Behold and Inquire: God's Heart for this Season

Pastor Sarah Yao / 18 Aug 2019

What have we done with the word released over 2019? This year was decreed as a year of high favour, greater works, and harvest (see full prophetic word here). A prophetic word is an invitation for fellowship and intimacy with our King. When God releases a word, He is inviting us to know Him because He is a relationship-driven God. And this year, God is in the business of getting to know us. Receiving a prophetic word is not just about empowerment, it is about the heart of the One who empowers you.

HIGH FAVOUR

When Esther was favoured, she had access to the presence of the King. Similarly, we have been favoured and clothed with His righteousness to boldy enter into the presence of our King without fear. But what are we doing with this favour; the access you have to the inner courts of His glory? Are we just using the time to claim benefits? David said the “one thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4, NKJV).

Some of us don't know what to do with the Presence. David teaches us what to do: when we are in His presence, we are intended to gaze upon (behold) and inquire. The best way to get to know someone is to inquire: to ask questions. But with God, instead of inquiring, we often complain in His presence. When you inquire, you are inclining your ear to listen to His heart. And the King really wants you to know His heart.

He is also inviting you to behold Him. When you gaze upon the Lord, are you overwhelmed by His majesty? We cannot fathom Him or grasp His vastness, we only see glimpses of His glory, and this should bring us to a place of reverence. Behold Him with the full conviction that He cannot be fully understood. The Bible says that “…we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3: 18, NKJV). As we behold Him, we are changed by His Holy Spirit. If you have not changed, you have not yet truly seen Him.

We need to behold and inquire, and be intentional about listening to His heart.

Favour has brought us into His presence but we often remain passive in the midst of it. We need to behold and inquire, and be intentional about listening to His heart. If we don’t know the Father’s heart, we call right what is not right to God, and we resist what He is really trying to tell us because we have interpreted situations with bitterness and anger. The more we know Him, the more we see and think about things the way He does. If you don't see things the way He does, you will crush what He wants to see built.

Consider Abraham, who went from knowing God to being the father of a nation. It is all about people. God brings us into favour because He wants to touch and change people, families, communities, and ultimately a nation. If you don’t spend time beholding Him, everything remains about you. At this level, you cannot hear His heart about individuals around you or the community. God is in the business of transforming hearts and nations: He doesn’t give up on people. Change is not according to your works and you abilities but rather about His heart. And His heart is for the nations. Just like Abraham, it is just as much about our intimate relationship with the Father as it is about changing nations. Abraham had to know God, have faith, obey Him, and God tested Him. Remember that God will pursue and test whether or not you heard Him properly.

GREATER WORKS

When you behold and inquire, you realize that greater works always comes after the chaos. The Bible teaches us this. So when the Lord announces greater works, He is also warning us of turmoil. Many of us have been complaining about the choas, instead of being the answer to it. The chaos is there for us to perform the greater works: we are supposed to intervene. But some become so inflated with anger about their difficulties, that they don't see God or inquire after His heart about the situation.

When the Lord announces greater works, He is also warning us of turmoil.

Dunamis power (Acts 1:8) transforms chaos into the order of the kingdom, and God gave this power to us. You possess the power to cause change. Everything that has happened so far this year, has been a set-up from God to perform the greater works that He planned for you to perform. You have received dunamis power in yourself to effect change in your family, community, and nation. So why are you murmuring? Every time we murmur, we are not doing greater works. Every time we point fingers, we become the problem instead of the solution. What are we doing with this power the Lord has given us?

Change starts with you entering the inner courts of the King, knowing who God is. Then He will do the greater works in you. When you sit at His feet, He will pour His righteousness upon you, slowly develop His character in you, and change you from the inside out. We already inherited the nature of God when we were born again, but we must allow Him to renew our mind. This cannot happen unless we sit in His presence with His word. The Word is like seed sown by the Lord: you don’t know when it will rise up but you need to sit in His presence and allow the Holy Spirit to water you until one day things suddenly change. You don't force the change God wants to see in your life; no one can change himself. But as you surrender to Him, allowing His zoë life to flow in you, He starts performing His greater works in you. 

Being a disciple requires uncompromising discipline, sacrifice, and obedience. You must count the cost before you follow this path, because it requires you to pick up your cross and follow Him no matter what. The discipline to choose to row against the current of the world, feeding yourself in His presence and Word, instead of feasting on worldly things. It is the daily choice to crucify the flesh. After you have received Christ, this becomes a daily choice, a daily walk that requires daily bread. The Holy Spirit is your helper, He will never give up on you and always help you (John 14:26, AMP) no matter how many times you stumble. But it is a choice that you need to make every single day. God will always do the greater works in you, before He can do them through you.

HARVEST

Every time you resist evil and stand for righteousness, you gain ground for the kingdom. When you demonstrate God’s holiness and peace, and you reveal the greater works within you, then comes the harvest. Harvest in this sense can be interpreted in a few ways:

• Producing the fruit of righteousness: because you dwell in the house of the Lord, and do greater works, you become a delicious tree bearing glorious fruit.
• The harvest of souls: when the fruit of your life is sweet to the world, they will want what you have. They will be drawn to you. If you lose your flavour, though, the world becomes more tasty in comparison. 
• Revival: transformation of the Free State and South Africa. This is the real harvest: the transformation of a community. We must continue to pray until we see this harvest.

This is the heart of God for this year, but some of us have been distracted by our circumstances instead of sitting in the Lord’s presence. Every situation you've encountered up to this point, has not meant to serve as a distraction, but rather an opportunity to display His greater works with His dunamis power. We cannot continue murmuring and expect the enemy to stop attacking; that is not scriptural. We need to take up our positions of authority and stand. Satan will not stop, the world is going to get darker and darker, but the light within us needs to shine brighter. 

To bring the kingdom down to earth, we need to “come up” (Revelations 4:1). To do this, we must behold and inquire. The year is not over yet! It is time for us to rise up and act upon the Lord’s invitation to experience high favour, greater works, and harvest.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 'You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven' "(Matthew, 5:13-16, NKJV).