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In the previous issue, we talked about the shifts and doorways that will release increasing darkness in this decade of high transition. As this is happening, the Lord is also bringing various shifts in His Church to enable us to be ready for the unprecedented outpouring of His glory in the midst of the greatest darkness (Isa. 60:1–3).

This glory will be so unsurpassed that if we as God’s people do not align with these shifts, we will either not be able to receive His glory, or else fail to carry its weight and steward it well!

The Lord is always looking for vessels. However, more than just being willing, we need to be ready.

Will we prepare ourselves to be ready vessels strong enough for Him to use? Or will we be found wanting and unprepared to carry His glory in the coming hour?

More direly, will we be swept away and overcome by the increasing darkness?

This season of preparation is thus for us to become that vessel that is made ready for God’s use.

THE SEVEN POSITIVE DIMENSIONAL SHIFTS IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST

There are seven positive dimensional shifts that God is bringing in His people.

We need to pay attention to and align with what He is doing so that we can receive the fullness of His glory for us!

1. The Change of Season for God’s People

We have flipped the page into a new chapter in God’s storyline. God’s people have entered into a season of Preparation for the Times in order to be ready for the Dawning of a New Era, where there will be increasing darkness as well as unprecedented glory of God for His people.

There will be grace in this decade of preparation to grow depth in God and in His Word. However, this season will not last forever, and we need to align with God’s shift in emphasis and seize this window of grace to grow a real, deep and authentic relationship with Him, and strength in our character and inner man.

2. The Shift into a Wartime Framework

We are no longer living under a peacetime framework but have shifted into a wartime framework. It is crucial that we awaken to this reality!

This battle is not in the natural but in the spiritual, and the enemy has increased his assault across the nations. We must not be lulled into thinking that we can “sit out” of this war. Even now, Jesus, the Commander of the LORD’s army is gathering and training His troops and we need to hear His voice and fall in line!

In this season, the Lord is emphasising Psalm 23. There is a reason behind this. In order to be strong and be able to prevail, we need to enter into the rest of God, and learn to wage spiritual warfare from the place of rest and abiding in the Lord (Rom. 16:20; 2 Cor. 10:3­–6, Eph. 6:10–12)!

3. The Arising of the Ekklesia

One of the major changes in the understanding and expression of our faith is understanding and stepping into our role as the Ekklesia (Matt. 16:18–19). In this new season, the Lord is bringing a divine upgrade to His people in authority, power, things of the Spirit, and moving in the angelic realm. He is lifting us higher to move with His Spirit and to know how to wage war in the heavenly places.

Of course, we will never graduate from the foundation of intimacy with God. In fact, it is upon this foundation that His people will arise as His Ekklesia. The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits! We will be anointed and empowered by His Spirit to push back darkness and even turn darkness into light (Isa. 42:16)!

4. The Intensifying of Our Posture of Preparation

Our preparation needs to shift gears from perseverance in delay to perseverance in intensity. This means that those of us who have been casual in our faith cannot afford to be so anymore.

Now is the time to be intentional, to throw off everything that distracts and hinders, and run the race of preparation with all our might (Heb. 12:1)!

The outward behaviour of a “good” Christian without the inward transformation and true history with God is no longer sufficient. We need to get real, get oil from the Lord and get ready!

Furthermore, as the intensity increases all around us, our intentionality needs to, by God’s grace, increase as well, so that we will develop perseverance and the character needed to emerge as the vessels that can carry the glory of God!

5. The Shift in the Focus of the Church

The Lord is shifting the focus of the Church away from being primarily pastoral back to being apostolic and prophetic, just like it was in the book of Acts. While this does not mean that the needs of the flock are unimportant, it does mean that our primary focus as a Church has to shift from meeting congregational needs to advancing the Kingdom of God.

God is shifting us away from “consumerism” Christianity to God and Kingdom-focused Christianity. He is raising up John the Baptists in this generation, the radical meek ones who will humble themselves for the sake of the kingdom and say, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:28–30)!

6. A Change in Mindset and Perspective

God is calling His people to put on a new lens and align with His perspective in this new season. What was “perfect” and used to work in the past may not work anymore. We need to ask God to renew our minds and see things through a Biblical, supernatural, prophetic and spiritual lens.

This has to happen at all levels of the Body of Christ — from elders and leaders to those in the congregation. Every person will need to align individually with God in order for us to be able to move forward as His Body. Each of us will need to seek God for His wisdom to know what we ought to do in this hour (1 Chr. 12:32)!

7. A Shift in Focus to Jesus as the Bridegroom King

While many believers have learnt to relate with Jesus as our tender-hearted Shepherd and loving Bridegroom, He is now directing us to learn how to relate with Him as our King and Commander of the LORD’s army. Just as a king’s sons would go out to war with their father in ancient Israel, Jesus is inviting us to ride with Him into battle as His warrior Bride!

This will require an attitude of radical obedience that does not question the commands of our King.

Yet, at the same time, our primary focus is not to be on our assignments, but on our relationship with Him as His beloved Bride. Our first love is still Jesus and our eyes and our hearts will always remain fixed upon our Bridegroom King, even in the fiercest of battles!

Indeed, God has prepared a delightful inheritance for us. Let us press in to lay hold of God’s fullness for us, to be the ones upon whom the glory of God will arise, the ones who will burn and shine for Him in the hour of greatest darkness (Isa. 60:1–3)!

“The decade of the 2020’s is a Historic Transitional Decade that requires the Preparation for the Times in order to be ready for the Dawning of a New Era.” (Rhema Now Issue #2)

“…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many…”
(Dan. 11:32–33, Rhema Now Issue #8)

While we know that the dawning of the New Era will see unprecedented darkness across the earth (Isa. 60:2), what exactly will this look like?

If we want to arise as the Daniel 11:32–33 people, we need to be people who can make sense of this through a Biblical lens, so that we can instruct many.

THE CONVERGENCE OF GLOBAL DARKNESS

Major shifts and transitions in five main arenas will lead to the convergence of global darkness.

Things are happening so quickly that almost every week, we receive news of some major development in these five spheres:

1. Business, Finance and Commerce
At least four banks have failed in the first few months of 2023 alone, exposing the weaknesses and flaws of our current financial system. This economic instability is pushing nations to find an answer that will help to stabilise the global economy.

Together with the ongoing digitalising of our trading mediums and platforms (that allows every transaction to be tracked and easily controlled), the stage is being set for the new One World Economy.

Are we as God’s people paying attention?

2. Medical Science and Technology
In the recent decade, the medical sciences have moved beyond finding cures for diseases to prolonging overall human life. With advancements in biology that have given us the ability to alter the very building blocks of who we are as humans — our DNA, the door has opened up for moving “beyond humanity” (i.e. transhumanism).

Coupled with the acceleration of Artificial Intelligence and the concept of brain-machine interfaces such as “Neuralink”, the very definition of what it means to be “human” is brought into question.

Ultimately, mankind is reaching for immortality through technology. At his core, man desires to live forever. The issue is — are we attaining it through God’s way and provision through the cross, or are we seeking to make it happen our way?

3. Religion and Spirituality
With the rise of extremism and conflicts around the world centred on religious differences, there is a push for various faiths to come together in order to find “common ground”. This is especially so for the three “Abrahamic faiths” — Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

More and more, it will be politically incorrect to believe that not all faiths are equal, and the space to openly practice any faith that believes it is the only true way is likely to become smaller and smaller.

Are we as believers ready for this?

4. Lifestyle Trends
Real-life human connections are decreasing as the world is increasingly being connected digitally. More and more, people no longer know how to relate to one another face-to-face. Even amongst believers, “e-church” has become an option that believers turn to instead of the “assembling of ourselves together” as commanded by God in the Bible (Heb. 10:25).

Our means of attaining knowledge have also shifted from searching out established and reliable sources to quick online searches and browsing curated feeds, which feed us information based on a computer algorithm.

We have traded interaction with people and our skill of discernment for convenience. As we become more isolated and plugged into unreliable sources of information, we are opening ourselves to deception and wrong worldviews!

5. Society, Politics and Government

Tensions in society are on the rise and conflicts will become more prevalent as the beliefs of different groups within countries become more and more polarised. Governments will increase surveillance as they look for answers as to how to maintain law and order.

While the original intentions may have been good, things could take a turn very quickly. As of now, arising out of the fight against Covid, systems have been put in place in many nations that can be used for increased surveillance and control.

As believers, we need to prepare ourselves to still thrive in the midst of whatever kind of authority we find ourselves under, because these global shifts are setting the stage for the Harlot-Babylon system to arise, which will ultimately lead to worship of the Antichrist (Rev. 17 & 18)!

SIX DOORWAYS THAT RELEASE DARKNESS

As we keep watch through a Biblical lens, we also need to guard ourselves from the six doorways that escalate and accelerate the release of darkness. The Lord is especially concerned that we as His people do not get ensnared by them.

It is crucial for us to watch and pray for ourselves together with those in our community!

Doorway #1: Cyber
The introduction of augmented and virtual reality applications (such as Pokémon Go or the Metaverse) can open the door to the spirit realm. As the line between reality and fantasy is increasingly being blurred, people will have difficulty telling the difference between what is real and what is not, what is virtual and what is spiritual.

As believers, we need to guard against being caught up in the virtual world. Instead, we should be focused on advancing His Kingdom in accordance with His ways and heart. While He may lead some of us to have a presence in the virtual world for the sake of being a witness, we need to tread with much discernment, always seeking the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Doorway #2: Technology

Even as technology is opening the door to the possibility of “augmenting” ourselves and living forever, we as believers need to hold fast to God’s definition of what makes us “human” and why God allows death in the first place.

Let us consider this: if death was God’s judgment on the sin of man (Rom. 6:23), should we then be seeking eternal life through other means outside the saving work of Jesus?

Doorway #3: Values and Morality
We live in the “post-truth” world, where “truth” and “morality” are no longer absolutes, but defined by each individual, depending on how each person feels. This depravity of the human mind opens up the door for lies to become “truths” and for everyone to do what seems right in his own eyes (Judg. 17:6; 21:25).

As believers, do we truly believe that Jesus is the only Way, Truth and Life? Or do we subconsciously believe that our faith is simply one of the many ways that lead to God?

Doorway #4: Spiritual
New age practices and the occult are on the rise as people seek a “spirituality without religion”. Satanic worship and witchcraft are increasingly normalised and are emerging into the open, often accompanied by much celebration!

Even some within the Church have adopted new age practices such as “Christianised” Tarot card reading, without realising the dangers of opening such spiritual doors.

Doorway #5: Psychology and Philosophy
Modern popular psychology and philosophy search for peace and truth outside of Jesus and open the door to idolatry.

The self-help narrative that many are being offered puts man at the centre, with self-actualisation as the pinnacle of success. This is a far cry from what Jesus commands us in Matthew 16:24: “…let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

It has resulted in a man-centred Gospel being preached within some parts of the Body of Christ. Thus, in this hour, God is calling His people back to preaching the unadulterated Gospel of the Kingdom.

Doorway #6: Drugs
Many cultures have long used drugs (especially psychedelics) as a means to enter into spiritual experiences. As they and other narcotics become more prevalent and accepted amongst the younger generation, and are increasingly being prescribed for medical use, doors to the spirit realm can be opened. The minds and lives of individuals can also become susceptible to manipulation and control.

As believers, we need to take heed and be on guard against this trend and doorway. Furthermore, we need to pray for the younger generation to not turn to drugs as a means of escape, or to experience a “high”, but to find their completeness in Jesus.

UNPRECEDENTED GLORY ON GOD’S PEOPLE
In spite of the accelerating darkness, as God’s people, we need not fear! While darkness is increasing exponentially, God’s unprecedented glory will also arise upon His people (Isa. 60:2).

To make us ready vessels to carry His glory, there are seven dimensions that God is highlighting for His Church to pay attention to and align with accordingly, which we will look at in the next issue.

Stay tuned!

The Isaiah 62 Fast

The Lord is on the move! He is issuing the Mordecai call to Gentile believers globally not to remain silent, but to begin to pray regularly, intentionally, and fervently for Israel until Jerusalem is established as a praise in the earth (Esth. 4:14; Isa. 62:6–7)

!It is God’s Sovereign Appointed Time and IHOP – One Thing Ministries will be part of this Isaiah 62 Fast as a hub based in Singapore. In addition to hosting live prayer sessions, we are providing resources to equip the Body of Christ in understanding God’s heart for Israel and how we can pray for her.

Isaiah62fast.com

Participating in Singapore

We will be providing daily prayer focuses and videos for the duration of the fast. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram or visit our website for daily updates.

Truly, God is summoning us to align with His heart for Israel. Will you respond to His divine summons and His call in such a time as this?

Visit our Loving Israel Mandate webpage for resources to equip yourself in understanding God’s heart for Israel and how to pray for her.

Loving Israel Mandate

It is clear that business-as-usual discipleship will not be sufficient moving forward, that the New Era will present unprecedented darkness and intensity like never before, and that God is calling His Gentile Church to take a stand for Israel.

It is clear that this season is intense Preparation for the Times.

While preparation will enable God’s people to overcome and be the answer for many in the New Era, it is more than just preparation in order to fulfil a function or role.

The end goal of preparation is to become the kind of people that God is looking for. God is preparing a people firstly for Himself. He is arising over us with His glory in this Isaiah 60:1–3 moment. Being able to overcome and shine in the midst of the greatest darkness will be an outflow of who we are!

The Specific Kind of People that God is Raising Up

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Lord began speaking to His people across nations about the generation that was going to be born. This will be the “finest generation” who will walk in the fullness of maturity and power, and be courageous in the midst of opposition — the End-Time Gideon army of God (Judg. 6 – 7).

Over the next 40 years, God spoke at various times and brought increasing clarity to what He was doing in this hour and what this End-Time generation will look like.

This generation will walk in a lifestyle of intercession, holiness unto Him, extravagant offering for His Kingdom, be led by the prophetic Spirit and move in great power!

This generation will be a people of extravagant devotion who will partner with Him to do extraordinary acts.

This generation will be wholehearted in love, radical in obedience, relentless in trust, and reckless in abandonment!

It has nothing to do with the size of our ministry, but everything to do with a people who walk closely with God and possess the character and the values that He highly esteems.

Daniel 11:32–33 gives one of the clearest pictures from Scripture that sums up the kind of people that the Lord is raising up:

“…but the people who know their God shall be strong,
and carry out great exploits. And those of the
people who understand shall instruct many…”

From 2020 to 2022, as God disrupted our agendas through Covid-19, He initiated His prophetic timeline through a series of yearly events. Like never before, the Lord was directing His global Body to His heart and His End-Time storyline that prominently features Israel and nations in the Middle East.

April 2020…

Much of the world was in lockdown. Countless Passion Week outreach events and Good Friday plans had been cancelled or drastically modified. Many believers could not gather physically together to commemorate our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection.

The same was faced by many Jewish people across nations. The Feast of Passover coincided with Passion Week, and they too could not gather in their communities.

However, due to this inability to gather physically, something unprecedented took place. A global gathering (the 2020 Global Alignment of Passover and Last Supper) was held online with believers — both Messianic and Gentile — from all across the world.

Through this, the Lord directed us to the prophecy in Isaiah 19 regarding Egypt and Assyria’s role in the End Times.

At that gathering, Arabic believers from Egypt and across the Middle East also pledged that they would stand with their Jewish Messianic brothers as One in Christ, in the presence of the rest of the international Gentile Church.

This had never happened before!

April 2021…

Lou Engle, a spiritual giant in the faith, was awakened by the Lord to call for a 40-day Yeshua Fast to pray for the nation of Israel. The Lord had given him what he called a “global paradigm shift”. He realised that the issues of abortion and homosexuality that he had been contending fervently for in prayer were simply the training ground for him to be ready for the work of interceding and raising up global prayer for Israel.

Through this fast, many Gentile believers were awakened and directed to pray for the nation of Israel for the first time.

May 2022…

God sovereignly orchestrated a gathering — The Send — amongst His Body of Christ in America for 14 May 2022 at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, USA. (These gatherings were originally planned for 2020 but they were rescheduled because of Covid-19.)

For a few days leading up to it, intercession for the nation of Israel on former President Harry S. Truman’s property took place.

This was a historic event.

Not only did the gathering fall on the same date as the day Israel became independent (14 May 1948), it was a prophetic down payment of a promise given almost 40 years ago to the International House of Prayer, Kansas City. The promise was that there would one day be 5000 intercessors interceding 24/7 for Israel on that property.

Why are these events so significant?
Why is God emphasising the nation of Israel now?
How does this affect us as Gentile believers?

Israel’s Role in God’s Story of Redemption

These are highly significant events because the nation of Israel features prominently in our Lord’s eternal redemptive plan for mankind and as a prophetic signpost in End-Time prophecy.

While this is a vast and huge topic that cannot be fully fleshed out here, suffice it to say that the Lord is not finished with the nation of Israel! Indeed, Scripture says that God’s call for her is irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). God’s redemptive story for humanity has and will always include the nation of Israel. He has no “plan B”!  

Scripture has much to say about the nation of Israel and her destiny. This is only a brief snapshot:

• Neither Israel’s role nor calling has been replaced by the Gentile Church (Rom. 11:29);
• Her current state of blindness and rejection of Jesus as Messiah is neither total nor final (Rom. 11:25);
• God is filled with great zeal for her (Zech. 8:2);
• The New Covenant was made with the nation of Israel (Jer. 31:31, Matt. 15:24);
• She is God’s prophetic signpost in His timeline for End-of-the-Age events (Dan. 9:24–27; Matt. 24:32–35);
• Jesus prophesies that Israel and her leaders will acknowledge Him as their Messiah at His Second Coming (Matt. 23:39);
• Israel will play a governmental role to extend Jesus’ rule over nations in the Millennial Kingdom (Book of Isaiah).

Scripture is so filled with promises and prophecies regarding Israel that if we were to remove all that were related to her, we would have very little left of the Bible!

It is also because of her role that Israel will increasingly be persecuted as the kingdom of darkness seeks to thwart God’s redemption plan.

The Isaiah 42:23 Summons to His Gentile Believers in this Hour

In 2021, the Lord spoke to us from Isaiah 42:23:

The Upcoming Isaiah 62 Fast

Visit Isaiah62Fast.com

What the Lord initiated in 2020 through that online global gathering shows no signs of stopping.

In this Sovereign Appointed Time, He has stirred thousands of believers worldwide to arise and commit to praying for Israel in a 21-Day Global Isaiah 62 Solemn Assembly from May 7 to 28 this year.

This kind of prayer for her is unprecedented in its scope and intensity.

For the first time in history, prayer for Israel will arise to the Lord’s throne unceasingly for 21 days. For the first time in history, hundreds of thousands of believers worldwide will be fasting and praying for her.

“The decade of the 2020’s is a Historic Transitional Decade that requires the Preparation for the Times in order to be ready for the Dawning of a New Era.” (Rhema Now Issue #2)

With the Lord’s divine disruption and clear word to us about what this Historic Transitional Decade is, we would be absolutely foolish to ignore His emphasis for this decade of Preparation for the Times.

Yet, what does “preparation” mean? What does it look like? Has God spoken to guide us even in this?

Yes! He has.

God’s way of preparation for His people is primarily spiritual. This is why, consistently, Jesus’ most emphasised exhortation to His people regarding the End Times is to respond in spiritual preparation — to “Watch and pray” (Matt. 26:41, Lk. 21:36). (It was not to invest in gold, cryptocurrency, or buy food.)

While voices within the global Body of Christ may espouse certain forms of physical preparation — such as stocking up on canned food or becoming self-sustaining, as God’s people in our respective nations and cities, we need to hear from God for ourselves and for our nations and communities.

What may be God’s solution for a certain nation or city may be different from His solution for another. The key is that as His people in this land, we must put our trust in our Shepherd King and seek His wisdom and counsel.

Like a line of dominoes that will all naturally fall when the right one is pushed first, if we obey and align with God’s prescribed form of preparation, everything else will fall into place. It is when we are grounded in His Word and have a real, deep, and authentic relationship with Him that we can clearly hear the Holy Spirit about whatever other forms of preparation we may need to undertake. He is more than able to lead and guide us!

Seeing Through a New Lens and Mindset

In December 2021, a friend of our ministry had a dream for Kay-Chong. In it, Kay-Chong was facing a big analogue clock and proclaiming, “It’s 7:69am!” The Lord then spoke a correction: “Tell the young man, it is not 7:69 am — it is 8:09 am.”

The number “7” represents “perfection”, while “8” represents a “new beginning”. The Lord was emphasising that we have crossed over into a new season in His timeline.

What was familiar and used to work in the past would no longer work in this new season. God is exhorting us to put on a new lens so that we will no longer see through the old and continue functioning in the old way.

This certainly applies to the preparation process.

It was Mike Bickle (from International House of Prayer – Kansas City) who said a year or two before Covid, “Good enough discipleship is entering its terminal phase because ‘good enough’ is ground to powder when crisis comes.”

Indeed, a time of crisis has come. Looking back, it was uncomfortably prophetic!

Our confidence can no longer be in strategies, formulas or intellectual discipleship programmes. Our confidence has to be in the Word of God and in the leadership of the Holy Spirit!

Not that discipleship should be thrown out the window, but discipleship in the midst of a time of crisis has to be done differently. It has to sufficiently prepare God’s people for the time that is ahead!

Just as any military would train differently if they were at war vs. at peace, so too God’s people need to put on a wartime mindset in this season of preparation. If the Lord has clearly spoken that we are no longer in a peacetime framework, but in one of escalating conflict between light and darkness, our mindsets too need to switch and align with Him!

The Time to Run With God in Preparation

The prophetic dream of crossing over into a new season came to pass just last week on the evening of 22 March 2023.

We have entered into a new season and a new beginning.

The evening of 22 March 2023 was the start of a new cycle of months in the Biblical calendar — the 1st of Nisan (Ex. 12:1–2). The Jewish year that we are in (5783) also marks the beginning of another 7-year cycle in the Sabbatical calendar (Lev. 25, Deut. 15:1–6).

The Lord highlighted to us and confirmed through others in the Body of Christ that entering into Nisan 5783 has transitioned God’s people into a 7-year season of intensive preparation.

Without a doubt, these remaining seven years of the decade of 2020’s is the kairos hour of Preparation for the Times!

It is no longer time to simply awaken to the new beginning. It is time to run the course of preparation marked out for us. It is time to put our hands to the plough!

Key Passages of Scripture

God’s assurance to us is that as we align with Him and obey Him, He will equip us through His Word and empower us by His Spirit. He highlighted key passages that are crucial and necessary for this decade of preparation:

Matthew 24: The increasing of troubles in the next decade;

Psalm 2: Global hatred against God and keys to strengthen His people against persecution;

Isaiah 19: Call to Gentile believers to stand with Israel;

Zechariah 3 – 4: The grace that is necessary for the coming crisis;

Daniel 11 – 12: Five prophetic workings of God for the End-Time Church;

John 14 – 17: The equipping and strengthening of the Church for the Matthew 24 troubles unto the raising up of a John 17 generation;

Isaiah 60:1–2: The coming crisis and coming glory;

Haggai 2:4–9 & Hebrews 12:25–29: The shakings of God;

Revelation 2 – 3: The seven areas of spiritual maturity that Jesus is looking for in His Bride and especially His zeal to set His people free from what is fake and the Laodicean spirit (Rev. 3:1–8, 14–22);

Matthew 5 – 7: The clearest description of how the Kingdom people are defined by the Word of God.

The Lord also gave us a divine strategy for preparation as a community: through holy conversations, divine dialogues and sacred assemblies.

He was calling us to give the Holy Spirit permission and space to cause our conversations to transcend into “holy moments” where He can come and impart His word and His heart to us. In order to do that, we have to gather to converse about the passages of Scripture He is highlighting to us and also allow Him to move.

The Lord also instructed us to take the ten passages of Scripture, as well as what was imparted during the times of holy conversation to the place of divine dialogue with Him — the place of personal prayer. He promises to strengthen us and bring forth personal history with Him and a greater depth of godliness as we do so.

Last but not least, the Lord reminded us of the need to continue gathering together to pray in sacred assemblies — not for our own agenda, but for what He speaks and reveals to us as we wrestle with His Word and with one another.

The hour is urgent. There is truly no more time to waste being casual, distracted or half-hearted. It is imperative that we fully embrace the preparation process in this decade, and engage our hearts wholeheartedly with Him as the End-Time Army of God in training!

Preparation for the Times (Intro)

In September 2019, God gave us three words for 2020 — New Beginning, New Normal, Divine Upgrade.

New Beginning

The Lord was “flipping the page” of human history and moving the world into a new chapter of His storyline. While His storyline has not changed, He is doing a new thing that is totally unprecedented in our time in this decade and beyond.

This decade is a new phase of more intense preparation that requires perseverance in the midst of increasing intensities. This decade also begins a new move of His Spirit that will result in the beginnings of Gideon’s army, the End-Time wholehearted army of God, arising among the young generation.

Because we have entered into this new chapter, we need to let go of our past successes, failures, and old ways of looking at and doing things (Isa. 43:18). We need to cast off every weight that ensnares us (Heb. 12:1) so that we can step into the New Beginning with Him.

New Normal

Through Covid-19, God was ushering the world into a New Normal in both the positive and negative. (Even the secular world and media began to use the phrase “New Normal” in the midst of the pandemic.)

The New Normal in the negative consists of greater challenges, fiercer storms, increasing darkness, unprecedented pressures, and uncertainty. The Lord highlighted that we are no longer living in a “peace-time framework” but have transited into the new normal of a “war-time framework”.

However, He is also bringing about a New Normal in the positive for the people of God. He is bringing restoration and revival to the Church so that what is normal in the Book of Acts will be the New Normal for us! His shaking, shifting and sifting is for the birthing forth of a New Normal in the Church.

Indeed, the Lord is changing the understanding and expression of Christianity in one generation. He is bringing His Church into a new wineskin. No longer will we be centred primarily around Sunday services, programmes, a building, or the senior pastor, but we will be centred around Jesus, grounded in His Word, and led by the Holy Spirit.

He is calling us to no longer live life business as usual. He is calling us to step out of institutionalising “Church” and into the New Normal of being the Spirit-led Body of Christ.

Divine Upgrade

Last but not least, the Lord promises to bring forth a divine upgrade to His Church in power, authority, and things of the Spirit. Covid-19 exposed our lack of prophetic insight and supernatural power; however, God will not leave us there.

He is upgrading us to move in greater signs, wonders and supernatural works, with greater authority and power at the place of prayer, and in greater understanding and reality of the spirit realm. We will arise to become the Ekklesia (Matt. 16:18) against which the gates of Hades shall not prevail.

Living in the New Normal and positioning ourselves for this Divine Upgrade will be crucial moving forward. We will face many situations where there will no longer be any viable human solution.

The only answer will be to hear from the Lord at the place of prayer and to partner with Him as He leads, guides and directs us. We need to be so sensitive to the Lord and so sharp in our spirit that we can hear the Spirit’s voice with clarity. We need to possess authority and power that empowers us to wage spiritual warfare.

Through the three words for 2021, the Lord was directing His people to embrace His End-Time Storyline and narrative, to engage our hearts with Him in the preparation process, so that we can enter into His New Normal and the promises for our generation.

Embrace

God spoke that His people had to wholeheartedly embrace His storyline and make it our very own. This requires us to reject any other storyline, including the various narratives that are fed to us by the secular world, to “jump into” His story, and be about our Father’s business.

This means we also have to fully embrace God’s promises and destiny for this generation and not pursue our own dreams or agendas. If we embrace the reality that many young people alive today will see the return of Jesus, our focus and pursuits will consequently change.

Engage

The Lord called us to engage His heart in two specific aspects. Firstly, He desires us to fully engage His heart in intimacy. He is not looking for hired servants who serve out of requirement or a sense of duty but for Friends of the Bridegroom who care deeply about Him and His purposes.

Secondly, He is calling us to engage our hearts with Him in the preparation process in this decade of Preparation for the Times. This is crucial if we are to grow strength to stand in the coming storms and be His light in the coming darkness.

Without our hearts connected and in engagement with God, we will not be able to fully enter into His promises.

Enter into

In retrospect, the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Ukraine war with their sequelae and ramifications were divine disruptions from the Lord directing the Body of Christ into divine preparation, so that we can enter into His promises.

We are now in God’s Sovereign Appointed Time where we will see the actualisation of His promises for the End-Time generation. It will be so foolish of us if we are in the kairos hour of God, yet totally miss out on what the Lord is doing because we did not respond! As we engage the Lord, we can have confidence that He will give us the grace to enter into the promises and shift into the divine upgrade that He has prepared for us.

Take Heed to Respond

The Lord also revealed to us that there are things which can hinder us from entering into His fullness – an unresponsive or hardened heart (Heb. 3:7-8), unbelief (Heb. 3:12), passivity (Heb. 4:11) and fear. We need to take heed and deal with our hearts diligently, so that we may be counted worthy to enter into the fullness of all that He has for us! We certainly do not want to be like the generation of Israelites who did not enter into the promised land because of where their hearts were at!

Indeed, as we look back at the prophetic words that the Lord has given us over the past 13 years, we are truly thankful and amazed!

The precision of God’s words and His profound prophetic leadership leave us with no shadow of a doubt that He is in this with us!

He is the One on the throne who is orchestrating the events and engineering the shifts and transitions. He is inviting us to be part of His move by first leading us into a season of preparation.

Having seen His prophetic leadership over us, we can have great confidence that the Lord Himself will continue to lead us through the coming challenging decades. He will work deeply in our lives and transform us to become the very kind of people who carry His glory and His light, even as we align with Him and entrust ourselves into His faithful hand of leadership!

If the Lord has stirred your heart with these words from 2020 and 2021, you can listen to our Word of the Lord 2020 and Word of the Lord 2021 teachings.

Preparation for the Times (Intro)

Online Equipping | New Launch*

In light of God’s word that the 2020s is a decade of Preparation for the Times, we have put together an online equipping course for those who desire to respond and begin their journey of making themselves ready for the New Era ahead.

This course is free of charge as we desire to equip as many people in the Body of Christ as possible.

We pray that Holy Spirit will lead, guide and strengthen you as you respond to Him!