BLOG: My banner is mightier than the Sword!!
I’m in the USA right now. I can’t wait to tell you guys what’s I’ve seen and heard… more on this when I get home… important things are happening.
But right now I want to share an encouragement for you. It’s from the life of Joan of Arc of France. She said “My banner is mightier than the sword” – what she meant by that was her presence, her courage, her pressing forwards rallied the people. It was more than the sword they needed at the time they needed a hero, a symbol, someone who believed. Sometimes in the thick of battle she would surge forwards into the fight and the people who rally with her. She was only a teenager! But her courage was enough. It was enough to shape a nation and a generation and to effect generations that follow.
God is looking for heroes! People who have had enough of the status quo of their times. People who dare to believe. People young and old that will be a symbol of hope a symbol of courage. And do you know what? After what’s happened these last years in Wales I’ve realised it only takes a few to make a big difference. You can make that difference.
Challenging times demand a courageous response! The future is ours for the taking. I dare to believe it. I know we will see it. God still burns.
Gripped by heavenly insanity, Justin Abraham
Vid Blog: Are you Ready?
We are daring to believe God really will do beyond what we ask or even think. To think less is to deny what He has promised. Crazy in your face miracles. Masses saved. Outpourings. Wildness. Joy. Religion crumbling under the weight of Reality. The Government impacted. The Media transfixed & addicted by seeing Heaven on display.
Small glimpses are here already. Clouds gathering on the horizon…
I can see it- It’s only just begun.
“What I see coming out of Wales is Wildfire.
You cannot begin to control this” Martin Scott
Justin Abraham
Much Respect: Global Legacy & Bethel Church
Thanks for visiting the blog. I want to share a few God-thoughts with you today. Hope they resonate with you.
I want to talk about how we treat each other when things go wrong. Here we go!
Have you ever been through a crisis, a change, a storm, a situation that is difficult? I would imagine everyone has. It’s at times like that our friendships and culture is really tested. When things go wrong we see what we are like our mindsets, our insecurities and orphan issues. It’s when friendship is tested and you see how real the friendship really is. Friendships are easy when we get along. Often at times like that people will give up on you and distance themselves as a form of punishment. Withdrawing their love. As Danny Silk says they ‘Turn their love off’. Especially if you have broken their ‘rules’ or just screwed up because life is messy and you ‘poop’! Yep living things ‘poop’!
Do you know what I mean?
We give up on each other. We punish. It’s true!
But the life changing truth is that Papa is not like that. He never gives up. Jesus never quit on his nutty disciples. They betrayed him. Lied to him. Stole from him. Wanted to be in charge. Argued with him and each other. But that rag tag group of crazies through his unfailing love were changed into people who ‘turned the world upside down’. Just a few who lived in a culture of honour, a grace culture, a culture of love turned on always, changed their generation through the supernatural power of God. Eleven of the twelve were martyred and the other we don’t know what happened to him. Love culture does something radical to humans. It brings true radical freedom.
I really want to honour today Bill Johnson, Danny Silk and Kris Volloton and the culture they are modelling, the teaching they are bringing is an essential part of the supernatural reformation. I used to think we just need the glory realm and the supernatural. Now I know we also need a heavenly culture, a way of treating each other. Bill and the guys are carrying a wave of the Spirit through cultural change. It’s not an event, you can’t grab it, but it’s a way of living and thinking together that creates a great context for freedom to thrive and people to be powerful together.
This weekend I was in Leicester for the Global Legacy leadership advance. Kris and Danny were there. They shared on covenant and standing together like trees in a forest, taking the storms together. They talked about how they’ve worked through incredibly painful things, how they have kept ‘love on’ even when it’s been exceptionally messy and costly (and their stories were intense- they have seen some stuff over thirty years together). My heart melted. Seriously! I could hardly speak and left our team to spend time alone to recover. It challenged me to the core and cut me to the heart. It is so sweet. So precious. So penetrating.
I think in the mystic reformation, the incredible wine that is being poured out, the party, the gospel and joy, we must not stop also contending for a real culture of love – loving on purpose – not love based on thinking, acting and sounding the same. There is danger the ‘new’ movements are becoming clone factories. We need love that is real. Grace that is not just a saying -’Grace has to be drunk straight’ but also a way of living. I’d say also that ‘Grace has to be lived straight’ towards others. Not mixed with works.
I truly believe these last years a massive wave of God has been released and it is now taking the shape of many streams and people. Eventually it will spread and work its way through everything. The joy, the intoxication, the Presence is coming in a way that brings ecstasy, extreme gladness, being caught up into God, mystic union. A company who live it 24/7. Wild bunch! Born to be wild!
But in all of that we must not forget what love looks like. Love looks like bleeding for your enemy. Love looks like turning the other cheek. Love looks like sweat pouring out of ever pore. Love looks like arms wide open. Giving chance after chance. Love never fails, always hopes, always trusts.
We need each other. We can’t do it alone. None of us are the full picture. Every one screws up. We have to be able to go beyond that. Unpunishable. That’s my thoughts for today. Thank you our friends, family, team and partners for walking this through with us. It’s been incredible. And I know it’s only just begun. Thank you!
Thank you Jesus for Bill Johnson, Danny Silk, Kris and their families. You are hope, hope of a better way. Revival without end.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
Dreaming Papa dreams. “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” Wildfire generation burning. Justin Abraham
Honouring the Fathers: Dafydd Morgan (1859)
Many of the answers to our future are hidden in the past. We are in a day of discovery. Remembering who we are, our history and where we came from. The Bible teaches that if we honour our Father and Mother it goes well for us. There is a law of honour. It opens up the blessing of what someone carries and pours it back over your life. When you VALUE them and what they brought it begins to flow through you and around you. We must look back and honour the past to understand the future. It’s all connected.
Wales is a nation marked by wild Holy Spirit radical Fathers. We have some good history. We have a revival history unlike any other nation on the earth (why I really do not know as we are small and seemingly insignificant but I have concluded it’s just God’s idea and it’s in the DNA here.. can’t explain it really… a mystery!).
We are scorched with glorious happy history! Some like Ray Hughes even say every revival since the early 1900s can be traced back to little old Wales. I don’t know if that’s true but I do know the last 1904 revival sent big waves all over the world and sparked many nations including the USA with Azusa Street, India, France and Africa.
Today I’d like to draw our eyes to just one Father to honour him. An ordinary church pastor called Dafydd Morgan. This is his story:
“Dafydd Morgan (1814-1883), a Welsh pastor who was used greatly in the Welsh revival of 1858-1860. He began to preach when he was 28 and was ordained at 43. In 1858, he woke up and realized that something dramatic had happened to him–he felt great power, saying, “I went to bed a lamb and woke up a lion.” Over the next two years or so he journeyed through every part of Wales, preaching the Gospel, often holding three or four services a day and in the process saw a multitude of people come to Christ. Approximately 100,000 people were brought to Christ during the revival in Wales.
some significant breakthrough already- the joy flowing, breakout on the streets, many, many people being intoxicated by the wine of heaven, healings, fresh ignition into destiny, new songs & sounds, and media attention with the papers reporting on some of the happenings. It has grabbed the attention in many nations and many nations have come here for fresh fire. The overshadowing Spirit is even changing the wider community. This last week in Bridgend a man walked up to us in Starbucks simply because he overheard our conversation and was moved by God. We prophesied over him and prayed for him and it was sweeeeet! Strangers jumping into the Jesus boat! It’s the same when we go out into Cardiff. People come up to us and want in on the action even before they understand what it is we carry. They are hungry and getting hungrier by the year.
“We can’t stop now. We’ve got to finish what we’ve started We can’t stop now…. We’ve got to finish what we’ve started We can’t stop now…. We’ve got to sing about it Talk about it Shout about it Do something about it! Finish what we’ve started We can’t stop now… The seeds that we’ve planted They will bear fruit The springtime is here Can you see the green shoots? As they push through the earth We will push with them…. To see our dreams…born for real! (Godfrey Birtill & Dale Gentry)”Rhythm of the Tides
Life has a rhythm… there is ancient pattern on how to live. A Grace centred pattern. No performance. No striving. Just knowing and being known. Following the rhythm of the grace tides.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Jesus (Mat 11:20)
The old Mystics and Celtic saints understood this. They connected to the land and saw the rhythm all around them. Hidden in caves, in the wilderness, in the communities, in the seasons, in the tides. They lived the rhythm.
On Holy Island Lindisfarne, in England, St. Aidan and then later St. Cuthbert would be cut off from the land when the daily tides came in. Forced welcomed seclusion. Forced into times of being alone and loved by the Person who is Love. Replenished.
Then the tide would change and the door would reopen to the wider world, inviting them to engage again when the walkway was clear to touch a broken and lost nation with endless compassion and grace. Touching the most overlooked & forgotten. Teaching a generation about the Truth. A Person as alive as the world around them. Connected yet Different. Hidden yet Visible in all.
This is the Celtic way. Hiddenness and then Exposure. The tide. Touching heaven and touching earth. Touching the poor and touching the rich. Blurring the boundary between worlds. Crossing over. Making heaven real through weakness and humility, demonstrating the supernatural reality of the age to come. Loving the one and thereby loving the All.
There is a new way coming through the ruins of empire. I heard an audible voice speak in the night from heaven. It said “The answer to the mysteries of the future is in the past.” Ancient tides. Ancient cries. Ancient rhythms. We are listening. We are slowly awakening. There is another way emerging, a wildfire generation rising to the unstoppable rhythm of the tides.
“I am coming for the nation, glory flowing like molten gold to the people and places of least resistance, teams flowing, running – the message – My presence and the poor. A nation transformed for the transformation of other nations” (Prophetic vision given to Karen Lowe, Llanelli, Wales)
Justin Abraham
Blog: The Great Convergence
I think something significant is taking place. It’s hidden from sight. It’s not being shouted from the root tops, but still it’s very supernatural and wonder-full. I call it the Great Convergence.
The dictionary defines Convergence as:
- The process of coming together
- Having come together toward a common point
- The coordinated turning of the eyes inward to focus
We are converging, coming together, coming into focus! No point resisting it!
“There is a great fitting together [a convergence] going on in the Spirit now, and it will increase on all levels… This is the Lord’s doing… As the walls come down the entire body will begin flowing together. If the Leaders resist this move the Lord will continue it through the congregations. These will begin to relate to other members of the body of Christ & their bonds will grow stronger regardless of the opposition from resistant pastors. This is a move of the Spirit that cannot be stopped.” Rick Joyner
Different unique flows & rivers converging together into a turbulent, powerful, bubbly, fast flow of water. A cross pollination of tribes producing new healthy DNA. Expanding our hearts together side by side to walk in heaven & hug the dirty world.
Believing believers who have been through times of being broken and smashed. Who know what it’s like to hurt and be rejected. To the point that they have laid down their agendas and empires and become nothing. Those who are willing to go lower to kiss the earth in its brokenness, servants of all. Those that have chosen not to be offended anymore despite the constant temptation. Those who have given up the right to always be right!
These are being compelled to connect and find each other out. Papa is clustering his people together like grapes, juicy grapes. The hidden ones are coming out of the caves finding they are not alone anymore.
Rick Joyner continues in his book “The Harvest”
“The growing tide of unity in the church will ultimately reveal the true nature of everyone in spiritual leadership. Those who
have building for themselves and their reputations will be threatened by this move because it is beyond their control. Those with a “control spirit” will continually be the greatest threat to the true move of God. Those who have been truly ordained by God, and not just an institution, will become increasingly determined to give up “control|” over their people and circumstances, deferring to the Holy Spirit. The “control” they relinquish will be replaced by a spiritual authority grounded in the peace & rest of God. What is coming is beyond any man’s ability to control.”
The numerous storms (and they are coming stronger soon) will push us to become connected again. Old issues will seem insignificant as we face the challenges of the coming economic, social and environmental turbulence. We will realise more unites us that divides us and the issues we fought over in past seasons, our pet doctrines and narrow theology will suddenly seem irrelevant compared to the massive move of harvest, challenges and shaking that will be upon us.
I am hearing from Jesus the words “Forced Change”. Change is going to forced on us by external and internal pressures but it is going to produce the greatest revelation of the glory the world has ever seen. We will literally see through a new generation, the fulfilment of Isaiah 61: “They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new.” People will literally become apostolic city & nation builders. Shaping the landscape. Establishing Right-ness and Justice, Peace & Joy. Loving on purpose (even if that is so costly you die in the offering).
It’s Europe’s Day and the call is going out. It’s time!
In his overflowing bliss, Justin Abraham
The Unknown Path continued
We are seekers of Life, a Life less ordinary
It seems the further we go the more we change. There is no going back. Ahead is a new spiritual era, wonder
and awe, things we have not dreamed nor imagined. The known is left far behind in the Brightness of His Gaze. It is hypnotic and like a moth to the Flame we are drawn out to a place from which we can never return.
The Way is often hidden before us. It moves and turns off our conventional map. Beyond what we comprehend. We walk by faith not understanding. We are those that are lost in the depths of Love with no hope or desire to return. Plunging ever deeper into His death that His life may also work powerfully through us. Pure joy!
Ahead in our hearts we see the Wild Islands on Fire. Ahead we see Europe’s Day Rising. A great and mighty day touching into the core of Islam. A challenging day with the destiny of a radical generation in our hands. We embrace this day and groan inwardly for it to fully manifest and burn uncontrolled without boundaries or borders or limits. All we want is the Flame. His Flame.
What that looks like we do not know but we have glimpses of it in the past. People like Paul. A life blinded by the Light so he could finally see. One man who carved through his generation recklessly leaving blazing trails for those to follow.
In his own words -
SCUM-BAG APOSTLES (Apostle Paul)
“It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We’re something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. We’re the Messiah’s misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we’re mostly kicked around. Much of the time we don’t have enough to eat, we wear patched and threadbare clothes, we get doors slammed in our faces, and we pick up odd jobs anywhere we can to eke out a living. When they call us names, we say, “God bless you.” When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them. We’re treated like garbage, potato peelings from the culture’s kitchen. And it’s not getting any better.” 1 COR 4:9-13
“If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!” 2 COR 4:8-12
Still want it?
Pure Bliss. It’s His Way. It’s the Way paved with bleeding love from a rugged cross.
Spend us Jesus. We only live once. In the words of Sadhu Sundar Singh -
“It is better to burn quickly and melt many souls than to burn slowly and melt none!”
Out of our control and in His, Justin Abraham
Burning heart of love
We love the Christian Mystics
They inspire! Hope you enjoy this story of the Burning HEART of LOVE
CATHERINE OF SIENA
“One day while St. Catherine of Siena was in prayer she continued to recite these words from Psalm 51:12 “Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Over and over again she asked the Heavenly Father to take her own heart and will from her. Our Lord heard the prayer and appeared to her. It then seemed to the Saint that He opened her left side, took out her heart and then went away with it. The saint afterward told her confessor that she no longer had a heart. Needless to say, even though she attempted a number of times to convince him, he did not believe it and in a kind and charitable manner dismissed her claim.
Another time when St. Catherine was in the Dominican church in Siena, she fell into an ecstasy. After retreating from it a light from heaven encircled her, and in this light appeared the Saviour who held in His hands a bright red human heart. Approaching Catherine, He opened her left side once again and placed the heart within her chest, saying: “Dearest daughter, as I took your heart away, now, you see I am giving you mine. He closed the opening He had made, but as I sign of the miracle, a scar remained…
She added that never afterwards had she been able to say “Lord I give you my heart” since He already had it. She said “My mind us so full of joy and happiness that I am amazed my soul stays within my body!”
True Christianity is an daily intimate happy real experience of God. This is eternal life.
In His bliss, Justin Abraham
Spiritual Hunger
“Hunger for God is one of the greatest signs of life a person can have. It reveals an inner awareness of a greater destiny” Bill Johnson
Today I am writing from the heart once more. Today I want to discuss supernatural hunger. That ache that blissful longing that Jesus puts right in the core of you’re heart.
Hunger is Supernatural Bliss
I value hunger. It’s one of the greatest motivating forces you can ever have. When people get hungry watch out! Something is going to happen. Hunger is a gift. It is something God does inside of you to create tension and faith to pull on the unseen realm until it become a reality in you and around you.
“When we take away hunger from people – when we satisfy people’s hunger often times we take away the motivation God was using to make them move forwards” Kris Vallotton.
When I was a new Christian I encountered God night after night in my bedroom. It was a season that lasted a year where I wept at his feet with joy for hours at a time. During that time I kept crying out “Make me hungry Lord, make me hungry!” I remember hearing myself pray this and thinking “Why am I saying this?”. It was a Holy Spirit led prayer. He was burying something deep inside me that gripped me for the rest of my life. I later realised what had happened. He supernaturally put a desire in me that would never be satisfied. A desire for Him that motivated me to pray day after day, and to seek Him and engage with Him. It was a supernatural fuel to the fire. Even today in a day of encounter and bliss and joy, I find I am still hungry and daring to believe there is so much more coming in our time. I have realised like Bobby Conner’s says “He is the one feeding the dissatisfaction.” He is stirring something deep inside of us. Longing. It’s a bliss.
John Piper believes that longing and hunger is a part of the circle of bliss and is part of our lives as Christians. He writes-
“The Bible teaches us to desire God and to have joy in God, or delight in God. It illustrates both. Godly people are seen longing, hungering, thirsting and fainting for God. They are also seen enjoying, delighting in, and being satisfied in God.” John Piper
This is a wonderful paradox. A wonderful mystery. Being found yet wanting. Being complete yet desiring greater depths. It is a mystery that man would rather sweep under the carpet but to the mystics it was the world they lived in. French mystic Jean Guyon said she tasted such a sweet and powerful wine in the heavens that it consumed her with desire for more. There is a drink that satisfies but also makes you thirst. John Piper says that even int he age to come we will still be desiring and longing for more but it will no longer be subject to frustration. We will forever be exploring Christ.
Heaven responds to hunger
I believe God is stirring such hunger in out generation. People travel from all over the UK to gatherings where God is moving. People are connecting, seeking, looking for something that is real. God is the One doing it!
One of my heroes John G Lake saw God move in extraordinary power in his generation. He was hungry! He had the type of hunger we need. He cried out for nine months for miracle working power. He was already seeing the ‘stuff’ but it wasn’t enough. One day he was struck with what he called the lightnings of God. From that time on raw power went through him and in a short time the world was feeling its impacts. He left a mark on history. Very few have come close to the raw power he walked in. He said it was a result of spiritual hunger. He said “one thing matured in my heart, a real hunger”
In his biography he writes this -
“God’s purpose come to pass when your heart and mine get the real God-cry and the real God-prayer comes into our spirit, and the real God-yearning gets a hold of our nature. Something is going to happen then.”
I like that. There is a ‘God-cry’ that is a gift. It is supernatural. It is not self-effort. It is Spirit inspired. It is a wonder!
I believe God is stirring up hunger even in our bliss and satisfaction with Jesus. His work on the cross is finished and we walk from that rest. But our work here has only just begun. He wants to work through us to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. He is feeding the hunger. He is calling us into new dimensions of experience and encounter. This is a truly amazing day to be alive.
RICK JOYNER says there is an incredible promise on our generation:
“There is a door standing open in heaven, and there is an invitation for us to go through it. Those who answer this call will be caught up into the Spirit, with the result that they will always be seeing the One who sits on the throne. This is the ultimate purpose of all true prophetic revelation- seeing the glorious, risen Christ and the authority that He now has over all.
He continues “Never has the Lord been as personal & intimate with His people as He will be in these days. Believers will be in awe continually wondering each day what great new things they will see.”
Don’t you want that? Blessed are the hungry for they shall be filled (over and over again).
In His bliss Justin Abraham
An Invitation
PROPHETIC WORD: EXTREME GENERATION
I was woken in the night and heard a specific word of revelation. I tried to capture it as best as I could… see if it resonates with you it certainly touched my heart. I want the unknown path a new way whatever that looks like. We have seen the limitations of what we have known and are hungry for a greater reality to manifest. Even with the current move we are aware their is a greater harvest, miracles and wonders yet to be released.
The GENERATION that I am raising up right now is an EXTREME generation.
They are going to look so HOT- so on FIRE – so extreme in their CONSECRATION and in their DECISIONS, and in their LIFESTYLES that they are going to be PERSECUTED even as I was persecuted. Because the BRIGHTNESS and HOLINESS of their lives is going to cause those who seemed holy to suddenly feels UNCLEAN and those who thought they were on fire to suddenly realise they weren’t on fire at all.
This FIRE that I am releasing on this people will cause them to make lifestyle CHOICES like that of the MONASTICS and MYSTICS of old where they will FORSAKE many of the patterns and things of this world to lay hold of the heavenly reality.
Some will ACUSE them of being RELIGIOUS.
Some will accuse them of being TOO heavenly minded.
And they will be MISUNDERSTOOD and ABUSED.
But they will be KNOWN by heaven and they will EXPERIENCE the REALITY of heaven unlike any other generation has. My HAND will come upon them HEAVILY. They will WORK My WONDERS and they will demonstrate My awe and My wonders. They will be KNOWN by ME. They will be those that OBTAIN PROMISES, see My FACE, stand in My COUNCIL.
The PRICE to walk in this realm is HIGHER than people realise.
It is more COSTLY. It is like a TREASURE in a field. It’s costs EVERYTHING to obtain this prize.
It’s going to be a DAY-TO-DAY decision. It will involve embarassment. It will involve humiliation, brokenness. It will involve making choices that seem ILLOGICAL, making choices that people don’t understand. It may mean drawing ASIDE when sometimes it’s inappropriate to be gone.
It will mean taking up YOUR cross daily and loving not you’re life unto death.
It is a GREAT WORK that these have been called to- but there is a great PRICE.
Are you WILLING to pay the price?
Are you willing to be one that WALKS in the POWER of the age to come. Each one is invited, many are called but few RESPOND and become chosen. But to those who respond they will be CHOSEN and they will be PRECIOUS in My sight.”
I believe this is one of many prophetic invitations to this generation. I once heard the Lord say “THE RADICALS ARE COMING”. We haven’t really seen them come through yet. We have to get more radical. The heavens are stirred in an unusual way this year. It has made me wonder what is truly going on. I had an sense of anticipation and excitement. I then found yesterday that Bobby Conner has also seen and said something similar:
“There is a great stirring in the Heavens, the hosts of Heaven are assembling, and something is up! You can feel it in the air, God is responding to the cries of His people.” Bobby Conner
Heaven is responding to the cries. It is stirred. Beni Johnson from Bethel said in her message on transition:
“I believe we are in the moment of Joshua chapter 1- and I believe the Lord is putting us on display before principalities and powers… and we will shine before the world. God help us to do it right!” Beni Johnson
God help us to do it right! Well said Beni! We need great grace to walk this kind of change out.
My prayer is that we might have courage and confidence to believe and respond.
Incredible days incredible challenge.
Living for Papa’s dream, Justin Abraham
A French Perspective…
Sebastian Winston and his wife Anne-Claire carry a BIG heart. I asked Sebastian what he felt after this weekend with our team, what is he seeing taking place in France. Here’s his response- check it out..
So, what are my feelings?
I am losing my grid for what we’ve known so far, I feel the need to learn to relate to others from the position of living in union with Christ, living in heaven and containing heaven.
I see a plowing of the old ground, mindsets being broken, thoughts being led captive to Christ, and wild demonstrations and preaching of the Gospel in our nation.
As Christ is being revealed in us by the Father, many will be led to simplify their lives, to slow down to allow Holy Spirit to completely reset their mindset and perspective of life and of the world around them.
One friend who was there last week-end was twice prophesied over that there would be a shift in his job in order for Papa to take him further in the new. It seems that he is actually going to be fired in a few months. I had him on the phone last night, he told me he’s ready to leave everything, everything he’s known is falling apart and he’s at last coming to the knowledge of the true Good News. He’s gonna come over to our house to hang out, quit his efforts, and let Papa wash over him with His love and grace, and ignite new dreams in his heart !
My heart now is in fathering fathers and mothers and harvesting harvesters, to see Christ formed again and firmly established in many who have been bewitched and severed from a life of Grace.
I can definitely see glory communities forming in France around this revelation of the Cross, people who will actually reach out in honor and love to the established churches, but who will not back up and be contained by the status quo.
Heaven is at hand, we’re sojourner in this society, why lower the standard and be stuck here when our Lord opened a limitless portal for us to live in the Father’s heart ?
Too many forerunners throughout history carried aspects of this reality in our nations and around the world, we cannot be unbelieving and dull anymore, our hearts must burn at least for what they had.
There’s a beautiful thing that’s gonna happen in our nation : people will discover the way of truly giving up their lives. Not the religious self beating up, bound by fear and condemnation, but rather the sweet trusting abandonment to our union to Christ’s death and resurrection, with the unshakable knowing that Father God has risen us up by His glory and now sees Jesus in us !
An absolute satisfaction in our union with Christ, a holy obsession, a holy and blissful possession !
Many will function with creative wisdom in society, but will be walking by faith and not by sight, being more aware of their union with Christ and all of Heaven contained inside them than of the surrounding natural world. It will be an offense to the rational humanistic idol in the mind of our nation, Lol !!!
As far as I’m concerned… I am gonna be drinking and serving and learning to love and enjoying friendship with God and with the people He’s put around me… Nobody ever won a nation or a single soul by striving, so let’s crank up the party and let our bellies rip open to let it out ! Hahaha !
…can’t wait to see what’s coming our way ! Disturb us Daddy!
Sebastian Winston
Great stuff! Bless you Justin Abraham
Response to Two Pathways
Many of you are posting on Facebook, email and on the blog comments responses to the unknown path and the two pathway blogs. We’d like to share with you one of the responses – it’s a poem by a friend of ours with IRIS Ministries Sudan Michele Perry. She lives life on the edge close to a war zone looking after kids living in raw faith. She is a Jesus Freak. Here’s what she sent us -
The unknown trail
i peered ahead
the path was worn,
well traveled
its journey full of ups and downs,
winding round upon itself
but still assured somehow
of a certain destination
i looked down that worn road,
its path solid under my feet,
but it was not mine to take.
hidden in the underbrush,
there was another trail.
only one set of footprints
blazed its course.
it called for me to come
aside, come away, come up
higher along an unknown
way.
where the unknown trail
split from the worn road
the one whose steps had
made this way was waiting.
i was not to journey alone.
he had carved this trail long ago
footprints left from when
he had walked on time before.
i stole one glance at the worn road
i was leaving behind
for the underbrush, the unknown.
i didn’t envy those other travelers at all.
their path may be well defined
by the steady stream of people on it,
but they are alone among them.
at the end of the journey,
it will be the narrow way,
established in the heart of God,
and traveled by those who do not love their lives
too much to loose them…
it will be that unknown path,
with only one set of footprints
that will lead kingdom seekers
home.
–michele perry 1995
We need to see the real deal released again. Something beyond empire, celebrity, hype, programs, walls and man pleasing. Something beyond the suffocating stench of religious containment. It is a dangerous path and costly but the outcome will be beyond our imagination.
Yours in the hope of Papa’s BIG Dream. Justin
Two Pathways
This is a significant word for our time. It’s called ‘Two Pathways’ and it is by a UK prophet called Christine Larkin. Spoken in 2007 this prophetic word continues to impact & inspire me. We pray Papa give us the courage and faith to embrace the unknown paths.
Two Pathways
As I was praying about the next season I felt strongly that what is coming is not a new season, but a whole new era. A time which is more significant than any other time on earth in terms of the church being shaken into the purposes of God. Seasons will merge as we move forward, just as the seasons on earth are being mixed up and weather patterns are surprising forecasters, so the church will begin to be unsettled as the winds of change begin to blow on all that is ‘known’.
At the start of this time I saw two pathways opening up before each child of God. One was a flat path – called ‘Known’ and the other was a steep and winding path called ‘Unknown’. Along the first pathway were many words ‘of man’. The way ahead from the beginning of this pathway seemed to be clear – with a clear destiny/destination. Many voices could be heard discussing the best way to walk along this pathway. Along the second pathway were many words of the Lord. The way ahead for this path twists and turns and it is only possible to see a short way ahead. One voice can be clearly heard amidst the stillness and relative silence along the path.
The ‘known’ path will be for those who have faith to do great things for God. Those who take this path will find that they get what they have faith for. Much ‘success’ will be evident and the Lord will be present to speak wisdom to whoever will hear. Prophetic voices can be heard on this path and they are true voices – those who have seen what the Lord wants to do and many of the saints on this path are courageous and confident in the Lord, eager to serve him and willing to pay the price to see God’s will done on earth.
I knew that both pathways were costly to build and costly to walk on everywhere there were many places at which a ‘toll’ must be paid in order to go on.
The starting point is the same for both paths – they joined together at the beginning and it was possible to start with one foot on each path. But then they widened sharply and the only way to make a step forward was to choose which path to take. Each path was diagonally opposed and it was almost impossible to see the other path once the first steps were taken.
Each ‘step’ on both paths required choices – life choices, relationship choices, position and place choices. Once the first steps were taken there was no more opportunity to have a foot on both paths, as one path is the way of human choices and the other is one of abandonment to the leading of the Holy Spirit. However, the Lord was present on both paths. He was close to all who were walking on each of the paths. Once a decision was been made and the path was taken it was impossible to ‘view’ the other path. This was the grace and mercy of God to avoid confusion and judgement among the people.
Also, once a path had been chosen it was almost impossible to turn back. Both paths had the presence and purposes of God on each side. But they were very different.
The ‘unknown’ path looks very different. Everyone on this path starts off on their faces, empty of all confidence in their own ability. These people have faith in God, but have been brought to the end of their own strength. All old visions and dreams have become meaningless to them as they realise this is a new era and that they have nothing in themselves to bring. Badges of success from the past, though valid and true, are irrelevant for the new path. Each one on this path is aware of great weakness in their own ability. They start to walk almost like they are crawling, almost flat on their faces, holding on to hope in the strength of Christ. Few voices can be heard at the start of this path and there is only one prophetic voice to be heard at the beginning – it is a simple phrase repeated over these prostrate saints – “let him who has ears, hear, what the Spirit is saying”.
The two paths lay before us, Known and Unknown. The Unknown – where the Holy Spirit is totally in control. The Known – where people work hard to serve the Lord,
Both paths are populated with God’s children.
The starting point for the Unknown path is realisation, recognition and relinquishment of any vestige of self-reliance or expectation of ability to do anything in human strength. This starting point is not a choice – it’s a position, where self is at an end – personal ‘bankruptcy’; a crashing from self – weakness, wretchedness, blindness, and poverty of spirit – of self.
Helpless but not hopeless.
There’s stillness, a silence, not even sights or sobs – for these have gone before. At this place sights are really too deep to be uttered. The last breath of confidence in self is expelled.
Leadership on this path will be sacrificial to God and man – it will be to release people.
A new kind of church will emerge – built by the Spirit of God and populated by the those who have to hear and see what the Spirit is saying and doing. Any other way will be untenable on this path.
Badges of success gained before this point in time will be meaningless. They will be a hindrance and distraction. For it is not what has gone before that will count – it will be each step forward into God’s purposes, led by the Spirit. This is a new era.
New Era
You can’t read about it, learn about it, think about it or talk about it for it is not like any time before. It requires a place and position of surrender – to human plans or God’s leading.
Each path will be populated across the span of diversity in the church – from Catholic, Orthodox expressions, through to Pentecostal and Charismatic – all coming together by the Spirit of God.
This is the time for choices. Many people have been struggling in the past few weeks, unsure of what is happening and why they are feeling so unsettled. They know that something is about to change but are not seeing the way ahead. The next few months will be a time of significant choices. Even the smallest choice could have great significance. The choices will reflect the chosen path.
Let us pray for right choices, courage and commitment.
Christine Larkin
Unknown Paths
Are you willing to go off the beaten track…
go lower to the dirty earthy ground, get dangerously closer to his beating passionate heart? This is the unknown path. Away from success, formulas and man pleasing and going along with the crowd. Away from what is popular or normal. It’s the way of the mystics of old and the Enoch generation rising on the earth. Away from the limelight and predictable flows, away from what’s acceptable or the wisdom of this world.
A lifestyle where nothing is in your hands but the One thing that really counts.
In this place of exile you cleave because Papa becomes you’re only source of life & joy. In this place you don’t know what will happen – you may even suffer much pain and misunderstanding but if he’s with you it doesn’t seem to matter the same anymore. Even pain becomes a friend that pushes you deeper into the burning centre of his being and you don’t want it to stop until it’s done its full work.
Many have walked this way before off the beaten track, rugged strange people who shaped generations in an upside down way with an upside down kingdom. The prophets, the desert fathers, the celtic saints, and other rare people in history that shone and dared to believe the unbelievable. People that shaped history without compromising to the status quo and apathy of their times. Burning. The world had no grip on them. Jesus freaks… the Freaky Ones.
We don’t really know what is coming, how it will come or where we will go but what we do know is the future is not like the past and we are living during the biggest transition since the reformation. God is thrusting his people into exile from what is known and understood. A place of exile. From this place will be birthed a day of great awe and wonders like has not been seen since the time of Moses. A greater glory.
In exile like John on the island of Patmos you see the Lord like you’ve never seen him before with white hair, burning fire and a sword. When you’re pushed out of the boat and swallowed by a whale you find you are spat out at the door of destiny and change history and save a city. When you’re sold as a slave and taken to a foreign land you end up becoming the answer for the needs of a nation and your family.
History makers are birthed out of adversity.
History makers are birthed out of exile.
This is the unknown path.
Losing everything but gaining it All.
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12
Justin Abraham
Craving for a different culture…
Blogs are a way to spill your soul…
Here we go again…
The future belongs to the courageous! To get to where we’re going we have to embrace change. Sometimes that change costs us more than we expected and the transition is more painful than we had hoped for. But the new future is worth it. To stay the same is to fail.
The world is going through many contractions birthing a new spiritual era. There is so much new revelation coming. New paradigms new encounters. We’re moving from understanding church to understanding the mountains of influence in the world such as Government, Finance, Education, Arts, Family and more. We have a long way to go yet but eventually we will see and know what is means to make disciples of nations – where whole nations come under the culture of heaven and we bring the joy, love, peace and council of heaven to the earth. Nations transformed and healed to transform other nations.
But one thing I am craving right now… craving in a deep and painful way is for a cultural change to support this new supernatural era – a culture of honor.
You see we can have a lot of glory on our lives, get whacked, walk in miracles and have encounters but still be missing fundamental understanding of how to relate to people and talk about people in a way that releases their dignity and potential. Especially if their theology or practise is different from what we enjoy.
But the question is how does God see people & how does he treat them?
Something is still missing from our DNA… something really important…
Out of the many voices that are speaking different conflicting messages right now I hear something that resonates profoundly being said by Danny Silk, Kris Valloton and Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding California. They as a group of people are modelling (and teaching) a culture of honor. They live it and show it with such integrity and love. It’s reckless!
Here’s Danny Silk sharing some of his stuff…
We need this culture. Love kept ON!! No OFF switch! No pulling back!
In essence a culture of honor is a love culture where you love on purpose.
A culture of honor is based on inner nobility & generosity not poverty. It is a culture that releases freedom to make mistakes and be creative. It is an honest culture. It embraces risky relationships. It removes the fear of punishment when things go wrong by not backing off or rejecting. It pulls the best out of you. It celebrates the success of others (breaking from the ‘our ministry is the most important in the world’ mindset that is widespread currently). It takes bullets for people when they are in the firing line of persecution and unpopular. It doesn’t turn everyone into a monotone black or white color but releases a rainbow of different expressions. It doesn’t quench your personality. It is a culture that makes people feel powerful. Clothes you with value and dignity.
When you think about it that’s just how Papa God treats us and Jesus treated his disciples. He makes us powerful and trusts us with incredible responsibility. He never gives up on us no matter how many mistakes we make. Never stops reaching out to us or thinking well of us. Loves us enough to give us personal freedom. Doesn’t punish our mistakes since Jesus satisfied fully the punishment required of sin. Papa loves us enough to chase us down when we pull away. Papa lives honor. Papa honored us so much he gave his only son in our place. He was willing for Jesus to be undignified to clothe us with dignity, beaten to heal our wounds, left alone so that we would never be forsaken.
Papa doesn’t push you away but PULLS you into his burning heart. He honors because he is honor. He loves because he is love. Love never quits.
My hope and prayer is that in 2011 these things will go deeper into our hearts – my heart – beyond truths into embodiment. And that the burning heart of Papa would melt us until we look like him, sound like him and walk like him. possessed by love. Love leaving us no choice. Costly love given on purpose.
Sometimes that hurts… but I’m beginning to realise that that’s okay too… we are being dignified by the dignity of the gospel and that means we embrace death as well as life. Our theology must be big enough for it all.
Hope my blog today makes sense to somebody. Just glad to have space to splurge my mind. The words are limited but the vision of Papa is massive.
Bless you Justin Abraham
(For more on Bill Johnson and the Bethel team visit www.ibethel.org
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