s.b.p.III

To say it as clearly and concisely as I can, if God is telling us to prepare for what is coming, it is because that is precisely what He is up to at this present time.  He is preparing us! The question is, are we recognizing what He is trying to do in us and properly responding to that?

One more thought. In my first s.b.p. post I mentioned that it was important to be forewarned about the good that is coming, not just the bad. Back when the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land God gave Moses a song for him to teach the people that was a prophecy of how the very blessings they would enjoy in the Promised Land would be a test to see if they would continue to faithfully obey God or be turned away to serve false gods. It predicts that they would flunk the test, turn to false gods and end up serving their enemies rather than serving the true God who had blessed them so richly to begin with. And this has been the history of God's people ever since! Will there ever be a time when God can pour out His blessings on His people and they will continue in those blessings, passing those blessings on to the next generation as well? Satan has a boast that although God can save people from hell, he is still more attractive than God because invariably the people that God has saved will lose their initial love for God and turn back to Satan's enticements. But this will end! God will have a people in the end who, as Revelation tells us, will "follow the Lamb wherever He goes, who will not love their lives unto death." If you are a true believer, a true seeker after God and a lover of the truth, understand that everything that is happening in and around you is designed to achieve this very thing. Every trial and every blessing is meant to achieve the same thing - to draw you closer, to become joined to Him who alone is Life in such a way that we will never again even be tempted away from the one and only true Love. In the end the bride will indeed have made herself ready and will indeed be dressed in a spotless wedding gown.

So, to make the point as clear as I can: if God is still withholding blessing (revival) it is because we are not yet ready. There is a time for everything, and now is the time for preparation. God is the one preparing us, but we need to recognize that this is what He is up to and live in agreement with what He is doing. Otherwise the coming glory (like I learned as a painter) won't "stick". So embrace the present trials (and blessings!), for they are all training tools designed to prepare us to fulfill the greatest command of all (which sums up all the others): Love God with all that we are, now and forevermore!

super bowl prophecy II

Another key thought came to me in regards to what I wrote in the last posting that I thought was worth devoting another whole post to.  The message that I felt God was speaking to me after the Panther's loss in the Super Bowl was, in a nutshell, "PREPARE!" It certainly would have been more exciting to have seen them win and expectantly look forward to the revival/awakening breaking out. That will happen soon enough.  What's most critical and important now is to be prepared for that time.  Much could be said about how to prepare.  One book that I could recommend along these lines is Rick Joyner's recently published book, ARMY OF THE DAWN. Also, his book entitled, THE HARVEST I would highly recommend.

But the thought I would like to expand a bit on here has to do with how one responds properly to any command that God gives.  If God is speaking to us at this time to "prepare for the coming harvest (which is now imminent)", what do we do?  I would like to suggest that God's commands are themselves a form of prophecy.  In one of the Gospels Jesus says, "the law and the prophets prophesied until John." Did you catch that? The law (i.e the commandments) are actually a prophecy! When God gave His people commandments to obey He knew good and well they were not capable of obeying them.  So why did He give them?!!! First of all He wanted them to try and keep the commandments on their own so that they would learn that human flesh cannot do it.  But once that became clear, those commands would become indicators that whenever they were observed as being obeyed/fulfilled, we would know that it was indeed God at work here, not merely human will. When we observe in someone else, or in one's self, the ability to truly and genuinely obey one of God's commands, it is an indicator that God is at work, He is present, He is fulfilling His
own word in us.  When God commands us to love Him, or to love our neighbor (especially our enemy), it is a prophecy that when we find ourselves actually able to do that from our heart, it will be a clear indication that this is a "God thing" that is happening, not a human thing.

So, if God is speaking to us that we need to prepare for a coming move of His Spirit (call it what you will - revival, awakening, harvest), we need to increase our awareness (through prayer or any other means that will help us increase that awareness) of what God is actually doing within our own hearts and minds as well as in others around us.  One of the most often repeated prayers of mine is, "Daddy, help me to be aware of what you are doing within me and around me.  I want to be working with you and not against you!"

One last thought.  Another way that one can prepare for revival/awakening is to learn about past moves of God in history. You will discover how unprepared God's people typically are! When God moves in new and dramatic ways it is invariably "outside of the box", not like what we would expect. In fact, this is so true that these moves of God stir up great controversy and divisions within the status quo Church.  And there is probably a lot of that "status quo" within all of us that needs top get shook
up and disposed of before the Spirit will have the freedom to do His thing.

The following is a good illustration of how God both commands and enables us to obey his commands (an Old Testament professor in college put it this way: "God's commandments are His enablements"):

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God...High above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire; and brilliant light surrounded him...This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD [YHWH]. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
He said to me, "Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you!" As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me... (Ezekiel 1:1,26b-2:2)

Prepare (be aware of how He is speaking and working in you)!

super bowl prophecy

Those of you who have been reading my posts over the past year know that I highly value the prophetic. I agree with the teaching that Scripture is the standard by which all else is to be judged. But the prophetic gift is given to encourage and clue us in to what God is up to in the present. As Amos 3:7 tells us, "Surely the Sovereign LORD [YHWH] does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets." If you check out both Biblical prophecies as well as non-Biblical ones you will notice that some of them don't fit into any neat category of how we think God should speak (once a friend responded to my telling him about a prophetic word by saying, "God doesn't talk like that.").  The following may seem  that way to some of you, but it has served to stir up some helpful insights which I'd like to share.

About 20 or so years ago one of the most respected of modern day prophets, Bob Jones (not the founder of the university with that name), who is no longer with us, said that the Lord told him that when the Carolina Panthers won the Super Bowl it would be an indicator of the beginning of a new Great Awakening. So you can imagine my interest in the Big game between the Panthers and the Broncos was quite high.  And my emotional state was quite low at the Panther's loss.  As I mulled over what significance to put on all this, if any, I was pleased that the following insight(s) came to me.

First of all it must be noted that there have been many, many prophetic words given over the last quarter century about a coming great revival/awakening that will usher in the final harvest of souls before the Lord's return.  It will eclipse every previous revival/awakening in church history, including the first century one.  None of these previous moves of God fulfilled Jesus' own prophecy that those who believe in him will be able to do even greater works than he did.  This last move will also fulfill the prophecy that Jesus' first miracle (changing water into wine at the wedding in Cana) spoke of - God is saving His best wine for last. Nothing has grabbed my attention or fueled my passion more than to read and hear about (and of course, want to participate in) this last and greatest move of God's Spirit.

So, if this long awaited and longed for event has been postponed for at least another year, what am I to do in the meantime? The answer to that question is "preparation!" My take on this super bowl prophecy about the Panthers and their loss is that it was a reminder that Jesus' prophecy that "the harvest is the end of the age" is very close and God wants us to be aware and prepared for that time. Both Biblical and contemporary prophecies are given, not to stir up our curiosity and prove how cool God is to foretell the future. No!  God wants us to be ready, to be prepared for what He is about to do.
As disappointed as I was that the Panthers lost the Super Bowl, once I began to think more deeply about it and ask God the meaning of it, I actually began to feel not so bad about it because I saw that indeed I and most others are probably, indeed, not prepared for what is coming. We tend to think that we just need to be forewarned about bad things that are coming. But in actuality we need to be forewarned just as much about the blessings that are coming or we would be in the greatest of danger of either missing them altogether (because they probably will not look like what we were expecting), or of squandering those blessings - not treasuring and handling them in an appropriate way.

Years ago God spoke to me as I was working as a painter, spending a lot of time trying to get a door ready for varnishing that had some cat scratchings on it.  I was rather peeved at the time that it was taking to get this part of the door smooth enough and looking just right so that when the coat(s) of varnish were finally put on it would look just right. Even though I didn't hear these exact words (it was more of an impression), in essence what God said to me was, "Bruce, just as you as a painter are wanting to do good work, taking however long is necessary in the preparation part, so that the finished product will be of the highest quality, so am I spending a long time in preparing my people to be able to receive my glory."  Any painter worth his salt will tell you that most of his work is taken up in preparation.  The actual putting on of the paint is relatively easy and quick.  If the preparation part is done too quickly and not carefully enough, the danger increases that the paint will either peel or simply not look as nice as it could have.  The lesson I learned was so clear and equally applicable in the spiritual realm as in the physical:  if you want something to last, to have enduring qualities, as well as to truly shine (radiate glory), devote the time necessary to preparation.  God wants us ready for the awesome move of His Spirit that is coming!   We have no time to waste. We cannot get sidetracked by things that are not in the flow of His moving.  Our focus must be on drawing closer to Him every day, hearing His voice, and being quick to obey.  The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.  If we lose our proper focus we are in danger of missing out (maybe not totally, but to some degree) on what will be the greatest move of God in history - the harvest, which is what will bring this present age to an end.