Prophetic Visions

I'm very careful about who or what prophetically I allow into my spirit. Not that I'm all that pure. I have lots of irritations and frustrations with lots of things. Algore, Jimmy Carter. All that.

But I watch and wait and measure what I am hearing in my spirit against what others are seeing and hearing. It's usually amazing to me that at the same time many many prophets will have forms of the same vision at the same time. Convergence.

Right now is such a time.

In the last two weeks I have given leadership in two different Christian Fellowships (Rockford and Bolingbrook) the same vision. The reason is this thing will affect them the same way.

A shaking is coming and it will result in suddenness in their ministry. Sudden almost cataclysmic growth and pangs with it. While on one hand this can be perceived to be a good thing, it carries with it unforeseen and misunderstood difficulties, change that will cause things to be unexpectedly different than they ever could have anticipated. In other words at first blush what could have been good will look like chaos and out of order.

Matt Sorger writes of just such a shaking happening right now.

From the Prophetic Word:

The Body of Christ is in a very important transition right now. We are transitioning into the broad place of the fulfillment and completion of our inheritance. This fruitful and blessed place includes every good promise that God has ever spoken to you.

Actually, what we are seeing take place right now is the laying of the foundations for increase and multiplication. During the first six days of Creation, God finished the work and rested on the seventh day. The completion of Creation on the seventh day was actually the completion of the "foundation" of Creation. From there, the earth continued to multiply in fruitfulness and growth.

This year, God is laying the foundation in the lives of many people and ministries that will bring great increase and multiplication in the season ahead. But in order to transition into this broad place of increase and destiny, we have to first pass through a "narrow place." This is where everything that can hinder us from transitioning successfully is--stripped off.

There are some things that cannot go with you into the next season. When God is bringing you through a transition, sometimes even good things must be let go of. People hold onto a good thing only because they don't realize it is keeping them from God's best for their lives. When the Lord tries to strip something, some people want to hold onto it. They don't want to let go. Their old thoughts and attitudes have become a security blanket. They hold onto offenses for years justifying the thought that the person who hurt them doesn't deserve to be forgiven. They justify their ungodly belief systems. They hold on to their "stuff" while trying desperately to transition into the place of blessing which God has for them. As they are tightly gripping their baggage, they end up wedging themselves right into the place of transition and they get stuck.

It's time we understand that God is stripping these things away from us, so we will be free to transition into the broad place He has destined for us. God is stripping everything that can be stripped-- every mindset, every thought, every ungodly belief system, every attitude, and every ungodly action. Everything that's hidden and everything that's covered over--God is stripping it all.

God will do what he will do. I know this for sure. If you try to fight against the goads you will be broken and defeated. What is coming is glorious and would be painful unless you see the end result clearly.

I saw another prophet today warn the US that we should run for our lives, today! This is not a tested prophet in my eyes but I watch and pray. Yet today is October 12, the last day of Ramadan, the Last day of the Jewish Month of Tishri, the feast month that holds the most holy days in all of Judaism. This is a transition day. Transition to what?

I know this, God is shaking the body of Christ. Churches and ministries that ignored or poo pooed the warnings in the past will be dissolved and decay into nothing. Time for game playing is over. He loves the Bride too much to allow his precious bride to continue to be lukewarm, lazy, lethargic, lost, listless, loveless and lackluster. That wasn't her purpose on the earth. Sadly, much of the church plays the harlot with the world system. It has destroyed her.

Awake Oh Bride. Your Bridegroom comes and you are still dressed in filthy rags. Find fresh oil. Toss off those old wrinkled and spotted clothes of tradition.

He comes, up from the valley. You will recognize him if you look, you won't have to ask, "Who is this?".

From Song of Solomon 3 we get a glimpse of a Type of Jesus coming as a bridegroom:

6 Who is this sweeping in from the wilderness
like a cloud of smoke?
Who is it, fragrant with myrrh and frankincense
and every kind of spice?
7 Look, it is Solomon’s carriage,
surrounded by sixty heroic men,
the best of Israel’s soldiers.
8 They are all skilled swordsmen,
experienced warriors.
Each wears a sword on his thigh,
ready to defend the king against an attack in the night.
9 King Solomon’s carriage is built
of wood imported from Lebanon.
10 Its posts are silver,
its canopy gold;
its cushions are purple.
It was decorated with love
by the young women of Jerusalem.

And then the Shulamite, the bride, goes to him and leans on him Song of Solomon Ch 8:

5 Who is this sweeping in from the desert,
leaning on her lover? I aroused you under the apple tree,
where your mother gave you birth,
where in great pain she delivered you.
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death,
its jealousy as enduring as the grave.
Love flashes like fire,
the brightest kind of flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
nor can rivers drown it.
If a man tried to buy love
with all his wealth,
his offer would be utterly scorned.

That's what is happening right now. God said early on, I am a Jealous God. I will destroy everything that hinders love, that gets between you and me. I have seen it over and over again. So have you. Martin Luther wrote on this centuries ago. He warned then and is still warning today that everything that is a substitute, a tradition, a painkiller, a false idol, a person, place or thing that stands between You and God, between a Church and His Purposes for it, a Christian and his or her destiny, God will remove and destroy them. IF we think for a second we can hold on to old ways in the day of the Lord we kid ourselves. Consider our most valued traditions and practices. In the day of the Lord what in the world will they mean? They will be empty. God is not mocked even by well meaning tradition. The prophet Isaiah wrote of this day in Chapter 2. It's coming. It may be here now.

It is always painful, it is always difficult, but it is essential. God will kill anything that we try to keep alive that might obscure who he really is or should be in our lives.

That is a shaking. It has begun.

Finally, Matt Sorger says by the spirit of God:

The Lord spoke to me and said, "Matt, tell My people not to be shaken by the shaking that's coming." If there is a faulty foundation, it will be shaken, corporately and individually. If there is something not built by the Spirit of God, it will be shaken down to its foundations.

Get ready, get ready, get ready.