things have felt so hard for so long, I felt an ease, an openness of Heaven, to just turn my heart to Jesus and gaze upon Him. I am aware that the timing all seems co-incidentally linked with the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the ascension of King Charles III, and while I have theories that I could share in that area, I don’t want to make it all about the British monarchy. Because it’s so much greater than that: this is GOD’s Kingdom we are talking about.

This year – in fact, since the first lockdown – there has been a real focus on examining our hearts, of repentance, of sitting in ashes and mourning what we the Church have allowed ourselves to become. It’s been like the first six months of Esther’s preparation to be a royal Queen – anointed with myrrh, which represents mourning for what has been lost (Est 2:12). Up until last week it felt like that season would never end. But yesterday I felt a fresh joy, a newness and lightness in the atmosphere – like a door had opened and we were being invited to step through and lay hold of what has been done for us… as our repentant prayers have been heard and forgiveness released, with grace extended to step into our position as Bride. It now feels to me a bit like Esther on the first day of her second block of six months, when she was anointed with new spices and perfumes fit for a Queen, to prepare her for the wedding to come.

The problem with all things prophetic is it’s easy to hear God declare “now”, and to interpret it within our earthbound, temporal understanding. This feels like a human ‘now’ season shift to me, but still I would proceed with caution. God’s timings are a mystery to me – but I did feel to share what I’m feeling.

I believe the season of mourning is over – that it is time for the Bride to step out of the ashes and get wedding-ready: to get dressed in our robes of righteousness and walk as the Bride, utterly besotted with Jesus, with eyes only for Him. It’s time for us to have the joy of our salvation restored to us (Ps 51:12), to violently lay hold of everything that we have been given in Christ, and to boldly go forth in His Name, with the power of the Spirit, to advance His Kingdom.

While the Church was mourning our failures, the dam remained to hold back the troubles coming to the earth – but with the dam breached, this dying world needs to see the glorious Church, radiant in the reflected glory of Jesus, majestic as an army with banners.
As Dickens once said, we are about to see the worst of times and the best of times… and that is because the Bride is about to rise up and take her place.
nb I do still believe we are going to see a split coming to the established Church that will divide the religious from the remnant of those faithful to Jesus above all – but I now believe that has been set in motion – now it’s time to let go of our mourning and go forth to save the lost.

How about you? What’s God been saying to you? Have you felt the shift too?