The Lord is so faithful in so many ways!
One of the remarkable ways in which the Lord sometimes speaks to us is by pulling the curtains a little open to the future so that we can see something of it in advance.
Thus, in 2010, the Lord showed me the following in a prophetic word about “shalom” in 2026 and the following years:
During His ministry on earth, Jesus used stories of real events and things so many times to tell us something prophetic about His Father and His will. So today I want to tell such a story to tell what the Lord is busy with in His Ekklesia and in the world.
Wolfgang Simson tells in his book, THE STARFISH MANIFESTO, of the following real events. He was busy talking with world leaders about what was happening in the Body of Jesus. How thousands of people say “yes” to Jesus Christ anew or for the first time, but “no” to many existing parts of the visible church around them.
While he was talking about this, someone gave him a note that the Lord told him to tell about what happened one day on a beach on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. He then began to tell about this little boy who was playing with a mosquito net in the water.
Then something almost supernatural happened unexpectedly. Thousands of small fish suddenly became entangled in the mosquito net, the same kind that the Filipinos on that island usually fried and ate with garlic rice for dinner.
People rushed over and started scooping up the fish with buckets. Later, every available container and crate was full of fish! They then started to throw some of the fish into a fishing boat of almost eight meters that was lying there on the beach. Later, this was also full to overflowing! The villagers ran up and down the streets in jubilation as they took buckets of the fish home.
After Wolfgang told his story, a woman stood up and tearfully told of a dream she had had repeatedly lately. She told how in the dream she was distributing mosquito nets to women in Tanzania. In the dream, she heard God’s Spirit say to her: A man from Germany (Wolfgang Simson is German) will tell you a story that will help you understand the dream.
Suddenly, everyone in the meeting experienced how God’s Spirit was showing them what was happening all over the world. How God is busy with a spiritual awakening and conversions that are turning thousands of lives around.
What is touching is that most of the time it happens half-unexpectedly, in the strangest ways and places, and that He usually uses people you wouldn’t expect.
The Lord then reminded them of Jesus’ words in Luke 10:2: “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord, to whom the harvest belongs, to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Someone then stood up in the assembly and said that the Lord reminded him of a fable by the Brothers Grimm that told of a dragon that made life hell for the inhabitants of a certain country. The king of the country then announced that he would give half of his kingdom to the man or woman who would get rid of this dragon.
The person telling the story then turned to a man behind him in the audience and said to him: You have promised the Lord so many times that you are willing to give half of your business profits if only it would let His kingdom come. It is now time for you and others around you to start doing what you promised. Let God show you who the people are to whom you need to give financially, so that they can go and distribute mosquito nets of all kinds that God wants to use to catch fish.
The man to whom the prophetic word was given then began to cry and said that he was a businessman and chairman of his country's Christian business action.
Can I make a few closing remarks? I don't know if you know, but currently, it is calculated that almost 75 percent of all new conversions worldwide take place outside the normal, structured church and congregational meetings and programs. This is currently happening in the "strangest" places and among people where we would never have expected it years ago.
God's Spirit is working through what I like to call the "ekklesia in simplicity". It is ordinary where believers in all humility do their everyday work and things because they have experienced that this is what God has told them to do. In the process, they then experience how the Lord uses it to touch and turn around the lives around them.
I want to challenge you: If you truly believe and seek how God's kingdom and will can come where you are, then just do what God asks you to do!
Perhaps you are also one of those who, as part of this, must choose to give a portion of all that you have, and all that God gives you through the business or through farming, so that His kingdom may come.
Remember 2 Cor. 9:6 to 11: “Remember this: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God can make all things abundantly available to you, so that in all things, always having all that you need, you may have all you need for every good work. As it is written, ‘He has distributed to the poor and has given generously.’
And God, who supplies seed for sowing and bread for eating, will also supply and increase your seed for sowing and increase your generosity. He makes you rich in everything, always making you generous in all things, so that you may have all you need for every good work.”