5787: The Year of Glory

Man, I am so excited because God is faithful.

I had been seeking the Lord for a word concerning the Hebrew year 5787. For a while, I wondered if maybe this was one of those situations where I simply had not heard Him. Then, as I was before the Lord, He downloaded it into my spirit with clarity:

This is the Year of Glory.

There is so much in this word, and I believe I will be preaching and prophesying into it throughout this year. In fact, I can already see how the Lord had been preparing me for it. When I ministered in South Korea in August, so much of what God was speaking concerned His glory. I recently preached here in Greensboro about stepping into the glory of God. The message was already there. I just had not seen it with this level of clarity and sharpness until now.

This is your year of God's glory.

From the Anchor to the Altar to Glory

In the Hebrew year 5786, the word the Lord gave me was the Year of the Anchor. God was seeking to settle us and reestablish us in knowing who we are in Him.

Then we entered the Gregorian year, and the Lord gave us the Year of the Altar.

Now we have stepped into the Year of Glory.

There is a journey in this: the anchor, the altar, and now the glory.

We are also still in what has been called the decade of the mouth, a season in which God is teaching His people to hear what He is saying with greater clarity. At the same time, He is judging voices that are not in step with Him and exposing ministries and messages that are not aligned with His heart.

If you are listening, seeking, praying, and valuing the pure and unadulterated heart of the Father, understand that the fullest expression of His heart is found in His presence.

Seven, Sabbath, and Completion

There is significance in the number seven as we enter 5787. Seven speaks of completion, perfection, and something being brought into its intended fullness.

This year, I believe God desires to settle His people into a deeper relationship with Him and into a deeper experience of His presence.

But I want to be careful with this. I am not saying every Christian will automatically experience the glory of God simply because the calendar has changed.

This word is for those who are asking, seeking, knocking, following, abiding, and keeping themselves in the love of God. It is for those who are learning the tabernacle, learning the temple, learning Gethsemane, and learning the stages of intimacy with Him.

We are learning that the pursuit is to behold the beauty of the Lord. The goal is His presence. The goal is His glory.

It is Isaiah seeing the Lord and His robe filling the temple. It is Ezekiel encountering God by the River Chebar. It is the high priest entering the Holy of Holies.

This is about intimacy.

Eden and the Desire to Be Known

Genesis 2 gives us a picture of the intimacy God intended from the beginning.

We are the Bride of Christ, and God desires His people to come before Him with nothing hidden. He wants us bearing all before Him.

If we want to experience the pleasure of His presence, there must be surrender.

The word Eden is connected to pleasure. God's original intention was that humanity would experience the pleasure of His presence, His intimacy, His relationship, and His nearness.

This is what we see again in Psalm 91: dwelling in the secret place, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty.

The secret place is where we are alone with Him. It is where we spend time with Him, experience Him, speak to Him, and allow Him to know us.

The seventh day was the Sabbath. God rested, and Adam rested with God. It was an unrestricted experience of God's presence.

The goal of being alive is to know Him and to be known by Him.

And being known requires us to stop hiding.

When Jesus says, “I never knew you,” we should understand the seriousness of living hidden from God, resisting surrender, and refusing intimacy.

This Year of Glory is a year to surrender your all.

Incense, Confession, and Purification

At the entrance to the Most Holy Place stood the altar of incense. The veil has now been torn through Christ, so there is no longer a restriction keeping us from the presence of God.

But there is still something powerful about what the incense represents.

It is the place where we surrender the soul: our cravings, desires, thoughts, anxieties, and ambitions.

It is where we say, “Lord, I need You more than anything You can do for me. I need Your presence more than I need an answer. I am not coming merely because I need something. I am coming because I want to be with You.”

There may be issues in your life. There may be concerns, anxieties, and supplications. But there is a place in prayer where we come simply to renew our relationship with Him.

We come to renew the kingdom within us.

The Altar Purifies

Isaiah gives us another picture of this.

Then one of the seraphim takes a coal from the altar and touches Isaiah's lips. His uncleanness is confronted in the presence of God, but God's response is purification.

This is something we need daily.

We confess. We become naked before the Lord. We acknowledge what is in us. We stop pretending.

We say, “God, I do not deserve You, but I come because You have torn the veil.”

Jesus gave His all. The veil was torn. Now we can come into His presence and discover that our pleasure is Him.

He gives rest. He gives Sabbath. He gives Eden. He gives the pleasure of His presence.

He reveals His glory.

God Wants All of You

God's intention from the beginning was that we would learn to find our pleasure in Him and that He would find pleasure in us.

To please God is to make ourselves available to Him.

It is to come before Him bearing all.

There are times in prayer when there is nothing left to say. I experienced that myself as I sought the Lord. I simply lay before Him and wept. I was yearning for Him, not asking Him to do anything.

I have prayed for years, “God, bring me to a place where I can come to prayer and not even want to ask You for anything. I want to come just to be with You.”

That is the satisfaction of being one with Him.

When you abide in Him, He speaks into your spirit. He conforms you. He transforms you. He refreshes you. He places His kingdom within you in greater measure.

Then you begin to express Him more clearly.

You become more effective in whatever He has called you to do, not because you are chasing gifts, titles, ministries, or assignments, but because you have been with Him.

Renew the Kingdom

There is a powerful statement in 1 Samuel 11.

Samuel understood something about the presence of God. He had been raised around the tabernacle. As a boy, he learned to treasure God's presence even before he fully understood how to recognize God's voice.

He drew near to God, and God drew near to him.

Samuel learned what it meant to give God his whole heart.

That is what God is calling us into: loving Him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Our thoughts, abilities, desires, and inward life become sacrifices laid before Him.

Gilgal was a place associated with the altar, and Samuel says, “Let us go there and renew the kingdom.”

There is something in that phrase that speaks to sharpening.

This is a year in which God wants to sharpen His people.

Come to the Altar and Be Sharpened

The Year of the Altar prepared us for this.

What am I doing at the altar?

I am coming before God as a weapon that needs to be sharpened.

I am allowing Him to remove the dullness.

How many of us sometimes feel spiritually dull?

We are meant to be weapons in the hands of God. Scripture describes His people as arrows in His quiver. When we become dull, we are no longer cutting through the world's system and revealing the kingdom of God as clearly as we should.

There is another picture here. When a sword is sharpened and polished, it reflects.

It becomes like a mirror.

When we become spiritually dull, we stop reflecting Jesus clearly.

So the Holy Spirit comes as our friend and begins removing those things in our minds and souls that have distracted us from our identity and position in Christ.

He reminds us that we are loved.

He renews the kingdom within us.

Fear, Shame, and Entering the Cloud

It is possible to hide from God without even realizing you are doing it.

In Exodus 20, the people saw the thunder, lightning, smoke, and manifestations of God's power, and they were afraid. They moved away.

But Moses entered the cloud.

There is mystery in the presence of God, and I believe He is calling us deeper into that mystery this year.

He is saying, “Come closer. I want to perfect you. I want to complete something in you in My presence.”

Elijah hid in a cave, but when he came out, he heard the Lord.

Isaiah stood in God's presence and immediately became aware of his uncleanness.

Some of us have disqualified ourselves because of what we have done.

Some have allowed the enemy to continually remind them of their past.

Maybe you have convinced yourself that your imperfections mean you cannot come close to God.

But God looks at the heart.

Do not allow shame to keep you away from His presence.

Give Him Your Soul

At the altar of incense, the high priest would take incense and place it upon hot coals before entering the Most Holy Place.

I believe there is a picture here of what God desires from our souls.

Our emotions, desires, cravings, thoughts, and decisions are areas in which we continually choose what will rule us.

Will my flesh be king?

Will the world be king?

Will my desires be king?

Or will Jesus reign in my soul?

The Lord wants all of it.

Do not hide your cravings from Him. Bring them to Him.

You can say, “Lord, I know there are things I desire more than Your presence sometimes. I know there are distractions I would rather give my time to. But here I am. Take my soul. I repent. I turn from dead works, and I come back to You.”

This year, learn how to renew your vows to the Lord every day.

Become more aware of the battlefield taking place in your soul and mind.

Our minds can become distracted so easily. We can even begin treating political leaders, cultural voices, possessions, careers, ministries, or other things as though they are our source.

Come back to the Lord.

Give Him your soul again.

Stop Hiding From God

Adam hid from God after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life was there, yet humanity chose the path of determining good and evil for itself.

We still face that temptation. We still try to become our own authority and convince ourselves that we know better than God.

But the invitation remains.

Come back.

If you do not know Jesus, give Him everything.

And for those of us who already belong to Him, the invitation is the same every day: “Lord, I give You my everything.”

Do not merely say it with your lips. Put your soul on the altar.

Let Him purify you.

His desire for you has not changed.

He still wants you.

He still wants you close.

What you have done does not mean you should run from Him.

Bring it to Him.

His Glory Meets Your Surrender

When the incense was placed upon the coals, smoke would rise and fill the place.

There is a beautiful picture here: your surrender rising before God and His presence meeting you there.

You carry treasure in an earthen vessel. God wants what is inside you.

When you give yourself to Him, He reveals Himself to you.

The blood has already been applied through Jesus Christ. Because of Him, we can come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need.

And our time of need is every day.

All day.

You do not have to wait until Sunday.

You do not have to wait until Wednesday.

This is your Year of Glory.

Let Him Wash You

Before entering the tent on the Day of Atonement, the high priest washed himself.

This year, come before the Lord and say, “Wash me.”

Put your soul before Him and allow Him to burn away the impurities.

You are not the purifying agent.

He is.

He is light. He is the One who cleanses. He is the One who purifies us through His Word and through His love.

When Jesus came out of the Jordan, the Father affirmed Him as His Son and declared His pleasure in Him.

There is purification that comes through understanding the Father's love.

Let God affirm you in who you are.

A Year of Daily Surrender

I am prophesying into your spirit that this is a Year of Glory, and it is connected to your surrender on a daily basis.

Surrender your morning to the Lord.

Surrender your evening.

Come to the altar morning and evening.

Burn incense before Him, spiritually speaking, by surrendering your soul and your day to Him.

Let Him renew the kingdom.

I believe you are going to experience mysteries of the kingdom of God. You are going to see things in Scripture that you have not seen before because your heart is being prepared in His presence.

Before you simply pick up your Bible as another task, come before Him.

Let Him purify your soul.

Let Him renew your mind.

Let Him bring His glory into your spirit and soul.

As He renews your mind, you become more and more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Behold His Glory

My prayer for this Hebrew year 5787 is simple:

May you desire to behold His glory.

That is what I have for now, but I know the Spirit of God is on this.

This is the Year of Glory for you. It is a year for Him to glorify you as you enter more deeply into His glory.

We talk often about revival, but I believe the next revival will be a glory revival.

God wants you to know Him.

And He wants you to be known by Him.

As you walk with God, you will see revival in your own life. And as the Church grows in its

devotion to being refreshed in His presence above everything else, we will become more

empowered to transform our communities and reveal Jesus to the world.

A Closing Blessing

Father, You are good. You are faithful, and You are perfect in all of Your ways. Settle us in

Your presence. Teach us to stop hiding. Teach us to surrender our souls before You and allow

You to renew the kingdom within us.

Wash us. Purify us. Sharpen us. Renew our minds and draw us into the secret place where we

desire nothing more than to behold Your beauty and know You.

May this year be a Year of Glory for Your people. Let Your presence rest upon us, transform us, and cause us to reflect Jesus more clearly.

May it be unto you as the Lord has spoken.

God bless you. I love you. Be blessed.