October 6, 2000
I have been seeking the Lord the last few days about what seemed to be greatly discrepant prophetic visions. On the one hand there seem to be a lot of words, visions and dreams having to do with great judgments coming including nuclear war, military occupation, financial collapse, etc. Although I’m grateful that the Lord hasn’t let me see any of these things in detail, I have also personally had a vision of fire filling the earth. But the majority of the visions, dreams, words that I have had myself have been about prosperity, blessings, the glory of God coming to His people.
I have no desire to be a false prophet. I don’t want to say "peace" when there is no peace so I went to the Lord seeking to see the truth and how to pray. What follows is what I believe the Lord has shown me about the days to come. I share it for the discernment of others to either confirm or deny. This is a fuzzy picture at best but the beginning, I believe, of an outline of things soon to come.
In the summer of 1999 the Lord sent several of us to pray at the headwaters of the Mississippi River. One of the major themes of that three day prayer trip was that God was going to "flip" the governments and that He was going to "turn back" judgment. Before that He had spoken to me about the 50th day of counting the omer. It was the day that God repented – or turned back to man. That same summer the Lord gave me a rough outline of the devil’s kingdom structure and God’s kingdom structure.
The devil’s kingdom is hierarchical and is built in the shape of a pyramid. It is designed to rule over and oppress. It sits over the waters of the River of God attempting to pollute and dam them up so that the life of God is kept from flowing freely and bringing about the uplifting, salvation and restoration of the world. Most of the kingdoms of this world are built on this model – including the vast majority of the current religious structures. All the tribulationists get all worked up about the coming Antichrist kingdom but it is already here and has been since the Garden of Eden. This kingdom structure is the fabric of the GREAT LIE which most of us have accepted as reality and truth – the "way things are."
It is with this kingdom that America has made a covenant of death. The covenant has been: "If the devil doesn’t bother us, we won’t bother the devil." We exchanged our spiritual inheritance, our power and authority as sons of God for humanism, intellectualism, logic, reason, politics and psychobabble. We don’t need God - we are gods. Except of course that is a lie and the devil is a liar and his covenant is false. I read somewhere that someone said the demons in America are the ones who can’t make it in Africa. Wrong. We have the same demons here, maybe worse, the difference is they HIDE here behind logic, humanism, intellectualism, reason, etc. making us THINK that the devil is not bothering us and doesn’t even exist. That’s the way the devil carries out his part of the bargain. But look around with a little revelation: these kingdoms – everything from denominational churches to government bureaucracy are rotting and collapsing all around us. The devil has clearly been "bothering us." We keep believing the LIE that we can "fix things" with another law or government program, a new president or pastor, a little more money, a little reason, a little counseling, etc. Meanwhile, the devil goes his merry way and children shoot each other in schools, families collapse and government keeps getting bigger and fatter and more abusive and churches become more dead and powerless.
Nothing changes much while we continue to pay tribute to the tyrant that rules over us by pretending he doesn’t exist and thinking that we really are in control of our lives. We have been made "gods" in his kingdom and that is worth holding onto even if the world is going to hell in a handbasket all around us.
GOD’S KINGDOM, however, is structured like an upside down pyramid. It’s a supernatural kingdom, not a natural one, so we need supernatural eyes to see it. It makes no sense whatsoever that a pyramid could stand on it’s smallest point with it’s base in the heavens and to our natural minds God’s kingdom makes no sense either. It is completely illogical. It is a SERVANT kingdom. The greatest are at the bottom. Jesus humbled himself and became a man. Those who would be greatest in the kingdom must be the LEAST – they must be the servants of all. That is how Jesus became both the cornerstone and the capstone. The top and the bottom are at the same point! Jesus is the cornerstone and the foundation built upon by the apostles and prophets – those who have been placed at the END of the procession. They lay the foundation so that the entire BODY can then be built up and equipped for works of service. The five-fold ministry serves to empower, release, build up, strengthen and equip the body to LIFT UP THE WORLD – to bring it to salvation, deliverance, healing and restoration from the effects of the LIE. In God’s kingdom the wells of salvation are OPEN and the LIVING WATER flows FREELY bringing the resurrection LIFE of Jesus through the cross to the world. This life is more than just salvation from hell. It is salvation from the hell the devil has built right here on the earth. It is deliverance, healing, blessing, and sonship.
I could go into this with a lot more detail but for the purpose of this writing, that is the basic background I need to share in order to go on.
The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, but it wasn’t actually read to the public until July 8. Last summer in Minnesota the Lord brought a group of people together again to declare independence this time from the tyrannical rule of the devil. We made no secret of it and spoke publicly and plainly to Satan’s kingdom that we were no longer going to accept the terms of his covenant and that we were declaring war. We declared REVOLUTION!
Revolution means the abrupt overthrow of a government or a SUDDEN change in a system. However, it’s FIRST meaning is the act or state of orbital motion around a point. In other words, God is about to "FLIP" the kingdoms. The kingdoms of this world are about to become the KINGDOM OF OUR CHRIST. Very SUDDENLY AND ABRUPTLY the entire world is going to appear to turn literally upside down. What has seemed safe, predictable, accepted, is going to quickly turn into shifting sand. People who have trusted in the antichrist system are going to find themselves completely disoriented and confused. Logic will no longer work. Human effort will no longer work. Plans, programs, processes are no longer going to work. Those who have accumulated wealth through their own skill, ingenuity and immorality will find that it doesn’t work anymore. Everything is going to begin to virtually collapse because the devil’s kingdom is built on the NATURAL (man’s flesh) and when it is flipped upside down it will not be able to stand up.
Now that sounds like JUDGMENT to me but the thing to remember is that even in wrath God is merciful. God’s judgment is another aspect of His love because the worst wrath that is possible would be if God gave us over to the sinful desires and shameful lusts of our own hearts, and our depraved minds (Romans 1). His judgment has to come in order to bring the world into its proper divine order. That process NECCESSITATES judgment on those kingdoms of the world that are built out of the great LIE. And those kingdoms are built inside of us as individuals as well as in institutions, systems of government, systems of religion, systems of thought and ideology.
So is there going to be economic collapse, war, famine, etc.? YES –BUT as those kingdoms are collapsing, GOD’S KINGDOM WILL BE RISING. God always provides a way of escape for those who will LISTEN TO HIS VOICE. However, those who have refused to listen when He was giving opportunity to restructure their lives, INCLUDING MOST OF THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS TODAY who have built their lives mostly on the model of Satan’s kingdom, will find themselves shaken, disoriented, and in great distress when the world turns upside down. Following the rules will not save them. Doctrines will not save them. Empty religious ritual will not save them. Only being hidden in the living Presence of the living God in a LIVING relationship is going to save them. Remember the movie TITANIC? Remember the panic when the ship went from level to upright? You get the picture. The world – including the majority of those in bondage to the current religious structure - will be running for any thing to hold onto for safety.
But the remnant, who have hidden themselves in the secret place of the Almighty, will have a different experience. Remember gyroscope toys? A gyroscope rotates or revolves around a fixed point or axis. While the world is spinning apparently out of control, the center will HOLD. Money and commerce aren’t going to cease to exist but the CONTROL of them is going to be transferred from the devil’s economic system to the economy of God within HIS Kingdom. Outside there will be a great increasing in disease and pestilence that health care and medicine are not going to be able to help. But WITHIN God’s Kingdom there will be not only healing but I believe a literal restoration of youth. Anyone who dies at 100 will be thought a mere youth. Outside there will be great poverty and famine. WITHIN the Kingdom there will be abundance. And I believe God’s Kingdom is going to literally begin to be SEEN on the earth as it IS in heaven. The LIE is going to be dispelled by the LIGHT of His glory literally resting on His people and over physical locations that will become places of REFUGE from the judgments coming on the earth.
Now let’s talk about how this revolution is going to come about, what "suddenly" means and what the role of the true Church is in the midst of the judgments that are coming.
First of all I think we need to adjust our conception of time. I believe this change is going to appear to be very sudden in the overall framework of time but I don’t think it is going to happen literally overnight although some aspects of it may. I think we need to think in terms of a "suddenly process." The bottom line is we don’t know how long it is going to take but in God’s time frame it could be a day or it could be a thousand years and it could still be considered "sudden." I do believe that the process will be as long as it takes to bring everyone who will possibly come into the Ark of His Presence. The Ark is the Church built out of LIVING stones. It is the Church without walls. When that is accomplished, the door will be closed and the wrath of God will fall on all that are outside, but every one out there will have had opened eyes and a clear choice. They will have made conscious decisions – more than one I believe, over time – to turn away from the Lord. Many are starting the process NOW of making those decisions to either harden their hearts or seek after God. That is why the judgments will become increasingly severe. It is God’s will that ALL be saved and I believe He will extend the time as long as need be to bring in as many as will come. Remember He stopped the sun for Joshua. So we may as well stop trying to plot this out on the calendar. The Army of God will war as long as it takes to set as many free as possible so that they can choose salvation. That is the bottom line of what this war is all about.
Another thing to keep in mind is that everything that is going to appear to spring forth suddenly is really the result of generations of prayers, prophetic acts and martyrdom’s. The seed is planted and watered for a long time before it suddenly springs forth from the ground. I’ve been told that some prairie seeds can lie dormant for 20 years and then suddenly spring up seemingly out of nowhere.
We also have to remember that what springs up as a seedling has little resemblance to the full-grown plant. Even the mighty oak started out as a tiny sapling. Things are going to begin to spring up suddenly but one of the things we need to be aware of is that doesn’t mean they are springing up fully grown and mature. That is why the Church is going to still need the five-fold ministry until we have ALL come into the fullness of Christ. One of the differences however between the true Church and the religious system is that the "new recruits" will be trained and moved out onto the battlefield quickly – not warehoused until they die.
People are excited right now about revival. They are singing about it, praying for it, prophesying it, but let me tell you something: If this revival came right now the nets would break and the harvest would rot on the ground. The current religious structure can not contain what God is about to birth and He told me a long time ago that He is not interested in reproducing what He already has. I personally don’t believe He is going to birth revival in order to place the fish in a dead religious system that will turn them into twice the sons of hell that we already have. But we’ll talk about that later, I digress. The point I’m trying to get to is that all of these changes are going to begin to take place quickly and from the world’s viewpoint "suddenly" but it is going to be a "suddenly PROCESS" with many "suddenly events" within it.
O.K., let’s talk about revolution. Revolution comes through WAR and war requires WARRIORS. To look at what that army is going to look like and how it is going to come together let’s look at God’s army in Ezekiel 37. When the prophet came to the valley and saw it was full of dry bones God asked him if he thought they could live. He was wise enough to say "you alone know Lord" but I’ll bet he had to wonder if even God could pull that one off. When I look at the church today, I tend to wonder myself.
However! God has been busy "processing" His firstfruits – His apostles and prophets – his generals in this army - in the wilderness. They’ve been lying out under the hot fire of His Son having the flesh burned off them. Bones that are NOT dry have a substance in them called MARROW. Marrow produces red and white blood cells that are the primary agents of the immune system. Systematically He has been removing all of their defenses and drying up all of their own life blood they had in them. They have become dry dead bones that have absolutely no purpose and no hope except in HIM and the finished work of the cross. Resurrection life is the only hope for life. REVIVAL begins HERE – in individual bones.
He is about to prophesy life into those dead bones with a blood transfusion – HIS blood. Now that the bones are empty and dry He can pour HIS blood into them and make them live again. It is going to feel like a FIRE shut up in the bones. It is the glory, the life, the Presence of God filling them.
But bones are just bones if they aren’t joined together. They can’t move. Psalm 22 says that when Jesus was on the cross all of his bones were out of joint. The body of Christ has been out of joint but He is about to restore us to unity. He is networking them together – weaving the net so to speak. Places where different parts of the body are connected together are called joints. Joints enable the body to move and function. The joints are what make a body a body and not just a pile of bones. Shoulder joints enable us to sling stones with both the right and the left hands like the mighty men of David. Knee and ankle joints allow the body to ARISE and to STAND. God is joining the body together and I believe one of the most powerful unions that we are about to see come forth is the union of the Jew and the Gentile. When these two parts of the body are finally united they will become the two witnesses that will testify to the NEW COVENANT. They will live and exemplify covenant relationship with one another and with God. I think we will also see powerful marriages between the apostolic and prophetic, between nations and races, between men and women and many other kinds of "twos". They will come into the ark two by two – not one will be without it’s mate.
The places where these "joints" come together are going to become "HUBS" of revival or places of refuge. I believe we’ll begin to see a system of divine government that looks a lot like wheels within wheels. Within cities there will be a joining of some to regional wheels. Some of the regional wheels will join to national wheels and some in the national wheels will join to an international wheel. All together it will begin to move over the entire earth as ONE MAN with Jesus as the head giving direction and unity, each part functioning as God has called it to function.
The dry bones also represent the firstfruits (apostles and prophets) and the first wave of revival is going to be felt as these dry bones are filled with new life and are joined together. Many of them know the Lord but there will also be many who will receive sudden revelation and will change quickly from "Saul’s" to "Paul’s." I believe that one of the most amazing "suddenlies" we are going to see soon will be the eyes of Israel suddenly being opened to Jesus as Messiah. What you see happening in Israel is what is happening in the spiritual realm. War is breaking out. We are fighting for who will control the "temple mount". We are fighting for the peace of Jerusalem. The whole body is Jerusalem. The whole body is Israel. What happens to Israel happens to all of us. We need to enlarge our vision.
Once the firstfruits have come forth – the bones revived and joined together – the Lord is going to begin to add muscle and sinew. He will fill out the five fold ministries and the foundation of His government will be in place. I believe that many of these will come from a mass exodus out of the current religious structure as revelation light/glory begins to flood the earth and judgments begin to fall on the devil’s structures.
The army of God will rise to its feet and cover the earth. It will live and move and have its being in Christ Jesus who will be its head. It will not function like an organization. It will function like an organism. It will live and breathe and move in a NEW HARMONY that has never been seen before. Then the great harvest will begin as each person who is saved becomes a cell in the body and finds its place, adding strength and stature to the body.
As the army arises warfare is going to begin on ALL fronts. There can be no fence sitters in revolution. I saw the movie THE PATRIOT this summer and in the beginning the hero tried very hard to stay out of the conflict and it cost him nearly everything he had including a son. Finally he made the commitment to go to war and did it with a vengeance. This war is going to quickly affect every level of Christian from the most mature to the least and choices are going to have to be made. The trumpet has been sounded and the call to war has gone out.
War will consist of removing the demonic "dams" that the enemy has built to stop the flow of the river of God and reclaiming the "high places." That can be done through individual deliverance to corporate deliverance to strategic deliverance. Any Christian has the authority to stand against demonic forces coming against himself and his family and to do individual deliverance. Many Christians have the authority to go out and intercede for deliverance of their neighborhoods and cities. Some Christians have the authority to war over regions and nations. Each of these pulls a piece out of Satan’s house of cards and will cause eventual collapse and each will be called to war in the area of authority they have been given.
One of the things I am seeing is that with the restoration of the apostolic and prophetic offices is coming the authority to go to war with root-level principalities on an even higher strategic level. This level of strategic prophetic intercession goes beyond the physical locality of the prayer session and is able to bring forth God’s KINGDOM purposes ON EARTH more quickly and efficiently. The prayer session seems to be tied to various physical locations for illustrative purposes, but the warfare is really KINGDOM LEVEL and has much farther reaching ramifications. This is a level of warfare that should be engaged in only by those who have apostolic/prophetic office authority and who have been called to this kind of intercession. It releases a higher level of revelation and the glory of the Lord across the earth.
One of the first things that I think is going to happen in this war is God is going to start flipping on light switches. Remember that the covenant with the devil has been annulled. He no longer has any motivation to stay hidden and in fact, the increasing level of the glory of the Lord is going to make it impossible for him to stay hidden. Demons are going to begin to manifest all around us – in the marketplace, especially in the religious churches, anywhere and everywhere. Those who have denied the existence of the devil and his demons are going to find themselves in for a rude awakening. And believe me, demons are incredibly rude. They have absolutely no concern for the comfort or sensitivities of anyone around them. They love to spew vileness in all it’s forms all around them and anyone who does not have the authority of Jesus in them will quickly find themselves overwhelmed.
Another thing that is going to happen with the increasing release of the glory of the Lord is the hearts of all are going to be exposed and an awareness of hidden sin is going to become great. In fact, the fear of the Lord is going to begin to grip hearts and people who have had no need of anything spiritual are going to suddenly find themselves in great desire of a savior. People who have been entrenched in sinful lifestyles such a homosexuality are going to have sudden revelation and a sudden change of heart. As these things begin to happen in the world they are going to fall into a great deal of confusion and will look for answers anywhere they can find them. If the true Church is not there and ready to respond and lead them to the truth there will be deceivers standing in the ready to lead them into the antichrist system.
Speaking of which, one of the things that we need to stop doing is empowering the lie about the antichrist. Here is the truth: As the TRUE CHURCH begins to arise it will become more and more empowered. It will cease to be a kingdom of this earth and will truly become a HEAVENLY Kingdom – a NEW Jerusalem. That will happen because as we WAR for REVOLUTION we will be taking more and more of the devil’s territory, authority and power AWAY from him. He will be cast OUT of the heavenly realms – in other words he will be coming to earth to reign as the antichrist because he will have lost most of his spiritual power and will have no other means than to take up HUMAN form and HUMAN power and authority. Which really is pretty pitiful in contrast. He is going to a much LESS powerful position as Jesus Christ is REVEALED (thus REVELATION) on the earth THROUGH His BODY. The judgments in revelation are against the kingdoms of this world – NOT the Kingdom of Christ.
Are some going to be martyred in the process? YES – but SO WHAT? We are ALL called to be martyrs whether we are living or dead. We made that deal when we exchanged our life for HIS. So what if the devil kills us? We just rise up imperishable. Even the "two witnesses" only stay dead for three days and then they get back up and really kick devil butt. Look at Paul’s sufferings. It doesn’t say it outright but if we look at the things he endured, I suspect he was possibly killed and raised up several times. At the least he was certainly the recipient of divine healing many times. He had to be. Yes, the devil is going to be full of fury and is going to make war on the Saints, but so what? WE’RE the ones declaring the war and WE WIN! It’s a done deal and he knows it. All he has is sound and fury, smoke and mirrors. The vast majority of the stuff put out by "tribulationists" is just propaganda by the evil one, in my opinion. The only power the devil has is the LIE. When we stop believing the lie and start living in the truth of God’s Presence – the Holy of Holies – he has absolutely no power over us. We have got to stop trying to get people to come into the Kingdom through fear. Tyrants rule through fear. People should be drawn to the Kingdom and to the KING by the awesome power, love and Presence of the one who was lifted up on their behalf to SAVE them – Jesus!
The world is going to see the greatest love story on earth, in history, being played out before them. They are going to see the love the bridegroom has for the bride. Covenant relationship, the New Covenant, is a MARRIAGE between Jesus and the Church. It is going to be very clear who is wearing His Name and His ring of authority. The world is going to see her washed, restored, empowered, raised up and seated in the heavenly realms with the one her heart loves. They are also going to see that relationship being lived out on the earth between the different parts of the body joined together.
That is going to be the Bride, the true Church, the New Jerusalem, the cities of refuge, the ARK of His Presence. And much of the world will come running when the kingdoms begin to flip and the world begins to spin out of control. And when the ark is full – when all have come in who will come – the gate will be closed. The outer court and the Holy Place will shake and fall and only the mountain of the Lord will remain – the Holiest Place – His Presence. THEN will come the "rapture" of the Church and the release of God’s wrath on His enemies who are left on the earth. The governments will have completely FLIPPED. The Church will be living in the heavenly realms, the devil’s kingdom and all who follow him, will have been thrown to earth and the fire will fall. But we’re not getting beamed out of here until the war is won and the Kingdom has COME!
The turning has begun. Remember TITANIC again. At first the lilt in the ship was barely perceptible and people played with the ice from the iceberg. That is where we are now. The process has begun but most are very unaware of it. Many in the religious system have a feeling that something is going on but they don’t know they are in danger yet. Most of them don’t even believe they could be in danger. A remnant has been submitting to God’s process already and have been hidden but they are about to come forth and things will begin to change quickly from then on.
So, back to my original question to the Lord. (you thought I’d forgotten didn’t you!) How do we respond to the judgments that are coming because clearly they seem to have purpose in bringing about the kingdom of God. On the other hand, aren’t we to snatch as many from the fire as possible? Yes, and yes.
The true Church, the army of God, the Bride of Christ, is called to be an ESTHER. Are the visions the prophets are seeing of terrible destruction true? Probably most are. Look at the book of Esther. Haman ( a type of the devil) persuades the king that the Jews should be destroyed. Esther 3: 10 says that "the KING took the signet ring off his finger and gave it to Haman…the enemy of the Jews…and the king said to Haman, ‘and do with the people as you please.’"
Do we deserve judgment for our unbelief, our mocking of God, our idolatry, our evil hearts? Yes. But that is the whole reason God sent Jesus to die on the cross – to save us from what we deserve. And He has chosen to reveal and release His salvation through His Bride – His Church, His Body. We have been called to stand in the gap between judgment and the world and to cry out for MERCY. I believe judgment will still come but it will be greatly diminished, diverted, redirected and postponed as we stand before the King in our royal position interceding until all have had a chance to come into the ARK. Once that is done the Spirit and the Bride will be removed from the earth and the full force of God’s wrath will fall, but for now we are to lay down our lives so as many as will can be saved.
In that process the world is going to begin to see the true Church arise and will flock to it for safety. I believe the world will see whirlwinds disappear, disasters stopped in their tracks, incredible miracles that will testify to the authority that the Bridegroom has given to His Bride on the earth. Ten people – or more – will take hold of one person belonging to the Lord and want to go with them because they’ll know that God is with them. The only safety from judgment will clearly to be in the Presence of the Lord and they will be looking for the ones who can lead them there. And while the world falls into darker chaos the glory of the Lord will rise over these places of refuge where there will be light, abundance, peace and joy.
The point I am trying to make of all of this is that when words of terrible disasters and judgments come forth, we need to take them seriously. However, we need to guard against becoming crying Jonah’s out under our vines if God wants to turn back judgment in His great love and grace. Instead we need to rise up as ESTHERS and cry out for mercy in intercession. After all, we want the devil hung on his own gallows and God’s Kingdom to COME on earth as it is in heaven.
Be blessed.
Thunder in the Desert
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