2022 is the Year of Rest and Acceleration

 

Introduction: 2022 is the Year of Rest and Acceleration

This year, 2022, God has even more beautiful and exciting days for us.

Every year, the Lord gives our church a theme—a word in season for us to focus on—so that we are aware of what He is doing in that year. As we see Him bring the theme to fruition during the year, we are always encouraged in knowing He is in control no matter what happens, and we are assured as we continue on the path He has called us on. For example, at the beginning of 2020, God gave us the theme that He is “the Lord of Time and Space.” We saw this unfold in an unprecedented way later in the year when COVID-19 hit the world in a big way, church services went online, and the gospel transcended time and space to reach many precious lives all around the globe.

Whenever God gives us the theme of the year, which is a prophetic word for our future, He always fills our hearts with hope. It is always His desire to give us a future and a hope (Jer. 29:11) and never to make us afraid.

This year, the theme of the 2022 is Rest and Acceleration!

VIDEO OF THE THEME OF THE YEAR IS SCREENED.

Pastor Prince shares how God gave him this theme in a dream. In his dream, he saw he saw himself in an airport on a travelator. He saw people running for their flights while he was calm and restful. He was restful not because he had no burdens to carry (he had 2 heavy bags with him), but he was restful because he was simply letting the travelator bring him to where he needed to be. While he was resting, he was accelerating.

We live in a world where most people think that when we rest, we are not accelerating. But God's way is not like the world's way.

WHEN YOU REST, YOU WILL SEE GOD ACCELERATE AND BRING TO PASS BLESSINGS AND BREAKTHROUGHS IN YOUR LIFE.

What would ordinarily take you months or years to accomplish, you will see God manifest in your life in 2022.

this prophetic season, God is restoring the new covenant of grace that brings rest

This theme of Rest and Acceleration has everything to do with God restoring and repairing the “Tabernacle of David” to the church.

THE THEME OF THE YEAR KEY VERSE: AMOS 9:11–13

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.”
— Amos 9:11–13 KJV

We are in a prophetic season in these last days before Jesus returns. We know we are in the last days because there have been many signs that our redemption draws near, including the worldwide pandemic (Luke 21:25–28). At this time, especially this year, God is rebuilding the Tabernacle of David.

The Tabernacle of David is a picture of the church that is under the new covenant of grace.

This rebuilding of the Tabernacle of David began when the early church was born.

On the day of the feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the disciples and the early church was born. At that time, the church was young and they were still holding on to the law even though they were saved by grace and received the gifts of the Spirit, so there was conflict about whether believers still needed to keep the law in order to be saved. Some of the Jewish believers insisted that the Gentiles who were saved needed to keep the law.

This important matter was discussed with the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. During this meeting, the apostle Peter, who was the first apostle to preach to the Gentiles, stood up and said:

“Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
— Acts 15:10 NKJV

"a yoke . . . which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear" — When Peter spoke of this yoke, he was not only referring to circumcision (which was the specific topic they had been discussing earlier in the chapter). This is clear because circumcision was something the Jews had lived with for generations. So when Peter talked about a yoke that “neither our fathers nor we were able to bear,” he was referring 

to the whole law, the Ten Commandments given on Mount Sinai, that the Jews had not been able to keep. Peter was against putting the burden of the law on the Gentile believers.

Then Peter made this humble statement:

“But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”
— Acts 15:11 KJV

"we shall be saved, even as they" — Peter said that it is a good thing for the Jews to follow the Gentiles' example of being saved by grace, not by keeping the law.

Then James, the brother of Jesus, stood up and quoted the prophet Amos, saying that the new covenant of grace is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Amos:

“And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:
‘After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name,
Says the Lord who does all these things.’”
— Acts 15:15–17 NKJV

Some people think that the rebuilding of the Tabernacle of David will only happen in the Millennium, but from here we can see that it actually already started in the early church.

In these last days, God is still rebuilding the Tabernacle of David—a picture of the church under the new covenant of grace!

This year, value and seek the presence of Jesus

In these last days, in this year of Rest and Acceleration, more people will seek the person of Jesus. That is one of the key characteristics of the Tabernacle of David.

When the Tabernacle of David was at first set up, it was an empty tent created to house the ark of the covenant. David had always had the desire to bring the ark back to the center of God's people, which was in Jerusalem (Mount Zion).

In the Bible, David is known as the man after God’s own heart. In Acts 13:22, the apostle Paul records that God Himself called David a man after His own heart, and in 1 Samuel 13:14, the prophet Samuel calls David the same thing.

When God was looking for a king over Israel, He was looking for a man who was after His own heart—who knew what He liked, who did what pleased Him, and whom He enjoyed being with.

God liked David. He was fond of him.

“Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king over all Israel:”

— 1 Chronicles 28:4 KJV

"he liked me" — David knew he was liked by God. Not just loved, but liked. God liked him to make him king over Israel.

Why did God call David a man after His own heart?

Why did God call David a man after His own heart?

Some people say David was a man after God's heart because he was quick to repent when he had sinned. But there were others in the Bible who were also quick to repent, yet only David is given this title of being a man after God’s own heart. So the reason for this must be specific to David.

David was the one person who had an intense desire to bring the ark (the throne of the presence of God) from Kirjath Jearim (1 Sam. 7:2a) to its proper place on Mount Zion.

King Saul, the first king of Israel, had no heart to seek the presence of God or to bring the ark to Jerusalem. But David did.

How you treat God’s beloved Son is how God will treat you.

Honor Jesus, and God will honor you. Promote Jesus, and God will promote you. Reject Jesus, and God will reject you. But accept Jesus, and God will accept you!

That is what salvation is all about—accepting His Son. It is not just about believing in God, but accepting Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

God meant for the ark of the covenant to be the clearest expression of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

God gave instructions for the building of the ark on Mount Sinai. Even though that was the mountain where God also gave the Ten Commandments, His heart was not full of the law but full of His Son. When Moses spent 40 days with God up on the mountain, God did not spend those 40 days talking about the law. He spent it talking about the tabernacle, where everything in it utters His glory (Psalm 29), and at the heart of it is the ark of the covenant—a picture of Jesus.

The ark of the covenant is the most important piece of the tabernacle. This way, the way we can value the ark of the covenant the way David did is to value and seek Jesus.