The Prophetic Army

A church service. The congregation is made up entirely of young men- built like wrestlers, clean cut and focussed. They are not sitting just anywhere- they are sitting in regiments, and they are all wearning a red uniform, bearing the crest of the prophets.

The Lord is preparing us for something big in the next six weeks. Everything is coming in to place. People are hearing the Lord speaking prophetically, Pastor Steve is preaching on the release of the spiritual gifts, and Robert Mearns is visiting from America for six weeks.

When we were praying today, the Lord reminded me of a prophecy made concerning the church some time ago. I think that it was Robert who shared the prophecy, and it basically stated that the prophetic spirit, which had been so prevalent in the church, would depart from Kingsway for a number of years, but the Lord would restore it in due time. The time is fulfilled, and if I'm right about Robert being the prophet in question, then the Lord has brought him back here to see the fulfilment of the prophecy.

So we pray these things through, and then head up to the bakery to get some doughnuts. Charlene is there and we ask her about the prophecy. She said that she didn't know who had made the prophecy, but then told us that she had been hanging out with Robert last night. She was talking to Iris, and Robert was sitting there, as if in a trance. Suddenly, out of the blue, he just said, 'I think the Lord has brought me here for a reason this time. I'm not just here to visit my family. The Lord has a plan.'

Get ready. The Lord didn't waste any time in confirming this word.

The prophet's sword

I see the prophet, wielding a sword. A disc is in front of him with the prophet's crest on it. He cuts the disc into two parts with the sword.

Pretty simple, but it speaks three things.

1) The prophetic gift comes with discernment, and we must use this discernment to decide what is from God and what is from man. As I read in a good article recently, the best way to get discernment is to spend time with God, getting to know his spirit.

2) The Lord is going to refine the prophetic gift in his prophets to make their words more powerful, as they become more concentrated with his words, and not man's.

3) The Lord is going to open his prophetic gift. The veil which has been keeping the power of his prophetic revelation largely untapped in mainstream christianity is being rent, just the like the veil in the temple. He is going to open up his gift to make it accessible to 'normal' christians. He's not going to dumb it down, nor is he going to devalue it, but he is going to destroy the self pride of his prophets, in order that his power might be undiluted in their prophecy. Remember that the prophet's crest bore my image? Well, no longer.

As the vision ended, the pieces of the disc came back together. They no longer bore my image, but that of Jesus. As God destroys the pride of his prophets, the prophetic gift will release more of his power, as people see Jesus in the prophets.

PS. It's probably not the time or the place, but my dad is the most awesome man in history, and I love him like you wouldn't believe. And I'm talking about Kenneth D. Brown, and not being overly spiritual and talking about God.

Alright?

In hindsight, that was pretty timely, this the start of the death to pride for me...

The prophet's belt

I see a man standing on a battle field. The armour which he is wearing is engraved with the same pattern from the hynotism disc and the prism, which I am now taking as a sign of the prophetic gift. So this guy is a prophet, strongly annointed in prophecy.

In turn I see all the pieces of is armour. His helmet, his breasplate, even his shoes engraved with this same prophetic crest.

Finally though I see his belt, it is engraved with the crest, but it is hanging loose- it hasn't been done up properly.

Turn with me now to 1 Kings 18, verse 46. Elijah, the prophet, is about to put into action the word which the Lord has spoken to him. He tightens his belt, tucks his robe in, and sets off running. The belt speaks of action.

We are not called to simply sit around and talk about what the Lord is going to do, or even what he is doing. Why does God speak to his people? To encourage them, to guide them, and to inspire them to action. He doesn't just speak so we can feel good about ourselves. The reason he gives us these visions is so we can take hold of them, live them out, make them real.

I see the face of the prophet- he doesn't even have a mouth. We don't have to speak to live prophetic lives. God has to speak, and we have to live it out.

As I once commented to a woman of God who new all about this,

"The real prophets are those who hear from God and do something about it. Not those who sit around talking about what the Lord is saying all the time."

So again, too many words...

Lord have mercy.

The hypnotism disc (UPDATED)

I see an unusually patterned disc floating on the surface of a pond. It is moving and rotating as the water drives it. Wherever the water goes the disc moves. I look and see the same patterns on the disc as I saw in the prism yesterday. It's almost like an ancient cave painting of myself. with my right fore-finger outstretched as if pointing to something. It also has ornate carvings in it, with different arrows etched around the edge. As I stare at this thing rotating it has a hypnotic effect on me. I find myself experiencing a stange feeling of freedom in my mind. It was wierd.

The Lord speaks: the prophetic gift is like this disc. It is controlled by the word of God- wherever the water moves it moves. It provides direction. But it also is incredibly important in the tearing down of strongholds in our minds. Bad attitudes which we allow to control us become strongholds and then we have to declare war on them to tear them down. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10 that 'the weapons of our warfare are... for pulling down strongholds... bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.'

This prophetic gift is one of our weapons. As I advised a mighty prophetess recently, we must learn to wield this sword effectively, in order to tear down the strongholds in our minds. There are many false teachings and doctrines keeping people in bondage to the world and to their flesh. In a sense people have been hypnotised by ear tickling teachings, we are un-hypnotising them. The prophetic gift, the word of God, and life giving teaching are designed in God to break the power of these false teachings in order to bring truth, and hence bring freedom (John 8:32).

EDIT.

I know this was long enough already but the Lord showed me even more.

I see the disc again, but this time I see beneath it, despite what I first thought, it is not in fact floating on the suface, but controlled by a shaft which runs down to the bottom of the pond. It is in fact the disc which is stirring the water and not the other way round. I see beneath the bed of the pond and the shaft is being controlled by complex machinery, not comprehendable to man. I pull out again, and see the disc rotating and hypnotising me again, and then it pans back further- the disc is in fact the pupil of an eye, which is the pond. It's not just any eye, it's the eye of God! I see him standing there in glory, his eyes flaming like fire- shining brightly as they continue to hypnotise me.

The prophetic spirit is controlled not by the water as I first thought. It is controlled by the very mind of God (the strange machinery), whose thoughts are higher than ours, through the water. So God is controlling us in his eternal intelligence through His word. But he is using us to control the word of God (stirring the water). The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets- God speaks his word but we control the distribution of the word. Like a warrior wielding a sword, and not a sword wielding a warrior! We need to learn how to control that word- but how do we do that? Well we submit to the thoughts of God- even when they seem crazy and unfathomable, we submit. We are controlled by his mind.

This is when we start seeing the true fruit of prophecy, the fulfillment of the prophecies. We are no longer just indiscriminately spouting the word of God- but speaking a perfect word, at a perfect time, to a perfect people.

The prism

In prayer this morning, the Lord called to remembrance a vision I received a few years ago.

I see Dunmurry from above, as if hovering in a helicopter. I see a beam of light coming from the sky into the roof of the church, it gets thinner and thinner, and yet grows more focussed and intense. Just when I thought it could not get anymore intense, I see the church burst into flames and the whole surrounding area consumed with the fire. The fire continues to spread outwards, to the ends of the earth...?

This speaks of the intensity and focus of our spirituality. As we become more intense in our search and more focussed in our prayers the Lord will meet us with revival and impact our area. It's not about amount of time, or the quantity of our meetings, but the quality, the fruitfulness if you will, of our spirituality.

Today I saw that same vision, and then saw it from the inside of the church. There were people walking around the main sanctuary praying. There were individual beams of light coming from a single point in the ceiling- the point where the beam from heaven hit the roof- and hitting their hearts. I looked up to the ceiling and saw a prism, deflecting the rays into the hearts of the people. I looked closer at the prism and saw myself (shrunk down of course) inside it, catching the rays and throwing them out to the people. Then I see this same prism with me inside it mounted on a breastplate. I look at the warrior and it's me! The prism is still receiving a ray from heaven, but this time it is throwing it out at enemies on the battle field. They are defeated by the light, and warrior me (not prism me) stands and rejoices in the victory.

So I'll say straight up that the prism me doesn't speak of me, or my gifting, necessarily. It speaks of the prophetic spirit. It is that which distributes the light of God into peoples lives. It is that which enlightens the church, and brings revelation of the Kingdom of God. In a way, the prophetic spirit is just like that prism- it takes the light of God and makes it real to people. It's no longer just a beam of light from heaven, but it's a personal beam of light, made real through prophecy. It's the same on the battle field, it takes a revelation of God's victory and makes it real in every battle, and for every struggle and temptation we face.

There is reason God is unleashing prophecy in our lives. And I mean ours, not mine. You know who you are....

1 Corinthians 14:32.The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

The sea cave

First weekend vision... ever! No just kidding. As conformation for this morning's sermon, the Lord gave me this, which I shared in church.

I see a sea cave. There is a glowing orb under the water. As the fire burns more intensely, the cave is filled with light. When the light hits the walls, they spontaneously burst forth with plants and fruit and leaves and LIFE. My visions are all pretty sweet, but I'm telling you that this was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

God's revelation is the source of our fruitfulness- we cannot hope to make profit or bear fruit without prophetic guidance.

Too many words already. Peace out.

The shallows

I saw something very disturbing today, and it took me ages to work out what God was trying to tell me.

As I emerge from the reeds growing in the shallows, I see something floating in the water up ahead. It's a dead body- naked and bloated.

At first I thought that I must have been seeing it wrong- surely being in the clear water of God's word and his Love wouldn't drown you. But then I heard a voice clearly saying "He drowned".

So then I thought that it must mean that too much of the word of God isn't actually profitable. Surely not?

Well this is the first revelation- if you keeping adding water and never learn how to swim, you will eventually drown. Or if you keep getting deeper and deeper and then stop swimming then you will drown as well. What does this mean? Well, we have to learn how the word is actually lived out in our lives before we can delve into the deeper waters. Also if we seek after this prophetic revelation and then give up after some prophetic endeavour we will die. We need the prophetic revelation to live, and once we become dependent on it there's no turning back. That's a good thing, but not to be taken lightly.

But then tonight at fire it struck me that there was more to this vision. I found worship quite hard but still broke through in the end. Then I found the preaching uninteresting, and struggled to feel annointing in the prayer as well. But then the Lord gave me a friendly cuff round the ear, told me to shut up and further explained the vision to me. Those of you who know me at all well might find this amusing...

The guy drowned in the water, that means he didn't get any air. What does the air represent? It's the presence of God. Even though we can swim and swim forever in the waters of God's word, we need to breathe the air of his presence. How do we enter his presence- praise. Just adoring the Lord- hanging out with the Spirit for a while. I find this amazing I always have been able to drop everything in my life- even christian things- for praise. I have always been able to overcome the stresses of a packed schedule and the rigors of the christian life which I live by calling to remembrance every so often the basis of my faith- My daddy loves me, and he wants to hang out with me from time to time.

Yes, God wants to speak to us in new and exciting ways. Yes, it is his desire to release prophetic vision in our lives. But don't ever lose the simple desire for the arms of the father, the love of the presence of God. After all, isn't that our first love?

The valley

This may sound familiar.

I see myself walking on the dirty water. As I walk long grass grows out through the water. As it does so, the water is purified, and becomes clear.

The life (grass) of God is found in righteousness, and as we walk in this spirit of life in christ, we purify the human love (dirty water) around us. I believe that as we walk in power of God's kingdom, we will have an effect on those around us, and will bring about God's love in their lives.

They'll know we are Christians by our love.

More of the same I guess.

EDIT
After further prayer and further revelation, I bring you dirty water... stikes back

I see a cage in the dirty water. I am looking up as if in the water looking to the surface. There is a man struggling in the cage; he is also chained hand and foot. I see the cage rising up out of the dirty water and into the clear water above. When it gets there the metal cage begins dissolving and the chains are corroded away as well. But the water cleans the man and soothes the wounds on his hands where the chains had cut into his flesh.

I am also upgrading the water from symbolising just Godly love, to symbolising Godly life as well. I think that's what God was trying to tell me with this mornings vision (above)

So there are certain things holding us in the level of human love, and fleshly living. And these are doctrines, forms, structures, false teachings, whatever it may be. As long as we live in the realm of spiritual death, in the realm of human love, these things will never be broken, and we will never dwell in spiritual life and Godly love. How do we break the chains? God's spirit, his word, his love- his water. We don't break the chains, break the cage, and then come into his love, we simply allow his love to draw us upward, and then allow his spirit to dissolve the cage, and release us. The word will destroy that which binds us, but also has the power to heal our wounds.

In terms of witness, this is very important. We are not called to destroy the doctrines and structures which bind people in order to bring them to spiritual life. We are to bring them to spiritual life and allow the spirit to break all the chains and cages which the world has formed to keep us from his life.

These restrictions also keep us from his word- his prophetic revelation. When we break the false teachings and false attitudes which keep us from hearing and following the guidance of the spirit, we will begin to walk in prophetic revelation.

GOD DOES NOT MERELY PUT SIGNPOSTS ON THE ROADS OF OUR LIVES. HE DOESN'T EVEN RING US UP EVERY SO OFTEN AND GIVE US A HINT AT THE ROUTE. THIS IS A LIE WHICH MUST BE BROKEN. OUR SHEPHERD LEADS US EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

"My sheep hear my voice." Without vision the people perish.

Listen out for the Lord speaking some time soon.

The wilderness

I see my hand moving through tall grass, a little bit like in 'Gladiatior'. I look up and see that I am surrounded by grass for about 15 metres in every direction. But beyond that grass is desert. I look behind me, and the path I've trod is paved with this lush green grass as well. As I continue to walk grass springs up out of the sand, not just a little bit- an abundance of tall grass. Wherever I go, this new life springs up.

The Lord has promised this prophetically in the bible as well as right now. Isaiah 35- the highway of holiness.

We are to carry the kingdom of God wherever we go, and as we walk in righteousness peace and joy we will bring the life of Christ to the places where we walk.

The spirit of God changes atmospheres.

Enough said.

The dark. (It's all about sheep)

I'm not talking about the movie...

I hear a voice saying 'thy word is a lamp unto my feet'.

I see a man walking in complete darkness, carrying his bible out in front like a torch, but it is not giving any light. Then it is set alight, and it provides light for the journey.

But then I see rivers of water coming from the guys belly (Matthew 7:8). But this water isn't just water, nor is it just living water, it is burning water. It floods the path in front of him and literally blazes a trail in front of him.

God's word is a light unto our feet. Even the bible is useless without the quickening of the Holy Spirit', it wasn't until the word was set alight that it gave light. But the burning water (prophetic word) gave the most clear guidance. If we do want to walk the most fruitful path, and be the most effective we can possibly be for his Kingdom, then we need to have this burning water issuing from us.

PS. I see this blog as an outlet for my burning water- prophetic visions. I was thinking that I should start another blog for excerpts from the prophetic revelations which I receive. Mostly these would be extracts from sermon notes- the extended 'brainstorming' that I conduct while preparing sermons. I might be able to get audio clips up there too. Let me know what the interest in this would be. Comment at will.

The Valley.

I decided to stop putting dates in the titles of posts- they're up there automatically...

OK, I see myself running to the top of a hill. When I get to the top I look down into a valley, filled with foul, waste-ridden, disgusting water. I decide that there's nothing for it- I'm going to have to cross. I close my eyes and dive. I feel mysef hit the water and begin to swim.

Then I open my eyes and I see that I am in fact swimming in mid air. Or so it seems. There is a layer of pure, clear water over the gross water. It is this water in which I am swimming.

Before I could ask for the interpretation, the Lord showed me another picture.

I saw myself surrounded by darkness- black dirt clinging to me all around. But then the picture panned back and I could see that I was standing in a tiny black spot on a canvas of pure white.

God's love is greater than our love. His perfect and pure love overcomes the foul and festering love with which we as humans are obsessed. His perfect and pure love envelopes the little spots of darkness and dirt which we call love.

But as it was, I was coming over the top of a mountain. This speaks of breakthrough and change. As we experience revival, the Lord is going to lift us out of the waters of our own human love, out of the blackness and darkness of human love, and into the pure waters of his perfect unconditional love.

He also speaks specifically to those singles among us. His love overcomes the love of a woman or a man. His love surpasses that which we think we really want. As we allow ourselves to become consumed by his love, he will overcome our obsession with finding a partner.

And you never know- he might allow us to have a partner one day. But for now- have a taste of 1 Corinthians 7...

Why not?

The Heavens. Friday 14th April 2006

I see a bright burst of light. When it fades I see Jesus standing there in unapproachable light.

Pretty intense.

He opens his mouth to speak.

'Why?'

Great.

I look to my left, I see the souls of the martyrs under the altar crying 'How long, oh Lord!' (Revelation 6:10)

I look back to Jesus. He opens his mouth again. Time for something in depth and meaningful.

'Why not?'

It's a good job he was smiling.

As he has been ministering to me about giving my all, dying completely, and living abundantly, the first 'why' cut me to the heart. Whyso? I hear you cry. Well, I was considering whether it was really a good idea to go all out or not at the time. Jesus asking me why I would hold back (on Good Friday of all days) was pretty humbling.

But then the altar of the saints. What are they crying out for? They're yearning for Jesus to come again so God would unleash his judgement on those who shed their blood.

Oh shite.

Sorry. The enormity of this just hit me. I actually had forgotten why they were crying out until now. Jesus told them to wait until all the others who were to be martyred were slain.

And then he looked at me and said 'why not?'

Man this is scary stuff.

It was a good job he was smiling...

The tree. Tuesday/Wednesday 11/12th April 2006

Ok. It's Friday, I've been away for a few days. So i'll fill you in.

Tuesday night. The Empire music hall. It's jazz night. I go to the bathroom.

I see a tree. It's all burnt up. It's charred black, and I can see the fruit hanging on the branches, charred black as well. Seemingly burnt to a crisp. Pretty cool looking, but what does it mean?

Wednesday. I'm at my host's house in England. Praying before bed.

I see the tree again. But a piece of fruit splits in half and I can see inside it. It's still juicy and rich, and very much alive.

Hmmm. It's not enough that we just cut off all the appearance of the flesh from our lives. It's not enough that people think that we our flesh is crucified. It's not even enough for us to convince ourselves. It has to be completely consumed in the fire, not just charred on the outside. God doesn't just want to repress our flesh. He doesn't just want to hide it away somewhere. He want's you dead...

That last bit is really scary. Oh man

PS. I changed the date to tuesday. Like R. Kelly, I have turned back the hands of time.

The ocean, Monday 10th April 2006

I am still dancing and swimming in the ocean. I look up to see the sun setting on the horizon. Just for fun I begin swimming towards it. It turns out though that it is actually in the ocean. It doesn't consume the water all around it, but its heat it fierce. I swim right up to it.

We cannot just try to grab the fire of God without first going through the water. The only way for me to get to the sun was by swimming out to it. The water is the word of God. It is the truth of God. It is the living spirit of God speaking to us. We cannot hope to attain the fiery faith of God without these things.

But then I went further. I actually swam through the fire into the centre of the sun. Herein was the very nature of God. The perfect love of the father. The holiness of God. The righteousness of Jesus and the power of the spirit.

We cannot get to this without going through the fire.

HAVE YOUR WAY OH LORD!!!

EDIT: So at prayer meeting the Lord showed me this which is pretty cool.

I saw a guy rowing towards the sun. When he got there he tried to row through the fire to the inside but his boat wouldn't go through. He had to jump out of the boat to swim through the fire. But it was really difficult because he had to learn to swim all at once, whereas I had swum the whole way there!

The vehicle in which we negotiate the word of God has to be the correct one, otherwise when we hit the fire we'll have to learn to swim all of a sudden. We must be prepared to travel God's way, otherwise things will get uncomfortable...

The Ocean, Friday 7th April 2006

Two for the price of one. Making up for the fact that I'm a day late.

The first was a picture. I saw a man with a burning fuse like a firework. When the fuse burned down to his skin I saw him move as if there had been a small controlled explosion inside of him.

Then I saw the same picture. This time as the fuse burnt to his skin, his whole body lit up as an extension of the fuse. Then there was a massive, un-controlled explosion.

As God's revival gets closer and closer we can limit and try to control the explosion of his spirit. Then, it will be a momentary nice feeling inside, and will be utterly ineffective in reaching anyone else.

Or we can allow our flesh to be consumed as his fire burns closer and closer to humanity. Then the revival will be effective and uncontrollable.

Then I saw the sun bursting forth in the heavens again. I saw many frozen people floating in a steadily rising ocean. I saw individual bursts of intense sunlight zapping different people from the sky. As the fire hit, the frozen bodies were simultaneously melted and set alight. Then as a result of the fire I saw them beginning to dance and whirl about in the water. The melting bodies made the water level rise even faster. Then because of the dancing people, the water was disturbed and began to get a little choppy.

Cut to a shore line. I see a desert. The parched ground is cracked and dry. Dead bodies lie on the hard sand, themselves dried out by the raging heat. The rising water line, hastened by the dancing people begins to advance up the shore. As water touches the dead bodies they spring to life. Softened and revived by the water, they too begin to dance in the water.

God's glory illicits a response in us which effects others. If at first they are hardened by the heat of his glare, they will be revived by the spiritual waves which we, the dancers, will make, then they too will burn with a fire of love, and they too will dance in the ocean of God's love.

Battlefield- Thursday 6th April

I am runing with the troops into battle. I see an aromour clad man- a mighty warrior- falling in front of me. Immediately, I cover him with a thick yellow blanket.

It looked like a good idea- aren't we supposed to cover our brothers and sisters who fall.

I was quite proud of myself as well- that sheet was bright yellow, like the glory of God- to conceal a matter- Proverbs 25:2. Right?

But then I saw the warrior struggling under this blanket. Eventually, after a long battle, he broke free, shining with a radiance which far surpassed the crappy yellow blanket. Then he got back to the battle.

Oftentimes we cover our weaknesses, and others' weaknesses, with what we perceive to be God's glorious covering. It is however a cheap imitation we like to call humility, and God likes to call false humility. God doesn't just cover our weaknesses- he breaks through them with his glorious power- that is true humility. So often this false humilty with which we cover ourselves actually becomes our enemy- that which must be overcome before we get back to the real battle.

Throw off the cheap imitation, take on God's glorious covering- his glorious power.

Whale's belly, Wednesday 5th April 2006

Check out this previous vision before you read this one.

I see myself in the water, but I can hear dripping as though I'm in a cave. I find some solid ground and build a small fire, and can see that I am in fact inside a whale.

Great.

I see myself standing at the fire, desperately trying to spontaneously combust like I saw in the previous vision. No matter how much I concentrate and try to send myself into a spirit-filled fire-frenzy I can't. Then the light from the fire glows a little brighter and I look at my surroundings a little closer.

I see a sofa against one side, and a bed. I see a desk and a TV. I see a fridge and a cooker and all the little creature comforts one could ever desire for the inside of a whale.

The Lord spoke. Don't get comfortable in Egypt. Don't get comfortable in the whale. Don't set yourself up for a liftetime on the cross. There's a resurrection. There's a deliverance. There's a... vomitting on a deserted beach... to come.

Have Your way, oh Lord.

The battlefield, Tuesday 4th April, 2006

Keep the comments coming. It's an incentive to keep seeking the Lord. As he told me today- prophecy is for the edification of the body. Not so I can feel good about myself.

I saw the battle field. As people were fighting it began to rain. While the enemy became bogged down, and began to drown, we rose on the water, standing and fighting on the surface.

Psalm 107: 35

The lake? Monday 3rd April 2006

It's a different lake actually...

But the Lord took me back today, and I saw the ship landing and the people from my visions, armour clad and ready to fight, returning to the shoreline.

God doesn't take us some wierd place to fight the battle. It's in our everyday lives, in the situations we face every day, in which we have the biggest fight.

But also, he doesn't just change our circumstances, he transforms us so we can use the circumstances to our advantage.