Posts by John Burton
Your message of truth should get you in trouble…and set the captives free!
A strategy of self-preservation will result in a modified, powerless message that draws people to you instead of God.
If you are called as a prophet, you will feel moved to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, and to build and to plant (see Jeremiah 1:10). Intense spiritual warfare will be a frequent reality in your life. You will have a sense – a “knowing” – that you are being called to walk a narrower path than some around you. You will feel a sense of duty to honor God's will and be crushed with godly sorrow when you misstep. ~Jennifer LeClaire
So many don’t have a clear ministry goal, so I thought I’d offer one here. This is the calling of the end-time messenger:
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. Mark 11:18
The call is to teach in such a way that people actually want to kill you! What a life mission that is!
Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. Luke 6:26
While true prophets were hated, excluded, reviled, spurned, beaten, tortured, and killed (cf. Heb. 11:32-38), false prophets were well spoken of, for they prophesied what people wanted to hear. This is a warning against seeking the approval of the world rather than being faithful to God.
ESV Study Bible, The: English Standard Version.
There is a GREAT fallacy that has castrated the messages of the end-times: We have to appear to be humble, meek and loving.
I deal with this in detail in my article The Great Love Deception. The thought is that we must expend energy to convince people that we are humble, when that mandate is simply not found in Scripture. We are to BE humble, and that humility very often manifests as a fierce, fearless anger against the spirit of the age. The goal isn’t to affirm others when challenge and correction is necessary. We aren’t to put on a plastic smile with alligator tears pouring down to convince people we care.
Of course, we aren’t to be careless or unloving either. We just preach with a broken heart and the fear of the Lord. The messages in the Word are so often radically offensive that we just let the Holy Spirit do the work.
There are ignored, shunned messages that are coursing throughout the Bible that must be taught again—with such conviction that the religious, independent, self-serving resistors will want to eliminate us.
Thank God for those who have not shrunk back from preaching “negative” messages. People like Leonard Ravenhill, David Wilkerson and others have refused to shut up when the critics attack. We must boldly proclaim the Word of the Lord, no matter how bad of a light it shines on us or how open it leaves us to scrutiny.
Here’s one example of such a message:
SUBMISSION TO AUTHORITY
Submission to authority. GASP! Yes, I said it. Clearly, since I’ve been focusing on this topic in recent Facebook and Twitter posts, I must be reacting to some people who just won’t submit to my authority, right? I am overbearing, self-centered and insecure…motivated by my need for people to submit to me. Ha! Wrong. It has nothing whatsoever to do with me or my personal endeavors. (I actually just chuckled as I wrote this.)
On the contrary, this message is a core life message of our ministry that God has required me to communicate, and it’s not uncommon for me to spend a lot of time teaching on it. My book Covens in the Church addresses this issue in detail and I’ve been teaching on it in our school and at other venues for years. I spend time counseling people who are ready to leave their church due to wounding, controlling pastors and other very real issues. Simply, it’s a clear, scriptural and healthy message that most pastors avoid teaching due to their fear of accusation. However, pastors would do well to embrace it and teach it with boldness. The Absalom spirit would be diffused before he even began to operate.
But, unfortunately, the fear of accusation is too often too great.
Pastors don’t want people to presume they are being controlling, manipulative and self-serving by teaching on this particular topic, so they ignore it entirely—to the detriment of the church. Today people are scattered, disconnected and driven by a casual, independent spirit that has greatly compromised the mission of the church and has left them unhealed, bitter and defensive. This is a direct result of selling people a spiritual eat-what-you-want buffet instead of calling people as holy soldiers to sign up to die.
You see, I’m more concerned about the corporate mission of the church to set multiplied millions of people free than I am the reaction of the resistant religious (or true brothers and sisters in Christ who simply disagree) when teaching on submission to authority. Beyond that, I’m exhilarated by people who were once operating in a religious, independent spirit finding freedom through the message of healthy submission. It’s a win/win!
When people submit, the enemy tells them they are in bondage, but God reveals they are free!
From Covens in the Church:
The enemy has caused many to believe that we can’t experience freedom while being submitted. This is simply not true.
- Freedom from authority is rebellion.
- Freedom in the absence of authority is anarchy.
- Freedom under authority is liberty.
Why is it so critical that this sensitive issue be discussed? I’m fully aware that many have been wounded by poor leaders in their lives. While some difficult points will be discussed over the next several pages, it must be made clear now that while God desires leaders to serve with great love, humility, passion and care, there are some in the body who simply do not do so. While God will hold those leaders deeply accountable for their leadership, God will hold the rest of us accountable for how we respond to them.
The call is not to validate poor leadership. It’s to validate leaders who, in their weakness, were positioned by God. It’s to ensure that we go through the proper processes in the face of disagreement so as to keep all of us as holy soldiers in position. We simply must serve the greater mission in love and mature to the place where we can trust an infallible God, who is the one who actually appointed our leaders. We are to allow God to work with and through those leaders, who are without question weak and fallible (as we all are). If we don’t, the greater mission of the church is compromised. A failed mission at this stage of Church history is not an option, and we must weather some mighty storms if we are to succeed.
God needs these messages to be released! We can’t be afraid of teachings like this having the appearance of being self-serving. We can’t back down when the accusation flies. We must preach truth, take the hits, let our pride and ego die and trust that God’s wisdom in the Word will set the masses free.
Submission to authority is dealt with clearly in Scripture, and it’s critical for us to understand it, and communicate it without apology…because the church today has been compromised by a casual, self-interested people. We need to see a passionate army that’s locked in and unoffendable and ready to serve with precision at the sound of the alarm.
I continually run into people who are offended at pastors and other authorities in their lives, and they have absolutely no idea that they are largely disqualified from effective ministry until they rectify that. Why? Because nobody is teaching them about this critical reality.
They are stunned when I start to unpack the issues and share about healthy submission to their previous leaders. They most always had no idea how they should have acted toward them. Some of them have lived in defeat for decades due to this issue! God wants them free! I am much more afraid of God than I am of man, so the accusations that will be hurled won’t hurt as much as if God was bringing judgment to me!
“You will lose your job, and then die.”
I was talking with a powerful, humble man of God in another nation recently. He shared a fearful story that highlights how serious God is about honoring and submitting to authority.
A lady was making inappropriate advances toward this pastor, and while initially subtle, she became more emboldened as time when on. She was initially counseled and ultimately removed from the church. She became deceptive and would attempt to make contact with him via a false name. Eventually, the pastor said, “If you don’t stop inappropriately touching the man of God, you will lose your job, and then, if you still don’t repent, you will die.”
Within weeks she lost her job. Then she died. The man of God conducted her funeral.
That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 1 Corinthians 11:30-31
This is just one example of necessary, costly end-time messages. Will you preach the truth, or just the part that draws people to you?
EXPECT TROUBLE
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:34-39
The messages we carry should absolutely provoke people out of compromise, deception, apathy and slumber—and into challenging, costly, inconvenient and absolutely glorious truth.
Such messages might include calls to repentance and holiness, Hell and demons, unbiblical grace or unbiblical prosperity…and on and on.
Or, how about…Tithe. There I go again! If I talk about tithing, I clearly must want to use people and manipulate them so I can be more financially secure, right? Come on.
I’ve actually heard pastors say that they refuse to teach on financial giving because they want to gain people’s trust. I suppose their wisdom surpasses the wisdom of scripture?
Jesus talked about money more than any other topic other than the Kingdom of God. Maybe instead of avoiding the topic of tithing and giving so people will like us better, we should expose the demon named Mammon that is attached to so many of them today. Maybe instead of focusing on our own ministry and on self-preservation, we can actually preach the Word and set the captives free!
When you carry burning messages in your spirit, you have to know that the release of these messages will result in rejection, accusation and a fierce resistance by the religious spirits around us.
But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Matthew 12:14
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” John 10:31-32
Even Jesus’ message was shut down by accusers and aggressors due to the trouble (salvation) he was bringing to the Earth:
After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. John 7:1
So from that day on they plotted to take his life. Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. John 11:53-54
THE SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS
In ministry, we must understand that MOST of those we are preaching to will soundly reject our message and will attack with a vengeance—oh, and these people are the spiritual and religious among us.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16:21
Preaching of the Word, whether it’s from behind a pulpit or in sound bites on Facebook and Twitter will always divide. Always.
It will provoke, trouble, challenge and set a standard. The problems come when that standard is higher than the standards of the religious.
Take six months and talk about nothing but holiness, repentance and Hell. I dare you.
Your attacks won’t come from the lost. The lost is actually waiting for a church that will have the guts to stand with such conviction. The assaults will come from your friends and family.
Read this in full:
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. Genesis 37:5-11
It seems every time I hear someone teach on this passage, they presume that Joseph was arrogant, that the problem was with Joseph for communicating what God had revealed to him!
We have become so resistant of bold, provoking, disturbing messages of God that we accuse the messenger of pride or arrogance when they simply reveal the truth! Has this fear stopped you? Repent. It didn’t stop Joseph.
It was actually every one of his brothers and his parents that wrestled with pride, not Joseph!
Notice how his father ultimately responded rightly in his heart by keeping the matter in mind.
However, we know the story—his family set out to destroy him…simply because of communicating a message from God!
“…So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Genesis 37:17-18
Those close to you must be expected to react wrongly toward you! Don’t presume you are off track when the arrows start flying! Stay humble, stay teachable, but simply know that the more pure your truth, the more violent the attacks will be.
(By the way, those who read this and are rising up in indignation will still presume I’m affirming arrogance—even though I just wrote that we must stay humble and teachable. Read it again…I affirm humility and teachablity. OK?)
True humility results in true boldness that can look very much like aggression as the fear of man has disappeared. The fear of God takes over.
False humility results in false love that is focused on being affirmed instead of setting the captives free.
Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Mark 6:3
Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” Mark 6:4
PRESSURE FROM THE CROWD
Get a backbone.
If you can’t stand for truth in the face of resistance, what good are you? What impact will you have?
At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. Mark 6:25-28
When your family and friends and those you are trying to impress are in the picture, will you hold back or preach truth? Will you stay silent or sound an alarm?
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Mark 15:15
A sign of a growing ministry just may be small numbers and a message that will be rejected by even the most devoted Christians you know. Will you be OK with that?
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:25-27
If you are unmoved, God will give you such perfect, pure and life-changing relationships with those who will die daily with you…who will not forsake you when you bring the offensive messages of the Word…and you will be marked as a true minister of the Most High God for all eternity.
When the crowds come, get ready to follow the fearless example of Peter in Acts 2:
“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. Acts 2:22-23
Trust truth. Preach truth. Don’t temper it. Don’t hide from the offensive issues. Most will reject you. Some will hate you. A remnant will thank you. God will celebrate you for eternity.
Prayer, teaching on your spiritual authority and free food tonight at Revival Church
Discover the supernatural authority you have TONIGHT…and enjoy food and fellowship with us!
Part one was powerful, and tonight is going to absolutely explode! I’ll be teaching on your spiritual authority TONIGHT at 7pm!
Revival Church is a unique prayer-fueled ministry of revival. We are intentionally small in number and narrow in focus as we contend as a remnant company of burning ones.
This sharp, unified approach is resulting in people being discipled in the fire, ready to shock the world!
You can listen to last week’s teaching and download the notes here: www.thefurnace.tv/audio
BRING FOOD AND FRIENDS
After the service, we’ll stay and eat!
Bring food to share and as many friends that you can find!
See you TONIGHT!
- War Room Prayer starts at 6pm (definitely come!)
- Revival Church Service starts at 7pm
Revival Church is located at 26091 Sherwood, Warren, MI 48091.
Can I give you a call? Let’s connect about ministry in your region!
Let’s connect about ministry in your region!
Hi!
My name is John Burton and I am praying for new Kingdom connections with pastors and leaders both in this nation and around the world.
I’d love to give you a call and hear more about your ministry. Is there a time that would work?
If you feel it would benefit your ministry, we can discuss scheduling a church event or conference in your region that would powerfully encourage you and your team!
I don’t require a minimum honorarium or a minimum sized crowd. I will sleep on the floor if it means revival can be fueled in your region!
In the meantime, my bio can be viewed at www.johnburton.net if you’d like to take a look.
The short version is:
· I’ve planted two churches, one in Colorado and one in Detroit.
· I’ve written eight books on the topics of prayer, reformation and revival.
· I directed one of the primary internships at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.
· I crave being in God’s presence with other hungry people!
· I also believe strongly in the local church and would love to serve your mission.
You also might consider hosting theLab Intensive. This 2-3 day school of fire will equip and encourage your church and leadership team. Learn more here: www.thelabuniversity.com/intensives.
Contact me any time via email at [email protected] or phone at 719.231.6000.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
When we invited you we anticipated an unusual move of God in our church but had no idea how much you would ignite the fire of God in hearts and set us on the path to revival. What a tremendous week it has been! Thanks for all that you, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, have invested in us this week. One of these days there will be a mighty sound coming from the south. It will be the sound of revival and of a raging fire of the Spirit in Haiti. READ THE ENTIRE LETTER HERE.
Jean Heder Petit-Frere
A prophetic strategy: Breaking the power of the homosexual spirit & setting the captives free
Operation Babel: A prophetic strategy to break the power of the homosexual spirit
God opened up a powerful strategy to disrupt the momentum of the homosexual agenda to me—and a successful campaign will result in innumerable people set free.
Love the sinner, hate the sin.
Is this really the limit of our wisdom?
I’m sure the LGBT community is sick, bored and tired of that defense—and I am too.
It offers no strategic plan of action and it reveals that we have exhausted our arguments. After loving the sinner and hating the sin, where does that leave us? What do we do?
That statement, love the sinner and hate the sin, really needs to be retired.
In fact, it was made famous by someone who wasn’t even a Believer in Jesus—Gandhi.
As I was considering this in prayer, God suddenly and powerfully revealed a clear, easy to understand strategy that will, without question, stop the fast moving gay agenda in its tracks.
The church just has to make it happen. Spoiler alert: We have to pray, in unity, with one language, in the Holy Spirit.
The gay agenda is driven by a spirit. We must keep this in mind. Of course, we don’t wrestle with people. We wrestle with unholy spirits. But, it’s true that many people are in alliance with those very spirits that we are battling, so it’s unfortunately common for there to be collateral damage. Don’t mistake that collateral damage with fighting against flesh and blood. When we deal with evil spirits, those who renounce them will be set free while those who embrace them will experience their judgment.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
Pray that the Holy Spirit draws many to renounce the spirits that are holding them captive as this massive strategy that I’m calling Operation Babel unfolds.
Maybe we need to advance our plan from “love the sinner, hate the sin” to “fight the spirit, free the person.”
Operation Babel
ONE.
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. Genesis 11:1
Unity. If Christians grasped the power of true unity, around a common holy purpose, we’d see unstoppable advance. The Kingdom of God would move in the power and at the speed of lightning.
All the believers were one in heart and mind. Acts 4:32
…so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:6
Unfortunately, the church is lacking in unity (and I’m not talking about ecumenical affinity). We must immediately unify around the upper room of fervent prayer.
And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations””… Mark 11:17
Today’s homosexual movement is possibly the most unified on the Earth. They have one language and one purpose. Everybody is in agreement and they are infiltrating with the intention of leading every segment of society.
They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. Revelation 17:13
Unholy unity was a key strategy in history, it’s a key strategy today and it will be a key strategy at the end of the age as people will come into alignment with the beast.
Today’s unity in the homosexual movement is what we must address now.
TWO.
And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Genesis 11:2-3
Bricks are representative of human efforts to build their own kingdoms. Remember Egypt? The Hebrews were required to make bricks so Pharaoh could continue to build his empire.
That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. Exodus 5:6-7
Today there is a mass movement of brick making.
Individual bricks, when put together, will result in a mighty city and a mighty tower.
The bricks of legislation and gay friendly government policies are being made a record pace. Bricks carefully made by human hands can be seen in a variety of places such as gay pride parades, gay friendly curriculum in schools, the advance of gay marriage from state to state, entertainment and media, marketing campaigns and through the influence of major brands. Each brick is resulting in greater affirmation of this unholy movement.
Additionally, as with Pharaoh and the Hebrews, there is intense pressure today on Christians to actually make the bricks!
Pharaoh forced God’s people to make bricks for him, and today’s homosexual movement is attempting to force God’s people today to do the same thing. Christian bakers are being forced to make wedding cakes for gay weddings. The threat of forcing Christian pastors to marry homosexuals is just over the horizon. This evil spirit is bent on commanding Christians to agree with and actually promote his plan of destruction!
Just as the bricks were baked thoroughly at Babel, there is a thorough, well thought out process of brick making in play now that will, if we don’t step up, result in an evil city and tower being built.
THREE.
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens… Genesis 11:4a
The goal then was to take dominion, and that’s the goal now.
The city represents the plan to spread horizontally around the world—to see homosexuality become not only accepted, but the primary leader of humanity. This spirit doesn’t simply want to be affirmed—it wants to dominate.
The tower represents a connection with Heaven. The “gay Christian” movement is moving at the speed of light—and even the most biblically sound arguments against it are not convincing those who are seduced by this spirit. The unity is too strong and the response of the church has been too weak.
This simultaneous horizontal and vertical advance of the homosexual movement is brilliant, though not original. We saw it at Babel, and we’ll see it again at the end of the age. The Antichrist’s strategy includes horizontal world domination and a vertical one world religion. At the end of that strategy, after a great battle, God wins. God is primed to win this battle today as well—but the church must fight from a place of humility, love and prayer.
But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Revelation 19:20
FOUR.
…and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4b
Pride. The flood of Noah was a much nearer reality to them than it is to us today, and they weren’t about to let their destruction happen again. They were determined to grow in strength through radical unity and to defy God through pride. They wanted to make a name for themselves. This is a Luciferian spirit that, in pride, seeks to rise to the heavens.
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Isaiah 14:12-14
Identity. We can see how successful the enemy has been just by how many are absolutely convinced their homosexuality is core to their identity. The argument is that they were born that way. It’s the defining mark of who they are as a person, and they are proud of that.
I’ve argued before that I don’t believe the primary driver of homosexuality is lust—it’s identity. When personal desires and experiences are grafted in at the level of identity, the enemy has won a primary battle. When he has won that battle with many people, a movement around that very personal and overpowering identity results. That nearly unstoppable unified advance is what we are dealing with today.
FIVE.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. Genesis 11:5
God is not absent. He is watching and he is ready to move. His desire, which is so much stronger than ours, is for freedom. For life. He wants the movement stopped and he wants its influence marginalized.
SIX.
And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do… Genesis 11:6a
Again, their unity and their common language is all it took to advance in strength. Spoiler alert: Are you noticing an Acts 2 strategy?
This very simple strategy of unity and common language is also driving today’s homosexual agenda. They are agreed in identity and are saying the same things. Their resulting pride gives them great strength.
However, be warned, this is only the beginning. God revealed this about those building the city and the tower. It was only the beginning of what they would do! Basically, God was saying they would be unstoppable.
There is a great threat today as well. The demonic spirit behind the homosexual camp has much more planned than promoting equal rights. He is intently focused on destruction.
SEVEN.
…And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Genesis 11:6b
Their options were limitless. Their unity resulted in strength and capability beyond anything that had ever existed among men.
The Strategy
EIGHT.
Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” Genesis 11:7
Confusion in the camp. That’s the plan.
The inability to communicate and the existence of confusion will stop the most advanced, aggressive and powerful movements.
NINE.
So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:8-9
In a moment, the movement ceased.
Did you notice a similarity between the enemy’s strategy of unity and common language to a well known strategy of God?
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Acts 2:1
They were unified and together—and confusion was eliminated as the language barrier (that God created in Genesis 11) was overcome!
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Acts 2:4-6
A Prayer Movement
Simply stated, we must have a movement of Holy Ghost infused intercession. A mass advance of people praying in tongues is non-negotiable if we hope to move ahead in great unity. As we do this, we will stand in powerful agreement and pray for confusion to come to the enemy’s camp—so the millions of slaves held there can drop their bricks and be free.
The stories of Babel and the Exodus have key parallels.
The confusion at Babel and the plagues at Egypt got the job done.
Some will radically reject God at that time and be dispersed while others will fall in love with Jesus and move out of slavery and into the glorious encounter.
Pray for God to continue to raise up mighty men and women of God in the spirit of Moses to deliver people from horrific bondage.
Pray for God himself to come down and bring confusion to the homosexual movement.
Pray for the church, in a spirit of passionate love, to gather together in fervent, Holy Spirit driven intercession.
It truly is a prayer movement that will see this unholy tower dismantled.
Detroit & America • A Troubling End-Time Dream
As I sat up high at Comerica Park last night watching a Tiger’s game, I saw a mural on a building that God revealed to me when I first visited Detroit.
I had a dream, and afterwards I visited Detroit to minister, and then saw the mural of jumping whales which was a key part of the dream.
It’s a warning dream, and Detroit must respond in repentance and intercession—as must the nation. Here’s the picture I took last night at the game and also the dream. (This is taken from the chapter in my book The Coming Church titled Their Freedom is Your Mission.)
A Troubling End-Time Dream
Here is a clear example of a sharp, prophetic message. Will we respond to the call or casually watch from the sidelines?
It would be nice if all of our dreams, visions and communication from God had the feel of running and dancing through a field of daisies, but it’s more important that we receive accurate data than imaginary, feel good stories.
This dream was anything but candy canes and ice cream. To date, other than my encounter with Hell in the early 1990s, I’ve never received such an urgent and troubling dream of God.
The first scene in my dream represented a typical American day. I was in my basement in a really comfortable leather recliner, sitting in front of a large television. I was excitedly watching my favorite NFL team, the Chicago Bears, play in a nationally televised evening game. I was thoroughly entertained and was settling in for a great night of football.
The scene then suddenly changed. I found myself in the captain’s seat of the largest commercial airplane I’d even seen. In fact, this jet was capable of holding over 1000 people. Everybody in the airplane was excited and ready for the journey—and they were all blood-bought Christians. They represented an end-time remnant being prepared by God for the days ahead.
In the cockpit, I was overwhelmed by the magnitude and majesty of the airplane. I put my hand on the throttle as we were sitting on the runway, ready to depart. Simply touching it revealed a power that was sobering indeed.
I understood that, as the captain of the airplane, my responsibility was immense. I felt completely incapable of fulfilling my duties, but at the same time, I felt such an overwhelming confidence. I had the grace to do what I was called to do, even though I didn’t understand even how to take the first step.
In that grace, I gave the throttle a push. Every inch that I carefully moved the throttle forward it seemed that the power increased one hundredfold or more. The slight vibration that was caused by multiple jet engines kept increasing as I moved 1000 people down the runway.
Suddenly, we were airborne, and we were catapulted into our unknown mission.
Almost immediately, as I followed the flight plan, we were flying over an ocean. As I looked down, something unusual had caught my attention, and I yearned to move in for a closer look. I brought the jet down and flew just above the surface of the water. What I saw was remarkable. All around, sea life was leaping out of the water. Everybody in the airplane was glued to the windows as they were captivated by the same view. Dolphins and whales were jumping high into the air as were innumerable other creatures, many of which I had never seen before.
As I watched, my desire for greater revelation and encounter with this seeming other-worldly exhibition was rapidly increasing. I wanted more!
I then did what makes no sense in the natural—I nose-dived and took the giant airship under the water. The moment I did, the power of the engines rapidly increased. The deeper I went, the greater the power. Under the water, I saw things I had never seen before. It was dark, but all of the sea life was easily visible as they glowed in various brilliant colors. Needless to say I, along with my passengers, would never be the same again.
I then reemerged at the surface of the water and took the aircraft back up to cruising altitude. It was time to move on to our destination.
Just as we reached the appropriate altitude, I received an urgent radio transmission:
The airport you will soon arrive at has been overtaken by terrorists. When you land, you and your passengers will deplane and will be confronted by them. You have no option to divert to another airport. If you do, the missiles that are currently locked on to your aircraft will be launched and you will all perish. You have no option but to continue according to your original flight path and land.
I then passed that information along to the 1000 passengers. In a moment, our joyful awe of what we experienced just moments ago shockingly changed to sobriety. We were about to land.
When we did, my two older boys (who at the time were approximately 10 and 12 years old) and I left the plane and entered the terminal.
I expected to see mass chaos, but I did not. Though there were many thousands of people in the terminal’s various public areas, it was so quiet that you could hear someone cough from one hundred yards away. Fear had gripped everybody. They were scared silent.
Each public area looked the same. People were ordered to line up along the walls by a terrorist who was standing in the middle of the room. The terrorist was dressed fully in black and had a machine gun in his hands.
We were ushered into a room, and as we entered, my oldest son thought he saw someone he knew on the other side of the room. Before I could do anything, he broke away from me, oblivious to what was happening, and ran across the room to see his friend. I knew it was the last time I’d ever hold my son.
I then held my younger son closer than ever as we took our place on the wall.
The terrorist then started addressing people as he walked along the wall. He slowly, methodically moved closer to where we were standing. He then stopped and ordered the man who was standing next to us to move to the center of the room. The terrorist asked this terrified man a question, “Have you ever stolen anything?”
He didn’t know how to answer. Should he tell the truth and reveal that, yes, he had stolen something at some point in his life? Would that earn him favor with the terrorist? Or, should he lie and attempt to convince him he was pure and should not be executed?
I knew that it didn’t matter how he responded. He was about to take his last breath.
What I saw next was grisly. I shielded my younger son’s eyes as the terrorist pulled out a machete and started hacking the victim’s fingers, a half an inch at a time. He dismembered this man and was ready to move on to the next—us.
Then I woke up.
What did it mean?
Football. In America, football is one of the enduring symbols of passionate, cultural entertainment. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with watching a football game, but the game’s place in my dream was significant. It represented life as usual. I was happily distracted and nothing else existed on my grid that night.
The sudden shift to the cockpit is key. Vehicles often represent ministry when they occur in dreams. We must, as the remnant Church, be ready for a sudden move into critical end-time ministry. We have to be instant in and out of season. Our ears must be attentive to the prophetic voices that are sounding alarms in our nation.
Supernatural power and grace is coming to the true, remnant Church. The 1000 passengers represented the true Church—Christians who were ready to be carried by God and who were not doing so for their own enjoyment. The massive airplane and the immeasurable power that it produced was there for a purpose—to carry people into a mission. The coming Church will be marked by people, as in the first century Church, who are mission minded and willing to lay down their lives. They aren’t there for the benefits alone.
When the remnant Church is in position, the adventure will begin! As in the dream, the first phase will include such glorious, supernatural revelation that we will be forever transformed. Those who are distracted by the offerings of the world will miss out on this remnant call into the shock and the awe of the glory of God! There is a consecration that’s required for those who are interested in going into the deep places with God.
The deeper we go, the more power and wonder we will experience.
Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”
Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. Joshua 3:1-6
God is raising up captains, leaders who will, like Joshua, call everybody into position. They will lead the remnant Church out of typical, deadly desert life across the water and into promise.
The end-time company represented by the 1000 on the airplane will be those who, as priests of the Lord, will carry the ark of his presence into the mission.
We have never been this way before. It is a mystery, but a mystery well worth the trouble to discover. We must consecrate ourselves on this side of the unknown as we, in faith, get ready to experience the wonders of the Lord!
As we emerge out of revelation of the glory of God, we will be functioning from a place of power and radical transformation. We will then be ready for the troubling warnings of God.
I believe the terrorists in my dream are less symbolic than we might hope. Fear is about to grip our land as the enemy puts his boots on the ground. We must stand firm in the grace of God, even when horrific trouble comes, as it did for me as a father, when in my dream, my older son broke away from my care.
Very troubling times are ahead of us. The enemy’s primary weapon will be the spirit of fear. God’s primary weapon? The shock and the awe of the glory of God. The coming Church will be a Church that has gone deep in God together and my friend, this is the only Church that will be able to stand against the wickedness.
Interestingly, I discovered after I had this dream, that it is known that Islamic terrorists will actually chop off the fingers of thieves just as I witnessed in my dream. I had never heard of this before and it was further confirmation that the dream was communication from the Lord and that we must be ready for an assault against his Bride.
“As to the thief, Male or female, cut off his or her hands: a punishment by way of example, from Allah, for their crime: and Allah is Exalted in power.” Quran 5:38
Perfect love casts out fear, which is why we know the kingdom of darkness cannot win. This is all the more reason for the Church to go deep into God! We need a revelation of Jesus! The coming Church will have that revelation of deep, glorious love, and the enemy knows this. This is why he is unleashing a false-love movement that is actually founded on fear…
Eschatological Core Values • A Response to Kris Vallotton
For the sake of study, I’m offering a different perspective to Kris Vallotton’s Eschatological Core Values. Share your perspective in the comments!
1. I will not embrace an end-time worldview that re-empowers a disempowered devil.
To say the devil has been disempowered is an oversimplification of a more comprehensive subject. It’s true that the death and resurrection of Jesus absolutely did grant us power over the enemy, and it would do us well to grasp that reality. The church is all too often living from a place of defeat, feeling vulnerable and afraid when we should be dominating! I agree with Kris’ assertion that Satan has been disempowered for Believers—but, we have to stand and advance in faith from that place. If we don’t, the enemy most definitely can and will attack Christian and sinner with great violence.
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Luke 10:19
Luke 10:19 is a powerful verse, and it was written to Believers. This is evidenced by the very next verse:
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20
Christians are authorized to exercise power over the enemy, to trample on him and to advance into his domain. What is his domain? The Earth.
The Bible makes it clear that Satan is actually still the ruler of this world, and it’s the job of Christians to war against him.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3
Those who are living according to the passions of their flesh are still under the leadership of a very powerful evil who is bent on devouring them. His plan to steal, kill and destroy is still in play, and those who don’t administer the judgment that was authorized by the cross and resurrection will find themselves under his influence.
This is true for Believers and unbelievers. The blood of Jesus doesn’t grant Christians immunity. It grants us authority, and if we don’t live from that place we are at threat of surrendering, in full or in part, to a ferocious beast.
From Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:
Christ's ascension seems to have cast Satan out of heaven (Rev. 12:5, 9, 10, 12, 13), where he had been heretofore the accuser of the brethren (Job 1:6-11). No longer able to accuse in heaven those justified by Christ, the ascended Saviour (Rom 8:33, 34), he assails them on earth with all trials and temptations; and “we live in an atmosphere poisonous and impregnated with deadly elements.”
Possibly this passage sums up the great battle between competing powers best:
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” Revelation 12:10-12
The primary problem with Kris’ point is that it will result in an unprepared people. What will happen to people’s faith when they see, with their own eyes, Satan raging with fearful wrath as the end continues to draw near? Great confusion will come to the church when they see a supposedly fully disempowered devil destroying people with great, evil power.
2. I will not accept an eschatology that takes away my children’s future, and creates mindsets that undermine the mentality of leaving a legacy.
As with any of my rebuttals in this post, I do not want to presume inappropriately what Kris’ intentions were in his article. With this in mind, I will take some license to consider various perspectives, whether they were what motivated the author or not.
When I read that there is concern about theologies that will threaten his children’s future and the legacy they are to leave, I initially agree! My children will most definitely have an amazing future and will leave a powerful legacy!
However, if we were to read into it, I think the takeaway is a bit different. It seems that Kris presumes “the end of the world” equals the destruction of his children’s future. I couldn’t disagree more.
It’s quite probable that my five children will all experience the Great Tribulation. That won’t be the destruction of their legacy, but rather the very driver of their legacy! They were born for this hour!
What greater legacy could one have than to battle with Jesus against the armies of Satan? How amazing will it be for Christians during the Tribulation to lead a terrified and hopeless people to Jesus?
Additionally, to be martyred during that short season will be a mighty honor. My focus is not preserving my children’s lives on Earth, but rather on modeling a life laid down, even unto martyrdom if need be. Fighting to secure a happy 70 or so years on today’s Earth is not at all what the call of the Believer is, and eschatology that defies our opportunity to focus on that is actually more in line with the heart of God than not.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39
The difficult times during the Tribulation are not to be avoided, but prepared for. It’s true that Christians who don’t take the Mark of the Beast won’t be able to be employed, earn money, buy or sell or live as we do today. We won’t have electricity, the internet, mobile phones, cars, running water or much of anything else that’s provided by the government. But, we will have the Holy Spirit and other Believers! God will be our provider and we will experience wonders and miracles on a continual basis! What a life to live!
In fact, we will see the ancient church reemerge. It will resemble a greater version of what they saw in Acts 2:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47
Now that’s Kingdom living!
If we really think about it, how could any eschatology take away from anybody’s future? We will be living with Jesus on a renewed Earth forever! It’s all about eternity!
We have to be careful not to love our lives. Our goal isn’t to experience personal satisfaction on the Earth, but rather to lay down our lives and to prepare for eternity.
…they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Revelation 20:4
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. Revelation 6:9-11
3. I will not tolerate any theology that sabotages the clear command of Jesus to make disciples of all nations and the Lord’s Prayer that earth would be like heaven.
It would be hard for me to disagree with this point. I don’t. I do wonder what eschatology might actually sabotage either the call to make disciples or to see Heaven on Earth.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
This passage has the end-times woven right into it. The act of making disciples is tied directly to the reality of the end of the age.
There will come a time when disciple making on today’s Earth ceases—at the end of the age.
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. Matthew 13:36-43
I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one “like a son of man” with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. Revelation 14:14-16
Regarding the prayer that Earth would be like Heaven, that is a key mandate for us, and there is significant process involved.
Heaven won’t manifest fully on Earth until the end of the age when we see the New Heaven and the New Earth. So, our prayer for Heaven to manifest on Earth has a dual purpose.
First, we come into agreement with the cross and the torn veil. We have access to God, are seated in heavenly places and are to govern from that position. Healings, miracles, signs, wonders, prosperity, freedom and the countless other benefits and attributes of what Heaven brings are to manifest on the Earth right now.
Second, our prayer results in alignment with God’s end-time plan. When we pray this prayer, as Jesus instructed, we are praying to be prepared for the Tribulation. We are praying for the nations to hear the truth of the Gospel. We are praying for the ultimate destruction of the enemy and the start of the Millennial Reign. We are praying for the New Heaven and the New Earth to come.
4. I will not allow any interpretation of the scriptures that destroys hope for the nations and undermines our command to restore ruined cities.
Christ is the hope of the nations.
In his name the nations will put their hope.” Matthew 12:21
Without any debate, our mandate is to advance the Kingdom of God on the Earth. Entire cities and nations are at wonderful risk of being freed, restored and introduced to the power and love of Jesus Christ.
I myself have a clear directive of God to see cities taken, and while it’s quite the project, I have full hope that we will see entire cities experiencing unprecedented revival.
However, we have to also understand that every nation is being presented with its “Nineveh Opportunity.” Judgment and blessing lay in the balance.
God still judges nations for their sins—just as He still judges individuals. The Bible is clear: “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). ~Billy Graham
From cover to cover in Scripture we see the precedent followed—God judges rebellious nations.
There will be a final judgment of all people at the end of history, Piper adds. “The death of Jesus was God's final punitive judgment on all who believe in Christ … Individuals are sometimes judged in this life, but, for Christians, all judgments are disciplinary, not destructive. No individual in Christ needs to fear God's judgment. We may be killed proclaiming biblical holiness, as Paul said in Romans 8:36, but in all these things we will be more than conquerors through him who loved us.” ~John Piper
God is portrayed in the Bible as sovereign over the nations and ruling them for His purposes. Second, God tolerates sin in relation to nations up to a point, and then brings calamity. ~John Piper
Remember, judgment is God’s act of love, not hate. He desires to bring people into a radical encounter of love, and during a time of national rebellion he may bring judgment to convince a greater number of people to follow him than would have had the rebellion gone unmet. Of course, revival is a much preferred method, but the church must arise in faith and prayer if we are to see it happen. The end is coming, and God will fulfill his plan to ready the church and the nations of the Earth whether it’s by judgment or revival. The choice is actually ours.
God himself may step in and bring to His church a great revival of radical obedience, and a great awakening to the countries of the West. He is able. He has done it before. We should pray that He does. ~John Piper
5. I will not embrace an eschatology that changes the nature of a good God.
God is always good, but his goodness can’t be measured through our human lens. His goodness may actually look quite the opposite at the end of the age when he is killing millions of people. Many Christians will actually accuse God of being Satan when they see their “Good God” doing such stomach turning things.
The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath. They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses' bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. Revelation 14:19-20
The danger of promoting God in such a way that anything contrary to what humans consider good is that many Christians will actually reject him when he shows up in full, holy force.
Throughout biblical history we see Perfect Love, God himself, killing people, disciplining people and exercising judgment. In our limited human capacity we can’t easily equate that with perfect love—but it is.
God is always good, but he’s not always in a good mood.
If God is always in a good mood, he would be a monster, laughing and doing a happy dance as he casts people he loves into Hell. (It’s been said that God doesn’t cast people into Hell, but people do themselves via their own decisions to reject God. This isn’t fully accurate. People do have a significant part to play, but in the end they don’t jump into the lake of fire. They are thrown.)
If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15
If we believe God is always in a good mood, we will reject messages and revelations that don’t result in us being in a good mood. We will associate the love of God with the hate of Satan. We know that God is still wrathful. He still gets angry. He is saddened. He is joyful. He is happy. He has emotions, and the deepest place of love exists when we partner with God in his emotions. What is on God’s heart? How can we serve him and minister to him?
A good God will absolutely function in ways that confound us. The following passage further exposes his mission and methods:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:34-39
6. I refuse to embrace any mindset that celebrates bad news as a sign of the times and a necessary requirement for the return of Jesus.
Now, this statement by Kris highlights his Partial Preterism quite well. Of course, we don’t want to celebrate bad news. I don’t know that any reputable student of the end-times would do that. However, we need to analyze what is happening as watchmen and, yes, understand that certain negative events are prerequisites for the return of Jesus.
Contrary to his position that the world is getting better and better, we simply have to admit that to be untrue.
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 Timothy 3:1
Paul then defines what trouble is coming:
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:2-5
Do we see any of this on the Earth today? Is it getting better or worse?
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:3-14
People are being persecuted and martyred all over the world today, and the numbers are increasing radically.
Here’s another clear piece of bad news that indicates what time we are in:
He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. Revelation 13:16-17
When that day comes, it will be bad news indeed. And, we must be able to discern the signs of the times.
He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. Matthew 16:2-3
7. I am opposed to any doctrinal position that pushes the promises of God into a time zone that can’t be obtained in my generation and therefore takes away any responsibility I have to believe God for them in my lifetime.
Many promises of God are futuristic. This argument just doesn’t hold water.
For example, a day is coming when we will be riding with Jesus in a great battle. That won’t happen while we are alive on the Earth. It’s futuristic.
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Revelation 19:11-16
I feel this point also reveals Kris’ focus on the here and now while not affirming the need to prepare for eternity.
Mike Bickle calls our life on Earth an internship. We are living sacrificially as those in training in preparation for the Great Tribulation, and then the Millennium.
Additionally, the promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth for us to abide in is most certainly futuristic.
We don’t want to be so invested in our personal experience now. We are to die daily, be crucified with Christ, lay down our lives and surrender all for the sake of the Harvest—who will live with us forever and ever—AMEN!
8. I don’t believe that the last days are a time of judgment, nor do I believe God gave the church the right to call for wrath for sinful cities. There is a day of judgment in which GOD will judge man, not us.
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-27
Judgment is actually a key driver of the end-time timeline. While so many are proclaiming that judgment doesn’t exist in the New Covenant, I’m of the opinion that we NEED judgment!
Judgment is God at work. It’s God putting things into motion to resolve the crisis on the Earth.
Can you imagine the police ignoring the crimes of a rapist? There would be mutiny! We want justice, judgment, to come to the rapist for the sake of innocent women who are at great threat of attack.
During the Tribulation, God will be pouring out his wrath on a rebellious mankind.
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. Romans 11:22
And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth; blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 2 17 – 21
It’s both a great and terrible day.
I will send you Elijah…before…the great and dreadful day of the LORD. Mal. 4:5
There will be two severe waves of death. The first wave will claim one fourth, of earth’s population. The second wave will kill an additional one third of the earth. This will total 50% of the population (or 4 billion based on a possible population of 8 billion people). ~Mike Bickle
The church will be in agreement with that judgment and will be ready to minister accordingly. The church will be in a place of intense prayer, and will, as governors under Christ’s leadership, agree in prayer with his plans. This will not be the time to intercede for the judgments to delay.
The fifth seal judgment against the Antichrist will come in the context of increased intercession. We will be crying out against the vengeance of the Antichrist.
The martyrdom of the saints will unleash a powerful movement of prayer of agreement with God’s predetermined plan.
This is why the prayer movement is so critical today. We must learn to pray according to God’s heart and biblical blueprints, and not according to our own human desires.
Tonight is the night! Join me in Cleveland as I release a call for the zealots to arise…
Tonight is the night! It’s time for the firebrands to arise! See you in Cleveland at 7pm!
FIRST: Listen to this passionate young man burning with the fires of revival in Houston. He preaches out of my book 20 Elements of Revival…and, man, he is lit up!
http://www.spreaker.com/user/prophet_llopis_g.a.w.c/revive-us-elder-garcia
Schedule:
- Thurs. June 26 at 7:00 pm
- Fri. June 27 at 7:00 pm
- Sat. June 28 at 7:00 pm
- Sun. June 29 at 10:30 am
Location:
Worldwide Great Commission Fellowship 33525 Curtis Blvd., Eastlake, OH 44095
About John Burton: John has been developing and leading ministries for over 20 years and is a sought out teacher, prophetic messenger and revivalist. John has authored six books, has appeared on Christian television and radio and directed one of the primary internships at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City.
Additionally, he planted two churches, has initiated two city prayer movements and is currently directing a prayer and revival focused ministry school in Detroit called theLab University. He and his beautiful wife Amy have five children and currently live in the Detroit region.
John’s mandate is to call the church in the nations to repentance from casual Christianity and to burn in a manner worthy of the King of Kings. He is equipping people to confront the enemies of God (established religion, Jezebel, etc.) that hinder an extreme, sold out level of true worship.
The prevailing theme of the ministry God has given John revolves around the topic of ‘being with God’. Where God is, things happen. In His presence, the place where He is, is the fullness of joy. As we discover the wonderful mystery of walking in the Spirit, praying always and making aggressive strides in faith, life becomes incredible! It truly is an experience in the invisible realm. As we tangibly experience God through deep and active prayer we are interacting ‘in the Spirit’. As we walk by faith and understand how amazing a Holy Spirit driven life is, being a believer quickly becomes the greatest adventure on earth!
Order 20 Elements of Revival
The contention of this book is simple: The extreme manifest presence of God is the biblical norm for New Testament believers. We label it many ways: revival, an outpouring, renewal, and certainly different moves of God have distinct flavors to them. However, regardless of the descriptive term we attach to it, we simply are not experiencing it. As we investigate a simple and powerful formula for revival, we will find ourselves deeply provoked and advancing with extreme momentum toward the goal of a city-wide outpouring of the Holy Spirit!
Order: www.johnburton.net/resources
Join me in Cleveland…and tonight in Detroit for FIRE…
Get ready for FIRE this Thursday-Sunday in Cleveland! It’s time for a road trip!
First: Prayer is increasing at theFurnace! I describe our Saturday Revival Church services as an intense prayer meeting with a little worship and teaching in the mix. Join us TONIGHT at 6pm for War Room Prayer, and then get ready for the main event at 7pm. I’ll be teaching on the blood and the cross! www.thefurnace.tv
Revival Church is located at 26091 Sherwood, Warren, MI 48091.
And…check out some photos from theLab Intensive below. YOU MUST join us on the next one! Visit www.thelabuniversity.com/intensives to let us know you are interested! We’re ready to come to your region—anywhere in the WORLD!
ROAD TRIP TO CLEVELAND!
Then, gather some friends, jump in the car and head out to Cleveland for a powerful, life changing event THIS THURSDAY!
If you know of a pastor who would be interested in inviting me to their church, you can send them to www.johnburton.net/booking. My full itinerary can be seen at www.johnburton.net/events.
I’d love to carry fire to your region, anywhere in the world!
theLab Intensive
Deadline is today for theLab Intensive • Experience a school of fire in a luxurious castle
Someone is flying in from the UK just for this Intensive…hunger for fire and freedom has provoked them! No matter where you live in the world, this is an event you just can’t miss!
TODAY is the deadline to register for this one-of-a-kind school of fire!
REGISTER RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE!
The three night, four day intensive takes place in an 8,000 square foot CASTLE in Port Sanilac, Michigan.
There’s a chapel on the property, several fireplaces and a beautiful pool and hot tub!
It is surrounded by 25 acres of trees to another 25 acres of open land.
Meals and snacks are included! (You will only be responsible for lunches during free time each day)
A warning dream: Contending for revival in a culture of positivity
A primary barrier to revival is the church’s reluctance to honestly analyze the dark, negative condition of our culture.
It is necessary to awaken men to a sense of guilt and danger. ~Charles Finney
There is increasing pressure from the church in our nation to reject any negative analysis or any call to reformation that reveals that which is out of order yet still valued by the people.
I feel this pressure in our ministry often. The demand is for balance, or, in reality, an overdose on happy with a rare, occasional sprinkle of temporary sobriety. Focus on the good in the hopes that it will resolve the bad. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way.
I take the troubling, urgent, upsetting, all consuming messages of my heart to the Lord daily—often many times a day. The fear of the Lord is on me, and I don’t want to communicate anything that’s not driven by love and obedience. I can’t imagine preaching something out of my soul that God would resist. I tremble at the thought.
I also feel God’s fear from the other direction—I can’t imagine staying silent or giving into demands for balance or positivity at the cost of souls. I know there will already be people in Hell forever because of my failure to speak the truth, and I cannot bear to let that tragedy continue.
Prophecy of the end-times by 90 year old woman in 1968: A lukewarmness without parallel will take hold of the Christians, a falling away from true, living Christianity. Christians will not be open for penetrating preaching. They will not, like in earlier times, want to hear of sin and grace, law and gospel, repentance and restoration. There will come a substitute instead: happiness Christianity. Churches and prayer houses will be emptier and emptier. Instead of the preaching we have been used to for generations -like, to take your cross up and follow Jesus, – entertainment, art and culture will invade the churches where there should have been gatherings for repentance and revival.
The true analysis of the church in our nation is exactly what this women prophesied. The sackcloth and ashes are nowhere to be found. The playful, careless attitudes have resulted in a measure of happiness but no revival.
The very need for revival reveals the true condition of the church.
It presupposes that the church is sunk down in a backslidden state, and a revival consists in the return of a church from her backslidings, and in the conversion of sinners. A revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the church.~Charles Finney
Positivity has invaded the church and its strategies. Even evangelism today in many places is devoid of dealing with sin and repentance. The message is, “God loves you” without also communicating the dark, depravity of the human heart. Who wouldn’t want to follow a happy God who likes us? The problem is that’s not the entirety of the Gospel, and that message is resulting in disillusioned people following Jesus in an unsaved condition.
Church services are full of celebration but absent of grieving. This must change.
There is so little principle in the church, so little firmness and stability of purpose, that unless the religious feelings are awakened and kept excited, counter worldly feeling and excitement will prevail, and men will not obey God. They have so little knowledge, and their principles are so weak, that unless they are excited, they will go back from the path of duty, and do nothing to promote the glory of God. ~Charles Finney
I’ve said it many times before: we need to cancel most everything we do and gather together day after day and pray.
Many wonder why I keep beating a dead horse. It’s simple. Because the horse is still dead.
Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Revelation 3:2
It’s time to shut down our conferences, cancel our church services, eliminate everything that will distract us—and pray. Continually. Together. For months or years until revival breaks out.
And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; Acts 1:4
Revival in America?
Ok, of course there’s hope for revival in America. So, what’s the problem? The church is mostly sitting back on a casual, costless idea that revival can come without investing into the clear, non-negotiable process. Thus, our pursuit of revival has become little more than a mystical wish upon a star.
I want to make this as simple as I can. Until the church gathers together continually, prays fervently and repents in tears, revival is little more than a pipe dream.
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. Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Joel 1:14-15
How can we presume revival is near when people are not interested in doing now what they will be doing when revival breaks out? It’s insanity.
Some people are terribly alarmed at all direct efforts to promote a revival, and they cry out, “You are trying to get up a revival in your own strength. Take care, you are interfering with the sovereignty of God. Better keep along in the usual course, and let God give a revival when he thinks it is best. God is a sovereign, and it is very wrong for you to attempt to get up a revival, just because you think a revival is needed.” This is just such preaching as the devil wants. And men cannot do the devil's work more effectually than by preaching up the sovereignty of God, as a reason why we should not put forth efforts to produce a revival. ~Charles Finney
Revival isn’t a mystical, ethereal experience that appears out of nowhere. There is cause and effect.
There has long been an idea prevalent that promoting religion has something very peculiar in it, not to be judged of by the ordinary rules of cause and effect; in short, that there is no connection of the means with the result, and no tendency in the means to produce the effect. No doctrine is more dangerous than this to the prosperity of the church, and nothing more absurd.
Suppose a man were to go and preach this doctrine among farmers, about their sowing grain. Let him tell them that God is a sovereign, and will give them a crop only when it pleases him, and that for them to plow and plant and labor as if they expected to raise a crop is very wrong, and taking the work out of the hands of God, that it interferes with his sovereignty, and is going on in their own strength: and that there is no connection between the means and the result on which they can depend. And now, suppose the farmers should believe such doctrine. Why, they would starve the world to death.
Just such results will follow from the church's being persuaded that promoting religion is somehow so mysteriously a subject of Divine sovereignty, that there is no natural connection between the means and the end. ~Charles Finney
When we do certain things, revival comes. When we don’t, it doesn’t.
Revival is not a miracle, or dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means–as much so as any other effect produced by the application of means. The revivals in the apostles' days were connected with miracles, but they were not miracles. ~Charles Finney
Evan Roberts modeled the cause and effect reality of revival brilliantly. It is simple:
“Congregate the people who are willing to make a total surrender. Pray and wait. Believe God’s promises. Hold daily meetings. ”Evan Roberts
Why is revival not breaking out in any of the 19,000 cities in America? It’s not hard to understand.
- Congregate the people—Prayer meetings and solemn assemblies are becoming emptier and emptier.
- Who are willing to make a total surrender—Cares of life, busyness and other personal endeavors have displaced the call to die daily.
- Pray—It’s rare today to find a Christian who pays the price of fervent intercession.
- Wait—In our ADD society, endurance has been offered at the altar of instant gratification, even if that gratification isn’t God.
- Believe God’s promises—Do we really believe the Bible? Do we stand immovably on the truths of Scripture? Not so much.
- Hold daily meetings—This one is laughable. We just don’t have the time, energy or desire.
As a nation, we are zero for six in response to Evan Roberts’ prescription for revival.
Keep in mind, Evan was responding to a message from Frank Bartleman who was curious as to how to initiate revival in his region. Frank listened to Evan and the Asuza Street Revival changed the world.
We aren’t waiting on God. He’s waiting on us. Revival is up to us.
Many people have supposed God's sovereignty to be some thing very different from what it is. They have supposed it to be such an arbitrary disposal of events, and particularly of the gift of his Spirit, as precluded a rational employment of means for promoting a revival of religion. But there is no evidence from the Bible that God exercises any such sovereignty as that. There are no facts to prove it. But every thing goes to show that God has connected means with the end through all the departments of his government. ~Charles Finney
In this nation I have found it nearly impossible to pull of the strategy that Evan Roberts prescribed, though in Haiti it was easy!
Every night I was there, people walked up to two hours through very difficult terrain to come to church and pray with passion! Nobody drove, everybody walked, and everybody engaged. Nobody milled around, left to go to the bathroom or was disinterested. Two thousand people a night were in position, in prayer and ready for instructions! Then, they walked home two hours in the dark and usually in torrential downpours to their homes.
I felt the spirit of revival in Haiti—the first time I’ve felt it in years.
That statement may cause trouble for those who embrace positivity. The thought is that any acknowledgement of a negative reality puts hope at risk. That is absolutely absurd.
Would anybody run a business this way? Would board meetings include only positive, happy thoughts in the hopes that they in themselves would turn the business around? Of course not.
Any successful business is an honest business. They analyze trends. They aren’t afraid to admit where they are failing. The don’t put their heads in the sand. They don’t presume a plastic smile is the answer.
Just as in business, revival will come as we honestly admit there is darkness in the land and trouble in the church.
A Warning Dream
I recently had a dream that was a personal warning to me, and it will help you understand better why the messages of repentance, reformation and revival can’t stop being the primary alarms of my ministry every day.
These alarms have cost my family and me quite a bit. While there is much fruit and glorious reports that continue to result from the message in my heart, the resistance is non-stop. While many have appreciated the prophetic call this ministry has, many others have pulled back from us, stayed at arms length, unfriended us or publicly renounced our ministry. I don’t say that to complain. Not at all. I say that to communicate how easy it would be to just stop ministering.
The temptation is there, ever so slightly, to pull back, chill out and become more balanced. More normal. More palatable.
I’m smart enough to know that I’d have a church of at least a couple hundred people, a healthy full time salary and a great reputation if I did so. I go to sleep with that thought every night.
Instead, the resistance is intense and it’s rare to find those who will carry the burden with me. God once told me, “When you pray for the remnant, don’t be surprised when the remnant shows up.”
The masses will be drawn to happy celebration as during the Triumphal Entry but it’s a very small remnant that will respond to the message of the cross.
The Dream
In my dream I traveled to a church I spent a lot of time in my early years in Dayton, Ohio. I absolutely love this church and have been back there to preach on multiple occasions since I moved away.
I was the guest speaker for the weekend, and I was excited to release a powerful word of the Lord.
When I arrived, there were hundreds of people flooding the property. It was a festive, exciting atmosphere with a lot of young people.
I immediately realized though that while people were happy to see me, nobody mentioned anything about me speaking. It was clear that I wouldn’t be ministering at all.
The people were entirely focused on socializing and fun. There was a massive slide in the church, much like an enclosed waterslide that you’d ride at the water park. This one didn’t have water, but you rode down on a cart. People stood in line for a long time to ride, and then they came back up to ride again.
The pressure was to have fun, be happy and enjoy life. So, I did. I waited in line and rode through the slide. It was amazing! It was massive and full of thrills!
I then went to the foyer of the church and suddenly realized I was barefoot. I lost my boots. It was extremely strange.
I opened the door and looked outside. It was the middle of summer, but the snow was falling. There was at least 8 inches of snow on the ground and it was still falling very heavily.
I walked out into the snow covered parking lot and then realized my kids were gone. I started to panic when I heard Eva’s laugh. She was in her car seat, on the ground behind a parked car. She was covered with snow.
I then woke up.
The Interpretation
It’s very simple. The church wants to play, and the pressure will be intense to join them. The message of the hour is not wanted. Happy church is the plan and the sheer numbers who are supporting it will attempt to drown out any contrary voice.
When I gave in, I lost my apostolic authority, represented by my boots.
I also lost my children. Eva was in her car seat, which was designed to be in the car. Vehicles represent ministry. The loss of my apostolic ministry resulted in my children, my inheritance, also being removed from their ministry. The next generation will be affected by the response of this generation.
The snow represented the coming revival, the refreshing. Very few even experienced it and I was not prepared to minister it.
The Strategy
I will admit, I question whether revival will come to America. I know it can, but will it?
I’ve been in Detroit for five years, and every year many have presumed that revival was imminent. I wanted it to be, but I knew it was not.
Again, it’s because of a very simple analysis—the prayer meetings are sparse.
I’ve been to many prayer and revival meetings over the years, and most of them have been pretty good. However, most of them have been quite empty.
Until the church reprioritizes schedules and what’s important, and prays night and day from a place of repentance and desperation, revival will most likely be held back.
But, if a remnant group will do this, revival can certainly come. Only God knows how many must respond to the call.
I say we don’t risk it. Let every Spirit-filled Christian in the cities of the Earth move into a life of consecration and pray together non-stop until God moves in our nation.
I will leave you with a call to action that Charles Finney left those who heard his lecture on revival:
I have a proposal to make to you who are here present. I have not commenced this course of Lectures on Revivals to get up a curious theory of my own on the subject. I would not spend my time and strength merely to give you instructions, to gratify your curiosity, and furnish you something to talk about. I have no idea of preaching about revivals. It is not my design to preach so as to have you able to say at the close, “We understand all about revivals now,” while you do nothing. But I wish to ask you a question. What do you hear lectures on revivals for? Do you mean that whenever you are convinced what your duty is in promoting a revival, you will go to work and practise it?
Will you follow the instructions I shall give you from the word of God, and put them in practise in your own lives? Will you bring them to bear upon your families, your acquaintance, neighbors, and through the city? Or will you spend the winter in learning about revivals, and do nothing for them? I want you, as fast as you learn any thing on the subject of revivals, to put it in practice, and go to work and see if you cannot promote a revival among sinners here. If you will not do this, I wish you to let me know at the beginning, so that I need not waste my strength. You ought to decide now whether you will do this or not. You know that we call sinners to decide on the spot whether they will obey the Gospel. And we have no more authority to let you take time to deliberate whether you will obey God, than we have to let sinners do so. We call on you to unite now in a solemn pledge to God, that you will do your duty as fast as you learn what it is, and to pray that He will pour out his Spirit upon this church and upon all the city this winter.