A Banner Year

In prayer over the coming 2023 year, I began to hear the word “banner.” After seeing this word several times in the days that followed, my heart was pulled each time to Song of Songs 2:4. I love the amplified version as it expounds on the purpose of the banner. It reads:

He has brought me to his banqueting place, And his banner over me is love [waving overhead to protect and comfort me].

Song of Songs 2:4, Amplified Version

Shelter in the Most High

This is for anyone who has felt rejected and burned out in the last season. The shift of your season is happening – this is the tide turning! In this coming season, a banner waving over you will be visible and widely known. Favor will reign supreme as the Lord prepares you for what is coming. This banner is one of protection, strength and might in the Holy Spirit. It’s one of protection from the snares of the enemy and is meant to comfort you despite what the last season tried to inflict on you.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Psalm 91:1-4, New International Version

The banner waving over your household in the new year will be prominent as you sit with God in what He has been preparing for you.

The Prepared Table

Many have felt their seat in seasons past was removed or taken. Perhaps you feel as though you gave up your seat and no longer feel welcomed were you thought you were meant to flourish. Do not lose heart, daughter and son! Your seat was not lost. You are being repositioned for a greater portion. What looks wasted and forgotten is not. The desire and dream – by faith – is being ignited in your spirit to continue on in a greater way with what God has prepared you for.

Where you have been was not without purpose. You were not sitting at the wrong table because of your own mistakes. But you were seated for a moment to be shifted into a “for such a time as this” season. Everything you have been sitting through was meant for you to see and understand greater things in the spirit. It might feel like rejection and push back, but it was for your good and for the greater good of the Kingdom.

In this season you will see why He had you sit for so long at the other table. Your hope is this – your permanent seat is being positioned as you learn to sit and operate in the new place He is placing you. Do not sway to the left or the right, but sit with the authority of Christ on your life. You are seated in heavenly places and your coming season is proof of His faithful hand on your life.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalms 23:5-6, New International Version

Dispellers of Shame

What many have been experiencing is shame as you have sat at the table. Shame from the enemy has held you back and made you question your true identity. It has paralyzed many in the spirit as you have tried to move forward with the move of God. You feel held back because of shame, but no more. The seat you are being positioned in is to break shame off of yourself and others. When this seat first presents itself, over qualification will be prevalent. But because of God and His favor, you will learn to sit. As you operate in this seat, your past shame will be broken off and the enemy’s weapon will not prosper. In return, shame off of those who have been in similar places will also begin to break because of the testimony you carry. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10).

He is raising up those who will sit at the table with a testimony similar to Mephibosheth. Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth is found in 2 Samuel 9. David brings him into his house in a desire to honor Jonathan upon his death. Mephibosheth is paralyzed and unable to care for himself. He is broken and with nothing. He is unnoticed and forgotten about. But not for long. As David is wondering about who might be left in Jonathan’s house he can bless, one of the servants reminds him of Mephibosheth. David orders that he be brought in and upon that David tells him it is because of the kindness of God he is wanting to bestow on him. 

Mephibosheth did nothing to earn his seat at the king’s table. He showed up, sat and feasted. God’s kindness held a seat for him at the king’s table and it also sustained him for the rest of his life.

So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.

2 Samuel 9:11b, New International Version

Many will not feel qualified and will default into thinking you have to earn your place. But the lie of the enemy keeping you there is broken as you sit. You might feel broken in your sitting, but healing and restoration is coming.

Shame is broken off.

Fear is broken off.

You will learn to sit and feast at the King’s table in this next season. And as you feast, His banner of love, comfort and protection will be reigning supreme over your life.

Rise up, sons and daughters! Sit and feast on the goodness of the Lord. It’s a banner year!