O LORD Bless the State of Israel
This prayer was written by the Chief Rabbi of the state of
Israel in 1948 and is prayed in synagogues the world over each Shabbat.
“Our
Heavenly Father, Israel’s Rock and Redeemer, Bless the State of Israel, the first flowering of our
redemption. Shield it under the wings of Your loving kindness And spread over
it the Tabernacle of Your peace. Send Your light and truth to its leaders,
ministers and officials, And direct them with good counsel before You.”
“Strengthen
the hands of the defenders of our Holy land; Grant them deliverance, our God,
And crown them with the crown of victory. Grant peace in the land and
everlasting joy to its inhabitants.”
“As
for our brother, the whole house of Israel, Remember them in all the lands of
their dispersion, And swiftly lead them upright to Zion your city, And
Jerusalem Your dwelling place, As is written in the Torah of Moses Your
servant:
‘Even if you are
scattered to the furthermost land under the heavens, From there the Lord your
God will gather you and take you back. The Lord your God will bring you to the
land Your ancestors possessed and you will possess it; And He will make you
more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.’” Deuteronomy 30:4-5
“Unite
our hearts to love and revere Your name And observe all the words of Your
Torah, And swiftly send us Your righteous anointed one of the house of David;
To redeem those who long for Your salvation.”
“Appear
in Your glorious majesty over all the dwellers on earth, And let all who
breathe declare: The Lord God of Israel is King And His kingship has dominion
over all. Amen, Selah.”
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War Part 11
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 11
Rick Joyner
The Great Commission was to make disciples of all
nations, not just individuals. The Lord said that when He returned He would
divide the nations into “sheep” or “goats.” The sheep are good and the goats
are bad. We have come to a time when nations are determining ultimate issues
that will result in them being a sheep or goat nation. In this series, I will
continue to unpack the dramatic dream I had about the American Republic that
deals with ultimate issues of our purpose from heaven’s perspective. Regardless
of what country you are from, there will be a level of civil conflict coming in
your nation too. Many will be similar to what is unfolding here. Therefore,
even though this is American-centric, in many ways it addresses the same basic
issues all nations will be facing, as these are all connected to what The Lord
said would come at the end of this age.
As covered previously, the first two Great
Awakenings in America each preceded wars, the Revolutionary War and the Civil
War. As we study the primary messages that came from those two Great
Awakenings, we can see a direct link from the Awakenings to the wars. So did
these great spiritual awakenings cause the wars? In some basic ways they did. The
light from these Awakenings exposed the darkness, and this required that it be
confronted until it was driven from the land.
Could the darkness have been driven from the land by
spiritual warfare so that the physical conflicts would not have been necessary?
Perhaps. That certainly would have been desirable. However, what I saw in my
dream included physical conflict. I saw the nature of this, which I will share
later in this study. Even so, it is my conviction that to the degree that evil
strongholds in our land are destroyed spiritually, the degree of the physical
conflict will lessen.
As we enter the Third Great Awakening in
America, we can expect the same kind of light to expose the great darkness in
our time. When powers of darkness are exposed, they rage. When they are cast
out of their high positions they come to the earth with great wrath, as we see
in Revelation 12. God’s provision is to send us great
champions of the truth to face specific evil strongholds in our time. They are
being sent to completely destroy these strongholds, not just defeat them and
push them back. What is happening in the Spirit will be reflected in the
natural with rage and conflict.
It is always a tragedy when our differences
degenerate into violence. It has been a great hope of Western Civilization to
rise above war, to eradicate it completely from the earth. That is a noble
hope, however, as we see up to the end of the Book of Revelation, there will be
increasing war right to the end of the age. As we see in Revelation 7, for a
brief time the winds of war (winds of the earth) are held back so that The
Lord’s bondservants can be sealed, but this is a short time and the winds are
released again. To be
prepared for the times we must understand that violence has already begun, and
it will get worse for a time. Again, this may be reduced by spiritual
victories, but there is now a level of violence that we will not be able to
avoid and we must be prepared for—spiritually and physically.
A major reason we can expect increasing violence is
because of a contingent that not only does not want open debate, but cannot
tolerate it. This is the fruit of an education system that no longer educates,
but rather indoctrinates. A generation has been conditioned so that if you
disagree with them they will be offended, and being offended has been elevated
to the level of being considered almost worse than a physical assault. That
many are so easily offended is a major cause that will make the physical
violence unavoidable. As we are told in Proverbs 18:19, “A
brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city.”
One of the most important things we can
do to prepare for the coming conflict is to refuse to be offended. This is
basic Christianity and is called “forgiveness.”
Jesus forgave the ones who had Him
crucified and even those who nailed Him to the cross. Learning to be quick to
forgive is basic discipleship and basic to following Christ. To stay on the
right side in what is unfolding, we must not engage in the rage and bitterness
that is fueled by unforgiveness. We must learn not to react to personal
offense, but take the actions that we do because they are the right thing to
do.
To
make it through what is coming upon the world will require all Christians to
follow Christ more closely and be more like Him than we ever have.
We must guard our hearts, especially
from the evil stronghold of unforgiveness and offense. The Lord will help us get ready by allowing opportunities to learn to
forgive quickly and totally. Don’t waste these trials. Embrace them as the
opportunities they are, especially when you are persecuted for doing what is
right. The Lord promised a special blessing for this. See these as an
opportunity to get closer to The Lord by bearing your cross to identify with
Him, and getting closer to Him will be the greatest blessing of all.
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War Part 10
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 10
Rick Joyner
For
fifty years I have had dreams, visions, and revelations about the coming
revolutions and civil wars in the church. I have written extensively about
these, and my most popular books have been about them.
What I understood, but did not give too much attention to, is how closely
events in the natural parallel what is happening in the Spirit. Connecting
these better will help us prepare for both.
When
we begin to glimpse the kingdom of God and the city that God is building, it is
hard to consider anything happening on the earth as important—but it is. We
must give it due attention because much of it is happening in preparation for
the coming kingdom of God. The emerging spiritual awakening
is also imperative for the Revolutionary/Civil War to be successful in the
natural. As our national Founding Fathers declared, the Republic they gave to
us only works for a moral and religious people, and they admitted that it was
“inadequate for governing any others.” There is no way to have a successful
outcome in our country’s coming Revolutionary/Civil War if the one in the
church does not precede it.
We can
reconnect our government to the Constitution that embodies God’s wisdom for
government, but without a spiritual Awakening in America, it will not be long
before it is disconnected again and lawlessness prevails. Our Constitution is
not a law that forces righteousness, but it is the construction of a limited
government that protects its people from evil and promotes liberty. The
Founders were right: this Constitutional Republic can only work for those who
want to do what is right because of a strong religious and moral compass in
their heart. Therefore, they are given the ability to choose what is right
because they love God, righteousness, and justice, and also love, honor, and
respect one another.
This may sound too good to work for any
civil government, and it is without devotion to God and high moral principles
by the people governed. In this age of increasing lawlessness, immorality,
greed, and all other forms of darkness, this may seem even more unrealistic. It
is more than unrealistic—it is impossible without God.
“Nothing is
impossible for God.” He is not challenged by what may seem difficult or
impossible for us. Biblical record and history reveal that He does His best
work when the challenge is the most impossible for us. The Christian life He has called us to is not just the most difficult
life we can live—it is impossible. No human being can live the Christian life
we are called to without Christ! He designed what He called us to as
impossible without Him.
No
human life on this planet can be successful without God.
He made man to need Him. We can
accomplish what is in our heart without Him, but if such get the chance to
ponder their life on their deathbed, they will know it was frivolous, empty,
and a failure at what was truly important. Has there yet been anyone on their
deathbed who had remorse that they did not make more money, build or accumulate
more stuff, or get more of the accolades of men?
God
is asking us to do the impossible. He wants the American Republic to be a government that will not work
without Him. Like Israel of old that had to learn over and over that they
could not survive without God, we are now there ourselves. We will not last
much longer without Him.
As we see in
Revelation 11:15, when the seventh trumpet sounds, which is the seventh and
last message that goes forth, the kingdoms of this world will become the
kingdom of our Lord. There is a transition being prepared, a bridge to the age
to come. This is why we are told in Isaiah 40 that we prepare the way for The
Lord by building a highway. This highway is God’s “higher-way.” He has a higher
way, higher than even man’s greatest wisdom, to do just about everything. This
includes government, education, business—everything. To the degree that we align ourselves with His ways is the degree to
which we build upon His kingdom that cannot be shaken.
The Founders of the American Republic
developed a Constitution for a republic that would limit government, not
promote the expansion of it. They understood that anything the government did
for its citizens beyond three basic areas would come with strings attached that
would ultimately have the people in bondage again. The three areas they
believed civil government needed to have authority over was for the common
defense, foreign affairs, and interstate commerce. All other authority in the
Constitution was remanded “to the states and to the people.” When our federal
government went beyond its Constitutional mandate, virtually every crisis we’re
now facing began.
As C.S. Lewis wrote, “When you make a wrong turn and get on the wrong road it will never
turn into the right road. The only way to get on the right road is to go back
to where you missed the turn.” We may think that it is impossible to go
back to those now. It is if we’re looking to the right or the left, but not if
we’re looking up. Remember, “Nothing is
impossible for God.”
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War Part 9
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 9
Rick Joyner
One of the questions I am asked most frequently
about this coming Second American Revolutionary/Civil War is when it will break
out. I have not received anything about the timing, but since publishing this
dream, I have received messages from several prophetic people that have given
words that civil war would break out in America in 2021. A rationale some have
given for this is that Trump will be elected to a second term and this will exacerbate
our divisions into violence. Perhaps.
I regularly hear words that are attributed to me
that I never gave. Often they are the opposite of what I believe. This has been
the case with prophecy from the beginning, and we see it with many of the biblical
prophets—they had to contend with words from others that countered theirs. This
is why it is increasingly important for
us to not just seek to hear words from The Lord, but to hear The Word Himself.
We must know His voice and follow The Lamb, not just prophetic words.
Something
like a Revolutionary/Civil War is so dramatic, and its consequences so great,
that it can overshadow almost everything else. However, the most important
event now unfolding in our country is another Great Awakening. With the Awakening, we can expect revivals to
break out in different parts of the country as well as a great spiritual hunger
to know The Lord. This is far more important than the Revolutionary/Civil War
and will be a main factor in the outcome of this conflict.
Things in the
natural often parallel what is happening in the Spirit, and there is also a
great revolution beginning in the church. Like the revolution that will restore
the Constitution as “the supreme law of the land,” a great revolution is coming
to the church to restore it to the solid biblical foundation of what church
life is intended to be, and even what real Christianity is.
Presently, only a small fraction of U.S.
Citizens have read the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Our ministry’s lawyer
took Constitutional law in law school and his class never once referred to the
Constitution. They spent all of their time studying Supreme Court decisions
because the Supreme Court has usurped the place of the Constitution as the
supreme law of the land, and by doing this has become the source of the biggest
divisions growing in our country.
Likewise, the church is filled with
teachers and teaching that is disconnected from The Scriptures; rather, the
teaching is based mostly on human thinking and wisdom.
One popular evangelical journal did a study of what it was publishing and found
that less than one percent of the articles they published had even one
reference to Scripture. This is from the church movement that prides itself the
most on being devoted to The Scriptures. Spurgeon once said that he could find
ten men who would die for The Bible for every one that would read it! It’s
still true.
There has never been anything, and never will be
anything, as revolutionary as the gospel
of the kingdom. This is the gospel that Jesus and His disciples preached,
but it has not truly been preached since. There has never been anything
written—and never will be—as revolutionary as The Scriptures. Just as we can point to the departure from our
Constitution as the root of virtually every crisis in our government and
country, we can likewise point to the root of the great crises in Christianity
and the church to our deviation from sound, biblical truth. The main answer to the crises in
our country and the church is to return to the foundations given to us in the
Constitution and The Bible.
The most important thing we can do to be prepared
for the times is to:
1) get
closer to The Lord,
2) get to
know His voice better for our personal guidance,
3) find our
place in His body, the church,
4) get the
teaching, training, and equipping that we need to function in our ministry
(which every Christian has),
and 5) get
to know The Bible for ourselves.
Some of the most popular doctrines embraced by
Christians today are not found in The Bible, and many are even contrary to its
teaching. Peter warned about the teachings that, “the unstable and untaught
distort, just as they do The Scriptures, to their own destruction” (see II Peter
3:16). The foolishness of so many to follow those who are pretenders and
disconnected from the truth is the cause of much of the destruction that we are
headed for.
When a politician today challenges something as
“unconstitutional,” more often than not what they are promoting is
unconstitutional. Likewise, the same is true of church leaders declaring
something to be biblical, or not, when the opposite of what they’re saying is
true. When asked about the signs of the end of the age, the first thing The
Lord said was “Don’t be deceived.” Many of
the other prophecies about the end of this age highlight how deception will be
a primary mark of this time. We’re there now.
The antidote? Obey
the Great Commission and make disciples, not just converts. Those who do
not have a devotion to and love for the truth—and the wisdom and the nobility
of the Bereans who searched The Scriptures for themselves to check out what the
apostles were teaching—will be deceived. Begin by studying what Jesus said about His disciples. A
true disciple of Christ has knowing their Master, learning of Him, and becoming
like him, doing the works that He did, as the greatest focus of their life.
This type of radical, revolutionary Christianity is about to be released on the
earth again. The most important thing we can do to prepare for what is coming
is to become His disciple, according to His definition of what that is.
How to Pray for the Peace of JERUSALEM
Because the Sovereign LORD helps me I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a stone,
determined to do His will… to pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper (Isaiah 50:7, Psalm 122:6 NLT)
There is no
greater need today than to support Israel with our daily prayers. Israel is under attack on the political and
military fronts and is threatened with total annihilation. But we believe in the power of prayer. This book is designed to help you to pray
even more effectively for God’s Chosen People.
“Lord God,
strengthen, settle and establish the Holy City and the Jewish people
today. This sacred place is at the
center of Your plans for our world. I
come to Your throne today asking for Your mighty hand to work to defend Israel
from those who would harm Your Chosen People.”
Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of
the nations and countries that are round about her (Ezekiel 5:5)
Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls,
Prosperity within your palaces.” For the sake of my brethren and companions, I
will now say, “Peace be within you” (Psalm 122:6-8).
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War Part 8
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 8
Rick Joyner
Over the last 30+ years, I’ve been
given dreams that I now understand relate to the reason for the Second American
Revolutionary/Civil War. I did not see them as such when I received them, but
since my dream on December 14, 2018 they have all come into remarkable focus. I
will share these in this study where they fit to help us relate to what is now
unfolding.
In 1987, I
was shown in a prophetic experience that we had been turning to the left as a
nation for a long time. I was also shown a coming sharp turn to the left. I was
not shown whether this was good or bad, just that it would happen. I was then
shown a reaction to this and a turn back to the right. I saw that we would
never again make a sharp turn to the left, but there was a danger that we would
go too far to the right.
I wrote about this in my book, The Harvest. That is also when I was told that an eagle needs both
a right wing and a left wing to fly. When the weight shifted to the extreme on
either wing, it would crash. So the warning was that extreme turns to the right
or left could bring us down.
A few years after this, I thought that
the extreme turn to the left was with the Clinton Administration. Then I was
sure it had to be the Obama Administration that turned the country much further
to the left than Clinton. The Trump Administration seems to be the beginning of turning back to
the right. Now we have the rise of the new socialists that seem even further to
the left, but at this point they do not have the influence to turn the country.
What they can do is cause a reaction to tempt us to go even further to the
right than we should. The extremes on both the right and the left are enemies
of what we are called to be.
So will the right or the left lead us
to our destiny, our Promise Land? Neither will. Something much higher than
either of these is coming.
With
the increasingly extreme political clamor, it is going to take a new generation
of transcendent leadership to both see and steer us toward our destiny and
purpose.
I’ve studied history for over half a century, and
I’ve never seen such remarkable leaders gathered in one place at the same time
as I saw in our Founding Fathers. With the possible exception of a mature
Lincoln, who he was at the end of his life, it could be argued that we have not
had such transcendent leaders since our founding as a nation. What we need now,
and what we will be given again, is not just one transcendent leader, but
another group of them so that together they will be considered the “new
Founding Fathers.” We can also expect some of these to be mothers. The mother
element is necessary to see the full vision of what we’re called to be.
Somehow we must stop thinking right and left, and
start looking up, back to our roots. We
also need to see our place in The Scriptures, such as Revelation 12:13-16:
And when the dragon
saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave
birth to the man-child.
But the two wings of
the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the
wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half
a time, from the presence of the serpent.
And the serpent poured
water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her
to be swept away with the flood.
But the earth helped
the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the
dragon poured out of his mouth.
Until the Advent Movement of 1844, this text was
almost universally believed by Protestants and evangelical movements to be
speaking about America. The woman
here is considered to be who the Apostle Paul referred to as “Jerusalem above
who is our mother.” The male child
who will rule the nations is Christ, who was born through the nation of Israel
and is now being born through the church of those who have been born of Christ
by the Spirit. During the Inquisition, the worst persecution against
Protestants and Jews in which it was estimated that as many as 50 million in
Europe were tortured and killed, the “earth opened” with the discovery of
America. This flood of persecution was then swallowed up as the nations of
Europe gave their attention to populating this “new world.”
Of course, the symbol of the United States is the eagle. In the text, we see that “two wings of a great eagle” were given
to help the woman, the church, who was carried to a wilderness, which is what
America was at that time. Many, if not most, of the first colonists were
Protestant Christians and Jews fleeing the persecution in Europe.
For this reason, it seems that one of our basic
purposes as a nation is to be a haven for the persecuted Christians and Jews.
To this day, Christians and Jews remain the most persecuted people of all. This
is not to say that we should not be a haven for other persecuted peoples, but a
main purpose that we have is to be a haven for persecuted Christians and Jews,
the people who have carried the seed of Christ—the “man-child.”
For this reason, the American Republic is called to be a Judeo-Christian nation. We are not a post-Christian nation, we are
a pre-Christian nation. Wait and
see.
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War Part 7
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 7
Rick Joyner
The ultimate issue of both the Revolutionary and
Civil Wars can be summed up in one word—LIBERTY. True freedom requires liberty
and justice for all. We are still fighting for these, and this war will not be
over until they are realized as fully as they can be on this earth. To pursue
this is the calling and destiny of the American Republic.
The Divine wisdom given to our American Founding
Fathers that became our Constitution and Bill of Rights was for a government
structure that contained built in relief valves—ones that enabled the peaceful
settling of injustices and infringement on our freedoms. Departure from the
wisdom in these founding documents is the reason for virtually every conflict and
crisis we are now facing as a nation. These will not be resolved without
reconnecting to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. For this reason, the
ultimately successful strategy in the Second American Revolutionary/Civil War
will be to fight for their restoration as “the supreme law of the land.”
Both major American political parties, the left and
the right, are guilty of failing to keep their vows to defend the Constitution.
Neither party is now capable of recovering what has been lost in our
“constitutional republic.” A new movement is coming that will restore the
Constitution to its rightful place so that we can become the nation we are
called to be. The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War will be to complete
what was begun by the first ones.
As stated previously, the First and Second Great
Awakenings preceded the Revolutionary and Civil Wars respectively. The messages
that came out of those Awakenings caused those wars. They also presented an
even higher way for those wars to be avoided. If the political leaders of the
time had truly embraced the truths of those Awakenings and had the courage to
obey them, both of those wars could have been avoided and the trajectory of our
nation toward our calling and destiny would have been much easier and cleaner.
As we see from the beginning of history until now, men rarely choose the easy
way.
Great Britain, which lost the American colonies to a
large degree because of the hardliners in Parliament, learned their lesson.
While led by some of the same people whose hardline response to the grievances
of the colonies caused the Revolutionary War, they softened to the message
raise by Wilberforce about the evils of slavery and eradicated it in the Empire
without a great war.
That which can be accomplished without war is always
preferable. However, when the political leadership is not capable of this, then
war is preferable to allowing evil to prevail. We must come to grips with this
truth once again.
We can expect the voices that arise calling for the
New American Revolution to be blamed for the rising discord, just as Elijah was
called the one who troubled Israel. Yet, sin and corruption are the true cause
of the trouble, not what exposes them. Unity is a wonderful thing, but not when
it comes at the cost of tolerating or allowing evil to subjugate the people.
There is a point when it is no longer possible to avoid conflict. When that
line has been crossed, our strategy must change from keeping the peace to
winning the war. That line has now been crossed in “The American Republic.” It
may take a while for others to see this, but it will soon be obvious.
When it is settled that the “Second American
Revolutionary/Civil War is inevitable, right, and will be successful,” the next
step in our preparation is to determine what is “right” about it, and what
“successful” looks like from heaven’s perspective.
According to I Corinthians 13 we see in part, we
know in part, and we prophesy in part. All I have is part of the picture. I
will present all that I have in this series, but I understand that this is just
part of the whole picture. When I inquired of The Lord
about His vision and purpose for our nation, His response was that He gave it
to our leaders in the beginning. It was
articulated in our founding documents, and it is in them that we must see them.
About two decades ago I began a study to see if I
could find a special covenant or mandate that God had given to our country. My
prayer for this was Psalm 90:16-17: “Let
Your work appear to Your servants and Your majesty to their children. Let the
favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands;
yes, confirm the work of our hands.” I asked to see His hand and
guidance in the founding of our nation, and by this understand His purpose so
that our work and prayers for the country would be toward the fulfillment of
His purpose, not just certain political goals.
In my study, I was surprised by how obvious His
handiwork could be seen in our nation’s founding. It was also easy to see the
serious trouble we suffered as we deviated from His purpose for us. We are now entering the worst
crises in our history when it will be determined if we will live or die as the
Republic we have been called to be. If there is anything worth fighting
for in our life, it is God’s purpose. If there is anything worth fighting for
in our nation, it is God’s purpose for our nation.
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War Part 6
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 6
Rick Joyner
Even a cursory study of history reveals that many of
the issues over which the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars were fought are
not settled. These issues have continued to be points of conflict in our
country. Many of the issues have evolved and are not in the exact same form,
but basically, our present struggle continues to be about independence,
liberty, freedom from the bondage of oppressive government, and equal justice
under the law—for all.
How
does this fit with the next Great Awakening that so many have prophesied,
including myself? The
First Great Awakening preceded the Revolutionary War. The
Second Great Awakening preceded the Civil War.
It is easy to
see a direct link between the messages of these Great Awakenings and how they
ignited these wars. Their light exposed darkness to the degree that it could no
longer be tolerated. Likewise, the light already being revealed from the
emerging Awakening in this time is causing great agitation in our land. The
issues have morphed in a lot of ways, but they are basically the same ones that
were fought over in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Some historians concluded that the American
Revolution began when George Whitefield was forbidden to preach in the Church
of England and began preaching in open fields to the common people. This was in
the 1730s, almost half a century before the Revolutionary War, but sometimes
seeds take a while to germinate, sprout, and bear fruit. So how did the light
that Whitefield brought sow the seeds of American independence?
Whitefield began preaching to the common people in a
town of coal miners that were considered lowly. They considered themselves too
unworthy to even have a church in their town. To the shock of all who heard
Whitefield, especially these miners, he began to declare that they were the
true royalty in the earth—“the royal priesthood” if they gave their lives to
Christ and followed Him. In the class sensitive England of the time, this was shockingly
revolutionary.
These lowly miners could not fathom being allowed to
get within sight of the royal family, yet Whitefield was telling them that if
they were in Christ, they were of even higher royal stature than the British
royal family. This seed became the doctrine that “all men are created equal,”
and that who we are in spirit, in relation to Christ, are more important than
any earthly, human lineage. As the Apostle Paul wrote, we should therefore no
longer judge people after the flesh—after externals—but after the Spirit. As
Martin Luther King, Jr. later paraphrased this, he had a dream that we would
not judge each other by the color of our skin, but by the content of our
character. That we would be a nation where this is true, the real “American
dream” and one that heaven has given to us.
So Whitefield’s messages implied that the poorest
miner who followed Christ was of a higher stature than earthly royalty. These
miners gave their lives to Him by the thousands. Soon Whitefield, who had
filled many churches with the hundreds who sought to hear him, now had trouble
finding fields big enough to hold the thousands who sought to hear this
message. It was not just Whitefield’s remarkable ability as an orator that drew
the crowds, but also a foundational aspect of the Gospel that for centuries had
not been so articulated. Once again “the poor had the Gospel preached to them.”
There is nothing on earth as revolutionary as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When
it is preached, revolution is inevitable—even where it is claimed to already be
Christian.
When Whitefield brought to the colonies this message
that so elevated “the common man,” the crowds swelled to tens of thousands.
Many of his crowds were larger than the population of the cities in which he
preached. People would travel for days or even weeks to hear him. They drove
their buggies, rode their mules and horses, and even walked to hear the great
evangelist when it was published that he would be in a certain city on a
certain date.
Whitefield also preached in humble, small churches.
He did not seem to be a respecter of people or crowd size. Some of these small
meetings may have had as much impact on the destiny of the nation as the larger
ones. When he spoke at the Polegreen Church just north of Richmond, Virginia,
the little church of less than a hundred people later became known as “the womb
of the Revolution.”
Sitting in that small audience were some destined to
be called the fathers of the nation. Patrick Henry was one of those. He lived
only a few hundred yards from the Polegreen Church, but the passion for liberty
born in him that day would soon fire the nation.
Again, the main seed that sprouted and became a
revolution was the Gospel that elevated the common man to being sons and
daughters of The King of kings. This was the seed that became the message that
“all men are created equal.” This led to the previously unimagined concept that
government existed for the people and not the other way around.
In the world at that time, there was no other place
and no other government that considered this concept. This was the basis for
what is called “American
exceptionalism.” To be exceptional does not necessarily mean better, but
rather just different. In this case, it was better. The American Republic
became the exception to every other government in the world.
This is why many historians believe that the First
Great Awakening was the beginning of the Revolutionary War. However, the
Revolutionary War did not win this freedom for all and did not result in all men
being treated equally. A whole class of people were still treated worse than
the coal miners that Whitefield had first preached this message to. This made
an even more devastating war necessary, and the revolution continues to this
day.
Wise As Serpents A Crash Course in SYMBOLS
Wise As Serpents
A Crash Course in SYMBOLS
Ancient
Symbols in Modern Times
Ever increasingly, and
yet invisible and unimportant to most, dark forces impose symbols, motifs, and
marks with double and often diabolical meanings hidden in plain sight.
There are symbols which have a central theme and form the very
basic grammar of a secret language with ancient roots in a belief system and
school of thought which goes by many names – Mystery Schools (Babylon),
the Illuminati, Masonry, Occult, Secret
Doctrine, New Age, Astrotheology, Secret
Societies, Theosophy, Externalization of the Hierarchy, Law
of Attraction, Occult, New World Order, Luciferianism,
and so on – but whatever it may be called, the common factor and important
thing to know is that this movement has a singular goal: to reinforce
the serpent's lie in the Garden of Eden in the eyes of men that through special
knowledge and disobedience man achieves immortality and can 'be like unto God'. The quickest way to grasp the
'secret' and true intents behind the 'Illuminati' is to re-study just two
stories from Holy Scripture: The Serpent in the Garden of Eden and The
Tower of Babel.
"Whatever is hidden is meant to
be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the
open."
The Second American Revolutionary Civil War Part 5
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 5
Rick Joyner
In
the dream that I was given about the “Second American Revolutionary/Civil War,”
the first part was about the strategy for this war. The symbolism may seem odd,
but if you stick with me for a little bit, it gives important insights into
what we must do now.
The
dream began with a long line of people waiting to tee off at a golf course.
After each one teed off, they were told about the enemy they were to look for
to destroy. This enemy was in the trees along the fairway. I was waiting in
line for my turn when an angel came up to me and said I had a different
assignment. That’s when I was taken to the device that revealed the history of
the American Republic from heaven’s perspective.
Golf, like many games, can mirror an aspect of life.
The goal is to get the ball in a hole that has a flag, or standard, over it.
Each hole on the course is different from the others. No two shots will be the
same, so you must judge several conditions on each shot, such as distance to
the hole, wind, and elevation. You may know exactly what you should do, but actually doing it the way
you want is another matter. To be successful, you need to stay in the fairway,
or let’s say “the way.” If you go too far to either the right or left, you will
go out of bounds and that brings a serious penalty.
I don’t want to bore you with a golf lesson here,
but having played golf for many years, this part of the dream made perfect
sense to me as a strategy for winning the Revolutionary/Civil War. To some
degree, if we are going to understand prophetic symbolism, we must learn that
The Lord likes to use puns. We are told in Psalm 2:4 that He “sits in the heavens and laughs.” This
may be because He thinks they are funny, but they can also powerfully convey
understanding.
In this dream, those who were teeing off were going
to find the enemy they were assigned to destroy. This is insight about what
“tees us off” will be what we are called to fight. For example, those who are
the most disturbed and agitated by human trafficking should take that as a sign
that they are called to fight this enemy. For others, it could be things like
racism, or the sowing of immorality in school curriculum. These are not random
provocations intended to irritate us; they are calls to action. We must all
consider how we can be a part of fighting what provokes us the most and what
Scripture defines as evil.
Again, for Christians the Scriptures are
clear that our battle is never against people, but rather against the demonic
forces that are manifested through ideologies and deceptions that bind, and
ultimately, destroy them. Our
victory is not to kill and wound, but to heal and lead people to the path of
life. We are not fighting to conquer people or to just win the argument, but we
fight to establish the truth that sets people free.
How does that work when a spiritual or philosophical
war breaks out into violence? These are the kinds of issues we need to settle
in our hearts now, because the confused are almost certain to be casualties in
what is unfolding.
We may also think that if God hates war
then His people should stay out of the conflict. God does hate war, but as we
touched on before, He is declared to be a warrior in a number of Scriptures. No
doubt that if we followed Him more fully, our disputes would not come to war.
However, as we are told in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for war. There are
times when war is inevitable, and times when it is right to fight.
What I was shown in the
dream is that this Second American Revolutionary/Civil War is inevitable, it is
right, and it will be successful.
At this writing, I do not know now what or how it
happened, but in this dream I knew that somehow we had just crossed a line that
made this Second Revolutionary/Civil War inevitable. There will not be a
peaceful solution to the conflicts that have arisen in our country. Even so, I
will continually pray that this be won decisively and with the fewest possible
casualties and the least damage as possible.
Why this is called a Revolutionary and Civil War is
important. Much of what we need to understand the great battles of our times
lies in understanding these conflicts because so many of them were fought over in
these wars, but not settled.
Also, wars come in many forms. The Cold War
brought about the greatest geopolitical change in history, but it was not
fought with traditional weapons, but rather with banks and currencies. It was
an economic war more than a political or military one. Just as in the
Revolutionary and Civil Wars, many of the issues that the Cold War was fought
over were not decisively defeated, and now they have risen to face us again.
We
must not forget that the most powerful weapons of all are the “divinely
powerful weapons” that we have been entrusted with. Truth articulated under the
anointing is more powerful than any bomb. Though there will be physical
conflict in what is now unfolding, the most important issues will be the
spiritual and moral ones, especially our devotion to liberty for all—that
everyone be treated equally and fairly under the law and with opportunity.
The Second American Revolutionary Civil War Part 4
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 4
Rick Joyner
Wars have been fought for different reasons. There
have been religious, political, and economic wars. Some have been just for
conquest. Some have been fought because one monarch was insulted by another,
which is why Napoleon invaded Russia. Many have been fought over combinations
of the above. Some of the most ugly and devastating of all have been racist
wars.
Every war is the result of some failure in human
relations. Potentially great and devastating wars have also been avoided by
remarkable statesmanship. The Lord has a special heart and place for the
peacemakers. These should be esteemed more in our history than those successful
at war, but they are not. Even so, as we are told in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a
time for war and a time for peace. If it is time for war, then those who do not
fight are the ones out of step with the times.
As
we see in Scripture, there will be war until the end of this age. It is right
to seek peaceful conclusions to our disputes, until war begins. Then we must
fight, and we must fight to win. If we are going to win from heaven’s
perspective, we must also fight the right way.
Some of the most touching stories of war are things
like the troops on both sides in our American Civil War and in World War I
singing Christmas carols to their enemies in the trenches. It brought a
poignant realization that brothers in Christ were facing each other, and the
next day would try to kill each other. How could this be right?
War is an ultimate human failure. War is one of the
devil’s biggest victories. His intent is to kill and destroy, and nothing
accomplishes this in a bigger way than war. So why don’t we refuse to fight
them? Because the devil, and those controlled by him, will not. To refuse to fight in an inevitable or
right war is not choosing to do what is right. Rather, it is to submit to evil.
There are righteous wars. When it is right and time to fight, we will be in
rebellion if we do not do our part.
Even The Lord says repeatedly in Scripture that He,
our Leader, is a Warrior. Israel left Egypt as “a great mixed multitude,” or a
mob, but before they even got to the Red Sea they were “marching in martial
array,” or military order. Presently, the body of Christ is one big mob, with
some groupings and associations but lacking in overall definition and
discipline. This will soon change for the remnant that is left.
In every civil war, Christian leaders from both
sides have claimed that theirs was the right side. This can be confusing. We
must resolve to be sure we are fighting on the right side and for the right
cause. When this is established, the most merciful way is to fight to win
decisively and as quickly as possible.
Harry Truman was right when he said that “Most
people are defeated by their secondary successes.” This means that they got
distracted from their ultimate objective after achieving lesser ones. There are
many examples of this in history, and Truman was likely correct to say this
happens to “most people.” It was true in our Revolutionary and Civil Wars. How
do we avoid this deadly trap? We must determine now what the ultimate
objectives are—anything less than these would be a defeat.
I have an opinion of what ultimate victory in the
unfolding Revolutionary/Civil War looks like, but I don’t want to share it and
I don’t even want to have it. What we need, and what I’m begging for, is
heaven’s perspective on this. My dream on December 14, 2018 was just a small
beginning of this for me. It does not matter how mature we are in Christ or how
successful we have been as a steward of His mysteries—it is a terrible
presumption to think that He is just like us and that His opinions are the same
as ours. I am a religious conservative, and I try to keep in mind that it was
the religious conservatives that were the worst enemies of Christ when He
walked the earth. Why?
If you look at their doctrine, the Pharisees were
generally correct in most of their beliefs. They were the most devoted to being
faithful to the Scriptures and were carrying the greatest hope for the Messiah.
Yet, they resisted Him more than any other group when He came! Why?
Again, we can be right in our politics, our
policies, and our beliefs, but have pride that is more deadly than the evil we
are fighting. Pride caused the first fall and virtually every fall since. We
can be right but not be righteous. For winning the present war, it is crucial
to not just fight for what is right, but to do it in the right spirit. We must
fight for right and we must do it right.
In
the Revolutionary War, the “Patriots” who wanted independence were about 30% of
the population. The “Loyalists” who wanted to remain British subjects were also
about 30%. The other 40% were undecided, or tended to switch sides according to
who was winning. Today, we have about 30% who are liberal, 30% conservative,
and the 40% that are still undecided or wavering. Soon all will have to choose
a side. Now is the time to resolve what we believe in.
The Second American Revolutionary Civil War Part 3
The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 3
Rick Joyner
What I was shown in my dream was
specifically for “The American Republic,” but I was also shown that many of the
same battles we will be fighting will also be common to many nations.
Basically, these battles in the nations are for determining whether they will
be a “sheep” or a “goat” nation. The Great Commission was to disciple nations,
not just individuals, not just teaching them to believe all that He commanded,
but also to obey all that He commanded.
The Reformation was a major step forward in recovering
biblical truth, but its emphasis was more on believing the right things than
actually doing them. All nations have fallen short of their purpose, including
Israel, as the Scriptures make clear. One reason the nations have
fallen short is because there is so little demonstration of what actual
obedience to the truth looks like by the church. This is why “judgment begins
with the household of God” (see I Peter 4:17).
As heaven’s perspective on history and
current events can be very different from ours, our basic devotion must be to
see with The Lord’s eyes, hear with His ears, and understand with His heart.
This was what The Holy Spirit was given for, and this is how we are led into
“all truth.”
Most of us have witnessed spiritual battles that
resulted in everything from church splits to divorces, and God was on both
sides. God hates divorce, and He hates war. He usually has sons and daughters
on both sides, and in many ways He can be on both sides. He’s not confused
about the issues, but He is for people more than politics.
God is not a Democrat or a Republican, a liberal or
a conservative. We can be right in our political beliefs, but be wrong in
spirit. We can likewise be wrong in our politics but have a right spirit of
love, faith, and humility that pleases The Lord more than those who have right
politics. This is why, to the confusion of many historians, there can be
evidence of divine favor on both sides during a war. Abraham Lincoln discerned
that our Civil War was God’s judgment on both sides. This might explain why the
Union was obviously on the right side of some of the crucial issues being
fought over, but the Southern armies experienced some of the greatest revivals
in American history during the war.
Perhaps The Lord moved so mightily upon the Southern
armies because “where sin abounds grace
does that much more abound” (see Romans 5:20), and He was seeking to
change their hearts on the issues. Perhaps it was because it is often true that
those who can be right on issues are wrong in spirit, and God will always
resist the proud and give His grace to the humble. It was likely a combination
of both. The point is that we like to have all issues neatly in black and
white, but human issues are far more complicated than that. We are in desperate
need of heaven’s perspective. The higher the place that we can see from, the
more sense it all makes.
In the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, both sides were
fighting for parts of the divine mandate. It was the arrogance of the victors
in both of these wars that blinded them to just and righteous issues for which
the other side was fighting. Neither side was totally right or wrong, but the
victors disregarded the consideration that the losers might have been right
about some of the issues. Such is human politics. Since the victors always
write the histories of such conflicts, the just issues on the losing side are
often buried after the war. We can bury them as deep as we want, but when they
are a divine mandate they will not go away. Rather, they will rise again and be
in our face until they are resolved by our obeying them.
It is also easy to see how these same principles
might apply to all human relationships. We can win an argument because we are
mostly right, but be wrong about some of it. Those issues will very likely
surface again later, and often as a bigger problem. The revelation of the great
conflict of our times includes principles that may illuminate the basis for our
conflict in other more personal relationships, such as our families, jobs, or
neighborhoods. We cannot expect to resolve the great national and international
conflicts if we cannot solve them in ourselves, our families, or in the church.
When I spoke to a number of senators and congressmen
in Washington a few years ago, entreating them to show courage, one of them
took me aside and said, “You would see a lot more courage in Washington if we
saw any in the church.” He was right.
It’s been said that “Courage is the first principle
of leadership, because without it nothing else will stand.” We have come to a
time when courage is rare, and that makes it even more valuable. Perhaps this
is why the cowards are the first to get thrown into the lake of fire at the end
of the Book of Revelation. We may think that love and faith are more important,
and they are, but courage is the evidence that one has love and faith.
As we are told in I Corinthians 13:8, “Love never fails.” This
could have been interpreted as “Love
never quits.” We will quit for any other reason but love. This is why the
foundation of those who will be on the winning side will be love for their
country and for their countrymen. However, most of all it will be love for God
who has given us something so wonderful, even if it yet has flaws.
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