Old and New Treasures
In
the last Special Bulletin, I shared about the dream I had been
given—that if we would honor the fathers, the Lord would release
revival in America within six months. In this dream I was shown that
the evangelists from the great Healing Revival of the 1940s and 1950s
were the ones that we needed to honor. As an attempt to do this, we
hosted an Honoring the Fathers Conference together with WhiteDove
Ministries. The conference was extraordinary. We knew that we had
touched on something crucial, and it may have been the most important
conference that we have ever hosted.

It was only a couple of
weeks after the Honoring the Fathers Conference that I started getting
emails from Stephen Strader about the breakthrough that had taken place
in Lakeland, Florida. My first thought was that if this was going to be
a wellspring, it would be fitting to come through a Strader as the
source. His father and mother, Carl and Joyce Strader, have been used
greatly in bringing renewal to not only our nation, but to the whole
world when they invited Rodney Howard-Brown to Carpenter's Home Church
over two decades ago. What better way could a son honor his father than
to continue his work? Stephen has a remarkable healing and miracle
ministry himself, but he is more than that—he is a gatekeeper like his
father before him.

I was also not at all surprised to hear that
the Lord was using Todd Bentley to spark this new outpouring of the
Spirit in Lakeland. If you have any doubts about Todd, don't. He is the
real thing and has one of the greatest gifts of faith for the release
of the power of God of anyone I've ever known, and I've known some of
the great ones. I've only been with Todd one time when high level
supernatural did not start happening—when he was going through his
"dark night of the soul." Even then, the Spirit of revelation was all
over him, and I had no doubt when he came out of that period he would
go to a much higher level. What has been happening in Lakeland has been
great, but I expect it to go much higher, in Lakeland, or wherever else
this breaks out.

However, Todd needs a little prophetic
explanation (okay, maybe a lot). I have known Todd for many years. He
is definitely new generation, but in a remarkable way he is almost a
composite of some of the great healing evangelists of the 1940s and
1950s. I think it is because he is wearing some of the mantles from the
great evangelists of that period. I say "some of the mantles," because
just as the Lord's mantle was divided when He was crucified, the
anointed pass on their mantles of authority, and they are usually
divided and given to many, not just one. Like Jacob did for his son
Joseph, the Lord likes to make special coats for His children that are
many colors or diverse. Most of our coats or mantles are composites of
those who have gone before us, and some are unique new ones.

For
example, I think Benny Hinn carries part of the mantle that was from
Kathryn Kuhlman, but he also has others, and likely, at least part of a
mantle that God made especially for him. Just as part of God's joy in
creation is seeing two of His children join together and bring forth
children that have part of both of their parents, but are unique, the
Lord also does this by joining spiritual ancestry as well.

In
this way, if you have seen Todd you have also seen some of the great
healing revivalists of the 1940s and 1950s. That is why right after we
had the Honoring the Fathers Conference in early April, when we honored
some of the great revivalists of that period, as soon as I heard that
revival had broken out through Todd's ministry in Lakeland, I knew it
was right, and right on time. It is right that this has come through
another Strader, and I expect this to have long-reaching impact.
However, as awesome as this is or it yet becomes, there are prophetic
indications that this is the last great spiritual birth pang before the
birth of another Great Awakening, which I expect this fall.   

Understanding Birth Pangs
Both
the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul talked about things coming upon the
world like birth pangs coming upon a woman in labor (see Matthew
24:4-8; I Thessalonians 5:3). This is the pattern in which many things
will come upon the world in the last days, both the good and the evil.
The way that birth pangs come upon a woman is they may start suddenly,
but at first they are relatively light and infrequent. However, the
closer to the birth, the more frequent and the more intense the birth
pangs become. You can see this pattern in the weather, in political
conflicts, and economic troubles, but you can also see them in the
release of moves of God.

We have been experiencing these
spiritual birth pangs or contractions in our congregation that now
meets at Heritage for nearly twelve years. They have been getting more
intense and more frequent. What we are experiencing now is by far the
most intense yet—with some who have experienced the most intense birth
pangs they have ever felt. Even so, we do have prophetic indications
that this is the last great contraction before the birth of what God
will be bringing forth this fall.

That does not necessarily mean
we should put the timing on what God is doing with us or with what is
going on in Lakeland or anywhere else, but I suspect they are related.
I am not totally convinced because we see in part, know in part, and
prophesy in part. What is going on in Lakeland could well be the full
birth of something, but it would not surprise me at all if there was a
break, and one last rest before the big push and the baby comes out.
We'll see.

Either way, something great is happening in our
country, and it will get bigger. However, do not be tempted to tie
together what is happening with the elections this fall. This is beyond
politics. It will likely have an influence, but this is about a
government that is far bigger than the U.S. government or any other
earthly government. Beware of those who do want to use it politically.
That would be a distraction and diversion, and it would knock it off
course quickly.

I very much believe that Christians should be
politically engaged, vote, run for office, etc., but to try to
manipulate the use of a revival for political purposes would be to
demean it, at best. If this had not happened to the Second Great
Awakening during the 1850s, then slavery could have been abolished in
America without a Civil War. If that Great Awakening had not been
hijacked for political purposes, America would have dealt with that
great tragedy with more reason just as the United Kingdom did with
Wilberforce's leadership.

Conclusion
As stated, I was told
in a dream that if we would honor the fathers the Lord would bring
revival to America within six months. I was shown to honor the fathers
who were the leaders of the great Healing Revival of the 1940s and
1950s. If you want to honor them and see what they were like, and
partake of the blessing and anointing that was on them, I would go to
Lakeland and see Todd Bentley.

Is what is happening now in
Lakeland the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecies about the
"nameless, faceless" generation of leaders who fill stadiums with
crowds being healed of all manner of diseases and witnessing all manner
of miracles? It could help ignite this, and that could be what this
gives birth to. Some are protesting that we cannot say that a work
centered on one person, such as is on Todd, is a "nameless faceless"
one. However, it could be that the Lord has raised up someone like Todd
to represent the old in order to anoint the new, just as he raised up
John the Baptist as the last and greatest of an order to baptize and
prophesy over the new. It does seem that this is the way the Lord does
these things, requiring the new to humble themselves before their
fathers, submitting to them, and being sent out by them.

Do not
let pride keep you from going to Lakeland. It is right to go and get
immersed and baptized by what is happening there. It is contagious, and
it will likely come to your town through someone else if you are not
willing. God is pouring out His Spirit. Even though we have an
extraordinary outbreak going on here at Heritage that is about as
strong as we can stand, we plan to send many to Lakeland to honor what
is going on there, and receive as much as we can to keep pouring it on
here. We pray for them every night and greatly rejoice in what God is
doing there. What the Lord is doing here is quite different and is
supposed to be, just as I think the outbreak in every place is supposed
to be unique. Our God loves diversity.

Outpouring Continues at Heritage
We
have now gone through a week of nightly meetings, and it seems the
anointing and presence of the Lord is increasing. If you stop at
Heritage after being in Lakeland, do not come expecting it to be the
same. As the Apostle Paul related concerning the gifts and ministries
of the Spirit, it is the same God, but a very different expression (see
I Corinthians 12:6). There are always dozens, and sometimes hundreds,
involved in the ministry here at Heritage. Waves of the Spirit seem to
pass through the room that you can tangibly feel.

Many people
are seeing angels and even the Lord Himself. We know they are real
because they come from many different people, all reporting the same
things. We do not stop the meetings to report this because we wouldn't
have time for anything else. This is normal Christianity, and it is the
result of the Lord opening the eyes of our hearts, as Paul prayed to
happen in Ephesians One. When we see angels, it is not so much because
they are entering our realm, because they are here all of the time, but
when we see them, we are starting to enter their realm.

There
are noteworthy miracles happening almost every night, and we have not
done a good of a job sharing those testimonies, but we will be doing
this. They are coming so fast at times that we have to establish a
system to process them. We also want to verify them because truth is
our most basic commodity, and if we lose that, we lose everything. It
is a different dynamic when there are so many being anointed and being
used, and it is taking us a bit of time to determine how best to
steward it.

Some of the youth came to me and begged me to keep
this going; my response was that I did not start it, and I sure would
not stop it. As long as the Lord is moving, we will be meeting every
night, but when He stops or moves on, so will we. Right now He is
moving, and the whirlwind of the Spirit continues to come in a way that
at times staggers us. Even so, we think we are experiencing a taste of
what normal Christianity will soon be all over the earth—with a
presence and power of the Lord that will keep us in continual awe and
wonder—something we could never get tired of.



 


Rick Joyner, 5/2/2008 5
 

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