Vision – A Prophetic Word for 2014 – The Ring of Fire.

On New Year’s Eve as I was going to bed I had the following vision:

In the vision I saw a of a ring of angels and messengers of God who were like flames of fire. The phrase God brought to mind for this was ‘The Ring of Fire’. Overhead were storm clouds, very dark, swirling and ominous.

In the centre of the ring was one angel who had been sent from the throne in heaven itself. He had raised a great sword which was the Word of God which was cutting through the clouds and allowing light to reach the ground.

As I was watching I saw others coming, these were the saints in prayer who were seeing what the Father was doing and were responding. As they too raised their swords the hole got larger and more light was able to stream through the clouds.

The numbers of those who were raising the Sword of the Spirit in prayer were not great but they had a massive effect on the region within the Ring of Fire where they were, they were changing the spiritual climate where they were.

This happened as God broke the power of the storm clouds and shone his light on the land. This light did two things, it revealed that which people had hidden in the darkness, and it also gave new life and hope to those who could before only see darkness and despair.

 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.” (Hebrews 1:7 NRSV)

 … and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. (Ephesians 6:17-18 NRSV)

 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12 NRSV)

 Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.” (John 5:19-20 NRSV)

 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 NRSV)

Matthew 16:18 – The Dry-Stone Wall Church

Before my prayer time on the evening of the 11th January 2013 I just felt that God was saying he had something special for me but I didn’t know what.  As is usual these days he was already there waiting for me to come into the place of prayer in his presence, not the other way round. I was saying ‘Thank you that your presence is already here’, not ‘Please come, Lord’.

 When I walked back into the living room to spend time with him he literally knocked me to my knees by the weight of his presence. While on my knees God gave me a glimpse of Jesus building his church in a vision. What I saw was a physical representation of the spiritual reality.

 The church was made up of rough stones, not dressed stones, and the building method Jesus was using was that of dry-stone walling.  This I easily comprehended and understood as I was brought up in Derbyshire where almost every field boundary is a dry-stone wall!

It was not a dry-stone wall like you sometimes see these days will regularly shaped dressed stones, but was one made up of irregular stones of different sizes and shapes.  In a dry stone wall there are faced stones which you see on the outside of the wall, within the wall you find many smaller stones which are used for packing and to stabilise the whole wall.  The whole church was being built on top of a large slab of bedrock, and the builder was Jesus. There was also a small bell tower on top, an open one and contained a single bell.

Boulder and Bedrock.

 ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.’ Matthew 16:18 (NRSV)

Here Jesus tells Peter that he is a ‘petros’, a ‘stone’, a ‘rock’, a ‘boulder’. He may be substantial in size, but he is separate from the bedrock.  He is one of the big stones built into the bottom of the dry stone wall of the church.

On the other hand he is not the ‘petra’, the ‘bedrock’.  The ancient city of Petra is called that because it was built out of the very bedrock itself.  That bedrock is Jesus himself and the fact that he is ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ Matthew 16:16 (NRSV) as Peter stated on the Father’s revelation.

In this Scripture, as in the vision it is Jesus who is building his church. It is not you or I, it is not the pastor or elders or anyone else, it is Jesus. We need to make sure that we do not try to take credit for something which is not of our doing!

Bell Tower and Bell.

A bell makes a very pure sound and so should our preaching of the gospel. Living lives in holiness should be an integral part of our message that speaks volumes. We should also not complicate the gospel. The message is simple, we were dead in our sins (Ephesians  2:1) as all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory that God wanted mankind to have (Romans 3:23) so Jesus came and paid the price by the shedding of his blood on the cross to take away our sins (1 Peter 2:24). He then rose again and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Acts 2:33), when we trust in him we have eternal life which starts now (1 Timothy 6:12) and he sends the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33) to enable us to live lives that are both holy (Ephesians 1:4) and a demonstration of his power on earth (Acts 1:8).

There was only one bell, not many. Unity in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24) is very powerful. God is calling us to live in unity as Christians. To come together in worship, humility, prayer and intercession as a united people. ‘If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.’ 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NRSV). In past revivals God has moved because of the prayers of a few, this time I feel he wants more of his people praying in faith for him to move in power and reveal his glory. Are we prepared to come before him as a humble people united in prayer?

 Faced not Dressed Stones.

The fact that the stones were faced but not dressed is in fact significant. In the Old Testament God told Moses, ‘But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it.’ Exodus 20:25 (NRSV). This was one thing that separated an altar to the Lord from an altar to a false god, as their altars were generally made from dressed stones.

We are all different, like the stones being used to build the church building. We are to be in unity, but not uniformity. We are to celebrate our differences and be the individuals God wants us to be, then we will truly all fit together as he builds us into his church.

The visible stones were faced. In the past many people in churches have been taught not to reveal their struggles, but God is calling us to be honest. We can neither fool him, nor non-Christians with our religiosity, they see straight through it as easily as God does. In fact hypocrisy switches non-Christians off very quickly and is very bad witness, and it is one thing that makes God very angry as it is spiritual pride! We need to ask him to help us to be real, both with him and with all others whether they are Christians or non-Christians. Faced stones also look clean and fresh, we need to let Jesus knock off anything that will get in the way of his light shining through us.

 All important.

Not all of the stones were visible, but the hidden stones used for packing are incredibly important in the making of a dry-stone wall. This is also true in the church. As Paul says ‘the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect’ 1 Corinthians 12:22-23 (NRSV). We need to learn to raise up the encouragers, the intercessors, those with administrative and practical gifts so that their service is a joy not a burden as can often be the case because they are the lifeblood of the church and are central to its stability.

Jesus is building his church, and we are the living stones being built into its structure (1 Peter 2:5), although the vision I saw was of a physical structure it represents the spiritual structure of the church. Let’s be the church that Jesus has called us to be!

My Vision for Prayer #1 – Supporting Others in Prayer

This is the start of yet another occasional series of posts on my website.  In this series I shall be outlining the vision that God has given me for prayer in the UK.

In the near future I shall be setting up two ministries, Kingdom Prayer Ministries (KPM), and the Kingdom Prayer Leaders Network (KPLN).  In these posts I shall be sharing different aspects of those visions which will aim to grow and promote both personal (KPM) and corporate church based prayer (KPLN).  The ministries will provide teaching and consultancy, but one most important function, will be to connect churches, individuals and ministries to grow each other in prayer and to provide and encourage prayer support for other ministries, in whatever way I can.

A few weeks ago I got a request from Steve Mullins of Dry Bones Trust and Now Is The Time … to write a prayer partners page for his website.  If you do not know him, and have not heard of him then I recommend you to go and have a look at both websites.  He is an evangelist with a heart for the lost both in the UK and abroad, and in this country he knows that this is God’s prophetic time for the Christians in this land to rise up and to take hold of the promises that God has given for revival.

This request really encouraged me, so I said ‘Yes!’.  At first I thought it wouldn’t take too long, but when I started praying about it that I knew it was going to take longer than I thought.  Why?

• Because I was writing the prayer outline for someone elses site, so I needed to be sure the outline would work and would fit in with the focus and style of the rest of the site.
• Because unlike the prayer meeting outlines I write for Kingdom Revival Prayer that prayer outline was not going to be transitory aimed to be prayed through for one meeting, but to be used more than once and part of the site for a longer period.
• Because I needed to be certain that the outline would work and flow naturally so anyone could use it for personal prayer, or for leading corporate prayer easily even if they have little experience.

So I sought God about the Scriptures to base the outline upon, as I find using Scriptures as a basis for prayer is very powerful, which I then applied to Steve and to the vision of the ‘Now Is The Time…’.  My next step was to pray through the whole outline to see how well it worked as a basis for prayer.  As the outline worked I then sent my first draft to Steve, and after a few changes it was ready!  If you want to see the final version here is the link, Prayer Partners.  Please use it for praying for Steve, and for other evangelists that you know, as the beauty of a prayer outline is that they are infinitely adaptable, and you are also praying in unity with other Christians even if the details are different, as you are asking about the same things.

This is just one way of supporting other ministries in prayer.  Other ways I shall seek to do this will be backstage prayer teams, other ways such as offering training tailored to supporting their work, raising up people to pray, or helping them to improve their own prayer network.  Basically, I will try to help in whatever way I can to support their ministry through prayer, by praying myself, and by raising up others to pray.

How has God called you to pray for, encourage and serve others that serve the Lord?  We are all called to full-time ministry for God and to be people of prayer, some get paid for it, some have no salary at all, and others have another employer.  How can we use our own gifts and callings to promote the gifts and callings of others?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this, or about anything else I have shared on this page. God Bless You All, Amen!

Two Visions of Jesus – Like Revelation 1 and Commissioned by Jesus

About four months after I became a Christian, I had two visions within a short space of time.  You may ask whether these visions were in or out of the body.  Paul says (though speaking in the third person, he is probably talking about himself), ‘whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows’ (1 Corinthians 12:2 NRSV).  If it was not important to Paul then neither should it be important to us, and to be honest I don’t know, but I do know that I was there physically in both cases and that God knows even if I don’t!

By sharing these visions in this blog post I am sharing something that is very personal to me.  When I first had the visions I did share them, but most people did not seem to be able to comprehend what I was talking about and if anything gave me strange looks, or just had glazed expressions since they could not get their heads round it.  As I result I went for many years not sharing these visions, now I understand more that visions in general are well beyond many Christians experience, which is why in my post Ezekiel 1:26-28 – A Vision of The Glory Of God I talk about how ‘like’ is used a lot as you try to describe the heavenly in earthly terms.

In the first vision, I saw Jesus glorified, almost identical to the vision of Jesus that John saw in the book of Revelation.

‘and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed in a long robe and with a gold sash across his chest.  His head and has hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like flames of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.  In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.  When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.’  (Revelation 1:13-17a NRSV)

As I have already said my vision was almost identical to that of John, but not quite.  I only saw Jesus, I did not see any candlesticks or stars.  I saw Jesus glorified as John described with his voice like many waters, which I visually saw like transverse waves coming out from his mouth and spreading out.  I did not however see the two-edged sword come out of his mouth, but next to him.

I was in a time of prayer when I saw the vision, and like John I also had the same reaction, I fell as dead before Jesus, I lay prostrate on my bed unable to move for about 4 hours.  The first prophetic word I had given a month or so earlier was of a picture I saw of Jesus saying, ‘Come to me’.  Jesus in this picture had been gentle, and was asking us to draw closer to him.  In this vision however I saw another side of Jesus.  This was Jesus glorified, he was almighty and all-powerful, this was no gentle Jesus meek and mild, but Jesus as he will be when he comes to judge the world.

Whenever I think of this vision I am still filled with holy fear, Jesus is not to be messed with!  He is our best friend, but he is also our Lord, our King and most of all our God and we should never forget that.

In the second vision I was among a crowd of worshippers and was commissioned by Jesus.

In the second vision I was kneeling near what was like an altar in a church, behind me there were crowds of people as far as the eye could see worshipping and praising God.  Jesus came to me, he anointed me placing his hands upon my head and spoke one word to me, ‘Go!’.  My reaction to this vision was the same as the first, I was prostrate in worship and unable to move.

At the time, I did not really understand what this vision meant, but now I do understand it.  Jesus is saying that it is he who has:

• Called me – I was there with him and not with the rest of the worshippers because he wanted me to be there.  Jesus has called me to a close walk with him;
• Anointed me – It was Jesus who was anointing and enabling me, not anyone else.  After all, it is Jesus who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit, and I was baptised in the Spirit on conversion (read Prayer is … #1 Adventure for more information);
• Commissioned me – Jesus has sent me out to work in his church, and now I know in what way.  I have always known that my heart is primarily in this country, and that I have always had a focus on church, up until now I always assumed that would be on one local church, but now I know that God is calling me to itinerate ministry to the whole church.  What God is calling me to do is to grow prayer, both personal and corporate prayer in churches.  I will share more about that in the future.