“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16 (ESV)
There is so much prophetic chatter about this new year being one of the open door! On the Jewish calendar, we just stepped into the year 5784. In three months, our Gregorian calendar will be 2024. However you look at it, God is saying we are on the threshold of an open door. One way or the other, this world will not be the same! And the Lord is inviting us through this doorway!
A door is the passage way through a portal to the other side. An open door allows things in from the outside, as well as letting those on the inside get out!
So for this new year, expect more dreams, visions, angelic encounters and intensified spiritual warfare. Expect more revelation from and of the Lord! Understand that God is our mighty warrior. He is rising up and will fight for us (Psalm 24, Jeremiah 20:11, Isaiah 42:13). Ask the Lord to release all this revelation upon you. Tell Him you want more of Him, to see more of Him, to know Him better this year and for Him to be known as your mighty warrior! Ask Him for spiritual discernment as the battle intensifies. Ask Him for more dreams, visions and spiritual encounters. Ask Him to come in and sup with you (Revelation 3:20).
Likewise, we stand on the threshold of an open door, but it means nothing if we don’t move through it. Ask the Lord for wisdom and discernment to perceive the doors He opens before you and courage to step through them. Our Good Shepherd sends us out amongst packs of angry, hungry, ferocious wolves who want to devour us. It is not a safe place! It is much safer behind our closed doors. But He is calling us out this year, to adventure with Him, to fight alongside Him and to overcome. We are safe outside in this dark, gross and dangerous world, only if we stay close to Him, our Good Shepherd. He instructs us to be shrewd, discreet, cautious, sagacious, crafty and prudent as the serpent, as the devil. Remember, we are told to not be unaware of the schemes of the devil (2 Corinthians 2:11). He also says to be innocent, unmixed, simple, free from guile, pure and harmless as a dove, as the Holy Spirit!
Get ready to go! This year of the open door is most likely the beginning of the greatest harvest this world has ever seen. One billion souls will ultimately be brought into the Kingdom. And we are invited to be a part of it. In fact, we were born for such a time as this. God chose to put you right here, right now, to go out into the world with Him. For some of you this will mean literally moving to another location, perhaps even across the globe! For others it will mean simply stepping into a new dimension of obedience and fruitfulness right where you are at! We are moving out from the old into the new!!!
Take time and thank the Lord, your mighty, violent, awesome, dread warrior (see the various versions of Jeremiah 20:11) who calls you out to fight alongside Him!!!
