7WeeksOfSeven

We are still in the heat of summer, but the first signs of autumn have begun to appear. Right now is a great time to start pressing in for what is in store for the coming year. From today, there are 7 weeks to Rosh Hashanah (Friday, September 18th) which marks the start of the New Year (year 5781) on the Hebraic Calendar. Seven weeks, 49 days. It is a great time to pray, fast, carve out time throughout the day to tune in and write down whatever is shown. Even if it doesn’t make sense at first, it will, once all the pieces come together. I’d like to invite you to join me.

I will typically begin seasons of prayer and fasting with a list of things I’d love to hear the Lord about. Things that are important to me, issues that are a burden, or areas where I wish I could move forward  a little faster and know I could if I had more clarity. So, I’ll make the list, just to get those things emptied out of my mind and heart. But then honestly, I set it aside. And I ask God to let what is on His heart set the agenda and the tone for the season.

I begin with prayer, “Lord, I set these days aside as an offering to You. There are many things on my heart, but more than anything, I want to hear what is on Your heart and what You have in store….” As I continue praying with this type of heart attitude, I will typically begin to hear or sense words or phrases pop out to me. Most of the time, I will hear phrases from specific scriptures that I have hid deep in my heart. The Holy Spirit has a way of bringing all the right things to remembrance.

In this case, as I began praying for these 49 days, I was led to Ephesians 1:17-23 as the prayer, the starting bookend theme for these 7WeeksOfSeven. Mainly because the phrase that came out to me, the thing I sensed that the Lord wanted to do during this season, was “that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened”. But as I backed up to the start of Paul’s recorded prayer, I couldn’t get past the first verse. And the immediate sense I got as I began is, “SLOW DOWN”. The Lord is about to serve a rich spiritual meal. But we must chew this spiritual food slowly so that we can digest it properly and so that it can accomplish its intended work.

So I took the first verse, read it in a few different translations, and wrote it down in my journal as well as on an index card. Notice the words that stuck out:

[I pray….] “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,” Ephesians 1:17 NKJV

Wisdom. Revelation. Knowledge. For today, I will meditate on this verse, let it be the prayer and sincere earnest desire of my heart, and speak it over anyone who also has a desire to seek the Lord through this season.

Want to join me?

Linda G. Riddle