This coming year, the Lord is going to again impart grace for His people to keep their New Year's resolutions. Many experienced breakthroughs this year and started to taste real victory after years of defeat in some areas. Many did not embrace this grace from the Lord, but it is being extended again for 2007. Those who will seize it with faith and patience will experience victory and will begin a new life marked by victories rather than defeats. This coming year many Christians will begin to walk in a "victory mentality" which will create breakthroughs that will set many others free as well. The overcoming life will soon become a hallmark that Christians are known for.
This special grace of the Lord to overcome strongholds that have held us back, which is being extended, does not mean that we do not need to add our own discipline to this. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit and is evidence that one truly wants to obey and follow the Lord.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (I Peter 1:13-16).
The Lord's grace is made perfect in weakness, and He knows our weaknesses and will give grace to those who truly desire to be free. This desire is evidenced by devotion, resolve, and discipline, which the Lord will add His grace to until there is not only a victory, but a total victory.
This coming year can be more than just a year of victory for you; it can be the best year of your life. There is joy and peace in victory that many more will begin to experience this coming year and it will be increasingly contagious: "for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17). If we will devote ourselves to living righteously, which is doing what is right in the sight of the Lord, then we will know increasing peace and joy that will be recognized as supernatural in a world descending into fear and torment. There will be a different spirit demonstrated by those who truly follow the Lord, which will make them begin to stand out again in a way that is dramatic and convincing to those who do not serve Him.
This will be a year of increasing revelation of the Scriptures and prophecy, dreams, and visions. Many will find themselves suddenly caught up into another realm and see visions of His kingdom and the things that are coming upon the earth. Many of His secrets will be revealed to His prophets and to His faithful friends, but even greater than this, many of His people will seek Him and find Him.
I saw a river of liquid silver and gold flowing from His throne to the earth. Those who found this river and drank from it became insatiably thirsty for God. This caused them to start following the river to its Source, the One who sits on the throne. Those who just turned in His direction started to see more light, and their path became more clear.
Silver speaks of redemption. The silver in this river speaks of redemption flowing to us which will begin to redeem everything in our lives if we will partake of it—including relationships, mistakes, even accidents and attacks of the enemy which left us or our loved ones wounded. He will turn all of these into good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Those who really love Him seek Him.
The gold speaks of His divine nature. Those who drink from this river will be changed into His nature as they drink. Those who have been stuck in a spiritual rut will begin to emerge, overcome personal strongholds that have held them back for a long time, and truly begin to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. Christians will be known by their love. The greatest gift that a person can have is a hunger and thirst for God and a deep desire to know His ways—this will increase in those who seek Him. If you respond to this hunger, you will come to know the Lord much better, know His voice better, and follow Him more closely than you ever have. The peace and favor of the Lord will be upon you, so that this will begin the most productive, fruitful time of your life.
Radical changes will come to the lives of those who throw off the prevailing lukewarmness and seek the Lord and His will for their lives with a whole heart. However, most of these radical changes will begin very modestly. If you feel called to spend an hour a day with the Lord in prayer, but have had trouble doing this, start with five minutes a day. Remember, any task is doable if broken down in small enough steps. Many will quickly get frustrated if they try to start with an hour a day, but anyone can do five minutes. If you will take just five minutes an day, you will soon find yourself taking ten and then twenty, as you get addicted to prayer and the presence of the Lord. By the end of the year, you will have a hard time spending just one hour a day in prayer.
Likewise, every believer should spend some time in the Scriptures every day or their spiritual life will be anemic at best. However, do not try to read too much. Start with one chapter a day. Gradually increase this as your hunger increases. Seek to hear the voice of the Word Himself, not just His words.
Many people have experienced profound changes in their lives by going on a television fast. Some have been changed so much that they threw their TVs out. If TV is sapping your life, stealing the quality time you should be spending with the Lord or your family, turn it off just one night a week and spend that time with the Lord or in conversation with your family—it could change your life and theirs. Again, after doing this one night a week, you will soon want to add another night. Soon you will find yourself rarely turning your television on, and then it will be with purpose, not just randomly trying to find something to entertain you, which is usually a symptom of an empty, aimless, spiritual life.
Those who seek the Lord in 2007 will see Him work to bring their lives back into alignment with His purpose. This will require some changes for many, including geographical change, job change, etc. Change can be hard, but it is worth it. Much of this is the Lord making us flexible again so we will be able to hold the new wine of His Spirit. With the river He is releasing from His throne, many new churches, even new movements, will begin in dry places. Rivers will begin to flow in deserts. Every dry and thirsty soul that seeks Him will taste His life this year in a new and fresh way.
I also saw the Lord handing out many graduation certificates to those who are prophetically gifted. Many who have faithfully labored on one level are about to immediately be elevated to the next one. Almost all of these were going from elementary to middle school, but this is a significant advancement, and widespread credibility will soon come to the prophetic ministry in the church. This will bring increasing excitement and hope to multitudes of local churches, which will likewise begin to advance in the things of the Lord.
I saw a temperature gauge of the tribulations in the world and it was rising. Troubles will increase, especially natural disasters, but also conflict among nations. However, the Lord will restrain and will not let these go beyond a preset limit because of the prayers of His people, which will also rise this coming year. Many troubles are being allowed because His people do not pray, and this will awaken them to the authority they have in prayer. Those who will turn their vain imaginations and their worries into intercession will not only change their own lives, but many others as well. In the next two years, time to pray will be sought by God's people like their daily food. In the times after that, it will become like oxygen, with His people hardly able to breathe without also praying. His house will be a house of prayer.