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)!