We have lived through back-to-back-to-back decades of sweeping changes that have carried us into a decade of implementation. In 2012 the changes will be comparably subtle, but little changes will have massive impact on the implementation of sweeping revolution.
While considering kingdom trends for this calendar year, I received a revelatory reminder that adding or subtracting one word changes a sentence in big ways, even making the statement exactly opposite of what it was before the small change: by adding “not” to a sentence, for example.
We are beginning to implement the sweeping changes of the past spiritual generation, and the implementation process will bring us to subtle adjustments and updates. These seemingly small adjustments, however, will push us past barriers and into a spiritual mainstream, the fast current forward. It will be like touching the wall where the electrical outlet has been located, getting closer and closer to a connection point; then, the last subtle movement between unplugged and plugged-in changes everything!
The difference between first and second place in an auto race can be very, very small, measured in hundredths of a second, but the difference between being the winner in terms of trophy, money, and stature as a driver and race team can be massive.
Perhaps the subtle shift that opens the heavens will be so small we may miss the change itself because of the massive impact we experience when we are in Glory or on the edge of Glory. Perhaps the subtle shift of faith that releases miracles will be so small we miss the adjustment itself but the power release will be so strong we will never be the same again.
Many kingdom people are only one relationship from the alliance that will change their lives. Many kingdom people are one revelation from the discovery of their life’s work. Many kingdom people are one victory away from “getting right” and experiencing accelerated maturity. Many kingdom people are one fatal flaw from being ready to fulfill their purpose. Many kingdom ministries are one service, one night, one moment, from the greatest manifestation of revolutionary revival of their lives.
Subtle changes will have big impact in 2012!
Missing the Adjustments
In this way, missing small adjustments can result in missing the mark by a great margin. When things are moving quickly, a small miscalculation can be deadly and disastrous. I would say that this season will magnify what we previously considered inconsequential.
For two years I have felt this season approaching, the time when Ananias and Sapphira moments would occur because we have lost sight of the big impact of subtle things. Some thing we have judged to be of little import will be revealed as “a big deal” in God’s eyes. Things we were certain would slip right past and not be noticed will be shouted from housetops, and God will reorder our values systems.
Value adjustments can be subtle but have massive ramifications. A tick on the stock exchange can be subtle unless you are managing a million shares. Moving a decimal point may seem a small change but it can turn a hundred into a thousand.
God is going to make subtle changes in our directives, small adjustments to our way of doing ministry, slight movements within remnants, and the changes will result in immediate, massive impact upon the kingdom.
Global Interconnectivity
God is altering the roles of nations, the ecclesia within those nations, and leaders within those nations. What God adjusts in Brasil will have massive impact upon other nations! What God changes in Canada will set off fireworks in Europe! What God fine-tunes in America will send shockwaves throughout the Middle East. What God whispers in the ears of African leaders will become thunder in Asia!
Someone will write a blog or send an email on one continent that will ripple like a tsunami across oceans. Someone will publish a booklet of apostolic strategy in South American that will move leaders to dramatic response in Central America.
Intercessors will pray for nations. Intercessors trained by praying for their local leaders and cities will receive the burden of the Lord for nations, and they will pray with international authority. Prophets will arise like Jeremiahs to the Nations with the word of the Lord to tear down and build again, uproot and plant again. Apostles will begin to align these subtle adjustments into an international strategy to join the continents in revolutionary revival.
Your Spiritual Gifts
Consider what will happen when a billion charismatics receive a revelation of the power of praying in the spiritual language they received with the baptism, understanding their gift is more than Boy Scout patch that validates their claims to the veracity of spiritual gifts. The gift they already exercise will become a weapon! Consider the volume adjustment God makes in each of them when the whole that subtle change hits heaven as a sound of many waters!
Consider the maturity of the gift of prophecy when we return to the Bible’s protocols for prophetic ministry, setting a place for this vital, essential ministry to function as something more than charismatic fad. Consider the difference when “they all may prophesy” is feasible because we prophetic leaders to raise the level of the prophetic.
Consider the renewal that occurs when we take the Scriptures seriously about the ministry of Jesus, when all five aspects of His ministry and leadership are available, and the foundational leadership He bestowed upon His ecclesia is functional. Consider the difference between the ecclesia dominated by maintaining comfort and the ecclesia dominated by the authority to legislate what-Father-wants into the culture of the earth.
We need only relatively minor adjustments to massive impact our generation! The ripple of these subtle changes will be a mighty wave when they arrive at the shoreline!
Subtle Changes Personally
Changing your daily intake can result in big impact on your weight. Changing your exercise routine in minor ways can result in accumulated health improvements. Ridding your life of one really draining relationship can free you to be yourself so that friends ask, “What happened?”
Expect God to tweak your marriage, your finances, your tastes and hobbies, your values and relationships. Expect God to adjust your thinking, attitude, and habits. Expect God to alter you in subtle ways that have massive impact upon your lifestyle and ministry.
Start giving more, praying more, worshipping more, expecting more of yourself as a kingdom person. Start dropping distractions from your focus – people, activities, fears, comforts – that move you away from purpose in small ways. Start looking a bit further out, a step or two away from your previous center.
Political Adjustments
Change is coming to many nations. The United States has experienced massive shocks, but the next year will bring relatively small adjustments that will push her back toward a renewed understanding of her redemptive purpose. Most Christians will be impatient about these small adjustments, not realizing that more shocks are not healthy; the subtle changes will produce big impacts to our relationships with other nations, our economy, and our social values, however.
Political experts will not measure the subtle changes until it is too late for God’s enemies and the enemies of righteousness to respond. These changes will only be apparent when they have accumulated through mini-movements that function with dynamics so foreign to conventional politics they do not show up on charts and graphs.
A new statesman and stateswoman is emerging that doesn’t answer to Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, or Reagan. The subtle changes will be the result of spiritual alterations more than political machinery.
The Ecclesia
More than one book will be required to explain the subtle changes to the ecclesia that will result in big impact to the way we do church and ministry. The shaking that hit “church” in the past two decades has left millions adrift and produced a generational mandate for authenticity. While most leaders have been opportunistic, changing ministry to fit the opportunity, Jesus is claiming His ecclesia with fiery passion and iron-rod authority! Still the difference between authentic and opportunistic will remain difficult for many to discern.
Several mini-movements are close at the extremities while aloof and separate at the center. At the extremities subtle changes will join them together in ways that those at the center cannot understand. These mini-movements will become movements by means of subtle changes at the extremities, joining at the fingertips first. These subtle changes will release a groundswell that none can control.
We will require strong, fathering leadership in 2012 because of the big impact of subtle changes. The subtle change of leadership style will come spirit-first and will expose those who are in ministry for what they can gain from those who are in ministry to fulfill a Divine assignment. Both Saul and David had the same anointing, but the subtle difference of heart resulting in death for one and a kingdom Jesus made eternal for the other. True what God said to the prophet: You look on the outward appearance but I see the hidden conditions of the heart.
