All around the world the Body of Christ can feel the stirrings of a great move of God. We are at the beginning of something awesome, something global, something beyond anything we have ever seen. For years now, we have been believing for it, praying into it, and declaring it. God is moving. The key for the Body in this hour, is to discover how to move with Him and follow Him into all He has for us.
It may sound simple: We pray for God to move, He begins to move, we move with Him. But actually the early stages of a move of God can be the most challenging part. So often when God begins to move the response of the Body is not, "Yay! God is moving!" but instead, "Hey! God where did You go?!"
Seeing New Aspects of His Fullness
A move of God by definition involves God moving. Which means we may not "find" Him exactly where (or how) we have in the past – because He is doing a new thing. Mind you, He is not changing, God never changes (Malachi 3:6). He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). But He loves to reveal more of Himself to us in greater and greater depths and dimensions so that we can know more of Him (and thus make more of Him known to the world around us).
Often the way He does this is by blessing us with a season where He seems to not be doing things (or even meeting with us) the way He has in the past. He does not stop being who He "has been," but He adds to our revelation of all that He is by helping us see new aspects of His fullness. He woos us into a greater revelation of all He is by leading us from the comfort zone of what we have already come to know of Him.
Think of the Israelites in the desert. They knew the Lord as Deliverer, the One who brought them up out of Egypt. And now He was leading them – cloud by day, fire by night – across the wilderness into all He had spoken to them of in the Promised Land. Day by day the Israelites learned to look for and follow the presence of the Lord. Sometimes, for days, He would remain in one place with them, helping them to see and know Him as Provider, Healer, or some other aspect of I AM.
But then a day would come when the cloud would move. The Israelites had to be in active relationship with the Lord to realize He was not "where" He had been; they had to be lookingfor the cloud of His presence each day. When the cloud moved they had to trust that He was still with them and seek where He had moved to, so that they could follow.
It is the same for us today. God is moving. The key to following Him into all He is bringing us into begins with us trusting that – even if we are not finding Him where He "was," He is still present. After all, He never leaves us nor forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5-6). God is wooing the Body right now in a powerful way. There is a great grace for increased intimacy and relationship with Him – a great grace to know Him in new ways and follow Him into new depths.
A Place of Song of Solomon
Prophetically speaking, I believe we are in a place similar to the end of Song of Solomon 2 and the beginning of Song of Solomon 3.
In Song of Solomon 2, the Lover is wooing His Beloved to a new place in verse 10, "Rise up, my beloved, my fair one, and come away," he invites. He then goes on to declare that "the winter is past…the flowers are springing up, and the time of singing birds has come…the fig trees are budding, and the grapevines are in blossom," and then he repeats his invitation for her to arise and come away with him (Song of Solomon 2:13).
The Lover is announcing that it is a new hour, a new season, and that he has new things to show her, new places to take her, new heights for them to soar to together. She is hearing him on some level (SoS 2:8), and yet at the beginning of Song of Solomon 3 we see that while she is yearning for her Lover, she is still reaching out for him where she has always found him – and discovers that he is no longer there (SoS 3:1).
She has a choice to make. She can continue to search for him where he has been, or she can respond to the invitation to arise and step into the uncertainty of the unknown, discovering him in new places and in new ways (SoS 3:2-4). She chooses the latter, and in doing so embarks on a journey with her Lover in which she comes to know him, rely on him, and lean into him to such a degree that she is completely transformed – so much so that her peers do not even recognize her when she returns (SoS 8:5).
Like in the Song of Solomon, we have entered into a new season. The Lord is beckoning us, wooing us, inviting us to come away from where we have been and arise into a new place with Him – a place of greater revelation and demonstration of all that He is.
If you have noticed lately that things seem different, or you're not quite finding God "how" or "where" you have in the past, do not despair; do not be discouraged. He is simply answering your prayers. He is moving. He is inviting you to come along with Him.
Arise Beloved!
Prayer Directives:
So let's pray this month for the Body of Christ:
1. Our hearts will be fully His, and we will follow where He is leading.
2. We will discern the times, know His intentions, hear His voice, and follow His lead.
3. We will value what has been and all that He has done to date, but we will also be excited and expectant about what He is doing and what is breaking forth in the earth.
4. None will be left behind, and all will hear and respond to His invitation to arise and come away with Him into this new time, this new season, this new move.
5. That we will love one another as He loves us, so even if some respond to His beckoning at a different pace or in different ways than we do, we will respond in love and with encouragement.
6. And most of all, that the fullness of what He has planned for this season will come forth and that He will receive all the glory and all He is due!
Robert Hotchkin fervently believes every Christian is a miracle-working explosion of the Kingdom waiting to happen. His ministry empowers Believers to live fully from their restored relationship with the Father through the finished work of the Cross. His preaching, teaching, and ministry inspires Believers to grab hold of their restored relationship with the Father through the finished work of the Cross and walk the earth as Jesus did – destroying every work of darkness everywhere they go! Rob is a passionate lover of Jesus Christ and that passion is truly contagious! He ministers with strong faith, releasing revelation, prophetic decrees, healings, miracles, and the love of God. He is a true carrier of the glory and revival. People have been healed, refreshed, set free, and empowered through his life. He believes for Heaven to impact lives and regions everywhere he goes.
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