I have been sitting on this word about the new year and season, for a couple of weeks now as The Lord keeps adding and expanding my understanding of it.
As I shared in my last post, The Lord is offering us "illumination", revelation and insight on the next season. He Is shedding light on everything that is hidden and Is giving us strategies on how to take back what is ours and how to battle against the enemy.
Many of us will be faced with mega opportunities, in business, ministry, and in our personal lives. Some of these doors will be so big and intimidating that we will be tempted to say "NO" because we feel ill-equipped for such a task.
My husband and I are experiencing this right now in our business. We have been presented with amazing opportunities that seem way too big for our small business to handle. As we were discussing the pros and cons of such opportunities, The Lord spoke to me in the middle of our conversation and said :
You are being fitted with a pair of brand new shoes. They are custom made just for you, by My hands. I know every curve and indent of your feet. I know where they bend, how they roll, where they hurt and I know every weak point. I am fashioning them out of the most expensive leather.
Then I saw a beautiful pair of Italian leather shoes in the withered hands of a master shoemaker. I could smell that beautiful new leather, I could see every hand-stitch so perfectly and masterfully placed; the smooth, sturdy soles, and the beautiful design. They were expensive-looking shoes, the ones that are thousands of dollars, shoes that only a master taught by another master could make, they were fit for a king!
I saw the shoemaker place the shoes on a man's feet, and I could see the man moving, bending, and rolling his feet as if he was trying to make the shoes feel more comfortable.
Then The Lord spoke again and said:
Stop! These shoes are custom made just for you! Trust me when I say that as you start walking in these shoes, though they might feel uncomfortable right now, they will fit like a glove. They might hurt for a while, maybe even give you blisters and make you bleed, but the more you wear them the faster they will conform to your feet. The more you walk in them, the more they will stretch, and the leather will start to flex in the places that you need it to. Growth hurts, being stretched hurts, it is meant to feel uncomfortable. Just like the skin of a woman stretches and the fibers rip, leaving scars, as the baby grows, so will you stretch, grow and be marked by this new season. And just as a woman feels joy and gives birth at the end of her fourtieth week, so will you rejoice, as you give birth to your long awaited promises at the end of your trying journey. You will possess everything you tread on!
Did you get that?! He Is giving us everything we will walk on and into! Every territory, every assignment, every business venture. Everything! If He Has ordained it and we obey, it will be ours!
Let's look at the Biblical symbolism of the shoe.
According to Jacob Nacht
"The shoe denotes supreme power and possession and is accorded an importance equalling that of the foot. The foot signifies domination:
Psalm 8:6 NKJV
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet.
Hence the victor puts his foot on the vanquished to symbolize the victory which has been won.
Joshua 10:24 NKJV
24 So it was, when they brought out those kings to Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the captains of the men of war who went with him, “Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings.” And they drew near and put their feet on their necks.
Just as the foot symbolizes power, so also does its gear; the shoe. Of the hero Joab, King David says:
1 Kings 2:5 NKJV
“Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed. And he shed the blood of war in peacetime, and put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist, and on his sandals that were on his feet.
The shoe thus characterizes the successful warrior. But it also denotes victory in a different battle, the battle for right and possession. A purchase becomes legal when the seller takes off his shoe and hands it over to the buyer. This ceremony indicates the transfer of possession to the new possessor. The same holds true of the redemption of property by one's kinsman, and also transactions of barter:
Ruth 4:7
Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging, to confirm anything: one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was a confirmation in Israel.
With the ancient Teutons likewise, removing the shoe meant the transfer of power and symbolized the dissolution of property and inheritance.
To loosen a person's shoestrings is equivalent to subjugation. The master gains authority over his servant as son as the latter loosens his shoestring.
I know you'll be tempted to loosen your shoestrings, to take off your shoes, to stretch your toes, and bandage your wounds, but resist the temptation to give up! For in doing so, you will give the enemy authority over yourself and your possessions! And you will be relenquishing your rights, power and authority to the enemy!
Don't make the journey longer and harder by resisting and procrastinating, step into your new assignment! I know it looks like more than you can handle, but if God Is with you, who can be against you?
David is a great example of someone who looked ill-equipped to fight a giant, but he knew that God Had prepared him for that moment!
Samuel 17:45-47
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
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