Tag Archives: change

Prophecy

Rack Up

Recently I had a series of dreams that I feel have significant spiritual perspectives. This is a bit long but please bear with me.

In the first scene I was observing a group of men in various locations around a coastal community. It was if I had infiltrated their group and was able to see and hear what they were discussing.

In this scene there were several meetings were these meeting were discussing jihad and were clearly residents/citizens of this community (i.e. not somewhere in the Middle East). They were discussing ways on how to spread their message of Islamic jihad and their responsibilities to wage jihad. There were several very strong willed individuals who were able to persuade the majority of the men, even those who were not sold fully on the concepts of waging war on their neighbors, friends, and in some cases family.

In the second scene I was a recently discharged military member from appeared to be Special Forces. I was at an outside coffee café, sitting at a table with a couple of friend, just chatting and enjoying the nice weather. We watched as a couple of UAVs (drones) flew overhead towards the beach area when all of a sudden two gray, unmarked, fighter jets flew in and attacked and destroyed the drones from a rear attack and then flew off.

In the next scene we jumped up realizing that we were under attack by forces with significant power (i.e. jet fighters) and that they were able to launch attacks unexpectedly and with precision.

I yelled at the men with me “We need to RACK UP – go get your gear (weapons) and meet back at this corner in 20 minutes”. As we ran to get our gear we encountered other groups of similar soldiers – some in 2s and 3s, others in 10 – 20, and I yelled the same thing at them “We need to RACK UP – go get your gear (weapons) and meet back at this corner in 20 minutes”.

I then saw the men in their BDUs (battle dress uniforms) with their automatic weapons, extra ammo magazines, etc – in other words – we were ready for the war that was being brought upon us.

While many of you will see things in this from your conversations with Holy Spirit, this is what I got when I spoke to Him. Some of this I have had in previous dreams and shared with certain individuals – but Holy Spirit has released me to share in a wider venue because of the impending circumstances.

This is representative of the battle that is being brought upon the land by the spirit behind Islam. It is a battle that has been developing for centuries and only since the recent decades have this circumstances and opportunities been provided to this spirit to bring this war to America and the rest of the world. This is a primary element in satan’s strategy to destroy Israeland God’s plan.

Holy Spirit shared that the reason America is in the cross hairs is because of its historic support of Israel…but the spirit of Islam (jihad) has only been able to obtain a beachhead in America because the “church” has lost its focus and has allowed spirits that support the spirit of Islam (i.e. progressive liberalism – yes there is a spirit behind this) to significantly reduce the churches ability to be an effective force for good.

If you have not already seen or felt it, in the days ahead you will see a shift in the way the church operates. The first battles have already been lost, but we are in a war so the Lord has been realigning many individuals out of the institutional church environment into the organic church environment – and now He is establishing the foundations of the underground church here in America.

This war is a reality, it is going to be messy, it is not going to be fun as we have known it – but we will win and overcome. HOWEVER, we ALL need to RACK UP all of our weapons (peace, joy, praise, giving, loving, healing, setting captives free, etc) and we need EVERYONE to rack up.

The days of just pastors doing ministry stuff are over.

from Martin Best
Join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter Feel free to share with others, but please leave the contact info intact. Click here to subscribe, or visit www.northwestprophetic.com. To submit a word for the Northwest, visit our Submit A Word page, or email to NWP@northwestprophetic.com. Thanks!
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Prophecy

Rack Up

Recently I had a series of dreams that I feel have significant spiritual perspectives. This is a bit long but please bear with me.
In the first scene I was observing a group of men in various locations around a coastal community. It was if I had infiltrated their group and was able to see and hear what they were discussing.
In this scene there were several meetings were these meeting were discussing jihad and were clearly residents/citizens of this community (i.e. not somewhere in the Middle East). They were discussing ways on how to spread their message of Islamic jihad and their responsibilities to wage jihad. There were several very strong willed individuals who were able to persuade the majority of the men, even those who were not sold fully on the concepts of waging war on their neighbors, friends, and in some cases family.
In the second scene I was a recently discharged military member from appeared to be Special Forces. I was at an outside coffee café, sitting at a table with a couple of friend, just chatting and enjoying the nice weather. We watched as a couple of UAVs (drones) flew overhead towards the beach area when all of a sudden two gray, unmarked, fighter jets flew in and attacked and destroyed the drones from a rear attack and then flew off.
In the next scene we jumped up realizing that we were under attack by forces with significant power (i.e. jet fighters) and that they were able to launch attacks unexpectedly and with precision.
I yelled at the men with me “We need to RACK UP – go get your gear (weapons) and meet back at this corner in 20 minutes”. As we ran to get our gear we encountered other groups of similar soldiers – some in 2s and 3s, others in 10 – 20, and I yelled the same thing at them “We need to RACK UP – go get your gear (weapons) and meet back at this corner in 20 minutes”.
I then saw the men in their BDUs (battle dress uniforms) with their automatic weapons, extra ammo magazines, etc – in other words – we were ready for the war that was being brought upon us.
While many of you will see things in this from your conversations with Holy Spirit, this is what I got when I spoke to Him. Some of this I have had in previous dreams and shared with certain individuals – but Holy Spirit has released me to share in a wider venue because of the impending circumstances.
This is representative of the battle that is being brought upon the land by the spirit behind Islam. It is a battle that has been developing for centuries and only since the recent decades have this circumstances and opportunities been provided to this spirit to bring this war to America and the rest of the world. This is a primary element in satan’s strategy to destroy Israeland God’s plan.
Holy Spirit shared that the reason America is in the cross hairs is because of its historic support of Israel…but the spirit of Islam (jihad) has only been able to obtain a beachhead in America because the “church” has lost its focus and has allowed spirits that support the spirit of Islam (i.e. progressive liberalism – yes there is a spirit behind this) to significantly reduce the churches ability to be an effective force for good.
If you have not already seen or felt it, in the days ahead you will see a shift in the way the church operates. The first battles have already been lost, but we are in a war so the Lord has been realigning many individuals out of the institutional church environment into the organic church environment – and now He is establishing the foundations of the underground church here in America.
This war is a reality, it is going to be messy, it is not going to be fun as we have known it – but we will win and overcome. HOWEVER, we ALL need to RACK UP all of our weapons (peace, joy, praise, giving, loving, healing, setting captives free, etc) and we need EVERYONE to rack up.
The days of just pastors doing ministry stuff are over.
from Martin Best
Join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter

Feel free to share with others, but please leave the contact info intact.
Click here to subscribe, or visit www.northwestprophetic.com.

To submit a word for the Northwest, visit our Submit A Word page, or email to NWP@northwestprophetic.com. Thanks!

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Devotionals, Letters

Returning to the Glory of the First Century Church

Every so often, I hear someone moan wistfully, “If only we could return to the glory days of the first century church! If only we could be as full of faith as they were!”

I think if I hear that again, I’m going to scream.

May I speak plainly? That’s one of the stupidest spiritual-sounding things we could say in this day and age. I make the assumption that people who say that mean well, but come on! Let’s think about this a little bit:

The first century church, the church in the book of Acts, was a wonderful beginning. But they were only a beginning: this was the baby church, in diapers, as it were. I can tell you that I have no interest in going back to diapers. That would be such an epic failure, for the church of today to return to the “glory days” of the first century church! What was for them glorious success would be the worst of failures for us.

● “But,” someone will moan, “There were three thousand saved in a day!” That’s pretty good for rookies. Today, that’s less than an hour’s work in the Kingdom, and some reports suggest that’s closer to 20 minutes’ work.

Let us note that it only happened twice in the Book of Acts that three thousand were saved in a day. Today, more than three thousand people come to faith every single hour of every single day of every single year.

I’m thinking that’s an improvement.

● “But there were signs and wonders!” Somebody is seriously not paying attention. There were fewer than 20 miracles reported in the book of Acts, though there were repots of “lots of miracles.” Nowadays, we have lots of miracles on a regular basis.

I know one group that has a 100% success rate at healing the deaf, and nearly as good success healing the blind. I know two groups that won’t let people become elders unless they’ve raised someone from the dead. I know a group that legitimately calls themselves “The Dead Raising Team,” and they’re successful at it. I can’t tell you the number of successful healing teams I’ve heard about! They’re everywhere, and best of all, NOT just among the leaders, like the book of Acts.

Bethel Church in California reports thousands of documented miracles every time they send their students on outreach. And have you talked to the Healing Rooms movement recently?

Besides, I’m not sure I want more “Ananias & Sapphira events.” It’s my private opinion that even when that happened in Acts, it was an error, and not the will of God, but that’s another story. Surely it won’t be best for folks to fall dead in our meetings, when nobody can agree why it happened!

● “But they had all things in common!” I’ll grant that this is an area that we have room to continue growing in. But I am also aware that we’re talking about completely different cultures here. In that culture, if you couldn’t work, you starved to death. In our culture, the homeless guys on street corners make a (meager) living that in most of the world (or in the first century church) would be considered unmitigated wealth. (http://nwp.link/1s8woOt)

This does NOT mean that I propose that we stop helping the poor! Heaven forbid! This means I propose that we quit berating ourselves simply because we still have poor people among us: Jesus said we always would! (Matthew 26:11)

● “But they sold their homes! That’s dedication!” Well, some of them sold their homes. That was just good business; these were smart Jews! Jesus had clearly declared that the city would be destroyed shortly. It’s just good business to sell a house this week for full price that’s going to be destroyed with the city next week and be worth nothing! And clearly, if they “met house to house,” then not everybody sold their homes.

For the record, I know a bunch of people who’ve sold their homes for the ministry, several more than once. I know of others who sold themselves into slavery so that they could bring the good news to those in slavery, and they died in slavery. Most of these folks haven’t had books written about them, so they’re not known as well. But then Jesus taught us to keep quiet about our generosity, yes?

We could go on.

It is NOT my intent to disparage the excellent start that the Church had, as reported in the book of Acts. That was glorious.

What we have now is substantially more glorious. And that, too, is what we were promised. (See Isaiah 9:7)

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Devotionals, Letters

Walmart: To Shop, or Not to Shop

A few years back, a familiar and none-too-pretty tale was played out yet again in the Northwest. (It is by no means exclusive to the Northwest, except that I am more in touch with what happens in the Northwest than other areas.) I’m going to use Walmart as an example, but the issue is not about Walmart. It’s about us.
It started with an announcement that Walmart was considering building a store in a modest-size town. The next phase was outrage from a great portion of the community, various lawsuits filed, for which Walmart had amply prepared and easily won, and sales of bumper stickers proclaiming, “I don’t shop at Walmart!”
Behind the scenes, Walmart built their store, stocked their store, hired employees and quietly opened for business. The Walmart haters still hated. People bought stuff. Employees earned paychecks. Life went on.
It strikes me that there are legitimate reasons for communities to not love Walmart’s influence in their community. Walmart does business differently, and that has social and economic effect on the community.
There are also legitimate reasons for Walmart to do business the way it does, and those business decisions have made Walmart incredibly successful.
And there are people who legitimately need the infamously low-paying jobs that Walmart offers, if only because they can get work nowhere else.
Father whispered to me about the protests recently:
o          If I refuse to shop at Walmart, then I have judged Walmart in my heart and in my actions. That’s not actually good Christian behavior, partly because it opens me up to judgment, and I’d rather that didn’t happen.
o          If a community joins in loud and apparently united outrage against Walmart, then we make its employees (and applicants) outcasts from the community. We create a caste of “untouchables” in our community. I don’t think we really want that to happen, either.
o          If we declare that “Walmart is evil!” (as I’ve heard many times), then we’re also making declaration that they become evil, and we’re releasing the power of evil into those people who are part of Walmart; we’re giving evil a measure of freedom to work in our community. I surely don’t want that to happen!
o          If there’s truth in the declaration, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” then the prayers of my heart regarding Walmart will be more effective if I spend a bit of my treasure there. I bought some supplies there this weekend; I consider that an investment in my prayers for this economic powerhouse in my community.
In fact, I’ll confess: I’ve been praying for and prophesying to my local Walmart since the very first announcement that they were going to build. I’ve walked through the building’s foundations, declaring that this store, at least, would be founded on righteousness and truth. They had to cap a well to pour that foundation, so I declare  springs of living water in them, particularly that they would be a spring of life to their employees.
I don’t spend much of my treasure there. I believe strongly in doing business with companies that are locally owned, and Walmart doesn’t qualify for that one. Besides, I don’t love the quality of a lot of the products they sell. (There’s a difference between “inexpensive” and “cheap.” I tend to prefer the former.)
Now, I am absolutely NOT trying to tell others whether they should shop at Walmart or how to spend their money. I’m describing some results of our choices.
I was actually shopping at Walmart when Father began to speak to me about this. It was funny, but I felt his blessing flowing through me to the store, it’s employees and its very interesting customers.
But as he spoke to me about Walmart, he included other issues in the conversation. The movie Noah was one. There are many others.  We’re giving away influence in the marketplace when we protest market leaders for acting like market leaders.
We believers have the freedom to spend our money where we wish. But there are real effects to the words of our protests, and there is an authority in our prayers that follows the spending of our treasure.

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Devotionals, Letters

Staying Current with Spiritual Technologies

Here you see the nearly 18,000 vacuum tubes and 6,000 switches of the ENIAC, the first electronic computer.
This was once considered the pinnacle of technological perfection! The first machine that could calculate. How very impressive. It was the best thing EVER!
This device was very expensive, took up an entire room, generated an immense amount of heat, and, based on vacuum tubes, it was nonfunctional about half the time.
While it was the fastest calculating device available on the planet at the time it was made, it is so no longer. The handheld calculator my daughter used in junior high school (it cost $7.99) is faster – much faster – than this behemoth ever dreamed of being.
In like fashion, the computing power in a $19.95 wristwatch is greater than the computers that supported the first moonwalk. That, too, was the fastest computer of its day, but its day has long since passed.
The engineers who were (rightfully) so proud of those machines are no more than curators of museum pieces now.
In some ways, there is a tendency for the church to function like this. Father gives us a new gift (or brings back an old one that was in every day use in the Book of Acts), and we’re all excited: “This is the best thing EVER!” we declare, and we blog about it, and hold conferences on it, and a few very brave souls take it to the streets.
But the Spirit is not through moving. Just like there are newer and better computers available every few months, there are newer and better insights, strategies, gifts from Holy Spirit real regularly as well.
If we intend to stay current with the computer world, we would need an upgrade every few months. That’s overwhelming: it overwhelms my mind and my budget! In reality, I don’t need to upgrade our personal computer every time a newer and better one is available. I just need to make sure that the one I’m using is current, that it can run the current software that I need, and I need to stay in touch with where the world of computer development is going, so I know when it is time to upgrade.
If we intend to stay current with what Holy Spirit is doing in the world today, we’d need to fully embrace every new thing he does every week or month or so. That would be overwhelming! It would overwhelm any individual’s capacity for change. I don’t need to be personally involved with every jot and tittle of what Holy Spirit is releasing in the world today; I just need to make sure that I’ve invested myself in what he’s doing, that the move that I’m involved in is the right move to accomplish the task that He’s given me. And I need to stay in touch with the bigger picture of what He’s doing, so I know when it’s time for me to upgrade.
For example, there are a bunch of things that I’m aware that Holy Spirit is doing on the earth today (and I’m confident I’ve not seen it all!). The development of the prophetic gifts has been going on for a few decades, and is now approaching a measure of maturity. The development of apostolic gifts is newer, arguably more complex, and necessarily less mature. The healing movement is in full flower right now, ready to bear good fruit! Father is pouring out immense new understanding of his grace: but the grace movement is still relatively young and unsure of itself. There are signs that God is beginning to release gifts such as are found in Acts 8:39 and 2 Corinthians 12:2; won’t that be exciting!

But the real question is, will we upgrade our gifts, the gifts from Holy Spirit that we exercise, that we have proficiency with? Will we upgrade in order to stay current with where Holy Spirit is moving in the earth today?

Or will we be content with our current gifts, our current grace, our current expertise, becoming stagnant and nearly irrelevant to what God is doing today, sitting in the padded seat of honor on the platform, criticizing the new gifts, the new spiritual technologies? “Who needs those newfangled things? An ‘eye-pad’? What in tarnation is an iPad? If vacuum tube computers are good enough for me, they’re good enough for you! iPads and Androids are HERESY, I tell you!”
It’s a scary thing: moving from being expert in a gift that is not as needful today, since nearly every believer is walking in that gift, moving into the place where I’m as much a beginner as anybody else! The guy on the platform really often resists moving from “the anointed man of power, with the word of God for the hour” to a mistake-prone rookie, the same as any other mistake-prone rookie, nothing special anymore.
I invite us to press in to the newer gifts, not leaving the old behind, into the newer moves of what God is doing on the Earth! I invite us to guard against becoming complacent with the gifts that we’ve become expert in, and become a mistake-prone rookie as we learn new ones! I invite us to guard against criticizing our brothers and sisters who are becoming expert in gifts that are different than the ones that we’re becoming expert in.
And I invite us to pray for those around us who have been the big names, the leaders, the people on the platform with status: they need our prayers and our friendship in this season more, perhaps, than others do.

But regardless of who goes with us, or who stands behind criticizing, let us press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. Let us upgrade, always upgrade, our giftings as he offers them!

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Devotionals, Letters

The Vision of the Wooden Spoon

The vision began with a quiet stream, in a quiet, green meadow; it reminded me of Narnia for some reason: that peaceful. The stream was wider than one could jump across, and deeper than you’d want to wade across, and its flow was smooth and fairly fast. All in all, it was a very peaceful environment. The birds were singing.
Then a giant hand appeared in the sky, holding a giant wooden spoon, the kind of spoon that people use in the kitchen to mix cookie dough. The spoon dipped into the stream and stirred.
For a while, nothing much happened, except the stream became more turbulent from the spoon’s motion. After a minute or two, the stream darkened, and soon I could see things in the muddy stream: old tires, boots, cans, bottles, sticks and stones, jars, bags of rubbish. The hand with the spoon withdrew into the heavens.
I was kind of appalled. This had been a peaceful stream, in a beautiful meadow, and now it was full of trash and garbage and muck and mess. Well, actually, the peaceful stream had always had the trash and muck and garbage and muck and mess, but it had been lying hidden in the mud on the bottom of the stream. Now the stuff was out in the open.
The vision continued, and the stream kept flowing, and then I saw it: the garbage was flowing downstream with the flow of stream. Some of what had been stirred up came to the top of the stream, and was carried far downstream, out of the picture. Other things, heavier things, were carried a little ways downstream but they settled back to the bottom of the stream. Soon the stream was clear and peaceful again, but I knew that old tires, discarded shoes, bottles and cans were still there, lying on the bottom of the stream.
The hand with the spoon appeared again, and stirred the water again, and again the stream darkened with mud, again tires, discarded shoes, bottles, cans, and other detritus were stirred up, and again they floated various distances downstream.
The cycle was repeated several times, until eventually, the stirring from the almighty spoon did not bring up muck and garbage.
The stream returned to peace, but it flowed smoother, faster, than it had before, and I realized that it flowed cleaner than it had before. The garbage on the stream bed had settled under so much mud that the stream flowed smoothly over it, but still the garbage had polluted the stream.
Now the stream was actually clean.
I believe that this is what Father is doing in some of our lives. He’s stirring things up in our lives, and it’s uncomfortable. It’s easy to be appalled or offended at what he’s doing, because he’s good at what he does. Things are being stirred up, memories, habits, relationships that have been in our lives are being stirred up from the dark depths of our lives, and brought into the light.
And the reality is that much of what he’s stirring up is garbage: shame, embarrassment, memories of foolishness, of sin, histories of unwise choices, character weaknesses. It’s easy to resent these coming to the surface after how many years of being hidden in history.
But he’s bringing them up in order to wash them away, in order to remedy the issues. Trust him. Have hope, rest in the confident assurance that he does know what he’s doing, and that he’s working for good in you, for the purity that we really have wanted. He’s answering our prayers.
We can trust the spoon. More specifically, we can trust the hand wielding the spoon.

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Prophecy

The Seven Shifts Coming to the Church

Jonathan Welton is a gifted seer and a brilliant theologian. Not long ago, he was speaking at Seattle Revival Center church, here in the Northwest, and God interrupted his schedule to describe seven shifts that He is bringing to the church, with seven activations for the people of God.

This is a two-hour-long video, but it’s worth the time to hear what he has to say. These are not insignificant changes, and you’re probably experiencing some of them already.

Dr Welton offers a Supernatural Bible School online. If you’re looking for a theological foundation for our charismatic, prophetic experience, I highly recommend it. (I’m enrolled, myself.)
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Note: This prophetic word is in the for of a YouTube video. If you have difficulty seeing the video, click on the link The Seven Shifts Coming to the Church. 

Join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter

Feel free to share with others, but please leave the contact info intact.
Click here to subscribe, or visit www.northwestprophetic.com.

To submit a word for the Northwest, visit our Submit A Word page, or email to NWP@northwestprophetic.com. Thanks!

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