A Word from the Lord
“Some of the saints thought that the reconstruction of My Ekklesia would begin with the setting up of a new structure. Many have thought that this step would begin immediately. Anxious for the new to begin, many have misunderstood My timing.” says the Lord. “Because they have misinterpreted the timing many have have gotten disillusioned and discouraged. But I say, ‘Do not lose heart, for I have everything in hand,’ What I have promised will surely come to pass. I have been doing much in the way of preparation. There are stages to this setting up the new structure. The first stage includes demolition. I fully intend to do major reconstruction among my Ekklesia in the United States. That reconstruction will redefine, restructure, reorganize and revive My called out ones. My people are hungry. They hunger for My presence. They hunger for more of Me. And I will meet them, even within the current structure which is fading and falling down. I will meet them despite the rubble and the debris. I will meet them in the midst of reconstruction. I will sit with them, even as the work goes on all around them. My work hasn’t stopped because there is deconstruction going on. My work is the deconstruction. This has been a full tear down. I am disassembling so that I can reassemble and make My Ekklesia like new. Be patient, be careful this is a work zone.” says the Lord of host.
Redefine, Restructure, Reorganize and Revive
In the fall of 2016, the Lord gave me a vision in which I saw a plumb line and a measuring rod in the hand of Christ. He was measuring the Ekklesia, His church in the United States. He said to me that we were entering a spiritual season similar to that of the word given to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:8-10
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you. For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”
The Lord has continued to impart revelation and expound on that vision. The building project the Lord showed me is one which includes much reconstruction. Where we are currently is the days of small beginnings. There is a massive reconstruction project underway. We are only at the beginning. The Lord does not want us to grow weary or abandon the notion that He is doing a work among His people. If you are like me, we want this project to move along much faster. There are places and people who have been allowing God to do the tear down and they are beginning to see some of the new structure being put in place. The work has already begun.
Anyone who has lived in the midst of a rehab project can tell you that it is messy, inconvenient and down right annoying at times. It can be exceptionally frustrating and trying on relationships. Remodeling in many ways is a litmus test for those involved in the process. While we are in the midst of reconstruction the Lord would have us know that He extending His grace to us every step of the way. But, we need to know that we are living in a season of change, change which will continue in the months and years ahead.
The Word vs the Thing
Converting the blueprint to the living reality changes things entirely.
It never looks like we thought. Going from prophetic declaration to living in the fulfillment are two entirely different realities. As long as we’re in the prophetic phase, it is something still out there. We aren’t dealing with the effects of the change. We are only talking about the change, but our current reality hasn’t been effected by it yet. We are announcing the change. Actually stepping into the change is never the same as proclaiming it. Being in the reality of the fulfillment is never what we pictured. That doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Quite the contrary. It’s wonder. Fulfillment is what the prophetic is all about. But sometimes we what we think and what actually happens are far different. And if we aren’t open to it we can sometimes miss the fulfillment because we were looking for something else.
My favorite example of this comes from a Charismatic prayer meeting I attended in the early 1970’s. I was in high school at the time. This is a pretty small thing but the lesson of it has remained with me over the years.
Among those in attendance at this particular meeting were a number of older folks who were well seasoned in spiritual gifts. There were a number of old salty prophets among the number. These old men were given to visions, dreams and prophetic words. One night when the anointing of God’s manifest presence was weighty, one of the grey haired old men spoke out a word from the Lord describing an economic shift which was coming to our country.
It was a both a warning and a word of encouragement to not lose heart despite the impact of the changes. There were several descriptive signs given. There were two in particular which stood out in my mind. One was the cost of coffee. At that time coffee was sold in 5 pound cans and cost just over $3.00. A cup of coffee at a restaurant was about 25¢. The other prophetic sign had to do with bottled water.
In the prophetic word given the prophet announced that coffee was going to be over $3.00 a cup and that all across the nation people would be drinking bottled water. There was much more to the word but those two things stood out in my mind. The word brought bewilderment to those who heard it. Bewilderment and great consternation.
I’ll never forget the look on my grandfather’s face. It was one of great fear and trepidation. At the end of the meeting the grey hairs gathered. Curious to know what all the hubbub was about, I stood quietly next to Grandpa to eaves drop. They couldn’t imagine what catastrophe would cause such an extreme shift in our economy. Remember this was the early 1970’s. People weren’t drinking bottled water. I don’t know if it was even available back then. Not like it today. Coffee shops weren’t a thing. It wasn’t until 1987 before Chicago had there first Starbuck’s®. It just wasn’t a thing. Dunkin Donuts was around, but it was an extravagance which most people couldn’t afford on a regular basis. McDonald’s® was only beginning to shift the nation toward a fast food lifestyle. People didn’t eat out as a norm.
The only thing that generation understood which could cause prices to skyrocket to such extremes was the stock market crash and World War II. These dear ones lived through the Great Depression, WWII and the Cold War. They understood about disaster and the threat of a takeover. In their minds some awful disaster was the only thing that could cause the horrific extremes described in that prophetic word. They pondered what horrendous natural disaster would strike our country.
Prices going up was one thing. But BOTTLED WATER???? The only thing that might cause that to happen would be some kind of natural disaster. A hurricane, earthquake or tornado would impact a particular region but what would cause all the water in every state throughout the county to be in such devastation that the WHOLE NATION would resort to drinking bottled water.
We might laugh at this now. But at that time this was serious. They knew the Lord was giving them a warning. But what to do? At that time the average cost for a gallon of gas was about 36¢. Postage was .06. An average annual household income was about $8,500.00. A pack of cigarettes was about 25¢. They had seen prices go up but only incrementally. In the forty years previous prices went up, but not that much.
What none us knew was that there really was an economic shift coming to this country. What they thought could only be brought on by means of a disaster was brought about through prosperity and advertising. Did we need a warning from heaven? God thought we did.
About twenty years later, I stood in line for my grande vanilla latte at Starbuck’s®. It was the early 90’s. When I put my three dollars and change on the counter to pay, I remembered that word given through the prophet in early 70’s and I smiled. The prophet was right. Everything he declared had happened. People were drinking bottled water all across the nation and coffee was selling for 3 bucks a cup. We had seen a major economic shift in our country. A house that once sold for about 25,000.00 in the early 70’s cost about $123,000.00 by the mid 90’s. They stopped selling coffee in five pound cans. Advertisers were telling us that tap water and toilet water came from the same source, sparking fear into the hearts of Americans. And the surge to drinking bottled water began.
But what does this have to do with Christ remodeling His church? Everything actually. We are here, today in 2019. We are in the current church structure with our current church paradigms and social setting. We can’t possibly know what things are really going to look like. In many ways we are still in the prophetic phase. Some in the body of Christ have begun to experience the shift and are slowly and incrementally experiencing the shift to the fulfillment.
What if I told you that how you connect to the body of Christ is going to change; that Sunday worship services would be a thing of the past. What if I said that entire denominations would simply cease to exist? It would be hard to imagine. We might wonder what would bring about these changes. Well, these are only a couple of the descriptions the Lord is leaking to the prophets to describe the changes that are coming to the church in the U.S. I wonder what will bring about these changes?
Fulfillment is coming.
When it does I pray that we recognize it.
Blessings,
Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 31:28
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