A blessed head of the year to you. We have just celebrated Rosh Hashanah from Monday sun down to yesterday. It was a glorious time of feasting after a time of fasting and the Holy Spirit really ministered to us speaking of the glorious things to expect this coming year. I will share the highlights of my communion time with the Holy Spirit including the preparation time of introspection for the feast of Rosh Hashanah because without going through the preparation time we are unable to benefit from the promises the Lord makes to us. We are told that the word of the Lord tested Joseph until he was prepared to walk in fullness of the plan of the Lord in Egypt.

The Holy Spirit started speaking to me from Isaiah.40:1 which reads these words: “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. These words were spoken when Israel was still in Babylon which had become the Medes and Persians scattered in various districts unable to come together to create an army which could defeat Cyrus the King of Persia. So how were they to speak comfort when everything was totally contrary to comfort.

The way the Lord had delivered them previously was by raising someone as a leader who could fight and defeat the army they were under but in this present situation there was no army in Israel and certainly no man anointed with the might to take on King Cyrus and defeat him in order to free the Israelites. So what was the reason for the words of comfort the Lord was saying to speak to His people that their warfare was over which the Lord spoke in verse two.

Now this is how the Lord speaks because in Romans.4:17 we are told how the Lord views and addresses situations: (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed–God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; The Lord speaks of non existent things as though they exist because whatever the Holy Spirit says becomes exactly what the Lord says. The Lord calls death life because in His Presence death becomes life.

The Lord gave Ezekiel a lesson on His ability in Ezekiel.37:10-14 when He declares that dry bones are His mighty army which He will use to show His glory on earth. Ezekiel is stunned but realizes as he speaks the Lord’s words that those dry bones become exactly what the Lord says as he says what the Lord tells him to speak as those dry bones become the mighty army.

Another reminder is when the Angel of the Lord speaks to Gideon in Judges.6:12 by calling him a mighty man of valor while he is in hiding threshing wheat in a winepress for fear of the midianites destroying his wheat. The angel tells him to go in this might of his and save Israel from the midianites in verse:14 after Gideon declares just how weak he and his family are pointing out that this word is a fantasy not a reality. The reality was that what the Angel said is what went on to happen as Gideon did defeat the midian army as one man.

“This is the reason we should always believe and do only what the Lord says no matter how different it looks from our present reality, because what the Lord says is the truth.”

The Holy Spirit wants us to see from the Father’s perspective of us and never from the condition we find ourselves in. In Jeremiah.29:11 we read these words: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. The difference between the Lord and us is that the Lord knows His thoughts. He is not presuming what could possibly be best for us or how things should fare for us based on outward circumstances. He knows exactly what He thinks about us and proceeds to do exactly as He thinks.

When the Lord spoke Jeremiah.29:11 it was over eighty years before Israel was carried into Babylon. The Lord was pointing out that after seventy years under Babylon they would return back to Israel and rebuild it. He also knew that Babylon who captured them would no longer be in existence as a Nation but His thoughts for Israel would be manifested because that was His plan. The Lord pointed out that I used Babylon to correct my people but never said they would remain as a Nation so they had no reason to boast because they defeated Israel once. The Lord’s plan was not for them to remain a kingdom forever.

This is why it is so important to know the Holy Spirit’s thoughts concerning us because those alone will be what sustains and keeps us no matter what happens which the Holy Spirit reminded me happened as Joseph entered Egypt as a slave but rose to the position of ruler or Prime Minister because the Lord had said it to him in his dreams which were surely going to happen. This was the case even though his brothers said as they sold him to the Ishmaelites let us see what will come of his dreams now?

Their wicked scheme to sell Joseph did not change the Lord’s mind concerning Joseph but positioned him in Egypt for the plan of God to be fulfilled to the last detail which they experienced when they bowed down to him in Egypt just as his dream had revealed. I encourage you to place more value on what thus saith the Lord than any situation that is speaking contrary to the Holy Spirit’s word to you because the Lord’s word will outlive and stand over the grave of any contrary word spoken against it.

I am so full of the Holy Spirit’s word to me I can hardly stop just pouring out the things He spoke to me. I will introduce the next aspect concerning the necessary preparation we must take to be in position for the word He spoke to manifest in our lives as He revealed from Isaiah.40:3 & 4 which enable us to let go of our thoughts, mindsets, concepts and processing which mean we can’t line up with the word the Lord has for now.

It is in the wilderness that our hearts are softened and become tender enough to line up with God’s word of comfort because our warfare has ended to make way for the glory of the Lord to be revealed in our lives, which is the Lord’s goal for us. As I share on this important aspect of change which happens in the wilderness preparatory time you will discover why many times in the past you have missed out on walking in the manifestation of the glory of the Lord because even though it was before you you could not accept and receive it because your heart and mind were unable to connect with the Holy Spirit to share in the glory which would arise upon you.

Take in all I have shared today so you can flow into the next aspect tomorrow of change which will happen in the wilderness time which I will share details on tomorrow. May the grace flow towards you abundantly as you meditate on these words so in this year you will walk in the glory the Lord has planned for you to experience by being visible in your lives which will expand the Kingdom of Jesus on earth.