The Seed of God

Part I

God’s people are the remnant seed. The Lord is getting ready to sow again the remnant of His people. Many Christians are literally in a time of death to self; the seed of God is sown with travail and weeping. One of the main delays has simply been waiting on the Lord’s timing. God has synchronization for His plans.

For years, the Lord has been working on and empowering many people in preparation for this hour. We are now at a crossroad in His blueprint and great change is on the horizon.

The process has been long and difficult but God has given us new life at different times to encourage us to continue to press in to Him. He gave us Toronto to bring joy into His people. He gave us Brownsville with an emphasis on repentance. The Lord has allowed the Church other expressions of His grace to deliver us to this point.

Now the Lord of the Harvest has arisen. Everyone is called to have a role in the harvest; the harvest of souls and the harvest of promises begins with prayer. According to Job 22:30, the Lord will even deliver the one for whom you intercede who is not innocent. He will be delivered through intercession and the cleanness of our hands.

When we pray, begin first in our own families. We are being granted a door of opportunity for reconciliation in families; both personal and church families. A grace to extract division and dis-harmony is being allowed. The fruit of this is already being made evident throughout the Church.

Pray for those who are not innocent and who do not have clean hands and have not yet embraced the Lord’s salvation and perhaps given you the worst counsel. That is what Job did.

It came about after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has…The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold (Job 42:7-8 & 10)

The righteous prayer of Job intervened for those around him despite their folly. It is time the fortune of God’s people be restored as well. The Lord turned the captivity of Job and restored double his fortune when he prayed for his friends. We are entering the season of the double-portion.

The eyes of the Lord are roving to and fro looking for a righteous agency on the earth to stand in the gap. The Lord is asking, “is there no man when I call? Is there anyone to answer? I am speaking is there anyone listening? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Don’t you know who I am?”

There will be a remnant of people on the earth who hear and respond to this call. According to Isaiah 50:2 the Lord asked,

Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer? Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

The Lord can change things quickly. He is giving His people an instructed tongue that we may sustain the weary with a word from Him. He is presently awakening many saints morning by morning that He may give to them eyes to see and ears to hear instruction like His disciples. (Isaiah 50:2)

Many in the Church are coming to the end of a season of pruning and judgment as it is beginning in the world. His desire if for our light to shine brightly for many people will be heading our way in the great night. It is time for those who overcome to arise with a measure of His glory resting on them.

This will literally be the season for the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy when he wrote, Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:3) 

This is the time for the accomplishment of divine purposes and a wave of harvest. The Lord is laying claim to this generation of young people as well as the seasoned and mature. It will be both the Joshua’s and the Caleb’s. The Lord is healing the fracture He has created in a third day harvest of the wounded and persecuted. His will is being accomplished in a mighty way so that a harvest can be achieved.

The trials in the earth will increase in an awesome way while at the same time the end-time truths from the book of Revelations shall become increasingly clear. Great understanding will be delegated to the Church concerning these mysteries.

The book of Revelations is a love letter to the Lord’s bride and prepares her to be joined to Him. He is calling to those with ears to hear what He is saying concerning these times and seasons. This will not be a time to do anything presumptuously; but those who are led by the Spirit can rest in His protection and grace.

The Lord has already triumphed over the adversary and made a public spectacle of him. Now is the time for us to comprehend more fully that reality and appropriate it. The Lord is delegating His victory to us when we are joined to Him.

One of our greatest callings in this hour is to no longer be considered the Lord’s servants, but His friends. We have a Friend who is eternally positioned on His throne of victory and authority and we need a more complete vision of this to fully activate our faith. Commissioning from the throne room can be a living reality as promised through God’s word. He is saying “come up here!”

He is calling His Church to discern the times and know the seasons and to know the mind of Christ for this day. It isn’t His desire to hide it from us but reveal great understanding so that the heathen may see God’s blessing and wisdom upon His people. That is what the grooming of the last decade has been intended to accomplish. The pain of our past is the preparation for our future.

Our brokenness without the spirit of understanding bring hopelessness; but brokenness with understanding brings hopefulness. The Lord’s Spirit has been breaking us and uprooting our fallen nature and carnal plans in order to inject His own nature and strategy. His ultimate purpose is to reveal the Fatherhood of God and make us His mature sons and daughters.

Though it seems we have failed in many ways, these years have actually cultivated humility. The arm of the flesh and our own strength cannot accomplish the end-time mandate. It will not be by the might of man nor the power of our own ingenuity but by His Spirit alone. Our job is to yield and learn to co-operate with Him.

Like Jacob, the Lord has destroyed our dependence upon human strength and changed our nature. A new name is being given according to Revelations 2:17 to those who overcome in this fashion.

In every thunder and lightning storm, every earthquake, every volcano and hurricane, the Lord will have His way. These are signposts to illuminate the day in which we live and the seriousness of the hour and our great need for the Lord Jesus.

The Seed of God

Part II

The cry of God’s heart is for righteous shepherds to be raised up to feed and oversee the sheep of His pasture. The Lord longs for shepherds who will love the sheep and take their stand between them and the enemy. The Lord is presently working on bringing forth His body to be joined to the Head, the Lord Jesus. The task of the good shepherds is to prepare the people for this destiny.

One of the primary functions of God’s leadership is to feed His body. This is essential now so that they may grow up and possess the gates of the enemy. It is the promise of God that His children will inherit the earth.

God’s justice is about to be released from heaven in a mighty and tangible way. Nevertheless, that realization will be a source of blessing for the righteous and judgment upon unrighteousness. That which remains will be our inheritance.

As the word stipulates, I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. (Psalms 37:25) 

Therefore, we are now being called to a heightened place of intimacy and fellowship with God. Our covenant is built upon better promises than that of Moses. Even so, Moses was required to wear a veil upon his face because of the residue of God’s glory resting upon him. How much more should we experience His glory in the new covenant!

Our council is to cooperate with heaven and do only what we see the Father doing and say only what we hear Him saying. The Lord is opening our eyes and ears with the spirit of understanding so that our discernment is taken to greater levels to accomplish this purpose.

The righteous shepherds emerging today will be shepherds of love. It will not be in their heart to harm or abuse the sheep. Many of these leaders will have known failure and through their failure discovered love. They will have been healed of their brokenness but in the process, contrition will have become their standard.

The righteous shepherds will lead the sheep to calm waters so that the body of Christ can discover God in personal ways. Many of the shepherds will be emerging from obscure and isolated places. They will bring an anointing to calm troubled waters presently in the Church and will carry authority to speak into the hearts of people. They will address the spirits of gossip and slander that bring division to the body of Christ. They will still the troubled waters.

This group will respond to, “deep calling unto deep.” We are being prepared to travel in a way not yet known to the Church. Our call is to be prepared to carry mantles of power that will be unique to the harvest generation. These things will be called forth by the spirit of prophecy. According to Isaiah 48:6-7, You have heard [these things foretold], now you see this fulfillment. And will you not bear witness to it? I show you specified new things from this time forth, even hidden things [kept in reserve] which you have not known. They are created now [called into being by the prophetic word], and not long ago; and before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, Behold, I knew them! (Amplified version)

A fresh prophetic word is being delegated to the Church to articulate Heaven’s desire. Several years ago a drought existed in the southern portion of Texas. While there in a conference the Lord told us not to pray for rain but to declare it. The anointed prophetic word opened the heavens and an abundance of rain fell.

This is a token of what is to come; it is our agreement with heaven and the proclamation of His will. When a clear prophetic word has been imparted, it is our place to announce it through an atmosphere of His anointing. That is part of the bridal calling.

Those anointed with this spirit will begin to speak against sickness, sin and the spirit of poverty. This past season of grooming and refinement has been for this purpose. There has been a sifting of our soul and the establishment of contrition and humility in order to carry this level of power and authority. The spirit of understanding will bring illumination to this reality and mobilize God’s people for this great task.

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

September 16, 2004 is a date that will live in the minds of Baldwin County residents for some time to come. That is the day hurricane Ivan came ashore directly over our county.

Our home is in Orange Beach which is a “sister” city to Gulf Shores. Both are situated along the beach road bordering the Gulf of Mexico.

It has now been 18 months and this region is still in a major recovery mode. Following the hurricane, an article appeared in the Washington Post that is both informative and prophetic. I’m not certain if the writer realized the significance of his article but many of us in this area recognize the spiritual application.

We are living in a season of extreme change and transformation. What our county is experiencing illustrates a spiritual reality. He concludes his article with a quote from the Song of Solomon with direct application to the spiritual destiny of this area. I thought you might enjoy this well-written article by Michael Grunwald and Manuel Roig-Franzia

From the Washington Post

GULF SHORES, Ala., Sept. 17 — The Tilt-a-Whirl was tilted, whirled and crushed into a hunk of tangled metal. The Ferris wheel was flattened, the kiddie rides were crumbled, and the Simple Simon arcade game was catapulted two blocks away. The entire Gulf Shores Amusement Park was a shambles Friday, littered with seats shaped like spaceships, key chains shaped like dolphins and other carnival detritus.

The park once was one of the most familiar landmarks in Gulf Shores, a tourist resort on the 32-mile strip of sugar-white barrier beaches known as Pleasure Island. Now it is one of the most vivid symbols of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ivan, a killjoy of a storm that bulldozed seaside grills, motel swimming pools, kitschy souvenir shops, rickety wooden boardwalks and other mainstays of the nation’s beach-vacation culture. It tossed the beach itself all the way across West Beach Boulevard, dumping sand into restaurants, shops and parking lots.

With 130-mph winds and storm surges around 15 feet, Ivan tore apart condominium balconies, ice cream stands and motels as well as a massive concrete pier. Ivan has not relented in its deadly rampage into Appalachia, but the tourism infrastructure of Pleasure Island absorbed its most powerful punch.

The “E” in Souvenir City’s marquee was impaled on the fin of the giant shark in front of its entrance, and scads of the store’s T-shirts, flip-flops, sunglasses, seashells, rubber balls and coffee mugs were scattered around its parking lot. Lulu’s, a popular restaurant owned by singer Jimmy Buffett’s sister, lost its turquoise roof, and the Original Oyster House, another local hot spot, was inundated by about five feet of water. A water park called Waterville was almost completely underwater. And at the multicolored shop next door to the Gulf Shores Amusement Park, a banner promised “ENTIRE STORE 60% OFF,” which was almost literally true after Ivan’s floodwaters ripped through the lower floor.

But the most striking image of Ivan’s assault on Gulf Shores was the dollar-a-ride amusement park itself, almost completely dismantled by ferocious gusts. The unseen guts of the attraction — gears, pipes, insulation — were flung together with toilets, mangled concession stands and a Hoop Shot free-throw arcade game in a waterlogged pile of debris. Someone apparently tried to secure one of the rides with pink gardening tape. A size 7 flip-flop, with the word “Dizzy” on the heel, dangled from a tree that stopped the two-block hurricane flight of one of the amusement park’s thrill-ride seats — a “double rider,” which required a red ticket, according to one of the few remaining signs. It is hard to imagine anyone riding it ever again.

“Oh, what a shame. That amusement park was a fixture of Gulf Shores,” said Bebe Gauntt, a manager at the local tourism bureau. “The kids just loved it. It was one of the things that gave us our small-town feel.”

That small-town feel has been changing in recent years, with luxury high-rises rapidly replacing flimsy motels and well-heeled jet-setters gradually crowding out middle-class tin-can tourists. “Twenty-five years ago, I could drive up and down the beach and go fishing. There was nothing but those big, pretty dunes,” said Sonny Hawkins, a former Baldwin County commissioner who was helping to clear debris Friday. “Now you can’t even see the beach with all the condos. It makes you want to cry.” In fact, rumors had been swirling long before Ivan that the amusement park property was about to be converted into condos as well. “Well, it was in a prime location,” Gauntt of the tourism bureau said. “It might not have lasted for long.” Change is inevitable for any community; in this case, Ivan might have accelerated it.

Still, Gauntt believes that Gulf Shores can maintain its culture as the kind of place where kids go to amusement parks and eat cotton candy, even if the amusement parks disappear. “We’ll never lose that,” she said. “That’s who we are.”

She might take comfort from a storm-soaked Bible that somehow landed in the rubble of the park, flipped open to a section from the Song of Solomon: “Many waters cannot quench love. Nor can the floods drown it.”