Rhema Now #6: What is God’s Exhortation to His People for This Decade?

“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)