Tag Archives: End time revival

Many signs are pointing to the fact that the return of Christ is imminent. There will be a falling away of lukewarm, uncommitted churchgoers, but there will also be a great harvest of new, true disciples as the Holy Spirit prepares Christ’s spotless bride in readiness for His return.

Be prepared; hold on., Living by Faith, Prophesy and the prophetic

In the coming storm: hold on, rejoice, and follow!

1 Comment

The message for 2024 from Andrew Baker, who heads up the Eagles prophetic ministry.

I, Andrew, was asking the Lord for a word from His heart for the coming year. Sometimes I receive a “Thus says the Lord” word, but this time I was clearly led to some scriptures, already in a set order. Here is what the Lord showed me.

Philippians 3:13-14 is a well-known passage; “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching towards those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Most prophets are warning us of the change of season and that this new time will bring many things on the earth that we have not seen or experienced before. Indeed, we do not need to be a prophet, or even a believer, to see that these things are already coming upon us. I have no intention of listing such things here, as that is not what the Lord seems to be centring on today. We are aware of the present issues on the earth but many more that we have not thought of will touch the nations in the coming days. These will include certain nations taking a deliberate path in order to bankrupt the West.

God is moving His people who will, by faith, believe Him, into a completely different scene. It will be like the old circular stage at big West End Theatres in London. There was one scene showing (on the front of the circular stage, facing the audience at that time) and then, the button was pushed and the whole stage revolved 180 degrees and what was hidden behind the curtains (another scene, standing on the back half of the circular stage), suddenly arrived for the audience to see. It was a new scene completely, with new props, new view and new furniture and equipment on it. The only thing that would remain the same was the cast, of course, they simply moved from one scene to the next. So it will be in this new year and the season we are now moving into. The stage of the whole world is revolving, and we are starting to see what the new one will look like (from human perspective, not so very good). However, the Lord is not only saying that the world will change but that our world, as believers, will change just as much. The Lord says get ready to move into a scene and set that you have never seen or walked on before. Everything will be different except for the cast.

Hold On

As believers, I see that Lord telling us to hold onto, inside, the solid things of Jesus and the word; these things will be so, so important to us in this new world. However, all other things around you will change and you will need this new equipment, positioning and all that makes up this new scene, in order to function and have victory for souls and resources in this world that is changing for the worse in these latter days.

The Lord is saying to us all today that He foretold many of these things about a changing world in His Word, centuries, even millennia ago. Such is His ability to see ahead because He does not live in time but rather created it, and is before, during and after time; using it and yet outside and master of it. The Lord wants to remind us that when He walked the earth, He spoke clearly of these difficult times that would come in the last days. There is no doubt that the nations of the earth will be in the centre of all kinds of troubles, and we are seeing the beginnings of that right now.  However, as His message today adds in Philippians chapter four, these matters should not concern us or cause us fear. These things are coming on the earth but believers are taught and shown how to walk through these days in joy and victory, being led by the Spirit and seeing God’s hand upon those who will listen and walk in the way He leads.

Rejoice in the Lord

Philippians 4:4-9 says: “Rejoice in the Lord always”. Let’s take a moment with this. In the middle of even his own catastrophe Paul says rejoice, laugh and have lots of heavenly joy! This is a message, at the time, from a man who was in the deep dungeon with the rats, probably chained to the floor! I mention this because we may say that this message of joy cannot be shared with someone in a war zone, or someone who has just lost a loved one, someone in deep debt or who is suffering a terminal illness. I believe we would be wrong. I believe that we can heed the words and exhortation of Paul because he was in such dire straits himself at the time and had been many times before. Paul was experienced in listening to the Lord and following His divine advice, which is often so much different from human counsel. Yes, this is a word for us all for the coming year, as the world sinks to lower levels of evil but the Lord wants to carry His people through, round, over and past it all.

Remember Nehemiah 8:10, “the joy of the Lord is your strength”, and Jesus who prayed that we would have His joy fulfilled in ourselves (John 17:13), that our joy may be full (John 16:24) and that His joy may remain in us (John 15:11). Yes, this Jesus was described in Luke 10:21 as having outbursts of joy too: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said…”. Jesus knew what was ahead of Him but He concentrated on things above and the joy that was set before Him. Throughout these coming days, joy will be such a weapon and such a defence shield, along with our faith, that we had better start operating in this wonderful gift right now.

Many have been the days when the Lord just made me smile and then laugh and then continue to be filled with joy. It usually happens when I am becoming too serious. Today, sit quietly in the middle of the storm and allow the Lord to cause you to laugh, as He does. He is God, He can do or change anything. His thoughts are way above ours; His ability makes men’s wars and ‘threats’ look like a young child having a tantrum. God is on the throne. Paul knew this in this passage from Philippians, and we need to remind ourselves of just who the Lord is now.

Psalm 2 is relevant in this context. Verses 1-2 and 4 say this : “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His anointed…He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision.”The Lord saw their hearts and ways back then, and He still sees now. Men’s hearts have not changed and neither has the devil’s desires and lies. Jesus has had the victory, and so all this stuff may appear terrifying to mere humans, but when viewed from the Lord’s balcony, it is futile, even to the destroying of the entire planet as we know it, because the Lord simply can makes us another when necessary!! We need to see things through His eternal eyes, not through our temporary ones.

We need to learn to relax in Him, trust His guidance and follow His leadings. Whilst we do this, we need to laugh a lot and give out a message of faith and hope that the Lord will always be on hand to bless, help and support those who are His and to help them rescue others from the stormy seas and bring them to eternal safety too.

Be Anxious for Nothing

Back to our passage. Verse 6 tells us: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” After telling us to meditate on good things (instead of the troubles) we can settle our concerns and receive the peace of God in our anxious hearts. In another passage the Lord talks about things coming on the earth that will cause men’s hearts to fail with fear (Luke 21:25-26). This message in these verses is not for the believer! It is about those who do not know God! For us believers, when the fire gets hotter, the divine help, closeness, covering and grace get stronger.

We should know and understand what is happening around us, yes, don’t put your head in the sand, but the issue for us is to keep our eyes and meditation on the things of the Lord and our ears open to His direction. I am not saying that there are not among us some who are called to understand the things happening on the earth; neither am I saying that we should all stop doing everything and just sit around; I am certainly not saying that you should not continue with your call, mission, business, ministry and life’s work, but I am saying that our apostle Paul knew plenty of troubles but kept His eyes and ears on the things above. He knew which was temporary and which was eternal. He knew which would get him through the mess and what thoughts would bring confusion and possibly even his downfall. Eyes and ears on the Lord, follow His leadings very sensitively, and as you think upon the Lord and who He is, be filled with joy, laughter and faith that will lift you above the mess and help you through to the other side, along with enabling you to be a useful person to God to help others though too.

So let us see that this kind of joy will remove our anxiety. Be at peace and know that He is here in our midst, living inside of us and prepared to walk together with us and bring to the table all His abilities and attributes. This way we shall find personal victory, success in prayer for others and a way to complete the call and mission on our lives. We will also find the enabling us to steer clear of many problems before even reaching them on our walk and knowing His heart of love to melt us and help us in our own lives and relationships, too.

Luke tells us over and over again in chapter 12: “do not worry”, “do not have an anxious mind”, “do not fear”. He is not telling us to do something we cannot do. He knows that the Holy Spirit within will help us and settle our hearts when we keep our eyes on him. Isaiah 25:3 says: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts you.” I know that I may have sent articles with some of these verses in before, but I have learned that the Lord wants us to constantly remind ourselves of truth. That is one reason why he asked us to break bread and take wine regularly, too.

So, as we rejoice, relax in Him, put our thoughts and eyes on Him, so His peace will flood in and bring us to the place where all things begin to disappear in the face of His glory and grace. Do you think you can’t do this? Well, read verse 13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Enough said!

Raise up the Josephs

The final verse the Lord was pointing out to me was Philippians 4:19: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Whilst dark days may be ahead for the world, and much lack and many shortages may be their lot, yet the Lord will not only help and bless His people but will take care of every need we have if we follow His ways and directions.

Many of you have heard the testimony of Carole and me – of God’s provision over the years. We must all now learn to walk with the Lord by faith in His ability to make a way and to provide in famine. Even if the fields are dust and there is no rain, the Lord can still cause 100 fold to come forth as we follow His instructions. We look not just for our own provision, but we need to be helping raise up the Josephs that we are being called to help bring onto the world stage at all levels. It is Joseph time now. This will be the year to begin the season of the impossible being possible, of miracles of provision of all types and of gathering the harvest of souls and resources that we, as Eagles, have played our part of prophesying for the last 14 years or so.

It is now time to look forwards and not back to the ways things were accomplished before. Keep the Lord, His word, prayer, praise and worship and His ways central to our lives as we learn a better way to live by faith in Him and walking in the God dimension. Don’t be anxious but rejoice in the Lord always and know that God will fill you with peace even with war around you and will provide for you, as you are led by His Spirit. Forward into 2024 with these things in mind Eagles.

Come out from the Hidden Place

Over many years we have all been learning to have faith in God at a higher level. Now the Lord is telling us that we must start to teach and move in this way on a wider way and to a wider audience. It is time to start coming out from the hidden place we had previously been told by the Lord to operate and spend much of our time in, and to help bring the word of the Lord to all who will listen, as the winds of change blow over this world. We need to show people that God is real and that He is the One to trust.

I believe that the Lord will entrust us all with helping many people into the ark of provision that He is building in these days and, as a result, will see many new converts won. This is the season for the world to see the Lord bring wave after wave of His love over the people. As the devil tries to resist the last days plans of the Lord, we need to be a part of the army of believers who will usher in the harvest, be supportive of His ancient people and prepare the way for the return of the Lord. Father envisages nations being turned around. Jesus is preparing His return. The Holy Spirit knows all the plans of man and devils for the coming days yet is 10 steps ahead. Eagles, many are the plans of men, but the purposes of God will prevail!

With calmness and the stillness of His presence inside us, and the fire of His power surging through us at the same time, it is now time to follow His leading like never before. This is not a year for our own plans, but a time to be led to cooperate with the plans of the Lord. This will be a year and season of the miraculous. Have a wonderful New Year, Eagles, as we play our part in drawing in the harvest of souls and resources for the Kingdom of God. May you have great joy and blessings as we all seek, together and as individuals, to be a blessing to Him and those He puts across our paths. Amen!

Love, power and blessings to you all in Christ Jesus,

Andrew and Carole Baker

Living by Faith, Pursuing Love, Walking in the Spirit

Seeing Jesus

1 Comment

“A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in Me and I and you. He who has my commandments and keeps them it is he who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:19)

Everyone wants to see Jesus. Whether we are believers or unbelievers, we are drawn to the presence of the Son of God. Here, Jesus promises His disciples – that’s us – that we definitely will see Him, even though this privilege isn’t granted to the world. I do know a few people, and know of others, who have had visions of Christ, but I haven’t, and I think it’s true that my experience (or, in this case, lack of it) is common to most of the Church. So why is that? How do we square this circle?

Just to repeat the last sentence of the above verse, Jesus says “He who has my commandments and keeps them it is he who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” He had just said, a few minutes earlier (verse 15) “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” so He is really emphasising the point here: loving Him is not singing worship songs; it’s doing what He says. He goes on to add “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you,” (vs 16-18) then He continues with the verses I quoted above.

I have separated the verses like this to emphasise the context in which the promise to see Jesus is set, which has basically got two aspects. One is obedience: He says He will love us and manifest Himself to us (so that we see Him) when we love Him by “keeping His commandments;” and the other is the timing of this experience – “on that day” – which is the coming of the Holy Spirit. For the men He was talking to at the time this would be Pentecost, but for every believer who turns to Jesus in repentance and faith “that day” is the day when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and brings the Father and the Son with Him, the day when we “know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you.”

Jesus returns to this point when Judas (not Iscariot) asks him (verse 22): “How is it that you will manifest yourself to us, not to the world?” and He replies: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.” But when I read this it seems that there has been an elephant creeping into the room, which suddenly trumpets very loudly. The elephant is this: it seems from these words that the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and indeed the very love of the Father, depends on whether or not we love Jesus by “keeping His word.” This seems to fly in the face of everything we understand about the grace of God, and puts us back under law. Or does it? He says His yoke is easy and His burden is light – this can’t be the yoke of the law.

Jesus says specifically that we are to keep HIS commandments. We can all repeat one of them, the “New commandment” that He has given us to love one another. Jesus gives us plenty of teaching, which is the “word” (logos) He refers to elsewhere in this passage , but I think He only gives us one other commandment (Greek: entole) He commands us to believe in Him. At the beginning of this chapter, He says “You believe in God, believe also in Me.” The easy yoke that the Son lays upon us is to love one another and to believe in Him. This is the essence of Christian discipleship, which Paul captures in Galatians 5:6  “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” The conditions for the Father and the Son to move in by the Spirit and make their home in us are that we love one another and believe in Jesus.

In the same breath as the promise that we will see Him, Jesus makes another astounding statement: “Because I live you will live also.” When He comes to live in us, we aren’t just alive for a while; we have life itself, life without death, flowing through our veins. Each new creation, filled with the Spirit of God, is a vessel of eternal life in a dying world. In His prayer to the Father, Jesus says “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) To love one another and to believe in the Son of God is to know eternal life, and if we aren’t loving and believing (faith working through love) we aren’t really alive.

He said “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” (John 11:9-10) We can see by the Light of the World when the light is dwelling in us. To see Jesus can’t just mean to actually see His form, because that is granted to such a small number of people that it would make nonsense of the Cross. I don’t think it can mean seeing Him in Heaven, because this passage is all about knowing Him on Earth. Paul prays “the eyes of your understanding  being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,” (Eph 1: 18-20) Giving light to (enlightening) the eyes of our understanding is, I think, part of the picture, in that the Holy Spirit can enable us to see the wonder of all that He has done for us. But most of all I think we will “see Jesus” when we visibly see the “greatness of his power” manifesting in the works that the Father will do when we walk in the obedience that He has spelled out, and pray in His name for the Father to do those things that He shows us.

If we love Him we will do what He says: not because of a joyless obligation to obedience, but because in our love for Jesus we will be actively seeking His will; we will be wanting to please and delight Him just as we would want to please and delight any loved one. More than that, we will want to simply spend time in His presence without asking anything of Him, simply because He is who He is. But what sort of love is it if we disregard even his most fundamental commandment, which is that we love one another? How can we say we love Him if we don’t trust Him? How can we expect the Father and the Son to come an make their home where there is criticism and division? What sort of intimacy would there be with a loved one if we only met once or twice a week, with a group of other people, and then just for half an hour or so every morning? If we love someone we want to meet with them, walk with them and talk with them, and involve them in our lives as much as possible. And so it is with Jesus: if we love Him, not only do we find out what He wants and do what He says, but we spend time with Him for no other reason than, quite simply, because we want to. Our delight is to “Be still and know that I am God.”

I think it’s in the light of this love that we start to see Jesus. And when we see by His light (John 11:9-10 above) we will, just as Jesus did, be able to see what the Father is doing (John 5:20): if the Father was “always working” when Jesus walked in Galilee (John 5:17), He is still working when He is walking in His body today. Jesus promised that we would do “greater works” than He did in those days because he was “going to the Father,” and as He tells us “My Father is Greater than I” (John 14:28) We can do greater works than Jesus because the Father who is greater than Jesus is dwelling in us by His Spirit. When we love and trust Jesus enough, the Father will show us what He is doing, we will ask in the name of Jesus for those works to be done, the Holy Spirit will carry them out, and we will see the revival that we have all been waiting for.

Prophesy and the prophetic

Do not get stuck in the mud

1 Comment

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:12)

This is a black wind stilt. It is a bird of the wetlands of southern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, but it is rare in the UK. Now, however, a small but increasing number of black wing stills are starting to make their home here. The reason? Because their wetland habitats in some places are drying up, and where there used to be thousands of black winged stilts there are now none. They are moving North because of climate change. Those that are arriving here, and in other parts of northern Europe are having to cross major natural obstacles of mountain ranges and/or water.

I was thinking about these birds, and I felt that the Lord Began to speak to me. I believe he’s saying this:

“As there is climate change in the world, so there is climate change in the heavens. The spiritual climate is changing. Some places that used to be a sanctuary for thousands are drying out. Do not get stuck in the mud because it has always been your home, but go where there is food and water. I am bringing a baptism of fire to the Earth, and my winnowing fork is in my hand. I am gathering my people into my barns, but the chaff will burn with unquenchable fire.

So do not get stuck in the mud. You feel even now that the water is drying up, but you are too comfortable to move. It’s still okay here, you say. You feel that you can still move your long legs and fly away when you are ready, but its OK here for now. But I say to you that the mud will start to dry out very quickly as the heat of my fire increases, and when it does, it will clamp round your legs like cement, so you will not be able to move even if you want to.

So do not get stuck in the mud, but fly away to where there is food and water; the food of My word, and the water of My Spirit. Do not say I can’t move because there’s a mountain range that is closing me in, and a sea that I cannot cross, because I will make the mountains a highway, and when you pass through the waters, I will be there. Do not get stuck in the mud: spread your wings and fly.

Pursuing Love, Walking in the Spirit

One heart and soul

Leave a comment

“Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:32-33)

In the edition of the Bible that I use (the Spirit filled life Bible, published by Nelson), there is a thread of annotations called “kingdom dynamics.“ One of the kingdom dynamics themes is the power of unity, and in the commentary on acts 4:32 it says this:

“it is reported that the growing multitude of believers were experiencing a profound dimension of spiritual unity. First, they were “of one heart,“ which is a description in the original Greek meaning “in tune“ or “In sync“ with one another. To put it another way they were all going in the same way, spiritually together. Second they were of “one soul“ (Sometimes translated as “one mind”). This has a wonderfully deep meaning in the original Greek. It literally means “to breathe“  or “to breathe spiritually together.“ The results of this quality of spiritual unity were both powerful and practical. They had all things in common (shared everything they had); they witnessed “with great power“; and “Great Grace was upon them all.“

The backbone
Jesus made it clear – and through many of the New Testament writings the Holy Spirit abundantly reinforced – that the backbone of our life in the Spirit is that we love one another: without this backbone, the church simply does not stand up. When we love one another, the world can see that we are disciples of Christ.  Yet when we think about evangelism we can (and I frequently do) easily head down the exciting track of power evangelism, and all the miraculous works that it implies, and leave behind the main road of love. We can detach the hand that reaches out from the backbone it is connected to. But in these verses, it is clear that the context of revival in the early church was that the multitude of those who believed were are one heart and one soul. In other words, they lived out, in depth, the practicalities of loving one another: the life of Christ that flowed among them was the same Life that reached out to the lost with healing and salvation.

When, Lord?
It is clear that a wave of revival is starting to break on the shores of the nations as God fulfils His declaration of Hebrews 12:26: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” Those of us who long to see the power of God move in our churches and on our streets follow the news with an expectation that cries out ”When, Lord?” But God will give to us as many as we can keep. If we want to witness with great power, and experience an outpouring of great grace, we need to be of one heart and one soul. We need to demonstrate the rule of God’s Kingdom in our lives if we want others to respond to an invitation to meet our King. So before we see God’s power break out among us I think we are going to see a re-awakening of genuine love in the church, because if we don’t love one another in the grace of God, how can we love the needy who join us? I think it is when we have truly learned to stretch out our hands to each other that God will stretch out His hand, through us, to the world.

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness

The Pillars of Evangelism

Leave a comment
The fields are white unto harvest

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote: “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.” (2 Tim 4:5) If we stopped anyone in the street, Christian or atheist,  (OK anyone over 40 who has lived in an English-speaking country), and asked them to name an evangelist and say what they did, we would almost certainly hear the name of Billy Graham and be told that they stood up in public places and preached about Jesus/ God/ the Bible. I think this image of “the evangelist” is still prevalent in the church today, and that “evangelism” is a special activity carried out at special events by a few gifted people, often in full-time ministry and “living by faith; and that the rest of us can only expect to occasionally “witness” or “share our faith” now and then, “sowing seeds” that we do not necessarily expect to see coming to fruition. But I don’t think this is the truth. In fact I think that it is an enfeebling dilution of the legacy that Jesus left to the Church, and doesn’t really help anyone to fulfil their ministry.  If we combine the “Great Commission” verses in Matthew and Mark into one paragraph, we get the following:

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.  And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;  they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” (Matt 28:18-30 combined with Mark 16: 15-20)

Just as the church has specialist prophets but “All can prophesy,” (1 Cor 14:31) and has specialist pastors and teachers  but we are all called to love one another and to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom;” (Col 3:16) we are all called, as Timothy was, to do the work of an evangelist and preach the gospel, even though the church also has specialist evangelists. (See Ephesians 4. It’s not the subject of this article, but leadership in every church should comprise all these specialist ministries. I’m just saying… ) So here are eight principals, eight “pillars of evangelism,” that we can take from Christ’s command. To do the work of an evangelist properly I think we need to take all of them seriously.

  1. All the world
    We Go into all the world. Our workplace as disciples of Jesus is primarily the world. We don’t expect the world to come to the church; we take the church into the world.
  2. Every creature
    We preach to every creature – old, young, rich and poor. God is no respecter of persons. In the parable of the wedding feast Jesus said: “Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.” Our commission is to make sure that the hall is filled with guests: whatever they are wearing, rags or riches, is all replaced by the wedding garment.
  3. Saved… condemned
     We preach the full gospel: salvation and condemnation. To preach is to proclaim, with authority, something that has been done, in the manner of a herald. (From the Strong’s definition.)  We are heralds of what Christ has done for us and its consequences, both for those who believe and those who don’t believe.
  4. Baptizing them
    We baptize converts in water and we baptize in the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,  of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Heb 6: 1-2) The Ephesian church was birthed through baptism and the laying on of hands: “When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.” (Acts 19: 5-6) Being filled with the Holy Spirit has experiential results. If we do not ourselves have the faith and the personal experience to pray for someone to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to experience some consequences of that infilling, we need to leave that ministry to someone who does. In the case of the Ephesians, it was Paul. Otherwise we are offering a hungry person cornflakes and just giving them an empty packet.
  5. I am with you always
    We go, therefore, knowing the presence of God, who with us always, because we are in Christ, baptized into Him, into His death and His resurrection (Romans 6:3). We operate “in the name of Jesus” because we have been baptized into His identity. A Christian is a “little Christ,” not a partial Christ.
  6. All authority
     We go in His authority: When Jesus sent out the seventy, He said “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19) This was before Pentecost. Whether or not it is in the realm of our current experience, we are now in the day of the Greater Things; we are raised together with Him and seated with Him in Heavenly places. We have more authority now than the seventy, not less.
  7. These signs will follow
     Knowing what it means to be sent in His name, we go in the full expectation of signs and wonders following the preaching of the gospel. Paul writes: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16) To preach the gospel is to proclaim Christ’s authority over all of heaven and earth, over all the works of the enemy including sickness and demonisation. If we have no expectation of His authority being manifested when we preach “the power of God unto salvation,” we are like people who get into their company car and don’t start the engine. Not only are we going nowhere, but we are not honouring the One who paid with His life for us to have the car in which we have been told to “Go.”
  8. Teach them
     Finally, as “fishers of men,” we keep those whom we have caught. Jesus said “Those whom You gave Me, I have kept. And none of them is lost, except the child of perdition.” (John 17:12) God will give us as many as we can keep, therefore we make sure that we teach them all the things that Jesus has commanded us, so that they in turn can go and make disciples.

Jesus said that it’s the harvest field that needs workers, not the seedbed. It’s time the Church took seriously the work of the evangelist, and started reaping. In Matthew 9: 36-38, we read this:

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”

The Greek word that he uses for pray, deomai, means to petition, bag, beseech. It implies a felt need, a longing. We “go” because Jesus tells us to. And yes, the reluctant brother (Matt 21: 28-32) was commended for his obedience. But if we really want to enter into the joy of the reaper (John 4:36) and experience the harvest firsthand, we need to feel the Lord’s compassion for the lost in our own hearts, we need to be aching ourselves for the lack of harvesters, and we need to be beseeching the Lord of the harvest for co-workers who will join us in the task.

In that spirit, Go, therefore!

Be prepared; hold on., Discipleship and witness, Living by Faith, Pursuing Love

The School of Love

Leave a comment

I won’t repeat what I wrote a few days ago: we do not know the day or the hour, but there are abundant signs – in the world, and for those who look upward, in the heavens also – that the return of the King really is at hand. Our mandate is to go into all the world and preach the gospel, preparing the way for that time. Our priority must be to reach the lost. Our light must increase as the darkness deepens. It will do, because Isaiah 60 1-11 says it will: the question that each of us have to face is whether we want to be part of that brilliance or not. To do so we need to grow in three areas: faith, power, and love.

Faith: for ourselves
We will need to grow in faith –we will need it as individuals, to depend increasingly on Jehovah Jireh as the provision of the world fails. If, as Revelation 13:17 says will happen, we are forced to choose between trading in the system of the world and its banking and being true to our King and His Kingdom, we will need to walk day by day in the expectation and experience of God’s supernatural provision. I wrote a couple of years ago about the time at the beginning of lockdown when everyone was panic-buying toilet rolls and there were none in the shops:  God told us not to join the panic but to rely on Him, and when we were down to our last one a delivery van full of them pulled up next to my wife at the local petrol station. God delights to show His little flock that they need not fear. (Luke 12:32) But this is just one example of God’s faithfulness and practical care out of three years of living by our bank cards and not by faith. How prepared are we for this to be a way of life?

The Bible verses abound, beginning a small selection with Hebrews 10:38 : “The just shall live by faith.” Paul reminds us that “We walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7) “The prayer of faith will heal the sick,” declares James. (James 5:15). Hebrews again: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,” (Heb 11:6) and to finish, Paul’s pithy statement to the Romans: “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” However we choose to look at our walk with God in these last days, there is one truth that is paramount: every step we take has to be a step of faith.

Power: for the world
Faith is not just for our daily bread of course: we will need it to grow in power, the second area of need. The world will need to see us move in the power of the Holy Spirit if the multitudes who are in the valley of decision are to see the word of the gospel confirmed in signs and wonders and come to faith. Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel  “is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes…” As I wrote in “Rainbows and Chickens,” those who believe that God moves in signs and wonders today need to preach the gospel to see the power of God at work; and those who regularly preach the gospel need to have an expectation of God to confirm that word with signs and wonders. Word and Spirit must work together. Hebrews 4:2 is a key verse:

“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them,  not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”

So here is the equation: Faith + the gospel = power to save. Paul wrote this to the Galatians: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Gal 3:17) This is not theoretical language; this is truth. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to be immersed, soaked, in the Spirit of Christ. Being “in Christ” isn’t just theology; it’s the reality of being soaked in Him.  And if we are soaked, we can expect people to get wet when we touch them – wet with the miraculous life of Christ. Jesus told us that the way to increase our faith is to understand that we are just “unprofitable servants; we have only done what we were told to do.” (Luke 17:10.) So if we couple the faith of simple obedience with believing the reality of who we really are – who God says we are – in Christ, we can expect to leave a trail of the soaking wet Life of Christ behind us whenever we “go” and preach the gospel. And when those signs and wonders happen, faith rises in many hearts and mixes with the word that was preached, and souls are born again into eternal life.

Love: for the Church
And finally we will need to grow in love – the church will need it, because it’s the unity that commands the blessing and it’s by our love that the world will know that we are disciples of Christ. Faith and love are the two poles of the magnet that powers the dynamo of Kingdom growth. We have all read 1 Corinthians 13 (I am speaking to Christians here: if you aren’t one yet, now is your time), and we know that even faith that moves mountains is nothing without love. To the Galatians Paul says: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” (Gal 5:6) Without love we are nothing, and our faith and our gifting are to no avail. I don’t think Jesus commanded us to love one another just so that we could be a sort of spiritual shop window for His glory (although we are that: see Ephesians 3:10): the teaching of Jesus on Love puts His command to the church in a far more radical context:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? (Matt 5: 43-46 NIV)

School of Love
I think the Church is our school of love: if we cannot learn to love one another in the church, what hope does the world have to receive what Christ has for them? As Peter writes: “For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Pe 4:7) We cannot  grow in faith and power unless we grow in love as well. Revival is messy and demanding. Converts need to become disciples. Just like the 5,000, the poor who have had the gospel preached to them need to be fed. The lonely and isolated need befriending. We will need to have compassion on the hungry crowd, not send them home – or to someone else’s church. So we need faith and power to see revival happen, but we need love to live with the results.

Jesus wants to come back for a loving bride that is on the same page as Him. I’m not sure if I’m ready for Him yet. What about you?

Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

Understanding Spiritual Warfare in Christ

Leave a comment

I have been hearing a lot about being a warrior lately: spiritual warfare is a term all believers are familiar with. Two of the principals of spiritual warfare that we know from Scripture are that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12)  and “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds…”(2 Cor 10: 3-4) The text from Ephesians introduces the passage on the armour of God and the need to “stand against the wiles of the devil,” and the passage in the letter to the Corinthians is written in a context of matters pertaining to Church discipline. But I think it’s appropriate that we look beyond these contexts to consider some principles behind the matter of spiritual warfare. In particular, what are “carnal” weapons, and what are the weapons that are “mighty in God?” Or to put it differently, when are we fighting our enemy in the flesh, and when are we fighting in the Spirit?

The place of peace

The most important aspect of any battle is not the clamour of the fight, but the peace that is won. When Christ came as an infant, the angels announced peace on Earth. Jesus promised us “peace, not as the world gives.“ (John 14:27) The psalmist exhorted us “to seek peace and pursue it,“ (Ps 34:14) and Paul urged the Romans “pursue those things that make for peace.” (Romans 14:19) As has often been said, we may well do battle with principalities and powers in the heavenly realms, but Jesus has already won the war at Calvary. So one thing at least is obvious from these scriptures: peace is already ours, and so we carry it into our battles with us. This peace is neither worldly nor carnal,  but is brought to us from Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Our peace is actually one of our main weapons of spiritual warfare, and all the protective items of the Ephesians six armour of God help us to keep it in our hearts. Indeed, if we are not operating out of the place of peace, we are not moving in the victory Jesus has won for us, and we are not going to see our enemies vanquished and our giants fall.

Gentleness

Proverbs 15:1 says “a gentle answer turns away wrath,“ and James writes: “The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God “ (James 1:20) I have referred to this scripture elsewhere, and pointed out that the Greek word “orge,” translated as “wrath,“ is not limited to anger but to any uncontrolled outburst of passion. Jesus cast out demons “with a word,“ not by shouting at them. This is how He is described prophetically by Isaiah:

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.

He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” (Isaiah 42: 1-4)

He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Yet I’ve been to a couple of conferences recently where the voices of some of the speakers could definitely “be heard in the street.” I’ve certainly done my share of shouting at demons and generally raising my voice, as if my carnal loudness, or even any display of human emotion, could somehow demolish a spiritual stronghold. We do need to use spiritual gifts to identify the enemies that we are fighting against, but to go on and win the battles we need to fight in the same spirit as the Christ of Isaiah 42, not with raised fists and human “orge”. We cannot fight Goliath with the armour of Saul. It’s not by might, nor by power.

Building the church

“Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:7)

Jesus said that he would build His church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. The increase of His government and peace will come as He builds His church. Paul writes “let us pursue the things which make for peace, and by which one may build up another.” (Romans 14:19). So if Jesus is going to build His church through us, the spiritual weapons of our warfare must be the ones Jesus used. He said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” The last lesson of the Jesus Christ 3-year Discipleship Training Programme was not “How to attain Third Heaven Revelation,” but “How to wash each others’ feet;” not “How to build your ministry,” but “How to build up one another.” These are the weapons of warfare that are mighty in God: the peace and the humility of Jesus, a servant heart, and love for one another. With them we work with the Holy Spirit to build the church in the face of the gates of hell.

The Battle Plan

I could go on. We fight the enemy of lack by giving: “Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” Luke 6:38) We fight the enemy of destructive emotions with kindness and tender hearts: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4: 31-32) In fact Jesus laid out the battle plan for His warriors when He gave us the Sermon on the Mount, contrasting the light of Heaven against the darkness of the world. And end-time revival will be led by those whose feet stand securely on this Mount and no other, because it is when the Light of Life is seen burning in our hearts that the darkness is pushed back and ground is taken for the Kingdom of God.

The prayer of a fruitful apostle

I’ll end with a prayer. Not mine, but from someone who was one of the greatest apostles of the church age, although he never identified himself by his fivefold ministry title.  Christianity had become a ruin of corruption, and Jesus called a young man from a wealthy family to turn away from the life of luxury he had known and rebuild His church. The young man committed himself to the call and gave his life to preaching the gospel and establishing communities of believers. The weapons of his warfare were not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.  His name was Francis of Assisi.

This was his prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Be prepared; hold on., Living by Faith, The word of God, Walking in the Spirit

You have an Anointing from the Holy One

Leave a comment

It’s all about the river. The deeper we go the more we know of God’s provision and his power. Either we die to self or we don’t: either the flesh is buried with Jesus or it’s walking. Either we are yoked to Jesus in the spirit, in resurrection life, or we are tethered to self, holding on to our own life instead of losing it. I have been thinking recently about “the anointing,” and how we approach the subject in our various church groups. Belonging as I do to a pentecostal/charismatic stream, it is a word I hear and use a lot. Here are some conclusions that I feel that I am coming to.

A lot of teaching today, especially in prophetic circles, would seem to suggest that there is some sort of historical timeline of levels of anointing that God pours out on the church. I have believed this myself. But I no longer think that it is true. We only need to read the accounts of some of the lives of the Saints in the middle ages and the miracles that they walked in to know that full-blown, high octane, resurrection power is not a manifestation of God’s glory that He has reserved for our generation, but is actually something that has been covered by the successive cloaks of religion, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the spread of industrialisation which are only now, in the 21st-century, finally being seen to wear very, very thin. Just as he did with the Amorites, (Gen 15:16) God has allowed – and still is allowing, (I think) for just a little while longer, the sin of civilisation to come to its fulness before invading it with the kingdom that his old covenant people foreshadowed.

The living sacrifice
1 John 2:20 says this: “but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” Anointed teaching – that is teaching from the spirit of God and not the mind of man – brings revelation of truth that the Holy Spirit has already given to us but which we haven’t yet accessed with our renewed minds. The Spirit of Truth brought the full download with Him when He came into our hearts: He hasn’t changed or added anything to who He is because He is already the fullness of truth. Growing in maturity in the spirit is becoming more like Jesus, and since the flesh and the spirit are at war with one another this growth is only achieved when the flesh is taken to the cross – whether we are talking about negative though-patterns, self-centred annoyances, ungodly desires, or whatever else is lurking there to trip us upon our walk with Christ. And as we grow more like Jesus, the greater the revelation of the Spirit of Truth within us.  It’s not rocket science.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 1:2)

We know from 1 Cor 2: 16 that “we have the mind of Christ,” yet we also know that God’s thoughts aren’t our thoughts. I think it’s as we continually “present (our) bodies a living sacrifice” and are not “conformed to this world,” that we are “transformed by the renewing of (our) mind,” and revelation of what is in the mind of Christ becomes part of our own thinking. To put it another way, I think God’s thoughts become ours by revelation as we learn to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. The mind of Christ and the anointing that we have from the Holy One are what we were born into the Kingdom with: we access more of them as we mature in Christ and “come…to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Eph 4:13)

Children of Promise
Of his countrymen “according to the flesh,” the Israelites, Paul writes “to whom pertain the adoption, glory, covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises,” (Romans 9:4) Yet not even this rich heritage is qualification for kingdom citizenship. So how much more are we, “the children of the promise“ (Rom 9:8) born into when we turn to Christ? I think that there is enough evidence in the Word of God that has been delivered to us to show that we don’t have to wait for something special to come from Heaven before the Church moves in true revival power. As darkness and light are separated out in these times of shaking and we, the children of the promise, learn to trade in the currency of faith and not the currency of credit, we will be seen increasingly to be standing “in a broad place” (Ps 18:19) by those who are slipping off the narrowing ledges of security that the world affords, and they will want to join us. This is a new experience for most of us living in the West; not so of course for those brothers and sisters in the persecuted Church for whom it has been the norm for decades.

We have all read what Paul wrote to the Philippians:

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. (Phil 4: 13-15)

For two thousand years the Church has been growing up, and now it seems that we are starting to come to maturity, individually and collectively. It’s time to put away childish things, and it’s time to realise that we don’t need to wait for Christmas, because we have already been given the presents.  When we have less of Earth in our lives, whether by choice or necessity, we will start to see more of Heaven: the bride will be ready for the Groom, and we will see His kingdom come.

Be prepared; hold on., Living by Faith

More than Conquerors

Leave a comment

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Rom 8: 33-35)

Do you know what it is to be a hypernikao?

Hypernikao is the Greek word translated as “more than a conqueror.” This passage from Romans is familiar to all of us, so much so that, if you’re like me, you pass over the full significance of the term “more than a conqueror” when you read it now. I would say that I read the words with my human mind and think ”Yes, Jesus has the victory, there’s nothing to worry about, God will look after me if things go pear-shaped…” etc. It’s all true, but I would say that they are my thoughts, not God’s. And if they are my thoughts, they won’t stir real faith,  “the faith of God.” (Mark 11:22) They are no more than intellectual assent to my Christian set of beliefs, as opposed to the “substance of things hoped for” that is the definition of true faith (Hebrews 11:1). In fact they are quite likely to melt away in the face of tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. Although God in His mercy will bring deliverance, because He is our loving Father and He is our shield, is that His best for us? Wouldn’t we rather have the faith that sees mountains move, that will “run  against a troop,” (Psalm 18:19) or “put a thousand to flight” (Joshua 23:10)? Because this is the purpose that we are called to.

The sense of hypernikao is not just more than a conqueror in the human sense of, say, twenty being more than ten, or even an Olympic athlete being more of a sprinter than me. The impact of a sledgehammer cracking a nut is nearer the truth. A different order of reality is coming into play. “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” (Rom 8:11). Hypernikao is a whole lot “more. ” Death was the nut; the Holy Spirit was the sledgehammer, and He is the One giving life to our mortal bodies. These are God’s thoughts on our status as more than conquerors.

The world is already moving into the time of separation. Deep darkness is moving across the nations, and our light has come. It is time to arise. (Isaiah 60) If we are going to arise as opposed to just being rescued we will need our light to push back the darkness, so that those in the darkness can see hypernikao in action. That is when “The Gentiles shall come to (our) light, and kings to the brightness of (our) rising.” (Isaiah 60:3). We need to wake up, trim our wicks, and fill our lamps with oil, looking forward to the return of the King instead of looking back to the relative stability of the Western world as it was before Covid broke us free from the security of our moorings and sent us rocking into the waves of an uncharted sea. Those moorings have gone; we won’t be going back there. To use the words God spoke to Jeremiah, we’ve reached the floodplains of the Jordan; it’s time to start running against the horses. (Jeremiah 12:5)

Persecution, famine, sword and the rest  are actually what is coming. They may be tough nuts to crack, but we have the sledgehammer.

Be prepared; hold on., Living by Faith, Prophesy and the prophetic

The Funnel

Leave a comment

I was asking the Lord about how we should be preparing for His planned outpouring and the concurrent time of shaking that is just going to get stronger, and I felt that He showed me a funnel, like one that is used to pour liquid into the neck of a bottle. I believe He is saying this:

“Many of you are like bottles, standing on the ground with a funnel in the neck of the bottle, desiring to funnel in all that I can give you: all the power, all the gifts, all the teaching and all the provision that is available for you. But you wonder why your bottle isn’t being filled. My precious ones, do you not see that the base of your bottle is much wider than the neck, and is actually open, not sealed? You actually are the funnel. But you need to let me tip you upside down, so that as you pour out what is in you through the neck, I pour in from the base. The base is wider than the neck. What I can pour in is so much more than what you can pour out, and yes, I am waiting to release it. Have I not said? Give, and it shall be given unto you: pressed down, running over shall men pour into your lap. I am letting the world run dry so that my children can pour in my living water. See! I am already pulling out the plugs. The faith I am looking for is the faith that will allow me to tip you up and pour you out, so that I can pour in: fresh water, fresh provision. Love one another as I have loved you and gave myself for you. Let me tip you up so I can pour into you, then as you continue to pour out so I will pour in more. This is the faith that I desire to see on Earth when I come. This is how revival will happen; this is how the world will know that you are My disciples.”