5776 / 2016 – The Year Of The Righteous Roar
Before we go any further I want to say what the righteous roar is not and what it is.
It’s not about being weird, or spooky, or scary, and it’s not about being super-spiritual and cookie, or flaky and chari-mystic.
It is about allowing the strength that has been deposited in our spirit to manifest in us and through us, and it is about drawing on our connection with heaven and all of heaven’s limitless resources. And it most definitely is supernatural.
Around the middle of 2015 I heard the Lord say that it was time to move the church from the attitude of passive acceptance and restore the attitude of active and aggressive expectancy.
Later in the year, when the Lord began speaking to me about this being the year of the righteous roar he began emphasising to me the need to restore people to his created order of spirit, soul, and body, and so for the past three months I have been re-teaching on this in our local congregation.
Man is a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body. When man fell he moved from his spirit to his soul and then he sinned. The soul’s default position is passive acceptance, but the default position of the spirit is active and aggressive expectancy.
The soul responds to adversity and trouble with a whimper, but the spirit responds with a growl. Our body just follows whoever is giving the orders. For example, if our body communicates pain it then waits for a response. If the response is from the soul with passive acceptance then our body reacts accordingly. This can, at best, slow down our body’s ability to deal with any attack, or at worst, short-circuit that ability and lead to long-term sickness or even premature death. However, if our spirit responds there is a connection maintained with heaven’s supernatural resources that flows through our soul into our body and results in an active resistance of the symptoms and results in a manifestation of healing and the fullness of health that is our birthright.
Proverbs 18: 14
The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear
Proverbs 28: 1
1….the righteous are bold as a lion
The righteous roar arises from our identity as the children of God, as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and the security we have as a result of our Father’s unconditional love.
Romans 5: 1 – 2, 5
1 Therefore, since we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
2 Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace (state of God’s favor) in which we [firmly and safely] stand. And let us rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God…….
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Passive acceptance almost always leads to disappointment, but active and aggressive expectancy that is charged with hope through the knowledge that we are loved with a love that never fails will cause us to never be disappointed again.
The love of God that is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit is not just to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It is the love that we are equipped with to express towards others, and that charges us with hope that manifests in active and aggressive expectancy to see the impossible situations that they face turned around.
This supernatural, unconditional love of God flows to our spirit and so that is why we must maintain God’s order in our lives and always ensure that we are not slipping back into relying upon the insufficient resources of our soul to maintain our expression of this love.
If we are going to maintain our effectiveness in reaching the people that God loves so much then we must maintain our love for the same people he loves, no matter how awkward they are, or how much grief they give us, or even how much they resist us and the message we proclaim. After all, Jesus didn’t just say that we should just love our friends and family – he said we should love our enemies.
Many years ago the Lord said to me that if you can’t reach people with love then they cannot be reached. In other words, don’t resort to any other methods such as legalistic intimidation or fear-mongering. Just because they can’t be reached by love today doesn’t mean that things might not be different tomorrow. We are responsible to keep the love switched on.
Only the revelation and supply of his love will keep our faith activated, energised, expressed, and working.
Galatians 5: 6 (Amplified)
6 For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.
There is no religious substitute for love. That’s the bottom line, because only love never fails, quits, or gives up.
All through the gospels we see Jesus ministering from the resource of this supernatural unconditional love. In John 11 we see Jesus setting the precedent in the face of the ultimate human affliction. He entered the village of Bethany to be greeted with the tragic news that his friend Lazarus was already dead and buried.
The whole village was in mourning under the paralysing effects of passive acceptance. But Jesus refused to accept the status quo and come under what was impacting everyone else.
What kept him over it? The key is in verse 5.
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus
Love is what kept Jesus moving forward in an attitude of active and aggressive expectancy. Twice it says that Jesus groaned in the spirit. In the Amplified version it expands that. It says that he groaned in the spirit to the point of anger at the sorrow caused by death.
I believe that groan was like a low growl that continued to grow in intensity as he kept moving forward to the grave of Lazarus where he released a righteous roar.
43…He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go.”
The reality is that following Jesus’ sacrificial death, the good news of the kingdom was first preached by two women who couldn’t just walk away from Jesus’ grave and call it quits. What motivated them? Love that believes all things, love that always hopes, love that never fails, love that never gives up.
That love kept them out from under the death grip of passive acceptance, and caused them to continue moving forward in active and aggressive expectancy.
As a glorious result the kingdom age was born with the bold proclamation, “HE IS RISEN!” You don’t get any more supernatural than that!
In September 2015, before Rosh Hashanah and the beginning of the Hebrew year 5776 the Lord gave me this prophetic proclamation for 5776 / 2016 as “The Year Of The Righteous Roar”.
All Hebrew numbers also have an associated alphabet number and a pictograph drawing which have prophetic meanings.
The years within the 5700’s relate to the meaning “May it be the year of.” The last two numbers of the 5700’s represent the decade and the year. The decade of the 5770’s are the Hebrew letter “Ayin” which means “to see”. And so, in our calendar, 2010 – 2019 is the decade of the “Ayin” years and is about seeing visions, restoring sight, and renewing perspective. It makes sense therefore that this decade ends in 2020 which is associated with perfect vision.
The number corresponding to 2015, the number 5 is the Hebrew letter “Heh”. The letter “Heh” means “to behold (see) as through a window”. “Heh” is also connected with the word “breath” because the pictograph is of a man with his arms raised and praising God. “God breathes, so I breathe.”
The number of the letter “Heh” – 5 – also speaks of expression and revelation. It is like, “God says, so I see”.
The letter “Vav” is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and has the numeric value of six. The pictograph for “Vav” looks like a tent peg. The meaning of the word “Vav” is “hook”, like a connecting hook used when the tabernacle was assembled.
“Vav”, like “Heh” is present in the covenant name of God – Yod Heh Vav Heh. Six is the number of a man, and so the letter “Vav” carries the meaning of joining or connecting God with man, and heaven with earth.
As I was studying and meditating on this I could sense an excitement growing within me, because a Scripture that has really gripped me and impacted on my understanding over the past few years is:
1 Corinthians 6: 17
17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
If you remember, back in September there was a lot of doomsaying going on from various sections of the church surrounding the fourth blood moon. My spirit didn’t sit comfortably with all of the negativity and so I decided to have a wee five minute look online to see what was being said about this new year 5776 from a Hebrew perspective.
I found the following posted by a Jewish Rabbi with no “prophetic” agendas:
The Hebrew for 6 is the letter “vav”. For those who know a little Hebrew, you know that this letter, in Biblical Hebrew, can change tenses and meanings. It is a letter that signifies change and transition. It is often translated as “and”, implying movement.
What are the letters telling us? That this new year of 5776, for us, can be a year of evolving insight, a greater awareness of the spiritual in our life and a year that, if we but allow ourselves to “see”, a year of growth and transition.
The letters tell us that we are open to a new year of spiritual awareness, insight, growth and transition. If we only are able to open our eyes and see it. Not a bad forecast.
I like that. How much of what gets done depends on a good forecast? A bad forecast can shut down or limit activity and productivity.
I believe that now, as we are transitioning from 5775 and “The Year Of Great Change” to 5776 – “The Year Of The Righteous Roar” – a year that is to be a time of transition and growth and renewed spiritual awareness, that we must move and transition from passive acceptance to active and aggressive expectancy in every area and aspect of life.
Remember, the year 5775 was a palindrome, a year of renewing our WOW – our sense of awe and wonder – in the presence of our heavenly ABBA, and supercharging our faith to experience great change in his presence.
I know that some folks scoff when they hear prophetic people talk about the significance of the numbers in the Hebrew year etc, but did you know that the year 2015 was also the last binary palindrome (11111011111) year until 2047? Coincidence or God-incidence? Your answer might just affect your ability to see and experience all that Abba has planned for you. And in case you’re wondering, it’s all good! There is a good forecast!
At the end of September I took a trip to the USA as an opportunity to have some time before the Lord and hearing from regarding our direction for the coming year. While in Tennessee I attended a meeting in Chattanooga. There were two sessions (morning and evening) and it felt like it was a real Divine appointment and opportunity for refreshment. During a worship time in that meeting I asked the Lord for a specific word in regard to our direction as a church.
I believe that the Lord confirmed to me that the message we are proclaiming is directly from his heart and we are to continue to proclaim it boldly. He also said that there were two things that we were to restore to the spirit of active and aggressive expectancy – prayer and praise.
Revelation 5: 8 – 9
8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation 10 and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.”
Spirit prayer and praise are the incense that arises into heaven, that keep us connected with our divine destiny, which is to see our Father’s kingdom come and his will done on earth as it is in heaven.
When I began to seek the Lord regarding this year’s prophetic declaration as being “The Year of the Righteous Roar” and his instruction to restore spirit prayer and praise I discovered something about the ingredients that the Lord gave to Moses for the incense that was to be used in the tabernacle.
The incense consisted of an equal mixture of four spices – stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense – and the formula was never to be deviated from or to be duplicated for private use.
One of the ingredients listed – onycha – is a Greek word that apparently leaves a major uncertainty as to what this ingredient actually was. However, the original Hebrew word for this ingredient of the holy incense is the word shecheleth, which means, wait for it, “to roar as a lion”.
When I first read that I felt like I had fireworks going off in my spirit. I believe that the righteous roar has been the missing or substituted ingredient in the prayer and praise of God’s children. I believe that it is the righteous roar that we are responsible to restore to our prayer and our praise.
Sometimes in the church there can be a relapse into a “que sera sera,” “whatever will be will be” attitude towards prayer and praise where there is passive acceptance of circumstances and situations that affects the prayers that are prayed and the songs that are sung.
Passive acceptance produces experience-based prayers and songs, but active and aggressive expectancy produces word of faith-based prayers and songs. There can be a vast difference. Many times over the years I have struggled to say amen to a prayer or while singing a song I have felt the growl in my spirit and had to change the words before I could sing it.
Religious sounding words and a nice tune don’t necessarily constitute the true spirit prayer and praise that are powerful for producing great change.
Jesus refused to receive the news of Lazarus’ death as bad news, because he was anointed to preach good news and to announce everything that is positive. He came with good news that reversed the bad news and stripped it of its power.
We have become too accustomed to receiving bad news with passive acceptance. There is a lot of bad news coming at us these days, and a lot of it is coming from the church, and from those we love. We can either receive it with passive acceptance or counter it with active and aggressive expectancy to experience that which is good.
We can choose to be wise and excellent in regard to what is good and innocent of evil because the God of peace who has sanctified us and set us apart as his children, spirit, soul, and body, is about to crush satan underneath our feet.
We have the same anointing as Jesus. We are anointed to preach and proclaim good news. This is still the day of the Lord’s favour, the day when his free favours profusely abound, even to the point of extravagant excess.
When I hear reports of bad news and I see and hear people’s responses from a place of passive acceptance I get a groaning in my spirit. It’s like a low growl. I’ve had it for years. It’s not directed against people, it’s against the spread of death.
Jesus said that he had come so that they – the people he loves and that he came to save – might have and enjoy life in all of its fullness. And so I want that groan, that low growl, to develop and become a righteous roar that overturns every bad report and restores the life that Jesus came to give – superabundant, excessive, overflowing, surplus, over and above, more than enough, profuse, extraordinary, above the ordinary, more than sufficient – perissos – life. A life of carefree superabundance.
The soul responds to adversity and trouble with a whimper, but the spirit responds with a growl. Our body just follows whoever is giving the orders. We were born again with that growl. The author of a new secular study entitled, would you believe, “Born to Roar,” says:
“When lions roar loudly and deeply – terrifying every creature within earshot – they are somewhat like human babies crying for attention, although their voices are much deeper.”
“Roaring is similar to what a baby sounds like when it cries…..in some ways, the lion is a large replica of a crying baby, loud and noisy, but at very low pitch.”
“A baby cries to have people come to help it. The lion uses similar attention-getting sound, but mainly to say, ‘I am here, this is my territory, get out of here.”
I love that kind of stuff. We were born again with the cry, “Abba, Father” in our spirit to connect us to heaven and the reality that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, healed, and delivered – protected and provided for.
The more we release that righteous roar the more the enemy gets the message that we know our territory, that we know what belongs to us as the children of God, and that he better get out of here!
James 4: 7
7 Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
Grrr. Anyone feel that low growl down on the inside of you? Let it become a righteous roar that drives out the powerlessness of passive acceptance and releases spirit life in you, your family, your home, your church, your community, your nation, and all the nations of the earth.
This is a time to advance. Every day we enter places where the people are locked into passive acceptance in regards to the spirit of death in all of it’s ugly manifestation and negative and destructive effects. Will we come into these situations armed with active and aggressive expectancy that charges the atmosphere with hope and sets the captives free?
I came across this prophetic word for 2016 through Dr. Jerry Savelle which I believe dovetails pretty well with the prophetic declaration given to us.
Word of the Lord for 2016
“Extraordinary things are taking place in the heavenliness and 2016 will come to be known as “The Year of the Great Breaking Loose”. More and more notable miracles will break loose in the earth. More and more signs and wonders. More and more angelic visitations. More and more instant hearings. More and more deliverances from demonic activity. And more and more finances will break loose, so my people can do more for the kingdom of God,” says the Lord.
“During this time of the great breaking loose, the enemy will no longer be able to hold back that which my faithful ones have stood in faith for – not even the things that looked as though they would never come to pass. For I will cause them to break loose and to suddenly manifest and to do so in such a way that no one will be able to deny the greatness of our God!”
“Yes, 2016 will be a year in which the faithful shall be rewarded beyond their highest expectations and they shall abound in my blessings as never before!”
Remember, the pictograph for the number 6 is a hook, a tent peg, reminding us that heaven is connected with the earth and our spirit is connected with God’s Spirit, reminding us that our Father’s perfect will can be done on earth as it has been promised and provided for in heaven.
As I was meditating on all of these things the Holy Spirit reminded me of this Scripture from Isaiah. Listen to it from The Message translation.
Isaiah 54: 1 – 6 (The Message)
1-6 “Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby. Fill the air with song, you who’ve never experienced childbirth! You’re ending up with far more children than all those childbearing women.” God says so! “Clear lots of ground for your tents! Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big! Use plenty of rope, drive the tent pegs deep. You’re going to need lots of elbow room for your growing family. You’re going to take over whole nations; you’re going to resettle abandoned cities. Don’t be afraid – you’re not going to be embarrassed. Don’t hold back – you’re not going to come up short. You’ll forget all about the humiliations of your youth, and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory. For your Maker is your bridegroom, his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, known as God of the whole earth. You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief, and God welcomed you back, like a woman married young and then left,” says your God.
It is time to release the righteous roar that terrorises the powers of darkness and brings release to those who are bound by the spirit of death.
As I said, It’s not about being weird, or spooky, or scary, and it’s not about being super-spiritual and cookie, or flaky and chari-mystic.
But it is about allowing the strength that has been deposited in our spirit to manifest in us and through us, it is about drawing on our connection with heaven and all of heaven’s limitless resources, and it most definitely is supernatural.
As Jesus said at the tomb of Lazarus, “Loose him, and let him go….”
Grrr….
5776 / 2016 – “The Year Of The Righteous Roar”