Prophetic Fire

Editor’s Note: The following message first appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Unchained!, a quarterly magazine published by Pure Life Ministries (purelifeministries.org). It is still relevant for us today and offers encouragement about the times we are living in. The message is reprinted here with the permission of both the author and the publisher.

God promised to shake everything that can be shaken, and He is not slack about keeping His promises. I don’t ever recall a time such as today, when almost everything is being shaken.

We are seeing unprecedented natural catastrophes taking place throughout the earth. It was just a few years ago that a tsunami claimed more than 200,000 lives. And in the spring of 2008, within a week’s time, we saw two more disasters in the Far East kill at least another 120,000 people. There is no doubt in my own mind that such events are the promised “birth pangs” Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24.

The United States has not been exempt from this alarming trend. For example, in the first half of 2008 we had more deaths by tornadoes than we have had in any given year for more than two decades. The U.S. economy is fast heading into a recession—maybe even a depression. The almighty dollar, once the benchmark of monetary value throughout the world, has now been surpassed by the euro. As the United States continues to weaken, Muslim terrorists and rogue nations grow stronger.

Editor’s Note: Today’s Prophetic Insight is a word that was given to Cindy deVille on the morning of the National Day of Prayer, May 7, 2009, and was published on May 12. You can listen to an audio clip of it at shekinahtoday.org. The word is preceded by an introduction from the author.

It was great to see many Christians throughout the land gathering to pray for America on Thursday, May 7, during our National Day of Prayer. As my husband, Darrel, and I began to pray, God began to speak and share His heart with us. As God’s people we want to see a great awakening and reformation, but do we realize what we are asking for? Do we understand that this kind of thing does not come without a price, without sacrifice?

When we study the Great Awakenings of old, we see that they were birthed only through much prayer and travail. A little dab will not do us. I believe we are standing on the threshold of the greatest outpouring we have ever seen, an outpouring of the glory of God in the church and then in the earth. This is not a small thing but a great, big thing that God is going to bring forth by His Spirit, and it will require great prayers ascending to the throne of God.

Editor’s Note: The following word was released by prophetic minister James Goll earlier this year. For a free MP3 download, go to encountersnetwork.com and click on “Prophetic Insights.”

I trust the few thoughts I share below will encourage your heart and stir up your faith. We see in part and prophesy in part—and this is a part of what I am seeing and hearing in the Spirit for 2009 and beyond. I trust it will mesh with the part the Lord is showing you!

It is the year of the woman. Women in ministry and leadership will be released globally across the body of Christ. The two righteous seeds of Michal Ann Goll and Jill Austin have been sown into the ground, and there will be a harvest of women in both spiritual and secular leadership arising to be champions of the poor, justice, prayer and creativity and flowing freely as the prophetic anointing increases.

It is a time when the nine gifts and the nine fruits of the Spirit will come together. Character to carry the gifts will be emphasized, and accountability that empowers will help create new wineskins for the new wine.

Editor’s Note: Today’s Prophetic Insight is the text from a video blog recently posted on Apostle Dutch Sheets’ Web site (dutchsheets.org), with minor modifications. It is a serious call to prayer regarding the culture war in America that we believe every Christian needs to read and respond to.

President Obama has said twice now—in his inaugural address and on a recent trip to Europe—that America is no longer a Christian nation. In fact, he implied in his inaugural address that we never have been a Christian nation, that it was many faiths that shaped and defined who we are as America.

Editor’s Note: The following prophetic word was issued by Chuck Pierce on April 9, 2009. It has been abbreviated for the purposes of this e-newsletter. The complete text of the word, originally titled “Prophetic Word Released for a Time Such as This,” is available at http://www.glory-of-zion.org/ under “Current Overcoming Revelation & Prophetic Prayer Focuses.”

The Lord says, “Let the sound of reformation come into you. Feel the brooding of My Spirit over you. … Fully submit your spirit to gain insight into My plan of reformation.

To believers who are the least bit observant, it is clear that there’s a shaking going on within the world’s systems, the church’s systems and individual believers. The shaking we are experiencing today is a move of God, who wants to live and move and have His being through His people. He wants to change the world through us!

We are being prepared for some very difficult times. Times of shaking, such as those we’re experiencing now, show us just how much we are in God’s hands and not the other way around.

Many of you have heard my family’s testimony of overcoming barrenness. The Lord sovereignly healed my wife, Pam, in 1984. She immediately became pregnant, and pregnant again. However, we knew that the faith promise we had received in 1980 of having twins had never been fulfilled by the Lord.

There have been many discussions and actions this year concerning bailouts for companies and corporate America and for the banking industries. But we as the people of God must not forget that God is going to bail out His people and save them in the day of calamity.

In light of the recent economic crises and major political, social and moral changes in our nation, people everywhere are asking, “What can I still count on in these turbulent times?”

I have an answer that is firmly grounded in the Scriptures: “You can count on God’s unfailing faithfulness.” Here are three ways God is faithful, no matter what the circumstances are that are swirling around you:

I believe that one of the characteristics that will mark a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit is a revival of the fear of the Lord. Having a genuine fear of the Lord is vital if you desire to live a successful and vibrant Christian life. It doesn’t rob you of your joy. In fact, it causes you to live your life to its fullest potential in God and releases supernatural joy, peace and prosperity! Living a life filled with a healthy and holy fear of God has many benefits.

I want to hit the panic button. I really do, although I suppose my concern is the fruit of spending too much time online with CNN and MSNBC. Like everyone else right now, I must fight off the tsunami wave of fear every day. God intended prophetic ministry for times like these. So here’s my own prophetic scorecard, together with a word of exhortation for believers who feel themselves drowning in a sea of bad news.

Over the last year or more I believe I heard the Lord say five clear things, each of which has developed in just the way the Lord told me it would.

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37, NKJV).

Once there was a farmer whose old mule accidentally fell into the farmer’s dry well. The farmer heard the mule braying (or whatever mules do when they fall into dry wells). After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule but decided that neither the mule nor the dry well was worth saving.

As we continue to press through in 2009, I encourage you to listen to what the Lord is saying to you individually and to the body corporately. This is a year to “Arise and Shine to Align for Reformation.” God began a reforming process in the church in 2008, and He continues to mold and shape us into the vessel that He needs us to be to see His kingdom manifest in the earth.

At any given moment there exists, at the doorway to the future, two possible realities. The first realm is a darkened world full of the consequences of sin. Its ongoing rebellion toward God, coupled with the unredeemed events of the past, makes this reality a living extension of hell. Here, conflicts escalate into wars and become more devastating; in this infected world, morality degrades into depravity. Yes, and among those who would seek to make a difference, the grip of fear immobilizes their actions. It is of this demonically manipulated world that the Scripture tells us to walk circumspectly for “the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16, NKJV).