Pitch the Old | Receive the New
Hi Estuary, at Estuary Courts, we often hear from the Lord in dreams to guide the ministry. Today we share what we received, in anticipation of the new year.
THE IDEA. Jim Yost (jim@gomail.asia), with his wife Joan, have been missionaries in Irian Jaya (now called Papua), Indonesia since 1977. Out of his call to catalyze disciple-making movements throughout Indonesia and beyond, 1400 churches have been planted, with many Papuan missionaries now sent out to be a blessing to the Nations. If you want to follow his work, he’d love to add you to his newsletter list.
Jim keeps his relationship with Jesus fresh by cleaning out his accounts with the Lord as one year is ending and the next is beginning. To keep the church congregation that he stewards focused on the mission of evangelism, he regularly articulates his mission and expectations to his disciples and even invites congregants to leave if they are not committed to that vision.
While Jim practices this radical discipline for his church body, the same principle applies to our hearts and minds. How might you put that into practice? Are there any familiar spirits, bad habits, sticky mindsets, and old wineskins impeding your mission on earth that you are itching to break up with?
THE DREAM. We at Estuary Courts had an unorthodox dream of gentle deliverance and emotional release. In the dream, we and some of our clients released fresh warm urine into a channel that descended alongside a stairway into the basement of a decrepit building. Metaphorically in this context, peeing (getting rid of polluted salts and toxins that would otherwise come out in our sweat labor) may represent a kind of self-reclamation. We are marking the territory of our souls and bodies, retaining the good living water and healthy emotions, and quietly sending the negative emotions, pollution, and toxicity heaped on us back to the ungodly depths from which they came. We separate from that which may have once felt like part of us, but is not really part of our humanity. No need to carry that into the new year!
AN EXERCISE. So try this exercise as a deliberate, intentional act of reclaiming your identity, emotions, and territory, staking your claim and starting all accounts fresh in the new year. Ask the Lord to shine his light and help you make some lists:
List faults and grudges against yourself, everything that is “not me,” ungodly traits or influences, inconsolable “pissed off” or “despairing” emotions and offenses. Our true eternal design and character is not defined or dictated by our temporary behaviors. You may have absorbed accusations and judgments from others or from society, and reacted to or assimilated those thoughts, and judged yourself as well. Dump it all in the channel to “return to Sender,” and issue a “Forever No” to Sheol, Abaddon, the Pit. Ask Jesus to sever and annul and send away any familiar spirits you identified.
List hurts and disappointments. Be open to considering any ways you may have felt disappointed by the Lord or disappointed by others (by action, by inaction, by attitude…). Write those down and return them to the Lord for him to deal with when and how as he sees fit. Release the burden of debts owed and ask the Lord to get justice for you.
List, claim, and mark your spiritual territory. Identify the good emotions, hopes, dreams, plans, and purposes that you want the Lord to provide for you in the next year. You may ask the Lord for a word or a vision for the new year. How does he see you now? How does he see you in the future? How does he see your past year?