WHAT WAS IS NOT WHAT WIL BE

WHAT WAS IS NOT WHAT WILL BE

                In my article on the powers of the age to come, I voiced my disappointment concerning certain doctrines that had entered the church beginning in about the 70s and continuing on to our present day. In my way of thinking there are two doctrines that have entered the church that have robbed it of its real power. One of these doctrines was Madison Avenue style church growth methods and the other was the Prosperity message. Both of these doctrines have some truth in them, but those truths have been exploited and abused to the point where the Gospel is all about me rather than all about Him.

                I am happy to say that this is changing in many areas, as those who seek a foundational relationship with Jesus Christ begin to split away from those who use the Gospel for their own gain. In one group I see the formation of God’s Remnant and in the other I see, the rising of the Beast system that will rule the unrighteous generation of the last days.

                However, in my analysis of these things I want to make it clear that it is not my intention to criticize those who came before us. We stand on some very broad shoulders and we are where we are today because of the faithful pioneers of the past who blazed a trail for us, making the very best of the knowledge and revelation that they had.

                But what I am saying is that we are the generation that is about to enter into unprecedented waters and as such we dare not be satisfied with what was. If we continue to feed on yesterday’s manna then the baton will be passed on to the next generation and we will die in the wilderness.

                Last night Bonnie and I attended the opening night of a prophetic conference put on down in Cleveland Tennessee at the headquarters of Perry’s ministry. There I think we might have been witnessing the generation that will take up the baton if our generation drops it. The worship leaders, many of them recovered addicts of one kind or another had fasted and prayed for this event. They led a sea of teen agers and twenty somethings with a kind of exuberance that left us older people rubbing our arthritic knees in wonder. And for every old person who was sitting in the bleachers there were twenty or thirty young people shouting, singing, dancing and crying out for more… crying out for the birth of something new and uninhibited by what was.

                What I like about Perry Stone is that his message is based upon Bible prophecy, including the foundations of the Old Covenant and the Feast Days and a love for Israel and God’s purposes for her in these last days. His message is one that most churches won’t touch with a ten foot pole for fear of offending the “me” generation and for this Perry catches a lot of flak and is often attacked by the rank and file of religion.

                In spite of the fact that most of the churches in the world today refused to even speak the word “prophecy” or miracles, or the power of the Holy Spirit that we must now embrace if we are to bring in the harvest, Perry Stone’s ministry is extremely successful and international in scope. Perry makes many trips to Israel taking groups to the Holy Land where he does many of his prophetic DVDs. When at home he uses marvelous visual aids to help people to get a picture in their mind of prophetic events that have moved God’s People from Egypt to Canaan, to the cross of Yeshua to the rejection and dispersion of the Jews, to their regathering in our day and on to the prophetic events that must yet take place to bring this age to an end with the coming of the Lord.

                It is Bible prophecy that moves the church from what was to what must be. It is vision and purpose that blazes a new trail. It is the pillar of cloud and fire that stirs people from their complacency to pick up and to move forward into God’s plans and purposes. Truth is progressive, not regressive. God showed Israel that with the manna. They were told not to save any of it over until the next day and when they did it rotted and stank and became infested with worms.

                Likewise it is now that yesterday’s manna cannot feed today’s hunger. And as the speaker last night said, God only feeds us what we are hungry for. We can have all we want for today according to our appetite, but we can’t keep it over until tomorrow. Tomorrow we will need fresh manna.  In reality we always live in today and so it is today that we must eat all of the heavenly food that we can get.           (Hebrews 4:6, 7) Today is the only day we have.

                So no matter how great the past moves of God were, they will rot and become wormy if we cling to yesterday’s manna and refuse to seek fresh manna for today.

                If I seem dissatisfied at times, and if I probe into areas and question things… if I seek for new revelation, it is because I am crying out to my generation to pick up the baton and to carry it to the finish line. I am crying out for purposes even beyond my own comprehension. We can’t do it with yesterday’s manna. The anointing of Pentecost is good, but it was a down payment given to prepare us for that greater anointing of the harvest yet to come… by a generation yet to be created… the Remnant… the sons of God for whom all of creation is groaning in anticipation. (2Cor. 1:21, 22, 5:5)

                We are that fig tree generation. We witnessed the rebirth of Israel. We are watching the great falling away and the rise of the antichrist system that will rule the globe.  We are witnessing nature as it is turned on its head in unprecedented violence and destruction. We are seeing the formation of the global religion of the Beast. We are witnessing the titanic struggle between the rising beast and the resistant remnant.

                It is time for us to take on the full armor of God… to pick up the baton…to wake up… to rise and shine for the glory of the Lord has risen upon us… to live by the powers of the age to come… to cry out to God for that greater anointing that we must receive…to get our message back onto the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached.  If we don’t do it, then there is a very exuberant crowd of young people ready to pick up the torch and to carry it to the finish line.

                Unless we look at the world prophetically we can’t understand why God does things the way He does. For instance: Why would He place an imperfect man like Trump in office to fight for us? Is it because He couldn’t find a religious person that was either capable or willing to do what Trumps has done and is doing? I think the truth is God has bought our generation just a little more time to take up the baton. If we don’t pick it up then the next generation will have to do it and it will come amidst blood and fire and columns of smoke.

                We have become so complacent that nothing short of total economic collapse, or world war, or the loss of our electricity and comfort will bring us to our knees. We think that God will not allow this, but He will, because He is more interested in our eternal souls than He is in our comfort. His plans for us embrace eternity. And in light of that; whatever happens on this sin-laden planet is miniscule in light of the eternal weight of glory. He has glorious plans for us. He has eternal plans for this entire universe… a universe that has been subjected to futility until the sons of God are revealed.  Jesus died and rose again to bring many sons to glory. The cloud of witnesses is cheering us on. The saints who lived before us cannot finish their course without us. They blazed a trail before us, but their work will not be complete until the baton has been carried to the finish line.

                So we stand in need of unprecedented Holy Spirit power and yet a vast majority of Christians have not received, nor do they even believe in the interactive Pentecostal power that must attend the Gospel. And so those of us, who aspire to be God’s remnant people, must cry out to God for something more. We must seek His face… enter into Christ’s death so that we can live by His resurrection power. We must seek to understand the nature of the Gospel of the Kingdom that must yet be preached so that the end can come.

                What is the difference between the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of salvation that we have been preaching for many years? How can we receive power to demonstrate the powers of Christ’s kingdom the way that Jesus demonstrated them? Is it possible that we don’t have the full power simply because we don’t have the full message yet? One thing we can know for sure. When we see God’s instructions for building the Sanctuary in the wilderness, God was very particular about every piece of furniture, every board, every layer of material, every pattern and sacrifice.

                The template had to be just right in every detail. The foundations of the Gospel had to be exact. Then Jesus came and demonstrated it all in living color. He showed us how the patterns were to be fulfilled. So when we stray from the patterns and start to do things our way, He cannot pour out His power upon us. His glory cannot fill the temple like it did in Solomon’s day until we have built a temple that He can inhabit.

                And since we are His temple today, then it is we that must be built according to the patterns that were shown on the mount. This is why God has brought Israel back onto the scene. This is why He has drawn our attention back to the feast days and the sanctuary service with blood moons and eclipses. We have drifted off plan somehow and God is warning us to get back on course so that He can pour out His latter rain power.

                Yesterday’s manna will not fuel the final move of God in the world. We need fresh manna and even if we don’t fully understand what that fresh manna will look and taste like, we need to cry out for it with all of our hearts. God will only feed us what we are hungry for.

                “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting eagerly or our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” Romans 8:22-25

                If you hunger for that which is yet unseen, then you can know that you are called of God in this generation and that you have been placed in this age for a reason. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

                People have many silly arguments concerning predestination, but it is simple really. God is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He dwells in all of time and even outside of time. He dwells in the future as well as in the past. It is all the same to Him. So God simply looked in the books at the end of time to see who would be there and then He sent His Holy Spirit and His angels to minister unto those who will be the heirs of salvation. (Heb. 1:14)So if you feel even the slightest desire to follow after Jesus, you had better do so. There are many in the world that have absolutely no desire whatsoever. So thank God that you have been called… and say “Yes” before it is too late.

                This doesn’t mean that we sit back and try to decide who is called and who is not. All are called, but few are chosen… that is to say that all are called, but only a few choose to answer. Our job then is to call all to repentance. But we should be very thankful and we should take it very seriously that the voice of God is calling us to Him. It means that He saw our name in the books.  We are the ones that made it. Why not go for it with all of our hearts? We are a people of destiny… called to be a remnant people at the end of the age. If we will take hold of it, He will pour out upon us a power for the harvest such as has not been seen in all of human history.

                We stand on the borders of the Promised Land. Will we be the Joshua generation that will cross over? We are the generation that must hunger for something more.