23 Mar Prophetic Perspective for 2022: The Year of Tears

During a time of prayer in mid-October, I asked the Lord again “what is on your heart for 2022?” I heard his voice, but it came in a whisper. He said: I want 2022 to be a year of tears. I was quite puzzled by that phrase, so I asked him for clarity. He then reminded me of an old sermon from Paul Cain and a story from William Booth.

First the Paul Cain sermon:

There will be no public reaping without some public weeping. The greatest reapers in this world are the greatest weepers.

There is a gift that we need to ask God for in these days. It’s the gift of tears. We need to come before the Lord, making ourselves available to Him in a deeper way. The gift of tears is more than a result of the suffering that comes from living in a fallen world. It flows from feeling the pain and the suffering that the Lord Jesus feels for us. He is our High Priest, touched by the feeling of our infirmities. We need to feel what He feels for America. We need to feel what He feels for the Church. We need to feel what He feels about sin and the abominations that are going on in the earth today.

We must have tears if we are going to see revival. If we have no tears it’s because our hearts are parched. Lord, give us tears that we may see revival!

Our dry eyes reflect our parched hearts. The shedding of tears shows that the heart is engaged. Where are tears today? Ps. 56:8 says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” 

Did you know that God is saving up our tears?

What if all of us were called upon to accept God’s gift of tears before He would ever consider giving His gift of revival? Would you apply for the gift? Would you seek for the gift? Would you beg for the gift? If you really want revival, I believe you would.

Until a situation really seems hopeless we won’t cry. We won’t employ tears unless it’s really desperate. Don’t you think it’s about time we try tears? We may have had a little too much of the opposite in the Church. Let’s try tears.

So ask God for the gift of tears. Expect it – ask for it and expect it. I think the Lord is saying, “I want My Church to go from feasting and playing to fasting and praying. From laughing to mourning and then from weeping to reaping.” From weeping to reaping – can you see where it will end?

Prayer and intercession is the most important work of the Church. The next move of God will not be characterized by people falling on their backs and laughing, although that can be good.

The next move of God will be known for people falling on their faces and weeping, weeping, weeping – all the while God is being magnified as the Church beholds His majesty, beholds His glory and becomes His glory.

The next was a story about William Booth:

Some of his salvation soldiers were sent into the ghettos of Los Angeles in the 1920s and after three years of no results, they sent Booth a telegram: “It just won’t work. We have tried everything. The gospel is just not being received here.” A couple days later they received a two-word telegram from General Booth that said, “Try tears.”

Psalm 39:12 Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. For I am your guest—a traveler passing through, as my ancestors were before me.

Psalm 6:6-9  I am worn out from sobbing.  All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies. Go away, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer.

The Lord is calling us in 2022 to sow in tears so that we can reap with shouts of joy (Psalm 126:5)! What is the reaping that comes after the tears?  

• Hearts of flesh capable of responding to Holy Spirit’s nearness and promptings
• The greater outpouring of the Spirit that we began to see partially in 2021
• Revelation for reformation
• Salvation of “the hardest of hearts”
• A renewed willingness to move out of the safety of the church and influence society
• Resurrection power

I then asked Him how we could partner with His heart and weep for what He weeps over. He said to me “I gave you the how before the what.” Puzzled, I probed further and He reminded me of a sermon that He had me put together for a church I spoke at in Georgia in August. What He has me speak on was carrying His compassion.

Jesus embodied compassion, so much so that you see His compassion accounts written of throughout the gospels, but what exactly is compassion? The word compassion is used 14 different times in the gospels and there are two different Greek words representing it, one of them being the greek word Eleeo (used twice), which means to have pity or mercy on. 

The other word for compassion used is the Greek word splagchnizomai, which means to have the bowels yearn (the bowels are thought to be the seat of love), to have or be moved with compassion.  It comes from the root word splagcna, meaning the inward parts, especially the nobler entrails – the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. These came to denote the seat of the affections. It is a verb, a word that invokes a response, an action.  The only greek word used in reference to Jesus and His interaction with others is splagchnizomai. 

The Lord gave me three points for this sermon that I believe are three things that He wants to release upon his people so that they, in turn, give it away to others:

Compassion births Freedom – Matthew 18: 23-27  “For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his master commanded that he be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the master of that slave felt compassion, and he released him and forgave him the debt.

Compassion births Revelation – Matthew 9:36-38 Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He *said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Compassion births Miracles – Matthew 14:14 When He came ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.

It is imperative to receive the compassion of the Lord that brings us to tears because we begin participating in and partnering with what grips the heart of Jesus. As we sow tears for our family, friends, city, state, nation, and beyond, we will see His divine nature made manifest on the earth in profound ways.  

Ask the Lord to pierce your heart with Jesus-type compassion and to let you partake in what grips His heart.  Ask Him to help you see the world around you through a different lens, one that causes you to weep because those tears will give you clear vision for restoring what is broken.

Psalm 34:15  The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears are toward their cry for help.