From the War Room to the Store Room [Day 2]

By Pastor Amreitha Jeeva

“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” (Isaiah 58:8-9 NIV)

In January of this year, I shared a prophetic word with our church I read from a Christian leader at another church. It was a word of encouragement given in a prophetic nature. It was not Scripture; although when I read it, I felt the Lord take me directly to Isaiah 58:8. Whenever I hear or read a  “word from the Lord,” I always make sure it can be backed with Scripture. 

In the midst of trying to push myself to set goals for the new year, I came upon this word and it filled me. It filled me with life and hope. I set down my goal writing, and I just allowed these words and the Scripture in Isaiah to wash over me. 

Here is a part of the word of encouragement:

“You are leaving your war room, your weeping room, and your crushing room for a new place I am calling you to where you won’t have to continually fight and battle for bare minimum. The war room season of fighting for survival is coming to end and you are coming into your establishing season where you will see just what your worship and surrender accomplished. You are going to be amazed at what your dark nights produced – a greater authority, an increased anointing, and the keys to unlock doors for those stuck like you were.

“Soon you will see the fruit of this season of waiting, warring, worship as it manifests explosively in your family, marriage, relationships, finances, health, and destiny in the days to come. You are going from the war-room to the store-room where you will open the door to a realm of access in MY kingdom you didn’t even know you had. You will see that I didn’t waste a moment of this past season and only caused it to store up blessing for you in ways you never imagined possible.

“Out if you is going to ERUPT such a song of breakthrough that will be such a weapon for you and others because it was forged in the dark when you had to worship your way out. It’s more potent than you know and know I am commissioning you to wield it. This is where you move from warring to conquest, from battling to breaking down enemy lines for the kingdom. This is where your new story begins and you start writing history for me through YOUR story!”

As I shared this word with the church, many people reached out to me saying they felt what I felt; it was like taking a big drink of water for our thirsty souls! Our spirits were stirred as language was put to the feelings of hardship and war we faced in the past season. Hope and courage rose up in us as we considered leaving all that behind and entering into a new place: the store room.

In March of 2020, only three months after I shared this word, the United States and much of the world went into quarantine due to COVID-19. The near future looks bleak. Schools are shut down for the rest of the year, churches are meeting online, and many of us find ourselves anxious and fighting for our jobs, community, hope, and so much more. What happened? This doesn't feel like a store room. It feels like we’re back in a war.

Here’s the truth: I don’t have the answer for how to reconcile this profound word of encouragement with the circumstances we’re currently facing. What I do know is that God knew COVID-19 would happen when I shared it. I believe He is still asking us to stand on this word. I know He’s asking me to explore with Him why this word is relevant and important for this very moment. 

Here’s what else I know: Jesus will fight any war for us and see us through to victory. He is our conquering King. He wants to see you through to the store room.

Recently, a close friend of mine met with all of her family members for the first time in 16 years while only being allowed to connect online. This is a profound store room moment—a family reunited after 16 years, wow!

Would you ask God what leaving the war room and entering the store room means for your life? Is God still leading you to the store room amidst a pandemic?

In your questions, petitions, and conversation with Jesus, may your resolve be the promise of healing, righteousness, and beautiful store room moments! COVID-19 doesn’t have the last word in 2020. The year is still before us, and I believe Jesus will hear our cry and say, “Here am I.”

Prayer

Father, thank You for sending Your son Jesus to die on the cross for the final victory over every war in our lives. Thank You that in our dark nights, Your light breaks forth like the dawn! Thank You for encouraging us with the hope of store room days, months, and years ahead. We stand on Your scriptures, and when the wind is blowing around us so strongly, we stay anchored in Your truth alone. We give You the rest of this year and surrender to whatever You want to do with it! In Jesus’ name, amen.

A Time for Everything: We’re All in This Differently [Day 1]

By Joy Orona

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 NLT)

I’ve been in quarantine with my two teen sons and my husband. Each of us has handled this quarantine differently. My husband, an ambivert who gets his energy from people, has morphed into this new reality seamlessly. He already spent four hours each workday on Teams meetings; now he just spends eight. His need for people is satisfied by the “face to face” on a screen in collaboration with his coworkers. My youngest is in heaven: an extreme introvert, his dream come true is no one talking to him and reading all day, every day. If you need someone to blame for the closure of society, he might be your guy—I think he might have actually prayed for this. My oldest is anxious and frustrated and sad. At the prime developmental age needing peer interaction, this extrovert keeps snapping at us and then apologizing, saying “I’m sorry, but I’m so lonely and I just need to SEE people.” Then there’s me—a workaholic (teacher), who buries my head in the work for fourteen hours a day, anxiously convinced that all will crash around me if I miss one detail. And then I walk upstairs to my family to discover that I had just lost perspective.

How are you in this time for everything? Do you live alone? Are you compartmentalizing out the loneliness, or are you dwelling on it? Are you going back and forth between the two? Did you (or your partner) lose your job? How are you dealing with the financial fears, or, even more significantly, how are you dealing with the loss of identity and purpose without a job defining you? Are you waiting in the fear not knowing when your job will be taken from you? Have you lost a loved one? You are walking this without many others who understand not just what it is to lose someone in this time, but also what it is to not be able to grieve publicly and not be able to be comforted. Are you on the frontlines, one day too busy to even be aware of the risks you are taking for others, and the next day too terrified and exhausted to take the risks again? Are you raising children and their needs are overriding your own as you help navigate the changes in routine, structure, and education? Are you pregnant or engaged, but instead of the birth or wedding you intended, you are having to limit your hopes and expectations, and grieve the way you pictured it would happen?

This is the invitation: to recognize that there is a time and there is room for all of these emotions, all of these questions, all of these processes. While some of us are planting, others are plucking; while some are silent, some need to speak. This may mean you need to give others room to walk this differently, or it may mean you need to give yourself grace to need all of these feelings and walk all of these paths from day to day or even just morning to noon.

Take time to discern exactly what path you are on and to be aware of how this is impacting you.

Prayer

Jesus, this time has been _________ for me. Forgive me for not giving others grace in their unique process, and help me to forgive myself for the way I have _____________. Lord, reveal to me what You have designed for me in this season, and I trust You to make me beautiful in Your time.