God is speaking.

It was the last week of January 1994 and I was lying in a hospital bed recovering from an operation. On either side of me women were softly speaking to one another. Suddenly I found myself in this place which was filled with the Presence of God. It felt like a I was standing in the midst of a ball of lightning. The air was charged with power. Awesome power! Yet I was not afraid, somehow I knew I would be safe because I was IN Jesus. The light was so bright, I could not open my eyes and I cried out: "Oh God, You ARE a devouring fire! Oh God You ARE a devouring fire!!"

And then I was back in my bed, my heart was pounding, I wondered if one of the women had noticed anything. But they were still talking to each other. At that moment I did not know what had happened to me. But a few days later I heard about a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit and fire, in Toronto. I had already heard about Rodney Howard Browne and seen some video's of his meetings. What happened there, the laughter etc, was not new to me. When we got saved in the sixties in South Africa we came in at the tail end of a revival and manifestations like that were happening there too.

I asked the Lord if I could go to his meetings and in December 1994 I found myself in the Wembleystadion in London where Rodney was ministering. The place was full and people had to be turned away.The first day Rodney prayed for everyone. When he laid his hands on me I fell to the ground and I heard the Lord speaking to me:

"You have denied your calling, because of fear of men." I had some repenting to do!
"Yes Lord, that is true. Forgive me! Let your fire burn this fear out of me?"

Well this was the beginning of a week, where I did not laugh once, I cried all week as God answered my prayer and started to burn this fear out of me.

When I just got saved, God called me in a dream and told me that He would shew me things and I would tell the people.. From then on I had many dreams and visions which I shared with the people.But then we moved and in the church where we went to I was not taken seriously. "Here  she is again, with her dreams and visions".
I wanted so badly to be accepted, so I kept quiet about what I had dreamt or seen and the dreams and visions didn't come so frequently anymore.

After I repented in London the Lord started to speak to me more in dreams and visions again. In December 1995 I went to N.Ireland to assist our eldest daughter with the birth of her second baby. While over there, a brother in the Lord gave me a copy of the letter, which John Wimber wrote to John Arnott.

In Zechariah 13:7 we read: "Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered." I 'saw' God's people over there, which had so much embraced 'Father's Blessing', standing like frightened sheep, ready to run. This was of great concern to me and as they asked me what I thought about this, I went to the Lord and asked Him to show me what was going on.

The first thing the Lord told me was, that there were two trees in the garden and the one tree was overshadowing the other tree while it grew to maturity.But when the other tree had grown big enough the gardner uprooted that tree and planted it in a meadow all of its own where it could grow to it's full stature.
So it seemed to me that it was God and not men, Who brought about this seperation.

the manifestations

Then I asked the Lord about the manifestations and He told me to read the book of Isaiah.
In obedience I started reading and this is what I found:

Isaiah 25:11 "And he will spread out His hands in their midst. As a swimmer reaches out to swim. And He will bring down their pride." God is talking here about Moab.

In Jer 48 from verse 11 we find Moab described as the one who did not want to be poured from vessel to vessel,; whose scent remains unchanged, who is settled on his lees.  Because of his pride (v.29)

I have seen in renewal meetings how people, while on the floor,were making movements as if they were swimming. To me it is a declaration that God is dealing with pride and haughtiness, maybe not in the person manifesting, although that is possible of course, but in His church which is present.

Let me just say something before I share with you what else I discovered. I have never been in Toronto, but have heard reports and seen video's and I have been in churches which have been touched by this 'Blessing'.
And I often heard about such manifestations happening to stable, strong, balanced Christians and even to pastors etc., when they were touched by the power of God. So I want to make clear that what I am talking about here are manifestations coming through well balanced, mature Christians and leadership.

The next scripture I found in Isa 31:4
"As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey (When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, He will not be afraid of their voice, nor be disturbed by their noise) So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill."

God is talking again and He says that no shepherds will stop Him from taking His prey. Mount Zion. The church belongs to God, not to men! God is fighting for His church.

I was once in a meeting in South Africa not so long ago. The pastor there is a mature, well balanced, anointed man of God. It was ministry time and some people were praying for a young woman, a victim of much abuse, who was wrestling, trying to find her way back to God. Suddenly this pastor came and next I heard him roar like a lion, over this young woman. I had a vision of a very angry lion, its lips pulled back, its teeth showing, ears in his neck and the power of God was so strong at that moment.... The woman was instantly set free. I stood there crying, overwhelmed by this revelation of God's love and concern for us. All I could do was praise Him. I had never seen this manifestation before, but it did not disturb me at all. I knew it was God!

God was saying to the enemy "enough is enough!! This girl belongs to me! Back off!!"
And 'back off' he did. Praise God!

Isaiah 31:5 "Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it, passing over, He will preserve it."

Have you seen people, when touched by the power of God, making movements as if they were flying?
God is talking and He is declaring that he will take care of His people. He will deliver and preserve us.
And in the following verse we are called upon, to repent and to return to Him.

Isaiah 56:10,11 "His watchmen [are] blind; they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, [they are] greedy dogs [which] can never have enough, and they [are] shepherds [that] cannot understand; they all look to their own way , every one for his gain, from his quarter."

When you hear the barking, you must know God is talking. He is talking about those shepherds, those worthless shepherds and the whole chapter tells us what God is doing about them.

Isa 26:17-21
"Like as a woman with child, [that] draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, [and] crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth... ....Behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity...."

God is talking to us through Isa 26. Let our ears hear what he is saying!

It is significant to me that the book of Isaiah starts with: Isa 1:3 "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel does not know. My people do not consider".

Next time you hear the sound of a donkey or an ox, think about this.

God is talking and calling us to come and reason with Him, that our sins may be forgiven. It's a call for repentance.

I am sure there are more sounds that would make us go to our Bibles and search out what God is saying to us at that moment. These are the ones I found.

When I closed the book I had a vision. I saw a city and I understood it was Toronto and I saw a big golden trumpet being blown and I understood that from this place prophetic declarations were made by God to His church universal.

 His plans, His purposes will now be fulfilled!
Psalm 119:65:
Great peace have they which love Thy law and nothing will offend them.

Just recently, somebody who had been to both Toronto and Rodney Howard Browne's meetings said that it felt like there were two spirits at work there. The Spirit of God and a counterfeit spirit.
I meditated on that and brought it to the Lord.

The Lord told me to read the story of Moses and the magicians before Pharaoh and the story of the seed in Matthew 13.

This is what I found.
God was saying to His people and to Pharaoh, that He was now going to deliver His people.
The enemy was not prepared to let the people go and so God moved in mighty signs and wonders, but the magicians imitated those signs.

We must remember one thing. Whenever there is a counterfeit, there is also the real thing.

Christians are so quick to say: "Oh watch out that is occult!" We have to be careful, that is true, but what we should do in the first place is to seek the truth and present that.

I heard a story about how banktellers are taught the difference between true money and counterfeit money. They are first set apart and do nothing else for a whole week, but just counting true money. Then after a week some counterfeit bills are put in between the money and those tellers pick them out straight away.

We Christians could learn something here.

Instead of bringing people into a state of fear and anxiety about all the counterfeit that is happening, we should make sure that they know God and His ways and let them 'handle' and 'experience' the true gifts of God and then they will know when a counterfeit comes along.

We cry:" Watch out, even the very elect will be deceived".
It doesn't say that! It says: IF IT WERE POSSIBLE!!, they shall deceive the very elect.
I like that! Jesus is the Truth and he has come to tell us the Truth and now that he is with Father, he has sent us the Spirit of truth, Who will lead us into the truth and the truth shall set us free. Hallelujah!
I would suggest we meditate a bit on that.

So the magicians did everything Moses did, until an act of creation took place. The devil can imitate, but he cannot create life. That is our measuring stick!

When God made lice out of dust, the magicians said: that is the finger of God. They couldn't do that.
Now what would be that life today?
People being born again, backsliders restored, different pastors in a city working together in unity. A deep passion for Jesus in our hearts, all that is LIFE!
People being healed emotionally in an instant and brought into a close relationship with God their Father and with each other. That is God's Life!

the messengers, the tares, and the fire

Now let us have a look at Matthew 13.
Jesus told the parable about the sower and later He explained to His disciples what it was all about. The Lord told me that this is what he is doing in this present move.

Matt 13:27  "So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir,
didn't thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?"
Good question!
The sower had sown good seed and the enemy came at night and sowed tares.
There were two kinds of seed sown.
Matt 13:41 "The Son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity."

I have always understood that this had to do with the sweet by and by, and the blue sky etc.
But  the Lord said, it's this kind of harvest time right now, where I send My messengers...
Who are they? Are they only angels? No, the greek word that is used here can also be translated as 'messengers'. I personally think the Lord is talking here about the prophets and in particular the exhorter prophets (see my notes on the seven prophetic ministries) and the apostles ( with their signs and wonders) which are sent at this time to 'harvest'. They are sent by the Holy Spirit and the word they speak will cause people to be thrown into the fire where their works will be tested.

Again, not in the sweet by and by, but right NOW!
Jesus said that he had not come to judge the people, but the words He spoke would judge. Prophets are you listening?....

So here they are, thrown into the fire. Who? All of us that spend time in the Presence of God. And it is in this fire that our attitudes will be tested and changed.
Did we come to receive a blessing and more blessings for ourselves, or did we come because we want to come closer to the Lord?
It is wonderful to be in God's presence. But God is holy!

I read in Isa 8:14,15 from the Living Bible: "God's presence among them, has endangered them".
There is a price to pay! The price which Moab (Jer 48:11) did not want to pay.
It says in Malachi 3, while we are talking about this fire: "And the Lord Whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple. Even the Messenger of the Covenant ,in whom you delight...But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like launderer's soap....."

So here we are. What happens in that fire?
Two things can happen. The tares are already burned (v40) but now there are two kinds of wheat, both grown from good seed.
Like I said before, those that seek God and those that seek their own pleasure and when that pleasure is not so pleasant anymore, when the heat is turned on and life becomes difficult, how do we react?

I believe that those who love the Lord and seek Him for Himself, will cry, because God's discipline hurts
(Heb 12:11), but God will help them to become overcomers. Those that seek their own pleasure will be rebellious and gnash their teeth and they will fall by the wayside.
Job 36:13 "But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath; they cry not when He bindeth them."
Rev 16:9 "And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give Him glory."
The Lord shows Jeremiah 2 baskets of figs and He tells him that both will be sent into exile. The bad figs will be destroyed but the good figs will be taken care of.
God spoke here about His people, the good people needed to go into exile, so that they would be purified and God would give them a heart to know Him and love Him.
So the fire that Jesus spoke about will purify us. it is a work of the Holy Spirit, we can trust Him. That fire will remove all 'that offends'.

Our attitudes will be changed and 'them that do iniquity' are those Jesus spoke about in Matt 7: Jesus said there :
"I never KNEW you, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity". The emphasis here is not on the word 'iniquity, but on "I never KNEW you."
Jesus said: "You were not willing to pay the price to get closer to me and to have an intimate relationship with Me." That is what made them workers of iniquity.
And then Jesus ends the story in Matt 13, by saying: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear!"

When I read that, I thought, hey, I have heard that before and then I realized Jesus was quoting from Daniel 12, the book which was closed until the endtime. So I turned there.
Daniel 12:1-3 "At that time...(the time Jesus spoke about in Matt 13!) Michael, the great prince who protects your people (God's people), will arise. There will be a time of distress, such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But....(Hallelujah! But God....!!) at that time your people- everyone whose name is found written in the book (..of Life Rev 3:5- the overcomer!) will be delivered."
Ha, and here it comes, the great harvest! "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth (no they are not dead, but dead in their trespasses and sins, buried beneath a layer of human traditions , which hasn't helped anyone!) will awake.  (Did I hear the word 'Awakening" Richard?:-) some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever."

Now this was a long story, but my actual argument here is: God is doing mighty things at the moment and setting His people free, at the same time the devil is trying to bring discredit to what God is doing (he always does that) by imitating what God does. We recognize the difference when we look at the fruit. Does it bring forth life?