PROPHETIC WORDS

COVID-19 – A TIME OF RESET IN PREPARATION FOR MANIFESTATION

by Lyn Packer

April 2020

The following prophetic word is given under what I believe is a Sons of Issachar anointing – that of discerning the times and seasons and declaring what the church should do, as a result of what is discerned. Obviously this word must be weighed, as all prophetic words should.

1 Chron 12:32 “…the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…”

We must look at the season we are in through these lenses; God is redemptive and everything He does under the New Covenant has redemptive purpose. His purpose is to bring life in all its fullness (John 10:10) and to make all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)

This season is part of a larger work God has been doing, so we cannot view it just in isolation. Over the past twenty or so years God has been shifting the perspective of His church away from a doom and gloom future, away from escapism, and has opened our eyes to begin to see from a true New Covenant perspective. That perspective is one of filling the earth with redemptive grace and love, of knowing our identity as beloved sons and daughters, of seeing a future full of hope (Jer 29:11-14) and much more. There isn’t time in an article like this to share all the good things He has been doing, but every bit of it has involved a change in perspective that has led to seeing, hearing the things God says, and even reading the Scriptures with new understanding.

So what is God currently doing during Covid-19 and the days surrounding it?

The world has been hit with a new strain of the Corona-virus and all over the world we are seeing this steal, kill and destroy. Entire countries are in lockdown, economies are taking a battering, and people are sick and dying.. But God is at work within this time to bring us into the days of fullness of life.

Coronavirus gets its name from the word ‘corona’ which means crown in Latin. The enemy is seeking to crown people with fear, to encircle their heads – invade and take over their thought life and to bring them under his authority. He wants the voice of fear to be the people’s prophet, to tell them their future. He wants to paint a picture of a future filled with gloom and doom, a dystopian world where it is every man, woman and child for themselves; a world where there is lack, depression of economic systems, and people under oppression from every quarter. He wants a world where the church has no voice, no place and no future.

But is that God’s plan? No!

Do not let fear tell you what your future, or the future of the world, is going to look like. These days may look bleak but remove the lenses of bleakness and fear. Look again through the lenses of faith and hope, access the mind of Christ which has been given you (1 Cor 2:16). Remember – the highest use of the gift of discernment is to discern what God is doing, or wants to do, in a situation and to co-operate with Him in releasing that into the earth. Turn your discernment toward God, and discern what He is doing and wants to do in the days ahead.

Prophets everywhere, myself included, are saying that this a time of ‘reset’ for the church. James Goll said we are in a “days of Noah” time, and yes, that was a time of great wickedness, but it was also a time of ‘reset”, a time of rebirth for the world and those who would occupy it.

In our time we aren’t looking at the destruction of mankind, we are looking at a time where the sons and daughters of God emerge from a time of being shut down with the power to reset how society will look and function.

We read in Scripture, and it’s been prophesied for years now, that the sons of God are about to be made manifest in the earth (Rom 8:19). We have been in a season of preparation for that, and from these days on we will see a ramping up of that preparation and work being done in the lives of God’s children as things are reset within us, and we begin to operate from the resets that God has done in our lives.

What are some of the resets that have been happening for people over the past season?

• Identities have been reset.

• Mind-sets have been renewed and reset.

• Understanding of the covenant we live under is being reset. We are being reset to live from the reality of our being a New Creation in Christ.

• Understanding of the access we have to the promises and provision of God has been reset.

• Understanding of the power and authority we walk in has been reset.

• Understanding of the future God has for the church, and for the world, has been changed and reset. It is a glorious future, one of promise and hope.

In the coming days we will live differently.

• We will live from the understanding that we have of our identity as sons and daughters of God.

• We will live from the righteousness and holiness that God has gifted us in Christ, instead of trying to obtain those things, therefore we will occupy the land in righteousness and holiness, not forcing our values on others, but living in a way that makes them want what we have.  

• We will live from the healing and wholeness we have obtained in Christ, and because of that we will bring healing and wholeness wherever we go.

• We will live from peace and will be bringers of peace.

• We will live from the original shared commission given to both man and woman – to have dominion over, and care for, the earth that we inhabit.

• We will live as equals – no longer with divisions and inequalities between us in any area. Paul’s admonition that there is no longer slave nor free, Jew nor gentile, male nor female will be a reality.

So what do we do now? How do we move forward as we come out of this time?

We consolidate and establish the things that have been reset in our lives. We live from those changes and alter our lifestyles accordingly. We honour and respect each other more, and we allow the Lord to continue to refine us, to reset us back to His original plan for the New Covenant and life in Christ.

I believe that as we continue to move through this time of lockdown, and then come out the other side of it, we will see an explosion of the following things –

• An explosion of praise and thanksgiving – expect your worship times together, and as individuals, to become richer and to produce a greater awareness of the presence of God.

• There will be a shift from visitation theology to habitation theology and experience – God will require us to steward His presence so that we build a habitation of God in our individual and corporate lives, not just treat Him as a Dad with visitation rights.

• There will be a release of power – expect an increase in healing, miracles, and deliverances. Expect supernatural occurrences of the display of God’s presence.

• There will be a harvest like never before – get ready for it, get your discipling resources ready (make sure that they are aligned with the New Covenant), get your people trained in how to evangelise according to who God has made them, not by trying to be someone else or do evangelism by method.

During this time God has been refocusing us on what is important. Don’t lose those things He has shown you; hold on to them and guard them, and work on establishing them in your lives. Look to see what Jesus is doing, or what He wants to do, in every situation. Look with fresh eyes to see from a glorious faith filled perspective.

BIO