The Statute
Standing before a Roman Catholic Church in a small village in France is a beautiful statute of the Lord Jesus Christ with His hands extended. During World War II a bomb fell close to the statue decapitating it and blowing its arms off.
The people of that small town, seeing the destruction of this statute, were very sad for the statute was a symbol of friendship and the people for generations had gathered in front of it each day to exchange greetings and to share their lives with each other.
After the war was over and the little town liberated, the people of the community wanted to repair their statute and they asked the Parish Priest if they could try and reassemble the damaged statute. He agreed with them and gave his blessing and the people began to sift through the rubble of their war torn village looking for the arms and the head of that had been blown off.
Now, this statute was no Michael Angelo, however the shrapnel embedded in its scarred body seemed to add a beauty to it. After much diligent searching, the people soon found the head and arms as well as some other small pieces that had been blown off, but they could not find the hands.
With great discouragement someone argued, “You can’t have a statute of Jesus without hands”, and a debate ensued.
A young lady standing nearby and hearing the discussions had a sudden inspiration.
She went to the Parish Priest and asked if she could place a brass plaque at the base of the statute. When the Priest heard what she wanted to put on the plaque, he gave his blessing.
If you were to read that plaque today, you would read these words:
I have no hands but your hands
to do my work today.
I have no feet but your feet
to lead men on the way.
I have no tongue but your tongue
to tell men how I died.
I have no help but your help
to lead them to my side.
We as believers in Christ are His hands, feet and tongue to a lost and dying world. What are we doing to further the cause of Christ were we live?
Winds of Change
(Part 1)
The Winds of Change
On September 7th 2002, I had a visitation of the Lord Jesus that radically shook me up and changed my life! It is difficult to articulate this experience, but for the sake of those to whom this message is relevant I will attempt to do so.
Over the course of the years the Lord has given me many visions. I have been privileged to see the Lord Jesus 15 or 16 times during various stages of my spiritual journey however I was not ready for what transpired on this occasion.
On September 7th I met a Jesus I’d never met before. Let me explain. In past visitations I’ve met the Lamb that was slain for our sins face to face, I’ve seen Jesus the Healer face to face, I’ve seen the King who was high and lifted up, standing in His Glory, and believe me that brought the terror of God into my being. In each encounter I have seen the Lord in differing facets of His character as He revealed Himself to me. On this particular September 7th I met a Jesus that I hadn’t met before; the Bridegroom. What does this have to do with winds of change? Just this, we have entered into a period of time that is going to transcend anything that we have ever experienced in God before. Our lives are going to be radically changed in the next few months and years if we let go and let God.
During a conference at Living Hope Church in Couer d’Alene, on a Saturday afternoon, I watched as over 95% of those present came forward in response to the message that was given that particular afternoon. I walked up the right side of the Church and stood at the back of those who had come forward. At this point the speaker said something to the effect of, “if you want to walk in the supernatural realm just take a step forward in faith.” So I thought to myself, “I can do that.” As I took one step forward in faith I found myself in another place, a different dimension if you will.
Now, I could see the sanctuary and I was still there, however I was “in the spirit”. It was the same place and yet it was another place. Everything was black and white and it there was a light shining brightly over the altar. I didn’t look up, I didn’t have to look up to know what the light was…it was an angel of the Lord.
It seemed as though the further back you went in the sanctuary, the darker it got because the light, the angelic being, was like a bright spotlight up towards the front of the church. As I stood watching I noticed gold dust falling just like a gentle snow fall. As I stood there and watched I remember thinking to myself that what I was seeing was only the precursor to something of great importance. I knew enough to wait and watch. I had a great expectancy and an anticipatory joy within my being.
And then it happened; Jesus stepped into my sight! He came up and wrapped His strong loving arms around me and held me in a bear hug. I began to weep because finally, after so many years of longing for Jesus, I had my arms around Him and I said, “I’m never going to let you go.” It was a moment and it was an eternity, it was long enough but not long enough. I was broken. I could feel the love of the Lord just pour into me. Finally He let go, much to my dismay, and He stood beside me and just watched the scene I had been beholding moments earlier; a bright light over the altar shinning down upon the people who had gone forward and a gentle falling of gold dust over them. We stood and watched what God was doing. There was such a joy coming out of His heart and pouring forth over me I instinctively knew it was because He was seeing His children, His people, being blessed. And it brought tremendous joy to His heart…I didn’t understand that at the time because I had not yet received the revelation of all that He was doing.
I want you to understand one thing here, what I’m about to share is not meant to cause anyone to look at me and think I am something special. This visitation though experienced by me was not so much about me as an individual as it is a prophetic experience directed to the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ in particular. We have entered into a very profound and prophetic period of time in which the Lord is bringing to a conclusion all that He began since the Garden of Eden.
One thing I have learned over the years during past visions and visitations is that in the realm of the spirit, you have at least 5 senses just like you do here. When you’re in a trance or vision, look around you and you’ll see that there is a 360 degree view. Pay attention to the most common of things while you are having this type of experience, smells, taste, what you feel and touch, sounds etc. You will glean a much clearer understanding of what the Lord is trying to speak to you if you do so.
I noticed some movement out of the corner of my left eye and I looked to see what was going on. I saw two angels coming up behind me and once they were behind me they put a robe on my shoulders. I hadn’t seen the robe as they were approaching, but they had it in their hands once they were directly behind me. This robe was no ordinary robe. It had a white linen trim and was laced with ornate gold thread and it was the richest deepest purple I had ever seen. It was heavy yet it was light at the same time. I could not only see it and feel it, but at the same time somehow I could taste it. I don’t fully understand that but it was significant to me at the time.
Once this robe was around my shoulders I could no longer move nor talk. The only motion I was allowed was my right arm and hand could be utilized in response to what the Lord handed me after this. The one thought that kept going through my heart and mind was “no, Lord, no, this can’t be, I’m not worthy of such honor, it belongs to You.”
Then from behind me once again the angles placed another item upon my head. Though I wasn’t able to see it I could see it. Remember I said that in the realm of the spirit you have more than five senses. I was able to see everything that was happening to me from the ‘third person perspective’ as well as experience the whole from the first person perspective. I cannot explain this nor will I try, I just know what happened at that time.
A golden crown was placed upon my head. Still I couldn’t move or I wouldn’t have stood still and allowed them to do that. You’ve got to understand, here I am standing in the presence of the King of Kings, my Lord and Savior and my heart is crying out for the honor and glory to go to Him and I was unable to do anything about it. Throughout most of this experience I was constrained and not allowed to speak or move, probably because the Lord knew I wouldn’t stand still and receive what He had for me. It was only in the days and weeks afterward that the Lord began to give me the unfolding revelation of all that He had bestowed upon me and upon the Body of Christ as a whole for this time.
Jesus then He handed me a key ring with three keys. After a quick glance I was able to hook this key ring on my belt. As much as I was curious about these heavenly accoutrements I just didn’t want to take my eyes and attention off of Jesus, so it wasn’t until later that I took the time to look at and study in greater detail these keys.
As I lifted my hand up from my belt instantly there was a flaming sword in my hand. It was very ornate and was approximately three and a half to four feet long. Once again I could not only see the sword, I could feel its heft and weight, I could feel the power surging through it singing as it were praises to God. I could taste the glory and the fire that surrounded it, and I knew it was alive. I knew that I held something extremely powerful and deadly within my grasp and I was suffused with awe and reverence for this life giving weapon. The pure blue-white fire that radiated from it was total in its holiness and purity. I looked at it in awe and somehow I knew that this sword couldn’t hurt me. The flame wouldn’t burn me because it was holiness and purity.
As I was about to sheath the sword Jesus stepped from my right side and He took His right index finger and ran it around the blade of the sword. As He did so it turned crimson red with His blood. He looked at me sternly and said, “Never weld this sword without mercy.” I looked at his hand and His finger with concern thinking in my carnal natural mind that His finger was cut and would need some dressing. As I looked I saw that there was no mark on His finger, not even a scratch.
I again marveled at the praise that emanated from the sword. As the blood of Jesus touched it the praise coming forth from it intensified and the fire upon it became brighter, almost too bright to even look upon. I knew that He had more to show me so I placed the sword in the sheath at my left side and waited with humility to see what was going to happen next.
Once again Jesus moved into my field of vision from the right and He had a diamond the size of a softball in His hands. Now I’m not a gemologist but I knew that this diamond was of a quality never before seen on earth. It was crystal clear and it radiated life and resonated with the glory of God and the praises of heaven.
Let me explain something here. In every vision I’ve experienced I’ve noticed that every created thing, whether the stars in the heavens above or the spiritual accoutrements that I was given, each one “speaks” and “sings” the praises of the Creator. This diamond as well as the sword, robe, crown, keys etc., they all resonated with the praises of the King. The blending of their ‘voices’ in praise is the most amazing and awe inspiring sound other than the voice of the Lord, that I’ve ever heard. Words cannot begin to do justice to this worship.
Jesus reached forward and placed this diamond in my right hand and He wrapped my hand around it so that I would not drop it. He then pushed my hand against my chest and when it touched my chest, it dissolved and went into my heart. There was a burning purifying quality and yet there was no pain. I knew somehow that there was a deep work going on in my inmost being.
It was at this point that I was finally able to move. Immediately I said, “No, Lord, this belongs to you.” And as fast as I could, I removed all that was given me and I laid them down at His feet.
As I was in the act of doing this, in a twinkling of an eye I was in the very throne room of God and Jesus was on sitting on His throne. As soon as I stood up from laying all down at His feet He said, “Always remember that! I am the giver of gifts and you could receive nothing apart from me. See, I have tested your heart and know that you can be entrusted with these treasures. Now pick them up and go for there is much yet to do.”
Immediately I was back in the vision in the sanctuary watching the gold dust as it fell on the people gathered at the altar. I could no longer see these gifts but I could sense them and I knew they were still with me and they would be with me wherever the Lord took me in the days, weeks, months and years ahead. Once again I was standing with Jesus watching the gold dust as it was dancing and singing with joy over and upon God’s people.
At this time Jesus reached over and opened my right hand and He put a red ruby in it. This ruby was the size of a large egg with many facets. He closed my hand and He looked into my eyes with love and longing as He stepped forward and hugged me. It was at this point that the visitation was over and I was once again “back” in the sanctuary.
For the next few weeks I searched the scriptures for insight into the meaning of this visitation and what it meant to me personally as well as to the Body of Christ at large. There are times when a prophet is called to be a fore-runner in the Kingdom of God to prepare the way of the Lord. The significance of everything that transpired in this vision speaks loudly and clearly of change that is coming in the people of God. I am here to say, “Prepare your hearts to prepare the way of the coming of the King.” He is at the door.
In Part II I will explain the prophetic significance of each of these endowments the Lord is releasing to the Body of Christ.
It's Time For Our Crossing Over
The next few years will be more crammed with destiny and purpose than most will be able to keep up with. For those who serve the Lord, it will be an opportunity to accomplish and witness some of the greatest exploits ever done in His name.
Just as King David perceived the “Age of Grace” a thousand years before it came, and lived in it then, and by this became a prophecy of what was to come, we, too, are called to live in the age to come now!
We are called to live by the powers of the age to come and grow in them. We have no alternative but to become much closer to the Lord by the end of this year than we are now.
We must grow in faith, love, joy, peace, patience… We must also grow in the power to demonstrate these to the world, which is going to be increasingly desperate for them.
The greatest sign of the end of the age will be the church becoming what she was created to be, while walking in all she was called to walk in. She will become a bride worthy of the King, without spot or wrinkle, passionately in love with the Lord, and full of love for one another.
She will likewise walk in unprecedented power, doing the works that the Lord did and even greater ones just as He promised (see John 14:12).
When we see the church becoming like the Lord, and doing the works that He did, then the end will truly be near.
Josh 3:3-4 "And they commanded the people, saying, 'When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. 4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before." NKJV
Josh 3:14-17 "So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan." NKJV
In Scripture, the Jordan River often represents death, which is why both Jesus and John the Baptist baptized there. The Jordan River also empties into the Dead Sea.
There was a reason why the Lord commanded the Ark of the Covenant to be carried across the Jordan “about 2000 cubits” ahead of the rest of the people.
The Ark represents Jesus and the cubits represent years. This was a prophetic statement that the Lord would pass through death to His Promised Land “about” 2000 years before the rest of His people.
The Lord said that “…the harvest is the end of the age…” (Matt. 13:39), and we read in Joshua 3:15 that “…the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest…”
This speaks of how death will be overflowing all of its banks all of the days of the harvest, which is the end of the age. Because of this we can expect such natural and human disasters to increase during the coming times.
As all of the Lord Jesus’ own prophecies concerning these times make very clear, we are coming to the greatest times of trouble the world has ever known. However, the good news is, if we have built our lives on the kingdom which cannot be shaken, we will not only survive what is coming, but we will be building in the midst of it.
This is actually the time when the church is going to cross over and begin to possess its Promise Land. Even so, death will be all around us, overflowing “all of its banks.”
For this reason we must learn to keep functioning and pressing ahead, even when a thousand fall on one side and ten thousand on the other.
In Joshua 3:16 we are told that the waters of the Jordan “…were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam…”
This could have been translated that the waters of the Jordan “were rolled back all the way to Adam.”
It was no accident that this little town was named “Adam,” just as there are no accidents at all in Scripture. This was a prophecy that when God’s people begin to pass through this baptism in the Jordan, we will begin possessing all of the promises of God that we are called to inherit, and death will be rolled back all the way to Adam!
This means that all of the death that was the consequence of the Fall will be reversed. The purpose of the coming kingdom is to reverse and restore the whole earth from all of the consequences of the fall of man.
For now we must prepare ourselves for increasing great natural and manmade disasters, as we get closer to the end of this age. We will need to learn to cope with death all around us and keep on pressing ahead.
Just as no general can be successful if he is overly concerned about causalities, we, too, will have to learn to cope with death. We will even have to send forth missions and missionaries who we know will not return, not being overly given to grieving or mourning the dead, in order to save the living from an even greater, eternal disaster.
Israel’s inheritance was the land, and they dispossessed the people who were on it. Our inheritance, which is also the Lord’s, is the people. Even though the Jordan will be overflowing its banks and death will be all around us, the power of His indestructible life will be flowing through us to reap the greatest harvest that the world has ever known. We must not sleep or be distracted while the treasure of the earth is ripe for reaping.
Baptism is a ritual performed to emphasize an important spiritual reality. However, you can immerse or dunk someone in water all day and not have them partake of the death, or resurrection, of Jesus. There is nothing magical about water.
The power is in the crucified life.
Baptism is performed as a commitment to live the crucified life in order that we might also be resurrected with Christ as we read in Romans 6:4-5:
Rom 6:4-5 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection."
Notice in this text there is no mention of water! This is not speaking of water baptism, but of what water baptism represents – the crucified life.
What did the Lord mean when He stated the following?
Luke 12:49-50 "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!"
Was the baptism that was distressing Him simply immersion in water? Of course not! He was referring to His impending crucifixion. That crucifixion is also the meaning of our baptism.
It is a basic spiritual principle that death is the path to life in Christ. We are called to live now by the power and authority of the resurrected life of Christ, but by its very definition one cannot experience a resurrection without first experiencing a death.
To be baptized with His baptism is to be conformed to the purpose of His death, the laying down of our own lives for the sake of others.
When the church reduced the truth of the crucified life to a mere ritual, this robbed the Lord of our consecration, the church of its salvation, and stole from the world the power of the gospel.
The Lord made it clear in His Word, if we are to partake of His life we must also partake of His death “…that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him…” (2 Cor. 5:15).
Any other teaching is a false gospel and an enemy of the cross. Death separates the things that are natural from the things that are spiritual.
Again, to have a resurrection there must first be a death. If we want to walk in the resurrection life of Jesus daily, we must be willing to lay down our lives for Him daily.
As the Lord Jesus Himself testified:
Matt 16:24-25 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
That the Lord intended our baptism to be the daily reality of a crucified life there can be no question. Such a life that dies to itself and its own selfish interests is the most free and powerful life of all.
This is what the Lord will give us in exchange for our life – the greatest freedom and power to do good that we can know.
If we will enter into the true baptism, the crucified life, which means that we live each day for Him and not just ourselves, we will start to possess all of the promises of God for His people.
We must also keep in mind that death is the greatest liberation that we can ever know. The devil uses fear to bind just as the Lord uses faith in the truth to set people free.
What does a dead man fear? If we are dead to this world, there is nothing the world can do to us. It is impossible for a dead man to have fears of failure, fears of rejection, or even fear of the dark.
To the degree that any fear still has its grip on us is only in relation to the degree that we have failed to go to the cross. The cross will set us free!
A dead man does not lust, covet, feel anger, seek revenge, or even feel lonely. There is no freedom that we can ever have greater than that which comes from dying to this world so as to be alive to Christ.
That is what Israel learned from their first baptism – the crossing of the Red Sea.
1 Cor 10:1-2 "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea."
When Israel entered into this baptism in the Red Sea, it resulted in the destruction of the enemies that had kept them in bondage for so long.
As Pharaoh and his army were a biblical model of Satan and his hordes who seek to keep God’s people in bondage, we see that baptism is the one place where they cannot follow us and will result in their destruction.
When Israel entered into that baptism, they were to never see those enemies again. Many of the things that have bound us for so long will likewise be destroyed when we enter the true baptism – the crucified life.