THE 100 YEAR OLD PROPHECY

ANDREW's NOTE: There are 2 things that people won't like about
the prophecy below. For one thing, it is declaring that there is
genuine hope for a real Revival in this generation. I hear from
Christians in our circles all the time that there is no such hope.
Many have completely given way to Cynicism. But they call their
cynicism by another name. They call it "discernment". They long
ago stopped hoping or believing that God might really move. They
say it is only the "false prophets" that give encouraging words
about "Revival coming". And so this must be a 'false' word too,
they say. But cynicism and unbelief are not "discernment". They
are simply cynicism and unbelief. We need to repent.

The second reason that people will not like this prophecy is that
it mentions the "latter rain". This is not the same as the "Latter
rain" heresy. All the old pentecostals that I have read about used
the term "latter rain" all the time - to talk about a real Last-Days
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was only much later that the term
got associated with the "Latter Rain" heresy out of Canada.

But I find lately that the Cynicism is so great, the Unbelief so
strong, the so-called "Discernment" is so nit-picking (and by the
way, "Google-searching" is not 'Discernment' either) - that everyone
nit-picks every "positive" word to death. Just like the Pharisees.

You simply are not allowed to be "hopeful" any more.

Could the below prophecy be true? I surely hope so. I have to
believe that God has not given up yet. And neither has this generation
seen a truly holy and radiant "Bride" clothed in the glory of Christ.
I am not one who is wanting to "whimper" my way into eternity
without at least seeing that. - Nit-picking, anyone? - Andrew Strom.
------------------------------------------------

The 100-YEAR-OLD PROPHECY
-Michael Edds.

The great Azusa Street Awakening, which over the years resulted
in 600 million being swept into the Kingdom of God and gave birth
to the Pentecostal Movement, began in 1906. It was one of the
greatest outpourings of the Spirit of God since Pentecost. Multitudes
were saved, healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Incredible
miracles occurred.

This great revival moved from Los Angeles to its new focal point of
Chicago, Illinois. The two great centers of revival in Chicago were
the North Avenue Mission and the Stone Church. Pentecost swept
from Chicago to Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. One
of the greatest outpourings occurred at Stone Church in 1913.
The renown evangelist Maria Woodworth Etter began a revival
on July 2, 1913 at Stone Church.

The services were to last until the end of July but continued for six
months. This was a time of divine appointment for the city of
Chicago; God rent the heavens and came down!! Scenes from the
days of the Early Church began to occur at Stone Church. Word
began to spread throughout Chicago of miraculous healings,
deliverance from demonic possession, conversions, and of the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit happening in these meetings.
Advertisement was no longer necessary! The city was incredibly
shaken. Word spread of the miraculous intervention of God.
Thousands came on trolleys, buggies, and trains, while many
walked. Some came from distances of 1,600 miles away. 1200
to 1500 packed into Stone Church each night. The basement was
filled and many stood out on the street. Street meetings were held
to accommodate them. Three services were held on Sundays!

As Christians prayed around the altar one evening, Sister
Woodworth-Etter and others gave the following powerful prophecy
and divine promise, which they prophesied would occur within 100
years of the 1913 Chicago Visitation. She prophesied of this
coming End Time Revival....

"We are not yet up to the fullness of the Former Rain and that when
the Latter Rain comes, it will far exceed anything we have seen!"

William Seymour, the leader of the Azusa Street Awakening, also
prophesied that in 100 years there would be an outpouring of God's
Spirit and His Shekinah Glory that would be greater and more far
reaching than what was experienced at Azusa.

It has been almost 100 years since these prophecies were given...
I believe that we have reached the time of the fulfillment of these
100 year old prophecies. We must be diligent to pray, intercede
and protect what the Lord is doing. We must encourage and edify
one another as never before. We must crucify every critical,
judgmental and religious spirit that may be within us. We must
put on the holiness and righteousness of Christ. Our time of divine
destiny has come. We are about to experience what Brother
Seymour and Sister Woodworth-Etter foresaw. God is about to
rend the heavens and come down!...

"ICONOCLASTS" - An Insightful Word

"ICONOCLASTS" - An Insightful Word
-extracts by Robert I Holmes.

"Where, O where is the prophet? Where are the incandescent
ones fresh from the holy place? Where is Moses to plead in fasting
before the holiness of the Lord?... the one with a terrible
earnestness, the one totally otherworldly." - Leonard Ravenhill.

Ravenhill's words are reminiscent of a podcast I was listening to
on my way to Sydney... It was a communication from the Banff
Leadership Centre in Toronto Canada titled "Iconoclasts" outlining
the role of men and women in organisations who shake things up.
They gave this definition of iconoclast: The breaker or destroyer of
images or idols set up for veneration. A person who attacks
cherished beliefs, traditions, institutions and error. You might be
familiar with its synonym: Curmudgeon.

This idea, this concept of shaking the house, shattering the idols,
attacking cherished beliefs is very much the life blood of
Christianity, of early Christians and indeed, draws from their long
heritage as recipients of faith from Israel. Peter, in describing his
fellow believers said they were "sons of the prophets" (Acts 3:25) -
for Peter faith meant being like the prophets of old.

Enter Moses

There are many iconoclasts in church history, some as far back
as Moses in the Old Testament. He, looking forward as far as
Peter was looking back, said he wished "that all God's people
were prophets and that the Lord would pour his spirit upon them!"
(Numbers 11:29). Remember that Scripture defines Moses himself
as a prophet (Deut. 34:10, Luke 24:27), and Moses prophesied of
a time when one "likened unto Moses" would arise - Jesus
himself (Acts 7:37).

So who is this man - this prophet after whom we are sons? Moses
was the man: - who confronted Pharaoh - who split the Red Sea -
whose enemies were swallowed by the sand - who saw God and
lived - of whom God said, "Moses is my friend"!

This is the iconoclast. This is the prophet. This is Jesus all the
way through his ministry. And where is the spirit of Moses in the
church today? Where is the nature and character of Christ
amongst Christian today? There are a number of facets to the
prophetic that should be reflected in our lives including: being a
forerunner; dealing with isolation; holding God's opinion above
men's; going against the flow; dealing with rejection; being a
recoverer and; driving for balance by being out of balance.

1. Forerunning

Prophetic people are forerunners. They come into things first. God
deals with the church before he deals with the world (ref) and he
deals with natural things before spiritual things (ref). Prophetic
people in the church are even further ahead and as a result are
quite out of step with the mainstream. They are often in the
opposite phase. Happy when everyone else is sad, sad when
everyone else is happy.

2. Dealing with isolation

Bring prophetic very often means having an unpopular message,
and results in fierce isolation. You have to have a thick skin to say
the unpopular thing. You might be a solitary figure rebuking a
corrupt king. The one who rats out sin in the camp. The one who
cares about what God cares about. However just because we are
isolated does not mean we isolate ourselves. We seek out the
brethren, we want companions. We resist being a loose canon or
a law unto ourselves.

3. Holding God's opinion above men's

If we face heaven, and we care about heaven's opinion and
perspective on things we will care more about God's opinion that
peoples. We will seek to experience heaven's favour and not curry
the favour of men. We will desire heaven's stamp of approval even
at the expense of men's favouritism.

4. Going against the flow

Have you noticed that God has a very different set of priorities to
us? He values integrity whilst the world pushes for sensuality; he
desires honesty when the world wants duplicity; he aims for
longevity when the world demands expediency. Prophetic people
even find themselves going against the flow in church - and sadly
sometimes even going against the prophetic flow!...

5. Dealing with rejection

Being out of step, being isolated, being a lone voice comes with
rejection too. People do not just take kindly to your obstinate
passion for truth and purpose, they buck against it. The donkey
kicks against the goad, the horse bolts when spurred. So too
people rebuke and rail against those who are prophetic...

However, we do not imbue the spirit of rejection. We do not walk
around with a sour face, expectant of rejection - wishing it upon
ourselves and provoking it from others. Rather we understand it is
part of the call, a necessary companion on the journey. After all
we are followers of Jesus: a man despised and rejected, a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).

Instead, Jesus came into situations expectant of finding the
Kingdom at work, and his Father at work, with work for him to do
there (John 5:17).

6. Being a recoverer

"The function of the prophet has almost always been that of
recovery." - T Austin Sparks

The prophetic person is not a maintainer, they come in to repair
what is broken. Recovery is required after an accident or injury -
people need rescue and decisive action is needed for triage.
Recovery is needed after a loss or fall - lost things need to be
found, people adrift at sea need to be rescued. Recovery is needed
after a mop up campaign. The troops have gone through and the
land needs to be restored. As a result, when all is well, prophetic
people are quiet.

7. Driving for balance

"Prophets were not made for the status quo, they were made to
bring things back to the middle. This means they stand for the
extreme, to bring the church back to where she should be."
-Brian Medway.

If the church gets imbalanced, or has forgotten a truth the prophet
pushes back to recover it. They take an extreme view of stance, to
bring the church back to centre. Which is why it seems that their
message is unbalanced, because of necessity it is. But this
contains a dilemma for us.

Once an issue has been championed, and accepted the church
must move on, lest she camp in that imbalanced position. Nothing
gets done when things stay the same. Movement is required -
things grow by getting out of balance - but nothing remains if it
stays unstable.

We quickly become false if we camp at and insist on an extreme.

Conclusion

This is the church, as sons of the prophets. This is the Christian
following Jesus the prophet. They are...

-An iconoclast: standing for truth; standing against tradition.
-A forerunner: out of step and out of season.
-Solitary: but not a loner or a loose canon.
-Rejected: but without a spirit of rejection.
-A recoverer: to bring things back to wholeness.
-Unbalanced: extreme but not staying out there.

Is Jesus Enough?

Is Jesus Enough? by Anne Graham Lotz

"… Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:12-14, NIV).

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year! Our family celebrates it with lots of food, family and football. But woven throughout all that we do is an attitude of abundant gratitude for the blessings God has given us. After our celebratory meal, we give each family member an opportunity to thank God for at least one blessing received since the last Thanksgiving.

What are some of the blessings that you thank God for this year? Your physical health … or His faithfulness to see you through sickness? Your financial health … or His wisdom to help you navigate and avoid financial disaster? Your family and friends who have stayed with you through good times and bad … or His comfort to ease the pain of those who have abandoned you? Your church that has helped you stay focused on Him because they have encouraged you by their love … or His commitment to never leave you or forsake you when the church has betrayed you? As children of God, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ—with the things that truly matter from Heaven's perspective. Jesus is all we need. Jesus is enough.

The Joseph Chronicles

"The JOSEPH COMPANY"
-by David Wilkerson.

Let me show you the Joseph Company—a body of last-day believers
wholly given to the Lord. They commune with God daily and are led
by the Spirit in every detail of their lives. At this moment they are
coming out of great trials to enter a place of revelation, wisdom and
fruitfulness. God is working in them, giving them his truth and
knowledge, and very soon he is going to call upon them as he did
Joseph!

For the most part, the church today is experiencing widespread
spiritual famine: shallow sermons, dead hearers, "lively" worship
that is not backed up by righteous living.

God has always worked far in advance of every spiritual famine in
his church. In every generation he has moved ahead to prepare a
way out for his people!

The seventy-five members of Jacob's clan would have died in the
great worldwide famine (and the promise of Israel would have been
destroyed) had God not been working ahead of it all. In fact, some
twenty years before the famine hit, God was already setting in
motion a plan to save his people from destruction.

God sent Joseph ahead to Egypt! For twenty years God worked on
this man—isolating him, trying him, preparing him for a place of
authority—because Joseph was to become the life-saver of God's
chosen. He kept Joseph from the limelight in order that he might be
ready for a coming day of chaos and death!

Beloved, just as surely as God isolated Joseph, he has a Joseph
Company today that is hidden from all eyes. These are in the
furnace of affliction, prisons of testing, battlegrounds of trials and
temptations. They are dying to this world, wanting nothing of its
fame, honor, money or pleasure. And they are growing hungry to
become more intimate with Christ, to know his heart and his voice.

You may not understand all the mysterious testings, trials and
troubles in your life. But if your heart is fully set on following Christ,
you can rest assured God has purpose in it all: He wants to bring
you into his Joseph Company!

JOSEPH and GOD’S FAVOR

Does our heavenly Father favor certain of his children? Does the
Bible say God is no respecter of persons? When it comes to
salvation and his wonderful promises, God treats all alike but he
also puts his special favor on those who respond wholeheartedly to
his calling and yield their lives to him entirely!

Job said: "Thou hast granted me life and favour" (Job 10:12). David
said: "For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou
compass him as with a shield" (Psalm 5:12).

Our heavenly Father puts a special garment on those who
completely give him their heart: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).

Joseph responded to the Spirit's call, surrendering all, and as a
favor from his father he received a robe that set him apart. But that
favor of his father was costly! It cost Joseph relationships and
brought him rejection, misunderstanding and mockery: "All his
brethren . . . hated him" (Genesis 37:4).

Why did Joseph's brothers turn on him? The key is in verse 11:
"His brethren envied him." When they saw the robe Joseph wore,
they knew it spoke of favor, righteousness. And they hated it,
because it reminded them of the Spirit's call they had rejected!
Joseph was a reproach to their halfhearted lifestyle!

You see, Joseph's brothers sat around indulging in petty gossip
and self-centered talk. Their hearts were occupied with lands,
possessions, the future, but Joseph's was elsewhere. He spoke of
the things of God, of supernatural dealings. God had given him
dreams, which in that day was synonymous with hearing the voice
of God.

Lukewarm believers around you will want to talk about their cars,
houses and jobs, but you'd rather talk about eternal things, about
what God is saying to you. Soon you'll become a reproach to their
halfheartedness. They will envy you because you represent the
call of the Holy Ghost they turned down!

Yes, Joseph was of a different cloth and that difference made him
hated and envied among his brothers. And, beloved, the same will
happen to you if you are sold out to Jesus!

CALEB'S SECRET

"CALEB"
-David Wilkerson.

Caleb, whose name means forcible, fortitude, is a type of one who
clings to the Lord! Caleb was inseparable from Joshua, representing
one who continually walks with the Lord through all the distractions of life.

Caleb had accompanied the spies over Jordan, where the Holy Spirit
drew him to Hebron—"the place of death." Abraham and Sarah were
buried there, as were Isaac and Jacob and the patriarchs, and years
later, David's kingdom would begin there. With awe Caleb climbed
that hallowed mountain and faith flooded his soul. He prized that
sanctified place and from that time on, he wanted Hebron for his
possession.

It was said of Caleb that he "wholly followed the Lord" (Numbers
14:24). He never wavered to the very end and at eighty-five years
of age he could testify: "As yet I am as strong this day as I was in
the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is
my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in" (Joshua 14:11).

In his old age Caleb waged his greatest battle! "Now therefore give
me this mountain [Hebron]..." (14:12). "And Joshua blessed him,
and gave unto Caleb...Hebron for an inheritance..." (14:13). "Hebron
therefore became the inheritance of Caleb...because that he wholly
followed the Lord" (14:14).

The message is glorious: It is not enough to have died to sin—to
have entered fullness sometime in the past. The need is to grow in
the Lord to the end! To keep your spiritual power and strength
without wavering. To "wholly follow the Lord" even in old age!

Hebron—Caleb's inheritance—means a company associated!
Associated with what? With death! Not only the death to sin in
Jordan, but living in a place of death. Living with those who are
associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! "Give
me this mountain," Caleb had prayed. In other words, "Give me this
walk of death to self!" It was here that Abraham had built an altar
to sacrifice his son and it was here that Caleb and his tribe would
live, constantly associated with that altar of living sacrifice.

Caleb's wholeheartedness for the Lord produced a holy fire for God
in his children. While the children of the two and a half tribes turned
away and embraced the world and its idolatry, Caleb's family grew
stronger in the Lord!

God’s desire for all of us is that we enter a place of rest, joy and
peace in the Holy Ghost. That requires following him “with all thy
heart…and with all thy strength” to the very end (Mark 12:30).

SOURCE - http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/10535

(c)2010 World Challenge, Inc.

PICTURES of THE QUAKE

PICTURES of THE QUAKE
-Andrew Strom.

In my first few nights here in Christchurch there were several big
aftershocks of Richter 4.5 or more. Anything less and we tend
not to notice - but those ones can wake you out of a sound sleep.
Remarkably though, you would never know that Christchurch had
been through a worse quake than Haiti. There is damage (as you
will see in the photos) - particularly to many older church buildings
and so-on. But much of the city is recovering with only minor
disruption. Many people are quite traumatized, however. They
will not get over this in a hurry.

Unlike Katrina there is seemingly not much left for teams of
volunteers to do. Much of the "grunt" work is already done. Instead
we feel led to reach out in more SPIRITUAL ways this time - to
a deeply affected population - with open-air worship events and
so-on. Please pray with us for a true "Street Revival", my friends.

The fact that so many old - and even newer - church buildings and
cathedrals have been so damaged and forcibly abandoned, has
really been speaking to me. I believe God is showing that the time
has come where we really must begin to call the true church OUT
of her enclosing walls and into the Open where a lost and dying
world awaits. We were never supposed to allow the Bride of Christ
to be "imprisoned" away from the very world she is called to reach.
This whole thing has emboldened me to preach again things I have
long laid aside - that Christ is calling His true church out of her
"cathedrals" - out where she is meant to be. It is high time we
abandoned our gilded cages - and all the "junk" that goes with
them - and got back to the ways of the early church.

"Street Revival" and the leaving behind of our man-made 'traditions'
are becoming an emphasis for me once again. We need to let the
"SHAKING of CHRISTCHURCH" speak loudly to us all. What is
God trying to say?

You can see some pictures of the quake aftermath taken by Noah
and Kate Cremisino at our website below. Please take the time
to comment if you can. Here is the link-

http://www.johnthebaptisttv.com/

WHEN CHRISTIANS COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

When Christians Come Out of the Closet
by Lee Grady (Charisma Editor) www.themordecaiproject.com

Singer Ray Boltz’s shocking announcement that he’s gay offers us a chance to adjust our attitudes.
How should we respond when a fellow Christian embraces a gay lifestyle? Do we give him a hug and tell him we wholeheartedly respect his decision? Do we just keep quiet and pray? Or do we grab a Bible and offer a stern lecture?
 
I know it’s an uncomfortable subject, but I’m delving into it because recording artist Ray Boltz has come out of the closet. The 55-year-old singer, winner of three Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association, told the world last Friday that he just got tired of fighting his same-sex feelings. He told the Washington Blade, a gay magazine, that he now lives “a normal gay life” and feels liberated.
 
I am sure the gay community rejoiced that Boltz has joined their side of this debate. Now they are waiting to see our response. Many of them expect Christians to yank Boltz’s music off the radio, stage bonfires with his CDs and send cryptic death threats. (Hint: None of these is the right reaction.)
 
“It’s easy to get angry at the people who are making wrong choices, but self-righteous anger does not produce the character of Christ in us or anyone else.”
Best known for a string of Christian hits in the 1990s including “Thank You” and “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb,” Boltz told the Blade that he disclosed his repressed homosexuality to his wife and four grown children in 2004, the year he retired from his music career. He quietly moved to South Florida and began dating. His divorce from his wife of 33 years was finalized this year.
 
His confession was brutally honest: “I’d denied [my homosexuality] ever since I was a kid. I became a Christian. I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore.”
 
When I first heard Boltz’s announcement I felt betrayed, the same way I feel when a famous preacher admits to an affair or when a good friend leaves the faith. I’ll admit I immediately began composing a biblical lecture in my head.
 
I was upset that Boltz chose to stop fighting same-sex temptation after all those years of marriage. I was sorry to learn that he feels “closer to God” since he embraced his suppressed gayness. Most of all I was annoyed that his decision sends a distorted message to our culture that Christianity doesn’t offer the power to overcome sin.
 
But as I asked the Lord to share His heart with me about Boltz’s situation, I realized that our corporate response to this is as much about a right attitude as it is about right doctrines:
 
1. We must weep. The prophets who called ancient Israel to repent for apostasy did so through tears. Not only did they declare the word of God, but they also spoke with His tone of voice. I pray we will refrain from speaking God’s words to gay people until we have wept long enough to internalize His heart for them.
 
It’s easy to get angry at the people who are making wrong choices, but self-righteous anger does not produce the character of Christ in us or anyone else. Weeping, on the other hand, tenderizes us. It adjusts our self-righteous attitudes.
 
It’s not enough for us to preach to people. We must pray for them first. When they meet us, they need to see our moist eyes, not scowls and pointed fingers. Compassionate prayer bathes our message in God’s mercy. It requires us to humbly identify with sinners as we recognize that each one of us battles some form of brokenness or addiction.
 
2. We must love homosexuals. Preachers are fond of making grand declarations of God’s hatred of homosexuality, and we are prone to cheer them on. But Tim Wilkins, a recovered homosexual who is now director of Cross Ministry in Wake Forest, N.C., pleads with Christians to tone down the angry rhetoric. He says that every time a preacher makes a demeaning remark about homosexuals in a sermon, he wounds 70 percent of his listeners who either (1) silently deal with same-sex attraction themselves; or (2) have family and friends who do.
 
A 2007 Barna survey showed that 90 percent of young non-Christians and 80 percent of young churchgoers believe Christians display “excessive contempt toward gays and lesbians.” Could this be one reason we are not reaching large numbers of homosexuals with the gospel? If we don’t show genuine love, we can expect them to ignore us.
 
It was Jesus’ offer of friendship, not a sermon, that brought the hated tax collector Zaccheus to repentance. When Jesus called the little guy down from the sycamore tree and said, “Today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5, NASB), He erased all the rejection Zaccheus had endured from the moralizers who had condemned his thievery. (And Jesus didn’t get more popular with religious people when He made this new friendship.) Perhaps we need more hospitality and fewer sermons!
 
3. We must contend for the faith. Ray Boltz’s disappointing decision represents a national trend. Many people today are embracing homosexuality as an appealing alternative. They are listening to teachers, psychiatrists, talk-show hosts, Hollywood celebrities, sympathetic family members and even some mainline Christian ministers who say sexual orientation is totally genetic—and unchangeable.
 
These people have bought the lie that says a person who feels same-sex attraction must always be controlled by those desires. Not true! Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we can have freedom from every kind of sinful behavior.
 
We don’t have the right to compromise God’s Word, no matter how many people decide to come out of the closet. But let’s remember that the message we are called to proclaim to the world is not “Homosexuality is wrong.” That’s a true statement, but it has no power to change anybody.
 
The gospel we must shout from the housetops is that Jesus loves all of us, no matter our condition, and that His forgiveness can heal our brokenness. I pray Ray Boltz will soon discover that truth in a fresh way—and I hope he’ll write many more songs about it.