Archive for the ‘Prophecy’ Category
An End-Time Strategy
Monday, May 3rd, 2010
To say that we live in exciting days is an understatement. Never before in the history of man has the fulfillment of the great commission been so close. I know some of you may be a little cynical about this point, but it is true. Some of the top statisticians for the big missions organizations are saying that every people group on the earth will be engaged and have either a written bible translated in their mother tongue, or an oral set of bible stories in their mother tongue with in the next 5 to 15 years. This is absolutely amazing. When we really understand the full impact of this it means that with in the next 15 years, every tongue, tribe and nation on the earth will have the Gospel of the Kingdom presently being proclaimed there. The last time I read the Gospel of Matthew I remember a short little verse that says this Gospel of the Kingdom would be preached in every nation of the earth and then the end would come. See Matthew 24:14
Do we really understand what this means, It means that literally we could be living in the generation of the Lord’s return. There could be people alive today that will physically see Jesus come back to the planet and set up His everlasting Kingdom and His global government from Jerusalem.
You might be asking if there are any other things that must take place in order for Jesus to come back to the planet? The answer is yes, and it has to do the with prophetic purpose of the nation of Israel.
In Matthew 23:39, Jesus says to the people of the city of Jerusalem that they will not see Him again until they cry out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
We know from Isaiah 2, that in the last days that the nations will flock to Jerusalem to be taught of the ways of God by Jesus. It is necessary that Jerusalem receive Jesus as her King in order for the nations to be taught by Him there. We know that currently Jesus is not reigning as King in Jerusalem so something will have to change between now and then.
(more…)
Posted in End-Times, Missions, Prayer, Prophecy | 1 Comment »
Wind From Heaven
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Today, in one of our worship and prayer times, I felt a surge of the Holy Spirit as we asked Him to release greater revelation of His presence. As we were worshiping, I heard the Lord speak to me over and over again about the wind of His presence.
Immediately I began to think of the wind that was released on the day of Pentecost. We all know the account that Luke gives us in Acts 2:2. “And suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” This was the first movement of the Spirit on the day the church was born. But this was not the first time the disciples had experienced a blowing wind from heaven.
Let’s think back to the conversion experience of the disciples a few weeks earlier. We can read the account of this event in John 20:20-23. The disciples were gathered together and Jesus appeared to them and breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In the context of this scripture it tells us that the disciples saw the risen Lord and began to rejoice. We can only imagine what the conversation sounded like on this awesome day. It probably went a little like this.
“Jesus, is that really you? How can this be? We saw you die. We put you in the tomb. We saw the stone rolled in front of the opening. This is a miracle. You died and the Father raised You from the dead. You really are the Son of God. You really are Lord.”
When we imagine the expressions that the disciples joyfully declared we see that they have met the New Testament model for salvation that Paul told us about in Romans 10:9. They confessed with their mouths that Jesus was Lord and believed in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead. As a result of this belief and confession they were saved and immediately Jesus breathed on them with the intimate wind of heaven and they were filled with the Holy spirit. They were filled with faith in their spirits to cry out abba Father. They now knew they were sons of God.
Interestingly enough, it wasn’t until about 40 days later that God show up with a more forceful breath that released the power to birth the church. For 40 days, Jesus taught them about the kingdom and about the things they were going to do. Just before He ascended into heaven He told them to wait for the promise of the Father. He told them to wait until they were clothed with power from on high to be witnesses of the risen Christ.
What I believe the Lord was speaking to us today was to get ready for another release of the powerful manifestation of His presence that activates the anointing to be witness of the risen Christ in our lives. Another mighty rushing wind is coming to the church and a new boldness is about to be released.
Just like it was with the disciples, we too are filled with the peace of God and the Holy Spirit when we are saved. Our sins are forgiven. We are justified before the Father. We are adopted into a new family and are made co-heirs with Christ of the eternal kingdom, but we often sit locked in our churches because of fear. The disciples were afraid the Jews were going to kill them the same way they had killed the Lord. Today, we are scared of many things. Persecution, being mocked, looking foolish, being classified as a religious freak are all fears that the church faces today.
But God is going to deal with our fears in the same way He dealt with the fears of the first disciples. God is saying that He is releasing another wind on the body of Christ that is going to fill our hearts with boldness and faith just like He did on the day of Pentecost with the disciples. A new boldness is coming to the church to go and be effective witnesses of Jesus from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8
Let’s respond to this prompting from the Lord and do what the disciples did. Let’s gather together and wait for the promise of the Father to be poured out. Let’s get our hearts in a place where we are ready to receive the mightily wind that is coming and let’s be ready to take the Gospel to the streets with a new found boldness that comes with the fresh release of His presence.
Pray with me:
God help me to be ready for the fresh release of wind from heaven. Prepare my heart to be in a place of agreement with Your Spirit. Help my heart to reflect Your heart. Fill me with boldness and the anointing to go out and be the witness you have called me to be. Help me to say yes, to lay down my rights, to take up my cross and follow you. I am ready to do whatever it takes to say yes to you Lord.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Posted in Prophecy | 2 Comments »