His Assignment:

God gave me and all of us an assignment. He emphasized the need for a busy people in their spirit, to come near to listen like in Ecclesiastes 5:1 and Psalm 27:4, and spend the time dialoguing with Him for 40 days – and He would give the questions to ask. He said this dialogue was to start as soon as possible, and was to be corporate and across the earth – the asking of similar questions about what He wanted to do and Who He wanted to be in His overcoming nature in the midst of the waves.

• His Invitation: After the 40 days of dialoguing with Him individually as groups, churches, and cities, He would invite us to come together across the nations to share what we had heard from the Lord and from His heart through these conversation times about Him and His hopeful solutions. Each of us would have a great invitation into His heart to bring forth these hopeful answers, and He would take us into a new room of hope that would help us work through our own doubts and fears in this dialogue with Him.

God's Goal in Sharing This Word for 2011

God had a great goal in trumpeting this word for 2011 to the Body of Christ. First, His goal was to make known His will and interpretation of life in the days to come through His hopeful lens. Second, the goal is that the Family of God would hear Jesus and His tremendous hope and peace in building and moving forward in 2011, to keep us from being like Peter in Matthew 14:30, who looked at the waves and began to sink instead of looking into His eyes.

It is needed and necessary for the Family of God to hear in the year to come from a true patriarchal prophetic voice that always has an answer in Him! Each one of us is being invited into this process individually, as God leads, to come out with an answer in Him for the challenges and be unmoved. If we would move right into adoring and magnifying Him in the midst of the challenge, we will have great success in 2011.

Jesus' Hope-Filled, Confident Desire for the Body of Christ in 2011 (It's a big deal!)

Jesus asked me, "What is going to happen in the next 10 years?" I replied that I did not know, and He liked that response. He was proud of me, as many act like they know, and He said, "I do. Now listen." As I sat with Him and listened, I marveled at how radiant with hope He was as He shared.

He turned to me and said tenderly, "Before I share My heart with you, I want you to understand that I will be purposely ambiguous. I won't share every detail regarding 2011 because I want to create an ongoing dialogue and process with you, and if I gave you all the answers, the dialogue wouldn't happen. But I will share enough with you so that you and those who hear this word will not live in confusion but will feel the Spirit of the Holy, Hopeful, Loving God surround them."

The Hopeful Patriarchal Prophetic

Jesus said He was talking to me as one who is a Father that really cares and nurtures and stewards the lives of others with the words He gives; and He said, "I have entrusted you and others with this word to be not only a tutor but a father with the heart of the hopeful patriarchal prophetic, who long to see their sons and daughters go even farther than them and their authority and dominion in Me – as fathers and mothers who can decree a thing and it happens." They were given hearts of flesh with such love that it will change the prophetic movement, and I saw them come like trees that were so tall with heavenly food for all the earth to eat from, like Psalm 1 and Isaiah 61.

Jesus shared, "Through this heart-to-heart dialogue and hearing of My voice, you will see Me as the most High God who rules in hope, and then you will declare it and decree it. I will move you into a greater understanding that you are an image-bearer of Me, and you will become so hungry and anchored for more and more of Me and the reality of Me as the God of peace Whose government does not end but always increases. The power of My voice and the discovery of My nature and My authority in you will begin to be realized in 2011."

Jesus began to unfold His deep heart desires for the Family of God; it was so strong that I saw His smile of hope for the first time to that degree and in that way.

He said, "In 2011, I will plant My desire in My Hope Craftsmen to feed My people on the true and appropriate knowledge of Who I am, and I'll speak to their deepest questions about Me in this Psalm 27:4 reality of adoring Me (true face-to-face prayer where you look into My eyes) and inquiring of Me (I will show you the fruit of wisdom and the greatness of the abundance of My wisdom that makes you like 1 Kings 10). They will be the ones to help others into that third perspective of hope, not of the earth or the liar's voice, but of My heavenly, hopeful voice which takes them above the clouds of doubt and despair."

His Hopeful Promises for His People

I had doubts rise up in me because I felt like Peter in Matthew 14 out on the water with Jesus, but I still saw the waves coming. Jesus would say, "Stop! Look at Me!" I would look at Him to see if He really saw the challenges, and there was no moving of Him in His confidence – He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. My doubts and fears couldn't talk Him out of the promises. He was victorious; it was settled in all these areas! His vantage point and Person were greater than the challenges I saw. He saw them as the doorways to hope.

I was undone by His brilliance and His lack of any kind of wavering. His face was set like flint and He was not shaken... He spoke again, "Even though there are perceived challenges coming, I have given exquisite, precious, advanced tools and golden ways of this Journey of Hope. My whole desire is that My kings and queens of hope would be cemented in the appropriate knowledge of Me. Then they can become hopeful watchmen who see a long ways out, who help build a pathway for Me into cities and spheres of life, bringing forth the knowledge of God and the promises of the land and the people that I deeply love. I will have a people of My own possession in 2011." I trembled and did not speak a word as I saw the fire come out of His eyes.

Then He continued, "I will give them this passion – My passion, and this force of hope, so that they are totally and utterly unmoved... I will be the marvelous, hopeful God to them and I am taking them on a royal journey with Me, which is a royal pathway that leads them on the way to great exploits and hope miracles. When these waves or challenges arise, My hopeful kings and queens will come with a greater understanding and a greater love and hope, and will help to rebuild My royal cities and nations, and will lead the many to Me."

I was so moved and overwhelmed by His tender, powerful, love-filled heart that so longed to be a certain and hopeful companion to me and the many others on this journey of hope. He paused for a moment and looked deep into my eyes with such love, I wasn't sure if I could bear it. Then He burst into laughter as He turned and looked out over the balcony of Heaven. He began to shout, "My burning passion is to bring hope to the hopeless!" Then He turned back to me, and asked, "Do you realize I formed everything with a word...out of life, hope and joy, dancing with My Father in the midst of darkness? I am committed to bring forth the Symphony of Hope across the nations! We named the animals, can We name you? Can We name nations? It's easy enough." (He was speaking of giving God-ordained identity.)

"In joy you are going to walk out this life with Me. It's time to soar in these times." He looked back at me and said again more intently, "It's time to soar in these times." And as if He was not yet convinced that I was convinced, He took my hand and jumped to His feet, shouting with laughter, "Bobby...it's time for you and your friends (the many of us) to soar in these times!" (That is the most affectionate name I have ever been called.)

Jesus Defined Our Past, Present and Future in Hope

After this, Jesus said, "Before we can look forward, we must look back. It is time to ask Me about your past rightly." Then He began to define my past, present and future in hope. He said, "You were made to be filled and fulfilled with My presence and answers. I desire to rightly define My call of love and hope for you and the Family of God through the years. Now, let's look in the rearview mirror at the past so you are able to look ahead toward the horizon I have set for you as a family in 2011. I want you to see My goodness in the past so you will be provoked to long for Me more and you will look forward to partnering with Me in building My Kingdom."

At that point I felt His loneliness to a measure, like Adam felt before Eve was created. I felt His longing for me to not draw back or listen to lies that would keep me from partnering with Him in this next season.

1983 Vision of Cities and Nations

He was bringing the spirit of wisdom about how He had raised me, and He reminded me of the past with His glorious perspective of His pursuing love and His care, and He gave me such a sense of satisfaction about the past. He began to stir deep hunger in me, and my heart was screaming out with love and hope as He spoke.

He said to me, "Do you remember in 1983 when I showed you radiant cities and nations across the earth where families, churches, organizations, governments and schools would love Me well and hope in Me?" Before, it had been a distant, faint understanding, but this time I really, really remembered and love-sickness gripped me. He said, "I showed you these Hope Craftsmen who would be sent on the journey of establishing the five pillars of hope to rebuild these radiant cities and My Kingdom through the understanding of My nature as the God of hope."

Jesus said, "Do you remember when I took you on a journey and showed you the advanced tools of hope, that you would learn to swim through the tsunamis of life where you walk in trials as though you walk on butter (as Job said)? And you would help move others out of the 'despair room' and into the 'delight room'? And out of the 'misery room' and into the 'merry room'? With these tools you would live in confident, radiant hope, continually advancing in life in a sense of wonder and adventure of My goodness, no matter what the perceived circumstances would be."

"Remember, remember, remember," He said. I knew I had let my memory grow faint in this area of understanding His goodness and His authority and His hopeful answers in the present tense life and circumstances.

Deeper Waters of the Knowledge of God

Jesus continued, engaging me in the deepest, most magnificent place in His heart that I had experienced, and He said, "Do you remember when you were a youth leader and I showed you that you had been leading the young ones into shallow waters of the knowledge of Me? I showed you that the Body of Christ would first walk into a chamber door of intimacy with Me and a love that secured hearts for eternity. But then I showed you a second chamber door that was My heart, and I was troubled because the young ones had not been able to discover My nature as the God of Hope and All of Life that would advance them into a radiant future, not only in eternity but every day in this life as well. I long for these companions and builders of My Kingdom." Again I felt His loneliness for people to understand Him and His desire for them.

He said, "I opened up 'forgotten faces' of My nature that have been locked up for thousands of years, like My face as the God of Hope, as a Builder, a Redeemer, a Supplier, and the Wise God as in Isaiah 45:1-3." My heart filled with joy as I remembered this vision and how He had shown me that I (and others) would believe Him and would help to lead a generation into the discovery of Him in all of life with a radiant hope for the future.

"Rid the Earth of Despair!"

He paused this conversation regarding our relationship and the past for a moment, and He turned me toward the earth, and it had this deep, radiant hue over it. He stated with such tenderness, like a proud father holding his newborn son, "Do you remember when I told you why I made you?" Tears began to stream down my face as He continued, "I had a true longing on the earth, and I made you to help reach and touch this true longing..."

Then Jesus said, "Do you remember when I stood at the end of your bed and said 'Rid the earth of despair,' and that the dictate of your heart would be led by this call with others?" Then He showed me that in 2010–2020 His desire is to fight the Ezekiel 36:23 fight to vindicate the greatness of His holy and hopeful name that has been profaned among the nations. I saw such a passion in His eyes for His glory to be revealed, and His question to us was: Would we cooperate with Him?

My heart filled with hope as we sat together and recalled all of the promises, plans and challenges in my life that He had used to conform and strengthen me to walk out my own uniqueness. Jesus said, "I am reminding you of our history so that you would have confident expectation in My goodness for 2011 and the future.