Looking to 2022

Happy New Year to you and yours. May 2022 bring you joy and peace in abundance.

As 2021 was drawing to a close, and my thoughts turned to the year past and the year still to come, I reflected that many of us had thought at the beginning of 2021 that it would be a different outcome at the end of the year to what it actually became.

Yet more restrictions, face masks were the ‘in thing’ again. And despite some of the things that the Government said they would never do in England, they landed up passing into law. There was still much fear, yet there was also a sense of people being really fed-up and wanting to get back to doing things the way they always did it. So what would become of 2022? Was there a sense of hope among people? Were Christians becoming complacent again and not praying the virus out? Are we as keen to be praying Psalm 91 over ourselves and our loved-ones as had been the case at the beginning of 2020?

While these were high on my list of thoughts – God kept pointing me to two Scriptures. And as I reflected on these, I felt strongly that God was giving me a word for 2022 that needs to be shared.

The first Scripture that God pointed me to was the Feeding of the 5,000. Although the Gospels have slightly different accounts, I noticed four things in common:

i)        Jesus was healing the sick

ii)      Jesus had compassion

iii)     Jesus took the bread and fish, blessed it and got the Disciples to distribute it

iv)     There were 12 baskets of food left over.

Jesus was always about the Father’s business and his heart of compassion was evident, particularly in this story. Jesus did nothing out of selfish need or a desire to prove Himself. He was concerned for the people. We also notice that Jesus used the resources to hand – he didn’t send anyone off to the shops to buy the supplies – and that was because He knew the power of the resources of Heaven. When Jesus supplies, there’s always abundance. 

The second Scripture God pointed me to is in Exodus 16 – Manna from Heaven. Here we read how God supernaturally supplied food for the Israelites out in the desert. 

What did I notice from this passage?

i)       God demanded obedience from the Israelites in that they were required to only collect enough for that

          day, except on the day before the Sabbath where they could collect double because they were to rest and

          honour God on the Sabbath.

ii)      Even as the people complained, God had mercy and showed them that He was willing to provide.

iii)     What God provided was nutritious and life-giving, it sustained the Israelites and fed them.

The Israelites who tried to collect too much manna each day found that it was inedible by the next day – which led me to see that disobedience brings destruction and loss. Obedience brings provision.

Reflecting on these two passages of Scripture I felt drawn more and more to the provision of Manna while the Israelites were in the desert. Studying the passage, I felt Holy Spirit highlight the following to me:

• If the Israelites didn’t know what they were looking for they would have missed it completely. Sometimes the things of God are obvious, and sometimes we have to know what we are looking for. And the only way we will know what we are looking for is to get to know the One who is providing at a greater degree of intimacy that will enable us to see the direction of Heaven.
• Even if something is right in front of us, we can dismiss it as not being from God because it doesn’t look the way we expect it to, or are accustomed to. Lack of intimacy and communion with God can dull our spiritual senses.
• Whilst the Israelites were complaining and grumbling, it took their focus off the God of miracles, and they soon forgot what He had already done for them. In contrast, the 5,000, who had come to hear Jesus were willing to be with Jesus, and they got fed. Hence, abiding and communion with God brings spiritual food and provision.

As I contemplated this, and asked God what He was saying through this for the year ahead, I sensed that God is asking us to shift our way of thinking. 

I believe that we are in times where, instead of us having the resources of Heaven at hand and being able to ‘store them up’ for a time when they will be needed, God is shifting us into a place where we will need to rely more and more on Him and His provision (this is not about financial provision – as many associate the word ‘provision’ with ‘money’ – rather this is about being prepared for Ministry, having the Gifts of the Spirit, knowing our calling and how to walk it out) AT THE TIME. It’s not that God is removing provision from us – but rather that He wants us to be more aware of Him and how He wants things to be done, and that He will provide what we need when we need it – i.e. to KNOW HIS STRATEGY. There is a real sense that we have begun to take God for granted, that we have just presumed that when we need to do ministry everything will just fall into place.

I believe that this will take an increased level of faith and trust in God from us. I believe that this will take a deepening of our relationship with Him. I believe that we will consciously need to draw nearer to God, and that we will need to rely on Him more than ever before. The time has come for us to STOP taking things of God for granted, to STOP grumbling and complaining because God isn’t doing things our way and instead to move into a place of TOTAL RELIANCE on God. To STOP being arrogant and thinking we know it all and to BECOME SO CLOSE TO GOD that sitting at His feet will mean we will have the resources of Heaven at our fingertips. 

This is a time when we must seek God and know His plans and provision for our lives, our Ministry, our service to Him (Matthew 6:33). This is a time when we will need to move in step with God and therefore our relationship, communion and intimacy with God will count for more than our good deeds. This is a time when wisdom and understanding of the ways of God will be paramount (James 1:5-6).

I believe that things are not going to be easy in the coming time, but I believe that God has already prepared and equipped us, we just have to find out what we have in Him and therefore in ourselves. Let’s not diminish what God has put in us, but let’s use it for God’s glory and for the furthering of His Kingdom. Let’s be bold, strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6-9). Let us know that we can do ALL THINGS through Christ, who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).

I also believe that in the coming time we need to be very clear about God’s strategy, and we must not rely on the way things were done, or in the way that we have always done it because we saw results in that. This is the time of New Wine in New Wineskins – the old wineskins will not hold the New Wine.

By spending time with Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit we will learn from them, we will grow in faith and trust and in eagerness to do as they do. As we grow in our Praise and Thanksgiving and Worship of God, we will see the Kingdom of God multiplying in front of us.

I leave you with these words from Passion and Fire Ministries – “Watch as God launches you into an entire year of sacred encounters with Him”.

I bless you to encounter God and to know Him deeply in 2022.

Be blessed

Jean