Revelations On A New Season

Greg Manalli

Revelations On A New Season By Greg Manalli

The year 2004 is the beginning of a season. This is going to be a season where the church is more proactive and less reactive. Already we have heard from some prophets and I am indebted to them for their revelations. Nothing I am about to offer is meant to conflict with what they are saying especially in regards to Psa. 24, (2004 = 24). The King of Glory will be COMING IN, (to the church) and not for the church. There is going to be an increased awareness of the Person of Christ revealing Himself in the church and then through the church. The doctrine of Christ in us will begin to take its rightful place.

I would like to offer the following revelations God has given me for the season ahead. From my perspective, God always brings us through seasons and with every season comes an anointing to carry us through. The anointing can be in faith or a grace to carry out a call or particular work.

First let me draw you to Psa 20:4, as a focal scripture for this coming season, "May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed". The word for plans is counsel, purpose, plans etc.(#3289). It is translated in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament),as "boule" (#1012) and is used in the New Testament regarding what God predetermines as in Acts 2:23 and Eph 1:11. The word is connected to "foreknowledge and purpose". Thus, it is about plans of our hearts that have mingled with God's plans and have become ours! You know the old , "man proposes and God disposes" principle is at work here. It comes to life out of conditions and situations that constantly confront us causing us to reassess our objectives. It is God's way of bringing about His eternal purposes. Adversity is usually one of the conditions at work. Another is "it's not working". In the end, we come to a genuine desire for the plans of God. Not that we didn't want God's will, we were just a bit confused about how it would come about.

A fresh alignment is coming along with this understanding of God's plans. The alignment will cause a new anointing to come to us. The anointing will break the yokes of the enemy and shatter the old methodology and systems that have limited us.

God used 8 snapshots from Elijah's life to reveal what He wants me to pay attention to. These are not in order of priority and every church and leader may not connect with these. Some may only relate to a part. I doubt any of these will finish their intended end within 12 months. Since some who read this are from different countries, you may find one of these more significant due to your circumstances.

1. Ministries will begin living out of God's Kingdom economy and not the worlds, 1Kings17:1-6. Elijah was commanded to come to a brook and stay there and to be fed by ravens while all Israel was in famine. Those who have been experiencing financial difficulties due in large measure to the economy and or changes in the corporate structure, i.e. "downsizing" as the world calls it will come to a separated place where your hearts desire to live supernaturally and not in any way dependent on something or someone other than God. Here your faith will be activated and so will your intimacy with the Lord of glory. You who long for the supernatural to be natural will come to exhilarating moments as God comes through. You will rejoice at the extreme measures of the Lord and the thrill of the supernatural. He will use every imaginable delivery system for you, whether it be the church as with the widow Elijah later went to or some other system, person, agency, or miraculous intervention. It will all be of God and you will know it.

During this time you will know what it means when the bible says that the first apostles were "ordained that they should be with Him," Mark 3:14. Others may be prospering and you may be in bewilderment. But God is calling you to a place that has been in your hearts that you should be there. Fear will leave you as you draw to that secret place. It is extremely important to learn to live supernaturally in order to bring the experience to the church. Those who live by faith teach faith and bring others to faith. So whatever you are experiencing it is part of your heart's plan to bring you to the purposes of God and ordained by God that you should walk in them. You perhaps can't imagine how you would come to the place that you are in now, but God knew and you can rest. It is His will and not yours. Miracles of all types are about to happen.

2. Many are going to be SENT back to the church with a fresh anointing and faith to bring the church to the supernatural presence and provisions of God, 1Kings 17:7-16. The Lord sent Elijah to the widow of Zarephath. She is a picture of the church today. She was feeling about to expire, living off of her last resources. But she obeyed the word of the Lord which came through the prophet which was her act of faith. She gave out of her last! She did the opposite of what is natural in order to enter the supernatural. The jars and jugs represented the continual filling of the Holy Spirit (His presence would not leave) and neither would His continual provision of what was needed to sustain her. For us it could be food, money, work, inventions, money in fishes mouths, whatever. It will come when there is no natural rhyme or reason for it and it can come through miraculous multiplication as was the case with the widow. I have personal events to confirm this already.

I have highlighted the word SENT to underscore the sense that we are living in an apostolic era whereby the whole church comes to an apostolic mentality. Thus a fresh commissioning is coming along with a new anointing to carry out the plans of God. The conditions of the world will make it difficult for many to find resource other than God Almighty. You are going to help those believers. Arguments and resistance fall at the feet of miracles.

3. Some of you will bring faith to restore lost hope to life, 1Kings 17:17-24. If the widow represents the church, then the son represents the future of the church. That future is always connected to hope. When hope dies, so does any thought of the future. There are many who feel that their futures are dead. Their dreams and visions along with staggering prophecies of God's plan for them, seem as dead and hopeless as the son of the widow. But three times the prophet laid himself out on the lifeless body and the boy returned to life. So will many dreams visions and prophecies be resurrected. This is the third day church. We live in the presence of the Lord. We along with many hopes and dreams are being raised up into his presence. A resurrection time. Those who live by faith bring faith to others. Furthermore, this is a time when faith in God's prophets as well as the word of the Lord is to be restored. Because of our impatience or disobedience many words have not been fulfilled and some discredit of the prophetic has resulted. If there is anything prophets do it is that they bring hope. When hope is gone the anchor of the soul is missing, Heb. 6:19. Faith cannot operate without hope, Heb.11:1.

4. Some are going to present themselves before the body to call it to repentance, 1Kings 18:1;16-21. The word translated present, can mean to perceive, verify, understand and examine, (#7200). In other words a faith is coming to examine honestly the condition of the church and to speak to it with an intention of drawing it to commitment to it's Lord again. No more halting between two opinions, nor serving baals, (other gods of interest and fascination). This is a ministry of fire! It is the purging fan that is in the hand of the Lord and in the person of the Holy Spirit, Mat.3:11-12. There is no replacement for the call to holiness. Elijah knew his God as the one who answered by fire. It is fire time. Without fire there will come no rain. Some years ago, fire fell in Pensacola Fla. and refreshing rain in Toronto Canada. These two outpourings are coming again, perhaps not in the same way, but for the same purposes. Those who live by faith have no constituency to please. It wont matter to them if the offended withhold their tithes. They live by faith already. Those who bring words of repentance will be those who love the body the most and share the lord's heart.

America is an idolatrous nation and the church reflects this idolatrous attitude towards it's leaders it's ministries and even the church itself. It is easy to worship what should be instruments of worship. Many leaders and church members will repent of this and a sweet humility will come upon us all. Many will renounce their ambitions to be someone important and accept the grace of God for their lives to be who they are called to be, no more no less.

5. An anointing is coming to some apostles and prophets to unite the five-fold ministry, 1Kings 18:44. Elijah's servant saw a cloud rising out of the sea the size of man's hand. The hand as most know is an illustration of the five fold ministry with each digit representing the grace of each gift. The hands effectiveness is totally dependent on the cooperation and coordination of the fingers as a team. The fact that the cloud rises out of the sea is indicative of the selection of God of these ministry gifts from and for the body and He alone can lift them to their calling. The cloud represents the heavenly authority and power of each gift. This will be a season of refinement for those in ministry. As these ministries learn to work together a refreshing rain is going to fall restoring a parched people and bringing them to fruitfulness. There will be some with a special anointing to draw different ministries together so they will function like those who dwelt together in Antioch, Acts 13:1.

6. A great emphasis is coming to restore lost inheritance to the church, 1Kings 21:1-29. The account of Naboth having his little vineyard stolen away by Ahab is a picture of how the church has had much of it's inheritance in Christ stolen also. Today a large portion of the church hasn't noticed what it has lost since it entered the kingdom with no previous understanding of it's rights, authority, blessings and gifts. But there is a growing company of ministers who are willing to take back on behalf of the church these precious blood bought blessings. These say as Naboth, "the Lord forbid, that I should give you (Ahab), the inheritance of my fathers". Our Father has released an inheritance to the body through Christ and we will have it to the glory of God. Eph 1:18 speaks along with other scriptures of the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints. This inheritance is guaranteed through the Person of the Holy Spirit and by faith and patience we inherit them, Heb. 6:12.

This inheritance of which I do not have time to enumerate is much larger than the present expectations of the church as to our total enablement and gifting that lay within the body. Within today's church lie precious gifts, virtually unused because they are unknown. But in addition to the ignorance we have suffered, there has been outright theft of gifts through envy, jealousy, infighting, and selfish ambition. The enemy uses our weaknesses against us with lies, deceit and unresolved offenses to further steal away our inheritance. Countless members are now wandering around having been separated from the body to which they belonged and are not positioned to either give or receive.. Their inheritance within them, even the little they know of is useless and worse, they suffer for not being connected to those who could minister out of their inheritance to them. This is about to change.

7. The hearts of fathers are going to be turned to the children and the children to the fathers, Mal. 4:6. This was initiated in the life of Elijah, a solitary man with no "son" to follow him and to inherit his ministry. The spirit that worked in Elijah to become fatherly and that came upon John the Baptist, is upon the church now. It is at work to raise up sons (male and female) to strengthen the family of God, increase the inheritance we have and connect the generations. Much of the church has experienced a dying off of the fathers with no sons to carry on and thus the church was reinventing itself every 25-40 years with men and women having little or no experience at being fathered. They have raised themselves and thus been unable in large measure to inculcate a fathering spirit and also a sense of FAMILY. The family of God is not a metaphor. If it were, then God our Father would be a metaphor also.

The responsibility of the church to carry out the original mandates to Abraham to be a blessing and thus bless the families of the earth is ours to fulfill. There is a longing in the world for family and there is an equal longing in the church for family. Now is the time for sons to be nurtured and raised up as Elisha was by Elijah, 1Kings 19:15-24. and 2Kings 2. When fathers raise up sons, inheritance increases. The double blessing and anointing goes to work. Abraham had Isaac. Isaac had Esau and Jacob. But it was Jacob who had twelve sons that became the nation of Israel. Many of the visions and promises given to fathers will have their final operation it their sons. This is absolutely the case with Elijah and it was with Abraham. It will be .with us. This is vision for increase.

8. A spirit of prayer is about to take over ministries. James 5:17 reveals the core of Elijah's ministry and the very success of it. Of all the things that could distinguish Elijah's life, prayer is what the New Testament records. This is the same man who brought fire out of heaven and raised a boy to life, multiplied oil and flour. Yet he is singled out as a man of like passions and of earnest prayer. He is described as one who "bent to the ground and put his face between his knees" 1Kings18:42. He did this seven times. Perfect prayer of the Spirit. He shut heaven and opened it.

Many talk of the importance of prayer. Few exercise what they tell others. Desperation sometimes must be the motivation for prayer. But once we start to pray, intimacy will keep us in prayer. Once we know its power, we will find it indispensable, reliable and incredible.

Some time back, I had a dream in which my entire office was moved to our prayer room just off the foyer of the church. Every thing in my office was in the prayer room. I was seated behind my desk looking out towards the door that opens to the foyer. In this dream an angel stood beside me with his arms folded as though he had finished an assignment and was waiting for the next command. He smiled at me. He was huge, yet with all the strength he exuded, he had and incredible peace about him. He portrayed the power and peace that come with prayer. He didn't speak but communicated with me that my "office had changed". My place of decision making and authority was now the place of prayer. Then the angel motioned for me to get up and follow him out to the sanctuary. He wanted me to see the results of prayer.

I am learning that for every one time that I preach or teach under the anointing, I can pray a hundred times more under the same anointing. In other words, prayer will take my teachings and yours deeper into the lives of the people than our talking to them. We get their ears far less than we can get God's ear. When we get His ear, He can get their ears even when we aren't within shouting distance of them.

Obviously, these all have to do with what God is going to start doing in us. The end of 2004 will not herald the end of these activities but mark their progress. I think they will get a hold of us as much as we get a hold on them. It will be a divine thing. Nothing here is meant to contradict anything else God is going to do. He has revealed other things to others, I know. This is a piece of the whole, not the whole piece. I do pray it ministers peace to you and desire for your plans and God's to be one.

Greg Manalli http://www.folchurch.org/