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Dream of Revival

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Before departing for Nicaragua I hammered out the blogs I felt the Lord had given me – scheduled to go out on certain days of the December calendar. Friday, December 19 I had scheduled a blog titled, “Tsunami of the Spirit?” to go out at 6:00 AM. Little did I know a week later (from my scheduling of this blog) that Rick Joyner would send out a Prophetic Bulletin titled, “Dream of Revival.” I didn’t get to read Rick’s prophetic bulletin until Monday morning and was shocked and pleasantly surprised to see how it coincided with what I had written a week earlier. The concluding lines of my blog stated:

I have seen the Father do quite a lot. From the Jesus Movement of the seventies and eighties, to the prophetic movement of the eighties, to the vineyard and renewal movements of the eighties and nineties – until now. Yet there has been a “holding back.” It appears to be the calm before the storm when a cataclysmic receding of tide empties the beaches of “water” for miles out to sea. Is this spiritual recession to be followed by a deafening silence? Is the world about to see a roar of the mighty, rushing Tsunami of the Spirit? Will it be climaxed with a mammoth sized, Holy Ghost wave of unforeseen proportions hurtling toward dumbfounded onlookers? What do we do? What can we do? Humble yourself and pray, “Lord teach me to ride this Wave of Your Holy Spirit!”

Why is this astounding me? Rick Joyner wrote: This recent dream I had was a prophetic update on that vision. I saw in the 1987 vision there would be two waves in which the harvest would come. The first wave would be the gathering of the laborers for the second wave, but this first one would be so great that many would think it was the final harvest that Jesus said was “the end of this age.” However, as stated, this first great wave of ingathering would be mostly the calling of the laborers in the true harvest that was coming in the second wave, which would be far greater. In this vision, I was shown that between these two waves there would be a lull in the ingathering so that those who had been brought to the Lord could be equipped and trained for their purpose in the next coming wave. As I was also shown then, not many would use this opportunity between the waves to equip their people for the next one, but it was coming anyway, and those not prepared for it would be swept away by it. We are now at the end of the comparatively quiet time between these waves. It feels very much like the time before the first wave broke upon the world with the collapse of the Iron Curtain. It seems as if the body of Christ is in retreat around the world now, but the greatest move of God there has ever been will soon break out upon the world. The first wave began just a couple of years after I had the vision of the harvest and published the book about it. It lasted into the first decade of the 21st century. There were countries where more people were being born again than were being born. At its peak, it was estimated that about four hundred thousand people were coming to Christ every day. In that first wave, countries in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and Eastern Europe experienced in twenty years more people coming to Christ than they had from the Day of Pentecost recorded in the book of Acts until that time. The world had never experienced anything like this before, but what is coming will make it seem small. This first wave changed the world and propelled Christianity to being the largest and fastest growing religion on the planet. However, it all virtually missed North America and Western Europe. The next wave will not.

Two things stand out to me regarding Ricks’ Dream: First, In this vision, I was shown that between these two waves there would be a lull in the ingathering so that those who had been brought to the Lord could be equipped and trained for their purpose in the next coming wave. Second, As I was also shown then, not many would use this opportunity between the waves to equip their people for the next one, but it was coming anyway, and those not prepared for it would be swept away by it.

Which group are you in? Have you been equipped to bring in the Final Harvest before the Return of Jesus? Or will you be part of the group that is swept away by this final, earth shaking move of the Spirit?

Spirit-Filled

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Acts 2:42-47 And they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of bread [including the Lord’s Supper] and prayers.43 And a sense of awe (reverential fear) came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were performed through the apostles (the special messengers).44 And all who believed (who adhered to and trusted in and relied on Jesus Christ) were united and [together] they had everything in common;45 And they sold their possessions (both their landed property and their movable goods) and distributed the price among all, according as any had need.46 And day after day they regularly assembled in the temple with united purpose, and in their homes they broke bread [including the Lord’s Supper]. They partook of their food with gladness and simplicity and generous hearts,47 Constantly praising God and being in favor and goodwill with all the people; and the Lord kept adding [to their number] daily those who were being saved [from spiritual death].

I was on a plane returning home from Africa and had a lengthy discussion with a retired pastor from a fundamental denominational persuasion. During our discussion I was often flabbergasted at his misinterpretation of Scripture, not to mention his self-assured, arrogant ignorance. Not only did he believe the supernatural manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit were limited to the 12 disciples, (and ceased to exist after their death) but he believed the church was birthed during the ministry of Jesus. What he failed to realize is that the church couldn’t be the Church, the Body of Christ, apart from the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. The other glaring truth, often ignored by modern Christians, he failed to recognize is that the church ceases to be the church apart from the Holy Spirit (Who birthed the Church in the Book of Acts). Let that sink in deep. You can’t be the church apart from the Spirit. You can’t be born-again apart from the Spirit. You can’t know Jesus apart from the Spirit. You can’t know the Word apart from the Spirit. You can’t get into Heaven apart from the Spirit. You can’t worship the way God the Father wants you to worship apart from the Spirit. Individual Christian or so-called Churches can do nothing of eternal significance apart from the Spirit. Is this why so many buildings with Church lettered on the outside have so little of God’s Presence on the inside? And is this the key to why so many church attenders believe church attendance is optional? Why so many believe devotion to the Word (the Apostles teaching), fellowship, communion, praise and worship, prayer, giving, gathering in each other’s homes – is optional? Because Baptism, and the infilling of the Holy Spirit has been ignored and dismissed?

Years ago I mistakenly learned that the sign someone had been baptized in the Spirit was speaking in tongues. I say mistakenly because it’s only – A Sign – one sign, of the Baptism but not the only sign. The other signs of a Spirit-filled life are listed above. This is what made the gathering of the believers more than a day at the country club, or gathering around a table playing bridge. All these “signs” – devotion to the Word (the Apostles teaching), fellowship, communion, praise and worship, prayer, giving, gathering in each other’s homes – were Filled, Baptized, and Immersed in the Presence of the Holy Spirit. And it’s these signs that accompany, and follow those who are Baptized, Immersed, and Filled with the Spirit. Now many questions arise: Are you baptized in the Spirit? Is our church? Is your church? Can you call a church a church that has left Jesus and the Spirit outside of its “services?” And who are the services for? For that matter can you really claim to be a follower of Jesus divorced from communion with the indwelling, and infilling of the Spirit?

Nothing Else Matters

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Rev. 3:17 For you say, I am rich; I have prospered and grown wealthy, and I am in need of nothing; and you do not realize and understand that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

On April 14, 1912, 10:00 p.m. the Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic and four hours later sank. One woman in a lifeboat asked if she could go back to her room. She was given only three minutes to do so. She hurried down the corridors, already tilting dangerously, through the gambling room piled ankle-deep in money. In her room were her treasures waiting to be taken, but instead, she snatched up three oranges and hurried back to the boat. One hour before she would have naturally chosen diamonds over oranges, but in the face of death, values are seen more clearly.

On Monday, May 12, 2025 I said goodbye to my sister. I thank God that we talked on the phone each week. I thank God that I was able to have a brief conversation with her in the hospital before she was fully sedated. I thank God that we were friends. In fact, when she was barely conscious she referred to me, saying to the nurse, He’s my best friend. She added, I probably don’t tell him enough. It comforts me that I know that I will see her again. It comforts me that she is more alive than me right now. But you know what? I sure am going to miss her till I see her again – face to face, and that’s OK. If Jesus can weep over His friend Lazarus’ death, so can I.

I was talking to the HVAC man who was doing maintenance on our church and I said to him, We are three generations from anyone even knowing who we are. Then I said, Only One thing matters: Jesus. Everything is all about Jesus. So, why waste my time with things that are going to end up at the dump, or in an estate sale, or donated to Goodwill or the Salvation Army? What really matters is my relationship with Jesus, and the family and friends I make along the way. Revelation 7:9 states: After this I looked and a vast host appeared which no one could count, [gathered out] of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the Lamb; they were attired in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. What really matters is how many people are going to be with us there because of the life we lived.

When I was a youth minister I had a vision while worshipping with the youth. Many of us were worshipping around the throne of the Lamb of God. As I took that in I looked around at some of the youth I had ministered too, and won to Jesus. At one point in the vision we made eye contact, and I looked at them and winked. Then I mouthed to them, WE made it! Two years ago I was in Africa on mission. At one point I had a vision in which I saw many of the people who had surrendered to Jesus, and ministered to at the entry way into Heaven. I had a thought: Those whom I have had the opportunity to lead to Jesus will be with my family and friends who come to welcome me to Heaven. I don’t know about you but I want to be responsible for leading as many people to gather around Jesus’ Throne as I possibly can. For the reward of the Lamb and for His suffering! Only one thing matters.

Prayers for Safe Travels and Breakthroughs

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Micah 2:13 The Breaker [the Messiah] will go up before them. They will break through, pass in through the gate and go out through it, and their King will pass on before them, the Lord at their head.

Kristy Whittington, our resident missionary, is returning from Africa this week and should be on American soil by February 28. Could you keep her in your prayers for safe travels?

Also, our mission team leadership has received the following emergency email from our director of missions on the ground in Nicaragua. She wrote: Dear Bethany Friends, The church that was going to sponsor your team to get into the country as a group has not been able to obtain their government paperwork. The government now requires churches and non-profits to register every two months!  It’s ridiculous bureaucracy that is hard for churches/organizations to achieve. Then, when they don’t have the proper paperwork, they are technically operating illegally and the government uses this reason to shut them down. We have another option that we are pursuing but we REALLY need prayers for this to happen quickly! Thank you, Naomi

Soooo, as you can see Kristy and our Nicaragua Mission Outreach desperately needs your prayers.

Thank you and have a great week.

Faith’s Enclosure

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The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us.

We have discovered that self-centeredness, and fear act as enclosures in our lives limiting the heights we can attain through faith. When Jesus is drawing us to where He is in the dark – we have nothing but self-centeredness, and fear keeping our faith enclosed. Self-centeredness, and fear hold us to the ground of what we think we see and understand. We believe that the dark, unseen, unknown abyss we are being challenged to stretch our faith towards will only “reward” us with emptiness. Graham Cooke refers to this as the hiddenness of God. He states: So while manifestation takes place in our reality; hiddenness happens in His. And hiddenness is what draws us into a new place in the Spirit. Because of this, we all have to learn to walk by faith, not by sight. When God is manifested toward us, He is so in a tangible way. We can feel Him. We access Him emotionally. We laugh, we cry, we feel as His peace declares His heart and joy in us. His love often  overwhelms us, and we feel gratitude and praise as a tangible expression of our response to His Presence. Rejoicing, thanksgiving, praise, worship, and adoration—they are all physical indications that our emotions are fully engaged in blessing the Lord. That’s because God’s manifest Presence is both physical and emotional. It sets us free to experience God fully. However, when God is teaching us to walk by faith, not by what we feel, He withdraws from our emotions. He hides from our feelings. So instead, we have to take on trust that He is with us. In His hiddenness, we learn to believe that “God will never leave us or forsake us,” and we establish a pattern of simple faith that “He is with us always.” God has not left us — he has only withdrawn from our feelings for the purpose of establishing trust and simple faith. It’s a tough lesson initially, but also immensely rewarding. It is a key discipline to learn, and one that the Holy Spirit is so brilliant at teaching us. Perhaps the simplest way to explain it is to say that: Manifestation is a time of blessing, while hiddenness is a time of building.

Be encouraged that in the hiddenness of seeking Jesus outside the camp, pursuing for the unseen as if it is seen, that Jesus is simply building your faith. Like the impala you will never know how far you can jump until you take your eyes off of your enclosures and trust that God will meet you as you take that leap. What are your enclosures? Weariness, pain, tiredness, spiritual dryness, feeling distant from God, anger, unforgiveness, emotional hurt, or lack of feeling? Whatever the enclosure or limitation, build your faith by reaching past it. 1 Timothy 4:7-8 states: Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. Your enclosures, or perceived limitations, are actually opportunities to “exercise,” and train, your spirit man to be strong like Jesus.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

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John 14:9 Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time, and do you not recognize and know Me yet, Philip? (AMPC)

You’ve heard the phrase, “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!” Horseshoes is a popular game where points are scored by tossing a horseshoe close to a stake 40 feet away. Grenades, when they detonate, send shrapnel into any object close-by. The clichéd phrase is often spoken by a bystander after listening to someone complain that he was not quite close enough to do something or win something. Philip was close to Jesus – but yet in his heart, so far. Imagine being that close to the Creator of the Universe – and still a stranger. Yet, this happens everyday. God draws near to us, whispering through all creation, circumstances, other believers, Scriptures, sermons and church worship services – and we snooze right through it. Many who claim to be born-again are so close to Jesus yet so far. They are like those who have gone looking for their car keys, or sun glasses only to discover they are right where they began their search (or on top of their head). Jesus is calling during this season but many are missing His call. They are so close yet still so far. Asleep in the light we fail to awaken from our slumber of comfort, and complacency continuing life as usual. We are under the spell of the satanic lullaby found in our Laodicean Church age. With our mouths we say one thing but our actions affirm that we think we are fine – just the way we are. We mouth the creed of the Laodicean Church, “We have no need.” Yet over the centuries God’s call has reached the hearts of those who became aware that something was missing. One of those awakened from the lullaby was a man by the name of John G. Lake. Lou Engle describes his awakening in the following excerpt:

John G. Lake operated in one of the most powerful and awe-inspiring gifts of healing that the world has ever seen. In a single ten-year span, Lake saw over 250,000 confirmed physical healings. In 1918, Spokane, WA, was declared the healthiest city in the U.S. because of Lake’s Healing Rooms. His congregation fondly called him “Dr. Lake” because he saw more people get healed than the local physicians.

Lake was saved at the age of 16, learned about sanctification around the age of 20, and then entered into a ministry of healing after experiencing the power of healing in his own family through the ministry of John Alexander Dowie in Chicago. Lake continued to operate in the gift of healing for the next 10 years and saw hundreds healed. 

At the end of those 10 years, Lake was more hungry for God than ever. Although he walked in the miraculous, he claimed that he had not yet experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He would often walk the streets and spontaneously cry out loud to God, surprising all those around him. Lake said, “It was the yearning passion of my soul, asking for God in a greater measure than I then knew. But my friends would say: ‘Mr. Lake, you have a beautiful baptism in the Holy Ghost.’ Yes, it was nice as far as it went, but it was not answering the cry of my heart. I was growing up into a larger understanding of God and my own soul’s need. My soul was demanding a greater entrance into God, His love, presence and power.”

Driven into the wilderness by his hunger for more of God, Lake fasted and prayed for 9 months, waiting on God. Several months into his fast, the Spirit spoke to Lake and said, “Be patient until autumn.” Lake was encouraged and kept going. He prayed, “God, if you will baptize me in the Holy Spirit, and give me the power of God, nothing shall be permitted to stand before me and a hundred-fold obedience.”

At the end of nine months, Lake was weary. He later recounted, “I prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for nine months, and if a man ever prayed honestly, and sincerely in the faith, I did. Finally one day I was ready to throw up my hands, and quit. I said, ‘Lord, it may be for others, but it is not for me. You just cannot give it to me.’ I did not blame God.” 

Shortly after this, a man named Pierce invited Lake to join him and a group of other believers at his house who had been praying for the past year for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. None of them had yet received the Baptism. Lake accepted the invitation. Five minutes into prayer, Lake was overcome as “the light of God began to shine around me, I found myself in a center of an arc of light ten feet in diameter, the whitest light in all the universe. So white! Oh how it spoke of purity. The remembrance of that whiteness, that wonderful whiteness, has been the ideal that has stood before my soul, of the purity of the nature of God ever since.”

After this experience, Lake was invited to pray for a woman suffering from rheumatism and bound to a wheelchair. As he prayed with her, suddenly “the Spirit said, ‘I have heard your prayers, I have seen your tears. You are now Baptized in the Holy Spirit.’ Then currents of power began to rush through my being from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. The shocks of power increased in rapidity, and voltage. As these currents of power would pass through me, they seemed to come upon my head, rush through my body, and through my feet into the floor… Even at this late date, the awe of that hour rests upon my soul. My experience has truly been as Jesus said that He shall be within you ‘a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.’ That never-ceasing fountain has flowed through my spirit, soul, and body day, and night, bringing salvation, and healing, and the Baptism of the Spirit in the power of God to multitudes.”

Lake sold all he had and entered into full-time ministry. God spoke to him that he would soon go to Africa.“One morning when I came down to breakfast, I found my appetite had disappeared. I could not eat. I went about my work as usual. At dinner I had no desire to eat, and no more in the evening. This went on till the third day. But toward the evening of the third day, an overwhelming desire to pray took possession of me. I wanted only to be alone to pray. Prayer flowed from my soul like a stream. I could not cease praying. As soon as it was possible to get to a place of seclusion, I would kneel to pour out my heart to God for hours. Whatever I was doing, that stream of prayer continued flowing from my soul… On the night of the sixth day of this fast, that the Lord had laid on me, while in the act of washing my hands, the Spirit said, ‘How long have you been praying to cast out demons?’ and I replied, ‘Lord, a long time.’ And the Spirit said, ‘From henceforth, thou shalt cast out demons.’ I arose and praised God.” 

Within a week, a violently insane man was brought to Lake. Lake commanded the demon to come out of him in the name of Jesus and the man was instantly delivered. Two days later that same man was released from the institution where he had been confined.

Within the next year, Lake and his family were called by God to South Africa. Over their next five years of ministry in South Africa, Lake saw over one million people give their lives to Jesus, 625 new churches planted, and 1,250 preachers raised up. By the time Lake returned to America, the work in South Africa continued through the hands of those Lake had trained. Lake’s five short years of ministry in South Africa were so impactful that Lake was given the title, “Apostle to Africa”. Gordon Lindsay stated that Lake was “engaged in a ministry which in some respects rivaled that of the Early Church.”

Lake always knew there was something more, but it was the keys of fasting and prayer that opened the door to satisfying his hunger for more of God. By giving up physical satisfaction and hungering in his flesh, he satisfied the hunger of his soul and the world was blessed by it.