Day 21
A Warfare of Rest – Day 21 – No More Delay
One morning upon waking, I felt the Lord say to me that I needed to re-arrange the furniture in my bedroom and in particular, the position of my bed. My bed had always been in the same spot since I moved into that house and for good reason – it was the most logical place for it based on the layout of the room. As I lay pondering this odd instruction, the Lord spoke clearly to me. “Stephanie,” He said, “I want to re-orient you. A new season is coming when I am about to display Myself as the Mighty God in a way that you and much of the present-day Church has not yet experienced. I want you to shift your bed around so that every morning when you wake up, the first thing you see is a new perspective. It will be a constant reminder to you that everything is about to change.“
Last week during one of our Awaken team prayer calls, Rebecca kept hearing the word “re-calibrate” and searching the internet, she found this explanation.
In general use, calibration is often regarded as including the process of adjusting the output or indication on a measurement instrument to agree with value of the applied standard, within a specified accuracy.
Calibration may be called for:
- a new instrument
- after an instrument has been repaired or modified
- when a specified time period has elapsed
- when a specified usage (operating hours) has elapsed
- before and/or after a critical measurement
Throughout this warfare of rest consecration the Lord has been repairing and modifying us (His instruments) during a specified time period because there is a new standard coming to which He wants to adjust us.
Theologically we know that God is the Mighty One, the Sovereign King. But experientially, it has seemed like the enemy has succeeded in his plans to destroy far more often than the Lord has reigned victoriously. We have tried walk by faith, only to be disappointed again and again. And all these experiences have subtly conditioned us to expect deferral and delay.
During the last month, our team has been seeing the numbers 11:11 everywhere. We know that the 11th hour means that time has run out. It’s also, literally, the last hour before midnight – before a new day dawns. In Matthew 25, Jesus told the parable of the wise and foolish virgins who all fell asleep waiting for a bridegroom who was delayed. But it was at the midnight hour that a cry rang out “Wake up, the bridegroom is coming!”
We feel that the Lord is trying to alert us that the hour is much later than we think. The signs of times are all around us, from the increasingly weird weather patterns to the destabilizing world economies to the escalating unrest in the Middle East. Yet at the same time, the enemy is trying his hardest to lull the Church into a complacency and dullness of not recognizing the season that we are in.
When God said He wanted to “re-orient” me, it was an interesting choice of words. To re-orient literally means “to cause to turn to or face the east again.” The east is where the sun rises – where the new day begins. And the east is also where, we know, Jesus will split the sky when He returns as our victorious King. I believe Rebecca heard right and this whole consecration is about a re-calibration – there is a new kingdom standard to which we have to rise if we are going to function the way the Lord wants in the new season. And there is an open door that we need to pass through – and that door is a door of rest. That’s why we can’t enter into the new season with strongholds of unbelief controlling us and wrong mindsets warring to keep us stuck in the past. Over the last 21 days, the Lord has been taking us on a journey of repositioning our hearts so that we would turn away from the pain and sorrow, the disappointments and failures and hope deferred of the past season and reoriented, facing east, with joyful anticipation of our redemption that is drawing near.
The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:11-12)
For weeks I have been hearing a refrain from an amazing song written by my friend, Laura Woodley Osman, called “Right Now.”
I believe I will live to see
My nation on its knees
All the young and the old ones
Will be calling Jesus, King
It will all change, it will all change...
It WILL all change – everything we have known, everything we have experienced, everything we thought we understood about how the kingdom of God will be established among us - it’s all going to change.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19)
If we don’t fully let go of the past, we will never be able to perceive the new that is coming. As Joshua said to the children of Israel about to enter the Promised Land “You have not been this way before.” We have not been this way before. It’s a new day, a new season and God wants us to move forward securely anchored to a newfound hope that the day has come for the fulfillment of every promise and every vision.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by and every vision comes to nothing’? Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer quote it in Israel.’ Say to them, ‘The days are near when every vision will be fulfilled. For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations among the people of Israel. But I the Lord will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious people, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the Israelites are saying, ‘The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future.’
“Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” (Ezekiel 12:21-28)
If you would like the Lord to seal this process of reorientation and secure the place He has taken you as you have stepped out of unbelief and into rest, then let’s pray this prayer together. “Lord, I choose today to believe Your word – more than the circumstances, more than the pain of the past. I choose to forget and not to dwell on the old but to re-orient myself and fix my eyes on You and the hope of the new day that is coming. Lord I ask You to complete Your work in me. Search my heart and expose in me any mindset that may still be trying to hold me in the past. I want to be a clean slate, God, a blank page on which You can write the story You want for my life in this next season. I choose to say, by faith, it will all change, God. I believe that we are entering now into the season where You will fulfill not only the promises you have made for my life, but the full plan You have had to see Your kingdom established on this earth.
Thank you for bringing me through this consecration and for exposing and helping me to seal up many open doors and holes in my spiritual life through which unbelief was gaining a foothold. Lord, I ask You to help me by Your grace to maintain what I have attained these three weeks and move forward from glory to glory and faith to faith. I believe oh Lord – help my unbelief! In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!” (Revelation 10:5-6)
Love,
Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team
We would love this journey to be an expression of the corporate body and not just a few of us, so if the Lord gives you a vision or dream or speaks to you through a scripture or if you have a story or testimony you would like to share, please send it to share@awakenthedream.org.
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