Year of the Revelation and Manifestation of the Righteousness of God
In 2023, there will be a clear distinction between the righteous and the unrighteous. All flesh will know Who the Lord of the righteous is and Who their God is. The Lord will make Himself known to all flesh through His righteous.
The Lord will reveal and manifest His righteousness to all people through His righteous. Here, the Holy Spirit is talking about God’s righteousness, not man’s own righteousness. The Lord will save the righteous and manifest His salvation in their lives in 2023.
Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. (Isaiah 56:1)
But God will only reveal His righteousness through people who remain in Christ and keep themselves away from sin, despite their failures, disappointments, and not receiving any answer from God.
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” (Isaiah 56:2)
Here’s another promise from God for 2023 for His righteous:
For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. (Isaiah 62:1)
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. (Psalm 37:6)
God will make haste and His mission to reveal His righteousness through His righteous.
Furthermore, the Lord will give His righteous a new name, a new identity in 2023. Your own people, even people from your church or church leaders may have tarnished your name or spoken evil about your character. But hear the Word of the Lord.
Even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56:5)
The Lord will make the name of the righteous great in 2023. He will neither let the countenance of the righteous fall, nor let them be ashamed. He will lift their horn up. Praise the Lord!
“All the horns of the wicked I will also cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.” (Psalm 75:10)
Those who persecuted the righteous of the Lord will be in shock to see the righteous on the pedestal. Yes, the Lord will cause it to happen in 2023. The righteous were underestimated, ridiculed, and put down earlier. But just as Jesus rose from the dead in glory, they will rise above their opposition in His glory.
Death, sickness, curse, reproach, jealousy, and criticism shall not stop the righteous of the Lord. They will keep increasing, expanding, and growing from glory to glory and from grace to grace.
It was God’s grace that His righteous survived 2022. The enemy tried his best to end the story of the righteous of the Lord. But the Lord had other plans for His righteous.
By this I know that You are well pleased with me, because my enemy does not triumph over me. (Psalm 41:11)
God did not permit the destruction of the righteous in 2022 because they are too precious to Him.
Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. (Isaiah 43:4)
For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. (Proverbs 24:16)
Everybody will know Who the Lord is. The God of the righteous will be known by them.
Year of the Righteous and the Ones Who Waited Patiently on God
In 2022, the righteous of the Lord went through severe trials, tribulation, and persecution. Some of them drifted away from the Lord while others stood fast with Him, even during testing times. Some of them also didn’t see the promises of God being fulfilled in their lives. They suffered shame, defeat, and loss in 2022.
But hear the Word of the Lord. The righteous of the Lord will not be ashamed in 2023 because they waited patiently on Him last year. They did not give up on Him even till the last day of the year. They became weak, sickness took hold of them, and death was lurking around to devour them. But the grace of God found them, and they were saved. Praise the Lord!
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.” (Isaiah 49:23)
The righteous of the Lord will not be ashamed in 2023. What looked impossible in 2022 will become possible this year. The Lord will lift His righteous in His glory which will be manifested through them, no matter how hard the devil tries to silence their voice or keep them down. No devil, no man can stop the mighty hand of the Lord.
Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. (Isaiah 40:10)
However, this blessing will only come to those who waited patiently on the Lord in 2022. There were some who got impatient at the very last moment and lost their faith. Their impatience, pride, disobedience, frustration, lack of faith and commitment to God and His plan, having the wrong company of people, and listening to the wrong voices convinced them to give up on the Lord.
They chose to do their own thing and make decisions based on what “they” thought was right. There was still time, but they got too impatient and lazy to keep trusting in the promises of God.
This reminds me of the excavator who worked so hard excavating and showed a lot of patience initially. But when he got close to the diamonds hidden inside the earth, he gave up and went back. Had he continued excavating a little longer, he could have reached the diamonds.
This is what happened with God’s people who fought longer, but not long enough in 2022. They failed to identify the hidden glory of God which will be manifested in 2023.
For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. (Psalm 37:10)
On the other hand, another excavator – who started excavating at the same time as the previous one – continued pressing forward. And he finally reached the diamonds. Why? Patience, faith, love for God and not for the world, and the ‘never give up’ attitude, which are missing in God’s people today.
Having said that, the Lord says His grace is available to those who are humble in the spirit. His grace will locate those who are willing to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He could lift them up in due time. This grace can get back the blessings they lost in 2022 due to their ignorance and other shortcomings. It can reopen the door of blessings they had shut with their own hands last year.
However, this grace is time-sensitive in 2023. Meaning, it won’t wait for you forever. You can’t take your own sweet time. If you lose this grace and once the door is shut, then there’s no chance of getting back the lost blessings, the lost position in the spirit. Pride will be a major hindrance to this grace. But those who overcome it will see the glory of God this year.
The devil also tried His best to silence the voice of the prophets in 2022 through false accusations, condemnation, pressure from the church and church leaders, and even physically through sickness. There was a lot of binding and restriction from man, even from church leaders, on the prophets. This caused some of the prophets to compromise with their ministry or calling, disobey God to stay in the good books of people, and not speak, speak partially, or dilute their words.
And God was unhappy with such prophets because they preferred to please man more than God. They preferred to fear man more than God. They preferred to obey man and disobey God. And the Bible says if you keep God’s commandments, you love Him – the opposite is also true. Such prophets lost their first love for God because they gave it to man.
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. (John 15:10)
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. (1 John 2:3-5)
The Lord is a jealous God, and He doesn’t like His people loving anything or anyone more than Him.
But praise the Lord, God’s people including prophets will restore their first love for God in 2023. They will rebuild and repair their altar built for God. God will crown them with His glory. They will do mighty works for the Lord. People will be shocked and fear God because of the manifestation of His glory through the righteous.
He has put a new song in my mouth – Praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:3)
The Lord will fulfill His plan and promises in the lives of the righteous in 2023, even if it doesn’t make sense, even if it’s too late, and even if it’s confusing for some people. He will do it in a better way and with a greater reward.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but It shall accomplish what I please, and It shall prosper in the thing for which I sent It. (Isaiah 55:11)
If the Lord promised you a car in 2008, but you didn’t get it that year for some reason. Here you are in 2016. Will the Lord give you the same car He promised you in 2008? No. Why? Because the value of the car has depreciated. 8 years were lost during the process.
Our God is a faithful and promise-keeping God. He will give you a car that’s suitable to be driven in 2016, that’s trending in 2016, and most importantly, that has the value it deserves in 2016. The Lord will give you back what you lost, with interest, this year. He will restore the lost time this year. None of your efforts and your faith in God will go in vain. Your reward will be much greater than you thought in 2023.
Indeed the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.’” (Isaiah 62:11)