Posted: 10/02/2016 at 5:24pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Esther's Rising: The Awakening of the Bride" by Nate Johnston, Gold
Coast, Australia
In 2009 I had a life changing encounter when I
visited Bethel Church in Redding, CA. The fire of God hit my heart as I
worshipped and I saw a vision of a powerful move of God that would bring the
Body of Christ back to her first love. In this vision I witnessed the fire of
God sweep through churches and begin to burn at the very foundations. I heard
the shrieks of religion as it was exposed by the perfect love of the Father.
This love was unlike any love I had yet known and I began to hunger after it.
I saw the movement that would come out of the
ashes of religion; a renaissance that would reveal the God of love to the world
through fiery passionate lovers of God. I wept as I heard a sound of
worship that would come as a soundtrack to this revival of love – a sound that
would capture the secular and influence the arts. It was pure and honest, raw,
undignified, and was birthed by the hidden ones in the wilderness that would
someday emerge for their moment.
The Armor Just Doesn't Fit
Recently God showed me a vision of armor that looked
really dated and worn. My thought was, "This won't really protect me or be very
comfortable." Then I was led to 1 Samuel 17 where David put on armor to fight
Goliath, but it was too big for him and he wasn't used to fighting in it.
David represented something new that God had anointed
in place of disobedience or man's choice. The armor of religion just didn't fit
David, and it was actually a burden in battle rather than a strength.
I believe the Father has been calling out to
His Church and saying, "That old thing won't fit you. Let Me show you who you
really are."
In that same way God is saying that we can't do life
the same old ways we have been doing it. The armor is old, some of the ways are
old and worn, and He is breathing fresh upon the Bride. Many people have been
trying to make their previous mold fit over and over, and when it hasn't they
have gotten into condemnation over it, thinking there must be something wrong
with them.
But what if God was overhauling you and anointing you
for a new assignment? What if this transition season was your awakening season?
What used to work may not anymore, so surrender and let His work be completed in
you!
Are We Ready?
God is doing a new thing in us, but are we
ready?
Song of Songs reveals God's heart for the Bride in
this season as she is coming out of bondage and into wholeness.
Song of Songs 8:14 (TPT) shares this powerful
revelation from the mouth of the shulamite (the bride): "Until the new day fully
dawns, run on ahead like the graceful gazelle and skip like the young stag, over
the mountains of separation, go on ahead to the mountain of spices, I'll come
away another time."
In this passage the bride says to the bridegroom that
the timing is just not right for her. Instead of going with him to the mountain
of spices (intimacy), she would rather dwell in the mountains of separation.
But I believe something has changed! We are ready,
there has been a cry of longing coming from the bride, and we are returning to
our first love. The Lord is beckoning us to come to Him and to stand watch and
protect this love.
In Song of Songs 2:15 it says, "You must catch the
troubling foxes, those sly little foxes which hinder our relationship. For they
raid our budding vineyard of love to ruin what I've planted within you. Will you
catch them and remove them for me? We will do it together."
Deep intimate connection with the King has always
been the place we have been called to occupy.
Esthers Arise!
The continuous theme of these past seven years for us
has been the story of Esther. What the Holy Spirit recently revealed to me
through the book of Esther was that she also lived in a time of transition. The
book of Esther begins by describing the end of Queen Vashti's reign. This queen
was the full package of what a queen should be by outside appearances; even her
name means "beautiful" but she was removed from her position because she
"refused to come into the courts of the King."
On the hand, Esther means "hidden". Esther went
through a purification and refining process to be ready for the King, and that
has been the season the Church has been in – refining and purifying in
preparation for the bridegroom.
One didn't have a heart for the King, the other lived
only for the King.
Love has truly been stirred in the Church. We have
realized we have been far away from His fiery gaze and are making our way back
into His inner courts where we were always designed to dwell.
There is a remnant emerging with an Esther anointing
that have been through the process and the preparation for one thing – to lead
the people of God out of religious oppression and back to her rightful place –
intimately united with the King.
Many people that have been hidden in this season of
transition have been marked and anointed as Esthers to restore the Church to her
first love.
No you haven't been taken out. Your
preparation may have been long, but now it's time to step forward and lead the
people of God into freedom.
You were born for such a time as this!
Nate and Christy Johnston Everyday
Revivalists Email: everydayrevivalists@gmail.com Website:
www.everydayrevivalists.com
|