After many years of walking with the Lord together and hearing His truths, we are being confronted with the realization that now we will either obtain what we came into this for, or we will not! If we are going to obtain it, it will require drastic measures on all of our part, because the battle against our obtaining it is so intense. When the war is on, no one lives a luxurious, serene life. It is amazing how our lives then are all leveled to the same ground; all of us must fight through the demonic resistance to obtain what God has promised.
Many changes must take place, but first the right atmosphere has to be created. There must be first an understanding in your heart of what God is speaking. The proper climate for change cannot be established unless you have a hearing ear. Do you know the standard by which you can determine whether or not you have heard the Word? It is this: If there is chaos in your life, you have heard it. That may sound amusing, but as anyone who has been there can tell you, it is not funny; there is no humor in it at all.
The account in Genesis of the creation of the earth begins, “And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” It was in this chaos that God spoke (Genesis 1:2–3). Because the Spirit was brooding over the surface of that chaos, when God spoke, a new creation came forth. It is in chaos that God is also speaking now. When God wants to create something, when He wants to bring forth new life, a new level, He first must bring an awareness of futility, an awareness of chaos. You may feel, “But we have been walking with God for all of these years!” Then by now you should recognize, if you have learned anything at all, that with each succeeding level you move into, God must create a chaos condition before He can bring forth that new level.
I have had an amazing witness that in every local assembly that comes into a walk with God, everything is moving exactly according to this pattern: first chaos, then creation.
You may not yet really understand this, but you will. You may have heard some speak of their experiences in this regard without understanding what they were talking about. We sent the Word over there to another church to deliver them from their idols, and they came back here to deliver us from ours!”
It is so important that the Lord meet you, that you understand the dealings and the purposes of God in what is happening to you . Since then hundreds of messages have come, and not one of them has failed to prepare you for this hour. Every one of those messages has prepared you. Yet even with all that Word, all the prophecies, all the dealings, and everything we subsequently went through, it will still be difficult for people to hear what the Lord is telling us.
Everyone is being devastated. People are being devastated by the leaders, and the leaders are being devastated by the people. God spoke a Word, and as a result many troubles and problems are surfacing; but there were none that had not been there all along. What God is doing is very significant; there is more judgment in our midst than we realize. This is why God keeps impressing upon us the importance of this Passover admonition: Get rid of the leaven (Exodus 12:15; 1 Corinthians 5:6–8). Get rid of it!
While there has been heartsearching, there has also been much insecurity, much confusion, much input of the enemy which has worked against the churches and their pastors. God is breaking that down, completely and utterly. For this reason, if a ministry has been commissioned and sent to a church (even for a short time) and he has a burden for it, he will continue to have a place—not a position, but rather a place of deep spiritual significance far beyond that of position—in seeing the will of God come to pass in that church. This is true for me; God always gives me a Word for every local church I visit. I feel that I can never be cut off from them. I am bonded to each group of believers by the Word that God has given to them.
Are you determined to walk in the next step? What if it devastates your church? I give you the same counsel that I gave to a brother years ago when he was a leader in a denominational church, and everyone there was upset because we had just come into this walk with the Lord: “Just hold steady.” There was such a bond and so much love that he just held steady. (Subsequently he became one of the first among us whom God commissioned to apostleship.) Hold steady. Do not make a decision. You do not understand this next step? Hold steady. Are you fearful of what will happen? Just hold steady.
We are concerned that none of us miss what God is about to do. You may say, “But I have failed!” Do not move into this next step with any condemnation (Romans 8:1). You are still walking with the Lord; that is all that matters. The fact that you have failed does not matter; get rid of your self-condemnation. If you stumbled and you are still down, get up on your feet! If you think instead that you did a good job, forget that too. There is nothing that we can boast about, but at least we are still here. Nothing has happened to us that should not have happened. Let’s get ready to move. Now we are preparing for one thing: We were raised up to walk with God in this hour. We did not come into this only to have our heart’s cry, our hunger, our yearning, our walking through the heat of the day go unfulfilled. It has not been in vain! (Ephesians 2:8–10.) We have come to the hour of fulfillment.
What is happening to us? I do not think we can evaluate it yet. The Lord has put it upon my heart that to initiate this new level, we should start by laying hands on the leaders. How do you prepare yourself for the coming breakthrough? Search out the leaven. God will meet your heart (I Corinthians 5:6–8). Everything will change; that you can be assured of.
In fact, everything has already changed. Take your “glasses” off and “clean” them; things will look different. This is a sunrise on a whole new day. The day may be dawning with clouds, but before it is over, we will see that this is the day of the Lord (Joel 2:1–2; Zephaniah 1:14–16). We are into the days of the Kingdom. We are deep into the Parousia. We are further into this than we know. Already tribulation is sweeping over the earth. There is nothing that man can work, nor is there any mechanization by which man can preserve this dying age any longer.
The times of the Gentiles ended when Jerusalem was taken over by Israel in 1948. Luke 21:24 tells us, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Since 1948 we have been in an overlapping period between the times of the Gentiles and the Kingdom. God does not always move quickly; but when He does move, it is deadly, and it is irrevocable. We are in a new age. The times of the Gentiles is over. Everything will change. Every empire will come down. Every kingdom will come down (Haggai 2:22). The Lord alone will be exalted in this day (Isaiah 2:11).
For several decades we have been taught about the signs of the times. We must go back to the Word again, because it tells of amazing signs which are coming forth now; they show us where we are. And the Word will help us not to be afraid, not to be fearful, not to worry about what takes place around us. Walk with God. If there was ever a time when it is imperative for you to go back to the Word, it is now. You should also go back to the Word of the Lord over one another. If you are having problems with what you see in a brother, you will have to find out what God first said over him, and what He is still saying over him. The Word of God over a man’s life is all that really counts. If you are having problems understanding where you are, then review what the Lord said over you. When you find the Word of God over your life, you find yourself. You will also find out what this walk with the Lord is all about when you go back and review what God said about it.
There is nothing that you can judge by appearances any longer (John 7:24). You cannot even judge what God is doing to you, because He comes to you looking like your enemy (Joshua 5:13–15). Meanwhile the devil also comes to you, looking like a very religious angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14). “Woe unto the land when they call evil good, and good evil,” as the prophet Isaiah said (Isaiah 5:20–23). We are in that time now! You may feel that for your own survival, you must look at things as they are and judge them. If you do that, you will be dead. Do you know why? Satan will feed you a lie; and by the time you have finished processing it through your mind, you will believe that lie (John 8:43–44). With every subsequent input from the enemy, you will become further conditioned, and you will back further away from what the Lord is saying.
You may say, “But it is not the enemy; the problem is just me. I have failed.” Then God did a good thing within you in causing that sin—your lust, your bitterness, your pride, your greed, your sensitivity, or whatever—to surface so that it can be dealt with. Do not evade these things. Make them an issue so that you will believe for the blood of Jesus Christ to work a Passover deliverance for you, a release for your spirit like you have never known before (I Corinthians 5:7–8). We will get out of Egypt, but we will do more than that; we will get Egypt out of us. We will not walk with defilement into a new age. Christ will have a Church “without spot or wrinkle” (Ephesians 5:27). “Many will be purified and made white” (Daniel 12:10). “Every man who has this hope within him purifies himself” (I John 3:3). Many Scriptures tell us of the requirements for entering the Kingdom. When you read them, you will find that there is one thing you can be sure of: Whatever God winked at in the past, you had better get rid of it now (Acts 17:30–31).
Get out your Bible and read Matthew 25. You will discover that everything that points toward mercy, long-suffering, and grace takes a new turn now at the threshold of the Kingdom. You may protest, “But that cannot apply to me. I believe that the Lord is coming; I am one of the ‘virgins.’ ” But even among the virgins, there were five foolish ones who were not prepared (verses 1–12). “Well, what did I do wrong?” You did not clothe Him; you did not feed Him; when He was in prison, you did not visit Him. “When did all of this happen?” When you failed to see Christ in your brother (verses 41–45). One thing about a goat is that it is not perceptive. We will reach a certain day when suddenly the sheep are separated from the goats (verse 32). Everyone will be judged on the basis of these Words about the Kingdom. You say, “Then quick! Preach to us and teach us!” No; I have already given you the teaching. Look back at all the messages that have come, filled with that Word. You have had nothing ministered to you as faithfully as this Word. What can you do to catch up? It need not take you long; all you have to do is open up now and say, “Lord, what is it that I am not seeing? Whatever I am not seeing clearly, You show me” (Revelation 3:18).
The first thing you must see is that the Church Age is giving way to the Kingdom Age; and you had better see it quick. There is nothing working for any pastor, there is nothing working for the elders, there is nothing working for the local New Testament churches any longer in the same way it once did. Why?
Unless the focus and the emphasis shift to the Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you will find that some of these local churches will irrevocably become just another locked-in denomination. They will be just as dead as the synagogue was by 100 A.D.; an age came and went, and they missed it. Let us not miss this new age now. Let us keep our hearts open.
Why are we so imperceptive when it comes to understanding things about ourselves? When we go through something, often we have no idea what God is trying to say to us. We say, “I don’t get what’s going on! I just don’t understand!” Then, maybe five years later, “Ahaaa! Finally, I get it.”
I went through a time of severe dealings and devastation. Then the Lord deeply met me and ushered me into a whole new walk with Him. But the Lord keeps repeating that same process. Was I clever enough the next time to realize what God was doing? No; I reacted to the devastation by protesting, the same as before.
But like all of us, I finally reached the place where I found myself saying, “God, please forgive me. Don’t listen to what I am saying. Don’t listen to what I just thought, Lord, please! Rub it out! Only see my heart. I love You. Lead me on.” Out of this last devastation has come the greatest visitation yet. Devastation and visitation are actually very similar; they are only spelled differently!
Perhaps you still do not quite understand what I am talking about. You may be wondering, for example, “Exactly what is this concept of exploding and destroying position? What exactly is God trying to do? What is this humbling process all about? What is the purpose of God in almost setting brother against brother? (Luke 12:53.) What is the Lord actually doing when the Word says that He is coming to bring fire upon the earth? (Luke 12:49.) What is the Lord doing in turning people almost against one another?” (Luke 12:51.) If you want to understand it, ask the Lord to make it real to you. The understanding can come only by revelation.
We have received Word after Word with this one emphasis: “Relate and communicate, be one; relate, communicate, be one.”
The Lord must devastate the human effort in order to fulfill His will. If the Lord tells us to be one, it will not happen by our organizing ourselves to become one; it is a matter of Spirit (Galatians 3:1–3). Now we are truly coming into that oneness. We are now one with Brazil, one with the Hawaiian Islands, one with Canada.
Pray, “Lord, just grant this to me—not because of what I deserve or do not deserve—that You open my heart to a new level of revelation. Open my heart to see what You are doing. It may be devastating, but I can receive it, Lord. I will not fight You. I will not be rebellious. You have brought me this far; now open the door of my heart, open the door of my understanding, open my spirit (Ephesians 1:18–19). I want to see what You are doing in the earth. I want to hear what You are bringing forth.” The Lord will open the hearts of all His people. A few have drifted away, but God can lead them back. Perhaps they drifted off because their hearts were insensitive to what God was saying. Maybe they never received a revelation of this walk with God. Perhaps for years they failed to hear what God was really saying; this does not mean that God cannot still speak to them. It is roundup time! If God has put His brand on them, get ready—believe that He will bring them back.
Open your heart. Reach into the Spirit of the Lord. This is a new day! A new day! We have said all along that this is a new day; now it is evident. Realize that. It has been a new day since the very beginning of this end-time move of God, but a new day or age has an overlapping quality. There is a moment of time just before sunrise in which you ask, “Is this still night, or is it day?” The “evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:5). The morning star, the day star of hope, has risen in our hearts (II Peter 1:19). The new day is coming forth. We are in it!
Recognize this day of revelation. Take this anointing to perceive. Refuse to be blinded any longer. It may be a while before all of us move in, but we will be patient. We will pray. We will help one another. We will not judge one another. We will have no more class distinctions, no more wide disparity of spiritual levels, no more judging who is truly walking with God and who is not. The “walk” does not mean much anymore; the Kingdom is coming! Some may protest, “But that church over there is way behind the rest of us!” Then blessed be that church, because “the first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Matthew 20:16). This is a time of leveling.
Open your hearts. Nothing that God has set before us is as great as this reviving of hopes and expectancy that is taking place. It is something alive, leaping within us. Even when we walk into a period of devastation, we have that burning witness within our hearts that says, “The Lord is coming!” It is His presence—He is with us right now.
What will happen? God will move throughout the continent, laying a firm foundation and establishing strong local assemblies all along the eastern seaboard, down through the Midwest from Canada to the South, and all along the West Coast. What are those groups to be? Simply little stations created by God to sound forth His Word, to utter His voice before His camp, bringing everyone in (Joel 2:11; Romans 10:18). Watch God move! I am not referring to success in numbers of people; I am referring to establishing His Lordship. God will get the job finished. Every knee will bow! Every tongue will confess that He is Lord (Philippians 2:10–11). No tongue will confess to a man’s place or position. If you think you are something, stand corrected: the day is upon us in which we are nothing and He is everything (John 3:30). Open your heart to it.
Do you think that you have already been humbled by the Lord? You may not even know the definition of the word yet! Some of you will have to look up a hundred miles to see the bottom. The Lord is devastating us! Take it! Do you realize how fortunate you are to be receiving this Living Word? This is a dispensational time (Ephesians 1:10).
The purity of the early Church began to decline with the establishment of ecclesiastical positions. The Kingdom will come forth as those positions—Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise—are destroyed and we are all brethren. Blessed are the spiritual fathers when their sons call them “brother” (Kingdom Proverb), when there is no difference, no position (Matthew 23:8–12), when we are all brethren. Let the old rejoice! Those of you who feel, “I am older in this walk with the Lord; I deserve more respect” should reconsider your position, lest we carry your bones with us back to Canaan (Genesis 50:25).
This is a day of great release because the Lord’s presence hovers so close to us. A new level in the Spirit is opening up to us. We must break into it. The Word is hitting you again and again until you break in your spirit. Everything is surfacing. Have you wondered why you are experiencing so much contention in relationships? Problems are surfacing so that God can deal with them. Have you wondered why sometimes, practically overnight, illness almost like a plague hits you? Physical weaknesses are being assaulted through demonic transference. Even where there is no weakness, transference can bring physical assault. Emotions arise to create alarming disturbances. This is the threshing floor; our “cart” too is being shaken, and we must go back to the divine order if we are to successfully bring His presence into the temple to tabernacle with us (II Samuel 6:6). The days ahead will be very, very important. This is the most significant time we have known.
It is interesting that some of today’s influential ministries are now almost apologetically acknowledging the truth of the Feast of Tabernacles as a revelation. They are also addressing those who expect an imminent rapture and are preparing for it. (For example, some want to take out insurance because they expect cars and buses to run off the streets as their drivers are “caught out,” resulting in utter chaos.) These men are now saying that God will not move that way. They are no longer so sure that we will escape the tribulation; they are now coming forth with revelations which I have been voicing for a long time and for which I have been called a heretic. Some feel that we will go through at least half of that tribulation and judgment (reiterating the old three-and-a-half-year standard). However, much of the world has already experienced more than seven years of tribulation; it is simply a bit slow in reaching the United States. In many nations, several generations have experienced troubles greater than have ever been seen. What will happen next? There may be more. But do not say, “We will miss the tribulation,” because the world has not missed it. “Recession,” “depression,” “inflation”—these are not merely words; they are miserable realities which we live with. But the fear of them that is coming to the hearts of those in the world is being rolled off us. We will go right on walking with the Lord, no matter what happens.
You must realize that you have been prepared for this by year after year of teaching. You have had a Word from God; you have received something far greater than spoon-fed doctrines of escapism. In days ahead you will reach for a tape or a book of this Living Word; and as you listen or read, you will find it meeting your need right there, just as it did in the past. Why is it always so real? Why is it always so pertinent for you? The answer is very simple: It is just exactly the Word that God has been giving all these years. Of course it is timely! Every message is geared and oriented toward this day in which we are living now.
You may wonder, “Is that why I have been having such a hard time?” You noticed! “Is that why I have been going through so much?” Yes! You have been facing a time in which the Word has been a judgment to you, for it must come to you prior to the time of the world’s judgment (I Peter 4:17). Because you have judged yourself, you will not be judged with the world (John 12:47–48; I Corinthians 11:31–32). Doesn’t that help in making it real to you? You may be thinking, “But I have gone through so much. So many times I was so shaken; the enemy came and I would almost believe a lie.” If it were possible, the very elect would be deceived (Matthew 24:24). Do not ever get the idea that your trials are by accident. They are exactly according to God’s purpose for you.
Where should we go from here? The Lord has spoken that now we should say, “Only one Passover is alive to us as the Word for this hour, and that is the Passover of Joshua 5:10.” Therefore, little more than an allusion has been made to the Passover of Exodus 12 and 13. Why? The first Passover got the children of Israel out of Egypt, but it did not get the spirit and the leaven of Egypt out of them. Although the Word that they were given about the unleavened bread was perfect, they did not apply it perfectly. They did not keep that Feast of Unleavened Bread with the motive of purifying themselves (I Corinthians 5:7–8); they kept it because they left Egypt in haste and did not have time for the bread to rise (Exodus 12:39).
Forty years later, when they came to the River Jordan and crossed over, that is when they were circumcised and they kept the Passover again. The day after Passover, the manna ceased; they ate the produce of the land. The Lord revealed Himself in a different way as they prepared to move against Jericho. As Joshua stood before Jericho, ready to lead the people in to possess what God had set before them, the Lord stood before him with a drawn sword. When Joshua beheld Him, he asked, “Are You for us or are You for our enemies?” (Joshua 5:13.)
Have you too wondered at times whether God is for you or for your enemies? He deals with you differently when you are to be a conqueror. The cloud that you have followed disappears. The pillar of fire is gone, too. Suddenly God must be something else to you. The manna no longer falls. You cannot live on your former diet. You are to be a conqueror; therefore you must have a pure heart. You must be circumcised (Philippians 3:3; Romans 2:29). It is at that moment that God becomes very real. They called the name of that place of circumcision “Gilgal” (which means “rolling off”), because God said, “This day I have rolled off of you the reproach of Egypt” (Joshua 5:9).
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is called Gilgal (the margin reads, “rolling”) to this day. While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. And on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.
Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” Joshua 5:9–14. Joshua was then told to remove his shoes; the place on which he was standing was holy ground (Joshua 5:15).
First there was the circumcision. Then after the circumcision they observed the Passover; then they underwent a complete change of diet. Everything was different. For forty years they had been out of Egypt, but they had never gotten Egypt out of their own hearts. Then after those forty years had passed, finally they rolled off the reproach of Egypt. That is what is happening to us now. You may think, “Oh, I came out of Babylon long ago.” But we have actually been living within its suburbs more than we have realized. There will be quite a change in our thinking as we begin to enter into a new level.
The form of our assembling together is changing. Holding a conference for hundreds of people does not seem as efficient anymore. Instead, the job is being done in the back room with the brothers. Something of impartation is done there that does not seem to come to a big crowd. As we start with laying hands on the leaders—those pastors, elders, apostles, and prophets that God has raised up and commissioned—you will find that God is doing just as He did with us at the beginning; He is bringing a new level of impartation.
For many years I have told you that a new experience was coming. When or how it would come we did not know, but it would come, and its coming would be the mark of our breaking into the Kingdom. It is here. It is more subtle and less easily recognized than experiences of the past. For example, getting the “old-time religion” was an experience! On the old sawdust trail, believers prayed and hollered and finally broke through. Then the time came in which the Lord began to bring the Holy Spirit to people. They yelled and shrieked and prayed and rolled in the sawdust and climbed the tent poles; it was a very exciting experience. But as we moved into maturity, there was less and less fleshly input in our experiences, and more of a subtle spiritual level prevailed; the mechanics were not even detectable. Many people had hands laid on them and prophecies spoken over them.
This time the laying on of hands does something else; those who have had hands laid on them say, “I don’t know what happened, but we were devastated.” Out of this springs forth a new awareness of the Lord, a new sense of relationship to Him. Seek it. Pray for it. Open your heart to it. This is a dispensational change, and it is marked by a few little experiences that are helping to bring you into a place with God that you have not had before. Do you want to move into it? Listen to what the Lord is saying to you in this message. Soon you will realize, “God has something for me and I am going to have it!” There is a determination and a decisiveness; people are breaking through because they are set to have what God has for them.
It is amazing that in the middle of this, you suddenly see the Lord with a drawn sword (Joshua 5:13). Like the Israelites, you have experienced His chastenings. You have experienced the many miracles that the Lord has worked in your life. You have listened to His Word. You have known the circumcision. You have seen all that God has set before you. Yet now as you start to move ahead, everything seems different because there before you is the Lord with a drawn sword. Do you ever feel like cautiously nudging the sword around and saying, “The enemy is that way, Lord! This area right here is very vulnerable. I need this; it is my breadbasket! Now, You just point Your sword that way—the enemy is over there, Lord.” But the Lord has His sword still pointed at you.
Have you ever felt as though all of your brothers are your enemies, and that when you go out in the world, the enemy seems as though he is your brother? You may have thought to yourself, “With brothers like this, who needs any enemies?” It is difficult when God looks like the enemy and the enemy looks like God. Satan’s ministers are transformed until they appear as ministers of righteousness (II Corinthians 11:15); meanwhile, they are dedicated to make us appear to be as unorthodox, to say the least. How should you respond? Walk on with the Lord, and forget the enemy.
Abraham Lincoln was a very wise and perceptive man. One time when he was very much under fire for the way he handled politics, governmental affairs, and the War Between the States, he said, “If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how—the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”*
How can we be assured that we will turn out right? Simply walk with the Lord. As we walk with the Lord, many things happen. People rise up against us. I have learned one thing: There is very, very little difference between the most avaricious greed that exists on the face of the earth, and the media. They are all part of the Judas spirit that would betray American society and everything that is decent within it for a headline that will sell their papers.
Now a whole new age is coming forth. Will things get worse? Yes; worse and better at the same time. Darkness will govern the world (Isaiah 60:2). But we are not “children of the night nor of the darkness that we should slumber or sleep”; instead, we will “watch and be sober” (I Thessalonians 5:6–7) and we will participate in what God is bringing forth. Do I believe in tribulation? No; I believe in a new day. Will we see the darkness? Not I; I will see light. This is the first day that has ever dawned in the history of the world that is like that first Passover when there was darkness over all the land of Egypt. That darkness was so great that it could be felt; but there was light in the land of Goshen (Exodus 10:21–23). So let it be with us. We who are destined to be delivered, to walk with God, will walk in the light (I John 1:7). The light of a new day has dawned upon us.
What will be ministered out of this pure, devastating dealing of God in our lives will make it worthwhile for all of us. It really must be done. Are you eager for this to happen to you? Say, “Lord, smite me if it will open my heart to You more. Do anything You must do to me, but meet my heart. I am ready to hear what You have to say.”