Arise And Shine You Are The New Wine For 2009
Doug Fortune
March 13, 2009
I don't like bandwagons, I usually avoid them like the plague. It seems that bandwagons oftentimes end up in a ditch somewhere off the road. I say that as I am about to jump on a bandwagon (smile)...
I wasn't really looking for something to say about 2009. I stopped doing that a few years ago, hence the bandwagon thing. However, Father dropped something in my spirit to share. Actually I received this on New Years Eve day, but given the current "environment" I feel it is perhaps needed now even more than when I first received it.
First, I do have a question for us- Why does it seem that so many Christians (especially in the prophetic community) thrive on bad news? The internet seems to have been flooded the last few months with "prophecies" of stormy times, some even declaring that we will all tremble because we are under God's wrath. I think this may be primarily because of the presupposition that "things are supposed to get worse." This mentality is probably the result of an inaccurate Dispensational/ Futurist view of end times. As my friend Cindy Allen has said, there truly is a second heaven which reveals the sum of all the evil that mankind has sown for. Indeed, mankind has sown seeds of destruction, but we as Christians are being positioned at the Gates to turn judgment back so that Father's justice can come forth. Justice sets people upright and restores them to their inheritance.
We cannot prophesy out of a second heaven view! We must "come up higher" (Revelation 4:1) and prophesy from the third heaven view that echoes the declaration of the sovereignty of God in ALL things. Allow me a bit of levity here, but I think we need to "upgrade" our theology in order to "download" a more accurate prophetic word that comes from the Throne, the third heaven view of the sovereignty of God. This brings me to what Father dropped so very clearly into my spirit.
I believe He said- "Arise and shine, YOU are the New Wine for 2009!"
You see, you really don't have to be a prophet to figure out that we are in difficult times. The media everywhere, newspapers, radio, television, etc. is "prophesying" it. Why must we jump on the "world's" bandwagon?
I believe that we are heading into what will prove to be, for the true Church, the finest hour that history has known! This is the time we will "Arise and Shine!" All creation has been groaning in travail for this very day; "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth being compared with the GLORY that is about to be REVEALED TO US and IN US and FOR US and conferred ON US! For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship]." (Romans 8:18-19 Amplified Bible)
However, we must first "arise" out of this defeatist carnal mentality! "He that cometh from above is ABOVE ALL: he that is of the earth is earthly, and SPEAKETH of the EARTH: he that cometh from heaven is above all." (John 3:31) Where did you come from?... You came from ABOVE! "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born AGAIN, he cannot SEE the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3) The word translated as 'again', anothen in the Greek, means from above, from a higher place, of things which come from heaven or God. As long as we are stuck in a second heaven view and prophesying from that view, we will not be able to SEE the Kingdom of God manifesting in His sovereignty over ALL things, both good and bad.
I love the way the Amplified Bible states it so succinctly, "ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! SHINE (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon YOU! For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon YOU, and His glory shall be seen on YOU." (Isaiah 60:1-2) We must shake off the dust of the carnal mentality that SPEAKS from the EARTH. This is the time for the Church to be WISE, "And they that be WISE shall SHINE as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel 12:3)
Am I saying we just put our 'heads in the sand' and pretend everything is really just 'hunky dory'? Certainly not. We must prophesy a SURE Word that shines Light into the darkness; "We have also a more SURE word of PROPHECY; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a LIGHT that SHINETH in a DARK place, until the day dawn, and the DAY STAR ARISE in your hearts:" (2 Peter 1:19) In the midst of all the darkness the Day Star, Christ Himself, is arising in the heart of a people who ARE the answer to the world's problems.
YOU are the New Wine for 2009!
You see, I believe that the world has 'run out of wine' so to speak, just like what happened at the wedding at Cana of Galilee. When you study out the Hebrew meaning of 'Cana of Galilee', it means circle of heathen. What a poignant picture of the world around us! Jesus' first miracle gives us a beautiful picture of what I believe is the miracle He is about to perform. "On the THIRD DAY a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee... and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have SAVED THE BEST till now." This, the first of His miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples put their faith in Him." (John 2:1, 9-11 NIV)
Age and maturity is a large part of what makes a wine desirable. The very context of the Scripture tells us that the wine that Jesus made was fully fermented and aged to maturity. In fact, it was a much better wine than the expensive wine served at the beginning of the wedding; "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have SAVED THE BEST till now."
In ONE DAY Jesus produced this fully fermented wine that was aged to maturity and proclaimed as the best wine. And exactly what 'day' did that happen on?... "On the THIRD DAY a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee..." We are living in the prophetic millennial "Third Day" and Christ is making a people who are fully fermented with resurrection Life and aged to maturity, and He's doing it in ONE DAY, the Third Day! We are in such a time of acceleration, as the 'chronos' is pregnant with 'kairos', I believe that what would normally take much longer is now happening in exponential succession. Indeed, He has SAVED THE BEST till now, as He is raising up mature sons and daughters who bear His image and His likeness.
It is time for us to rise up into our true calling, the HIGH calling of being everything He has created us to be. We must stop wallowing in the dust of carnal mentalities. We must shake off the dust so we can shine with His glory.
Rise up, saints of God- Arise and shine, YOU are the New Wine for 2009!