In 2004, as I was traveling down I-95 and praying, I began experiencing an open vision in which I saw large plumes of fire suddenly erupt, here and there, along the east coast of the state of Florida. Then, I seemed to be taken above the state and was seeing it from an aerial view. Soon, it seemed like large sections of the state along the east coast were on fire, from Jacksonville to Miami.
Then, as I passed through several main junctures along I-95, I saw the state of Florida as if from tens of thousands of feet up and was looking down on the entire state, and I saw seven “hot spots” where the Spirit had ignited “fires of revival” at different times in different regions of Florida during past eras ranging from the 1950s to the 1990s. In each of those regions where revival fires had broken out sometime in the past that He showed me, the face of a man would rise up out of the fire in a particular region whom God had sent to those regions and used either to spark a fire or to decree things that would come to pass at an appointed, future time. Some I knew, some I did not.
In each case the move that these men were used by God to initiate was prematurely foiled and spoiled. He showed me a very stark overview of the scheme the enemy used to bring cessation of the work God had started through those men. Each of them met with supernatural adversity and affliction, suffering tragic events and circumstances, and experiencing severe brokenness and brokenheartedness that waylayed their attempts to complete the calling. In each case, “a great price” (I heard in the Spirit) was paid as a result of merely obeying God’s calling. Some had actually experienced spiritual and emotional breakdowns rising out of the frustrations and opposition they experienced, mostly from a resistant Church.
Each had been given a prophetic vision and mission, what was really a “mission impossible” in that each had been speaking of things and calling for changes that were “far ahead of their time,” relative to the spiritual status quo and understanding of their peers while they were here laboring. In each case, it was the “spiritual separation” of these people from the rest of the Body of Christ, “because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation,” that these men suffered what they did. Because the Body did not understand them or their message, the Body failed to surround and support them in the Spirit. They were spiritual “amputees” that the Body rejected, saying, “I have no need of thee.”
Then, the Spirit comforted me in the sorrow and sadness I was feeling in my Spirit for these men telling me that they all now have received healing of their brokenness and brokenheartedness, and entered into the joys and rewards stored up for them, for God is faithful and will never forget the labor we have labored on His behalf, and though they suffered much, not one was lost. This too made me weep, but also exalt God with great exultation at the same time.
Then, as I traveled farther southward, and reached certain of those junctures, the Spirit would move upon me to lower the window and begin to shout out into the air prophetic decrees that those revival fires be rekindled in those places where the Spirit had started “a good work,” declaring that God would yet finish what He had started, and what had been temporarily “lost” or foiled due to the schemes, plots, and plans of the enemy, would be restored and finished.
“Restore! Restore! Restore! FIRES OF THE SPIRIT that no one and no plan of the enemy can stop!” the Spirit shouted through me.
I then saw in the Spirit these fires begin to flare up even greater, and to move westward toward the middle of the state. Soon, it appeared that much of the state was being consumed by fire. And, from my aerial view in the Spirit, I saw the smoke of these fires rise high into the air and nearly cover the state, and strong wind currents then began to blow them toward the adjoining southern states of the US. As I watched this scene, I heard within, “The Glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. The manifestation of God’s Glory shall now be released through the church Jesus is building!” (Of course, the physical fires and smoke are not the Glory of the Lord, which is the tangible manifestation of the Spirit or Presence of God, but they symbolize it and its manifestation in the Spirit.)
I’ve never published what the Lord showed me that day. But I have been feeling the prompting of the Spirit to do so in the last few days. Though, I don’t have much revelation as to why or why now, other than to say that I have been hearing within only a rather vague “bulleted version” of a word about the historic-proportioned drought that much of the southern US has been experiencing, and how that God will soon be calling upon some Elijah-type prophets to come forth out of their caves of secreting and obscurity, commanding, “Places!” like the director of play. Many of them, though they have pledged obedience to God, loathe the spotlight, like an owl loathes the daylight. Yet, God will use them and this multi-state drought to underwrite their credibility and underscore the credence of the restoration of the prophetic office today.
I don’t profess to know all of what God said or is now saying. But I do know that something, something dramatic and demonstrative, is about to happen. It shall be of national and international proportion. The world shall be astounded, but unfortunately those among the churches shall be also. These droughts are not merely the result of global weather changes or phenomena. They are of Divine Design.
With great reservation due to how many will misconstrue these words, I am compelled by the Spirit to also say, God is about to use some prophets as He used Moses, granting them power even over the elements. God shall call forth Elijah- and Elisha-type prophets out of their hidden places where He has been keeping and protecting them for “such a time as this.” They shall come forth like John The Baptist out of the wilderness, “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk. 1:17), proclaiming prophetic words, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and being used by God as vessels of His power “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Ibid.). Many Moseses shall also be called forth out of their Midians to lay down their personal ambitions to deliver many who for many long years have been living under the oppressive captivity of the enemy.
And, yet another thing I hear in my spirit, though without liberty to expound upon it at this time, is that what shall soon manifest in this respect shall also have a significant and strategic part in a paradigmatic shift in the Body of Christ that shall position many to begin to experience in earnest the turning of wealth of the wicked, or the world, unto the righteous, the redeemed, that has been prophesied by so many for so long. God is about to suddenly and sovereignly shift us into a new, higher dimension in this regard, a dimension much more expansive and extensive than what most people are thinking at this time. God has a plan that is “exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can ask or think,” and that plan shall indeed be according to the power that works within us, for it shall be supernatural and of the Spirit.
The fires shall increase and the drought shall continue in the natural realm in certain strategic places as a precursor and reflection of what God is doing and is about to do in the spiritual realm. Let us pray that God’s purposes for the fires and related circumstances be fulfilled, and that the Body of Christ begins to get the revelation of its responsibility to cover His chosen vessels on the leading edge with strong intercession of the Spirit so that His plans and desires be no more waylayed or hindered. We must receive the revelation of the Spirit that God’s anointed and appointed Davy Crocketts and Daniel Boones—the “free radicals” of the Spirit—who do not fit into the prototypical modern molds of spiritual leadership also require our spiritual and financial support in order to accomplish the missions to which they’ve been called on behalf of the entire Body. Relative to the rest, they may be “far out,” but that grants no right to ignore and marginalize those individuals, nor their ministries. We must not be guilty of saying, “I have no need of thee!” We also must cease making “amputees” of those whom the Lord has Himself set in to the Body for spiritual government, construction, and advancement of His Body (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 2:20, 4:7-16).###
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The Ephesians Four Network Blog features commentary, teaching, and prophetic words relative to the establishment and advancement of the Kingdom of God on Earth through the Church that Jesus is Building. The contributing editor is Dr. Steven Lambert, whose website address at www.slm.org, where you can find many more articles and information about his ministry.
