The lord has really placed New York on my heart during this last year. If you’ll search this website you’ll discover that there are a number of words prophetically about New York. As I approached this particular trip to New York, I had a growing sense that there would be some kind of sign in the natural while I was here. I also had a strong sense that the sign would happen the day I arrived( there also could be a sign both the day I arrived and while I am here). When our driver picked us up at the airport in New York, he informed us that it was good that we were not going into the city that day. The reason that he was glad was because there were 2 Events Taking place in the city that had pretty much shut the city down. He said that almost the only way to get in the city was by mass transit. The two events that were happening, was that Pres. Obama just arrived in the city that morning, and that night the huge Christmas tree in New York, at Rockefeller Center would be lit. The lighting of the large Christmas tree along with the New Year’s Eve celebration are two of the biggest events in New York every year. The other thing that was making the lighting of the tree such an even larger event this year than normal, was that a wildly popular Pop star named Justin Bieber was going to do a concert at the Center as part of the tree lighting. He appeals to children as young as 6 to teenagers as old as 17, and as I’m sure you probably know, is The IT thing among kids today. Kids react to him like the Beatles were reacted to.
Christmas is my birthday, so I knew that the Lord really getting my attention through the whole Christmas Tree thing.
The President represents the secular, and the political, while the Christmas tree is a symbol of the sacred. Both of these events were occurring on the same day. When President Obama participated in the lighting of the Tree, he called it a Holiday Tree, not wanting to offend anyone. In his words, he publicly secularized the sacred. There was a time in our culture, when in our passion for the advance of the gospel, that we took ground, sanctifying the secular. The heart of God, in the midst of the 9/11 heartbreak, was that this city, and our nation would turn to Him in a spirit of brokeness, and humility. Instead ten years later we find our collective heart more hardened than ever before. New York is the most powerful city in the world, and yet God is going to continue to give her chances to come low before Him. The Lord has not given up on her. He has shown me that very clearly. Listen to these words.
“The New Colossus” is a sonnet by Emma Lazarus (1849–1887), written in 1883 and, in 1903, engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Emma LazarusEmma Lazarus, 1883
There is still a grace on a city that welcomed the Poor, the Tired, the Huddled masses, and the Wretched Refuse, but the grace is lifting, and the Desperate heart of God will pursue this place with with a jealous severity.
Our President, in his attempt to be politically correct, and in his desire to offend no one, offended the heart of the only one that matters.
The hope is a revival, particularly among the children, and the youth (Thus the whole Justin Bieber thing). The Lord showed me that is why he allowed that part of the tree lighting scenario to take place. Wildly excited kids swarmed the place. This is God’s strategy, and therefore the cry of our heart, that there would be masses of the young wildly in love with Jesus swarming, and overwhelming the spiritually anesthesized in this city, and our nation. “From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength, because of Thine adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.” Ps.8:2. To become humble like little children, so that we can enter the Kingdom, we will be humbled by them.
All this happened on the day I arrived. I didn’t know what to look for, but it was as powerful a prophetic sign as I’ve seen. Pray for New York. God will not leave them alone. The shaking will be difficult, but not near as terrible if God were to Start leaving her alone.