There are moments when time shifts and you gain momentum for your future. In fact, we are in one such Kingdom moment now. We have not just entered a new year, decade or season, but a new era in the Kingdom of God.
In Isaiah 32:1 (TPT), the Word of God says,“Look—a new era begins! A king will reign in righteousness, and his princes according to justice!” An era is a fixed point in time from which a series of years is reckoned. An era can also be a memorable or important date or event in the history of a thing, person or nation. An era is a system of chronological notation computed from a given date as a basis. An era is a period identified by some prominent figure or characteristic feature or stage in development.
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We are now entering a new Kingdom era. In Hebrew, this era is known as “Pey,” which means “voice” or “mouth.” As God’s ambassadors, our voices must be heard this decade. We will decree a thing, and it will happen!
An era of power
“Where there is no vision, the people perish”—in Proverbs 29:18a, this word actually means that without boundaries or prophetic utterance, a people go backward. We are moving from a Church era to a Kingdom era. In this divine shift, the Lord is transforming our mindset so we move outwardly from what has been built in one season into a new movement for the next season. This will be a new building season but first we must unlock God’s Kingdom plan and align heaven and earth.
When the Lord revealed His Messiahship to His disciples in Matthew 16, He gave Peter a prophetic word that would transcend the ages. In Matthew 16:18-19 (my paraphrase), He prophesied, “I will build My church; the gates of hell will not overpower it, and you will have an authority to unlock the kingdom and forbid and permit what goes on in earth.”
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We must remember that this prophecy to Peter had yet to be fully revealed in reality. The Church was still a mystery. Therefore, when the day of Pentecost came and 3 000 were converted, Peter must have thought, How will we build for the future? How will the Lord, who has ascended, accomplish this through us?
The disciples did not have a full concept of the meaning of “the Church.” The only concept they had of spiritual gathering was from the synagogue. The word the Lord was using here was ekklesia, which was a Roman concept of ambassadors going in to transform a region to make it look like Rome.
Everything seemed new to the disciples. Just a few weeks prior, they had a revelation of the Lord being Messiah. Now they had to see how to gather and build for the future out of a new paradigm. Eventually they would have to leave Jerusalem to do this, and build in Antioch a prototype of what the Lord was prophesying. The writer of Hebrews gave us much revelation of how what the Spirit of God was doing in that day could not be done in Jerusalem.
This began a whole new era. Now the Spirit of God would help His leadership establish something that would be indestructible. There would be unsurpassed power in the ekklesia to overcome the enemy of mankind, Satan. And before this was built, there had to be an unlocking of God’s Kingdom power within the triumphant people that would walk into the future.
We must remember it took approximately 70 years to establish the first Church era. In every era, we unlock a Kingdom plan so we can build the prototype for the ekklesia for the future. This new era propels us into a season of unlocking so we can build in the days ahead.
A season of war
There is a new move of God in His people this hour! They are like a river of glory fire, like liquid gold flowing throughout lands. They resemble fiery lava moving from state to state, province to province and nation to nation throughout the earth. These glory warriors will destroy the works of the enemy in days ahead.
Over the next several years, we will mature into a people who do exploits and are ready to go to war against any darkness attempting to bring destruction to our Lord’s kingdom plan. These triumphant people are the ones who know how to triumph. To triumph is to obtain victory, or a state of being victorious in conquest. Triumph carries a distinct emotion for God’s children; in triumph, one expresses joy or exultation because he or she has prospered, succeeded and flourished. To “triumph” means “to celebrate and rejoice with victory and jubilation.” Triumph indicates that an advantage has been gained over the enemy. Triumph also conveys that success has been granted through a supernatural grace being released.
God has a people who must keep moving. Movement is linked with life! If we stop moving, we stagnate or routinise. If there is one thing that I have seen happen from season to season, it is that the Church stagnates. This can be because we fall into apathy. However, most times we stagnate because we enjoy getting comfortable in one season and resist change. We must be a people who are willing to war for our future.
After all, we are living in conflicting and conflicted times. Many times, the shifts we make are not our willful choices but result from the wars of the season. We would have loved to see something go one way, but atmospheric shifts, conflicts of opinions, conflicts of philosophies and conflicts of emotions caused things to go a different direction.
James said we war because we have cravings and desires in us that cannot be satisfied (see James 4:1-3). Many times, these desires hold us in wilderness places. We are meant to cross over into prosperity, but we choose to have our way in a situation instead of submitting to the will of God. We are in a great warfare over a threefold cord controlled by Satan’s kingdom, consisting of poverty, infirmity and religion.
War is the grace to fight. When the Lord calls us to war, He gives us the grace to triumph. God never calls His children to do anything without the grace necessary to fulfil His purpose. Therefore, in the midst of war, there is grace. We are called to protect our vineyard. My greatest concern for the Church today is this: Will a new generation rise up and war for all the promises that have been redeemed or paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Christians must learn why it’s imperative that we fight and overturn the plans of the enemy. Learning to war comes easier to some than to others. To those who grew up in relative peace and comfort, it may come hardest of all. Why war? Why is war necessary? Why can’t people live in harmony? These are the questions we ask our parents when we are first exposed to conflict through the media. We ask the questions of our history teachers when we are learning the events that brought us to the present. Most importantly, we ask God: “If you are a loving God, why do war and destruction occur?”
The short answer is that there are two kingdoms in conflict.
Satan’s demonic angels roam the earth trying to keep his kingdom in place. We are in God’s army of warriors. The Lord has already defeated Satan and all his dominions, powers and principalities. However, we are called to enforce that defeat. If we do not heed His call, the enemy will step in and rule in our stead. We are called to possess, secure and protect our inheritance. We must remember that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.
As the Holy Spirit moves us toward becoming more Christlike, the methodology of an old season will not propel us into the future. We need something new and fresh. We need a new glory. This is one of the wiles of the enemy — to hold us captive in the last manifestation of God. Therefore, we live in the past rather than move into the best that is ahead for our lives. This is how religious spirits operate.
The Lord taught His disciples to pray using a model prayer, which we know as the Lord’s Prayer. We have access to Father’s throne room, but we must access the revelation for us to triumph and establish that in the earth realm. The government of heaven must enter our atmosphere, align with the government of God in the earth and liberate the armies of God and the land!
A time to plough
Speaking of government, we are approaching a new election year in the United States. One of the words for “visitation” is linked with how you cast a vote. How we vote is how we get visited as a nation in our future.
Dutch Sheets and I are presently on a 22-region journey through the United States. For the last four years, the triumphant remnant has made incredible headway. Our goal is to awaken the seeds of revival that have been sown throughout America and cause this incredible triumphant remnant to keep advancing.
We don’t want to lose any momentum of righteous change that has influenced our nation over these last several years. I see the enemy throwing a dark horse into this next season. We must stay focused as watchman intercessors.
Amos 9:13 says: “Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘When the plowman shall overtake the one who is reaping, and the treader of grapes the one who is sowing the seed; the mountains will drip sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it.”
This is a word for today. Prophetic seeds that have been sown and declared in your region should be ploughed up! The Lord has put us into a ploughing season. The prophetic seeds that didn’t come up in one season should be declared alive and receive a new breath of His Spirit. I see teams of ploughmen being connected together. Many of us have received revelation but tried to plough alone. However, if we connect and plough together, the harvest of God in a region will be gathered. This is a key time for alignment.
And as the apostolic Church matures and advances the Kingdom of God in the earth, apostolic/prophetic rule will be established in territories. Here are six key points we must understand as we move forward in this new era:
Know your field and sphere. Faith works in place and time. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul talks about fields, or spheres. We each have key fields and spheres that we can war and triumph within.
Mobilise the armies. Know who is warring with you for the King’s rule.
Strategically know your redemptive “thin places.” When Rose Sambrook from Northern Ireland came to speak at one of our gatherings, she shared how in Ireland they talk about “thin places.” These are the places where the Spirit of God has come, and heaven and earth have become very close. These places have key altars that need to be refired for today. We must know where these altars are in our field or spheres. If there are no thin places in our sphere, we must find where the Lord wants to come and create a thin place, or portal, between heaven and earth.
Define the high places. Within our spheres and field, we also have high places. These are places where the enemy has erected his rule. These are the places contending for our worship. These high places erected by the enemy are the result of the worship war going on in each territory of the earth. Worship occurs around the one whose throne has been established. We are created to worship; therefore, if we pay homage to the enemy, he will control the atmosphere. The entire territory then falls under the darkness of his presence, and demonic hosts redirect those in that territory away from God’s plan of fullness, peace, joy and abundance.
Sanctify the land. When we commit iniquitous sins and defilement of the land occurs, we must sanctify the land. The land mourns until we have reconciled it back to God, the one who made it. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” — Ps. 24:1, KJV.
Establish new glory altars. Throughout the Word of God, new altars had to be built. How do we do this? We must find the places where religion and government have met and made wrong choices, and bind the strongman (Matt. 12). We must overthrow the defilement of the last altar (2 Chr. 34:4, John 2:14, Rev. 2:13). We must contend for His name to be established and the identity of that name at the gates (Deut. 28:10). We must let worship ascend and watch His glory come down (John 4, Acts 4-11). We must welcome a new move of His Spirit (Acts-Ephesians). For more information about how to do that, I suggest you read the new book Robert Heidler and I have just completed, A Triumphant Kingdom.
Ultimately, we know God’s goal for us is the harvest. We see this all the way through the Bible. God wants our barns to be filled with plenty and our vats to overflow. He wants us to experience the fullness of His promised blessings. That’s what “harvest” means. Harvest is what we’ve been working and praying for, and the promise that we have been pressing forward to attain.
The time does come when we will receive the harvest. Harvest is not “pie in the sky by and by,” but the reality of the promise coming into our experience. God not only wants us to harvest in the natural realm, but also to see a harvest of righteousness. He wants us to experience a harvest of souls. Psalm 1 tells us God wants us to be like a flourishing tree that brings forth its fruit in its season. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there is a time and a season for everything. There is a time to plant seeds, and there is also a time to reap the harvest.
The Bible is written around harvest cycles. The Lord wants His people to develop and maintain a harvest mentality. He wants us to walk in a mindset of increase and reaping. This is an era when we must decree that what we have sown will come forth and multiply.
Call back the bread that you have cast upon the waters. The seeds that have fallen into the earth are ready to break forth into an abundant crop. Plough up your fallow ground. Unlock what has never manifested in your past. Let your sorrows turn to joy. Gain new strength. And rise up and enter this era with a mind to triumph.
