“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10 ESV
It is a new year. As a ministry we always stop at the end of the year and ask God to clarify what the coming year will be for us. What is the vision for the new year? What is the Mission for this next season? What strategies are we to implement, with our activities this year, that will accomplish the Mission and Vision?
We have been actually processing this, for 2015, since the beginning of the Jewish new year 5775 back in September of 2014. The year 5775 after Creation, which runs from Sept. 25, 2014, through Sept. 13, 2015. The year 5776 starts Sept. 14, 2015. Since last September, we have been sensing a shift in our activities, and in our vision, and have been pressing in to what that could mean for us in 2015.
2015 is a Sabbath Rest year (Shemittah 5775) and a Jubilee Year (Yobel 5776). In the Bible during the year of Sabbath Rest, and a Jubilee Year, all debts between Jewish debtors and creditors were cancelled, and all slaves were released. Every seventh year, in the Sabbath Rest year, the farmers did not toil in the fields. They gave the land a year of rest. They trusted God for provision. And because of the year of rest for the fields, the land was more fruitful in the subsequent seasons. In addition, during the Jubilee Year all slaves were freed, and all fields and houses sold during the past fifty years were returned to their original owners.
The Jubilee Year happens every 49 years (Seven cycles of celebrating seven year Sabbaths – Shemittah) or 50 years, (the year following the seven cycles of seven.) There is some discussion as to whether the Jubilee year was included in, or excluded from, the forty-nine years of the seven cycles. Most today believe the Jubilee year follows the seventh Sabbatical year, and is the 50th year, which would mean it would start in September of 2015. If the Jubilee year follows the Sabbath Rest year, it would mean two years of no toiling in the fields, since that regulation was in effect for the Jubilee year as well as the Sabbath Rest year. Others believe that the Jubilee year coincides with the seventh Sabbatical / Sabbath Rest year, meaning that we are already in the year of Jubilee simultaneously with the year of Sabbath Rest.
Regardless, 2015 contains both the Sabbath Rest Year & the Jubilee Year. I believe that we are to align with that this year. We are to stop slaving away, stop all the toil in the field, and give it a rest.
The Jewish community has historically used Sabbath Years, and Jubilee Years, to concentrate more on the spiritual, and less on the material. The farmers were not toiling in the fields, so they were more able to focus on their spiritual mission in life, and less on their material desires. We can learn from that ourselves, to focus more on why we are needed, and less on what we need. Focus more on our faith in God, less on faith in our own talents and abilities.
What does that mean for YWAM Hollywood for 2015?
I believe we are to STOP.
Yep, you heard me right. STOP.
STOP toil… STOP slaving…
We always have lots, and lots, of projects going, and lots of activities. We started several new endeavors last year, and some have been quite effective. But, I feel that we are getting distracted. We are missing the mission for this season by doing too much. We are spending more time focusing on projects, and less on spiritual things. That needs to be reversed!
So, we are going to see NOT how much we can DO this year, but how much we can STOP. I believe it will help us to be more fruitful in the future. We are going to focus more on Spiritual things, and less on projects and activities.
What does that look like practically? Well, for one thing, it means I’m not going to write daily or weekly blogs anymore. At this point, I think I’ll post a blog once a quarter, unless I feel God has told me to share something before then, or if I feel God is saying to not post even then.
I am going to work hard to ONLY do projects that I hear God saying to do. I am going to lean hard into being WITH God, not DOING for God.
STOP activities & projects.
STOP striving.
STOP trying to achieve.
STOP doing.
START being.
START receiving.
START embracing the Sabbath Rest of God.
I could write a book about all the things I am already learning about all you GAIN when you STOP! But, writing a new book right now would be counterproductive to my objective of trying to STOP. SO, maybe I’ll do that next year… or the year after. For now, I am going to STOP.
This year we are return to our first love – we are going to focus on God.
Our YWAM motto is, “Know God, and Make Him Known.”
This year we will be focusing on the “Know God” part of that!
I pray you have a great year, and that you can focus on the things that are most important, and STOP all the other distracting activities. Remember, the enemy of “doing what is BEST” is often “doing what is Good” !
See you again in April! 🙂
Diane
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By the way, here are the scriptures on Sabbath & Jubilee years…
The Sabbath Year
1 The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai,
2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord.
3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.
4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.
5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.
6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
The Year of Jubilee
8“ ‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.
10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. 13“ ‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property. Leviticus 25:1-13 NIV