Joy Alignment.  That’s the word I received from the Lord over my 2019. 

Am I full of joy at this moment?  Honestly, No. 

But that’s the thing about the prophetic, it’s the rope ladder that goes into the pit and gives us the way out.  So in everything I do for this year, whether that be events I plan, ministering to people, or how I spend my free time, I am to make sure joy is attached to it.  Because as I do, that word out in the future will prophesy into my present – even if joy in that moment isn’t felt. 

My husband and I lead a church together. Each month, I will host a regional prophetic training and the training theme I chose for this January is Joy Alignment — because I want to make space for what the Lord has spoken and as I honor it, He not only brings it about in me but in others as well. 

Vulnerable confession here…December and January have been challenging for me.  Only one week into the year and I have felt the enemy of joy, yes despair has reared its unwelcome head.  I have felt sadness.  If you’ve wrestled with this particular deep-seated rumbling within, I’m sorry. In the land of believers-ville this topic is seldom acknowledged.  It’s hidden and mysterious to a lot of people but not easily resolved by good news or a happy moment.  One can begin to carry shame when the declarations that brought others breakthrough aren’t curing your sadness. 

I think I need to insert something here, there can be a very unhealthy stigma among ministry leaders or Christians in general, one that suggests us of all people, should have a pretty good grasp on joy and if we don’t happen to have that, we should act like we do anyway.  And, most definitely don’t tell anyone you’re struggling. 

I hate masks.

The fake-it-till-you-make-it mentality will kill you from the inside out. I don’t state my struggle to edify the negative, I make it known to bring others into my breakthrough.  My testimony can become another’s miracle.

I could just ignore the word “joy” for this year because I have felt the opposite of what the Lord told me. And there have been many times when I have distanced myself from a word because of the struggle.  But my destiny is worth the struggle, so is yours.

What’s your word for this year? 

If you don’t have one, ask the Holy Spirit.  He will give you one.  And let’s refuse the feeling of needing to be an expert in the word He gives us. 

Because, h e l l o? 

What good is a word that doesn’t have the room to generate fruit in my life?  I have A LOT of space in my life for joy to germinate.  That’s exactly how God works.  He speaks something that we might have little to no faith for in the moment but we co-labor with him to see it come to fruition.

If I didn’t understand the ways of the Spirit, I would feel inadequate with sharing this word for 2019.  Outside the Spirit of God, I would feel like a counterfeit to joy.  I would feel that in order to be trusted with that word, I would already need to be a success in joy and proven my ability to perform that word.  But, that would be backwards because the Spirit doesn’t operate in natural reality.  The Spirit of God searches out the deep, (back to the rope ladder in the pit) the Spirit searches out the gold hidden deep within us and brings it out. 

But why?

Why do I always go back to a performance based mindset when God calls out the deep things over my life?  So frustrating, right?! We have a tendency to think we have to prove ourselves or perform our way into “expert” of our promise before we proclaim it over our lives. I’ve done this time and time again.  When I don’t feel worthy to share what I believe He has declared over me, it’s a place where I’m choosing law over grace. Ouch. 

He has said that I would be aligned with joy in 2019.  But the pressure is off me.  I can rest because He sees gold with the name “joy” within me.  As I agree and allow that word to grow in my life, as I fight from the mindset of victory, I’m fully expectant He will do above and beyond all He said He would. In my need, I can honestly say I am more aware than I’ve ever been before of His profound goodness. 

 I declare all fear of vulnerability, fear of man, and all shame be dissolved over your word for 2019.                                                   

Declare it and put your hope in it.  Happy New Year, friends!  I want you to take a mental and spiritual two-minute retreat and read the following passage, let it sink deep in your spirit…

”My brothers and sisters,  when I first came to proclaim to you the secrets of God, I refused to come as an expert, trying to impress you with my eloquent speech and lofty wisdom. For while I was with you I was determined to be consumed with one topic—Jesus, the crucified Messiah.  I stood before you feeling inadequate, filled with reverence for God,   and trembling under the sense of the importance of my words.  The message I preached and how I preached it was not an attempt to sway you with persuasive arguments but to prove to you the almighty power of God’s Holy Spirit. For God intended that your faith not be established on man’s wisdom but by trusting in his almighty power.

However, there is a wisdom that we continually speak of when we are among the spiritually mature.  It’s wisdom that didn’t originate in this present age, nor did it come from the rulers of this age who are in the process of being dethroned.  Instead, we continually speak of this wonderful wisdom that comes from God, hidden before now in a mystery.  It is his secret plan, destined before the ages, to bring us into glory. None of the rulers of this present world order understood it, for if they had, they never would have crucified the Lord of shining glory.  This is why the Scriptures say:

Things never discovered or heard of before
things beyond our ability to imagine–
these are the many things God has in store
for all his lovers.

But God now unveils these profound realities to us by the Spirit.  Yes, he has revealed to us his inmost heart and deepest mysteries through the Holy Spirit, who constantly explores all things. After all, who can really see into a person’s heart and know his hidden impulses except for that person’s spirit? So it is with God. His thoughts and secrets are only fully understood by his Spirit, the Spirit of God.

For we did not receive the spirit of this world system but the Spirit of God, so that we might come to understand and experience all that grace has lavished upon us. ¹And we articulate these realities with the words imparted to us by the Spirit and not with the words taught by human wisdom. We join together Spirit-revealed truths with Spirit-revealed words.   Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit.  Those who live in the Spirit are able to carefully evaluate all things, and they are subject to the scrutiny of no one but God. For Who has ever intimately known the mind of the Lord Yahweh^[u]well enough to become his counselor? Christ has, and we possess Christ’s perceptions.”

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 The Passion Translation