Posts Tagged ‘michigan’
Amy’s Newest Book- The Inscription
Having each faced personal loss, a group of strangers gathers at a cemetery for support. The bestowment of several miraculous gifts brings resolution, and a mysterious inscription holds the ultimate key to healing.
Amy’s newest book, The Inscription, is AVAILABLE TO ORDER!
Visit www.theinscription.com for more info.
This is Amy’s first work of fiction, and it’s sure to impact you powerfully.
From the book:
I smiled as the breathless beauty of my surroundings pierced my heart and, for just a second, pushed aside some of the heaviness. I sighed as the temporary reprieve ended and once again, my soul floundered against an onslaught of hopelessness.
After careful maneuvering, I finally reached my destination. I turned off the van’s engine and gingerly plucked a colorful package from the passenger’s seat. I sat silently, fingering the velvety ribbon that encircled the wrapped box. A tear slipped down my cheek, then another; before long, I was weeping.
"Amy writes a beautiful story of grief and, more importantly,
of the hope found through sharing the journey."
Kerry Mand, Former President of Pikes Peak Share
“The Inscription is a heartfelt and poignant story about the unbreakable bonds of friendship formed during times of sorrow.
A must read for any grieving soul!”
Angie Winton, Group Facilitator of Detroit Metro Share
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AMY BURTON and her husband, John, are accomplished authors and public speakers. Amy serves as an instructor at a pregnancy center in Detroit. She and John founded Revolution House of Prayer in 2001 and currently lead Revival Church. They live in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan with their three boys.
ORDER TODAY at www.theinscription.com.
What does God want for Christmas?
What a question!
I can hear people responding, “Uh, hello! He’s God. He can have everything He wants!”
Well, I know that God deeply craves a very real, reportable, experiential relationship with you and with me. Does He have that? Continually?
I’m confident Jesus yearns for us, via the enabling of the Holy Spirit, to actually love each other, to tend to one another, to really ‘do life’ together. (John 17:20-23)
We know the Bible tells us that God desires that no one perish (die without an intimate relationship with Him), but that we would all have abundant life. Do we all have this seemingly fleeting abundant life? No. Do some live and die without knowing God? Sadly, yes.
There are many passionate, fiery people in Michigan that I’ve been connecting with that are hungering more than ever for an outpouring from Heaven. We are contending for God’s dreams to come true—for very powerful joy, peace, strength and life to flood the people of this region.
I don’t know about you, but yesterday’s religious activities, formulas and hoops to be jumped through just won’t cut it anymore. We must experience God! He is not to be distant, confusing or more like a fable than a friend. He is real and he is alive!
He likes you and me! He loves it when there is legitimate connection. This is the way to live! It’s one thing to know about God. It’s an entirely different thing to know God! To be transformed by Him! This is what it’s all about!
Imagine a people who continually encounter the Lover of their souls. That’s a primary, all consuming desire of God. He loves us so deeply and wants to us to know Him so exhaustively.
What a Christmas that would be for our wonderful Savior.
I say, let’s do it. Let’s give God a Christmas to remember.
(This is an article I wrote for the Grosse Pointe News)
A prophetic message: The process to leave Egypt has begun : A financial strategy for Detroit and the nation
This week I have had a strong impression to start focusing on three ‘zones’ in regard to prayer and strategic advance:
- Local (Individual/the Church)
- Regional (Detroit/Michigan)
- National
As we participate rightly with God’s divine plan, we will find ourselves recalibrated with Him locally, regionally and nationally.
There is a large scale move of God in process now, and it in many ways mirrors the Exodus from Egypt. If we can prophetically peer into that story, we will discover some key lessons and strategies.
I also believe there is a financial message in the midst of this story that will help all of us advance as we understand the schemes of the enemy. (2 Cor 2:11)
This story must launch from the same place it launched in the life of Moses—the burning bush. The cry for prophetic messengers to humbly yet boldly declare the potentially offensive, extremely costly and problematic designs of God must come now. There is a burning bush in Michigan and in our nation—but is there anybody there with their shoes removed ready to receive that message?
Exodus 3:4-5 (ESV) 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
God is calling, is anybody responding? I actually believe the answer is at least a limited ‘yes’, but I wonder if any of us realize the severity of the call. We must receive the call from a position of holiness and humility and we must then boldly relay the call to the opposing system that’s keeping a nation in bondage.
Moses did just that. I believe we are also at an initial phase of the mission to break from from a worldly system.
Note what happened immediately after the prophetic word was declared by Moses to Pharaoh:
Exodus 5:1-3 (ESV) 1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
Of course, Moses’ mandate was met with immediate resistance. However, this resistance to the prophetic wasn’t simply in the form of a dispute between two leaders. The prophetic message, as delivered through the prophetic messenger, caused problems for the whole ‘church’.
The call was to move from an Egyptian system into the wilderness of encounter with God.
Exodus 5:4-5 (ESV) 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”
I believe we are most certainly in a season of transition—from a tiring focus of necessary but unfulfilling production into a miraculous season of supernatural rest and life.
Sarah Palin declared last week in Grand Rapids at the launch of her national “Going Rogue” book tour that something miraculous is coming to the economic structure in Michigan—and I believe this is surely the case.
However, we in Michigan may very well be in the midst of this next part of the Exodus story:
Exodus 5:6-8 (ESV) 6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’
The enemy is reacting with anger right now in this early prophetic season. While the church is being called into a new chapter, we have not yet made it there. We’re still in the old system. Reformation has not come yet. The bricks of old, the provision of old has not yet faded away. People need to make bricks, need to produce, need to pay the same bills, etc. However, I believe the enemy has removed the straw.
At a time when people are losing jobs, losing their homes, a time when stress is high and the ability to produce is significantly more difficult than it was just a couple of years ago, we must know that the prophetic message will get the job done—if we don’t relent.
Exodus 5:10-13 (ESV) 10 So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’ ” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.”
The only way to break out of this bondage is to rely on God’s supernatural methods and his decrees. The coming new system’s principles must be applied now, as we are breaking out of the current system.
Are we prepared for the greatest of battles? The church itself will turn on prophetic voices, prophetic strategists. Change will bring significant discomfort and struggle, and most will strike back in anger and accusation. Will we still contend for freedom?
Exodus 5:20-21 (ESV) 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
We will also have opportunity to question ourselves, as Moses did:
Exodus 5:22-23 (ESV) 22 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
I’ve often said that the enemy, who is the accuser, loves it when he convinces children of God to embrace his methods, his giftings, his anointings. He wants us to become accusers, and not just accusers of the brethren, but accusers of God Himself. Moses fell for this in the midst of extreme rebellion and pressure from his own people, and threats from Pharaoh.
Exodus 6:7-9 (ESV) 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ” 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
We see in the above passage that God has a plan, and it’s a big one. However, the extreme process will be difficult and many will turn away.
But, the end of this story is extreme. God wanted it all, without compromise—and he got what he wanted. And the people ultimately realized that they didn’t need straw to make their bricks—because they didn’t need the bricks at all. The old has passed away and the new season was upon them.
They dropped the bricks and picked up the riches of Egypt and moved out into the pursuit of their destiny.
In the beginning I shared a three-fold focus:
- On a small scale, we must individually and as local churches prepare for and lead the way in that spirit of Moses. We must run to the battle with fire from a bush in our mouths.
- Then, we must have a regional understanding—for us, Michigan is our next immediate focus. We must shout to the state the plans of Heaven, and let that prophetic message penetrate the darkness.
- Then, ultimately, we must prepare for a national movement. The Israelites were a nation, that was stepping into their ultimate destiny that hasn’t even fully played out yet.
Again, I feel we are in the place where the message has begun to be proclaimed, the plan of God has been released. The enemy has been enraged and straw has been removed. It’s more difficult to produce in our families, in our city, state and nation.
However, a new system is coming where bricks of old will be dropped and the plunder of Egypt will be picked up.
Proverbs 13:22 (ESV) A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.
A Regional Revival Center – Mass Deliverance – Prophetic word on Detroit’s finances
I’m sitting in an Alistair Petrie summit in Sarnia, Ontario Canada right now, and I’m stirred! He’s talking about principles of city transformation, which is the 
topic of the hour in Detroit.
I’ve been connecting with Bishop Larry Jackson and others this week in meetings, and it seems that God is suddenly sparking a lot of hearts at the same time. Urgency is increasing quickly.
Revival Church has a mandate to focus on regional revival and transformation. Our heart is to effectively connect the city church, pour into it and do our part in starting fires of revival.
SUNDAY
4pm- If you have any level of interest in the mission of revival at Revival Church, you are invited to a very important meeting tomorrow (Sunday) at 4pm. This is a gathering and vision imparting meeting that will give you a lot of info and will help you connect with other revivalists. We’ll be downstairs in the children’s ministry room. Again, this is for anybody reading this message, whether you have been with us since the beginning, or you’ve never been to an event. (please be prompt and also be respectful of Mercy and Truth Church that will be meeting in the sanctuary until 5:30pm for a special event)
6pm- Join us for a night of passionate prayer, declaration, worship, dance, freedom in the Holy Spirit and vision driven teaching.
MASS DELIVERANCE
There have been some interesting prophetic words on my life regarding ‘mass deliverance’. I function in personal deliverance regularly, and have started to see deliverance on a corporate level ramp up. What I feel is coming next is mass, city-wide deliverance. Alistair Petrie is teaching now on this concept! As vivid and undeniable truth invades a person, that person can easily and suddenly be free. As the secret things come to the surface and as light is shined into a situation, the power that deception has had is instantly dissolved.
This will also come to a city. Strongholds will break on a city level.
PROPHETIC WORD- KINGDOM FINANCES
For example, last night I had a strong prophetic impression. God was saying, “Now! Now! The church must move now in the financial realm. Right this moment the secular world is sitting around board room tables planning on instilling principles and methods to rescue Detroit from financial ruin. This must not happen. The church must not allow the world to run ahead and put into place humanistic strategies that will bring greater harm. The Church must set into place Kingdom principles in the city.”
We can’t afford to let the world maintain its level of influence on the economy. The Church and biblical financial principles must be brought into the story!
Alistair Petrie said, “Kingdom finances will be released as integrity and Kingdom culture develops and prevails.”
He also said that the church is a litmus test of the society it is in. The culture of the church is an indicator of the culture of a city. We must see Kingdom financial (and all other!) principles activated in the church and individual local churches of Detroit.
He said, “You can’t pray for transformation in your city unless you go through the same thing yourself that you’re asking for others to experience. We must become ‘changed agents’ before becoming ‘agents of change’.”
John
A trembling and a searing burning is coming to the church of Detroit
First, check out our new website for Revival Church. We may be holding our Sunday evening services at the First United Methodist Church on Greater Mack, so stay tuned for updates. The website is www.detroitrevivalchurch.com.
"The coming moves of God will require nothing short of a revolution of our current structures, models and mindsets. Not an adjustment or an enhancement, but deep reform. The resulting fire and presence of the Holy Spirit will cause us to marvel and wonder why we ever resisted at all."- John Burton
I’m deeply provoked. While I understand the value of due process, something deep within can’t shake the prophetic cry for sudden reformation in our churches.
God zealously loves the church, and I’m convinced he loves it too much to allow it to remain in its current form without some divine pressure.
The church must change. Now. The picture of Amy above is key. She mentioned that revival will only come to Detroit if we go to the place of agony, of groans and visibly shaking screams from our spirit. We must press like Amy did when she was contending for the life of our daughter on stage in Lakeland. Look at her face and never forget it.
I bet I’ve heard similar messages hundreds of times over the last ten years or so, yet we still resort to the familiar.
I simply can’t shake this. Nor do I want to. A burning is coming to Detroit, and we must be contending for it to arrive sooner than later.
This burning will threaten more than most of us are willing to risk. As churches raise the bar, intercede night and day, stimulate the heavy activity of the Holy Spirit and embrace an “I couldn’t care less” John the Baptist style disposition that cries continually for the arrival of Jesus- many will leave. Many will be offended. People we rely on to run our programs, to pay their tithes. Everything is at risk- money, people, reputation, 401ks, mortgage payments- everything.
However, the remnant who aren’t in it for their on security or satisfaction or affirmation will die daily and contend in unity for Jesus to arrive in power.
We, as simple and weak humans, are going to do our best to allow God to form Revival Church with all of this in mind. I believe it’s important for all of us to be in position, fully on fire and ready to burn night and day.
Detroit needs prophetic, cross-bearing churches on fire, night and day, in order for this revival to hit.
Pray for reformation. Pray against the American culture and calendar that has demanded submission. Pray for radical transformation in the church- from the way we pray, to the children’s ministry to the increase of white hot fire in the midst of our events. Pray for an end to Sunday only church. Pray for an end for the need for ‘seeker’ ministry as the flames of God’s fire transform these people in the midst of a shaking, trembling Upper Room style church.
And, in addition to praying for it- let’s just do it. We’re not waiting on God. We don’t have to convince him of the need for revival. He’s waiting on us to just do it.