Five-Fold Today Take Your Place - Don't Let It Pass! - Conviction Is Good - Bringing Order Out Of Chaos - The Prayer Of Faith - Press In! - Elijah: Prophet of Restoration - Satan's Strategy

November 6, 2001

Take Your Place

Bill Burns

I hear the Lord saying, get up even as I got up! Take your place. Receive the impartation of that which I have given unto you. Are these not perilous times? But, I say, they are also glorious times. These are the times that have been set apart for My church to rise in the power of My kingdom and demonstrate My will, My power, My voice in the land that the sword of the Spirit may come forth from your mouths, a two-edged sword to strike the enemy. I say, devastation comes upon the world, but devastation will also come upon the enemy. It comes from My people against the evil one, for his time is running out. His time is near the finish, and your time is just beginning.

Your time begins in the eternal hereafter with Me in a kingdom that cannot shaken, a kingdom that is secure for all time, a kingdom that cannot be moved by the heart or mind of man, a kingdom that cannot be persuaded by the enemy, a kingdom that is steadfast and sure, a kingdom that has been brought forth by the words of My mouth. It shall come, and it shall stand in the security of My promise for all time, says the Lord. It is a kingdom born of eternity, birthed in the heart of My Father. Even before the creation of the world it was in My Father's heart to give you eternal life in an eternal kingdom, which shall last forever. Even though you may not understand that concept, you should be praying, "Father, Your kingdom come! Your kingdom come! Your kingdom come!!" It is not as the kingdoms of the world, but it is a glorious kingdom. You have only seen it in bits and pieces, says the Lord, for it is written that I shall wipe away every tear. Why would you not cry out for it then?

When the last enemy is defeated and the sons of life arise, when the resurrection is extended to all of those as the last trumpet sounds, you shall be caught up with Me. Then, your life really begins, for this life is a carnal life, a temporal life, but you are being changed from glory to glory into My image. You are the sons and daughters of the very end of the age, and I am calling you to come aside now and be raised in resurrection power. Again, I say, get up as I got up. It is faith that causes the resurrection to come upon you. I am going to bring a foretaste of resurrection power and demonstrate it in My church even before that final and great day that the world itself may see that the sons of God are rising.

The sons of the last days are rising. They will walk as I walked, and they will walk in faith and power. They will demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom, for I have purposed it. It is written, and My word shall not be broken. It then remains that you simply believe that you are who I have said you are, that you receive the calling that has come unto you, and that you let your faith raise you up in resurrection power even now. Live in resurrection life now where the enemy cannot rule over you. Live in the resurrection glory, and the enemy will have no ground in you.

Faith Tabernacle
Kremmling, CO 80459
http://ft111.com
ft111@ft111.com

Don't Let It Pass!

Laura Perez

Do you hear the thunder? It is the charge of horses and chariots, they are charging forth to take back what the enemy has stolen.

Do you feel the rain? It is the rain of my blessings upon you as you charge forth with this army. Blessings are now, right now pouring forth in such velocity that you won't be able to contain it, the blessings are overflowing.

Count it all joy my children. The chariots are ablaze with the good news and all the authority to release the captives and set them free

You are not 'grunts'. You are commanders in the Name of Jesus! What so ever you command, will have to come to pass. Cast out those demons! Cast out the spirits! Raise the dead! Set my people free!

The chariots are charging forth! Take up the reigns and direct them over your region you that I have appointed commanders by the power of the blood of my Son Jesus Christ, the anointed one, or the thunder of their hooves will pass on to another place where the commanders that know their authority will take charge.

My mercy and grace is raining down! You are armed, you have been prepared, and called to duty.

mustardseeds777@yahoo.com

Conviction Is Good

Undrai Fizer

Conviction is from Holy Spirit. It is painful, but it is still needed. Conviction is the Spirit's way of letting you know that you are fully responsible for how you are thinking, living, and perceiving.

Some of us have laid the blame of our spiritual ineptitude's on others, circumstances, and ministry disappointments. We have found our secret, personal control in a pursuit of being "protected" from other people's abuse. We have put up inward shields of protection from more disappointments.

However, a prophetic word from the Lord will release you, or at least challenge to release you, from the inner shield of protection. The word will leave the "ball in your court." It will leave you with no room for the excuse to live "protected" any longer. It will expose you to the fact that you can deal with this situation, and that there is no room for any more excuses!

Conviction reveals what we really want to do with our lives. It reveals all of our desires, whether good or bad. Usually, when a person has settled within themselves that they will not change and go forward in maturity, they will say that they are feeling a "spirit of condemnation." They will feel that you are condemning them. But the truth may be that they ARE CONDEMNING THEMSELVES.

Conviction releases the truth of God to you. It let's you and I know that we are in the "know" of whatever season, sin, or circumstance, we may find ourselves in. It is the Spirit's way of saying, "You are no longer ignorant." It's God's way of saying that we are now fully responsible and He wants to see the maturity of our actions concerning His Word in the matter.

Conviction is good. When the Word of His Mouth is truly spoken and released by His servants, this feeling of conviction may come. It is the truth being revealed. There are no "gray" areas in truth. (Why do so many believers get offended at "black or white" words of truth?). The truth will free us, not "half truth" or diluted truth." God's truth will free us, indeed.

The word comes with no room to hide. It makes it very plain. Some of us like things to be "cloudy" because it releases us from the responsibility of commitment. It exposes the slothfulness of our spiritual lives. Those who walk slothful may feel offended when they are in the presence of committed believers. They may even despise the committed by making them feel "guilty" or calling them arrogant because of their commitment to Christ. They may even say, "they need to learn to walk in love." Ever notice how the uncommitted always talk about "being loved"? They seek understanding over being responsible. Not good.

Conviction causes the slothful to realize if you love something, you must commit to it. You will commit to the things you say you love, right?

Conviction is good. Conviction is right. Conviction is from the Spirit. And if you are feeling "condemned," it's because you have given up on your own self.

Undrai Frizer
http://www.exploringthevision.org/

Bringing Order Out Of Chaos

Mona McReynolds

The training that goes into the prophetic calling is terribly confusing at times, making things seem chaotic and bringing confusion, perplexing us, testing us, breaking us sometimes we think "beyond our limits". Why?

Scripture tells us that our Lord Jesus "learned obedience through the things He suffered" Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; Hebrews 5:8

If Jesus is our example, then why do we get perplexed at the things we go through as part of our training? My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; James 1:2 I wish someone had told me (WARNED Me) about the training that the prophet goes through !! Had I known that some things are "common" to the prophets, it would have made things a little easier to deal with.

People who do not have a "prophetic calling or anointing" do not and CANNOT understand those who do. It is a "distinct" and separate calling from the general Christian population. The prophetic anointing itself alone causes the person to be "separated" from the crowd. We are never really a part of the group so to speak. We are but are not at the same time. Jesus said we are "in the world but not OF it" kind of the same principal. We are in the Body, but not OF it...so to speak. The prophet's whole person is "tuned" to God on a different wavelength. We are tied into Him in a different way, we think differently, we hear and see differently, we pray differently, we sense things differently. We have a communication with the Holy One that is different. Even for us, we have a hard time understanding it, so we cannot expect those who do not have that same experience or anointing to understand it.

The first thing a prophetic person is aware of is the "separateness, the aloneness, the persecution, the being different" We are never quite operating on the same level as others and are usually never accepted as "one of the crowd". Unless we are taught that God does single us out and separate us, we will be perplexed and perhaps bitter over that fact...BUT if we come to see it in a different light and accept that it is part of our anointing and calling, it can become and be turned into a blessing.

We have to learn how to be quiet and gracious when in the presence of those who do not understand the prophetic anointing and calling... and love them, cooperate with them, and minister to them in "ways they can understand"....like being a prophet without them knowing that you are being a prophet! : ) That is the secret. Eventually, they will come to understand and recognize the "difference" in you as being from God. (If they are really trying to walk close to God and serve Him, they will be aware of something Godly in you). Some will be afraid of it, some will run from it, some will be convicted and they will either rise up against you or repent, some will come to you with respect for the anointing. Some will come treating you like a psychic and trying to pull prophetic words from you as if this were some kind of "cheap Christian trick" you are supposed to perform for them. Some will harass and persecute you because of the Spirit of God that rests upon you and they are of the "enemy". But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him [that was born] after the Spirit, even so [it is] now. Galatians 4:29 They will all react differently to God's prophets (the Spirit of God within you). Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great [is] your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:12 REJOICE it says....oh sure easy for you to say! Hee hee. (Mona's personal comment! ) : )

So, in essence what I am saying is...... come to expect these different reactions and learn how to conduct yourself in each instance. The Spirit of God within you will "teach you all things". The Spirit of God does not strive with man....He woos and loves and leads to repentance and His Holy Spirit will convict and convince. That is HIS JOB! We just have to be willing to speak what He says in love and compassion. It is received better that way. (A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down)- Mary Poppins translation of "a soft answer turneth away wrath"....

We as prophets must learn how to deliver the "goods" in such a way that they can be received. That is where the spirit of Wisdom comes into manifestation. We have to put ourselves in that person's place that we are ministering to and ask "if I were this person, how would I like to be ministered to and what words would I accept even if they were "truthful ones". Then try to minister to them that way. We don't have to be harsh or blunt or authoritative when ministering. The Holy Spirit can be what He needs to be to get the job done. There are times, when we do have to be firm and unbending with the message and our behavior, but we can still do that in a gracious and firm manner without acting prideful, condescending, or too authoritative. The Holy Spirit does not need our fleshly help. He is quite capable of convicting and convincing on His own. Our part is to trust that He will do just that after we have done our part.

I will say that the training of a prophet takes a long time and is not easy. He uses us even during the training period, but there will come a time when the training, if we have learned well, will turn into maturity, blessing, and ministry for His Kingdom and to the Body of Christ. Prophets are "servants" to the body and most don't see them as such. We are held accountable and have a responsibility to walk before God as His representative and servant to the Body.... that is why our training is so much harder, tougher, and more grueling. I have found it to be a spiritual principle..... The prophet suffers what is common to us all but usually gets a good dose of whatever it is before he/she can give the word to others....that is the way God designed it lest we become puffed up with pride. He would rather us to be able to "identify" with the pain of sin and frailness/weakness in ourselves first so that we can minister in humility and compassion to others. This is about "identifying with others". (Mona's parable : )

God has to be able to trust us to minister on His behalf with truth, grace, and authority. That anointing is not come by easily. We can either let it break us and or make us bitter. If we submit ourselves into the hands of the Almighty and humble ourselves, we will be okay and useful. If we do not, we are not right and will become as many 'false prophets" False prophets are simply those who do not speak for God but from their own spirits.....so you can see how some having started out on the journey, training having gotten hard, they gave up....and did not continue on letting Him refine and test them and perfect them. These have made shipwreck of their faith....in other words they "crashed and burned" They learned enough to make them dangerous and sheep in wolf's clothing making merchandise of God's holy things by either jealousy of those who continued on and passed the tests, or because they know the nature of man to want to "peek into the future" or to say what they think he wants to know and so lead many astray (and for sometimes financial gain). We need discernment and wisdom in these matters and be able to know how to deal with them in truth and grace.

Another thing God does with the Prophet is let them go through the "death of a vision". Whatever ministry or vision you think He has given you.....it will go through the fire and "death" in the spirit. You will feel that it (vision or dream) has died and been taken away from you. It is part of learning to "die" to self. He gives them back to you....in His time, but by then you will have gone through the fire and these will have been purified before you get them back. I am sorry, but there is no "short-cuts" through this phase of training....it happens to the best.

At one time, I had to lay my guitar and singing/worshiping and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit down....they (the giftings and talents) all went through a death as did I. He removed them from me for a "season" (several years) and it was absolutely horrible. But I knew He was doing it....it was of Him....and calling for my surrender in those things. While they were on the "back shelf" God was teaching, training, and working with Mona to make her a better person. Taught me intercessory and prophetic prayer for a two-year period. Like I said, the training is long and intense.

So,....take heart. If you know these things can lie ahead, you won't be shaken when they come. God knows what He is doing with us.....we just have to trust. Yes, He did give them all back to me...and I knew how to handle them better and with more wisdom and responsibility. He is still giving them back to me and teaching me how to "move in them with more and more accuracy as I move in obedience and trust Him". He is even adding things to me that I didn't know I would get ....we never stop learning and growing!

Hope this helps someone struggling with these very issues at present. Take heart and trust God. He alone can do the work in you....you just be willing to cooperate.

Blessings and peace to your spirit!

In Jesus,
Mona McReynolds

http://www.hourtoempower.com
mona@mwis.net

The Prayer Of Faith

Chimezie Onyebilanm

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours". Mark 11:24

Remove faith and prayers becomes a cold impotent religious activity. Faith and expectancy are what make prayers potent.

The circumstances of life has a way of robbing us of expectant faith in the supernatural. The woman with the issue of blood had struggled for twelve years to get a healing and had gone from one disappointment to another. Years of unanswered prayers is enough to deflate faith and make one afraid to hope too much. I suppose we might have been understanding if she had come to Jesus just thinking “well I hope this one works”. But thank God that this was not how she came or she might have gone home no better. You see, hoping or wishing is different from having faith. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for”. This woman said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed”. Emotions don't move God, it is faith that moves him. Faith is specific. Faith is definite. Faith is expectant. Faith doesn't give up. Faith holds on until God comes through.

Beware of unbelief. We might well be the generation of which Jesus asked the question “But when the Son of Man shall return, shall he find faith on the earth?”. There are too many unbelieving believers today. Overwhelmed by all the bad reports of our ever-increasingly dark world we are unable to believe that our prayers can make any difference. When we pray we are only being religious, we are not really expecting anything to happen.

Yet no matter how dark things might be around us, there is still power in prayer if it is prayed with expectancy. There is power, wonder-working power in the prayer of faith. The bible said that this woman was healed from that moment. When we realize the power of believing prayers then we will realize that we too can shape our future through prayers.

Do not just say your prayers, pray in faith doubting nothing. “Everything is possible for him who believes”.

caprotogo@laposte.tg

Press In!

Marsha Burns

Seek Me with a whole heart. So many of you, My children, still pray from afar, remaining outside the circle of My glory. I want you to come into the realm of intimacy and see Me face to face. Let go of all fear and insecurity. Cleanse your heart, for My desire is to have you abide in My presence. I am a God of love, and I will not turn you away. I long to have My children close to Me. I am doing that work in this hour; I am drawing you to Myself in a new way. Be sensitive to My voice as I call you to a closer walk with Me. Quiet your soul, and move by the Spirit towards Me with purpose and determination.

Psalm 27:8 When You said, "Seek My face," My heart said to You, "Your face, LORD, I will seek."

Faith Tabernacle
Kremmling, CO 80459
http://ft111.com
ft111@ft111.com

Elijah: Prophet of Restoration

Art Katz

Then Elijah said to the people, "I alone am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Now let them give us two oxen; and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other ox, and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD, and the God who answers, He is God (1 Kings 18: 19-24).

The audacity and boldness of Elijah to say those things! This is a foretaste of the last day's Elijah ministry and that is what we need to appreciate. What heightens our appreciation is that it is also a picture of what must yet come: Elijah must first come and restore all things. The prophetic requirement of the last days is tied up essentially with the restoration of that which was lost, the ancient and the original, the pristine and the first thing.

We are not talking about the restoration of the ministry offices as if that is the thing in itself. It is a means to a larger and other end, namely, the "restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time" (Acts 3: 21b). That is to say, both the restoration of Israel after her yet future calamity, known as 'the time of Jacob's trouble', and the restoration of a church to its pristine and original apostolic glory and power. Truth itself needs to be restored that has been lying in the streets. Language itself has suffered terrible abuse and defamation. There is restoration work at every hand, and it is an enormously exhausting work. It would be easier to start from scratch than to have to first undo, pluck up, root out and destroy what men have celebrated and want to see continue and to be preserved, that is something other than that which was given at the first. One can only build and plant after one has rooted up, plucked out and destroyed. How many of us have the stamina to bear the cries and the shrieks of people who do not want to see things rooted up?

There must first come this 'Elijah company' before the Lord Himself returns. John the Baptist was equated with Elijah of whom the Lord described as the greatest of all the prophets, and in doing so, was celebrating the intrinsic 'Elijah' content of what John was. There is a spirit of Elijah, a quintessential, prophetic character that John exhibited that was of spirit and of kind with Elijah and will again picture what is yet future, namely, an 'Elijah company' upon the earth in that same separation, the same audacity and that same confident knowledge of God. They will have the same authority to perform the last day's works of God and to confront a church and a world that have become apostate and challenge them by challenging its prophets and bringing down the demonstration of God and the revelation of God in fire.

If Elijah, who is a prophet of an ultimate end-time wilderness kind, must first come, then what are the constituent elements or the defining characteristics of the Elijah prophet? What kind of prophet must we expect and that God is waiting for, all the more if it is to be corporate? He is not a writing prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah, but rather he is the prophet of action and confrontation. What are we seeing from this prophet in action that is quintessentially the definition of prophet? There are going to be many false prophets. What is Elijah showing in his obedience to be the one fool? What does it show that inheres in the word prophet? Was Elijah drafted or was he a voluntary conscript? He was chosen but that does not mean that he had no choice in the matter and that he could not have refused it.

End-time Confrontation

It says of Ahab that he was more evil than any of the kings of Israel before him. The conjunction, therefore, between a political Ahab and a religious Jezebel, an illicit, strange, ungodly, vile union brings together the worst of things political and things religious, and makes it a consummate power. We need to understand this, because it is a prefiguring of the last day's world religious and political system to which we are now moving.

It is to that that God sends Elijah. Elijah's authority, power and audacity are not the statement of what he is externally but what he is inwardly and truly, which is the whole truth of what authority in God is. It is not the audacity that grows from the fact that you are 'macho'. That is a false pompous audacity and is not the basis for confronting Ahab: "As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word" (1 Kings 17: 1b).

The remarkable thing is that nothing precedes this description of Elijah. Here is the full-orbed, totally prepared man thrust on the scene of history in that condition of obedience and without anything to indicate how he came to it. We need to ponder that. Elijah is indicative in type of the last day's Elijah company also trained up for ultimate obediences in obscurity and hiddenness. God can take the ordinary elements of our lives and use them to discipline and train us up in a long preparation that is not recognized nor seen by others.

"As the LORD, the God of Israel lives..."

How many of us are satisfied with our present knowledge that is satisfactory for most operating circumstances, but it is not satisfactory to stand before Ahab? Men prefer to remain with the quotient of knowledge that they presently have because anything more would bring requirement. To know God as Elijah knew him is to welcome suffering, to open ourselves and make ourselves vulnerable for such tearing, such trials, such dealings and the things that cannot be anticipated, that except God be God, we are likely to perish in any one of those things. Do we have a knowledge of God just sufficient for our need but not the knowledge of God that exceeds our need, namely, the knowledge of God as a He in fact is and desires to be known?

Is the knowledge of God so dear to us that we are willing for whatever it takes to obtain it? The single factor that describes the Messianic age is "that the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas" and it is the knowledge of God as Elijah knew Him.

"...before whom I stand..."

This is a mutually exclusive relationship. If we are going to stand before that God, then we cannot stand before any other. That means that we do not seek the approval of men, nor seek to rise in the religious system and become celebrated. This is to stand solely and exclusively before Him, with full accountability without so much as looking out of the corner of our eye as to how any other man or authority or religious group or prestigious segment will so much as take note of you. It is total and absolute indifference to what men think and say. This is not to encourage some kind of sophomoric, "Well, I do not care what others say." It is rather a refusal to seek acknowledgment from men. We cannot have the two. To stand before God is an absoluteness. How far are we willing to go with God? We will not be able to stand before the judgment throne of God with any kind of confidence, but with unbelievable terror, unless we can say in this life, "As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand..."and say it in truth. Whatever the sacrifice in order to make that statement in this life is worth it, just to avoid the terror of standing before the throne of the Lord when he makes that eternal determination of our destiny. We need to know that we stand and to know it in this life.

That one statement out of a man's mouth gives such an awareness of a history with God, of what it takes to make that statement and make that statement to stand as a truth, that even an Ahab will tremble at the hearing of it. It is not a cliché coming out of Elijah's mouth. It resonates with power and authority because it is the word of truth. It is the statement of the logic of his entire life in God. We need so deeply to respect the statement of Elijah and God is so discreet that He draws the shade and we are not allowed to peer in and press in with our vulgar curiosity to find out how it was done. You can believe that it was done with sufferings, anguish, shrieks and cries in the night and, "Where is God?" and the dark night of the soul, that a man can be brought forth at a point of time historically to stand before the most dread enemies of God and make those statements, and not only to make them, but also to invoke a judgment upon the nation by his own word.

Elijah was solely, exclusively and totally God's. He was above culture, tradition, value, history and time. He was in that realm with God and the realm to which we ourselves are called and to which Abraham was called: "Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you..." (Gen. 12:1b).

It was not just an accidental aspect of the call, but at the heart of it. Those are the places where we are compromised, not because they are necessarily evil, but there is something about the flesh and father's house and about kindred, family and country that keeps us from an Elijah obedience. How many of us would be ruthless about those things, that though we have fathers and mothers, nations and family, as far as we are concerned, there is effectually a total and radical severance? We only move when He speaks. That is the call we have, and the ironic thing is that however precious our forebears and their influence, there is a kind of a tie that connects us that needs to be cut of a soulish kind to release us for the Elijah ministry. It is one thing to shuck off a terrible father and background and a bad past, but how about if it is good? There is a greater danger of spiritual compromise there than in the casting away of that which had no influence.

Elijah was not some exceptional piece of humanity. The key word that distinguishes Elijah's prayer that affected the elements is "earnestly". Other synonyms would be: fervently, intensely and passionately, or to put it in another way, Elijah prayed as God would pray. He prayed in the name of the Lord. He prayed in keeping with God's own constituent make-up and character, and God heard that prayer, for it was, as it were, His own. That which makes the prayer earnest is not the man's temperament, but the man's righteousness. The prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available and is dynamic in its working. There has, therefore, got to be some conjunction between effectual prayer and the spiritual standing of the one praying with God.

The resurrection man is therefore eminently the righteous man. The man who has such an identification with the Cross and the identification with the emptying of self in daily relationship is the man who knows the resurrection. He is so righteous that he knows and detests that God should be served out of his own human energy, his own intelligence or his own ability. What is righteousness but God Himself!

We can know to some degree whether we have a prophetic calling by the disposition we have to restore the ancient ways and paths, the things that have fallen down or been knocked down and cast aside. What is God intending that was at the first?

The church in the book of Acts is how it was at the first, but no longer is. The church now is increasingly the sum of traditions, denominations, sophistication, modern technology and methodologies, for example, bringing God down through 'worship'. The whole thing invites being torn down, rooted up and plucked out and something restored that God has given from the first, namely, apostolic Christianity. It has got to be at the end as authentic as it was at the beginning, when the glory of God was in the church, that men were afraid even to join themselves to it. Anyone who violated against the Spirit of Truth, was carried out feet first by the young men.

To restore that before the Lord comes is an epochal and gut wrenching task, because it is so easy to 'go along'. A prophet has the vision for the original and a jealousy for the glory that attended it. He cannot stomach any deviation, counterfeit or modern day equivalent. He wants the glory of God that was at the first, and wants to see the authentic thing restored and knows that it is going to be such a labor to pick up those stones. The prophet not only restores but he keeps and elevates the consciousness of the true thing before the people of God continually.

The false prophets did not know that they were false. They actually expected that there was a God that would answer them. The vilest form of apostasy is when the people who are apostate do not even recognize or see themselves as apostate, and think that they are fully in the faith. That is the ultimate apostasy and we need to seriously ask whether we are already describing the condition to which the church has come, even in its best and most celebrated forms. We are not just talking about the mainline churches like the Episcopal and the Methodist, but are we are willing to consider those forms of the church that are the most charismatically celebrated in Christendom today? The apostasy is even worse in those places because it is not even recognized as apostasy, and so much so, that when one comes to confront and challenge, then that one is called a 'troubler of Israel' and is shown the back door.

The prophetic man has somehow in the deepest corridors of his heart a little tremor of discomfort, that though everyone is shouting 'Amen' and 'hallelujah' and having a great time, there is something in his own heart that cannot say 'Yea' and 'Amen'. It is not yet the authentic thing, though it purports to be and appears to be and uses all the right language appropriate to being it. The prophet is so attuned to God, who Himself alone is authenticity, that when he comes into the presence of something that appears to be right and is not, then it registers upon his own soul. How can such a man be found and formed in such a way? It is the crying need of the church in this hour because the deception is far more extensive than we know.

The issue of the prophet is the issue of life or death. It always was and will be again, especially in the last days. The time is coming when we will have to confront the false prophets as Elijah did. We can no longer say, "Well, you are entitled to your opinion. You are not compelled to agree with me." Rather, "Your view is actually lulling people into a false security that will ensure their death and I confront you, for it is wrong." Elijah confronted the false prophets and we are coming to the hour where we will no longer be able to keep our opinions to ourselves. The issue of who is really true and who is really false is now being required to come out on the table and be an open matter. No present issue is perhaps more critical for the church in identifying and distinguishing the one from the other.

___________________________________
-From the online book 'The Prophetic Call' -
http://www.benisrael.org/OnlineBooks/prophetic_call/the_prophetic_call.htm
Submitted by the ANZAC List
prophetic@revival.gen.nz

Satan's Strategy

A. W. Tozer

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. --Ephesians 6:13

Now I do not think that Satan much cares to destroy us Christians physically. The soldier dead in battle who died performing some deed of heroism is not a great loss to the army but may rather be an object of pride to his country. On the other hand the soldier who cannot or will not fight but runs away at the sound of the first enemy gun is a shame to his family and a disgrace to his nation. So a Christian who dies in the faith represents no irreparable loss to the forces of righteousness on earth and certainly no victory for the devil. But when whole regiments of professed believers are too timid to fight and too smug to be ashamed, surely it must bring an astringent smile to the face of the enemy; and it should bring a blush to the cheeks of the whole Church of Christ.

The devil's master strategy for us Christians then is not to kill us physically (though there may be some special situations where physical death fits into his plan better), but to destroy our power to wage spiritual warfare. And how well he has succeeded. The average Christian these days is a harmless enough thing. God knows. He is a child wearing with considerable self-consciousness the harness of the warrior; he is a sick eaglet that can never mount up with wings; he is a spent pilgrim who has given up the journey and sits with a waxy smile trying to get what pleasure he can from sniffing the wilted flowers he has plucked by the way. That Incredible Christian, 72.

"Oh God, may I never be 'a harmless enough thing,' 'a child wearing...the harness of the warrior,' 'a sick eaglet,' 'a spent pilgrim.' Give me grace to fight valiently. Amen."
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Read "Insight for Leaders" online at:
http://www.litmin.com/tozer.php3

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