2020 will be a Vintage Year

I heard God say, “2020 will be a vintage year.”

A vintage year is one in which vintage wine is produced. It means a year of outstanding success and distinction. The wine produced in a vintage year is of excellent quality.

Although many are ready to write off 2020 as a disastrous year, though many are joking and saying, “let’s write this one off as a dead loss, roll on 2021”, the Spirit of the Lord says that:

“2020 will be known as a vintage year in the kingdom”.

The fruitfulness of this year will be lasting and will see us through years to come.

“I have appointed you to go and bear fruit and fruit that will last”

John 15:16

There will be lasting fruit from 2020, particularly from what happens in the Autumn or ‘Fall’ season. I saw the shelves of a larder laden with jars of preserves labelled ‘Fall 2020’. The shelves were groaning with the jars and the fruit that was being preserved was autumnal rich and plump and ripe and abundant – damsons and plums and blackberries and figs. It was a bumper year. There was enough to last us for several years to come.

The fruit of 2020, this Vintage Year in the Kingdom is going to be John 15.16 fruit – fruit that lasts. The fruit of this year, particularly this Autumn or Fall is going to preserve us for years to come. It’s going to last and it’s going to see us through.

There are shifts taking place this Autumn where financial windfalls are going to be blown into our laps, where buildings are going to fall into our laps. It is not the case that as it goes with the world, so it goes with us. We are marching to a different beat and where the world is saying ‘withdraw, retreat, downsize’ the kingdom of God is saying ‘advance, join up, expand.’

DISCIPLESHIP REVOLUTION

There is a discipleship revolution coming.

Watch out for the Mark 4.20s – the new breed of Evangelist. There are a breed of people falling into the kingdom this Fall, that are the Mark 4.20s: those that bear fruit 30, 60, 100 fold. They hear the word of God, accept it and bear fruit, 30, 60, 100 times as much as was sown.

There are some mighty evangelists coming through the doors of the Church this Autumn – keep your eyes peeled for them because they won’t look like what you expect. They will be the rough diamonds, those from the streets with tough backgrounds, but they have within them the potential to be some of the best evangelists the church in the UK has ever seen. A new breed of evangelist that yields amazing fruit that lasts – they will not be simply fishers of men (Matt 4.19), but disciplers of nations (Matt 28.19).

The Lord says, “Church you need to shift from the focus on making converts to making disciples. Your conversion rate has been low but your conversion rate to making converts disciples has been worse. This is a reversal of that statistic. I’m bringing to you, sticky people that will stick with you and they will teach you how to make disciples of all men, not just those that look like you.”

Do not be like the Pharisees who made converts in their own image (Matthew 23.15). But disciple them in my image. Trust the Holy Spirit inside them to transform them into Little Christs – anointed ones. Do not bind the new breed of evangelists feet so tightly with bandages that they cannot walk and they cannot go out. In the past, the Church has wanted to control, restrict and minimise the footprint of the evangelist.

The shoes of the gospel of peace in 2020 will be loud, hobnailed boots that cause disruption.

Neither will the voice of the evangelist be soft and tickle your ears inside the church. Don’t try to shush the evangelist or make the evangelist speak softly inside the church. Amplify the voice of the new breed of evangelist even when it sounds harsh and grates on your ear. It only grates because you have become used to only hearing what you want to hear and you have preferred polished speech over passion.”