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The Sovereignity of God both comforted me and brought me up short, because of the absolute, yet stern, confidence He conveyed. Though proud men sin, it was only because of God that they have their time on earth to do so--a time they may use to either prove their works or repent (Romans 2:5-6). After this exchange I no longer cared about the comings and goings of this individual "Saul." Instead, I began to weep and intercede for America as a whole. (additional note, inserted year 2005: Within nine years after this conversation with the Lord, this "Saul" died an early death from a terminal illness)
This time God did not interrupt my weeping. Instead, He listened as I poured out my anguish to Him over the state of the Church in America. I described the over-all situation as I had observed and experienced it many times over the years, and as so many others had also known. I thanked Him for His moves of the Spirit, but pleaded with Him for more long-term resolutions. I asked Him many questions which essentially boiled down to, "What will You do, if anything, about these problems?!!"
When the Lord began to answer me, His answers astonished me. They were completely outside of anything I had ever imagined or known. Below is a brief account of what transpired next. Some of what the Lord spoke to me is not included due to its personal focus, and some is not specified because of the length of time it would take for explanation. Over the years, a few links and small edits or additions were inserted afterwards, for the sake of clarification.
What I was shown was that Keith Green's death was spiritually related to the 'death' of the Jesus Movement itself, and these prophets had also all been thrust into a sort of 'death' along with the man and the movement. In other words, since all were spiritually 'related' to each other, these prophets suffered during the Jesus Movement backlash that contributed to the 'death' of the Jesus ovement, and beyond.
Although these were dark years for visionaries as a whole, the suffering of these prophets was extremely intense. The tribulation came from the enemy, and my impression was that most of it came through false Christians whom the enemy used. (For a good description of the emotional pain these prophets have suffered, please read the paragraph about the "Joseph Generation" in the prophecy/visitation called Old Wells, Fallen Mantles and New Fountains by Michael Edds.) However, this was part of His preparation and His plan. After the suffering He had allowed, by His hand He had raised them up, and was raising them up now. Now, the prophets would lead the way. Like Keith Green, they would not seek followers or promote themselves by titles, yet God's Spirit would use them greatly. This was God's justice to the prophetic community who, as a whole, had not been 'allowed' to have any real authority by the overbearing 'leaders' of the American Church. These prophetic apostles, or apostolic prophets, would begin the Un (structured) Church.
The word,
"Un"Church
During
this time, it was not unusual for much to be contained in only a few
words. Not only were His meanings rich beyond comparison, but a 'strobe
light' effect
of flooding knowledge and images would often come into my mind during
this exchange. To put it simply, I would say that
His words CONTAINED understandings that given our
limited
language abilities, would take many words to describe.
Indeed, I
came to a full understanding of how small my understanding was
compared to His-- a condition we all will always have compared
to our Heavenly Father. Once, I even had
to ask Him to slow down a little --- my mind could not take
in so much at once. He graciously kept me from going on "overload" and
did slow down His explanations to accomodate my limited mind.
So, when the Lord God spoke the name Un(structured) Church, He somehow conveyed the word "structured" in parenthesis in His voice. This is because the "Un(structured) Church", or the "UnChurch" does have some structure. However, compared to the Structured Church, it will seem as though it has no structure at all.
I then saw a quick vision of what
had happened before in the United States. I saw the right arm violently strike
the left
arm. At approximately the same time and yet somewhat related to this
first
action, I saw the left arm 'float' independently from the entire Body.
Neither action was the perfect will of God. This was the
'death'
of the Jesus Movement revival, and it was a result of both the "violence" of the deceived
within the "Structured" Church and the resulting confusion and strong
sense of independence of those within the Jesus Movement. As a
result, this manifestation of the "Un(structured) Church" had not been
functional for many years. It was a 'severed'
arm which felt disconnected, even 'homeless,' in relation to the rest
of
the Body.
The raising up of the Un(structured )Church
God, however, was now joyously revealing His plan of restoration. I saw close-up of the left shoulder. The muscles and tendons of the arm were being skillfully reconnected. The Un(structured) Church was being reestablished to work again as the Lord intended.
Let me make note here the fact that the Structured Church has been unsuccessfully trying to do the work that belonged to the Un(structured) Church for decades. Having opposed the purposes of God, it was now anemic and failing. The truth was that both 'churches' needed each other, but neither one needed false evangelists, pastors, teachers, prophets, or apostles, --of whose "counsel" the people should reject. Indeed, the Lord made clear to me that the same excesses, errors and difficulties could happen in either type of 'church.' No 'system' was able to be fully fool-proof against the error of sin and deception. Still, I was filled with His joy as I witnessed this restoration, and the results of it: The Body of Christ began to walk again.!
Following a brief respite, the last vision and 'flash' of information came. By this time I was laughing with joy because God repeated for me a portion of a vision He gave me in 1980....something I had never understood and even forgotten. Suddenly I understood that I was seeing living room after living room after living room-connected and extending. It was a 'church' of living rooms, different people's living rooms, all connected! There would even be mixes of believers from different denominations in the same 'living room' church. The leaders/those committed, would not attend Sunday services as we have known it. They would only participate in the network of the Un(structured) Church. At least some of these leaders would relate to willing leaders within the Structured Church, but not in a subservient way at all. Instead, this connection at the shoulder would be about SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS with MUTUAL RESPECT.
I also saw that the 'wounded' of the Structured church would go to these "living room fellowships" for healing. Some would choose to return to the Structured church once recovered. Their leaving was not to be regarded as a failure but rather a success. Unbelievers could hear the Gospel and become saved too, just as in the Jesus Movement. This part was about a network of homechurches. However, the "Un"(structured) Church includes much more than the homechurch "movement"--God's creativity is not limited in what can be done in situations of little structure.
Personal Note:
It should be noted that at the time of this revelation, I was completely unaware of any homechurch "movement" that was in place or increasing. However, we never doubted that we were called to this and that God was going to do what He said He was going to do.
As with most things of this nature, we were given confirmation in a variety of ways. For instance, at the end of the April 24-26, 1997 Daughters of the Lion Conference I had been led to attend, a lady (a stranger to us) posted a note that she needed a ride home. I knew we were supposed to give her that ride. As soon as she got in our car, she began to prophesy how the Lord was calling people back to the days of the early church and meeting in homes, with less 'structure'. Her name was Jessie Hairston, and she said she was an itinerant minister with a ministry called Good Ground Ministries (currently as of year 2006, her cards simply say, Jessie Pearl Hairston Ministries). We had a lively conversation all the way home and I ended up sending her a copy of my written rough draft of Living Stones .(Note: "Living Stones" was given to me in a series of visions and my own Bible studies just prior to this prophecy above, yet was not posted right away because of the work involved in producing it).
Since then, as the Lord also indicated to me, there has been a mass exodus from dysfunctional churches. Also, the number of people who have had like visions or revelation or callings or writings has grown since the above posting in 1997. As a result, I eventually posted an entirely new section which included links to the revelations of others that have come to my attention between the years 1995-2000.