Over the next few weeks, I'm excited to share with you some key prophetic insights from John 21. It is a rich chapter especially in the context of where we are. The story in this chapter is after the death and resurrection of Jesus, however it is a scene where the disciples are still in a state of mourning and scattering. What happens in these verses serves as a prophetic strategy for us to be able to come out of 2020 as warriors and overcomers.
Bad Habits
In order to do this we have to be willing to break some bad habits and mindsets that may have been taught to us in a previous season. My first violin teacher was Mrs Warfield. This lady was awesome! Every time I played a few notes correctly, out came a large bag of M&M's and a few pieces would be placed in a paper cup on my music stand with my name on it. On my way out of her house, I would take a few swings at a whiffle ball tied to a string off her front porch and give her elderly, morbidly obese golden retriever and gentle pat on his head.
One fateful day my mother told me that I had just had my final lesson with Mrs Warfield and that the following week I would be with a new teacher. I had hit a wall and wasn't getting better. It only took a few minutes for my teacher to declare "David, you've got some bad habits we got to deal with" Turning to my Asian mother who was sitting very tense as if fearing a terminal diagnosis she said "these bad habits are getting in the way of his development. Don't worry, once we fix them, he's going to be off to the races"
My mother was relieved as her dreams of me becoming a world class violin playing neurosurgeon millionaire doctor remained on course. After 12 months of breaking bad habits and learned playing patterns, I joined my first college orchestra at the age of 12 years old.
God wants to set us up for a period of rapid acceleration and advancement, however adjustments to our mindset, our perception and our posture have to be made.
We will address this in our first post in this series and then with those fresh eyes we will dive into John 21 regarding the prophetic strategy for this season.
Sunshines, Rainbows and Clear Skies Ahead
Before the start of 2020, many people were saying how this was going to be the most triumphant year the Body of Christ had ever seen. Themes included "20/20 Vision for 2020," "prosper in 2020", "2020 the beginning of the greatest revival in human history". It was all over Christian websites and on the blogs of many prominent prophetic voices. While I found these sensings very encouraging, I was hesitant to wholeheartedly agree with the picture that many were painting of the days to come. This runs opposite to my nature as a human being.
I'm going to get transparent with you about one of my greatest shortcomings as a human being. With diligence and perseverance, I have gotten better, however in moments of weakness or great overwhelm, it will rare it's ugly head. Sigh, here it goes, the truth is that... I will fall for almost anything.
I am the person that buys stuff off of informercials, gets on the waiting lists for products that I see online. When people create Super Bowl ads, they are thinking of me. I bought DVD's before I even owned a DVD player. My wife has told me that I am not allowed to go to any timeshare resort sales meetings with her when we are on vacation because salesmen can sniff out that kind of weakness.
I am not naturally skeptical about anything. I've been known to enjoy a Youtube marathon or two about conspiracy theories because hey, there might be some truth in there after all. This is why when all these words were being released, it was odd to me that nothing lept inside of me like, "oh my goodness yes that's it! Let's do it!" I didn't paint my body blue, I didn't jump around the house, and I didn't google how to purchase middle eastern currency.
Instead, I felt, silence, I felt a hollowness in what was being said. When I got to the root of it, much of what was being said, had an opposite effect on me. It placed a sour taste in my mouth. And then, rumblings came from the East.
With all these prophetic sensings about entering into a season of triumph, many of us were taken by surprise and felt like we had woken up to an alternate reality. I was one of them. We are deep into 2020 and all signs seem to be pointing to the opposite of what we were expecting.
Even worse, in the United States, churches have not only remained the same, most of them are fighting for their right to even open, hold services and freely worship. When all words in 2019 were that 2020 would mark the start of one of the greatest expansions in The Church, tens of thousands of churches are shutting their doors as rulers, leaders, and communities deem them not only non-essential, but harmful to their health and wellbeing. Even more outrageous are churches that have even taken grants from the state to cover overhead and payroll in exchange for their commitment to hold no in-person gatherings or meetings until their state tells them they are allowed to. Alternate reality indeed.
With all that has happened, it is natural for all of us to look sideways at those prophetic words from just a few months ago, I know I did. Did I feel that these voices were wrong for proclaiming these things? No. Do I think that they heard incorrectly? No. I actually believe that what they heard is something that is truly in God's heart. However where it got twisted was in their interpretation and commentary on what the expression would look like.
This Ain't Your Momma's Chicken Pot Pie
Just because Momma made a good pot pie doesn't mean that it's the best it's ever gonna' get. Nostalgia can get you to forget that Momma actually got that off a Swanson’s truck. If you go in with that nostalgic, romanticized, closed mindset, when your wife makes you pot pie and it doesn't taste like your childhood and you decide to verbalize as much, you might find yourself relegated to a steady diet of hot pockets and Little Caesars pizza until the second coming.
In regards to what was being prophesied and shared, they felt more like personal imaginations and assumptions as to what God was saying would come to pass based on past moves of God and what they had experienced in their lives in previous seasons. In fact, reading some of the transcripts, you see phrases like “A new Jesus Movement” “a Third Pentacost” “Just like God did in the times of Smith Wigglesworth”. A lot of pointing to past moves going on.
More moves of God have been derailed by people trying to fit it into a box of the past than from any demonic attack of the devil.
As a prophetic people, we have to be careful when we attempt to draw approximations from what we see God doing in the future to what we have experienced in the past. Yes there can be similarities but if we are not careful, we will cause those we are prophesying to, to look in the wrong direction for the wrong thing. It's like someone inviting you to go on a picnic only to realize that you're actually getting ready to step into the ring to do 9 rounds with Mike Tyson. Not cool. I believe that this lapse has caused a lot of people in the Body of Christ to be confused, discouraged and even downright frustrated.
So here is the main takeaway I want to share with you in this post::::::
God does not do re-runs, he does not do sequels. God is Doing a New Thing!
Our Father in Heaven composes epic, multi-faceted symphonies that build one measure after another towards an epic crescendo that causes every nation to bow its knee in awe of His greatness, might and limitless love. With every season, He declares from His throne over His people, "You Haven't Seen Anything Like What I'm About to Do!"
When we know that God is going to do something we haven't seen before, we move from a position of observation and contemplation into a posture or readiness to engage for whatever comes. I call this active expectation for the unexpected.
For example, if I told you that on the other side of that door, was your friend that had just stepped out a few minutes ago, you would take on a certain posture. But if I told you that what was coming through that same door was not like anything you had ever seen before, notice how your posture becomes much much different. Active expectation for the unexpected.
Family, I want to encourage you that if you have felt discouraged because things have not turned out like what people had prophesied or how you thought it was going to come to pass, please shake off that heaviness and know that God is doing a new thing! With that are going to come a lot of growing pains and learning new things in order to be ready to contain all that He is pouring out in this season.
Now, with that in mind, let our hearts our minds and our soul recalibrate to how the Holy Spirit is saying we need to flow, bend and roll in order to be positioned for the future. Let’s look with anticipation at what all this uncertainty only seeks to remind us of, that we are not in Kansas anymore and that’s a good thing. (Unless you currently live in Kansas to being with… in which case..)
In my next post, I will be sharing about the importance of remembering your prophetic history in a way that propels you into your future rather than keeping you in your past.