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Here is just one example of the way God has weaved spectacular design into His word, the Bible. This can be found in Genesis 5 in the genealogy or family line of Adam.

Hidden in the names of Adam’s family line, from Adam to Noah, is the gospel message. Here are the names in Hebrew on the left and there meaning on the right:
 

HEBREW                                          ENGLISH

Adam                                                  Man

Seth                                                    Appointed

Enosh                                                 Mortal

Kenan                                                 Sorrow

Mahalalel                                            The blessed of God

Jared                                                  Shall come down

Enoch                                                 Teaching

Methuselah                                        His death shall bring

Lamech                                              The despairing

Noah                                                   Rest, or comfort

If you put all the names together it reads: Man appointed mortal sorrow, the blessed of God shall come down teaching, His death shall bring the despairing rest, (or comfort) How incredible is that!

God is not a random, chaotic God, but a creator of infinite detail and precision.

I believe the account of Nehemiah will be a great encouragement to us in 2007, and as I read it, it seamed to line up with the prophecies that several recognised prophets are saying about this year.

Here are some of the prophetic words that are being spoken about this year of completion:

2007 PROPHECY MAIN EMPHASIS

A year of moving from ‘Mission Impossible’ to ‘Mission Accomplished’. A year of perfecting, completing and finishing.

 
1 Finishing of a building cycle. Time for new building strategies to be released.

2 finishing anointing for the release of miracles.

3 finishing anointing for the release of transfer of wealth. Many deals that are in the balance will be completed.

4 The closing of one chapter in our lives and the beginning of a new season. Don’t hold onto the old when God wants to move us into the new. Complete in 2007 so that you can move into new things in 2008.

5 Finishing bondage cycles. Season of captivity being broken over our personal lives, corporate visions, and national foundations.

6 The year of the Clash of Swords.

The year according to the Jewish Calendar is 5767. It is the year of the clash of swords. The warfare this year on a personal level, will be to try to stop you from completing. The number seven stands for completion. It is a year for arms and weapons. We are in a seven year war cycle through the end of 2007, and so this is the year to press the enemy back from your gates, and to complete the battle that has been raging all around us. (what are your gates?)

Do not be intimidated by the battle. This is not a season to be passive. The enemy has released “chatter” into the heavenly realm to try to stop you from pursuing the things of God, to cause division and complacency.

The tongue will be likened to a sword.

The tongue can be likened to a sword, so this is the year to get your tongue and what you say lined up with what God says about your life.

2007 is the year when the Holy Spirit is beginning to move in a powerful way across the face of the earth. New moves of the Holy Spirit will be birthed and new wine released. Stay in the will of God and keep moving when opposed.

This is a year when old wine skins will clash with new wine skins.

It is a time of acceleration, we need new wine skins every year to keep up with the movement of God in the earth. It will be almost impossible to sit on the fence.

The sword also represents judgment. God is going to judge things that prevent us from moving forward. The sword of the Lord rules an there is a ruling anointing coming upon God’s people.

A fresh beaker anointing is being released this year, as this is a year of offensive assault on the enemy’s camp. Don’t be surprised when hell comes to the bargaining table this year. Because this is a year of tremendous breakthrough, the enemy will try to forge a truce - don’t make peace with the enemy!

This is a year of success and fruitfulness. The Lord is looking for those who will invest their “talents” wisely. It is a year to DREAM BIG. To bring forth fruit for the Lord and His Kingdom through wise investment of the gifts He has given.

 
A number of prophetic voices have received Isaiah 41:15-20 for this year.

 
(15) “Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument which has teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall make the hills like chaff.

(16) You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest or whirlwind shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord, you shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.

(17) The poor and needy are seeking water when there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

(18) I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

(19) I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the wild olive; I will set the cypress in the desert, the plane tree and the pine tree together.

(20) That men may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

(End of prophesy)

 
Let us now take a look at Nehemiah and see how this all lines up. This is a year where we will go from ‘mission impossible, to mission accomplished’! When Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed, it seemed an impossible task to rebuild them, but Nehemiah was not alone, He had the Almighty God with Him and set about the task.

I was intrigued to see that the first things that he wanted to restore were the gates of the city. The gates of our city are very important. I know that nothing in the Bible is random, so I did some research into the gates and found out once again, that there is a pattern and design, not only in the meaning of the gates, but also the order that they are were restored.

 
Below is a brief overview of this:

THE TEN GATES OF JERUSALEM

The ten gates  Nehemiah restored represent spiritual realities that must be restored in the believer. They are in a particular order showing we must restore these truths in God’s order.

The gates are grouped in four types. Priority, purity, power and prophetic.

THE PRIORITY GATES

The Priority Gates are the first three, The Sheep Gate, represents salvation, The Fish Gate represents evangelism. The Old (Mishneh) Gate represents Old truths.

These are the mountain top experience gates that are a priority in our Christian experience. They must be firmly in place before restoring the other ones. 

THE PURITY GATES

The Purity Gates are the next two. Valley Gate represents the testing of Character. Dung Gate represents the purging of sin.

There is little growth on a mountain top but there is more growth in the valley. These two gates represent the process of purification we must go through before we can arrive at the next gate.

THE POWER GATES

The power gates come after a purification. They are : The Fountain Gate which represents the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Water Gate represents the now word of God. The Horse Gate which represents God’s Warriors.

These gates speak of a time that we enter into the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish His specific will for us.

THE PROPHETIC GATES

The Prophetic Gates are the last two gates. The East Gate speaks of Christ’s return. The Miphkad Gate speaks of the final judgment.

These last gates represent the vision we are to have of the end times, we are to be a prophetic people.

I will now put briefly put the main points from Nehemiah that are relevant to this year.

First of all, in Nehemiah 2:17-20 we see that the people were in distress, but the hand of God was good upon Nehemiah, the people set their hands to this good work, the enemy laughed at their plan but “the God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build…”

They then set out to restore the gates. The prophesy for this year speaks about pressing the enemy back from our gates, to complete the battle that has been raging all around us. What are your gates that have been under attack?

As they continued to make progress, the enemy began speaking words of discouragement concerning them saying (Nehemiah 4:2) “what are these feeble Jews doing?…will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish - stones that are burned?”  The 2007 prophesy speaks about the enemy releasing ‘chatter’ into the heavenly realm to stop you from pursuing the things of God, to cause division and complacency.

Well, God’s people were not going to listen to that because they had a mind to work. They had a paradigm shift in their thinking and nothing could stop them.

The enemy didn’t like the fact that the gaps were closing in the wall and conspired to attack God’s people and create confusion. But Nehemiah encouraged the people saying, “Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren…” (Nehemiah 4:14)

The enemy said, “Come let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono” but they thought to do me harm” (Nehemiah 6:2) Which lines up with the part of the prophecy “Because this is a year of tremendous breakthrough, the enemy will try to forge a truce - don’t make peace with the enemy!

We need to have the response of Nehemiah when he said, “Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3

It is interesting that it took 52 days to complete the wall which is the number of weeks to bring things to a finish in this year of completion.

So be encouraged, it might be a year of arms and weapons, but it is a year of you assaulting the enemy’s camp where God judges the things that prevent us from moving forward.

Let your tongue be the sword that says what God says. Let this be a year of new wine skins where we move out of the old and into the new. Where old bondage cycles are broken off of our lives so that we can move on!

You will make it!

 
Pastor Richard Boulton