IT’S RUNNING SEASON (a prophetic word)

On one of my prayer walks during the Easter Holy Week, I received a word from the Lord that I’ve been waiting to release in His timing and the Lord says the timing is NOW.  In the vision, I heard the Lord saying, “It’s time for the old structures to come down and the new structures to Rise.” 

Immediately, at His sound, I was caught up in a vision of a city scape. I saw towers and skyscrapers being pulled down and in the place of their foundations, brand new ones arose that were magnificent and other worldly. The architectural design was astounding and each one was made of a strong material that shimmered like glass from a great distance. Their presence was commanding and reinvigorating to see erected over the former sites. As I continued to listen, I saw the whole city erected and the landscape changed quickly before my eyes like a time-lapse video.

I was standing on a hill with the Lord watching these things unfold when I heard in my spirit His angels ministering to the inhabitants of this city, saying,

“Let go the thoughts that bind you from moving in this new charge of glory. Stop with the foolishness of want over your life and cast down your anxieties. It is time to Trust the Lord completely!”

I immediately remembered Matthew 6:25-32,

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”

My spirit was quickened at the site and I knew what was happening, the Lord is building Zion in our midst!

Immediately, at the site of this revelation, I was taken down from the hill and placed along the edge of the field that stood before the city gates. It was an expansive field of open grass and all around me I heard the sound of foot steps trampling upon the hard earth, a whooshing sound like a might army running full speed toward the city gates where the skyscrapers were shimmering in the distance and construction of the city walls had been underway. I then heard the Lord speaking loudly over the field. Like a good Father, a Father who is faithful and true, a Father who is excited about the plans He has for them and could see the end vision from the drawing plans, with this conviction and certainty of what is to come, the Lord was exhorting them excitedly, saying

“Walk in it! I say, Walk in it! That which I have set before you, those things you’ve desired in your heart to dream, to see, now in this life, Walk in them! NOW! You can’t get there if you hold back! You won’t grab hold of them if you stay bound in your mind. Distractions have come to see you held back, but I am calling to you NOW ‘Come Daughter!’ ‘Come My Son’ RUN with Me NOW. It’s Running Time! CHARGE that field of dreams and TAKE POSSESSION of the city.”

It was then I saw upon the open field, mighty men and women running strong and powerful across it, they came down from the mountainside and charged the open field like hungry warriors advancing upon a besieged city. I saw the Lord gazing upon them with great pride and I could feel His heart swell. His eyes were smiling upon them.

The Lord then spoke again, as I watched them advancing quickly upon the city, “Behold my power at work is not just in you. It is in others who are running with you. I have not called just one to Charge the field, but MANY!” 

He began to shout over them, “Run! Shout! Raise your swords and let the battle cry Sound from within your lungs. Delight that you are not alone but one-for-all in ME. You are not alone. I have not left you, like my servant Elijah once believed, alone in the cave to carry the battle for My Kingdom alone (1 Kings 19:6-18). I have raised up 1,000s and 10,000 more to come to run side by side with you. You all have been called to run for Me. It is My banner I have knit in your hands that all the world might see and say, ‘To whom do they belong? Where have they come from? Look they are from every tribe and nation! They have speech in every tongue. Who could have amassed such an army like this? And where have they been hidden to train for this day?’ And My Called ones shall shout, ‘We are the Lord’s Army! He has hidden us in his wings. He has kept us close to His heart that the world could not pluck us from His hands. We run for the King of Kings!'” 

He then turned beyond His advancing army of faithful sons and daughters and gazed upon the city, and I could see such joy in His eyes, He was delighted at the site, and He spoke,

“Glory HAS come. The trumpet HAS sounded. Zion has been called to rise and fortify her walls. I am shoring up her boundaries. She is most magnificent in all the lands. No one is like her. Zion has my heart. Zion is where I live and I will live in her forever!” says the Lord. 

“For God will save Zion
and build up the cities of Judah,
and people shall dwell there and possess it;
the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall dwell in it.”
-Psalm 69:35-36 (ESV)

As I pondered this word, I asked the Lord to show me in the Scriptures more about Zion and as I studied and reflected with Him, I realized there is a great distinction between Zion and Jerusalem, which has caused some confusion among His people, and has been preventing them from seeing the vision of the Lord as it was drawn in the beginning and in the time of David. The Zion known as the city of David is much more than a physical place, it is the eternal dwelling place of the living God.

When Christ died, He became the temple of the Living God (John 2:13-22) and we became one IN Him (John 14:20), we who are called and chosen became the inhabitants of Zion and the Lord himself dwells in Zion (Psalm 2:6, 9:11, 65:1-4, 76:6, 132:13, Sirach 24:10). The Lord IS Zion and WE are IN the Lord; Zion is in us! 

Those who inhabit Jerusalem belong to Zion, but they do not yet dwell in Zion, as both the Old and New Testament prophets have foretold, one day all the sons and daughters of Zion will dwell in Zion. (Psalm 14, 22, 53:6, Isaiah 4, 62:11, 66, Jeremiah 3:14-22, 31:6-7, 50:5, Romans 11)

What Christ did for us on the cross was to open the door of the Heavenly Zion that David was given revelation of (Acts 7:44-50). The cross became the connecting pin between Heaven and earth and Christ became the temple of the Living God, Emmanuel, come from the Heavenly Zion to earth (Psalm 65:1-4). As in the days of David, there would be no more veil in Zion. The Zion of Heaven had been torn down and, in Jesus, the new temple, not built by human hands, was rebuilt on earth as it is in Heaven! He is seated in Zion at the right hand of the Father, just as we are now seated in Him, and because Emmanuel dwells both above and below, we can say we are also seated with Him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). We are established in Zion (Psalm 69:35-36) and Zion is in us, the house of the Lord which stands forever, the place where the living God dwells both on earth and in the Heavens!

“And of Zion it shall be said,”This one and that one were born in her; for the Most High himself will establish her.” – Psalm 87:5

“In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him, and so I was established in Zion.” – Sirach 24:10

Mount Zion and the tabernacle of David were places of worship and represent the worshiping church today; the true dwelling place of God. Peter wrote to the church, “…you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Paul concurs in his letter to the Ephesians, “…in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). The worshiping church is now the habitation of God; it is his resting place. “He inhabits the praises of his people” (Psalm 22:3).

A quote in a book I read once resonated with me, it said, “You are the tabernacle of David and you should open up and let the glory of God out to the people.” I believe this prophecy applies to every worshiper of God. Look at the words of the prophet Amos, “On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnants of Edom and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this thing” (Amos 9:11-12). Notes: In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) the word Edom reads mankind. James quotes Amos in his speech to the Jerusalem council to validate the work of God among the Gentiles (Acts 15:13-17).

I have a great sense this a tremendous season in the earth like nothing the world has experienced, since that fateful day on Calgary. Look again now at the prophecy of Joel:

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
 sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
 Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
 for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,…

Fire devours before them,
 and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
 but after them a desolate wilderness,
 and nothing escapes them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
 and like war horses they run.

As with the rumbling of chariots,
 they leap on the tops of the mountains, 
like the crackling of a flame of fire
 devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
 drawn up for battle…

Like warriors they charge,
 like soldiers they scale the wall.
 They march each on his way,
 they do not swerve from their paths.
They do not jostle one another,
 each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
 and are not halted.
They leap upon the city,
 they run upon the walls;
they climb up into the houses,
 they enter through the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them,
 the heavens tremble.
 The sun and the moon are darkened,
 and the stars withdraw their shining.

The Lord utters his voice
 before his army,
 for his host is exceedingly great;
 he that executes his word is powerful. 
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
 who can endure it? – Joel 2:1-11 (RSV)

Joel is warning the priests to Sound the alarm among the people to prepare for the Day of Judgement that is coming. The prophet foretells of the Lord amassing an army where what they bring is like the Garden of Eden, a fire that purifies, but what follows after the Lord’s army comes is much more horrific, flames that burn and desolation. Christ spoke of this army in Matthew 10:34-40, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law–a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.'” The Lord is calling forth His Army NOW to bring the sword of Truth to the people of Zion and to the daughters and sons of Zion who have yet to dwell inside her (Jerusalem and the cities of Judah).

The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless:”Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire?Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” – Isaiah 33:14

He is shouting to us to tear down the strongholds which prevent us from being cleansed (as Amos warns in chapter 6) and fortify our hearts with the new strongholds and towers of the Lord, “being transformed by the renewing of our minds,” as Paul writes to the Romans and concurs to the church at Corinth, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The Army of the Lord is not coming to kill and destroy and bring judgement, it is coming to strengthen the worshippers in Zion and all those who are called to dwell therein that they may withstand the coming judgement that follows behind them. A judgement that will terrorize the wicked and make all nations to tremble before the Lord, who shall endure such a day?

This vision is a vision of hope to the Called Ones, you who have been hidden in the palm of His hand and, in the secret place of intimacy with Him, have been given the plans and strategies to strengthen Zion for the Last Day.  We are being asked to RUN in those preparations and, casting down every fear and doubt that threatens to hold us back, take charge of our own fields and build up the city, build each other up, manifest the new strategies to help erect His body, the temple of Zion, to make jealous to those who’ve lived outside her and prepare room within her to receive those who will come and dwell in her before that Last and terrible day, when the rest of the nations shall wail in horror, burning outside her gates!

The Lord is merciful and filled with compassion (Zechariah 1:14-17). He is a good and just King and he desires that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9).

The Lord is speaking to our hearts, “My Beloved, come with me and take my hand. Run with me now as though there is nothing else to do. Zion is calling to me. ‘Come down!’ she cries, ‘Come down!’ And Lo, I have said to her, I have answered, “I will come down. Build up her walls. Run, take the field, and build her walls, and I will come down, forever.”

Psalm 48 – Zion, the City of Our God

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress…As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts,
 in the city of our God,
which God will establish forever. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
 Let Mount Zion be glad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments! Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers,
consider well her ramparts, 
go through her citadels,
that you may tell the next generation that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
 He will guide us forever!

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion. -Psalm 84:5-7

For the LORD will build up Zion, he will appear in his glory… – Psalms 102:16

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides for ever.  – Psalms 125:1

 

By Kim Engel
Founder, http://www.SheerahMinistries.com
Email: info@sheerahministries.com