Darlene Rose

Every new year I have reflected on the past year and the new, seeking God’s word for me, for us. It isn’t as if there is a shortage of words put out there. There are quite a few. I felt like my words were irrelevant, not to me or a few others, but to the Facebook or social media community, so I cringed as I tried to write.

I asked the Lord “What are you saying for this year?”
His response? “What have I said?”
Well, He has said a lot!
So I started reviewing all the words He spoke to me, thinking it was the word for this year.
I could not write. He clearly said them, but it was not what He wanted me to post.

I came home from work last night to write down my thoughts but was distracted by dogs, dinner, and life. I felt in my spirit that God said to me “Go sit with your husband.” And I did.

I thought that perhaps this year, I would not write anything. This morning is fresh and I am renewed. And it is uniquely a word that He would speak to me.

I have been helping others to process their food for the past few years by looking at every morsel of food that goes into the body and examining our body’s reaction to it and how long it takes to digest. If you are slow to process, the metabolism is considered slow and you become constipated and stuck. Toxic waste can build up and weight is not easily lost. Belching, and bloat, or being puffed up in the gut with air can take place. And if the body processes too quickly, nutrients are lost and diarrhea happens as a result.

Processing thoughts is similar by taking every thought captive and examining them, making sure that they are thoughts worthy of keeping or thoughts that are not consistent with His Spirit. If you process a thought too slowly, you forget about it because life happens, and you have another thought and another thought to process. Like the processing of food, if you delay taking a thought captive, it doesn’t go away. It is in your body as a substance. It has weight and it is working in you. If you do nothing about it, it becomes toxic to your body and creates anxiety or fear or anger that you now have to deal with, until you become stuck.
You then start venting, ranting, complaining, (something like belching out), and you start rationalizing your behavior (bloat, puffed up with pride), and then expect others to join in.

If you process thoughts too quickly, accepting or discarding without examination, you might find you have “diarrhea of the mouth” spouting things off without any regard for the contents of what you took in at all. Foolishness follows, then self-deception.

It is how you process what you take in, that determines the outcome. This is metabolism.

This year is going to be dependent upon how you process what happens. Of course it has always been that way, however, this year will be a little different in that your response to it all will quickly determine the outcome because events of the world have sped up requiring your response.

The past six years we have been witnessing a separation of the sheep and goat nations. The goat nations are those with evil intent.

Matthew 25:³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

The past six years have been about the leaders and influencers of nations; marking them so that it became evident to all regarding the corruption and decay.

The next six years (roughly) are about the separation of the wheat and the tares. This is personal.

Matthew 13: ²⁴ Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;

²⁵ but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. ²⁶ But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
²⁷ So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

In the maturation stage of wheat, it bows low. It is heavy and full of good substance. But in the maturation of tares, they stick straight up, there is nothing to weigh them down. In the maturation stage, the harvester comes to cut down the tares without harming the wheat because they become evident.

While men (and women) slept.

While men turned their heads and closed their eyes, letting the politicians create a bill and the people voted them into law without examining them.
While men elevated pastors, prophets and evangelists to a place of honor reserved only for Jesus Himself.
While pastors elevated abortion in the pulpit and encouraged a vaccine to their flock, men slept.
While leaders in the church took advantage of their women and women took advantage of their influence.
While emphasis was placed on the decor of the building over the health of the people.
While we heard of the horrors of pedophilia and human trafficking, and still gave attention to the people who promoted those directly involved; OR we were enamored by Hollywood or Nashville, who promote such things.
While pagan practices are allowed in fellowships but “it’s okay because it’s called something different.”

Are you waiting for President Trump to save you? Are you still waiting to be raptured out of here for your salvation?

Church ! Your congregation will be under His very watchful eye. Are your fellowship gatherings truly fellowship? He only blesses real fellowship. And those who are in competing multilevel marketing businesses – are you using church to gather customers to yourself?

Our beliefs and behaviors will be scrutinized more closely this year. How will you process betrayal? How will you process loss? How will you process death? How will you process sudden wealth? How do you process the enormous amount of information you are taking in on social media and television? How do you process the broken-hearted? I’m not looking for answers. He is. And individuals will be tested and tried.

This is the season of the maturation of the wheat and the tares. Harvest is upon us. Your process determines your response and your response will determine your outcome.

There is another part to this.

Since we are in the maturation stage of the wheat and the tares, we are also entering into the Kingdom Age. How we respond to the person of the Holy Spirit is critical.

In the Old Testament, we saw the age of the Jewish people; separated unto Yahweh (the Lord God) and marked by their worship of Him. Yahweh handed down laws via Moses and they were to follow them all – not because they were able, but because He wanted to show them how much they needed Him and were not able to keep the laws in their own strength. They needed a Messiah, a Savior. They were separated.

When Jesus came, this was their Messiah but they did not recognize Him. Some thought He would come as King and establish His Kingdom in their lifetime. They thought He would look like anything other than what He actually did, but if they had truly worshiped Yahweh with their heart and not all their man made laws, they would have recognized Him. They rejected Him.

Jesus came at first to the Jews, but then to the Gentiles (all non-Jews). The Church was established and for the past 2000 plus years, the church has all kinds of thoughts about who Jesus is/was. There are hundreds of denominations with various thoughts and beliefs about who Jesus is, when He will return, if He will return as a man, or as a company of people. Will Jesus rapture people who confess Him as Lord before the judgment of the world, or will His people go through The Great Tribulation?

When the disciples asked Jesus what will be the sign of the end of the age, His first reply was “see to it that you are not deceived.” If you recall, I wrote above, that when you take in too much information without examining it well, you become deceived.

The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age

³ Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.”

John 7 is a good picture of where we are right now. Jesus was at the Feast of Tabernacles, a celebration of when Yahweh God visited them from time to time. This is a celebration of God visiting them and they did not recognize that God was WITH THEM. They did not see that the ONE they celebrate IS RIGHT WITH THEM. They could not see because of all their doctrines of demons that drew their hearts away from the PERSON of Jesus.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

John 7:³⁷ On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

We are in this day.

Amos 8:11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹² They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it.

A famine of the hearing of the word of the Lord. It is not a famine of the word of the Lord, but a famine of HEARING. Hearing is how you process. The processing of food determines your health. But, you might ask, how is their a famine of hearing when we hear it everywhere?

I’ll give you an example. A diagnosis of Insulin Resistance is when insulin is triggered in large amounts by the sugars the body has taken in, that the body no longer accepts it. It has become desensitized. Like a person who constantly chatters may have something of value to say, because of the presence of too many words, a person is unable to hear the value. In the same way, prophetic words and teachings have been mixed with everything but His actual word, so much so that it is difficult to sift through what is from His Spirit and what is not. Becoming desensitized is another way of saying “a famine of hearing.”

The maturation of the wheat.
The last day of the great feast.
The Fullness (no longer just the promise of) His Spirit.

The church is in danger of sticking their necks up like the tares that will get cut down if it is thought they are unable to make the same mistake as the Jews of biblical time. Do you recognize Jesus? Jesus told His disciples that if they wanted to know who the Father was, they needed to look at Jesus because they are one.

John 14: ⁷ “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

 ⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

But now He is saying “If you had known my Holy Spirit, you would have known Me also; and from now on you know Me and have seen Me.” He is saying to us “If you really want to know who I Am, look at Holy Spirit and you will see Me”.

So as we had the Christ and the Church, we are entering into the age of His Spirit and His Bride. It will not look like the Church age in the same way as when Jesus entered the scene to the Jews, it did not look like what they were accustomed. You need to know Him (and others) by the Spirit.

Isaiah 11:1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
² The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

³ His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
⁴ But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

You will not be able to judge correctly because everything as we knew it is about to change – yet He does not. The only thing that is constant is who God is.

Who IS He?

Is Jesus your Healer? Does He live inside you? Then how do you respond to sickness?
Is Jesus your Provider? Does He live inside you? Then how do you respond to lack?
Is Jesus your Shepherd? Does He live inside you? Then how do you respond to loss?
Is Jesus your Help? Does He live inside you? Then how do you respond to need?

Many will be called to Disconnect in order to Connect. Disconnect from social media in order to connect to the live human beings in front of you. Jesus blesses real fellowship. Your blessing or lack of blessing will be tied to this.

Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!

² It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Running down on the beard,
The beard of Aaron,
Running down on the edge of his garments.
³ It is like the dew of Hermon,
Descending upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the Lord commanded the blessing—
Life forevermore.

Did you know that if you put off repentance you may get to the place of being unable to again?
2 Timothy2:24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
²⁵ in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
²⁶ and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

We are in the maturation stage of the wheat. Will you be full of worship to the One True God, full of substance that it causes you to bow in humility and fear of the Lord? Or will you be found sticking your neck up with pride, spouting off, venting, complaining, yelling, calling fire down, stomping your feet about your rights and shouting at the devil?

How you PROCESS/RESPOND to the events this year, regardless of what they are, or the source will determine your outcome. For some, the events will be in the form of loss. For others, the events will be in the form of gain.

If He lives in you, then you will be expected to let His life flow through you in response to it all. This has always been the case, but the immediacy of it is at hand.

He is always redemptive. He is always good. He is always love.

He says this “My love for you is eternal. You are the apple of My eye. I am a rewarder of faith and I desire to give you good gifts. I always provide for you. I have a plan and a destiny for you. I am not willing that you should be lost. I want to heal you and I am able to heal you. I have compassion and passion for you. My love is stronger than the grave and many waters cannot quench this love. You are blessed with every gift in the heavenly realms. I am for you and not against you. I also discipline those I love as sons and daughters. I desire a relationship of acknowledgment and trust. If anyone is truly hungry and thirsty for Me, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water, forever and ever.”