“2017 will be the Year of the Seventy”

In an article posted in Neville Johnson’s May 2017 newsletter, Prophet Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj shared the following revelation he received from God regarding 2017.

On 10 December 2016, as I was waiting on God I saw in a vision the number 70. The Lord Jesus then told me, “Look out for this number 70. The coming New Year, 2017, will be The Year of the 70.”

I pondered much about this vision and was bemused about the significance of the number 70. The Holy Spirit then graciously spoke saying: “It signifies a Year of Turning Around.”

I further pondered: What does turning around mean? Again, the blessed Holy Spirit kindly explained in this manner: “When an airplane is about to depart, it will move out the gate where it is parked at the terminal. The plane then moves slowly towards the runway. When it reaches the runway, it will turn around and position itself on the runway to take off. That’s what this year of ‘turning around is. Things and events will turn around and wait to take off.” (See the complete newsletter)

And who is turning around and preparing for take off? It is not the unrighteous, nor the false church, but it is the righteous remnant. I saw this remnant arising in a dream last year. I saw them walking in a stronger presence of God than anything I have ever seen before, and it was because the cry of their heart was to be right with Him in every thought, word, and deed. They sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all sorts of amazing things were being added to them. (Matthew 6:33)

Sundar confirmed what I saw with these great insights:

“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters. (Exodus 15:27)

In Biblical typology, a palm tree signifies righteousness. It also signifies uprightness. (Jeremiah 10:5). Okay, hold that thought. Furthermore, the Bible tells us God selected 70 elders of Israel to come and see Him on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:1,9). These 70 elders were also filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied (Numbers 11:16-25).

Putting these two together, this signifies that there is going to arise a new breed of ministers — church leaders who will be righteous and upright. These leaders will be filled with the last days anointing and will prophesy (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:27).

A new breed of ministers will rise up who will not lean to the right or to the left. They will be like the palm tree — upright in their ways before God. Their hearts, thoughts and deeds will be full of righteousness. There will not be any kind of deception seen in them. Their eyes will always be looking very straight at the Lord God. Their eyes will not look at evil. They will not gossip. Their lips will not speak about unnecessary things.

Not only that, these 70 elders of Israel also met with the Lord God on Mount Sinai. But on the nobles of the children of Israel, He did not lay His hand. So, they saw God and they ate and drank. (Exodus 24:11)

All of us will surely envy the privilege these 70 elders got — to eat with God. The original Hebrew Bible tells us, they drank wine with God. The word wine in Hebrew is yayin. In Hebrew gematria every word has a number. Surprisingly, yayin has a gematria value of 70. What does all this mean? This is the year to ascend—spiritually to meet with God. When you do, you will be invited to dine with the Lord (cf. Rev 3:20).

All young evangelists and young ministers of God, please take note: your time has now come to mount up on the horse and gallop. Your time has come to go up to the next level. You should not just sit where you are in your spiritual life. You should begin to climb one step higher in your relationship with God. The works that you do for God, your walk before God should go up one level higher. When you do that, then the hand of the Lord will be stretched out towards you to feed you with bread and wine.

The Lord would say to you: ‘Come on, take hold of My Hand, and let’s ascend up from where you are now to another level. Don’t stay at this level anymore.’” (See the complete newsletter)

Last week, I posted a prophetic word about a mighty outpouring of God’s presence coming in the year 2020. I believe what is coming is what I saw in my dream, but it did not come by chance, nor was it a sovereign move of God. It came because the remnant put a greater demand on heaven, hungering for more of Him, seeking Him above anything this world had to offer. So, we are not waiting on God to come to us. He is waiting on us to come to Him.

What Sadhu saw coming in 2017 with the plane turning around and getting ready for take off is what must happen to bring the mighty outpouring in 2020. A shift must come in us, a turning around, a greater level of hunger to get right with God, a greater revelation of areas we have not even realized we needed to make changes, a greater conviction of our own unrighteous ways, which will bring us to the place of repentance and establish us more firmly in the way of righteousness.

I believe we are going to hear a lot more about righteousness in the days to come. Sundar’s article confirms it by sharing the following word God gave him.

“I was very puzzled by the number 70. So, I prayed one night, “Lord, what does the number 70 signify?” Then in the middle of the night the Word of the Lord came to me, “A completion of fullness.” It means a perfect spiritual order carried out with full power. It also signifies: a period of judgment.

‘The time has now come,’ the Lord very strongly commanded me, ‘for the Gospel of the Kingdom to be preached.’ It is to announce the coming of God’s Kingdom with power to judge (Jude 14-16). The Lord Jesus significantly said that when the gospel of the kingdom is preached, then the end will come (Matt 24:14). That is the last sign—completion of fullness, that will take place before the coming of the King Jesus Christ.

The Word of the Lord came unto me early this year, ‘The days of grace will transit to the last days.’ Just like how the days of law came to an end when the Lord Jesus came and transited to the days of grace (Matt 11:13; Lk 16:16; Jn 1:17). Likewise, the days of grace is reaching its end and will transit to the last days (Heb 1:2).

When the Lord Jesus said that the time has now come to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, honestly, I shuddered and trembled with fear. Because that is the last sign before the end of all things come. Interestingly, the Lord Jesus Christ also sent out 70 disciples to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom with power (Lk 10:1). Now, what is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God? Gospel means good news. It is the preaching of the good news that the Kingdom of God is coming.

The Lord Jesus Himself said, ‘Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’. (Matthew 24:30)

The gospel of the kingdom of God is the preaching that the Lord Jesus came, He lived, He died, He rose again and He’s coming again with His kingdom in power and glory to judge. The Lord Jesus Himself preached that gospel (Matt 4:17; Mk 1:14-15).

Ministers of God, the time has now come to preach the gospel of the Kingdom. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the preaching of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem us. But the gospel of the Kingdom is to preach the coming of the God’s Kingdom with power and glory to judge.”

It might sound strange to suggest we are about to start preaching the gospel of the Kingdom because it raises the question, what have we been preaching until now? The messages we hear today are not necessarily false, but it is a matter of wrong emphasis. We have strayed far away from the heart of the true gospel, which is the message of the cross, the message of denying ourselves to follow Him, turning away from any kind of unrighteousness so we might have more of Him. We have replaced it with a Me-gospel that has shifted the emphasis to what’s good for me.

Where is the message of sin and repentance? It has been largely silenced and replaced with messages on how to bless me, promote me, empower me, and enrich me. For example, we have leaders of mega-churches today who refuse to publicly call homosexuality a sin. They are more interested in getting large numbers of people to attend their meetings than the righteousness of God. We have seeker-friendly churches everywhere, refusing to call out sin in the church, even tolerating it in their own lives and the lives of their staff members. They have won the crowds, but lost the presence of God.

We must have the true gospel of the Kingdom to have the mighty outpouring of His presence. It’s going to require a different kind of message, which Sundar described as preaching “the coming of the God’s Kingdom with power and glory to judge.” It’s the simple message of Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” It’s about coming under the dominion of the King, seeking His judgment so we can align ourselves more closely with His will.

To illustrate how far we have strayed, consider how the Apostle Paul instructed the Corinthian believers to deal with unrepentant sinners. He rebuked them for tolerating any kind of immorality and instructed them to deliver any unrepentant sinners to Satan for the destruction of their flesh, so their spirit would be saved. He warned them even the slightest bit of sin, which he compared to leaven, ruins the whole loaf. (1 Corinthians 5:1-7 NASB)

When was the last time your church confronted sin like Paul instructed, publicly kicking out a member who refused to repent? When was the last time any church anywhere did this? I have been a believer now for 30 years, but have not seen or heard of it. Kicking out unrepentant sinners is the last resort after first confronting them privately, but it is a necessary part of the true gospel message because unrighteousness separates us from God’s presence. (Matthew 18:15-17)

There is a high price to pay for walking in God’s presence, and not everyone is willing to pay it because it requires judging ourselves more severely so we can align ourselves with Him more fully. (1 Peter 4:17)

Sundar explained the gospel of the Kingdom is “to announce the coming of God’s Kingdom with power to judge.” This is the message of the seventy palm trees, a new breed of righteous leaders is arising who will refuse to compromise with sin. They will not stray to the left or right from the path of righteousness because they hunger for more of God. This is what we have been missing, but it is coming.

We might not have heard much about it before, but I believe God has been lining this up for many years. A new breed of messengers will begin to be sent forth, messengers of power whose words will cause conviction to fall on everyone who hears them. Conviction leads to repentance, which brings a greater outpouring of God’s presence, which is the tangible manifestation of His glory, which has the power to change everyone and everything it touches.

I agree with Sundar, it begins this year. A turning around is coming in 2017. This is the year of the seventy.

Author: James Bailey

James Bailey is an author, business owner, husband and father of two children. His vision is to broadcast the good news of Jesus Christ through blog sites and other media outlets.

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