Archive for March 2011
I’m teaching on revival Friday in Dearborn Heights—just before theLab
Tomorrow at Dearborn Heights First Assembly of God I’ll be teaching on (and bringing!) revival, and then at 10pm theLab prayer event starts!
FIRST: Get ready for a BRAND NEW website—www.detroitprophecy.com. You will be able to check out the up-to-date prophetic instructions for this region, send in your dreams and visions and ensure we’re all on the same page as we advance together. I’ll be designing it soon!
FRIDAY NIGHT: We’re looking for the remnant church to awaken and do the extreme work necessary to initiate revival in Detroit.
I’ll be teaching on the strategic plan for revival in Detroit tomorrow (Friday) at 7pm. We’ll experience some powerful worship, and we are intent on facilitating an atmosphere where we can all go very deep together.
The Fireplace has stirred us, and now it’s time to move to the next place in the process of revival in Detroit.
After worship, teaching and ministry, we’ll stay and give leadership to theLab from 10pm-midnight! Get ready for a night of fire that we won’t want to end!
Dearborn Heights Assembly of God : 5650 S Telegraph Rd, Dearborn Heights, MI 48125-2024
Shocking dream : Trust me, take time to listen to this critical message for the church
I had a shocking dream that communicated a critical message of prophetic realignment for the church.
Watch or listen to this message: A Prophetic Culture
In a day where churches are not even prophetically influenced, much less prophetically led, we’re experiencing a radical misalignment.
Most of us have grown up in a pastor led church model, and the idea of apostolic/prophetic leadership is quite foreign to us. Many are afraid of prophecy, while others embrace it, but only if it’s personally encouraging.
Follow along with the notes below, and feel the heart of God in this special message. I will share a dream that absolutely freaked me out, and share about the piercing prophetic alarm that’s sounding over the cities of the Earth.
A Prophetic Culture
I. A prophetic culture
a. We have to be concerned that most churches are not prophetically led.
i. The entire culture of the church has to change so the church moves from a simple teaching center to a missional organization.
ii. The church has such a phenomenal opportunity to radically change—if we respond to the prophetic instructions.
b. The restoration of the prophetic ministry is essential for the vitality of the church. Whereas the gift of prophecy can be given to any believer as the Spirit wills, the ministry of the prophet is a calling on a person’s life. The church urgently needs this ministry.
i. the role of the Prophet is :
1. to Speak for God
2. to exhort and direct the body of Christ.
c. The prophet will provide vision for the church and keep it on the right track. He will ensure that there is an emphasis on holiness. A prophet is really an elder, who challenges church members with besetting sins and specializes in getting vision for the church.
i. This means the city church!
d. People absolutely love it when they receive prophecy that foretells what’s to come.
i. They love simple encouragement. They love exhortation.
ii. However, most shrink back when instructional prophecy is delivered.
iii. It takes humility to know the difference between prophecy and exhortation. Exhortation is not prophecy (Mario Murillo- Prophecy).
iv. The prophetic alarms that are sounding now are going to require extreme and swift response by everybody.
v. God requires men with a vision. To do a great work only requires one man with a vision who is prepared to burn himself out for it. God takes a man and burns a vision onto his heart. To be a disciple means that God has to take everything that person has. If a vision is to be fulfilled we must give everything for it (Clark Taylor on Prov 29:18).
vi. In a day when people are trying to avoid burn out, I believe God is calling us to be willing to burn out…the call is that severe.
e. Isaiah 58:1-3 (ESV) 1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. 3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure…
i. It’s a prophet’s job to analyze the current situation in the church via the revelation of the Holy Spirit and then to call the people to respond.
ii. This is a rare manifestation of the prophetic office, but we must embrace it again if we are to experience God’s plans for our region.
iii. Definition: A prophet is a spokesperson for God. The prophet admonishes, warns, directs, encourages, intercedes, teaches and counsels. He brings the word of God to the people of God and calls the people to respond.
iv. Definition: The seer is one who has understanding of the times. This person has the ability to perceive and discern the spiritual significance of a situation and can give the Lord’s perspective on a given situation. This person’s strengths are giftings of illumination and discernment, though they may or may not communicate what they see in any one set or particular manner. This kind of prophet is extremely valuable as a watchman and intercessor in the midst of the Church.
v. As a prophetic center for the region, this is one of our key mandates. We serve through sharing critical analysis of the situation and offering solutions.
vi. Quote: Some prophets are watchmen or men of vision who stand on the walls of the city of God to see what God is doing. They look into the distance to see what is coming. They often see a long way ahead.
f. One place where the modern church often stumbles is in the understanding of revelation.
i. Many believe that God will speak directly to them when something is to be done.
ii. They don’t understand that at times God will be silent to them, but will speak clearly to a prophet, or to their leader, regarding what is to be done.
iii. You can have spiritual gifting and insight, but that does not mean God has set you in a position of governing authority. God gives gifts to men by His Spirit, but the governing offices are established by the Lord Jesus. We get into trouble when we mistake gifts for offices (John Bevere Thus Saith the Lord p.131).
g. Amos 3:6-8 (ESV) 6 Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it? 7 “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. 8 The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?”
i. Share my dream of the apocalyptic city when the air raid siren sounded.
1. I wasn’t moved. I was casual. I went to the bathroom (it seemed necessary, but really wasn’t). I represented the state of the church.
2. Where’s the response?!
a. I’m so radically concerned about the hope for revival in Detroit.
3. Quote: The church will always be the prophet’s main concern.
4. The true church could not have become the “institution” it has, if the watchmen had not been rendered impotent (John Martin).
a. Meaning, the removal of prophets has resulted in a sterile church without vision and forward advance. Wildly expectant : We need your help to get into a new property
We are looking to pull the trigger on leasing a different property for Revival Church and theLab—your participation will help determine what type of property we choose.
IN THIS MESSAGE:
- Finding a new property (this week?)
- The (huge!) vision
- Amy’s story of giving to a better storehouse (So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.)
We have our eyes on several properties now, and have offers to share them with another church (like we do now).
I’m feeling a very, very powerful swirl of the Holy Spirit today…huge expectancy. So, I thought I’d get you all praying with me. Something unusual is going on!
If you feel God is calling you to give a financial gift toward a new property, now is the time to do that. We’ll be making a decision on where we go soon based where God is leading and on the finances we have to use (possibly this week—we have to be in a new place no later than May.). We are committed to staying out of debt, so we’ll only move on something that we can afford.
As of Sunday, the church only had $130 in the bank, but then the Lord moved nicely and the offering was our largest ever—$2300. So, I think God is really touching some hearts in this area now.
We pay $800 a month to share the current property, and won’t go much beyond that when we move to a new place—unless we receive a significant donation that makes it clear that it would be wise to get something a bit more.
THE VISION
We are called to fulfill a very important mission here in Detroit. Our ministry has a mandate to be a prophetic regional center of revival.
What does this mean? A few things:
- We have regional focus. We envision a team of pastors from all throughout the region locking arms and focusing primarily on strategic regional events.
- We are raising up a team of prophetic messengers and revivalists. theLab internship is helping fulfill the call to create a company of people who will station themselves in the mission command center for Detroit. They receive prophetic data and instructions and communicate it to the pastors and leaders of the region.
- Continual apostolic intercession is a foundational ministry for us. Not only do we want to intercede, but the call is to hear God’s plans clearly, and then respond immediately and appropriately. We’re gathering 1000 intercessors, pastors, leaders and burning men and women of God to pray very aggressively and intentionally on site together each week.
- theLab team is being trained and equipped to carry the call to gather leaders and to host large scale prophetic prayer events. theLab events are purposed to bring in key, anointed national and international leaders to deposit fire into the desperate Detroit region.
Now, to pull all of this off, we need a large campus. A 2000+ seat auditorium plus prayer rooms, class rooms and other facilities will be necessary. At this point, we’re willing to either take that giant leap, or we will take a much smaller incremental step by simply finding a place to meet on Sundays. We’re open to the exact plan of God for us.
We don’t want to go for the campus if we are supposed to share a property, and we don’t want to share if we are supposed to find the campus at this time.
You can donate at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/donate.
THE BETTER STOREHOUSE
On Sunday, God dropped a timely message into my spirit, just before we received the tithes and offerings. I was reminded of a situation in our household, and then shared a scripture that I’ll pass along to you. Detroit is shell-shocked financially right now, and I’m concerned that people are attempting to entrust their own storehouses (a reaction of fear) instead of God’s risk-free system of giving toward the storehouse of the church (a reaction of faith).
Here’s our story:
First, Amy went to pay the bills, and discovered that we were $630 short. She was very frustrated, and couldn’t figure out why that was. She had to take some money out of our savings (our storehouse) and move it into our checking account so we could pay the bills.
Then, later that day, Skylar found a check for $630 that Amy thought had already been deposited. Well, there was the missing money. So, Amy was about to deposit it into our savings to replace what she had to move over. God then said, “All of your bills have been paid, right?” Hmmm. Yes, it was true. We were not in lack, and we did have an excess of $630. So, Amy decided to give $50 out of her thankfulness.
God then said again, “All of your bills have been paid, right?”
Right there, Amy was faced with her financial nervousness contrasting with God’s clear ability to take care of us—and was convinced of the importance to put our money in the right storehouse. She wrote a check for $500 and gave it to The Fireplace (a revival movement here in Detroit) and put aside another $130 to be used to treat some pastors to dinner.
The money was given to a much better storehouse.
Luke 12:15 And he said to them,”Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Let me know if you have any thoughts at all.
Blessings!!
Is the hope for revival fading in Detroit?
Disturbed in Detroit : Warning dream
Detroit is on the clock—will revival pass by this desperate city?
I had a dream last night, and as I woke from it I was so shaken that I had a hard time falling back to sleep.
The dream was very short, but it shook me powerfully. I was in a large public area, most probably downtown Detroit, and it was late at night. I wish I could describe the feeling of the atmosphere, but it’s tough. It felt incredibly cinematic—apocalyptic—and everything was dark and colorless.
Suddenly, the most terrifying, threatening and urgent alarm sounded in the streets. It was an air raid siren. People started running everywhere. This next part is a bit crude, but is significant to understand what God was communicating. I personally didn’t feel any urgency at all to respond to the alarm, but I did decide to go into a public bathroom. I didn’t really have to go, but thought it might be good to take care of business in case things did in fact get bad.
I was treating the entire situation in a casual manner. I felt the alarm was false, or at least not as big a deal as everybody was making it. The urgency of alarm should have resulted in immediate action, but I decided to focus on what was commonly necessary, though in reality I didn’t really have to do that. I could have, and should have waited. The situation was more fearful than I realized.
In warning dreams in the past, I have been a representative of the church. The same was true in my dream of being dragged to Hell (documented in my book The Terror of Hell). In last night’s dream, I (the church) was convinced that the alarm wasn’t important and that other demands of life, cares of life, should take precedence.
WILL REVIVAL PASS DETROIT BY?
I have been terribly disturbed over the last month or so at the slow response of the church to the alarm that has been sounded. Significant prophetic warnings and instructions have been given in Detroit, and the response has been casual at best. We simply have to understand that the outpouring and transformation that’s assigned to Detroit will pass us by if we don’t respond en mass! God wanted the Israelites to enter the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, but instead of experiencing freedom, life, milk and honey, they experienced death in the desert! They were assigned breakthrough, but their lack of response invalidated that assignment.
Now, I must say that there is a very impressive remnant that has been responding in amazing fashion. You all are a blessing!! I’m amazed at your faithfulness and your constant, immediate response!
Brian Simmons recently asked, “If revival in Detroit depended on your prayer life, how close are we?”
The type of fire that was ignited in Dearborn Heights in February was so special and rare, and the instructions were clear and continually communicated that we must gather nightly to steward it. I have to admit, I can’t imagine hearing about a revival fire being lit and treating it casually, and focusing on other typical ‘demands’ of life.
Joel 1:14-15 (ESV) 14 Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. 15 Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
This rare fire should have grown into a revival that would have shaken the entire world if we simply would have gathered. The call was for the pastors of the city (elders) and all of the inhabitants of the land to gather and cry out! Do you realize, we could be in heavy, miraculous outpouring RIGHT NOW if we would have responded rightly!
We have to understand that the fire most probably won’t ignite in our local church. Statistically, with the number of churches in this region, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack if the revival did in fact launch from our own ministry. So, it’s imperative that we keep our eyes open and get ready to commit to serve in the place where the flame is found.
Will revival now pass by Detroit? Well, due to the fact that I received that warning dream, and that a remnant is still sensing the need to pursue revival, my guess is that we still have a chance. However, it’s been said that if Detroit doesn’t respond, God will move his focus to Chicago. We can’t allow that to happen! When is the deadline? Do we have another week? Another month to respond? We can’t risk waiting another minute!
I’d encourage you to re-read my article from last week—10 Threats to Revival. Ask yourself how you’ve changed since that prophetic message was released. What’s the call? What can be done next?
Press Release : John Burton’s new book Pharaoh in the Church is now available!
Prepare for a dramatic escape into the Cloud of Glory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: John Burton’s new book Pharaoh in the Church is now available
Grosse Pointe Park, MI – March 25, 2011 The follow-up to the controversial and life-impacting book Covens in the Church, Pharaoh in the Church is a call for church leaders to allow the congregation to drop the bricks they are using to build the kingdoms of man—and to lead them in the spirit of Moses into the wilderness of encounter.
This book is a burning message, an Exodus call that originated in at least a small way like the original Exodus call in a burning bush. Moses experienced the zeal of the deliverer to see His people free to encounter Him. The goal of this book is for you to discover the pounding heart of God in a way that, I believe, will result in a deep and resounding cry of agreement to embrace a radical revolution in the church.
John Burton has been in ministry since 1991 and has written six books including 20 Elements of Revival, Revelation Driven Prayer and Six Enemies of Fulfilled Destiny. He was recently featured on the Miracle Channel (www.miraclechannel.ca) as he discussed the thrill and importance of living a prophetic life.
John also planted Revolution Church in Manitou Springs, Colorado, directed an internship at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri and gave leadership to a city-wide prayer initiative in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
ORDER NOW at https://www.createspace.com/3533475
ALSO, COMING SOON, THE REVISED VERSION OF 20 ELEMENTS OF REVIVAL
This is the most popular of John’s six books, and has received extremely high marks for it’s potential for dramatic impact on the church:
I just finished reading 20 Elements of Revival. Everyone should read this book! I wish I had the cash for a case of this book. Seriously! I keep thinking of more people who NEED a copy of it! It’s very, very, very rare for me to feel this way about a book other than the Bible.-Kathi Sharpe
I just finished your book, 20 Elements of Revival. Wow! This is it. If the Church/House of Prayer at large could get this into their hands and read it before they opened the doors we could actually change the world! I’ve been talking to our leadership team- this book is #1 for all of our Core Leadership. It should be in the hands of every leader in the Body. – Luann Zettle, International House of Prayer East Detroit
Just finished reading the two books you gave me…and I am buzzing in the Holy Spirit! My wife and I had an hour conversation about the depth of their implications. You have nailed it my friend. I have met few people who have put all this together….and I am in awe and grateful. I want all our leadership team to especially read 20 Elements of Revival. –Tim Johns
Catherine Mullins and Revival Church team rehearse
The false grace message
5 supernatural points : A return to the cross will introduce an extreme supernatural reality
Core, historic biblical truths must be embraced in the church again—and we should expect an unusual supernatural reality to result.
It seems that the weirder the Charismatic camp gets, the more the cross and other key Christian doctrines are minimized. The new wine and fresh revelation often trumps a radical adherence to the very foundational, scriptural truths. The cross must become central again. Repentance has to well up and cry out of us again. As we return to these core doctrines, we will be surprised to experience the shock and awe of a realm that is so supernatural, so other-worldly, that the most demonstrative Charismatics will pale in comparison. THE CROSS When the cross is preached in power, miracles, signs and wonders are an expected result. Matthew 27:51-54 (ESV) 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” When we preach the cross, we’re not just encouraging people to ask Jesus into their heart. True ministry of this earth-shaking (literally) event will result in a drama that we couldn’t invent if we tried. Did you see what happened when Jesus died? Note, this was before the power of the resurrection! It’s before the keys to death, Hell and the grave were taken! It was at a time of seeming defeat! The power of surrender in this story is phenomenal!- The curtain was torn—Preaching of the cross will result in eyes being opened and supernatural encounters becoming standard. So many are blind and numb to the volatile invisible realm that’s all around us. The cross grants us access not simply to a hope to enter Heaven when we die, but access into the very presence of a fearful God right now!
- The Earth shook—Get ready! A great shaking will come, a trembling from deep within, as we all grab hold of the bloody cross of Christ. As we embrace our own crosses, and surrender our lives fully, the Earth will shake! I prophesied that this coming revival will result in a literal trembling in us that won’t stop until we leave the planet. Many have been shaking deeply already, and the more the cross is preached, the more it will build.
- Rocks were split—The cross is so powerful that unbreakable, immovable boulders will be shattered in our lives. Deliverance and dramatic freedom comes, and Jesus is the one who receives all of the glory! If you crave freedom, don’t simply plead the blood of Jesus, declare the power of the cross!
- Tombs were opened—What power! A sleeping church is about to be awakened! The offense of the cross will cause some to mock and flee, but the true church will immediately break free from the power of death and slumber and rise up with messages of life on their lips!
- Those who crucified Jesus were filled with awe—God will be praised by even the most vicious attackers! The proof of God’s greatness isn’t in the wisdom of words, but people will be convinced as they watch God’s power explode right before them!