When the prophet Micah saw what would take place in the end time, he saw it more immediately as it would happen to natural Israel; but he also saw into the future when God would deal with His people in the end time. He said, Zion will be as a plowed field. Micah 3:12. To understand that, you must live in this generation and be a part of the remnant, for God is going through His people and is plowing up their fallow ground. He is dealing deeply within their lives; He is disturbing them.
To live a natural, normal life as people did a generation ago does not seem to be possible any longer. We live in a day when many unexpected things are taking place. We live in an extended, perpetual crisis which compounds itself as it goes on from day to day, until we are tempted to think that it cannot become more complicated. But it does. It is in this environment, in this climate, that God is dealing with His people and preparing them to be His instruments in the days which are just ahead of us.
In the second chapter of Joel, there is a picture of the army of the Lord. The book of Joel has not yielded itself to correct interpretation. One of the most common mistakes of the Fundamentalists is their insistence that the book of Joel is a series of prophecies pertaining to Israel. Let the Bible interpret itself. When Peter quoted this second chapter of Joel, he was very careful to refer to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, saying, “This is that which Joel spake of” (Acts 2:16). At the end of his exhortation we read this promise: “This (that outpouring) is for you, and for your children, and for all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). Right there he leaped over any and all boundaries, and completely nullified any idea that Joel’s prophecy belongs only to natural Israel and that no one else can have it.
In the name of Fundamentalism, people take nine-tenths of the glorious promises belonging to the Church and relegate them to an age past, to some dispensation which is closed; or else they relegate them to another people in a future age. They use any reason to excuse their unbelief. They refuse to believe that any of the promises are valid for us right now.
This prophecy in the book of Joel covers a number of events which have not yet been fulfilled. When Peter quoted the book of Joel, he even quoted the passage which says, “The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:31, 32). We have not seen the sun darkened; we have not seen the moon turned into blood. That is true, and it is a problem; but keep in mind that prophecies often have repeated fulfillments.
What did happen in the days of Acts, and to what extent did it fulfill the promise of the latter rain of which Joel spoke? It was only a prelude to the complete fulfillment. Before the present age ends, we will see the fulfillment of all these prophecies. The spiritual fulfillment began in the days of Acts, and it is valid for “all that the Lord our God shall call” to claim them until the day when they are completely fulfilled. This is the time of that greater fulfillment. Close to two millenniums have passed, and at last the door is open for their complete fulfillment. The door was initially opened when Peter said, “This is that which Joel spake of.”
About thirty-seven years after this, James wrote his epistle and said, “The Lord is delaying His coming until He receives the early and the latter rain” (James 5:7), again referring back to the second chapter of Joel. This makes it very evident that James knew that the fulfillment of the prophecy was not exhausted, that there was still more to be fulfilled. In this century there has been an even greater fulfillment, and there is even more to come. I believe we are living in the specific day which Joel spoke of. It opened up a long time ago, and slowly but surely it is having its fulfillment.
All these prophecies belong to the believer in Jesus Christ. There are some who insist that the prophecies refer only to Israel, to the Hebrew blood line. The New Testament begins with an announcement by John the Baptist that God is able “of these stones to raise up the seed of Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). That puts a different slant on things. It opens the door to the realization that it is not what you are by virtue of heredity that counts, but what you are by virtue of the divine provision which you have accepted. It is a provision that is for every man—red, black, yellow, or white.
There is no respect of persons with God. It is true that much came down through the line of Israel. Paul said, “What advantage is there in being a Jew? Much in every way, for to the Jews were committed the oracles of God” (Romans 3:1, 2). Joel was a Jew. Many of these prophets in the Old Testament were Jews. A few Gentiles did come into the New Testament genealogy of Jesus Christ by virtue of their faith: Rahab the harlot, Ruth the Moabitess, and Tamar (Matthew 1:1–5).
All of this indicates that God was looking on the heart a great deal more than He was looking on the bloodline or the racial line. The New Testament tells us that as far as bloodline is concerned, “God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth” (Acts 17:26). This indicates that there is no truth in the statement, “This is Negro blood,” or “This is Jewish blood.” If a man lies dying on a battlefield, the medics do not stop to check what kind of blood he needs. If it is the correct type, it will save his life, whether he is red, yellow, black, or white. God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth. It is good to remember this, because it brings us all into one common family.
Is the book of Joel prophesying promises which we can receive, or do they belong only to the natural Israel? We cannot say that they belong only to natural Israel because there was another fulfillment recorded in the tenth chapter of Acts when a whole house full of Gentiles received that same promise. In Ephesus, it was again the Gentiles who received the Holy Spirit (Acts 19). In spite of all God’s abilities and capacities to know everything, it seems that He is color-blind. He reaches down in mercy and extends His promises to everyone; every single person can receive them.
The second chapter of Joel mentions an army and many other end-time events. This is the chapter which Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost. Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people (who is this mighty people?); there has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it to the years of many generations. A fire consumes before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but a desolate wilderness behind them, and nothing at all escapes them.
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses (this is all symbolic language); and like war horses, so they run. With a noise as of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, like a mighty people arranged for battle. Before them the people are in anguish; all faces turn pale. They run like mighty men; they climb the wall like soldiers; and they each march in line, nor do they deviate from their paths. (They do not break ranks.)
They do not crowd each other; they march every one in his path. When they burst through the defenses, they do not break ranks. They rush on the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. Before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. And the Lord utters His voice before His army (do not be confused about this army; do not confuse it with the people of God, because this is a special remnant which Joel is talking about now); surely His camp is very great, for strong is He who carries out His word. The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it? Joel 2:1–11. The difficulty of interpreting the book of Joel lies right here. How do you explain this army that the Lord is directing?
The passage goes on to tell us how the people of God are called to repent. They are called to seek God, “…with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God…. Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare Thy people, O Lord, and do not make Thine inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations.” Joel 2:12, 13, 17.
So rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in the Lord your God; for He has given you the early rain for your vindication. And He has poured down for you the rain, the early and latter rain as before. And the threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame. Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is no other; and My people will never be put to shame.
And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors (or the remnant) whom the Lord calls. For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. Joel 2:23–3:2.
This chapter has had a very elaborate scriptural background because I want to open the door for you to understand the prophecies which were fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Joel prophesied that God would pour out His Spirit, and Peter quoted this when he said, “This is that which Joel spake of” (Acts 2:16). Now, if the second chapter of Acts, the day of Pentecost’s fulfillment, goes back to the second chapter of Joel, it is very important to understand what is involved in these chapters of Joel.
Are the Fundamentalists right when they say, “This all belongs to natural Israel”? Not totally, because we have already seen that the outpouring of the Spirit “belongs to as many as the Lord our God shall call,” according to Acts 2:39. So we see that it belongs to all of God’s people. When we talk about Zion, is it true that there is a fulfillment to natural Zion, to natural Israel? Yes, but there is also the greater fulfillment to spiritual Israel, spiritual Zion. And this is where the Fundamentalist makes his mistake. He interprets everything as if it were going to be on a natural plane, and he does not realize that what God is doing is basically on a spiritual plane.
Is there a return of the Jews to Palestine? Of course there is. Is there a return of God’s people to the true spiritual Zion? Of course there is. It is all taking place. In these days we are coming back to almost everything God has ever spoken over natural Israel; we are witnessing it. We are also witnessing it within ourselves. This passage talks about a great army which comes literally to devastate the spiritual world. Is that what the army of the Lord is raised up to do? Will there be a natural fulfillment? Very likely. Is it possible that Soviet Russia and her satellites will try to invade Palestine? That is very possible. It is more probable today than it has been at any time in history. If this takes place, what will happen? According to Scripture, God will move in and intervene.
The Fundamentalists are very wrong when they say that the natural fulfillment is the only fulfillment. Their focus is so completely on what is happening in Israel or what is taking place at the Israel-Egyptian border, that to them these are the only great events happening in the earth today. In reality, these are only minor signs of the times.
What is really important is the great spiritual army of the Lord that is beginning to devastate and strip Babylon. Before this army, Babylon stands like a Garden of Eden; and as the army moves along, the area behind them is like a desolate wilderness. God has raised up His people to do a great work in the earth, and this is coming to pass. In this process, people will be turning to the Lord. As the remnant stands and prophesies against Babylon and God brings it down, what will happen to the people in Babylon? They are going to flee out of her, and they will cry out for Zion. Then God will greatly bless the sons of Zion and will pour out His Spirit upon them. There will be a mighty outpouring of the Spirit, and the sons and daughters will prophesy. It will be a phenomenal happening which will make the Charismatic movement as nothing in comparison.
When this final stage of the restoration really begins to move, it will bring a devastation to the whole spiritual world; people are going to turn to God. The restored remnant will dig the false hopes and the false religiosity out from under people. Many will start seeking the Lord, and as they do, He will pour out His Spirit upon them. It will be “the former and the latter rain in the first month.” This will happen both on a spiritual and on a physical plane at the turning of the year, the first month of the Jewish new year. That is why there is a new beginning every year at the Feast of Tabernacles. It is a time to hear teachings and prophecies which govern the remnant for a whole year. That is a special time in God’s calendar when He shows His people exactly what He wants them to do during the coming year.
The third chapter of Joel talks about the battle of Armageddon. Many of the prophets write about the battle of Armageddon; they speak of the valley of Megiddo, or the valley of Jehoshaphat, and how the blood will flow to the bridle bits of the horses. Whether these are figures of speech or literal prophecies, they speak of a most devastating time. Zechariah prophesies how the eyes will melt in their sockets, how flesh will fall away from the bones (Zechariah 14:12). Probably these prophecies speak of the unbelievable devastation of a nuclear war. It speaks of the flesh and blood being melted into a stream that comes up to the bridle bits of horses. Think of the carnage. Do not shrug it off because very likely you will see these things happen. The valley of Megiddo is not that long or that deep. If all who died in the last war in Viet Nam were put together and included as victims of a nuclear blast, it would be an event exceeding what the Scriptures say will happen at Armageddon. But let me tell you something else: the spiritual Armageddon is already beginning. This is what is most important.
It is the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and it comes first upon a remnant, upon the army of the Lord. That remnant is the army of Joel. It is raised up to bring down Babylon, to loose the people out of Zion, and trigger off the chain of events which will be taking place. It is raised up to see the spiritual Armageddon in which the Lord brings down the host that is set against Him: those who are not believers, those who use His name but do not believe in His deity, those who do not accept the provision of His blood as the sacrifice for their sin.
What is to happen in the spiritual world (what we have just described) happens first to the individual believer in miniature. If you are looking for an antichrist, do not look around at the great men of the world to see who is the antichrist. Look to your own heart and see who is sitting on the throne. If you are waiting for an Armageddon, be assured that it will come; but what about the struggle and the battle in you? I have experienced conflict for quite a season; it is my spiritual Armageddon. I am convinced of this. There is no other explanation for the spiritual warfare I am going through day and night. God revealed this to me years ago when He said, “You will go through it.”
In miniature, we will find the conflict within us. In miniature, we will have our own outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In miniature, we will go right on into whatever conflict must take place, until self is dethroned, until that which exalts itself and sits on the throne and rules as God is removed from our hearts forever (II Thessalonians 2:4). This must take place. We must be inoculated with all of the future in miniature; it is like a spiritual vaccine which builds up an immunity. There must be a people who will walk with immunity through these coming events. The dealings that God places upon us are the vaccine which give us immunity from the universal judgments to come. We will walk through these judgments, and they will not touch us. We will walk through the fire, and it will not be kindled on us. We will walk through the floods, and they will not overwhelm us (Isaiah 43:2). In the days of the great satanic assaults, we will have an immunity.
John the Beloved spoke of those who are born of God, saying of them, “The wicked one toucheth them not” (I John 5:18). This is what we are looking forward to. Now we are under the assault; Satan is raging because he sees what God is bringing forth in us, and he hates it. As we proceed from step to step, we will suddenly find this immunity taking hold within us. From day to day and from month to month, we will find that we are developing an immunity to the assaults of Satan.
Satan turns loose ever greater and greater assaults against God’s people, all in the permissive will of God. Things come against believers every day which would have killed them at the beginning of their walk with God. A few have actually lived with death for a long time, but at the same time the immunity grows. After battling one level for a while, the realization comes that God has done something for you: the wicked one is touching you not. He comes against you, but you have walls up against his assault. Sometimes you seem to walk in defeat; sometimes it seems as if you are all wiped out and you do not know which way to turn, but that is an illusion.
I have watched God deal with me, and I imagine it is the same with you. I walk along, able to handle things quite well. Then all of a sudden a prophetic word comes over me or some brother prays for me, saying, “God is bringing you to a new plane.” Then I am thrown up on a new level. The minute I am on that new level, I begin facing principalities and powers that are stronger than those on the previous level. Then I go through a time in which the demons all seem to play “stomp on him.” But I continue to believe God and rejoice in the Lord, and soon I find that I am handling it. Before long I am walking along in that next plane; and then someone prophesies over me again, saying, “Lord, give him a new level. Bring him up to a new level,” and the process is repeated.
We go from glory to glory. Sometimes we feel drunk; sometimes we hear bells ringing when there are no bells. But we are determined to move on in the Lord. We must not put someone down who is on a lower level. We can never say, “I can’t understand how you could be hit by something like that. That’s nothing.” We all go through that same thing. Step by step, from glory to glory, we all go through it.
Sometimes you do not realize that God is putting pressure on you in order to do a quick work in your life. The place of spiritual immunity to which you are being brought has not been attained by any people of God in the entire history of the world. Never has Satan been allowed to rage and come against the people of the Lord as he is doing right now in this end time. You say, “I want that immunity. I just pray that the process will take place quickly so that I will develop this immunity. But what do I do in the meantime?”
This is the day of the double portion. It is the day of the outpouring of the Spirit, a day of visions and prophecy and revelations, a day of seeing things that you have never seen before and then walking in them. I sincerely believe that there are more real prophets in the earth today than there have been for several thousand years. More prophets? Yes, and we have just begun. The process of restoration is working; God is working in us. God has many prophets in the making. He is leading them from one level into another. Just about the time they get settled, someone comes along, saying, “I bless you, brother; the Lord lead you to a new level.”
Where do we go from here? What is coming out of it? Churches are springing up, with no promotion, no plan, no program! People look at it and say, “I don’t know how it’s happening.” No rules of success are being followed. By all human reason, these New Testament churches should completely collapse and fail because they were not built according to the glorious secrets of success which the world uses. But what is taking place? The remnant is developing an immunity, and they that are of God are hearing the voice of those whom God is raising up. Because they know the Lord and they speak the word of the Lord, the people of God are hearing, and they are being drawn to that Word.
There is only a handful who stand and prophesy, “Lord, we loose the people from Babylon. We believe for You to pour out Your Spirit upon the hungry hearts in the denominations. Break down the walls, Lord.” The tiny remnant just stands there and prophesy it, and keeps prophesying it. A critic might say that no one hears them. It does not matter. By prophesying, we sent something forth. People do not necessarily need to hear the prophetic word. I believe it is possible for a believer to go out to the desert and proclaim this Word and see the truth loosed in the earth. If a believer speaks a revelation or if he prophesies a truth, it is a living word from God once it is voiced. It does not matter whether there is any ear to hear it or not.
If you are seeking Him, He is going to pour out His Spirit on you. Do not draw back from this. Do not become so obsessed with the battle that you forget that it is just a sideline, a shot in the arm that you must endure. The battle is the vaccine of the Kingdom; it is building you up for what is to come. God is dealing with you to produce within you an immunity to everything around you. Be “in the world, but not of it.” “The glory that Thou hast given me,” Jesus said, “I have given them, that they may be one, even as You and I are one” (John 17:16, 22).
It is another day, it is another victory, it is another unity, it is another relationship. And as that immunity comes, ambition goes and individuality disappears. The remnant will move as one Body, all flowing together. It is really happening. We have talked about it for years, but now it is happening.
As the restored remnant comes forth in the name of the Lord, we just have to lift our hands and say, “Send it, Lord. Make my hands like two lightning rods. Strike me, Lord. Let the anointing of the Lord come upon me. Let God bless me. Let the outpouring of Joel come real and swift and deep to my heart. Wherever I still have a sensitivity to the enemy, wherever he can push a button to make me react, wherever I still have a sensitive nerve that the old devil can reach, wherever I am still a sensitive person to criticism, to the world, to all that it has and to its ways of thinking, take that out of me. But let me be sensitive to God above. Give me the heart of a dove toward the Lord; and toward the world, the impenetrable hide of a rhinoceros.” God will bless us, and we will believe Him and walk with Him in the name of the Lord.
Do you believe what I am telling you? Do you feel the Spirit of the Lord moving upon your heart? Can you say, “Lord, Your will be done.” This chapter explains the process of immunity that you are experiencing. When the doctor gives you a shot, soon afterwards you develop the disease on a small scale. As the antibodies build up a resistance, an immunity is effected within your body. You may become feverish; you may have certain symptoms and feel quite ill. The shot produces a reaction, but in time it wears off. This illustrates what God is doing for you right now. He is exposing you to all kinds of satanic assaults, everything that could stir up the flesh, everything within you that could bring rebellion and withdrawal. He is giving you the shot and slowly building up an immunity within you.
As God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come” (Genesis 6:13). The day of the Spirit is dawning, and the Lord is bringing forth a people who are not going to break ranks. They will all press in, and they will all move to do the will of the Lord. The Lord says, …They shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Isaiah 52:8. We will all be taught of the Lord; there will be a deep immunity. This also will signal the end of unbelief, of false doctrine, of tangents, of rebellion, of withdrawal, of ambition, and all such things in the Body of Christ. All will be walking as the army of the Lord, doing the will of the Lord together.