A Door of Hope - By David Demian

A Door of Hope
By David Demian  
An excerpt from the watchmen newsletter.
 
In the last few weeks, I have had the chance to connect with hundreds of leaders across the nation.  Not surprisingly, as we shared our hearts, I heard the same story repeated everywhere:  an unprecedented attack of discouragement, disillusionment, loss of vision and a deep sense of isolationism.   As we shared, prayed and discerned together, a clearer picture emerged of what we are facing at this time.
 
What Time Is It?
One of the most important things we need to realize right now is that we have entered into a very significant season of transition in the body of Christ. There is a shift taking place from the church age to the kingdom age.  Everything we have known about “doing church” is about to be turned upside down.  Religious structures and mindsets that have not been founded on the pure word of God are being uprooted and pulled down, so God can download new revelation, strategies and blueprints from heaven to see the establishment of His kingdom on earth.  This shift is critical to the end-time preparation of a glorious Bride and our enemy, knowing that he cannot stop God’s eternal purposes, is doing all that he can to  “change the set times and the laws” of God (Daniel 7:5).  This strong spiritual dullness is meant to make us insensitive and unaware of the urgency of the hour.  It is vital that at this time, we remain “self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 5:8-9
 
A Time of Pruning
Every transition in life brings some confusion because we find ourselves in a place where "what was is no more but what is to come is not yet".  Before God can reveal to us what is to come, He has to prepare us by cutting off and freeing us from the forms, ways, and structures of “what was”.   This is a pruning period that Jesus talked about in John 15 – where God draws us into deep intimacy/abiding with Him that He may deal with the unproductive areas in our lives so that the productive areas might become more fruitful. This process can be frightening because stripping away the familiar allows for a deep exposure of our hearts.  We begin to see how much of our security and trust is in what we know and what we can control. This causes a deep purification of our faith as God calls us again to walk forward in simple obedience into the unknown, ensuring that our dependency is wholly and solely on Him.
 
Leaving the Old
This era of the church, especially in the Western world, has been one where we have lived like the inhabitants of fictional Narnia, without the rule of the Rightful King.  We have battled hard but many times it seems we have suffered stinging defeats and disgrace at the hands of our enemy.  And even when we have persevered and prevailed, our victories have often come with great personal cost and suffering.
 
Now the Lord is challenging us that we are entering into a new age.  Aslan is on the move.  Our King is rousing Himself like a Mighty Warrior and He is thundering at the head of His army.  He will establish His Kingdom and His Dominion shall never end.
 
Our King is inviting us to enter into His kingdom with Him.  But there is a catch…
 
Restoring Innocence
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2-4
 
In the last few weeks God has been waking me up in the middle of the night to spend time with Him.  For hours He has been taking me back through deep roots and deep issues of hurts and wounds in my life, things that go back even to my childhood.  Miraculously He is freeing and delivering me.  I feel a tenderness returning to my heart that I haven’t felt for years.  Without realizing it, the years of battle upon battle, disappointment upon disappointment, betrayal upon betrayal, had taken a major toll on my heart.  Yes I developed faith and perseverance along the way, but I also lost something very precious: my innocence.  And this is what I believe the Lord wants to restore in this season
 
Circumcising Our Hearts
Before God released the children of Israel to begin the battle to possess their promises, their inheritance, the Lord told Joshua he must circumcise everyone who was born in the desert and not yet covenanted to the Lord in this way.  When this was completed, the Lord said to Joshua:
 
"Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." Josh 5:9
 
Reproach means disgrace, discredit, rebuke or disapproval.  The circumcision was a visible reminder to them that the pain and shame of their years of bondage had been removed.
 
Today I believe we are in a season of grace where God is giving us the opportunity to undergo a deep circumcision of our hearts by the Spirit (Romans 2:29).  God is jealous over His Bride and He wants to cut deeply the roots of bondage to hurts, to wounds, to fears, to the lies of the enemy, even to things we are not consciously aware of.   He wants to take us back beyond our battles, back beyond our hurts and wounds to the place where we first fell in love with Him.  As we are quieted by His love (Zephaniah 3:17), we will be able to enter into rest knowing that the battle really is the Lord’s and all He is asking us to do is walk with a childlike faith, trusting in His bigness, safe and secure in Him.
 
A Door of Hope
The Lord spoke to me this fall that this is a time of establishing and laying foundations.  What we do in these next months will determine what authority we will walk with in the next two or three years.  If we will yield ourselves fully to God’s pruning in this season, I believe we will receive a greater revelation of His love than we have ever experienced before.  The Lord does not want us just to carry a message; He wants us to be the message.  This is the most excellent way that Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians – following the way of love.
 
There is a portal opened in this season and the Lord Himself, is alluring us, wooing us tenderly into the desert, into the secret place with Him.  There He promises to restore us, to make our deepest places of trouble and defeat into a door of hope and to restore our innocence as in the days of our youth.