We have slowed down our lives and carved out time for our King. We have pressed into the spirit, praying like we have never prayed before. We have listened more intently to His still, small voice. Now comes the fun part. Now we start “tracking” what He is doing. The next letter in the acronym “S.L.O.W.” is “O,” which stands for “Observe.” And that is exactly what we are going to learn how to do.

Out of everything that the Spirit has taught me so far in this new journey, this has to be at the top of the list. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: “Whatever happens in the spirit realm happens in the physical realm and whatever happens in the physical realm has a spiritual message.” I used to think that I was pretty observant in the spirit realm. I was always looking for His subtle messages through the things that happened in my life. But what I have experienced here has taken that to a WHOLE new level. And it is this deeper understanding that I would like to share with you now.

Once we have slowed down enough to actually pay attention to and make time for Him, and once we have pressed into the Spirit through intentional prayer and meditation, then we begin to track Him. What is tracking? In its most basic form, tracking is “making connections.” Sometimes God is so subtle that the only way you can pick up on what He is doing is by writing things down and reviewing them to connect the dots.

For instance, when God brings me a vision or a dream, it goes into a book labeled “Visions and Dreams.” (Creative title, right??) I have a place where I write them out along with their interpretations and I have a short list in bullet form. This allows me to look at them quickly and look for similarities, connections, and a direction of where He is going. But it doesn’t have to be just visions and dreams. It can be a scripture that He brought to you that really spoke to you or a physical event that happened that day He used to reveal a prophetic connection or meaning, or any other significant spiritual event that He allows you to see. The more you write down the more tracking you can do.

The point of tracking is to see the bigger picture of what He is doing and about to do. Tracking is what sets up the next cycle of “Listening” and pressing in. Once you see the pattern and direction, then you know exactly how to pray. Every believer desires to know the will of God. What I am suggesting to you is that He reveals His will far more often than we realize. We just don’t know how to recognize it as often as He is revealing it. Imagine being in the depth of a deep forest that is darkened by the thickness of the jungle all around you. It is even difficult to determine where the sun is because of the thickness of the canopy overhead. Getting from point A to point B in such a situation could be very difficult. Now, imagine you had the ability to rise above the canopy a thousand feet. Not only could you see exactly where you were, but you would be able to see your destination, any obstacles that might be in the way, and the light and direction of the sun would be obvious. Plotting your course would be as easy as drawing a line on a piece of paper.

This is what tracking is. When you are in the midst of a situation, sometimes it is very difficult to know what God wants you to do about it and how to go about it. But when we rise above the situation and begin to look at the circumstance in light of the bigger picture, through the spirit, the answer becomes as clear as day.

BL had a great analogy once as he was expounding on this topic. As someone that has a very strong gift of prophecy, tracking is as natural to him as breathing. He told me that the way he does it is he pretends that there is a big-screen TV in his mind. On this TV is everything that is happening in his life, laid out as little pictures. Like apps on a cell phone screen, imagine each part of your life as one of those apps. One app might be a situation at work. Another app might be a situation with one of your kids. Still, another might be a medical issue, a marriage problem, a vision, a dream, the scripture of the day, etc. All of these go up on the screen for viewing. When you do this, you are no longer looking at the individual situation, but the screen as a whole, searching for patterns, connections, and themes. You will be shocked at what you discover.

God always confirms His word with signs following. You can bet your bottom dollar that if it is Yahweh, He will back it and make it clear. When you are on a journey driving from one place to another, don’t you look for signs to know which way to go and how to get there? When you see the lights of the city, doesn’t that tell you that you are getting close to your destination? As you get closer to the destination, aren’t there always more signs to let you know that you are getting close? A sign that reads 250 miles to St. Louis. Then you see a sign that says 89 miles, 50 miles, all the way until you reach the final destination. This is exactly how tracking works. When God shows you a sign and a connection, it is His way of telling you that the road you are on is of Him or not of Him. Without the signs, we can easily find ourselves roaming around in the desert (at best), or, at worst, working for the enemy and not even knowing it. When the kings of Israel inquired to the Lord if they should go up to the battle, the Father always answered. If He didn’t, they didn’t move. The pattern of scripture is you simply don’t move without a sign. If He’s in it, He will let you know. He doesn’t want us guessing; He wants us in perfect obedience so that we can be blessed along the way.

Tracking is everything. It lets us know that we are on the right road, in His will, and what to do next. All of us want to be used by God. Every real believer in the Messiah desires to learn more about Him and to be of some use, great or small, to further His great Kingdom. The only real way to know which way to go and to know how to please Him is to let Him lead us in how. This is how Yeshua lived his life and we are commanded to live the way he did.

In John 5:19-20 Yeshua said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.”

Yeshua lived such a powerful life because he chose not to do anything unless he saw his Father do it. If Yeshua lived his life under the principle that his life was not his own because he was bought with a price, how could he make a single decision on his own? How much more should we do the same? How did he see what his Father was doing? Was Yahweh physically on earth doing things in front of His Son? No. Yeshua was seeing it in his spirit. He was reading the signs. He knew how to “track” what his Father was doing. When he saw the signs, he knew what to do.

In Hebrew, the word for “sign” is ot (pronounced “oat”), spelled Aleph, Vav, Tav. It can mean “Sign, mark, token, ensign, standard, miracle, proof, or warning.” God uses signs to help us track. The first time this Hebrew word is used is in Genesis 1:14 where God says He put the luminaries in the heavens for “signs” and for “seasons”. If you have followed my teaching for any length of time, you know that Genesis 1:14 is a very important verse because the word “seasons” in that verse is not referring to spring, summer, winter or fall. It is the word moedim, which is the word that means “Appointed feast days, congregation, set appointment, etc…” It is the word that is used for His holy moedim, His feast days. He put the sun, moon, and stars in the sky as “signs“ to help us “track“ when the feast days are supposed to be so that we can make sure we are on the right road and in covenant with Him through His calendar. Signs are to help us stay in covenant. The word ot is also used in Genesis 4 when God puts a “mark” on Cain, Genesis 9 when the rainbow is said to be a “sign,” Genesis 17 with the sign of circumcision, and Exodus 31:13, 17, and Ezekiel 20:12 say that the Sabbath is a “sign,” as well. There are also the “signs of the prophets,” memorial stones as “signs,” miraculous signs, the plagues of Egypt as signs, etc. God has not left us on our own. The entire Bible is nothing but a book of signs! It’s a road map designed to help us get from one point on the highway of life to our destination of the lights of the Kingdom! Listen and obey the signs (Shema) and you will find yourself in the middle of His will every time.

The Paleo Hebrew is even more amazing. Again, “Ot” is spelled Aleph, Vav, Tav. In its original pictograph hieroglyphic, Aleph is a picture of an ox head that means “Strength, the leader.” Vav is a picture of a nail and means “to connect, nail, bridge.” The last letter, Tav, means “mark, or covenant.” Putting all that together, the word “sign” in its original pictograph form means “The strength of the leader connects the marks which produce Covenant!” Built into the very word for “sign” is the fact that only Yeshua can connect the signs, dots, and marks of our lives to lead us into a deeper Covenant! The scriptures say that only God can interpret dreams, visions, and signs. And if you believe like I do that everything in your life is ordained and every step is ordained, then your entire life is actually nothing but a series of signs that only He can interpret! This is the reason why we need to have a strong spirit man, because it is from the spirit that we get the interpretation of the signs of our lives!

Remember when we talked about Chazown (vision) and we went to the book of Proverbs when it told us that “without vision, the people will perish”? Now you know why. If someone is leading a congregation or a country for that matter, and they do not have the proper vision of seeing through God’s eyes the signs that He sets before them, the most well-meaning leader can destroy an entire congregation, ministry, or even country. The enemy is trying to get us to follow his signs and Yahweh is trying to get us to follow His. The only way we can know which way to go is to know the Word of God (that’s the Truth side of the coin) and have a spirit strong enough to be able to interpret all the signs that He sets before us (the Spirit side of the coin). The two operate in tandem. One without the other is nothing but trouble.

The enemy has us going so fast that we don’t slow down enough to recognize the signs that are right in front of us. Not to mention that probably none of us have ever been trained on how to “track” the movement of God and the enemy. Most of us spend most of our lives just reacting to situations and circumstances, digging our own pits, and then being convinced to jump into them. But when we start slowing down and really paying attention to what is happening around us, the true path of God will be illuminated under our feet like a lighted pathway in a dark theater. Every step is highlighted. It may be dark and there may not be much light, but you will not fall or trip because “track lighting” is on every step of the way.

In part two of this Observe and Track section, I will dive into the scriptures and give you some examples of tracking inside the word and show you how to layer your life into those patterns which will bring you to exactly what you are to do in those situations. I will also share with you some personal examples of tracking in my own life and how it has affected not only the decisions that I have to make but how it has dictated how I pray. In the meantime, I encourage you to get a notebook and start TRACKING!

Shalom,
Jim Staley

Read W-Wait