Welcome 2021

Reset, Rest, Replenish, Run!

I always seek the Lord for a word for the coming year. A few nights ago, I woke up to hearing the Spirit of God say “REPLENISH.” I knew that was His word for 2021, and it’s not just for me this year, but also for the Body of Christ.

The definition of replenish according to Dictionary.com is “to make full or complete again, as by supplying what is lacking or used up. To supply with fresh fuel. To fill again or anew. Wow! Who doesn’t want to receive that, right? Yes, Lord. Fill us again. Replenish our joy, our finances, our energy, and more. Fill us again, especially like what we’ve read about in the book of Acts!

As I sat with the Lord in prayer this morning, I reflected on my New Year’s Eve celebration last night, which consisted of communion at midnight and powerful prayer with friends in the presence of God. God kept speaking to me the word RUN. It was all I could do to not take off and run through the house and out the door!

As I continued thinking about the goodness of God, I took another sip of coffee out of my RESET 2020 mug and noticed the words printed across the front in a new way. I bought this mug at Dutch Sheets‘ RESET 2020 Holy Convocation event back in October. It was the most powerful gathering of Believers I’d ever experienced. Heaven came down. It literally came down and God was with us in the most tangible manifestation ever. Standing at the product table, I just had to buy this mug. I wanted to be continually reminded of those three incredible days spent there with a body of Believers who were united, like-minded, and flowing in one accord. I wanted to be reminded of what God showed me, spoke to me, and how it felt to not only dance in His presence, but to dance with Him as we shared the most beautiful father-daughter dance that still makes my heart leap and my eyes well up with tears. 

This morning, however, I received a different revelation as I looked at this favorite mug of mine. I immediately saw how God reset LIVES in 2020. He even reset The Church. We were all broken, and sadly, we were mostly unaware. Like a broken bone in need of being realigned, we, too, needed to be re-SET. In brokenness, the BODY of Christ wasn’t fully operational. It wasn’t functioning as it was intended to. It certainly wasn’t capable of all that is being required of it now and will need to be in the days to come. It required a re-SETTING to come back into right alignment so that it, and we, may rightly perform, be fully used, and perfectly functional for the Kingdom of God. 

Like a once-broken bone, thankfully there will always be gentle reminders of how it had once been broken – like a dull ache on a gloomy day or a stiffness if it sits idle too long, but the reset has taken place and now the body can appreciate the fact that it has been properly realigned, healed, and can be successfully used once again. Selah.

Over the last couple of months, many Believers spoke of their eagerness to be used or to hear clearer direction from God. They felt ready to GO and to DO something. But God was instructing us to rest and to pray, to pray and to stand. 

This morning as I looked once more at the word RESET across my mug, I noticed the word REST resides within RESET as well. I was reminded that once a bone (or the body) is broken and then reSET, it must be given REST to properly heal and solidify the realignment. 

I’m sharing this because I want to tell you that if you have found yourself or your church in that holding pattern of rest, congratulations! What God has just shared with me is this: We have had the reSET, and then came the REST, and in 2021, replenishment is going to be poured out, and the run is coming. It will likely not look like you expect it to, so I ask God to take you higher in your understanding – that He will reveal His ways to all who seek His face.

Get ready for the church’s 2020RUN beginning 2021!

Prayer: Father, bind our hearts to yours. Pour out your power and strength that we may not only endure, but that we will run and finish our race well. We thank you for revealing territory that is rightfully yours so that we may take it back by your spirit and by your grace. We thank you for a year of pruning. We thank you for a season that reminded us that it is in You that we have our being. It is in You that we find peace. Now, let us gain experiential understanding that through You, we have the authority to loose Heaven on earth. Thank you for the reset. Thank you for the rest. Thank you for the replenishing we are walking into so that we may run and reveal Your glory to all those that our lives may touch. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Devotion: Psalms 18:1-49

I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.

The pangs of death surrounded me,
And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.

Then the earth shook and trembled;
The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken,
Because He was angry.
Smoke went up from His nostrils,
And devouring fire from His mouth;
Coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With darkness under His feet.
And He rode upon a cherub, and flew;
He flew upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness His secret place;
His canopy around Him was dark waters
And thick clouds of the skies.
From the brightness before Him,
His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire.

The Lord thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
He sent out His arrows and scattered ^[e]the foe,
Lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
The foundations of the world were uncovered
At Your rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me,
For they were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the Lord was my support.
He also brought me out into a broad place;
He delivered me because He delighted in me.

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands
He has recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all His judgments were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
I was also blameless before Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.

With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
With the pure You will show Yourself pure;
And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
For You will save the humble people,
But will bring down haughty looks.

For You will light my lamp;
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.
As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

For who is God, except the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great.
You enlarged my path under me,
So my feet did not slip.

I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them;
Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed.
I have wounded them,
So that they could not rise;
They have fallen under my feet.
For You have armed me with strength for the battle;
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
You have also given me the necks of my enemies,
So that I destroyed those who hated me.
They cried out, but there was none to save;
Even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.
Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind;
I cast them out like dirt in the streets.

You have delivered me from the strivings of the people;
You have made me the head of the nations;
A people I have not known shall serve me.
As soon as they hear of me they obey me;
The foreigners submit to me.
The foreigners fade away,
And come frightened from their hideouts.

The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
Let the God of my salvation be exalted.
It is God who avenges me,
And subdues the peoples under me;
He delivers me from my enemies.
You also lift me up above those who rise against me;
You have delivered me from the violent man.
Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles,
And sing praises to Your name.