Our Need for Legitimate Leadership

There is a present call being heralded through the Church for intense revelatory prayer that births God’s purposes and the anointed Word that unveils the Lord’s Kingdom realm. The Church must enter a higher level of intercession that is mingled with clear prophetic insight to launch this next seven-year season in God and provide much needed leadership.

Moses and Aaron stood in the gap and interceded on behalf of Israel in key times of crisis and indecision; so must God’s anointed stand in the gap through intercessory prayer to facilitate the harvest and steer our nation through these turbulent times. Our nation and the Church are desperate for legitimate leadership.

The spirit of humanism is struggling to form a stronger foundation throughout our nation that would only hinder our promised harvest. New Age philosophy and teachings will now be offered on a greater plain and with broader exposure than ever before. Nevertheless, if we pray, many who turn to soothsayers and diviners for direction and guidance will only discover that true answers are found in Jesus.

Many will have the opportunity to experience the utter fallacy and weakness of humanism to respond to the deep longing of their soul. Only the Lord Jesus can fill that void within the human spirit through His anointed Word. The words of Jesus are especially relevant to this season when He said:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. —Matthew 11:28-30

The Anointed Word

In John 6:63 the Lord stated that His words were both SPIRIT and LIFE. Through the anointing, words have a spiritual life of their own that highlights the cross and transports one from the natural realm into the Spirit realm. Words, when anointed become spiritual “vehicles” that translate us from one realm to another. The natural Word becomes spiritual through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Himself was actually representative of the “anointed Word”. He was the Word of God incarnate in flesh and He is the Messiah—the Anointed One.
2 Corinthians 3:6 declares:

Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For the ministered word to become spiritual food, it must proceed from the Lord’s presence through an anointed ministry in an atmosphere of the anointing. As His anointed word is quickened within us and we receive from it an impartation of Spirit and life, we are then growing into “the fullness of His stature.” Our intercession is only productive when proceeding from a culture of the anointing; then our words possess Spirit and life that cannot return void without accomplishing their intended purposes.

Restoring Lost Mantles

A substantial portion of our revelatory prayer should be devoted to at least two things: restoring some-things old and birthing some-things new. The “something old” is that which will be recovered from the prior generation. The new thing will be spoken into being 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 Bible]

There were Spiritual purposes initiated in the 1940’s-50’s that were supported by the Holy Spirit and vindicated as a true move of God. However, this movement faltered because of unbelief and fanaticism. The Lord’s desire now is to reinstitute the Heavenly purposes that were begun in the 50’s and pick up where they left off and mingled with fresh and new expressions of His grace. That is our purpose in hosting our Conference in Tucson, AZ the end of this February. Our heart is to honor the great things God did in the prior generation in order to create a culture and atmosphere for the impartation of those revelatory and healing mantles.

In a prophetic experience several years ago our friend Bob Jones saw the Lord restoring these lost ministries. In the revelation the Lord exhibited an exuberant attitude in revealing this truth and great joy and excitement exuded from Him as He revealed His desire to re-establish the move of His Holy Spirit that was begun in the prior generation. It was not His intent for this movement to break down as it did. Yet, we must learn from the mistakes of our forefathers so that we can overcome the obstacles that caused the derailment of end-time purposes.

That movement released in embryonic form, Kingdom principles essential for the harvest and the fulfillment of God’s Word for the end-of-the-age generation. God’s healing power that was exhibited during that season as well as the humble quality of His servants as they initially began that era of Church history is fundamental to our success. It was also a season of great revelation of the Word with the restoration of Biblical truth that provides a sanctifying light to God’s people that makes us a suitable habitation for the Holy Spirit in fullness. The Lord prayed in John 17:15-17:

I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

The good things of the 50’s that were pure and Godly will now be restored to us and joined with these new things that we will be experiencing in this new beginning. An emphasis in the “new thing” will be a new unity that before now has not been known in the Church and must first be displayed in our corporate intercession.

Becoming Disciples of Christ

How do we become more revelatory and offer prayers of greater precision? At least one way is by becoming Disciples of Christ according to Isaiah 50:4, saying:

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

A disciple is defined as one who is being awakened and instructed morning by morning by the Holy Spirit. The words then proceeding from disciples of Christ are saturated with life and Spirit that transforms the spiritual environment.

The Lord is revealing Himself as the Teacher (see Isaiah 30:20) and He is going to anoint those individuals He has been grooming over the past several years in order to impart the Spirit of Truth and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left. 2 Corinthians 6:6-7 tells us how to identify this company coming in:

purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left.

Cleansing of Flesh and Spirit

The apostle Paul speaking of these lofty admonitions says, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” –2 Corinthians 7:1

There has presently been an emphasis on the cleansing of our spirits in preparation for the Light that is coming. The Lord is sprinkling clean water (revelatory truth) upon us that we may be made clean from our association with the spirit of this world. We then receive a new heart and a new spirit will be placed within us so that our heart of stone is extracted and a heart of compatibility with heaven is imparted. (Ezekiel 36:24-27)

When this is complete we are then capable of receiving more fully the Holy Spirit within us, Who causes us to walk according to His statutes and ordinances. This is the process that makes us “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.” From this position our desolate heritages are restored and the favor of Heaven becomes evident.

The Lord is preparing to make “known” the previously unknown. When our soulish ambitions and agendas are revealed and extracted, it makes way for the revelation of the Lord’s redemptive attributes that we have heretofore been incapable of experientially apprehending. There is a purifying that takes place in the spirits of God’s people to eradicate mixture and extract corruption. The Holy Spirit in us will then reveal God’s nature that is foreign and unknown to this world.

There is a divine stirring within the spirits of men to link Heaven with earth.
The Bible calls it, “deep calling unto the deep.” The Holy Spirit resident in us is calling out for the deep and lofty things of God contained in His mysteries and divine strategies.

I Have a Dream

These directives may seem high and lofty to some, and perhaps they are. Even so, this is our “promised land” of inheritance. No matter how great the giants may seem that occupy the land, God is big enough to pull it off, if we will yield to Him and co-operate with Heaven.

In another of his prophetic encounters, Bob Jones was told that the enemy vigorously works to steal these impassioned dreams of God’s people. Primarily, dreams consisting of hopes and aspirations birthed in their spirits that motivate them in prayer and set them on their prophetic journey.

In the experience, the Lord expressed that it was acceptable for His people to contemplate great and lofty things that He is capable of doing through them. That is the admonition in Ephesians 3:20-21:

Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that
we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him
be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations
forever and ever. Amen.

If our dreams become exaggerated beyond the parameters of His promise, then He will make adjustments in us that keep it from becoming vain imaginations. With the vision that is being imparted to saints, there is a corresponding faith that is birthed to see it become reality. Our adversary is attempting to bring opposition to those dreams and visions with the anticipated result of birthing hopelessness and depression in its place.

Psalms 126 was given as an outline for this admonition. Those who dream in the greatness and hopeful expectation of God’s restoration are filled with joy. Correspondingly, without vision, people perish in discouragement and confusion and are led astray into captivity.

We cannot give up the dream and aspiration of being used mightily by the Holy Spirit in the blueprint of Heaven presently being unfolded. We must also continue to dream for our children to be handed a rich spiritual inheritance.