Dear Friends,

God has been "all over me" to get this insight on paper and release it to the Body of Christ. If you have a witness to it, please feel free to use it for the edification, exhortation and comfort of the Church. I pray it brings much blessing.

1 Chronicles 12:32 says that in the midst of David’s army there were "men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do." This, I believe, is the one thing that the church is most lacking at this crucial time. As a result of the lack of this kind of prophetic ministry functioning, many churches have lost their way in regard to this present move of God, with many having abandoned it altogether.

In The Message translation of the Scripture, Eugene Peterson interprets Proverbs 29:18 in this way: "When people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. But when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed."

Because of this, much of what I have been doing these past five years or so is to preach prophetically, in order to bring insight to the Body of Christ that she might "understand the times and know what she should do". I believe this to be the primary need for the church right now as she charts a course through these hazardous times of transition into the next phase of this present move of God.

It is not enough to simply bring a "thus saith the Lord" to the body, rather, we must place ourselves in a position to gain understanding OF the word rather than simply being a vessel to PROCLAIM the word.

With this in mind, please allow me to bring you some understanding from Acts 1:5. This one verse of Scripture unlocked a wealth of understanding for me in regard to the seasons of this present move of God and the purposes He has in it.

Acts 1:5 (NIV) "For John baptised with water, but in a few days I will baptise you with the Holy Spirit."

I was in a meeting one morning when the preacher began to read from this passage. I have no idea what he ended up preaching, because the Holy Spirit "trapped" me in and began to speak to me about the seasons of the move of God that had just begun in Australia at that time. As a result, I have been preaching this for four years now, proclaiming it wherever I can.

The Lord said to me that this verse speaks of transition; "…in a few days…" or "…in a little while…"; that there would be three distinct seasons to this move of God and that these seasons would mirror the Gospels and the Book of Acts.

If you look closely at what the verse says, you will see that Jesus Himself speaks of three distinct seasons of the visitation of God during His time on earth. "For John baptised with water (a John the Baptist season), but in few days I (a Jesus Season is implicit because He's saying it) will baptise you in the Holy Spirit (a Pentecost Season).

Can you see it? 1) a John the Baptist season 2) a Jesus Season 3) a Pentecost Season. This sounds like the Gospels and the Book of Acts to me!

With these three distinct seasons in mind, cast your memory over the last four years or so of this present move of God. In relation to Acts 1:5, what do you see? The first season was a John the Baptist season. Its first primary feature was about repentance (making every high thing low by dealing with our pride, and making every low thing high by dealing our brokenness). John’s ministry was also characterised by a strong call to the River.

Think about what John the Baptist preached; "Prepare the way of the Lord."

The renewal was a place of preparing us as a highway for the Lord to move into the earth upon. Don’t think for a minute that He will make some mystical appearance. Until He returns, He will ALWAYS work through His church ... that's us. Therefore WE must prepare the way of the Lord in our own lives that He might flow into the world.

With this in mind, let us look at the second season of this present move of God. What do you see as the most common traits of a Jesus ministry? Of course healing, deliverance and the miraculous were the most obvious traits, but there were others, such as teaching, preaching, a call to discipleship and mentoring.

What then do you see as the way that Jesus began his ministry? A proclamation of God's intention is what he began with, then He followed it by more conferences and seminars to learn how to do it ... right?

Wrong!

In this next season, which I believe much of the church is now transitioning into, you will soon see ordinary men and women making a stand in their "local tabernacles" and declaring the purpose of God for their lives. They won’t continue to conference about it, or do more seminars to learn about it, they will simply go out and produce the fruit to prove that "the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon (them)"!

Many have done this in the past, but they have not had the fruit to back up their declaration because they were unwilling to endure the transition time of the wilderness.

Think about Jesus. He was considered a carpenter's son. What did He have to offer? Surely it couldn't be him that God would choose. Surely it will be a fully trained high priest and not an ordinary carpenter's son. The difference was, Jesus didn't just talk the talk ... HE WALKED THE WALK! Unfortunately, many have gained a revelation of what they're called to, but they have proclaimed it and moved in it too early, thus proving nothing, causing the church to distrust them even more. But this is about to change!

You see, these ordinary people will go about "doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil". When they are seen to be making progress by actually "doin' the stuff", you will find small bands of followers coming around these ones wanting to learn from those who are producing the fruit. It will be just like the days of Jesus with His disciples. In fact, in some instances, we are beginning to see this even now because there are those who have endured their personal wildernesses and have been brought forward by God to minister in His power.

The third season will be a Pentecost season because if you remember our text, the Holy Spirit impressed me that this move of God would mirror the Gospels and the Book of Acts. Remember the three seasons. If you look at the gospels they contain the first two seasons; John and Jesus. The Book of Acts contains the third season, that is, Pentecost and A CHURCH EMPOWERED!

For too long there has been only 20% of the church doing 80% of the work. But after this Pentecost season hits us, 80% of the church will do 100% of the work with multitudes of ordinary men and women "doin’ the stuff" resulting in "turning the world upside down".

What then, must happen to the Jesus-type ministries?

Many leaders are insecure in allowing those under them to rise above them, but I believe it is the mark of an outstanding mentor to overcome their fear (which is a kind of pride), and cause those he trains to exceed him.

John that Baptist knew this ... he decreased so that Jesus could increase.

Jesus knew this ... He physically decreased so that the Holy Spirit’s influence might increase to allow the church at large to do the work.

When the Pentecost season hits us, which is yet a while away, we as the Jesus-type ministries must be ready to step back from the lime-light and move into a teaching and mentoring role so that the Body of Christ will be released into "doin’ the stuff". That's when we will truly see the nameless, faceless generation of revivalists.

I think it's Rod Parsley that calls his youth ministry "X-Change". I love it. Many of our young people are a part of a generation who will change the earth by x-changing their own lives for those of Christ in them.

In order to make the transitions I have outlined above, we need a genuine restoration of the function of the men of Issachar in our churches. Not so that imbalanced prophetic people can try to control the church, rather, that the church might correctly use its "key to knowledge" (Luke 11:52) to unlock the door to God’s purpose for her in this hour. Without this, our forward movement is almost hopeless.

In this hour, we must become like blind Bartimaeus who, when faced with a visitation of Jesus, humbled himself and cried out for a restoration of his vision so that he might see what God was doing. Without the insight that our prophetic ministries can bring, much of the church will continue "stumbling all over themselves".

Let us humble ourselves and once again become "prophet-making organisations", that we might be "most blessed by attending to what He reveals."

Pastor Kerry M. Denten (22/12/98)

Pastor Kerry & Jo Denten - Founders
Green Tree Ministries & The Green Tree Australian Prophetic Network
P.O. Box 85, Narellan, NSW, 2567, Australia
Web Site: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kdenten
E-mail: kdenten@ozemail.com.au

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