5777: A Year of Sensitivity by Paulette Reed

By Paulette Reed
As we step into the New Year, it's often good to ask ourselves questions, thereby taking inventory of where we have been and looking forward to where we are heading. A question I like to ask at the head of the year is this: "What is the prophetic indicator in my life for this leg of the race, as I run with endurance?" For me, I received an answer to this question during Rosh Hashanah when I had a vision from the Lord while standing in my kitchen. This experience of "seeing" more clearly into the spiritual realm has led me into a whole new level of the prophetic. As we honor supernatural experiences like this, the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on, encouraging us to continue to fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith.
 
 
 
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As we step into the New Year, it's often good to ask ourselves questions, thereby taking inventory of where we have been and looking forward to where we are heading. A question I like to ask at the head of the year is this: "What is the prophetic indicator in my life for this leg of the race, as I run with endurance?" For me, I received an answer to this question during Rosh Hashanah when I had a vision from the Lord while standing in my kitchen. This experience of "seeing" more clearly into the spiritual realm has led me into a whole new level of the prophetic. As we honor supernatural experiences like this, the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on, encouraging us to continue to fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith.
 
As many of you already know, it's crucial to understand the times and seasons of our lives so we can move into them by faith. We see this principle outlined in 1 Chronicles 12:32. It reads, "And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do …" The children of Issachar were given a peculiar understanding of the times and seasons in which they were living so they knew how to respond to and live in that season. It's important to have our journals close by so that we can record what Holy Spirit is sharing with us about our current season of life. The more we honor Holy Spirit by being faithful to record what He has shown to us, the more He will continue to show to us.
 
The Sword of the Lord
 
The year 5777 is the year of the sword of the Lord. We are still in the decade of the 70s, represented by the letter ayin, which, in the Hebrew alphabet, is a picture of a pair of eyes. And zayin is the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is a picture of the vav (man) with a crown and scepter. Therefore, the year 5777 will be a year of extreme sensitivity to the Spirit of God. For me, I've been seeing open windows with my spiritual eyes everywhere I go. The Lord is showing me decades of windows opening for His people when they're ready for them to open—windows of opportunity.
 
For example, there are commissions from heaven that we can do for the glory of God from the ages of twenty to thirty that perhaps we can't do at fifty. In a similar way, there are wonderful assignments given by God that we can do from thirty to forty that we didn't have the wisdom to do in our twenties. I can now advance the Kingdom of God in thousands of ways from the ages of sixty to seventy that I couldn't do when I was much younger. And even as I continue to age, I will be looking for even more amazing ways to serve the King from seventy to eighty, eighty to ninety, and beyond. It is my encouragement to you to embrace and enjoy the open windows and seasons that God is bringing into your life—don't miss them!
 
Leonard Ravenhill said it well, "Seize the opportunity of a lifetime during the lifetime of an opportunity." This is exciting news, friends. During this decade of ayin, we should be growing spiritually by leaps and bounds and seeing more clearly as a global church, as well as individually, than ever before. Our spiritual eyes are becoming much sharper so we'll always be one step ahead of the enemy.
 
Luke 11:34 (AMP) teaches us about the power of the eye gate: "The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive, focused on God], your whole body also is full of light [benefiting from God's precepts]. But when it is bad [spiritually blind], your body also is full of darkness [devoid of God's word]." The Lord is bringing us to a place of holiness, a place of purity, as angels begin to separate the wheat from the tares, the light from the gross darkness. Titus 1:15 declares, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; even their mind and conscience are defiled."
 
Holy, Holy, Holy
 
Anytime something is repeated three times in Scripture, it means it is extremely important. For example, when Isaiah saw God high and lifted up and the train of His robe filling the temple, he heard angels calling out, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts" (see Isaiah 6). Why did the angels repeat the word holy three separate times? For the Jews of the day, repeating something gave it importance and placed an emphasis on it. The angels were stressing with extreme passion and complete confidence the holiness of God. So when we see 5777, with the repetition of the number 7 three times, God is certainly trying to get our attention. Seven is the number of completion, so God is stressing with passion and intensity that we are to expect many long-awaited promises to come to fruition this year.
 
Not only that, but for the year of the sword of the Lord, Hebrews 4:12 (AMP) will be a key scripture for the church: "For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart." Are we powerfully wielding the sword of the Lord (the word of God) in our day-to-day lives?
 
As we step into this New Year, let's ponder this question in our hearts: "What is my prophetic indicator for this leg of the race?" Let's position ourselves to be more sensitive to the Spirit of God this year than ever before. Be ready and willing to see and hear from the Father like Samuel was in I Samuel 3:9, "Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." And then let's us embrace what God is showing us and speaking to us and run with it.
 
Jesus is about to open up windows and pour out His blessings, giving us opportunities that our hearts have only been dreaming about. Recognize the season in which God has placed you, and then begin to receive by faith the opportunities that He is setting before you, praying for wisdom to know how to walk them out. This is the year of extreme sensitivity to the Spirit of God.
 
Paulette Reed
 

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At the end of October 2016, I shared a message about how 2017 was to be a year of extreme sensitivity to the Spirit of God. According to the Jewish calendar, we are in the year 5777. We are still in the decade of the 70s, which is represented by the letter ayin. Ayin, in the Hebrew alphabet, is characterized by a pair of eyes, which give clarity and vision. Recently, Holy Spirit began speaking to me more about this year—5777—being the year of the sword of the Lord. The fact that the number 7 is repeated three times and the crown on the pictograph caught my attention. Biblically speaking, seven represents perfection, maturity, completeness, wholeness. The pictograph in the Hebrew alphabet for zayin also shows a spear or a sword, a weapon, an arrow, or a royal scepter.
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