Past
Year In Review
Rick Joyner
We are told in I Corinthians 10:11, which speaks of the things
that happened to Israel in the wilderness, “Now these things happened to them as an
example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the
ages have come.” Every trial that Israel
went through in the wilderness was a prophetic map of what every believer must
go through to get to their promised land—the fulfillment of their promises. The
first major trial they faced was at “the waters of Mira,” or the waters of
bitterness. The first thing Israel had to learn if they were going to make it
to their promised land was how to turn the bitter waters into sweet, or how to
turn every bad thing they endured into a good thing. We must do the same.
To
begin 2018 the right way, we need to thank the Lord for 2017 and everything
that happened to us in it—both the good and the other that will work for our
good. Every bitter thing must be turned into sweetness if we are to continue
toward our promised land, the fulfillment of the promises we’ve been given.
Every
year it seems that we look back and say that the current year was more
interesting and challenging than the previous one. As I began to say many years
ago, this will continue—meaning that every year is a greater opportunity for
the Gospel.
The Gospel is “good news.”
It is the best news the world has ever heard or ever will hear. We have been
given a hope greater than any religion or philosophy. We are now the main
purveyors of hope for the world, and soon we will be the only ones. As we see in
Isaiah 60 and other prophecies, when darkness covers the earth, the Lord’s
glory will appear on His people. As we read in verse 3 of that text, the
nations will then come to the Light. The Light will win! We must never forget
that, and we should become even more encouraged as darkness grows--we are
closer to the glory of the Lord being revealed.
My
purpose, and a main purpose of MorningStar, is to know the times and what God
is doing to prepare His people for the times. A main way we seek to help this
preparation is to prepare ourselves for the great harvest, which is already
unfolding. The main way to prepare for this is for the church to become the
pure, spotless bride that she is called to be--and that our King deserves. The
church becoming all it is called to be is a main key to the harvest. It is also
a key to the highest calling we have in this life—helping to prepare the King’s
bride.
In the last two months, I have had two of the most expansive
prophetic revelations I have had yet. Each was so expansive that I felt that a
lifetime would not be long enough to process them. I was then shown that they
are linked to the “eternal Gospel.” I always thought this was the simple Gospel being recounted for
eternity, but now I see that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so expansive that we
will be learning about it, and be perpetually fascinated by it, for eternity.
No other subject in all of creation is as interesting and expansive as that
which we are called to publish. How can we not love this job?
My prayer for you this year is that you grow “in the hope of His
calling”--that hope and vision would be a special diet for you this year, and
that you convey it to others wherever you go and through all that you publish
and distribute.
This is also my prayer for all of you doing this study. I pray
that hope and vision will be multiplied to you and that you will be contagious
with it, spreading hope and vision in the coming King wherever you go.