An Approaching Moment of Singularity

I listened to an interview with a scientist describing the concept of Singularity. Singularity is a moment in history when seemingly disconnected events happen at the same time with such rapidity, they seem to the human mind as a single event. It would be like all the scientific and technological advancements made in the last 100 years happening in a single moment. It will be an overwhelming experience to a mind not accustomed to such rapid revelation.

A moment in human history is approaching that will challenge our understanding of life and how the future will unfold. When this time comes, the Lord will be the only safe harbor as these events unfold, seemingly out of control. 

This is not another end-times scenario. It is a moment of transition where the Church will be revived and reformed to engage culture with hope and offer solutions that will solve many of the struggles faced by humanity. The opportunity these events offer will become gateways into Ephesians 3:20 moments in human history where God will accomplish more than we could imagine. These events will lead us to a hope-filled future.

On the world stage, events are beginning to cluster into what will become a moment of singularity. The prophets have spoken of these events many times but as isolated revelations. A moment of singularity is being formed that will bring together the fulfillment of multiple prophecies that seemed wild and questionable at the time of their initial delivery. This single moment of mass fulfillment will create confusion and in some cases, delusion for many whose eyes are not focused on the Lord, even among those whose faith appeared strong in the past.

 

As this moment of singularity appears, there will be only one way to survive emotionally and spiritually. As the psalmist said, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8). As the world shakes in a moment of unexpected singularity, we have an opportunity to live with an unshakeable faith in the One who is never shaken by the turmoil and transitions of humanity.

 

A Voice Without Compromise

There is such a thing as a healthy compromise. This is a meeting where two opposing parties step over existing prohibitions and warnings and try to work things out no matter what the cost might be to them personally.  Compromise becomes unhealthy when we filter our obedience through “what will so-and-so think?” or “how will this affect my standing in the group?” 

When the issues of life become emotionally over-heated, and opinions are being expressed at warp speed 24/7, it becomes too easy to compromise the prophetic nature of our voice. This happens when we silence our voice out of self-protection. 

We all have access to prophetic content. This content is not reserved only for those who might call themselves prophets or have a ministry with a public presence. A prophetic voice belongs to each and every member of the Church. Prophecy is no respecter of people, position, or title. 

In the coming days, when many repetitive “prophetic” clichés have run their course to no avail, and few are willing to break free from a place of unhealthy compromise and self-protection, we will begin to hear new voices emerge. These new voices will rise and begin speak with a clarity that only comes when someone is so sold out to the Lord and His truth, they have nothing left to lose.  

Erased Lives

Something unusual just happened. I was putting the final touches on a word I wanted to post on my blog and social media accounts when my cursor began to backspace uncontrollably deleting everything I had written. It was like the Pac-Man icon on steroids. I frantically punched every key I could think of to stop the carnage. It was too late. My cursor backspaced and consumed each word I had written. I was left with an empty word document.

Immediately, I tried to recapture my thoughts and rewrite the story. As soon as I began to type the article a second time, the Lord spoke.

“Do not try to rewrite the story at this time. That will come later. I want you to use the erasure to speak to some of my loved ones who feel like the prepared script of their life has been erased through human failure. Talk to them. Give them hope. Tell them I am about to write a new script for their life to replace what was lost. The rewrite will be better than the original.  I have each erased word held securely in my heart. Nothing has been lost.”

Pioneers, Prophets and Forerunners

If you are a pioneer, prophet or forerunner, you will see and hear things long before they appear in the cultural dialogue. You may even write or speak about these things, but at the time you shared them, there seemed to be no widespread understanding or acceptance. 

When the time comes for the fulfillment of these insights and others reveal them as words unique to them, be careful. It is too easy to demand a personal footnote be placed on their insight noting you as the originator of the thought or prophetic word. 

Never forget these revelations were a gift to you as they are to those who may seem to now be parroting your original content. These moments are integrity checks. Pass them in humility and the Lord will reveal even deeper secrets of His Kingdom to you. In the end, no one should ever claim originality because everything we have comes from the hand of God.

Why We Prophesy

The most significant message delivered in a prophetic word is hope, not a prediction or the revelation of a previously unknown fact. We seem to rate the ability to declare hidden things like dates, names and what might happen in the future as more significant. While those are truly astounding, they only gain our attention so that a word of hope can be spoken. Predictions and special revelations are only vehicles, not the message.

A prophetic word empowered by the Spirit will engage a person or a culture with a message that with God, hope for change is always possible. Words of hope have the power to adjust our way of thinking to believe that something new and previously unimagined could actually become a reality.

A message of hope is easily criticized because it does not seem theatric. A message of hope is typically attacked by frustrated cynics or angry critics. When this happens, don’t lose your hope and allow your voice to become silent. Continue to speak words of hope. In the end, hope will declare the way forward and hope-speakers will become the prophets of a new day.

Prophesy hope to 2018!

Changing Our Delivery

There are times when a fresh revelation comes not by changing the substance of the message but by simply changing the way a message is delivered. This is not a neurotic attempt to always be hip or relevant. Neither is it living imprisoned in the assumptions of the past. It is being in step with the Spirit in each and every season of life. 

Overly familiar sounding prophetic church-speak spoken again and again in monotone-like expressions can actually deafen the ear of the hearer to the message you want to bring. Always be willing to break free from the lockstep of the existing style and sound to deliver a fresh revelation as directed by God's Spirit. The Spirit knows how to speak to the culture in a way that is easily understood if we are willing to become the creative mouthpiece of Heaven.

We are not called to always preach in the language of the choir. Culture is waiting to hear the message of prophets who are willing to break rank with the predictable sounds of the past to prophesy a new future delivered fresh from the courts of Heaven. 

When this new way of communication is released, two uprisings will take place. Those numbed into a state of deafness by the dated sounds of the past will rise up to challenge the integrity of the new sound. Those who were able to hear the message will rise to its challenge and move the Church forward into new territory. You were called to be part of the later uprising.

Riding the Rocket of Revelation

There are times when God will give you a word loaded with such power and potential, it feels like you are riding a rocket. At the moment of your launch, you begin to realize you are heading toward a target much larger than you first imagined. As the distance closes between the word and its final destination, anticipation begins to build as you come to realize God is up to something spectacular, something far beyond what you dared to hope for or even consider in prayer.

You are not responsible for the ultimate delivery of a word God launches toward a human heart. God has a supernatural guidance system built into each word He has you release. It will arrive and perform its assigned task. He also has the ability to take the word you prophesied in part and add it to a much larger revelation. He will rearrange the content of your word to fit through the narrow opening of a wounded heart and a protected human will.

In natural conflict, there is something called, “Collateral Damage.”  This damage brings unwanted death and destruction beyond the intended target. In God’s Kingdom just the opposite takes place. The word you speak will release collateral life upon detonation. You may think you are speaking to a single person or group but when the word lands and explodes it will release the tremors of resurrection life. What was dead will come to life. What was not yet imagined will appear. To set this miraculous process in motion requires your willingness to speak the word God gives you and the willingness to ride that word in faith toward its intended target. There are explosions of love on your horizon. Enjoy the ride!

A New Prophetic Movement

The Lord said to me there is a new prophetic movement emerging. These are people who are not impressed with what has become of the most visible parts of the prophetic movement. Behind the bright advertisements, the titles and the garish flash of unleashed promotion stands a new generation of prophets and people who want to explore the depths of this profound gift. God is raising them up to change the face of the prophetic movement so that the message of God’s love is able to impact its intended audience in ever-increasing circles of influence.

What's That Sound?

As a teenager growing up in the 1960’s, I remember the great folk-rock classics of that era. I can still sing many of those songs from memory. One song that always created an emotional response in me was written by Stephen Stills and performed by Buffalo Springfield. It was titled, For What It’s Worth. One line in the song seems have been prophetic to that time and for the time in which we now live.

“It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound everybody look what's going down.”

A lot is going down at this time in our history. It is today as it was in the 60’s. Cultural battle lines are being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong. Young people are speaking their mind. Paranoia is striking deep into the hearts of people. In the middle of all of this cultural upheaval, the Spirit is making the sound of reformation in the Church.

We are standing on the threshold of a doorway into a future we never thought possible. We are being invited into something new. Our admission ticket will be empty hands and willing hearts.

Those who hear and heed the new sound the Spirit is making will enter into a place of relevance and manifestation that Paul wrote about in Ephesians 3:20 - a place where things will take place beyond our wildest imagination and our craziest sounding prayer. The coming reformation of the Church belongs to those with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying in this moment of history. There’s something happening here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIoKr9VDg3A

You Will Pass The Test

This morning, I recalled something that took place 40 years ago. I had just awakened and was turning on the coffee maker getting ready for a morning of writing when the memory paid a visit.  When the memory came a word I believe may apply to some of you.

Forty years ago, I was interviewing for a job. The interview took place in a boardroom of a city hall. My interviewers sat along the sides of a large rectangular oak table that was about 20 feet long. The person leading the interview team sat at the opposite end of the table from me.  The room was sterile and very clean. Nothing was out of place.

When I sat down I saw a single paper clip. It was placed right in front of me on the table where my hands would rest during the interview. The paper clip was out of place in such a pristine environment. Nothing else was on top of the table. Immediately, I knew the paper clip was a test. It was placed there to see if I would pick it up and play with it during the interview as a form of nervous relief.

As soon as I sat down, I reached out and slid the paper clip into the middle of the table while looking the primary interviewer in the eyes as he watched me from his seat at the opposite end of the table. As I slowly pushed the paper clip out of reach, I gave him a barely perceptible smile. I did this to let him know I knew what was taking place. He smiled in return knowing I had discovered the test. The mood of the interview changed. I got the job.

As I mentioned earlier, when the Lord brought this memory back to me He also shared a word of encouragement I want to share with some of you to whom this word might apply. The Lord said, “I have given you the discernment required to navigate a coming moment of questioning. The questioning is a test. It is a gate you must pass through in order to receive what I have prepared. You do not have to worry. No trap placed in front of you will remain hidden. I will reveal to you what is taking place. That revelation will release the favor you need to move forward.”

The Lord has your back. He has gone ahead of you and prepared the way for whatever is coming. Do not try to prepare in your flesh. This will be a work of God’s Spirit. The Spirit will direct your steps. Trust Him.

A New Vocabulary for a New Season

Each new season of life and ministry will create a new form of language. Learning a new language will require a new vocabulary from which to draw our definitions. God releases this new vocabulary to help us define what He is about to release. The introduction of a new vocabulary creates hope and anticipation of what is to come.  

Seasons of transformation are preceded by a new sound. On the Day of Pentecost, a sound was heard like a mighty rushing wind. Riding on that wind was a new vocabulary for a New Covenant. That new vocabulary was used by the early disciples – the first new creations - to define the beginning of something so strange and unusual that before the wind came it would have seemed as if the hearers were listening to a foreign and undiscernable language.  When God sends us a new vocabulary He will also send us a fresh understanding. Ask God to help you hear the new sound of His Spirit. That sound will carry with it the vocabulary of revival and reformation.

"Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!" Matthew 11:15

Divine Reconnections

Unexpected greetings from the past will arrive to build your faith and reconnect you to old relationships you had long forgotten. God has a purpose in these reconnections and that purpose will be revealed in the coming season of your life.

A few minutes ago, I reached for an old Hebrew language reference book to research a word. There in the middle of the pages was a note typed on a typewriter. The paper was beginning to brown with age. It was written by one of my college roommates from my freshman year at Multnomah School of the Bible, now known as Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon. Three of us shared a cold, damp basement without a bathroom. The single bathroom available to us was upstairs and available if our landlords were home. If the house was locked the campus was a 5-minute jog away.

In the birthday card were typed the words, “"I pray that you will have many more birthdays and that the Lord will make you the most happy man that has ever lived on the face of this earth." After reading those words, I searched and found my old roommate on Facebook. I sent him a message and released his blessing back to him for his life. I hope he has lived the kind of life he prophesied over me. His words have become my life. I am truly a happy man.

Divine reconnections are being released. Some of these will be from relationships you have not considered for many years. These divine reconnections will have hidden purposes that will be revealed at this time in your life. God will make these reconnections through situations as simple as a forgotten note written 47 years ago and kept safe between the pages of a dusty book for this moment in time.

Where Do You Fit?

Have you ever wondered where you fit in the larger picture and function of the Church? You were wired a certain way by God to do unique things in the Kingdom. If you are one who is called to equip the Church to do the work of the ministry here is a simple way to see the five gifts Paul described in Ephesians 4.

Apostles receive the download of a heavenly blueprint.

Prophets announce the blueprint.

Evangelists recruit people to the blueprint.

Pastors create the environment where the blueprint can grow and flourish.

Teachers expand and teach each element of the blueprint.

Over time you may carry a dominant equipping gift and actually be known in the Church for the function of that gift. In reality, there may be times when you might function in several of these gifts at the same time depending on how God chooses to use you in a particular season of life.

Paul said the functioning of the five equipping gifts matures the Church and allows her to stand in her full stature. As a result of the harmonious function of these gifts, we will no longer be tossed about by divisive teaching and unstable influences.

Paul ends his treatise on the subject by revealing one of the goals of this equipping, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love.” The full manifestation of a group of people equipped to do the work of the ministry is not the mechanics or style of ministry. It is each part speaking the truth of God with a heart of love to each other and to the surrounding culture.  The sound of that united voice will reveal the life of Jesus expressed through a fully equipped and mature Church. That is is how the original heavenly blueprint is supposed to look and sound when revealed on Earth.  Paul described that image as, “growing in every way more and more like Christ.” 

When Jesus gave the equipping gifts to the Church He gave those gifts to help us stand in culture as a flesh and blood representation of His life. That is the ultimate goal of a fully functioning blueprint made possible by the recognition and release of the five equipping gifts.