Call Upon the Lord! A word for 2012
   by Joe Smith

          As we were driving up the road a few days ago, I said to Gayle, “Honey, I am sensing a time of battle coming, and it is time to get ready for a fight” Over the past several months, I have seen one precious saint after the next fighting what would seem the fights of their lives. The truth is that many are fighting for their very lives, for their homes, their children, jobs, etc… The list goes on and on, email after email, prayer request after prayer request. The battles may be different, but the enemy is the same. In truth, the strategy is the same also. We have prayed for so many discouraged brothers and sisters, and it would seem that there is no end to the pain and suffering being experienced by the people of God in these days.
          Here is the good news my precious friends, God is IN-CONTROL!  Many would try to argue that point, but let me show you why I am saying this. The other day, as we started up the road, when I told Gayle that I was sensing a battle, the Spirit immediately took us into prayer. We joined hands as we drove up the road, and we didn’t stop praying until we sensed a release. In all the prayer, the Lord had us to pray for so many things, He had us pray for safe travel, also over every other vehicle on the roads that day. No sooner did we finish praying that a small car sped around us, passing a whole row of vehicles. What that driver didn’t know is that the LIVING God saved them from a terrible accident. Here is what happened. When we saw them go around, Gayle and I both yelled out JESUS!!!! Amazing how in a situation like that, you tend to be without words, but there is ONE word, the name above ALL names that when we speak His name over ANY situation, things change fast!!! There was no time for thinking or reasoning, just speaking the name of Jesus, and had the Holy Spirit not pulled us into that intense time of prayer, and praying in the Spirit, we would not have reacted in the Spirit so fast. Those other drivers should be praising the Lord because the creator of the universe preserved them that evening.                         
          Here is my question for you… If God would supernaturally intervene in that situation, and it was truly miraculous that those people did not have a head on collision, how much more do you think He would intervene for you and I as believers who trust in Him?  I’m not saying He doesn’t love those people on the road as we know He does. But I know His covenant with me and my family.
          Several days ago, I was taking one of those break mornings where you just do NOTHING… They are rare around here with a computer business to run, and also ministering to those whom the Lord has brought into our lives and entrusted to us. I was sitting in the hot tub and reading my bible. Suddenly, I felt a strong call to just start praying in the Spirit and interceding for something. I don’t know what it was, but I know it was intense. I said to Gayle “honey, the Lord is calling His people into prayer and intercession, and He’s serious about it”
          I have never really been a person you would say has had the anointing of intercession. My gifts and anointing are somewhat different. That doesn’t mean I don’t pray, just not as my primary anointing. When I pray, the Lord speaks to me, but there has not been that intercession kind of prayer with travailing and weeping as Gayle has. What I am sensing here though is a shifting in the spirit where God is very serious about His people STAYING in the Spirit. “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of your flesh” The enemy has not changed his strategy, but he has changed the intensity of his attacks. What I am seeing is that the people of God are being pressed in what the Lord showed me as “waves”. The only way I can describe it is remembering when I was a child at the ocean. I would sit on the shore right where the waves rolled in because it was easy to dig in the sand right there. The waves however would knock me over. Then as I struggled to get sitting upright again, the next wave would roll in and knock me over again. This is what I mean about the attacks coming in waves. You get hit with one, you start to get your balance back, and the next knocks you down again. It is like a boxer knocking their opponent down, then when they start to get up, they punch them again before they can get on their feet. So many people are experiencing this terrible form of abuse from a cruel enemy.
          Here is the good news my precious friends, God is with you, He is IN-CONTROL, and He wants to show you a strategy to take back everything that the enemy has stolen. He wants to give you strategy that is so supernatural that you won’t be able to do anything but say “Jesus you amaze me!”
          The bible in Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (KJV) I was reading that verse a month or so ago, and the Lord impressed me to read it in the Message version of the bible… Here is what it says there, “Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.” Look at the amazing contrast and get a hold of what God is saying here… YOU (and I) couldn’t figure it out on our own!!!!!!!!
          Here is God’s strategy for 2012… PRAY IN THE SPIRIT CONTINUALLY! As you do, God will show you marvelous and wondrous things that you could NEVER figure out on your own. When we pray in the Spirit, God gets a hold of our spirit and lines it up with His. This is the place where we get supernatural downloads that change lives. This is the place where God prepares us for the battle. Yes, God will fight your battles, but He will use YOU. God fought David’s battles as you can see in Gayle’s 2012 message, but He did give David a part in it. God didn’t pick up the stones and sling them, God didn’t take the sword out of Goliath’s hand and cut off his head, NO, David called unto God, and God showed him great and wondrous things that David couldn’t figure out on his own. Do you think that David just thought to himself, I will take a smooth stone out of this brook and sling it into Goliath’s head… NO NO NO! It was the wisdom of God that won that battle.
          While writing this letter, the phone just rang. It was one of my computer customers whom I really have not gotten along well with. She is a manager at a company that I maintain computer systems for. Initially when the phone rang, and I saw the number on my caller id, I thought to myself – “great, another interruption, the devil doesn’t want me to finish this letter”… Typical carnal Christian thinking, right? Ok, so I answer the phone and the woman says “Joe, I need a major favor”, she then proceeds to say she is going to be out of office for a few days and needs an auto-responder on her email. This is a person whom I know really has no relationship with the Lord, and has really given me a rough time in times past. Well, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “Ask her if everything is ok” That simple, so I say to her “is everything ok, are you alright?” she immediately broke down and began to cry, she then told me that her father had just had a heart attack.  I asked her if it would be ok for me to pray for her. She said yes, and immediately I began to pray for her and for her father, and for peace of the Lord in her life. I prayed in Jesus name! God showed up between us, and He gave me compassion for a woman who has given me some hard times in the past… She thanked me for taking the time to pray with her. See, she was in an office with 30 people who all knew what just happened, I am 30 miles away and the Holy Spirit says “ask her if she’s ok”…. When we move out of the flesh, God ALWAYS shows up in every situation.
           I prayed in the Spirit this morning before starting to write this letter, and God chose to direct my path to bring His comfort to someone that He is trying to reach. This is the strategy God wants to give us all for 2012. Pray in the Spirit, call upon the Lord, bring Him into everything, and He will give you the wisdom you need for every situation, every attack, every need! Elijah was a man of  prayer, he stayed before God at all times, and God met him right where he was. In the bible in 1 Kings 17, the word says that the Lord spoke to Elijah telling him to go to the brook Cherith that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So went he and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 
          Can you see the pattern there? God leads you into good things, He leads you into protection, provision, and supernatural abundance even in the time of famine! 

Here is what the Lord spoke to me concerning 2012, and His  10 step plan to give His people Victory going forward. 

The outpouring of sin and violence is causing the land to tremble and groan.
You are at the beginning of very hard and sorrowful times. Call upon me and bring me into every situation and I will be there to deliver you.
You must learn to truly trust me, and my people have not fully trusted me. Your faith has become based on what you can see and not what I have said.
Was I not with David when he slew all of his giants?
Was I not with Elijah when he slew the propets of baal?
Have you believed everything I have said in my word concerning your very lives?
If you will allow me to lead you, I will lead you beside still waters. If you choose your way, you will find turbulent waters.
I want to teach you to live the abundant life my word promises, but you must let me lead you in order to walk in the blessings I have set aside for you.
The world system is going to crumble, but my people who follow my leading will walk in the miraculous. 
Miracles and healings will be poured out through my people who listen to my every leading in order to bring a huge harvest of souls to my table.
I desire that you become power filled vessels so that I can pour myself out through you in this troubled world.
I will do it if you don't question any leading that I give.
I am going to pour out a new wave of marketplace ministry in the land. I will establish businesses, ministries, and I am anointing the least expected vessels for my purposes in these days.
Those you least expect will become my front line warriors in a mighty outpouring of my spirit. Love is key in your walk, and I am expecting you to love those who most grate on you. 
Love them with my love and nothing will hinder your efforts. I am not a legalist God  who crushes His people.
There is much talk of judgment in the land and in the "respected circles" of the church today..
Did I judge the woman at the well? Did I judge the woman taken in adultry? What would make you think that I am driven by anything but my love for my precious creation?
I hate sin, and you are to hate sin, but you are instructed this day to love my people out of their sin. Do not judge, love! Love will cover a multitude of sin.
Remember how gentle I was when you disobeyed every word I spoke to you... Be instruments of healing and restoration.

Here is what I believe the Lord gave me as a 10 step plan for 2012...

1: STAY in the Word and in the Spirit, and RUN from your fleshly desires!
2: Pray in the Spirit without ceasing (let the Holy Spirit direct your prayers) When you seek the Lord, be very open to anything He says. Welcome the Lord and His wisdom and direction into everything.
3: Be flexible, God is moving A LOT of people in this season.. You need to be where He wants you,
and you need to be doing what He wants you doing. Move can be Spiritually, Geographically, Occupationally, or any other area of your life that God needs to adjust… Be open to CHANGE!
4: Do NOT rely on your knowledge or the world’s wisdom (you will ALWAYS lose this way)..
5: God is requiring that we seek Him in everything! (what worked before will not work today)
6: Whatever God tells you to do, do it WITHOUT hesitation! Your very life, or life of those you love could depend on your immediate obedience to His direction. This is NOT due to punishment of disobedience, but the fact that God will lead you and your family into SAFE living if you listen to His voice. Whatever God directs you to do will take care of every need you will have. He sees the rock in the road miles before you get there.
7: Do not get hung up about hearing His voice! Relax in this area so that God can get His wisdom past your human reasoning and your trying to figure out how to hear Him. Remember, “the word of the Lord came to”…. It is God’s job and place to speak, when we are quiet before Him, we will hear His voice.
8: When you do hear God’s voice, do not dismiss it because He speaks something that you don’t want to hear, or speaks something that goes against your natural reasoning. Daddy knows you better than you know yourself.
9: Love and forgive like never before. It is my love that draws sinners to repentance.
10: Go back to step 1 when you begin to sense a shift in the spiritual and natural landscape. What I am saying here, is be alert, watch for changes and patterns in you, your thinking, your physical body, and those around you, identify the tactics of the enemy and counter him before he brings trouble to your house, or to those around you.

I know that this is what the Lord has spoken to me concerning 2012, and I know He directed me to make this available to all who come our way. I hope this is an encouragement to you or someone you know. Please feel free to forward this message to anyone you feel would benefit from it. This information is not owned by anyone but the Living God…. May the Lord abundantly bless and supernaturally lead you in all things this coming year.

Jesus loves you, and so do we,

Joe and Gayle Smith,
http://www.propheticministries.com