"In the last days, God says, 'I will pour out My Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will
see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Acts 2:17
It's time guys.
Most of us are ready to acknowledge that we live in strange times. More and more of us are willing to step out on a limb and talk about end times.
Let's focus on the End Times church for a minute.
We have been conditioned to believe that in the last days the church is going to be weak and defeated. Some would say that Scripture agrees with that assessment.
Up until a few months ago, I would have agreed with that view. But not any more.
God is going to pour out His Spirit on all people, that speaks of power and authority. The Holy Spirit is not weak, and He is not defeated. To some this pouring out will bring refreshing, healing, inspiration, and redemption. To others this move of the Holy Spirit will bring judgment and consequences.
The Holy Spirit is the most ignored person of the Trinity and I believe that oversight is the gravest mistake the church has made in the last several hundred years. We need to study this Person more. He is vital to successfully living out our Christian destiny. He is our comforter, guide, and so, so much more! We simply cannot be overcomers without acknowledging the massive role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
When we look at the Charismatic church from the outside, the Holy Spirit gets somewhat of a bad rap. Because, He's the guy who makes people laugh uncontrollably, lay on the floor in a stupor, speak incoherently and so forth. Many of us (myself included) shy away from such stuff. I would rather stab myself with a hundred needles than make a big scene! So we ignore Him or shut Him out of our lives.
You know what I'm learning though? The Holy Spirit isn't scary. Yes, He may ask us to do things that make us uncomfortable or seem strange, but He never overrides our free will. I'm finding that the deeper one falls in love with Jesus, the more one just doesn't care what people think. Like David dancing through the streets half naked. His focus was on God and what God was doing. He cared little for the approval of the people around him. I'm not to the point of dancing through the streets in my skivvy's though, so don't be too alarmed!
So, what does it look like to have the Holy Spirit poured out upon us? To understand that, I believe that a trip back to the Gospels when Jesus walked the earth is necessary. Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God, that was His message in a nutshell. What is the Kingdom of God you ask? It's one of those terms that we have heard thrown around all our lives, and we think we know what it means, but do we really? What does the term encompass?
The way I see it, the Kingdom of God is invisible to the naked eye, but it is a living Kingdom wherein it changes those who enter it by their repentance of sin and acceptance of Jesus as Savior. This invisible, yet very real Kingdom is run by a very different set of rules than this earthly realm. This Kingdom is not limited by the natural laws that rule the earth. In the Kingdom of God, miracles and healing are everyday occurrences.
Since Jesus is the revelator of this Kingdom, we need only to look at the things He did while on earth. He healed the sick, cast out demons, told others about God's love, and loved on everyone. He also spoke of things to come.
Why don't we do all that?
We do pretty good at preaching, kinda okay on the loving part, but where are the miracles and overcoming the darkness? What about confidently hearing from the Holy Spirit?
It's sticky because we pray for healing, but not everyone gets healed so we quit. And the whole unclean spirit thing is creepy, so we are content to leave that to Jesus to take care of. Until we can't ignore it anymore.
So, why don't people get healed when we pray? I've been studying this out. I'm a part of a Telegram channel where we are exploring healing. I'm learning through trial and error about healing. I'm hearing testimonies every single day about people being healed and I'm coming to understand some of the blocks that prevent healing. It's been very interesting. But the biggest component to being healed that we are finding, is to invite the manifest (or tangible) presence of the Holy Spirit when you pray. Many think that it goes without saying that when we pray the Holy Spirit is present. He is to a certain extent, but it seems that when He is expressly invited, He brings revelation about how to pray for healing. Probably another blog post. But sufficient to say, when the Holy Spirit is invited to come and pour Himself out upon you, the rules of the earth are defied and things begin to happen!
Like people getting healed and set free from the darkness. Like men and women prophesying. Like dreams and visions.
For centuries the church has shut this down and put off acknowledging prophecy, dreams and visions as legit ways of hearing from God. This has brought much delight to Satan and made his job all that much easier. These things are looked upon with skepticism and dismissed as dangerous, even heretical. Even though throughout Scripture we see evidence that God does indeed speak through dreams and visions, and has prophets. Other false religions have hijacked the avenues that God has created for us to have relationship with Him and made them into something scary and deceptive. How like Satan.
So, what about the verses that tell us that all these things are going to happen in the last days? At what point in time do we say, "Okay, now we can believe in prophecy, dreams, and visions?"
How will we know? If we say that we can only hear from God via Scripture and all other means of hearing His voice are suspect, then how are we going to know that it's the time of the fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel and Acts?
I'm here to tell you that it's time! In fact, I don't believe that we should have abandoned the legitimacy of prophecy, dreams and visions in the first place!
There is a movement of the Spirit starting in individuals, and I am watching in real time as it spreads across the globe! You can't see it now unless you look in strategic places, but I assure you, it won't be long until it is mainstream! Beyond the rigorous censorship of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, lies a whole bunch of regular people who are legit hearing from God and what they are saying is actually taking place. Platforms like Telegram and Rumble are good places to start looking for uncensored truth. The church is largely missing this movement because we are too busy trying to be non offensive to whomever the media decides is the most recent victim. We are distracted and deceived.
Warnings are being given by some of these brave people. They are talking about signs in different areas of the earth as a signal that God is on the move. These things are happening! One man talked of it raining fish. Gutsy prophecy to make. But it actually happened. A cyclone at sea picked up small fish from the ocean and deposited them one fine day on a region of the California coast. The fish story was even reported on by the corrupt media. (Sorry, my disgust for the legacy media knows no bounds. Someday you'll understand.)
When people who hear from God begin to say things that actually come to pass, it's time to wake up and pay attention.
This pouring out of the Holy Spirit means that we are going to have to put aside our comfortable ideas of how we think God should, could, and does work. It means that we may need to reexamine closely held theology to make sure that it is indeed a proper interpretation of Scripture. When Jesus came, few recognized Him because they had preconceived notions of what He would look like and do. We are susceptible to the same folly. Don't miss the movement of God because you aren't open to what God is doing. All the reasoning and education in the world does us no good if we can't hear from the Kingdom that defies the logic and education of men. The Bible tells us to become like children for a reason.
Let's change the atmosphere! Let's be more open to the leading of God! It's not dangerous or foolhardy to abandon oneself to the Holy Spirit. It's time to pull close to the heart of Jesus and hear His heartbeat. The power and authority of the Holy Spirit aren't limited to a select few. It's for ALL! Man, woman, and child! God is on the move!
