2023 - A year of Restoration and Glory

 A year of His Glory. 

It is the year 2023. What is God saying for 2023? It is a year of swift change. It is a year of divine turnaround. It is a year of recovery and restoration. It is a year of divine retribution and vengeance. It is a time of repair and divine judgement. I will share some of the words the Lord has been sharing with me about 2023.

 I asked God for a word for 2023 and my eyes were lead to a golden glitter bauble on my Christmas tree. God said 'Glory.' Christmas can be a time of disappointment and discouragment and yet at the same time it can be delightful and hopeful and wonderful when we focus on our Messiah, Jesus and the Christmas story and why he came; which is to save us. The Glory of God came to the shepherds who were watching their flocks by night. We read in Luke 2:9-11, "An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord." The goodness of God came in Jesus. It also came to those who were watching and caring about their flocks. I can see God at work in my house and in my family. Don't miss what God is doing by looking at what you see or don't see manifesting in the natural realm and what has not happened yet; things that you think should have happened by now. Listen, God is faithful to his promises. He is faith to his covenant and will bring his promises to you to pass. God will also do it his way and in his timing. Now is the set time. I keep seeing the phrase 'It's about time.' Truly, this is the best of times and the worst of times. Hold your peace, REST, KEEP SILENT and wait on God. In the book of Exodus, Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid! Take your stand [be firm and confident and undismayed] and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for those Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you while you [only need to] keep silent and remain calm.” (Exodus 14:13-14, AMP). Don't be dismayed, let God fight for you and do what only he can do in your life. It is going to take a miracle. It is supernatural advance. God will do what he promised. Just hold on. God is going to cut the enemy off from your life. Trust him for your miracle when your back is up against the wall financially, relationally, physically, geographically and there seems to be no way. God is going to make a way in your wilderness. You are coming out of that bondage. It's time! Freedom and deliverance is at the fore of God's mind for you, his beloved child. Trust him for household salvation, it's coming. Your loved ones are coming home to God. The favour of God is upon you. Your light has come. They are drawn to the light in you. Jesus says, "Rise up my love, my fair one,and come away." (Song of Solomon 2:10). You are His beloved one. Jesus wants to move you on, out of that stuck place. Sheep sometimes get stuck in a ditch. It could be the ditch of discouragment or despondency or disappointment. They need the Good Shepherd to help them out because they cannot help themselves out of the ditch. Rise up and steal away with Jesus. Spend quality time in prayer with Jesus for your breakthrough. Warriors are worshippers just like King David. The glory of God will shine upon you. God says pursue, and you will recover everything that was taken from you (See 1 Samuel,30:8). 

This is the time of God's favour, don't miss it. God will NOW arise and act. The appointed time has come, "You will arise and have compassion on Zion, For it is time to be gracious and show favor to her; Yes, the appointed time [the moment designated] has come." (Psalm 102:13, AMP) It is a time of open doors and the favour of God and yet it is also a time of personal discouragement and attack. Going back to the prophetic word of God, gold, prophetically symbolizes glory in the spirit realm. I have actually seen my huge guardian angel who was golden and had golden wings. When I asked God years ago, why the angel was golden, the answer came right back, he said, 'to keep you on the path of Glory.' Awesome! I was under tremendous spiritual warfare at that time, so God supplied a huge angel to guard my ways as it says in Psalm 91. I mean this angel was huge! He went through the roof. This angel is still with me! This angel protects me from demonic attacks. That is why the word that came was 'glory.' It stirred something within me. I am a seer prophet and I saw that angel out of the corner of my spiritual, right eye years ago. It was quite surreal. All fear of anything was banished. When the devil sees me he sees this huge angel and backs off! I was using my spiritual eyes and natural eyes. I was on a works training course when I worked as a care assistant for the elderly. I was growing in the prophetic anointing as a seer. I had asked God to open my eyes to see an angel. I have gone from glory to glory you might say, since then. I have certainly grown in the prophetic realm and in discernment and in the healing gifts as well as divine wisdom. So this night, on 31 December 2022, under the Christmas tree, feeling alone, God said joyously, "You will see my Glory." Glory speaks of wealth and the goodness of God. Solomon was the wealthiest king on earth when he was king of Israel. The temple was full of gold. King Solomon was known for his wisdom and his wealth. Unfortunately he was also the most foolish as he did squander his wealth by disobeying the Lord's command about multiplying and marrying heathen women. God warned him not to marry them as they would turn his heart away from worshipping his God. He disobeyed God's command and he built altars to their the foreign Gods. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. 1000 women in all. The ultimate womaniser overtaken by his lust. God says one woman is enough. There is a warning here for all of us about our character. God is looking for faithfullness and obedience and moral rectitude. You can't have a wondering eye or you are doomed for disaster. You can't have one eye on the world and one eye on God. That is called being double-minded (see James 1:8). We must be focused on God alone. He wants our worship. Consequently, God would tear the kingdom from Solomon and give it to his servant after he died. But for the sake of David his father, who served God wholeheartedly, he would leave a descendent upon the throne of David and give one tribe, Judah, (means praise) to Rehobaom his son. We need character to retain and carry the glory of God in our lives. We need a consistent prayer life. Our worship must be God's alone, not our wealth or our wisdom which comes from God anyway. God is shaking things up. 

This is a time of divine judgement, a balancing of the scales. It was a wow moment under the Christmas tree. God was beckoning me to come higher, in the spirit realm in prayer. Build an altar. Repair the altar of prayer. He will exact divine vengeance upon my enemies and the enemy of my soul (Satan). It is called divine retribution. He was harkening me to press in because his glory would visit my house. Just like the glory cloud manifested in Solomons temple and the ministers could not stand up under the weight of his Shekinah glory so will I see the glory of God in my life. God will come through. In 1 Kings We read: "so the priests could not stand [in their positions] to minister because of the cloud, for the glory and brilliance of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house (temple),"(1 Kings 8:11, AMP). Yes Lord come with that cloud of Glory over my life. I want that aloness with God. God spoke this at a time when I was feeling so desolate and lonely and dismayed. I was wondering, Lord where do I go from here? This is a year for the supernatural miracles to increase and the anointing of the Lord to flow in abundance in your life. God wants me to share it with others just like he shares it with me. I liked the fact that there was no doubt in his tone when he was speaking that word 'glory' to me, implying basically, that it will happen because I was already marked out for His Glory. God does not change his mind about me even if man does. What does the word 'glory' mean? The Greek word for 'glory' in the NT is doxa. It means glory, renown, honour, an especially divine quality. Lord, me I asked? I sensed he was watching over me, watching over his prophetic word to perform it in my life. I was reminded of the book of Haggai the prophet, who was sent to encourage the builders to finish bulding the tremple of the Lord that was in ruins. We are God's temple, God's building where his name and presence dwells. God said through the prophet Haggai to the discouraged people of Judah, "I am with you, declares the Lord." (Haggai 1:13). The book of Haggai says that they 'obeyed the voice of the Lord' and God stirred up their spirits to complete the building work on the temple of the Lord. We need that encourgaement from God that he is with us.God was urging them to complete the job. Finish building. God is going to finish what he started in your life. God is the master builder, our healer. Whatever seems like it is in ruins, if God is with you it will be restored. Now what is interesting, is that 23 days after this prohecy was given by Haggai to the people of Judah, the work resumed. He never takes his hand off his work, or the wheel of my life. He is doing the driving so to speak. On that note, I was lead to read Psalm 23 and he reminded me that the Lord is my Shepherd who guides and cares for me; he will restore. I shall recover all that the enemy stole. We need to declare these promised everyday of this year. Meditate on Psalm 23 every day for the whole of this year and you will encounter the Good Shepherd and his loving care and provision in supernatural ways you never thought possible. He is calling us into a deeper intimacy with himself as the Good Shepherd who graciously provides his tender, loving care with his sheep. With Jesus as our Lord we will have no lack. The Psalmist tells us: The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], (Psalm 23:1, AMP) I shall not want. We will be provided for by God despite this world's worsening economic climate. 

I was also led to read Isaiah 23 about the destruction of the city of Tyre, a busy seaport famous for trading. It is about God's judgement of this bustling city's worldly riches that tempts her neighbours with it's wealth, including God's people. God would punish ther pride and bring a holy destruction on this jolly seaport of Tyre. God would be the author of it's destruction with all it's pomp and magistrates. They were merchants, traders and businessmen. God would silence their pride in their wealth. Isaiah also happens to be the 23rd book of the bible. 

God also led me to read Jeremiah 23:1, and he says, "Woe to shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture." God cares about his flock. False Shepherds will be exposed and removed and the true Shepherds will be revealed. God is calling and anointing Pastors to step into their calling. I feel my self the call to rise up in this pastoral role. I asked God to lead me beside still waters just like Psalm 23 says. Here is where we rest and are restored. We must rest in 2023, in the quietness and beside quiet waters to hear God speak and what he wants to do through you. We must go deeper in intimacy with God to experience his Glory in our lives. A predominant theme from prophets and pastors in the body of Christ is that it is a year of Psalm 23 and an increased anointing and a new outpouring of oil from heaven in response to the prayers of the saints. Supernatural interventions and healings and miracles. I would agree. Joshua Mills who already walks in supernatural realms of God's glory talks of a night vision he had from God of the outpouring of oil which was in response to the bowls of incense of the prayers of the saints. In Revelation 5:8 we read:

"And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people."

Your prayers are about to be answered for those loved ones. A divine intervention. Salvation is coming to your household. Just like Psalm 23:5 says, he anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows. David says, "You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."

Therefore, this is also the year of abundance where your vats will be full and there will be no lack. You will have more than enough. This is God's supernatural provision, not your get rich quick money making schemes like bitcoin. There will be a new outpouring of his anointing oil and increase in the miraculous I believe. 

Do you want to go higher with God? Therefore it is a year of consecration as we go to the secret place of prayer. Paula White points out in her sermon on New Years Eve, that the year 2023 is a new era (that is the end of 7 years from 2015 till 2022) and is now a year of judgement and divine vengeance and a year where God takes action. God is bringing reformation and righting wrongs. Evil will be repayed. Wickedness will be exposed in leaders within church and in society. The breach will be repaired. The curse will be broken. God will bring an end to that longstanding issue. That sickness, that marriage, that addiction. That captivity will be broken and you will be freed this year in 2023. Just like Psalm 23 says, we will know the Lord as our Shepherd in a deeper way. God is calling us into a deeper intimacy. A deeper consecration. People will flock to those who know the true Shepherd of our souls (Jesus) and submit to his leadership. People will flock to the true, consecrated church. A holy people where God's glory is manifested in their midst.  

 

Finally, this year 2023 will also be a year of shaking just like the prophet Haggai spoke of to the people of God. God says,

"I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord Almighty." (Haggai 2:7). When 

glory comes a shaking comes. As I finish writing this, Turkey was hit by three mega earthquakes in this month of February 2023. Total devastation in Turkey and Syria. Amidst the devastation life emerges from the rubble. Even a new born baby girl was rescued in Syria still attached her mother. She is a miracle baby. Unfortunately the mother died. The earthquake is part of the birth pangs Jesus says in Matthew 24:8, "All these are the beginning of birth-pains."

Before the coming of the Lord, the King of glory. God is bringing new life out of the devastation that the enemy has brought about in your life. In the middle of devestation such as the earthquake in Turkey or your own personal devastation, sometimes we do not know what to pray but we can pray with the holy spirit who groans and intercedes through us. Romans 8 tells us that the whole creation is groaning. Paul the apostle writes, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." Our world is broken and we see this devastation in reality in Turkey and Syria. We grieve and pray with the holy spirit in intercessory prayer. We weep and lament with them. God will bring life out of the devastation. The Spirit who groans and intercedes within us as Christians brings life out of devastation wih our groanings in the spirit. Deliverance in the devestation. I am so warmed in my heart when they pull people out of the rubble. There is hope. The people think that this is God's doing. It is not, it is the earth groaning because the earth has been subjected to frustration in hope by God to be eventually free from it's bondage to sin and decay. Tectonic plates collided. God is at work, he is building in the midst a house full of of His glory in the midst of chaos. God will bring order out of the chaos. His message to to his people through the Prophet Haggai was and is encouragement to keep building, keep going. God says,"Be strong, all you people of the land," declares the Lord "and work. I am with you." (Haggai 2:4, NIVUK).  

This is the year of your deliverance.

Sharon Heffron