Revelation: The Unveiling of Jesus Christ

Excerpted from THE MASTERPIECE, A Storybook of the Book of Revelation:

The Book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ at the highest level. He, in all of His redemptive person, is the mountain peak of the book. While He and His Father are equal in all matters of the Godhead, He is the revelation of redemption for the entire universe. In the end, the Father will be all in all because Christ will deliver the kingdom to Him. There are many created beings that have a place in this book with the Son, His Father, and the Holy Spirit,—but second to the glory of our God is the glory of His saints. The four beasts are certainly glorious as His Cherubim that are always present when the Father is directing judgment and special activities on His earth. They will be called living creatures or Cherubim as the story progresses. There are other angels that participate and literally multitudes that ring the entire proceed ings with their presence, but His saints are the reason for the book.

“Christ unveiled” has often been the first description of the Book of Revelation. It is indeed “a taking off of the cover” of the glories of the Son of God, but it is more. It is the removing of the veil from Him and from His stupendous plans and prophecies of His works of redemption and judgments and the glory to follow. His total plan for His saints is almost as glorious as He is, because it is His glory that He shares with His Bride. The first chapter reveals His personal glory as the foundation to reveal all the glories of His coming revelation. Never in any one chapter of the entire Word of God has any one person been described with so many adjectives and titles.

A Name That is Above All Names
The Father has given His victorious Son a “Name above every Name” (Philippians 2:9) and this chapter of God’s masterpiece begins with a divine description. Forty-one adjectives and nouns are used to present Him to His chosen saints and His church. Every one of those descriptions was meant for His revelation to us. All the majesty that fills this book must have a divine foundation, and He is that foundation. In these titles and descriptions, He builds a superstructure of a holy house of literature in order that the words that create that house might carry us to the New Jerusalem of perfect existence and fulfillment. There is nothing about this house of words that is not divine and literal. It is all intended to be His story. Truth must flow out of Him because He is the Word of God. Chapter one is a foundational chapter, and represents the greatest display of His character, His triumph, and His glories ever revealed to humankind. It is breathtaking!

Let’s read them without comment. “… from Jesus Christ … Who is the faithful witness … the first begotten of the dead … the prince of the kings of the earth … that loved us … washed us from our sins … in His own blood … He cometh with clouds … every eye shall see Him … they also which pierced Him … all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him … I am … Alpha… Omega … the beginning… the ending … saith the Lord, … which is … which was … which is to come … the Almighty … Alpha … Omega … the first … the last … the Son of man … clothed with a garment down to the foot … girt about the paps with a golden girdle … His head and His hairs were white like wool … His eyes were as a flame of fire … His feet like unto fine brass , as if they burned in a furnace … His voice as the sound of many waters … in His right hand seven stars … out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword … His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength … the first … the last … I am He that liveth, and was dead … behold, I am alive for evermore … Amen … and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:5-18). “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (Revelation 1:19) and send them to the churches.

No such comprehensive description of Christ is found elsewhere in the Bible. He intended that we take this Book as our battle cry and fill our world with the hope of both Him and the pattern of our future. To even consider the church, filled with joy and the Holy Ghost without Christ and His plans for our future is mindless. These are the two things this great work of literary beauty is all about. The first verse sets the purpose in stone. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Revelation 1:1).

Joseph R. Chambers
jrc@pawcreek.org

Sent weekly from the ministry of the Paw Creek Church and media outreach. This article can be freely used, reprinted, made available on Internet, or used as a sermon note. We would appreciate it if you would always put the source and our web page information if placed on Internet or printed in a publication.

The message was sent by:
Paw Creek Ministries
5110 Tuckaseegee Road
Charlotte, NC 28208 USA

Be sure to visit us online at http://www.pawcreek.org

Chilling Sounds After the Rapture

A chilling mood has suddenly gripped the entire world. Even the multitudes, which know nothing of the Holy Bible or Jesus Christ, are tantalized with the feeling that they have missed a Divine event. Reporters are searching to understand what has happened. Phones are ringing off their hooks with hectic callers looking for disappeared friends or loved ones. College students, still gripped with their hangover from parties the night before, are jostled with the startling news. Grandfathers, grandmothers, parents, and some friends that were very different are missing and they have left no trace of their whereabouts.

Within a short time, the reports are coming fast and furious. Cars are simply sitting at stoplights or beside the road — still running — but containing no trace of their drivers. Some have occupants that are stunned into a stupor because their drivers or passengers have disappeared into seemingly thin air. Many cars are involved in massive wrecks but drivers are not found in those vehicles that caused the wrecks. Several planes have crashed. Their pilots did not answer the airport towers as they veered off course and finally went down in fiery crashes. Hospitals are shorthanded because of missing nurses and doctors, while the emergency rooms are stampeded with the injured and the terrified.

There is a sudden sense in the very atmosphere that any resistance to wickedness and evil is gone. Evil spirits, still invisible but giddy with freedom, are manifesting their dark moods on human faces. Persons that are already possessed with spirits have become brave in their hatred for everyone. Mobs of hoodlums have begun to break into homes and businesses. They are destroying everything in their paths. The police have lost all control because they are outnumbered and utterly helpless. They have realized that they are dealing with sub-humans that would rather kill than live.

People that know the truth of what has happened are quickly aware that the worse is yet to come. The political leaders and law enforcement agencies begin to establish a total police state. Curfews are put in place to clear all streets as police resort to shooting without warning. Total state control is the only possible means of restoring order. Grocery stores are already empty from vandals and shoplifters grabbing everything in sight and loading their cars. Clerks that resist are simply trampled by the melee. It will take days to restore order.

A newscaster finally decides to try and report the events. He begins, “This is a News Alert. Reports are coming to us by the hundreds. Thousands, maybe millions, of people are missing. It’s like they have vanished. Their clothes and shoes, actually everything on their person, were left behind. There are husbands and wives searching for their families. Young people are searching for mothers and fathers. Some teenagers and children are missing. Their parents are utterly insane with fear.

Some parents with missing teens and older juniors are reporting that they were very serious and beautifully religious. In every case it was the best of the lot that are gone. One family called to say that they rushed to find their mother and father, but they were gone. Nothing was changed in the home. Their clothes were in the chairs where they were eating a meal. Their Bible was open to Matthew 24. The verse they saw underlined said, “Two shall be in the field, one shall be taken and the other left.”

Here’s another report, “All of these people were deeply religious, they were not just religious they were kind, loving, Godly, and deeply faithful to their churches. They dressed in old-fashion and modest apparel. Every one of them had often told their families and friends about an event which they called the Rapture, where Jesus Christ would come in the mid-air and they would be caught up to meet him. Could this be true or is this a religious hoax? A Dr. Young just came in from the first church downtown. “Dr. Young, what has happened?” “Mr. Smith, this is all a bizarre story but there is an answer. I’ve been studying the new Eastern religions and making people disappear is an old trick the great pagan priests have done often. They call it astral traveling.

“Some of these people will show back up and others will be locked in paranormal suspension. Tell everybody to just settle down. There is no fear to those that are not overly religious. Be calm, you will be okay. Just thank God you were not one of these crazies.”

Listen, friends, here is another report on the world channel. This report is from the Church of Rome. The Pope has sent a message to every priest to go to the news station and warn everyone against religious hysteria. This great pope, our father of the faith, is the vicar of Jesus Christ. He has the best advice. The pope said that the teaching of Rapture was wrong and that these poor mentally deficient people were too literal in interpreting the Bible. They may be hiding. If they are missing, it will be great for our new day of evangelism. Remember, Mary, the mother of God, could magically appear and disappear. She has been appearing all over the world. If these people are gone, she is responsible. They would not listen to her messages, so she has eliminated them. Now, we can really take the world for the great lord that is about to reveal himself.

But here is another minister. Rev. David Jones, you look white as a ghost. What’s wrong? “My dear friends, I knew better. All my denomination quit preaching the Rapture, so I did. In fact, I studied and came up with an attack on the Rapture. My heart knew better. This was the real thing. Jesus has come and I’ve missed the greatest event in church prophecy. I’m telling everybody that will listen, if you will repent, you will have to be a martyr. I’m lost! I’m lost! It is because I denied the truth that I heard from a young child in my family’s home.”

Suddenly, the reporter stops and reads a note that is passed to him. He turns ashen as he reads, “My teenage son just called to say that his mother, my wife, is missing!”

He has not come, but He is coming! Listen to the angels that appeared when He ascended in the air, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts1:11).

Joseph R. Chambers
jrc@pawcreek.org

Sent weekly from the ministry of the Paw Creek Church and media outreach. This article can be freely used, reprinted, made available on Internet, or used as a sermon note. We would appreciate it if you would always put the source and our web page information if placed on Internet or printed in a publication.

The message was sent by:
Paw Creek Ministries
5110 Tuckaseegee Road
Charlotte, NC 28208 USA

Be sure to visit us online at http://www.pawcreek.org

Christians Tweet to Donate Drinking Water

The Christian Post reports that humanitarian efforts going viral this May. Hundreds of people on social networking sites and blogs joined the “5 Days in May” initiative for a new kind of mission effort. “Simply put, 5 Days in May is an opportunity to drink nothing but water for the first five days in May and then, as a celebration, give what you would have spent on other drinks to give water to people who do not have clean drinking water,” Shawn Wood, Experiences Pastor at Seacoast Church in South Carolina, told Collide magazine. He launched the initiative solely on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and ending up with hundreds of followers across the Web. Participants began the effort on May 1, and concluded yesterday. “Here it is Cinco de Mayo and I’ll be drinking water all day … But it is so worth it,” “scbubba” tweeted Tuesday.

The swine flu continues to spread, and the world is on high alert. The disease has been confirmed in Mexico, United States, Canada, Spain, Israel, New Zealand, Scotland, and health officials across the world are working to keep it from spreading further.

Swine influenza is a common respiratory disease that affects pigs. Humans can catch the swine flu, but usually only through contact with infected pigs. However, the current strain – a variation of an H1N1 virus – is a mixture of human and swine flu viruses, and is spreading from human to human. Because the virus is a new development, the human population has no immunity built up against it yet. It can therefore be very dangerous, but so far the cases that have appeared around the world have been milder than the cases in Mexico.

The symptoms of the new virus are the same as general human flu symptoms – runny nose, fever, cough, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea. The virus can be passed along by water droplets in the air after infected people cough or sneeze, and can be contracted by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching eyes, noses or mouths. The disease is not spread by eating pork products. People can be contagious for one to four days before showing any symptoms, and may remain contagious for up to a week afterwards. Children may remain contagious even longer.

A variety of countries have either confirmed cases of the swine flu or are concerned that their citizens may have been infected.

Mexico:
The swine flu made its jump to humanity in Mexico, where over 2000 cases have been reported and at least 150 people have died. A four-year-old boy living near a large pig farm in Veracruz state seems to be the first case in this 2009 outbreak. Neighbors complained about the clouds of flies drawn to the pig manure lagoons on the mega-farm, and many locals were hospitalized from a respiratory infection earlier this month. Mexico City has been hit hard by the virus, and over 770 people remained hospitalized Monday. The disease is even killing young, healthy people, which has health officials deeply concerned. Mexico authorities have closed all schools until May 6 at the earliest.

The United States:
As of Tuesday, at least 68 cases had been confirmed in the US, primarily in New York City and California. On Sunday the US government declared a public health emergency in order to free up money to control spread of the disease.

* Texas: Governor Perry requested 37,430 courses of antiviral drugs on Saturday in anticipation of an outbreak there. The state has closed 14 schools near San Antonio after three area students were confirmed to have the swine flu. Another three people in Dallas have the virus, and officials are tracking four possible cases near Corpus Christi.
* California: A Claremont school cancelled school for Tuesday after it was known a student had contracted the virus while on a trip to Mexico. As of Tuesday, 13 cases of the swine flu had been confirmed in the state, mostly in counties bordering Mexico. More cases are expected to surface as the week progresses. On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health labs in Richmond started testing for the virus. Previously, only labs in Atlanta had the necessary chemical agents. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is shipping stockpiles of antiviral medication to California so that the drugs are available to anybody who needs them.
* New York: At least 45 students at St. Francis Preparatory School in NYC have been confirmed to have the swine flu. Over 100 students at and their relatives have complained of flu-like symptoms. Those with confirmed cases of the swine flu seem to have a milder strain of the disease than what has been found in Mexico. All are recovering.

Two cases have also been confirmed in Kansas, one in Ohio and, most recently, Indiana has confirmed one instance of the illness.

To the relief of many, the cases in the US do not seem as vicious as those in Mexico. “Scientists can’t tell us right now why this is presenting so severely in Mexico City and not as severely up here,” said US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. People experiencing flu-like symptoms in a variety of other states have tested negative for the virus, but most states are taking precautions in case the swine flu pops up in their areas.

New Zealand:
Three cases of swine flu have been confirmed in New Zealand, and another eight people in the same group are believed to have the virus. Those who are ill recently returned home from a school trip to Mexico, but like in America, the cases seem relatively mild. In all 11 cases, the patients are responding to treatment and recovering at home. Forty-three more people are under observation.

Canada, Israel, Scotland, and Spain all have citizens who tested positive for the swine flu. Many countries are tightening their borders to protect their citizens. The World Health Organization raised its warning level from 3 to 4 on Monday, which means there are sustained human-to-human transmissions of the virus, and containment is no longer possible.

Fear of a pandemic has affected the markets. Oil dropped $1.41 a barrel on Monday, and the Dow Jones fell to 7,987. Investors have turned to currencies, causing the US dollar and Japanese yen to rise in value. Mexico’s peso is down, along with the New Zealand and Australian dollars, and pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks are up. The Australian company Biota, maker of the Relenza flu vaccine, leaped up 72 percent in the wake of the swine flu scare.

The swine flu is making the news because it’s a strain that can now be transmitted from human to human, but the flu is nothing new. According to the CDC, 36,000 people in the US die each year from the flu and related complications.

While the virus seems to be most deadly in Mexico, the swine flu demonstrates how easily a contagious disease can spread across the globe. In this day of speedy travel, when a flu bug can spring from Mexico to Europe, the Middle East and Asia in just a few weeks, the whole world could be infected in only a few weeks more. While future diseases might not be so kind, the swine flu seen today seems to have mushroomed out in milder forms.

Nobody wants to catch any form of influenza. There are preventative measures people can take to avoid catching this or other bugs;

– Wash hands frequently;
– Avoid touching one’s eyes, nose or mouth;
– Get plenty of restful sleep;
– Drink a lot of water and eat nutritious food;
– Avoid infected people;
– If necessary, wear a face mask;
– Get outside in the fresh air and sunshine. (Illnesses spread faster when people are in closed, confined spaces.)

CONGRESS FEARS OBAMA WILL RELEASE AID TO HAMAS: Members of Congress are worried by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s backpedaling on the issue of aid to a future Palestinian Authority (PA) government that would include Hamas. Clinton days ago told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee the US would not aid any PA government which included Hamas, unless the terrorist group renounces violence, recognizes Israel, and abides by past agreements signed by the PA. Members of Congress are concerned, however, by Clinton’s less reported testimony the next day in the Appropriations Committee. There she indicated Obama would indeed be willing to fund a unity PA-Hamas government that met US conditions – even if some Hamas ministers in that government reject them. (INN)

The Zen Episcopalian

By Mark Tooley on 4.24.09 @ 6:07AM

The modern Episcopal Church always strives to stay ahead of the latest fads. In recent years it has dealt with its first openly homosexual bishop, its first Islamic priest, and its first Druid priest. Now it might be on the verge of electing its first Buddhist bishop.





Kevin Thew Forrester, who is ordained both as an Episcopal priest and as a lay Zen Buddhist, was elected bishop by the Diocese of Northern Michigan (the Upper Peninsula) in February. He is also known as “Genpo,” or “Way of Universal Wisdom.” A majority of Episcopal bishops and diocesan standing committees now must consent to his election by July. The 2003 election of actively homosexual Gene Robinson as New Hampshire’s bishop has already fueled schism within the Episcopal Church and the global Anglican Communion. Would a Buddhist bishop add to the division, or merely be an anticlimax?





“I have been blessed to practice Zen meditation for almost a decade,” Forrester has explained. “About five years ago a Buddhist community welcomed me as an Episcopal priest in my commitment to a meditation practice — a process known by some Buddhists as ‘lay ordination.'” He further opined: “Literally thousands of Christians have been drawn to Zen Buddhism in particular because, distinct from western religions, it embodies a pragmatic philosophy and a focus on human suffering rather than a unique theology of God.”



Forrester, who is 51 and has been an Episcopal priest since 1994, insists Zen Buddhism is compatible with his faith. “It’s not a matter of holding two faiths. There’s one faith and it’s Christianity,” he told a local Michigan newspaper. “The gift is that that faith is deepened by my meditative practice and I’m eternally grateful to Zen Buddhism for teaching me that practice and receiving me as an Episcopal priest.” Forrester insists that his faith allows him to be “open to receive the truth and the beauty and goodness, and the wisdom from the other religious traditions of the world, and to be in dialogue with them.”

The diocese to which Forrester has been elected bishop has only 27 churches, has lost 30 percent of its membership, and now has fewer than 2000 souls, fewer than 700 of whom actively attend church. But consent to his election by the Episcopal Church will elevate him in the global Anglican communion, whose more than 800 bishops preside over nearly 80 million communicants. An Anglican bishop in Nigeria or Sudan may preside over many tens of thousands of members and arduously commute, sometimes by bicycle, across many hundreds of miles of dirt roads. Small, liberal, and affluent dioceses in the U.S. can afford to be more esoteric in their selection of bishops, who have fewer responsibilities.

According to a Diocese of Northern Michigan statement, Forrester was “drawn into the Christian-Zen Buddhist dialogue through centering prayer and his desire to assist persons in their own transformation in Christ.” He has practiced Zen meditation for nearly 10 years and, “with marvelous hospitality, the Buddhist community welcomed him in his commitment to meditation practice as an Episcopal priest.”



An Episcopal theologian who assisted the Northern Michigan Diocese in its election similarly explained that “Buddhism is a set of practices similar to Christian practices about meditation and awareness and compassionate living.” She insisted Zen Buddhism could be “practiced without detriment to doctrine” and there are “a number of bishops” in the Episcopal Church who “engage in and have experience of Buddhist practices of mediation.” So if his election is confirmed, Forrester apparently will not be alone among the bishops.

Forrester’s confirmation by most Episcopal bishops may be less than automatic. Even several non-conservative bishops have publicly opposed him. Bishop of Southern Ohio Thomas Breidenthal says he’s concerned not so much about the Zen Buddhism as about Forrester’s seeming denial of the Christian understanding of salvation.

“According to Thew Forrester, Jesus revealed in his own person the way that any of us can be at one with God, if only we can overcome the blindness that prevents us from recognizing our essential unity with God,” Breidenthal noted. “The problem here is that the death of Jesus as an atonement for our sins is completely absent, and purposely so. As I read Thew Forrester, nothing stands between us and God but our own ignorance of our closeness to God. When our eyes are opened, atonement (not for our sins, but understood as a realization of our essential unity with God) is achieved.”

The Southern Ohio bishop worried that Forrester’s teaching “flies in the face of what I take to be the conviction at the heart of our faith tradition, namely, that we are in bondage to sin and cannot get free without the rescue God has offered us in Jesus, who shouldered our sins on the cross.” Breidenthal observed that Forrester’s sermons, once publicly available on his home congregation’s website, have recently been removed.



Of course, most of Forrester’s sermons had already been downloaded by countless curious Anglicans. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette wrote extensively about Forrester’s theology, reporting that the proposed bishop “denies that Satan exists,” “doesn’t believe God sent his only-begotten son to die for the sins of the world,” “says that the Koran is sacred,” and altered the Apostles’ Creed, all while aspiring to become a “successor to the Apostles.” 



The Gazette quoted Forrester’s Buddhist abbot fondly remembering when the Episcopal priest “donned ceremonial garb, kneeled with his hands in a praying position, took Buddhist vows and received his new dharma name” of Genpo. 



Early this month, the Seattle Episcopal priest who professed also to be a Muslim was defrocked by her bishop. In 2005, a Pennsylvania Episcopal priest who had been outed as a Druid (he belonged to the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids) was forced to resign by his bishop. Having rejected Muslim and Druid priests, will the Episcopal Church now affirm a Buddhist bishop? We’ll know this summer.

My Thought: This is a tragic situation. The Lord help us- Len

EXPAND WHILE the DEVIL SHRINKS!
-by Andrew Strom.

There is no question that we have covered the “Doom & Gloom”
side of the present crisis pretty well. But one thing I feel we have
not discussed enough is the amazing OPPORTUNITY that God is
setting before us through this crisis. In fact, it may be that what
is happening now could be the answer to years of our most
fervent prayers.

Have you been praying for God to act and bring massive change to
the church and to our culture? Have you been praying for the return
of spiritual hunger and reality? Have you been praying for God to
open closed doors, to soften hearts, and to allow the real Truth of
the gospel to march forth in the land once again? What if this is
His answer to all of that – the only way He could bring about the
kind of shaking and hunger that is so desperately required? What
if He has spent years setting this up? What if it is the golden
opportunity of a lifetime? Are we willing? Are we ready?

There is no question that some of our main enemies are on the
run right now in the West. In fact, many of them are in rampant
disorderly retreat. The great god Mammon is a good example.
I don’t think the “deceitfulness of riches” will be doing too well in
the West for awhile, do you? And Mammon’s allies – Comfort,
Apathy, Materialism and Humanism are starting to look a little
shaky also.

There is a “window of opportunity” starting to open – where a gospel
that was once unwelcome will be welcomed again – where change
that was once thought impossible comes in like a rush. We are
living in a rare moment of history.

In times of Depression – froth, bubble and hype go the way of
the dinosaur. People start looking for reality and grounded truth.
They want to find a Rock to stand on instead of shifting sand. This
happened in the last Depression, and it will happen in this one too.

Are you one who has spent years in the wilderness, waiting for
God’s moment? Are you a David in the caves, a Joseph in the
dungeons? Couldn’t it be that this is the very moment that God
has been preparing you for, all this time?

You see, the “big boys” with their shallow gospel are in increasing
trouble through all of this. They rely on big money, big media, big
hype and big budgets to get their message out. And the budget is
looking rather sick. Could it be that God is leveling the playing field?
Are many that were “last” about to become first? Are the little guys
with their message of repentance and heart-holiness about to break
through the glass ceiling that has kept them down for so long?
Has God actually been planning this for ages?

Personally, I feel like the Lord has been speaking to me lately that
as the devil pulls back, I need to expand. There are things that
I have put off for years that I need to put into action.

One of these is the “Online Preacher’s School” where we send
people around the world to preach in far-flung places – after training
them first. I get all kinds of invitations from places like Pakistan,
India and Africa that I cannot possibly fulfill. It is time that we
started doing “basic training and sending” – because the need out
there is enormous. And we can do a lot of it online. (-This should
be up and running in a matter of weeks). To me, God’s message
is very clear: We are to expand while the devil shrinks.

Another area that He has been speaking to me about is MUSIC
and VIDEO – things that I put aside (to a large degree) years ago.
God laid it on my heart before we came to Wales that we need
to record a music album here – something we have not done for
8 years. (We had better get on with it, as we only have a Visa to
stay in Wales for six months!) There are other things also. And
what about you, my friends? Has God begun whispering similar
things? Such a crisis comes along only once in a lifetime. Could
this be the very hour of Mobilization that He has been preparing
you for all these years?

I’d be interested in your comments.

Please send responses to- prophetic@revivalschool.com

God bless you all.

Andrew Strom.

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A “PROPHETIC WORD” for 2009!
-by S & M. Hill (Jan 4).

“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge” I Cor 14:29

The flood of prophecies for 2009 have begun to come in. They sound
remarkably similar to most I have been hearing for the past 15 years!
“This is the year of revival! This is the year of His power. This is the
year of increase! This is the year of harvest.” You mean it really,
really, really is going to happen this time?

I cringe to remember giving “prophetic” words like that! We mistook
emotional fervor and hype for anointing. There was no judgement!
There was no accountability. The only point was the “power” of
the prophetic utterance in that moment. It was paid performance
art pure and simple! Forgive us Lord!

There is a major problem with all of the prophecies about revival to
come. It is a religious problem which Jesus encountered. Religion
will get all excited about the Messiah to come but try to kill Him
when He is standing in their midst (Luke 4:16- 30). Why? The
Messiah in the future does not demand faith and obedience now!

The revival to come does not demand obedience now. We can feel
all warm and fuzzy about the wonderful word and clap at what God
will do while conveniently forgetting that where ever people are
simply obeying Jesus they are seeing the Kingdom multiply now.

The future can be an escape from present responsibility!

Prophecies about revival to come lessen personal responsibility
even further by emphasizing what God WILL do rather than what
God has already done! If Jesus has dealt with all sin on the cross
and if Jesus has all authority, then we are completely, totally and
absolutely without excuse!

The problem is not with God! His work is finished! The problem is
with the laborers! Jesus commanded us to pray for the laborers!
He did not ask us to pray for the harvest. He did not even ask us
to pray against the demons! As a matter of record in Luke 10:18,
Jesus saw “Satan fall like lightning from heaven” AFTER the
disciples went out to befriend, demonstrate and declare the
Kingdom. The gospel of the Kingdom only has power as it is
demonstrated and declared outside the four walls of our comfort
zones! Much of the fervor of the spiritual warfare movement is
simply the avoidance of doing the now work in the fields.

In John 4, the disciples did not want to go through Samaria but
Jesus did. He talked to a woman and had a revival in that town.
Jesus pointed out the difference between Himself and the disciples.
It was a difference of vision!

“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the
harvest?’ Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the
fields, for they are already white for harvest”, John 4:35.

The disciples saw bare, hard ground. Jesus saw white fields.
Same view, different eyes, different vision! The problem was not
with the harvest but with the laborers!

Harvest fields tend to be poor and difficult places. Harvesting is
hard work where ever the field! You have to get dirty and involved.
Sinners do not give honorariums. Discipleship is about one on one
stuff! Jesus sent away the crowds in order to invest himself in the
twelve. Revival is not about platforms and performances. It is
about relationships, sacrifice and obedience.

I have a prophetic word for 2009. It is a prophetic word which as
been accurate for about 2,000 years and which always will be
accurate! It comes from Paul,

“Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of
salvation.” II Corinthians 6:2b

And you are right! This is the same as the “Prophetic Word for 2008”!

That was the most forwarded article of 2008 and I think it deserves a resend.

Be challenged afresh!

-SOURCE: http://www.harvest-now.org/

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MODERATOR:
Andrew Strom,
PO Box 21-904,
Henderson,
West Auckland 0650,
New Zealand.

A “DOUBLE Dip” DEPRESSION
-by Andrew Strom.

Lately there have been a lot of noises from economists and
politicians that the worst is over – and the economy is now
stabilizing and beginning to improve. The stockmarket has even
managed to claw its way back over 8000 points. None of this is
surprising given that the Government has been pouring hundreds
of billions of dollars into the financial system. But it is all an
illusion. There will be no true recovery – not for years. I continue
to stand by my statements that we are in the beginning stages
of a massive, long-lasting Depression. And nothing will stop it.

The good news is that this is going to perform wonders on our
culture. People’s values and attitudes toward spiritual things are
going to change. The church will be massively shaken and purged.
All of this is a huge opportunity for God to get His way – to bring
things back to what they are meant to be. But it is going to hurt.

The phrase “A Double-Dip Depression” has been on my heart for
many months, so it is no surprise to see a temporary respite. But
we need to be aware that it is simply an illusion – so we don’t get
lulled back to sleep and cease to prepare for what lies ahead.

As most of you know, from 2001 onwards I have been issuing
prophetic warnings about this very time we are in. And from 2006
I became more and more specific that it was the HOUSING CRISIS
that was about to turn into a Great Depression. Below is a timeline
of these warnings – showing us what we should expect directly ahead:

SEPT 11, 2001:  “The Horns of American financial power have
fallen, have fallen…”

JUNE 2003: “Revival is going to come in the midst of judgments
the like of which you’ve never seen, and God is going to touch
your economy…” (-‘Thundering in Nashville’).

14 DEC 2006: “Let me make some predictions at this point, so
I can be clear about what this country is facing:
(1) Firstly, I believe it is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid Judgment…
(2) Expect a great economic crash – and expect it SOON. Without
this, how will this nation get its eyes off its great god, Money?
(3) Expect further CALAMITY. This nation is “running red lights”
one after the other. -That is what 9-11 and Katrina were. Things
are going to get much much worse before this is over. Expect
something to hit the West Coast – and expect it to be BAD.”

MARCH 14, 2007:  “Eight months ago we began to publish warnings
about the bursting of this Housing bubble, and the likely impact it
would have… I began to refer to this coming financial judgment in
my sermons, saying that in many ways it would be God’s MERCY –
to shock us out of our complacency and apathy – and to cause us
to desperately seek His face…
And now here we are. March 2007. The sub-prime mortgage market
is in free-fall. The CDO market is infected. The Yen carry-trade is
unwinding. Housing is still sinking with no bottom in sight, and the
stockmarket has suddenly become very volatile. It is a slow-motion
train-wreck, and this is only the beginning. (-Keep your eye on the
DERIVATIVES and the HEDGE FUNDS. -These are the “insurers”
of the markets, and systemic danger lurks in their giant shadows).”

NOV 8, 2007:  “I continue to stand by my statement of many
months ago that within 3 years this nation will be in a terrible
financial depression – possibly the worst that it has ever seen.
Right now, things are right on track to see this fulfilled.”

NOV 2007, Wisconsin USA:  “This is the last good Christmas
America will have for years….
“Here’s my scenario. You can test me. You can remember what
I’m saying right now…. See if it plays out how I say. In six months
time I expect Recession in the United States. In 12 months time
I expect the beginning of a Depression…” (-AUDIO – ‘Survive the
Coming Depression – Nov 07’ on our website).

10 MONTHS LATER – Sept/Oct 2008 – The two largest Mortgage
giants in the world (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) fail, the largest
Insurance Company and the largest thrift bank in the USA both
collapse, Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt (almost taking the entire
financial system with it), Money Markets reel, the Investment
banking industry crumbles, and the stock market suffers its
worst-ever one-day loss, plunging 777 points in a single day.

24 SEPT 2008: “The DEPRESSION HAS BEGUN”.

BACK-TRACK – 31 JAN 2008:  “My strong belief is that, particularly
in America, this crisis is going to be WORSE than the GREAT
DEPRESSION. And it is going to last for YEARS. Other developed
nations, such as England, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Germany and
even Australasia, are going to be very hard-hit also. China, India
and much of Asia will be pounded at first, but I believe will recover
faster…. I believe that Christians in America need to face the fact
that they are about to live through one of the WORST 5 – 7 year
periods that this country has ever seen by far. And they need to
be preparing NOW.”

OCT 2008:  “I am convinced this ‘breaking’ is not merely financial
in nature. It is also aimed at the church, the media and the culture…
We are about to see another “Great Reformation” of the church. In
fact, it has already begun.” (-From Andrew’s book, ‘SURVIVE the
DEPRESSION’, Oct 2008).

OCT 2008:  “When I was down in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina
there was one Spirit-filled Fellowship that was “thriving” in the midst
of the chaos. They had filled their sanctuary with food, clothes, and
emergency supplies of all kinds – and they were ministering to
hundreds… I cannot tell you how important this is, if we want to
“thrive” – not just ‘survive’ – through this current crisis. This is one
of the absolute keys… So will you be a “light shining in the
darkness” during this present crisis, my friends?” (-From Andrew’s
book, ‘SURVIVE the DEPRESSION’, Oct 2008).

20 DEC 2008: “The WORST of the slump is set to last for… 7 years.”

To read the full predictions and hear the audio’s, please see our
website – http://www.revivalschool.com

Please forward this email to others. It is vital that they continue to prepare.

Thankyou and God bless you all.

Andrew Strom.

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To send material for consideration for publication, send to-
prophetic@revivalschool.com

MODERATOR:
Andrew Strom,
PO Box 21-904,
Henderson,
West Auckland 0650,
New Zealand.