The Jubilee season is a prophetic season to proclaim liberty from all the things that have kept us in bondage spiritually, mentally, materially and financially. It is a door in the realm of the spirit to start again. As the church in the nation, we must possess the spiritual gates of the season to ensure that we do not enter another spiral of bondage and wandering around.
Like the water surfer who waits and times the incoming wave to ride it onshore, the church needs to position itself and help the nation to do the same in order to ride the spiritual wave that is coming to us from the presence of God. In doing this we will be able to get where the Originator of the wave intends it to take us. A surfer who mistimes the wave will be dragged under by the very wave that should carried him far with minimal effort on his part.
Discerning the Season:
The ability to discern the times requires prophetic sensitivity, which has often been lacking among God’s people. The prophet Jeremiah, who lived at a time of impending judgment for his nation, lamented over his people’s lack of sensitivity to the times and seasons of God.
“Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord. ( Jeremiah 8:7)
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved!” (Jeremiah 8:20)
Jesus also chided the Pharisees and Sadducees for their lack of sensitivity to the signs of their times.
He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. (Matthew 16:2,3)
We are entering a time of visitation and as we further learn from the story of the incarnation, it is possible to completely miss such a time. When Jesus was born, the custodians of the scriptures – the priests and Pharisees – were fast asleep, preoccupied with the mundane affairs of their times. In the early days of His earthly ministry, those of His hometown Nazareth, who had lived and grown with Him, almost killed Him (Luke 4:14-28). The Messiah had been in their midst for over two decades and they did not know it!
Throughout His ministry of about three years, the religious leaders actively resisted him. God was in their midst and they did not realize it! The very ones who would tell their congregations, “The Messiah is coming! The Messiah is coming!” did not recognize Him when He came and ended up killing Him!
As He concluded His ministry Jesus wept over Jerusalem:
Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)
The very people who should have known the Messianic times and seasons and who should have been at the forefront of welcoming the Messiah ended killing Him! These are sobering thoughts as we contemplate the season ahead of us.