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“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I have no doubt You’ve already gone ahead.
You’re my Fire by night, my Cloud by day…”

The bridge of this song speaks so aptly of the leadership of our Good Shepherd, Jesus!

With what the Lord had spoken regarding the intense Historic Transitional Decade of the 2020’s that we have stepped into, and the unprecedented New Era of the 2030’s that we will enter into (see previous issue), one question that may be on many of our minds is:

“Is God with us? Is God in this?”

The answer is a resounding YES!

In fact, He is the Author and Finisher of this Grand Eschatological Storyline. As a Shepherd, He is Faithful and True, and He leads us with His sure mercies!

God’s Clear and Steadfast Leadership

For us at IHOP – One Thing Ministries, as we look back, we can see the clear and steadfast leadership of the Lord in the midst of the huge shifts and transitions in the past years.

Since 2009, God has been giving us prophetic words to direct us into understanding His heart and what He was going to do. He has consistently spoken to us about two things — to cultivate understanding and to make ourselves ready.

As we sought the Lord, we understood that this call to understand and prepare is not just for ourselves, but also for the Body of Christ — so that His people can make ourselves ready for what is to come.

Of course, at the end of the day, our confidence is not based upon encounters or prophetic words, but on the Word of God and in the leadership of Jesus. Even as we receive and share these dreams and encounters, we exhort everyone to also diligently search the scriptures, and discern and test the words (Acts 17:11; 1 Thes. 5:20–21).

If these encounters are not from the Lord, we do well to cast them aside. However, if what was received are truly the words of the Living God, then we need to take them to heart and intentionally respond to what He is saying to us.

Allow us to recount two words that were given to us in 2009 and 2015:

In December 2009, we received a word from the Lord about the necessity to prepare for the return of Jesus — especially for the unique dynamics that would accompany the hour before His return.

Early one morning, Kay-Chong (Director of IHOP – One Thing Ministries) was awakened from sleep by a loud voice that proclaimed three times:

“Behold, I am coming back quickly!”
“Behold, I am coming back quickly!”
“Behold, I am coming back quickly!”

He then saw an open vision.

In the vision, there were many people — people from our own ministry, believers from other congregations, and some well-known leaders from the local and global Body of Christ.

All of us had small wings on our backs. At first, he was puzzled at the sight. Then, the voice of the Lord thundered another three times:

“Tell them that they are not ready!”
“Tell them that they are not ready!”
“Tell them that they are not ready!”

After a short pause, it was followed by:

“Tell them that there is a requirement to prepare themselves intentionally.”
“Tell them that there is a requirement to prepare themselves intentionally.”
“Tell them that there is a requirement to prepare themselves intentionally.”

With the help of the Holy Spirit, Kay-Chong understood that the small wings on the backs of believers signified our lack of strength, preparedness and readiness for what He was going to do. If God were to send a move of His Spirit, we would not be able to arise to soar with Him, because our wings were too weak and small.

Having Strength to Stand in the Hour of Darkness

The next scene was set in the time of Revelation 12:7–12, when Scripture says that the earth will be filled with thick demonic darkness.

There was a gathering of leaders in the Body of Christ who were having a discussion on topics such as the End Times, spiritual warfare, and moving in signs and wonders. Suddenly, demonic principalities and spirits began to invade the room. However, instead of responding in faith and authority, everyone was filled with fear and panic!

Through the two scenes in this vision, the Lord highlighted that we as His people are not ready for what is to come. We lack real strength and power. Instead, we have a form of godliness that is without power (2 Tim. 3:5). This will not be enough for us to withstand the coming darkness or to partner with Him in His coming move.

The Lord reminded us of the Church of Sardis (Rev. 3:1–6). They had a reputation of being alive, but were actually “dead” — they did not have real, deep, authentic faith and relationship with God. Jesus’ exhortation to them was to be watchful and to strengthen what had become weak.

God also gave clear instructions on how He wanted us to respond so that we can stand: “Tell them that there is a requirement to prepare themselves intentionally.”

He emphasised that there is a requirement to intentionally prepare ourselves, as no one will automatically become ready (Rev. 19:7). This is a Biblical principle found throughout the Bible, and is the way of God. It is a process that requires the investing of time, energy and effort on our part, and we have to start now.

In December 2015, the Lord again gave Kay-Chong a prophetic dream. In the dream, dark clouds were fast approaching and flood waters were rushing towards him. A voice that sounded like a trumpet proclaimed, “Storm is coming! Storm is coming!” He could feel the severity and intensity of the storm, but did not know what to do.

Suddenly, a rock emerged from the waters and he was instructed by the voice to climb onto the rock. More than just standing on it, he was instructed to cement his feet onto the rock. Though the storm increased in intensity and the waters rose, the flood did not overwhelm the rock.

Many people were being swept away by the flood, but he was able to pull some of them up onto the rock. The dream ended with a statement, “It will not get better, but we can grow stronger, burn hotter and shine brighter!”

He awoke and Luke 21:34–36 immediately came to mind.

This word was given seven years ago. The storm is now here. Covid-19 has come and gone, and we are now in a decade of intense and accelerated eschatological shifts, crises on many fronts and unprecedented escalation of darkness. Things will not get better, and greater storms are coming!

However, God also gave a promise through Luke 21:34-36: If we take heed to His exhortation, watch that our hearts are not dulled or weighed down, pray and prepare intentionally, we will have strength to stand! We can grow stronger and become God’s answer to bring His light and hope to many in such a time as this (Isa. 60:1–3)!

Indeed, through the years, God has been forewarning us of the storms that were coming and of the necessity for intentional preparation. His fingerprints are clearly evident and His words are true.

The same God who has spoken and led His people in years past is the same God who will speak and lead His people in the years ahead.

We can put our trust in Him!

He is able to lead us through the storms, for He is the Good Shepherd and His leadership is perfect!

We encourage you to take some time to thank the Lord for who He is, for His faithfulness to us as our Good Shepherd, and for His perfect leadership over each of our lives. Watch our recent Friday Teaching on cultivating confidence in Jesus as the Lord who is our Shepherd. Ask Him to speak to you and to direct you in His ways.

Between November 2021 and September 2022, the Lord gave us three important words for the decade of the 2020’s and beyond. When put together, they form the overarching Rhema word for the NOW — for this kairos moment. They give us a picture of what is up ahead and how we are to respond starting today.

The day was 23 November 2021…

The Lord broke in and spoke vividly to us at One Thing Ministries that three months from then, a significant event would happen that would catch the world’s attention. The Lord also emphasized that we had to pay attention to what He was going to download to us during that three-month period.

Three months later, on 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine! This event shocked the entire world and brought further shifts to people and nations worldwide.

During the three months from November to February, the Lord highlighted two key phrases to us that clearly describe the season that we have stepped into, and how the Body of Christ is to respond. The two phrases were “Historic Transitional Decade” and “Preparation for the Times”.

1. HISTORIC TRANSITIONAL DECADE

The Lord emphasized that the decade of the 2020’s will be a Historic Transitional Decade. It is a decade of High Transition.

We understood that the Covid-19 Pandemic initiated us into this decade of unprecedented seismic shifts and dramatic changes. God is quickening and intensifying the pace of transition. He used the pandemic as a catalyst to hasten and accelerate major shifts which would otherwise have taken decades if left to run their course.

Mike Bickle from the International House of Prayer, Kansas City, made a huge statement in September 2021:

“I believe that the 2020’s will be the most dramatic transitional decade in human history. I realize that this is a BIG STATEMENT, yet I believe it to be TRUE! So much is changing. The pace and the dramatic nature of the changes will continue to escalate. The world as we now know it will no longer exist as it is right now when the decade is over!”

We are going to witness dramatic and accelerated changes in all spheres of society and daily human life in this decade.

2. PREPARATION FOR THE TIMES

The Lord also corrected us, through an encounter, that this decade is more than just a “time for preparation”. It is more accurately a season of “Preparation for the Times”. He had spoken through Isaiah 42:23: “Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?”

The Lord is prophetically using the phrase “the time to come” to refer to the end of this decade. The fact that He would correct us emphasizes that we need to prepare in a way that is commensurate with the unprecedented times that are ahead.

It cannot be based on what we think the future holds, or on our own ideas of “preparation”, but has to be aligned with His narrative and strategies for His people. We need to prepare with a clear idea of what it is that we are preparing for. The intensity of preparation also has to correspond to the intensity of what 2030 will bring.

The Lord spoke a third word to us that brought clarity about the times we will be entering into at the end of this decade.

3. THE DAWNING OF A NEW ERA

On 9 June 2022, the Lord spoke to us that there was going to be another major event happening three months from then, and on 8 September, Queen Elizabeth II passed away.

Just two days before her passing, on 6 September 2022, the Lord gave us the phrase “The Dawning of a New Era”. With the Queen’s death, headline news all around the world proclaimed “the end of an era”. (Furthermore, Queen Elizabeth II reigned as a monarch for 70 years. Biblically, the number 70 signifies a “turning point” or “entering into a new era”.)

With the help of the Holy Spirit, we understood that God was indicating that this Historic Transitional Decade would transition us into a New Era in the 2030’s.

Putting these three words together, the Rhema Word of the Lord for this decade became very clear:

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.

It is vital for the people of God to understand this, because we need to be like the sons of Issachar who understand the times and more importantly know what we ought to do (1 Chr. 12:32).

Only when we understand the times can we respond appropriately in alignment and preparation so that we can enter into the fullness of all that He is doing.

While we can expect to see sweeping changes across society and daily life (of a magnitude not seen since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries), we need to always return to Scripture as a lens to view and interpret what is happening in the world around us.

Two key passages of Scripture give us the Biblical lens through which we can view what this decade of transition unto the New Era is about — Isaiah 60:1–3 and Psalm 2:1–3.

Isaiah 60:1–2 tells us of unprecedented spiritual darkness that will cover the world and unsurpassed glory that will be seen upon God’s people.

We are entering into a time of unprecedented escalation and acceleration of spiritual darkness in a global dimension. There will be that global convergence and emergence of darkness!

Yet, concurrently, it is also a time when God’s glory will arise and be seen upon His people — a time when many of His Biblical and prophetic promises for the End-Time generation will come to pass.

Psalm 2:1–3 prophesies of a time when global alliances will form across different nations and spheres that will lead to the convergence of rebellion against God.

Already, we can see the beginnings of this taking place, with the casting off of Biblical values and morality from society in the redefinition of morality, marriage, sexuality, gender and identity. Society and culture will become more and more anti-God.

We have to realize that this is not just an issue of moral decay. It is a spiritual issue with spiritual darkness at work!

Thus, the New Era will manifest the reality of these two extremes — unprecedented darkness over nations, but also unprecedented glory of God upon His people.

It is because of the intensity of the global spiritual darkness and the pressures that are coming that God is shouting at us about preparing for the times now. In His zeal and love for His people, He is sounding the clarion call to us to prepare so that we will be able to stand firm in Him by the time we reach 2030.

By the time we enter into the new era at the end of this decade, if we are not prepared, it will be very challenging for us to do so!

At the same time, this decade of preparation goes beyond merely resisting darkness. It is about preparing ourselves so that we will become the very kind of people that God is looking for — believers with the maturity and character to receive and carry the weight of the glory that He will pour out.

Without preparation, we will not be able to receive His glory.
Without receiving His glory, we will not be able to arise and shine.

Knowing all this, what will be our response to the Lord in this kairos hour?

May we be like the sons of Issachar who understand the times, and know what we ought to do.

May we be the ones who fully align with the Lord, who intentionally prepare ourselves in this decade of Preparation for the Times, so that we can become mature in character and strong in our inner man, and be found ready to partner with Him in the New Era that we are entering into!

We will be elaborating on what God’s glory on His people will look like and what it means to prepare for the Times in later emails. In the meantime, we encourage you to seek the Lord for revelation and understanding of the hour we are living in, and also for wisdom to know how to live in this hour.

“Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?”
(Joel 1:2)

2020 was a highly unusual year. A hitherto unknown virus emerged out of Asia, swept across the face of the earth, threw nations into disarray, and severely disrupted the lives of billions of people. It hit masses with fear, utter confusion, uncertainty and despair. At one point of time, almost half of the world was brought to a standstill through simultaneous lockdowns.

This is truly unprecedented!

Just as it seemed like the world was finally emerging from the pandemic, another shocking event occurred. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. This was totally unexpected!

These two events have led to huge ramifications affecting nations around the world — food and energy shortages, inflation, economic crises, etc. All these are happening on top of ongoing natural disasters such as extreme floods, hurricanes, fires and snow storms around the world…

What on earth is happening? What was God saying?

Instead of having perfect vision to see what the Lord was saying and doing in the year 2020, the Church was completely blindsided by the Pandemic. God’s people are meant to be prophetic, yet we were caught unaware. Our response was hardly different from the world’s, and many “prophetic predictions” completely missed the mark.

Is God the One who orchestrated such massive disruptions? If so, why would He do so? What was He trying to tell us?

God was exposing and indicting us of our prayerlessness, our dull and hard hearts, our lack in the prophetic and of spiritual foresight, and our total unpreparedness for the storms that have come and that are coming!

God is shaking all things that can be shaken. He’s surfacing our faultlines, our false props of confidence, and our misplaced passion and pursuits.

He divinely interrupted our business-as-usual lives and brought the Church and the world to a pause so that we, His people, would awaken to the hour of human history we are in and pay attention to what He is saying.

If there is a passage of Scripture that speaks to the time frame of human history that we are in now, it would be Matthew 24:

“And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars… For nations will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matt. 24:6-8, NKJV)

We can tell from the signs in this passage that we are in the beginning of birth pangs. Matthew 24 warns us of greater intensities that are coming, such as persecution, betrayal, hatred of believers and martyrdom.

The nature of birth pangs is such that they start off mild and infrequent. They then increase in frequency and intensity until finally, the baby is born. In other words, the intensity of crises that will hit us and the pressures that are coming will escalate, and the respites in between will get shorter and shorter.

The Isaiah 60 Moment

With the Covid-19 pandemic, we have crossed a demarcation line and entered into a season of greater intensity in human history. We have entered a New Normal and will not return to the Old Normal anymore.

In the spiritual, we have shifted from a peace-time framework into a war-time framework. There are seismic shifts that have happened in both the positive and negative and there will be constant and drastic changes going forward.

Isaiah 60:1­–3 is the passage that best describes the unique spiritual dynamics of the End Times. Darkness will get darker and darker as we approach the End of the Age. Sin and iniquity will hit their max (Dan. 8:23). Lawlessness will abound as God lifts His hand of restraint, and allows evil in the hearts of man to be made fully manifest (2 Thes. 2:7; Matt. 24:12).

On the other hand, the true Church of Jesus who understands and prepares herself will grow stronger, burn hotter and shine brighter. We will carry the glory of God and display His love!

We are now stepping into the Isaiah 60 moment where there will be unprecedented escalation of crisis and darkness. At the same time, there will be unprecedented glory and light seen upon the people of God who understand, align and prepare themselves.

That is why in His mercy, God interrupted and spoke. In fact, in this moment, He is still interrupting and speaking. He is inviting us to be the ones who participate in the glory that He is releasing.

Covid-19 was a “shock event” meant to disrupt us from our own storylines and narratives and awaken us to His Grand Storyline and narrative, so that we can align to Him. It was also an indictment of our spiritual dullness, lack of prophetic insight, and unpreparedness, so that we will not stay here.

It is out of His zeal for us that He is calling us to take heed of His instructions and receive His grace and empowerment, so that we can enter into His invitation to partner with Him in His Grand Storyline at the End of the Age!

Indictment Unto Invitation

Thus, in the midst of the disruption and indictment stands an invitation. It starts with the invitation to open the door of our hearts to Jesus, who is standing at the door of our hearts — knocking (Rev. 3:20).

He is inviting us to open the door of our hearts to Him so that He can come in to feed, strengthen, and refine us, in order that we are ready to partner with Him to bring forth His light and glory in such a time as this.

It is through responding to Jesus’ invitation in this Revelation 3:20 moment that we begin the process of preparation for the times to come.

Will you open the door of your heart to Him in this Revelation 3:20 moment?
If the Lord has stirred your heart with the above, we encourage you to respond to Him by opening the door of your heart, hearing what He wants to say to you, and bringing what has been revealed in this email to the place of conversation with Him.

Dear Beloved-in-Christ,

Blessed New Year from IHOP ­– One Thing Ministries!

We recognize that it has been a while since you have heard from us through this mailing list.

In the past year, we have been journeying through a time of dialing down to hear from the Lord as we are entering into a new era, and we sought His wisdom on how to be faithful to what He has called us to as a ministry.

We scaled back on certain things, but kept the fire on the altar burning before the Lord.

We re-focused and re-aligned our hearts to what the Lord has called us to as a ministry:

1. To be a People of One Thing
2. To keep the Fire on the Altar Burning
3. To be His Voice
4. To Equip His People for What is Ahead

During this time, the Lord reminded us of the words He had been giving us for a number of years before the pandemic hit, which spoke of transition to come, and which is now here.

As we revisited them with the benefit of hindsight, the Holy Spirit helped us to make sense and see with even greater clarity why the Lord spoke what He did.

Additionally, He has continued speaking to us about this decade and beyond, and more importantly, what this means for us as His people.

The pieces of the puzzle have been coming together to form a more coherent picture of what has happened and what is to come.

The Lord impressed upon us the need and urgency to speak forth what He has given us to the larger Body of Christ. This would include you! — our dear brothers and sisters-in-Christ who are on our mailing list.

To that end, you’ll be receiving an email from us once every two weeks, starting 18 January, on what the Lord has been speaking to us for this decade — the Rhema Now: The Word of the Lord for the 2020s.

(We are spacing the emails out to give you ample time to digest and wrestle with the Lord regarding what He has been speaking.)

We pray that as you read, may your hearts be open to what the Lord has been saying, and that His word would mark your hearts and stir you to get prepared for what is coming in the decades ahead!