When Cindy Jacobs emerged as a prophetic voice to the nations in the 1980s, prophets didn’t have a platform in the traditional church—but that didn’t stop the woman of God from blazing a trail. Since then, she’s delivered the prophetic word of the Lord to over 100 nations—including specific prophecies to heads of nations.
Although Jacobs still travels the world prophesying the heart of God over peoples, releasing prayers that heal the land, and equipping the saints to hear God’s voice, she is excited about what God is doing in America. She sees a prophetic church rising in the midst of a culture that seems to be growing darker by the day.
“The prophetic gift is always a trumpet call,” says Jacobs, co-founder of Generals International. “I believe we’re hearing many voices crying out against the ills of society right now. In my many years of prophesying, I have not seen that to this degree. We are on the verge of an awakening, and any time you are moving toward awakening, you have awakeners.”
These awakeners are forerunners who trumpet a call for repentance mixed with hope for God’s mercy that triumphs over judgment. They are prophetic messengers who recall nation-shaking revivals like the First and Second Great Awakening, Azusa Street, the Voice of Healing Movement and the Toronto Blessing and fervently cry out, “Do it again, Lord!”
At a time when some prophets are cursing America, a new breed of prophetic people—some younger, some older—are declaring and decreeing the greatest-ever great awakening. It’s an awakening that will spill over America’s borders and touch the nations of the earth with great signs, wonders and miracles that demonstrate Jesus is alive. These prophets are equipping a generation of prophetic people who see, hear and say what the Lord is doing in their cities and regions—and have the persistence to contend to the end.
With this in mind, I reached out to a number of prophetic voices—some I have known and worked with for many years and others who are just now appearing on the scene. These men and women of God have one thing in common: They are prophesying about an awakening that brings supernatural manifestations back to the church. I’m seeing it at historic revival sites such as the Cane Ridge meeting house in Paris, Kentucky, and at churches large and small across America. Prophetic ministry plays a key role in the next great move of God.
A New Breed Rising
When the prophetic movement was restored in the 1980s, most prophets didn’t expect God’s ultimate goal was to raise up people with prophetic gifts in cities around the world. Nor did they guess that these men and women would serve as a catalyst to release the next great move of God. But that’s exactly what’s happening.
Most prophets didn’t expect it—but Bishop Bill Hamon did. Hamon, founder of Christian International Ministries, started teaching about the Saints Movement in 1997. As he describes it, the Saints Movement is a time when the saints, believers in Jesus Christ, recognize and act on the understanding that Christ has empowered and commissioned them to be the church 24/7—manifesting the kingdom of God wherever they live and work.
The Saints Movement is the fruit of the fivefold mandate to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-13). One aspect of the work of the prophetic ministry is to prepare the way for the Lord, to make His paths straight (Mark 1:3).
“We’re getting ready for a great move of God, and it’s awakening the saints,” says Hamon. “The saints have always been an army, but we’ve been a Cold War. We’ve been neutral. Every saint who is willing and obedient to walk in and press into the truth—to be a kingdom demonstrator—is being activated. Nobody will enter this next move of God (who) is not dedicated to God 100 percent. God is really taking us through the fire to purify us seven times.”
As Hamon sees it, the next great move of God will be all of the past moves of God rolled up into one. He is convinced the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that’s now being revealed in us—we’re part of this now. He sees what he calls a “great, great move of God” above and beyond anything we’ve ever known or seen that will fill the earth as the waters cover the seas and will prepare every nation for Christ’s return.
“There’s a new breed of prophetic people rising around this world as the next great move of God emerges,” Hamon says. “The Lord showed me 2008 was the launching from heaven of a third and final church reformation. The revelation that every saint has a ministry prepares the way for the seven-mountain teaching that God wants to use saints wherever they are—and they can be effective.”
What about the deluge of doom-and-gloom prophecies? He’s not buying into them. He is listening to the prophetic voices that are in agreement with God’s heart in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” He believes America has not fulfilled all of its purpose, and as Americans cry out in prayer, God will respond.
Signs and Wonders Following
Ryan LeStrange, co-founder of awakeningtv.com and a senior leader of the New Breed Revival Network, agrees. He sees God raising up a prophetic people who move in signs, wonders and miracles—and it’s waking up the church. LeStrange, who worked alongside Word of Faith general Norvel Hayes for many years, sees a clear link between the prophetic spirit and the miraculous in the next great move of God.
“Miracles should be the spirit of the kingdom, and we need to press in to carry the kingdom. We are truly transitioning into a new era, and it’s the kingdom era,” LeStrange says. “We are no longer just looking for a church expression on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights—we’re looking for a kingdom expression. When we start manifesting the kingdom, signs and wonders flow, the prophetic ministry flows.”
While many in the kingdom are hyperfocused on the judgment of God, LeStrange says the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 19:10)—and the testimony of Jesus in the New Testament is grace and redemption. To him, that means that the prophetic ministry needs to be rooted in grace and redemption. After all, even when the apostle Paul turned a young man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, the end goal was redemption.
“We’ve been bombarded and overwhelmed by gloom-and-doom prophets lately,” LeStrange says. “The Lord told me, ‘I want prophets of awakening. I want people (who) will begin to speak to the root systems.’ In Genesis 1, God spoke to the seeds and called them forth and they gave birth to food. I believe there needs to be a prophetic expression that speaks to the root of revival.”
LeStrange sees prophetic people as vital to ushering in the next great move of God and encourages prophetic people not to yield to a spirit of isolation like Elijah did after Jezebel threatened him. Prophetic people are often misunderstood and even rejected. David was alone in the wilderness. Prophets and prophetic people go through a difficult process, he says, but it’s worth it to find your ultimate destiny.
“This is the moment America needs clarity. America needs accurate, Holy Ghost-filled prophetic ministry,” says LeStrange, co-author of Revival Hubs Rising. “America does not need another opinion. America doesn’t need more opinionated prophets. America needs people who have heard from the throne room and are unbiased, sharing the Father’s heart.”
A Shift in Prophetic Ministry
The shift in prophetic ministry since Hamon and Jacobs pioneered the movement in the 1980s is clear—and timely. If ever America needed prophetic voices declaring God’s heart for a nation, it’s now.
John Eckhardt, author of Prophet Arise and apostle and overseer of Crusaders Church in Chicago, sees churches that once shunned prophetic ministry embracing prophetic people. He agrees that God is moving us toward transforming revival.
“I believe the Pentecostal and charismatic movements were foundational for what God wants to do today,” Eckhardt says. “There has been a great amount of prayer worldwide for revival and awakening, and God is answering those prayers by raising the level of the prophetic. When prophetic people speak, something great is released. Before God does anything in the earth, it has to be declared, and prophets and prophetic people are the ones who make that declaration.”
Prophetic ministry helps the church advance, which is vital at a time in our history when the world is changing so rapidly that the church seems left behind. Eckhardt puts it this way: If we don’t have prophetic people, we can’t remain “current,” and we lose our witness to the world. He’s sees a real danger of the church growing “obsolete and outmoded” in its methods and strategies. Thankfully, he also sees prophets on the cutting edge that are making intercession and declaring God’s heart for the nation in this hour—and those with an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church are grabbing the revelation and running with it.
“Prophets primarily release the next great move of God through prayer,” says Eckhardt. “They help prepare the church to receive glory and walk in power. When the church walks in the glory of God revival and awakening (are) inevitable. Prophets rejoice in awakening and help maintain it. Sometimes the church loses revivals because we allow things to pollute and corrupt (them)—whether greed, ambition or pride. Prophets help us stay the course.”
Shawn Bolz, senior pastor at Expression 58 in Los Angeles and author of Translating God: Hearing God’s Voice for Yourself and the World Around You, is expecting to see God fulfill His promises in Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17—that He would pour out His Spirit in the last days and “your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
“We’ve had nearly 750 million people come out of the Azusa Street Revival a century ago because of a group of people who believed in speaking in tongues and prophesying,” says Bolz. “I think it speaks that God wants to do something in our generation that is unique and to prepare us as a people for His return. He’s releasing the people who are really ready to hear His heart to bring the world to a place of faith. I think that’s what the prophetic does—it brings great faith to God’s big-picture purposes.”
Supernatural Faith
Chuck Pierce, founder of Glory of Zion International Ministries, is connected with thousands of “Houses of Zion” in cities all over the world. In these home churches, people are praying, prophesying and understanding how to watch with prophetic revelation. He believes the Lord is raising up prophetic people—as opposed to just prophets—to speak. This is key to the new breed of prophetic people rising since most churches do not allow for the free flow of prophetic ministry.
“I believe revelation will drive the awakening,” says Pierce, author of The Apostolic Church Arising. “In the coming year, the church will be driven from revelation from past seasons. That means we’re going to be bringing down prophetic revelation that has been seeded in other seasons in the heavens. We’re going to be establishing it in the years ahead. That will cause the administration of the church to change. The wineskin we call the church will have to become more pliable or we will miss a season like we did in the ’60s in America.”
Pierce is referring to the Jesus Movement, which he describes as a prophetic movement the church didn’t receive. He agrees with many others who are convinced the two-party political system can’t deliver America from its problems. Pierce says God gave him revelation about America in 10-year increments from 1986 to 2026—and the nation is about to change drastically. He expects America to look more like China.
“I see that the body of Christ has to become very supernatural to move forward,” Pierce says. “Starting in 2016 through 2026, America changes greatly. God showed me 21 states in alignment with Him in America. He showed me two states hanging in the balance for the future. In other words, God’s going to deal with America state by state by state. Entire states will become godless, and others are going to become filled with glory. That will create a schism in the next 10 years in America. There’s going to be a lot of glory and a lot of darkness, and the two are going to be in conflict.”
Despite this revelation, Pierce lives by this prophetic truth: Even when God releases a word of judgment, He’s releasing it for revelation. Put another way, when truth is spoken without restoration, something is wrong. Pierce likes to remind prophetic people that we don’t live in the Old Covenant, when prophets spoke truth without restoration. Pierce may release prophetic words about floods and fires coming within a certain time frame—and the floods and fires come. But he also offers the hope of how God will restore through the floods and the fires.
“I know our nation is in a hard place, but faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of the Lord,” Pierce says. “I have a problem with prophetic words that leave no room for mercy or hope. That’s not how God works.”
Shaking and Awakening
Despite all the talk of awakening, some prophets are holding to words of judgment—and even cursing America with foretelling of tsunamis that put Florida under water, a massive asteroid that hits Puerto Rico, “new Madrid” earthquakes that split America down the middle and other fearful prophecies. So which is it? Judgment or revival? Shaking or awakening? In 2007, God showed me a great awakening would come, but not without things growing darker first. He’s showing other prophetic voices the same thing.
Hubie Synn, author of The Tales of a Wandering Prophet, says prophetic gifts are coming to the forefront because there are so many unknowns in today’s world, and people are looking for answers from the Lord. Discerning Christians know that a great awakening is the only answer for our nation.
“I expect a great awakening to occur when things start to deteriorate because people turn to God in times of famine rather than times of prosperity,” Synn says. “When 9/11 happened, people rushed to church who hadn’t been there in decades, but it didn’t last. But it shows that in times of distress, people turn to God. As things begin to change, then there will be a great awakening.”
Darrel deVille, co-founder of Shekinah Today Ministries and co-author of God’s Answer for America, says we are entering a time when “everything is going to be shifting and changing. The days ahead are going to be days of wonder and days of dread—days of great shaking and yet days of great awakening.”
I agree with Jacobs, who strongly cautions prophetic believers that we need to be careful how we give a prophetic word so we don’t release fear into body of Christ and cause people to panic. She reminds Christians that it’s the kindness of God that leads us to repentance, and she prays that “in judgment, we remember mercy.”
Although America certainly deserves judgment, Jacobs says God is a merciful God and gives us a window of time to repent.
She’s concerned that many people prophesy without thought of how their prophecies will impact people. Jesus said that in the end times, men’s hearts would fail them because of fear, but God does not prophesy unto a spirit of fear.
With the rise of people prophesying the heart of the Father, Jacobs is seeing an outpouring of miracles across the board. She says she couldn’t remember such an outpouring of healing since the charismatic movement, describing the miracles as “frequent.”
“We’re running out of time,” Jacobs says. “People should exercise their faith to pray for miracles because we’re in a season of miracles.”
A Prophetic Army Rising Up
I’m sober. My eyes are wide open. I see the conditions in America. I hear the cries of legitimate prophetic voices that are warning us of the destruction they see in the days ahead. But I believe there is evidence of a great awakening that is here and coming.
Yes, I do believe God is disciplining America. Yes, I do believe that we’re reaping what we’ve sown as a nation—the abortion, the immorality, the idolatry, the racism and more. Yes, I do believe that things are going to get worse before they get better. But I absolutely, positively refuse to buy into the notion that God is not going to pour out His Spirit once again. I reject the idea that widespread transforming revival that sees a great harvest of souls is impossible in America.
Yes, I believe God does send warnings through prophets. I receive many of these warnings myself, pray over them and trumpet them with clarity, humility and weeping—but always with hope that God can change His mind if we stand in the gap and continue to walk in 2 Chronicles 7:14, even when it looks like nothing is happening.
I believe we need to lift up our voices and speak the hard truths so that we don’t end up with the blood of lost souls on our hands. But I refuse to lose hope for a Third Great Awakening. Even Isaiah, who offered plenty of prophetic words about judgment, goes down in Bible history as the prophet of hope.
Like Hamon, I see prophetic believers rising as part of the great end-time intercessory army to prepare the way of the Lord. They are decreeing and declaring revival—and making an appeal to heaven for awakening.
Like Eckhardt, I see hope rising in communities where prophetic believers are allowed to express what they sense the Lord is saying and doing because God is a God of hope even in the midst of what appears to be dark clouds on America’s horizon.
Like Jacobs, I see pastors partnering with prophets like never before and encouraging them to walk in the Ephesians 4 reality of equipping the saints for the work of the prophetic ministry. Like LeStrange, I see the fruit of prophetic ministry springing forth, with believers praying prophetically, engaging in spiritual warfare with the gift of discerning of spirits operating and making announcements of what God is saying and doing in that local body, the region and in the nation.
As prophets come alongside prophetic believers to help them judge what they are hearing and seeing, they will speak forth with more confidence, and their words will help wake the sleeping church. As mature prophets disciple prophetic believers with clear guidelines on intimacy, balance and how to release the gifts of the Spirit accurately, I see a prophetic army rising up as part of the Saints Movement that Hamon prophesied so long ago. And I see it pushing back the darkness that’s trying to overshadow the next great move of God.
Jennifer LeClaire is senior leader of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, founder of the Ignite Network, and founder of the Awakening Prayer Hubs prayer movement. Jennifer formerly served as the first-ever female editor of Charisma magazine and is a prolific author of over 50 books. You can find Jennifer online or shoot her an email at [email protected].
