Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead. Johsua 6:4, 5. These are the trumpet blasts of faith that precede miracles and deliverance.
Another reference to the purpose of the trumpets is found in Ezekiel 33:1–7: And the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman; and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’ Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me.
When God gives a gift and brings a ministry as He has brought the great prophetic flow to this body of people in the end time, it is not just an optional luxury that you use occasionally, but prophecy becomes a distinct weapon in your hand—a weapon of warning by which people who hear it will be spared, but those who don’t hear, will be swept away in the tribulations and judgments.
So prophesy the word of the Lord; and when you come to the walls that seem to be impregnable you shall stand before them and still prophesy. You may have wandered around them for days on end, yet there comes that moment when you stand and the priests of God blow the trumpets and the shout of faith is heard and the walls fall flat.
Prophecy serves a dual purpose in this hour. It brings exhortation and warning, as it reveals the very thoughts and intents of men’s hearts so they will fall down and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed (I Corinthians 14:25). They will know that the words are coming from God, for those prophecies have read the very secrets of their heart. Prophecy can also be the voicing of faith in an utterance prompted by the Spirit. The faith is in your heart and it comes forth—not just as a voluntary utterance of your own mouth, but as an impelling flow by the Holy Spirit—voicing and putting into specific words the things, that God purposes to do for His people. You can come against the power of Satan and prophesy against it; against the walls of Babylon and prophesy against them; against all the things that seem to have frozen the circumstances in your life to make you spiritually immobile and unable to function or move out of them. You can stand and prophesy until the viper is shaken off into the fire, until the chains are loosed, until the people of God go free.
Prophesy the word of the Lord. You can prophesy and change a hopeless situation. You can stand like Ezekiel, looking out over a valley full of bones, and prophesy until an exceeding great army comes forth out of those bones—the army of the Lord standing to do the will of the Lord. In this hour God isn’t looking around for people who are select material. He’s looking for the lame, the halt, and the blind. You can bring in the most hopeless mental, moral, and spiritual cripples in the world, and when you prophesy to them and speak this living word to them they will change.
There is more involved now than just keeping the Feast of Tabernacles for a night or two. This Feast of Tabernacles speaks of a period upon the earth in this endtime. The trumpets are sounding, heralding the end of one dispensation, declaring war, saying, “O people arise, the culmination of the conflict of the ages is upon us and we’re seeing the final defeat of Satan.” In this generation he can be thrown into the bottomless pit. This generation will see the spirit world purged out as the demons shriek and groan knowing that their time has come to enter into the torment reserved for them.
This is a time as never before, that we need to hear the prophecies and we need to prophesy. Don’t think of it as a little insignificant activity. How easy it would be to disregard the exhortation of the Scriptures, Dispise not prophesyings. I Thessalonians 5:20. It is easy to listen to prophecy and say, “What is that? What good is it?” As the prophecy comes it takes people who are frozen in their spirits, frozen in their very personalities and bound by habits, and somehow it begins to loosen everything that has prevented their change. How can we change until a word comes from the Lord? Now we are clean through the word which the Lord speaks to us (John 15:3); we are released in the name of the Lord to enter into that which God has provided for us.
More and more we need to see the anointing of the Lord come, that the preaching of the Word might give way to a prophetic exposition, until every word is born of the Spirit of the Lord and flows. In this day we’re going to be a product of God’s creativity and it will come by prophecy. When God wants to bring something forth He says, “Let there be!” and it comes forth. When He looks upon it He sees that it is very good. When God prophesies to you He’ll bring you forth and say, “Let this people be My people. Let them be My mouthpiece, My hands, My body” and it shall be. He will look upon His handiwork and say, “It is very good.”