Fireside Chat with Bob Jones

This portion of our newsletter is the continuation of a prophetic word initiated last month. It is taken from an experience Bob had a few years ago pointing to this specific moment in our prophetic destiny. It highlights the past decade and the difficulties we have experienced but also reiterates God’s purpose for allowing them. Having the understanding that the Lord is grooming us for something significant transforms our mind-set and generates hope to displace hopelessness. Without this understanding we would indeed experience profound hopelessness and despair. A double portion restoration and return is our legacy.

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.”