Word of the Lord for 2020
January 16th, 2020
Compiled by Cindy Jacobs, ACPE Convening Apostle
Generals International
Prophetic
I’m really excited to bring you the Word of the Lord for 2020. We just finished meeting with a group of the Global Prophetic Movement from 42 nations, and we gleaned so many things – in fact, so much more than I’m going to be able to give in this particular sharing with you. We’re going to do some transcripts [from that gathering] and pull some more of the Word of the Lord out from it. But I’m going to share with you some things here that are life-changing.
Joyful Increase
2019 was the year for joyful increase. And many people told me they believed for that, and they did see an increase financially or an increase of blessing or a new job or a new house. We know perhaps it wasn’t that way for everyone, but in general, we are still in that season of increase. The prophetic words continue to say the increase is coming, and it will be wonderful.
New Era
2020 is significant in that it is literally a new era. One of the words God has given is that we’re going to grow into our own skin. What do I mean by that? We’re going to grow into the purpose of God that He has for us. It’s time to intentionally say: what is my purpose, where am I going in life, and how do I achieve that? And how do I do come into conversion – a place where our full gifts, our full abilities are used? It’s a very exciting season.
Of course, it will be a challenging season as well. Any time you’re going to a new level – we used to say, “New levels, new devils” – there will be some resistance. Think about going into the Promised Land, how there was resistance and there were giants that met them when they went into the Promised Land. If you’ve heard me speak very much, you know what I say: If you’re going into your Promised Land (your purpose, your destiny, what God has for you), and you’re not having any pushback (there are no giants in the land), then you’re not going in the right direction. There will be Jerichos to take, so there will be battles, but it’s going to be exciting. When you’re going the way the Lord has for you, there is that surety inside of you most of the time that, “Wow, this is what I am made for. I’m just created to do this.” And I believe that for you.
All of you are listening to this, and we want to give you hope for your future. Maybe you’ve gone through terrible times of loss, terrible times when you feel like you’ve had setbacks, but I want to say to you: believe God. Believe God that He does have something wonderful for you, no matter how many things have happened to you, how much loss. I think many of us in the past few years have lost family members; there are things that have happened to us that we didn’t want to happen. Sometimes it can make us feel out of control. But this is a year where we are literally starting, not only a new decade, but a new era.
Year of the Voice
This year in the Hebrew is 5780. There’s symbolism in this to help us understand what the Holy Spirit is saying. It’s not only a new era, but it is a year of the voice. Now what do we want to say about the year of the voice? 2 Chronicles 20:20 says:
So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”
Then he goes on to talk about something that is very critical for this season. It says:
And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.” (2 Chron. 20:21, NKJV)
So we say that this is a season where we’re going to have to go to war if we’re going to get into our Promised Land. Looking at the biblical symbolism of taking your Promised Land, when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, there were all kinds of tests and things they had to do. They didn’t just stand on the Promised Land and say, “Well, here I am!” and all the giants ran away, and all the problems ran away. No, they had to fight for it.
This is a season where we’re going to have to go to war to come into our reset and our blessings and our purpose. But don’t let that make you afraid. Just learn how to go to war – it’s very important. This is why, at Generals International, we teach on spiritual warfare. And we tell people how to navigate in prayer and [deal with] the powers of darkness coming against them. We need to go back and re-teach those things that we taught many years ago because one of the things that my generation should do is teach the next generation what we know, and my generation knew how to go to war.
We need to understand that there are nations that need Jesus Christ. There’s going to be a battle over that happening. There are people that need to be saved. There’s going to be a battle for the soul of those people. It’s time to establish war rooms once again. It’s time to learn to war, and, in the passage mentioned above, we see one of the principles of warfare was worship. We know in this 2020 season and from 2 Chronicles 20:20 and 21 that there is a connection. The Prophets prophesied, and the people who believed the Prophets prospered. And what did the Prophets say to do that would bring that blessing? It was worshiping the Lord – an intense worship of the Lord and intentional worship of the Lord.
Coming Into Fullness
Another thing that we heard as we were meeting together is this was the 20th year of the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders. We first began meeting in 1999, and in this 20th anniversary, the prophetic movement in year 2020 is coming into a fullness. Many are learning to prophesy around the world and learning how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. They’re learning when God is speaking to them, how to hear the voice of God. We especially see this in evangelism. It is so exciting.
Now, I do want to say, I know we are not the only prophets; there are many groups of prophets. But our particular group that’s met so long felt that we should give a cautionary word that we need to once again issue guidelines on prophesying, like not telling people who to marry, when to make a move and things like this, or saying “thus saith the Lord” as you’re just beginning. We need to be teaching these things again. My book The Voice of God is a good place for you to begin if you’re just learning in that. Many other leaders, like Christian International Bishop Bill Hammond, and many, many have written books on the Prophetic.
We also saw that the prophetic is going to rise up in many spheres of authority. There are going to be marketplace prophets. We were talking to one the other day, and he was telling us that when he’s with a group of business people, he gets very detailed words. And some other people call it an “Issachar Prophet” that knew the signs of the time. Chuck Pierce I think is certainly one of those, and there are others as well that are that kind of prophets. So look for some of these guidelines to come out and a fleshing out more of these [different] kinds of prophetic types. We know there are Psalmists that will sing just the word of the Lord. It will be exactly what needs to be heard.
Another thing we heard in this year of the voice was that we need to let the Spirit’s voice be heard around the world and be established. And here’s some ways.
- Number one, a voice of warning. Watchmen sounding the alarm. If you are feeling something coming that is dangerous to your nation or if you had a dream, many times that’s God telling you to pray about that thing.
- Another thing, number two, is being a voice of righteousness.
- Number three, increase guidance given through the prophets to world leaders. There are governmental prophets rising up, and it’s very exciting. This is a really common occurrence for me to speak to world leaders, to give them prophetic counsel or to prophesy to them. That’s one of the jobs of the Prophet.
- Another way the voice will be heard is through decrees and proclamation.
- Another is wise choices in what we preach. I saw a vision of the word “watch,” and the Lord told me that He was going to confirm that we were going to have more intercessors. They’re going to have more war rooms, and we’ll be able to watch and be watchmen. At our Global Prophet Summit, the Lord actually gave us a sign of this. The first night, a woman who was legally blind was completely healed, and she was able to see. I always like to test this out for myself. She stood about 10 feet away, and she was legally blind; she couldn’t see. I held up fingers, and I moved further and further back, and she could still see the number of fingers I was holding up. I really felt that was one confirmation at least of what God is going to do this year in the miracles that we see as we watch over the nations.
Words Concerning Nations
This is a time of very strong violence in the heavens. As we look at nations, we see there’s violence in weather; there’s violence in the earth – earthquakes (there was just an earthquake in Bogota), volcanoes erupting, weather-related patterns, fires breaking out. Whether or not these things are natural, they do cause disturbance in people’s lives.
In the next few years, we see in the U.S. and other countries that there will be more and more clashes. There are going to be clashes that rise up again, and we need to pray about this. In fact, if we pray about them, we can quell them, and it doesn’t necessarily have to happen. But I see people becoming very heated, very heated with one another. And I want to just say from the Holy Spirit that regardless of how you feel politically, there needs to be civility. The Holy Spirit can help us discuss issues, even disagree, without getting mad, without getting angry over it, or without using derogatory speech. I think that we can be Christlike in how we’re sharing. We are in a Jesus people movement, and the love of the lost is breaking out in ways beyond what we can imagine.
This is the word the Lord gave me. Brexit will come to an exit, and the UK will not go back. After it happens, there’ll be a season where seemingly the UK has to readjust economically. But depending on what they do with Israel – if the United Kingdom aligns with Israel, which will be historic, of course – we will see a tremendous blessing come upon them and even economic blessing in the middle of all this Brexit. And the same for the EU. I see there’s going to be some more fragmentation coming; the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders prophesied that this would happen before the Brexit vote, and it did happen. There’s going to be some more fragmentation coming, but the Holy Spirit wants to move in the EU. I want to encourage the Christians that are in government in the EU not to feel like this is against what you’re trying to do, but that God is going to give you the move you have been praying for. I believe we’re already seeing signs of that behind the scenes.
It’s very interesting as we look around the world how many nations are having godly government rise up in connection with Israel. I also want to say prophetically, God is giving more and more of His people a love for the Middle East and the Middle Eastern people – people that are in the Muslim world, both Arabic and non-Arabic speaking, for Egyptians and so forth. God is going to move, and we’re going to see millions come to the Lord. I mean, just millions. I’m sure many are saying this, but with Reinhard Bonnke recently going to be with the Lord, many mantles have fallen. There’s going to be an increase of evangelism in a great way, greater than we can imagine, greater than we can dream.
Another thing the Lord showed us is that, of course, miracles are going to keep playing a greater and greater part. Even like we saw our legally blind lady healed at the Global Prophetic Summit, there were other miracles that happened as well.
Let me explain briefly – we met in 3 different groups: ACPE (our small group that has met since 1999), the Global Consultation (a larger by-invitation group), and then the Global Summit (which is an open group). This moves through a model from Psalm 1:33 (the priests coming together in unity) to John 17 (the whole body of Christ coming together). During the Global Prophetic Consultation (GPC), as we were praying with the prophets from 42 nations, we felt like there was almost a roar; we heard this sound of many waters like at Iguazu Falls in Argentina, or a place where the power of the waters are coming together strong. We are going to hear it in worship. We are going to hear it in more and more agreement as many prophetic streams come together. Great authority to make decrees is coming, and governments will change as a result of these decrees. We also received an exhortation the Lord has really strongly given me: do not simply prophesy the problems from the Earth, but if God gives you these warnings, see heaven’s solutions. In other words, prophesy from the throne of God. We are seated with Him in heavenly places. Prophesy God’s solutions – what He wants to do and His heavenly perspective.
Year of Reset and Restitution
And finally, for now, it is a year of reset. This is the day when we will be anointed for reset. This reset will bring a breakthrough for relations, for families, for the nation. God is going to turn impossible situations around. That’s an exciting word for 2020, isn’t it?
Now, there’s something else connected with this reset. This reset is also going to bring restitution. Many people don’t understand this word, but let’s talk about this prophetically. Restitution was part of the Old Testament law. These were laws of recompense for people that were robbed. They included recompense for loss of animals, bride price, money taking through defrauding the poor or so forth.
This was also seen with Zaccheus. You may remember Zaccheus in Luke 19 when Jesus said, “Zaccheus come down; I’m going to stay with you today.” This appalled the Pharisees that Jesus would stay with such a sinner. But it so touched Zaccheus’ heart that he says to the Lord, “Lord, I am now giving half of my possessions to the poor. And if I cheated anyone out of anything, I will give back four times as much.” In other words, God, through this word of the Lord to Zaccheus, so moved upon Zaccheus who had been such a sinner, such a thief, such a cheat and robber. He was the chief of the tax collectors and very rich. Just through Jesus reaching out to him, it convicted him, and he decided he wasn’t going to just give some money to the poor; he was gonna give half of his possessions. And any way he cheated people, he was gonna restore more than he had to restore.
And so we see that God wants to re-establish what Satan has robbed from you. I love this word. When God spoke this to me and to other prophets as well, I began to believe for restitution. And we’re seeing restitution of relationships. I’m seeing some things happen in situations that were not of my will, different relationships that got broken, even in ministry. I didn’t know what to do about it. I’ve prayed; I forgave. Someone had spoken against me. But you know what? God is doing it, and He’s doing it in such a way that it’s just beautiful to see.
Now, let’s believe for this, that God is going to give you restoration. Let’s believe God will give you restitution. Why don’t you make a list? Make a restitution list, a restoration list. And say, okay, this year I want my life in this new era to have a reset. I want my life in this new era to be changed. You know what? God can do that for you. The Bible says in John 10:10 that the thief comes to steal and destroy, but Jesus came so we may have life and may have it more abundantly. So are you living an abundant life?
You know, Mike and I had such a year of joyful increase. But we took that word seriously. In fact, Mike and I always do this. We sow into the word; we give offerings. The Bible says that ministers are worthy of double honor, so we personally believed; we started giving cash offerings to different people we knew. And we began to sow and sow. We cast our bread upon the waters, and God just brought it back on every wave. It’s amazing. I had spent some money, and we were at a point where we needed a blessing to come; then last night I found some money I didn’t even know I had. God is just wonderful to us.
We were talking about going into the Promised Land earlier in this message. That was a reset for the children of God. That was an alignment coming into their destiny as a people. When we hear this word, Mike and I knew we needed to reset. There were things that we owned that were broken. I had that we were not able to get fixed; it was such a cute little car. Four years ago, I had an accident in that car, and I said, Lord, this is a year of reset for that car. We took it in, and we got it fixed for way cheaper than they said. I am driving it now; we were able to work out the problems. And you know what? We had a reset. I mean, it is a little thing. But to me, it was something that was fun. It was something I really loved to do. So from four years ago I had a reset. And God wants to do that for your life.
I just wrote some principles down to understand about resetting and restitution.
- Satan is the thief. Don’t be mad at God. Satan is a thief, and we have to understand that we need to rise up and say to him, “No, you cannot have my family. You cannot touch my finances. You cannot have these circumstances that are coming.” Imagine if you are in a relationship with someone and you have blessed them so much, and they’re just mad at you because bad things happen. Well, you didn’t cause those bad things to happen. It was someone else, maybe a thief or something. How foolish is that? This is what the Bible is trying to say to us. Look, it is Satan that is robbing you. I’ve come to give you life and life more abundantly.
- Jesus came to give us an abundant life.
- It’s not automatic.
- We need to claim the provision.
- People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he’s starving. This is Proverbs 6:30 and 31. Yet when he’s found, he must restore sevenfold. He may have to give up all the substance of his house.
I want you to learn to be a fighter this year. Don’t let Satan run over you like a smooth road. Decree and declare: this is my reset year. This is my year of restitution. This is my year of restoration. This is a year when I’m going to see a blessing come to my life. You’re going to have to fight for it, and you need to be right with God. Make sure that you’re aligned with the Lord. Make sure you’ve forgiven anybody you need to forgive. If things happened to you last year, leave those things behind in forgiveness, okay? It works. Forgive; it’ll make you feel so good to forgive. And those people that you haven’t forgiven, usually they don’t care if you’re upset with them for the most part.
Decide: this is a year of complete realignment. I’m going to grow into my skin. I’m going to come into the purpose and destiny of God. I’m going to have restoration and restitution.
God bless you, and I want to wish you a happy 2020. I want you to use this word all year long. Let God anoint your voice. Watch, and be a watchman. Learn to go to war, and God is going to release a blessing to you. If Satan robs from you, like the scripture I’ve just read (Proverbs 6:30 and 31), tell Satan, “You’re going to have to give me back seven times.”
Sometimes we get to be lazy Christians, and we just think, well, that bad thing happened, or that was taken from me. So I’ll just let it happen; I’ll roll with it. Or maybe you’ve gotten mad at God. I’ve been mad at God before. I didn’t know I was mad at God, but I have been mad at God before. And I had to forgive and ask God to forgive me for being angry at him.
So this is a year of reset, this is a year of blessing, this is a year of roaring, this is a year of claiming and decreeing the promises. And if you do this, you are going to see this will be a year of blessing. God bless you.
Cindy Jacobs
Cindy Jacobs is an author, speaker, and teacher with a heart for disciplining nations in the areas of prayer and prophetic gifts. She and Mike—her husband of 41 years—co-founded Generals International in 1985.