PROPHETIC WORDS

DRAMATIC DELIVERANCE, WILDERNESS RE-FORMATION, ALIGNED TO INHERIT PROMISES

by Jill Smith

February 2026

In recent years, the shaking in the world has felt apocalyptic to many.

• Global instability.

• Leadership exposure.

• Institutional upheaval.

• Economic pressure.

• Weather extremes.

• Conflict and uncertainty.

At times it has felt like plague after plague.
Disorienting. Intense. Unsettling. Chaotic.

But in the Exodus story, the plagues were targeted confrontations, not random chaos.

• Each plague exposed a false god of Egypt.

• Each shaking dismantled misplaced trust.

• Each disruption loosened Pharaoh’s grip.

• The Lord was not merely judging Egypt.

• He was delivering His people.

• And He was revealing Himself: “I am the Lord.”

In our time, systems we once leaned on have been shaken. Cultural idols, leadership models, financial securities, prophetic cultures, institutional assumptions, have all come under pressure.

What we assumed was stable proved fragile. This has not been purposeless. The Lord has been leading His people out.

• Out from subtle Pharaohs.

• From drivenness and performance.

• And from mixtures of charisma and control.

God has been calling His Church to recognise again: There is only one true God. And He is not “Pharaoh” - He is Father, Protector, Provider, Shepherd, Saviour, Redeemer, our covenant making and covenant keeping God.

But deliverance from Egypt is not the end of the story. Freedom from oppression is not the same as formation into covenant people.

The Lord led Israel into the wilderness. Not to destroy them, but to be detoxed, aligned, tested, and re-formed.

In the wilderness:

• Depending on the Lord is re-learned.

• Idolatry is exposed.

• Loyalty is tested.

• Covenant is established.

• Identity is clarified.

In the wilderness, God formed a people.

• He taught them what it meant to belong to Him, not as slaves, but as sons and daughters under a faithful Father.

• He re-ordered their worship. He re-ordered their leadership.

• He re-ordered their community life. The Exodus shifted them out of Egypt, but the wilderness stripped Egypt out of them.

And in these recent years, many Christians have been in a wilderness too.

There has been pressure that:

• Exposed unhealthy leadership culture.

• Revealed mixture in prophetic expression.

• Dismantled unstable platforms and performance-driven ministry.

There has also been learning to trust God in seasons of disorientation and unknowing. The cloud has moved, but this unfamiliar territory isn’t marked on the map we had. And then, what began as wide wilderness has, for many, narrowed into a canyon, with high walls. Contained space. And limited horizon.

At first, the narrowing felt like loss, but in the canyon, something deeper happened. The narrow place became the knowing place. In the containment, intimacy deepened. In the pressure, alignment was forged. In the unknowing, trust was strengthened. We learned again that we are a people belonging to God alone.

Detox is always challenging and change takes a while to unfold. The church news reminds us that Egypt’s patterns are still surfacing . But for those who have allowed the wilderness to do its full work, something has been formed, re-formed for:

• Internal alignment.

• Covenantal loyalty.

• Truer belonging.

• A community identity rooted not in performance but belonging.

And now, there is a shift.

There is a shifting and deeper expectation building again. Not the confusion of early wilderness or the raw exposure of detox. But a contained, gathering momentum, nervous anticipation. It’s like Israel standing at the Jordan after forty years. The wilderness behind them and the promise ahead.

It feels like compression before release. Like priests carrying the ark toward flood waters. Like a horse in the gate, strength contained, ready to run. There may be hesitation at leaving what became precious, a place of deeper knowing and being known. But the wilderness was not the destination but the preparation for promise.

And I sense the Lord 's encouragement:
“Don’t get stuck in the passageway trying to preserve familiarity by refusing fulfilment.”

The next season is not a return to Egypt’s systems. It is promises fulfilled through a purified people. The land ahead is not built on performance, it is cultivated through presence.

The Lord is widening territory for those who have been internally aligned. He is entrusting responsibility to those who have embraced humility. What was forged in pressure must now walk in promise. What was clarified in unknowing must now move in trust. What was aligned in hiddenness must now be expressed in open territory.

Look up, God is moving forward, and so must we:

• Carrying intimacy into expansion.

• Carrying humility into authority.

• Carrying covenant into culture.

• Keeping close to the Lord – not leaving the wilderness intimacy behind.

The shaking was deliverance – not destruction.

The wilderness was formation – not abandonment.

And now a holy anticipation is stirring in the Spirit. It is time to move forward re-formed and carrying the Spirit of reformation.

BIO