From Declaration to Demonstration

Several months ago, around the spring of 2013, the Lord began speaking to me about the fall/winter season of 2013 going into 2014. The word I kept hearing repeated to me was the word “shift.” The Lord began revealing to me that he is placing his people into a transition that is shifting everything into an alignment of prophecy. This is obviously not a normal transition. It is not a steppingstone like prior transitions that will build upon another transition after another transition. This is a SHIFT, to transition us into an age of fulfilled promises. I believe that we are coming out of foundational transitions and into a transition of fulfillment. The Lord explained it to me in this way: Many have been declaring the word of the Lord for many years to inform people that God is sending and end time revival and stirring another Great Awakening to prepare the way for the Lord’s return. Many have been prophesying an outpouring from Heaven where we will see miracles, signs, wonders, and mass salvations accompanied with the baptism of the Holy Ghost in a magnitude that we have never witnessed before. We have been in a waiting season and have gone through many transitions and hardships to get to this point in life where we are today. The good news is that this waiting process has come to an end. The Lord showed me that we are coming OUT of the season of declaration and are going INTO the season of demonstration. This means that everything that God has said he was going to do, he is about to do it! We are believing the word of the Lord (his declaration) and are stepping into the fulfillment of his promises by the evidence of God’s supernatural manifestations!

The Lord also gave me a picture of what this transition and shift will look like through the Israelites crossing the Red Sea paralleled to them crossing the Jordan River. Before any transition that we enter into, we have to make up our minds that we are going to go where the glory of God goes. Exodus 13: 21, 22 says, “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people” (NKJV). Our anthem going into this shift must be that we are going to follow the pillar of cloud and fire (the glory of God) no matter where he leads us, how much it costs, who stands against us, or who chooses to quit around us. Everything that we do MUST be about God’s glory and Presence because without him we cannot do anything, but with him all things are possible! It is time for the people of God to get aggressive about being in the Presence of God!

While in the wilderness, many of the Israelites cried out and complained that they were going to die in the desert and that going back to Egypt would have been better for them (Ex. 14:12). What they did not realize was that right when they wanted to retreat back into slavery, their breakthrough was right before them. With this shift into 2014, there is no going back to Egypt and the waiting process. There is only the pressing forward into more glory after more glory! After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they immediately entered into the wilderness, but what is interesting is that this is exactly where the Lord led them. The reason why the crossing of the Red Sea is a picture of the many foundational transitions that we have faced in life is because each transition took us into the position of the wilderness that would require yet another miraculous transition. How many of you can testify that even in the wilderness that God never left you or forsook you? Even while the Israelites were in the desert, God miraculously provided manna and quail, brought water from a rock, and spoke to the people through the giving of the Law and Ten Commandments. Even in the wilderness God still provides and speaks to us! Think of it this way: the wilderness causes us to either want to quit or to chase after God so desperately because we know he is our only means of survival. The wilderness transitions have been used to build your faith and intimacy with the Father. You could not have survived these past transitions without the miraculous hand of the Lord and by drawing deeper into His Presence.

Every transition in your life prior to today was God using it as a foundation for you to trust him to do even greater things in the future. Although God does miracles in the wilderness, do not get comfortable in that land because it is not the Promised Land. Everything that God has done for you in the past was a foundation in order to shift you into the Promised Land. Here is what the Lord showed me in the picture of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea versus them crossing the Jordan River. The way in which they crossed the Red Sea was by Moses lifting up his rod and stretching his hand towards the water (Exodus 14:16), but the way in which they crossed the Jordan was by following the Ark of the Covenant (Joshua 3:14). This distinction is the reason why we are stepping out of the season of declaration and into the season of demonstration. The Ark of the Covenant contained the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s budded staff, and a jar of manna. The Ten Commandments are the words of the Lord, correct? They are God’s instructions for holy living. They are the promises of the word of the Lord. It was the word of the Lord that went before the people of Israel that led them into the Promised Land. It was God’s promises that paved the way for them to into the fulfillment of his promises! Not only did the written word of God go before the people, but the literal Word of God went before them because it was between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant (Mercy Seat) where the glory of God dwelt! This is exactly where the church is right now in this pivotal shift. We have crossed into the time of fulfilled promises because God’s promises and God himself became our vehicle of transportation.

You may be asking yourself, “How do I step into this shift?” The answer is found in Joshua 3:6, “And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” The Lord told me, “In order to be shifted, you have to be sifted.” God is simply looking for people who are hungry enough for his Presence that they will not be chasing after the things of this world. He is looking for people who are willing to live in holiness and to truly bear the cross of Jesus. It was after the people sanctified themselves that they crossed the Jordan. This is exactly where we are right now in the Kingdom. We have now crossed over, but what is the next step? The first thing the Israelites did when they crossed was worship the Lord by building an altar for him (Joshua 4:3). What is our altar? Our lives are the living sacrifices unto God. The next step that the Israelites took was that they circumcised the next generation (Joshua 5:3). I believe that this is a picture that God is raising up new leadership in the church who are sanctified, Holy Ghost filled, new wineskin vessels of the Lord. They carry the fires of awakening and will do whatever it takes to see nations burn for God!

The last step into your inheritance is found in obedience. The people sanctified themselves, made an altar to the Lord, and set apart new leadership. Now, it is time to take back the land out of the hands of the enemy. No land, territory, or thing belongs to the enemy. The earth is the Lord’s and everything that is in it! When the Israelites looked to the Promised Land they saw the stronghold of the walls of Jericho, but that did not stop God did it? Some of you are looking at impossible situations in impossible territories, but we serve the God of the Impossible! When Joshua saw the walls of Jericho lying before him, he did not run away in fear. He stood in faith with the Commander of the army of the Lord (Joshua 6:14). Do you not know that the Lord fights our battles? If they glory of God has taken you over the Jordan, will his glory not also take out your enemies? The reason why the walls of Jericho fell was because the new leadership sanctified themselves and obeyed the word of the Lord. They went where God told them to go and did what God told them to do when God told them to do it. Out of their obedience, God showed up. Obedience to the word of the Lord is the means in which the anointing and glory of God is released over his people.

Whatever state or country in which you are reading this letter, know that God is wanting to use YOU to shake your nation through the fires of awakening! God is about to accelerate his people into new leadership and accelerate them into the time of fulfillment. What would take years to accomplish, God will do quickly. What would be impossible to do, God will make it happen! Do you feel the yearning in the Spirit of the Lord that the King of Kings is coming soon? It is time prepare the way for the return of the Lord through the Greatest Awakening.

Your Brother in Christ and Fellow Soldier in the Greatest Awakening,

Daniel Bodkin

www.DanielBodkin.com