have seen many
different moves of the Spirit of God in my lifetime. During my childhood the
Pentecostal revival was still ongoing and the healing movement was the big
thing that God was doing. I remember seeing movies of men of God like Oral
Roberts, TL Osborn and AA Allen who were used greatly by God. Then came the
Jesus People Revolution and the Charismatic Renewal, where folks in all
denominations were moving in the Gifts of the Spirit. In recent years we have
seen the rise of the Toronto Blessing and Brownesville Revival, and the gold
dust phenomenon. But what comes next? Does God have something else 'up his
sleeve.' I believe He does, and I want to share it with you.
My Own Revelation of Jesus' Love
Many years ago, when the Lord first called me to prepare for the work He
had for me, I had a vision of the Lord Jesus, in which He gave me a revelation
of His love. I thought I understood His love until He showed me that it was
something really quite foreign to me. As He stood before me I told Him that I
wanted to minister to those who had once known Him and had fallen away. His
words to me were, "Les, do you think that I love them any less than I
love you?"
Then He explained to me that His love was not conditional. It did not
depend on what we do. What followed was a time of preparation in His presence,
where He taught me His unconditional love, and showed me how to allow Him to
love others through me. I found a new anointing arise in me that I had never
known before. I did not understand it at first, because I had never heard of
it before. But often as I would pray for folks there would come a deep flow of
love from within that seemed to flow out of me towards that person.
I began to minister this to folks at times in a group, and there would come
a flow of anointing that would result in an outbreak of love, where each one
in the group would be going to each other and embracing one another while
ministering the anointing. This was entirely a spiritual thing, and I would
often have to take stock to make sure that it was not misinterpreted as being
something purely emotional or physical, particularly when it came to members
of the opposite sex. I found that this kind of anointing flowed particularly
where there were deep hurts in the person that the Lord was healing. It was as
though the Lord was pouring His healing love into that person through me.
A New Anointing is Coming
In the past year as I have waited on the Lord and obeyed His instructions
to train His servants the prophets and now also the apostles for the coming
move, the Lord began to remind me of this anointing, and He told me that He
was about to release such an anointing on the Body of Christ in a measure
greater than has been seen in the past. As I have meditated on it, my mind
went back to the early days of the Jesus Revolution, which saw many coming in
from the hippie culture to accepting the Lord and moving in the Spirit.
The key saying amongst the hippies in those days was, "Make love not
war!" And of course they put this into practice in the only way they knew
how - through illicit sex and drugs. But it showed that there was a vacuum in
the hearts of people, especially the young people of that era, that was crying
out for some real love. But they were looking for it in the all the wrong
places. And when they began to find it in Jesus, they realized that they had
found what they were looking for. It led to a revolution, in which not only
ordinary folks were coming to the Lord, but also the pop idols of that day
were coming to Christ in large numbers, and Gospel music first came into its
own.
Those of us who have lived a while on this earth have seen the fashions of
this world, and the consecutive generations as they come and go. And it
becomes obvious that each new generation brings a new awareness and new needs.
Though times change, in the end the need in the heart of man remains the same.
The world needs love, true love to survive, and it is not to be found out
there. It is to be found only in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wrong Ways of Finding Love
When the Lord first showed me His love, He also showed me people in
different walks of life and how they were seeking to find that love. He showed
me women prostituting themselves to find love. Today even men are prostituting
themselves to find love. He showed me athletes striving for mastery in their
sport to obtain the recognition and acceptance that would make them feel
loved. He showed me scholars studying and pushing themselves to their mental
limit, in order to obtain the recognition and acceptance that might somehow
bring love. But they were grasping at straws. It was false love.
And the Lord told me, "Go and tell them that I love them, and accept
them, and recognize them. Tell them that in me they will find all they ever
need. But the church is not doing that are they? Instead the message that goes
out is, "God is mad at you, so you had better repent and come right, or
He is going to spew you out of His mouth." There is no understanding in
the Body of Christ of the unconditional love of the Lord Jesus. And once again
the world are trying to find their own solution, and looking for love in the
wrong places.
Time Hasn't Really Changed Things
I was amazed a few years back as I saw a rerun of an old Billy Graham movie
concerning the life of a young person who was struggling with the world and
the pull of his peers. It was set in an era that matched my own youth, and yet
as we watched it, I realized that apart from the obvious primitive acting and
filming, and dress of that era, the actors could easily have been acting out a
modern scenario. Things hadn't really changed all that much. Today's young
folks face different problems to those of yesteryear, but in the end the needs
are still the same.
The Next Jesus Revolution
So here it is then - the next move of God. Watch out for it, because you
are going to see it arise. It is going to be an outpouring of the love
anointing. There is going to come another kind of Jesus Revolution of greater
proportions than the last one. But this time it is going to transcend the
boundaries of the church system. The early Jesus Revolution was destroyed by
the very system that was meant to foster it and nurture it - the organized
church. When hippies began flocking to church services with their long hair
and funny clothes, they were despised, so they ended up getting together in
their own groups.
But without a direction it was inevitable that it could not go on. What
started out as a wonderful move of God, ended up dying out like most moves of
God in the past. But this time it is going to be different, because this time
the church is going to change also. God is about to destroy the man made
structures and traditions that have long prevented the Body of Christ from
becoming what it should be. And as the Spirit of God begins to move afresh we
are going to see a revival such as the world has never seen. It will transcend
all denominations, races, genders, countries, age groups or any other man made
division.
The Two Winds of God
Now let me show it to you from the Word, so that you can judge this not
only by prophetic revelation, but by the Word of God. There has been so much
talk these days of the River of God, and of the Mighty Wind of the Spirit. And
we have seen the Lord working in signs and wonders in many parts of the world.
But there is coming a different kind of stream, and a different kind of wind.
It is going to be a gentle breeze rather than a mighty hurricane. It is going
to be the Gentle Breeze of Jesus, as He blows upon His bride, waking her from
her slumber to prepare herself for the coming of her bridegroom.
If you turn with me to the book of Acts, where the first coming of the
Spirit was recorded, you will find something interesting in a couple of
passages there. I will give them to you here first and then comment on them.
The Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them separated tongues like [flames] of fire, and it
rested on each of them.
Here we have a description of the first anointing power of the Holy Spirit.
It came with a loud noise and a rushing, mighty wind. It came with heat and
fire, causing hearts to be aflame with God's power. It caused the early
believers to be on fire for God and to do great exploits in the Name of Jesus.
But as the disciples went forth to preach under that power, the apostle Peter
stood up to preach and he said something very interesting.
The Acts 3:19 Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be
blotted out, when the times of refreshing will come from the presence of the
Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached to you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all
things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the
world began.
The Gentle Breeze of Jesus
Peter spoke of another kind of wind. He called it times of refreshing from
the presence of the Lord, and He said that when this happened, God would send
Jesus Christ. What was he saying here? If you check the Greek word translated
as 'refreshing' and compare it with the word used for wind in the previous
passage, you will see that both refer to a blowing of a wind. The one in Acts
2 refers to a strong blowing, whereas the refreshing referred to in Acts 3
speaks of a gentle blowing, as in when you blow on food to cool it down. The
first is the Mighty Wind of God, the second is the Gentle Breeze of Jesus.
The first brings power and causes one to become lit and on fire for the
Lord. The second brings a cooling down, or refreshing. But more importantly,
the first brings a mighty manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit, but
the second brings the manifest presence of the Lord Jesus. I have experienced
both of these in the Spirit and I am sure so have many of you.
Experiencing the Godhead in the Spirit
I would describe my experiences with God in the Spirit like this. When I
come into the presence of the Father I am overwhelmed with my own
worthlessness and I fall to his feet in repentance, feeling unworthy to even
look up higher than his feet. When I come into the presence of the Holy Spirit
I am overwhelmed with an awesome power that makes me feel like I can face the
entire kingdom of darkness, the world and any other enemy single handed. But
when I come into the presence of the Lord Jesus, I am overwhelmed with a love
that transcends all human understanding, and I find myself able to love the
vilest of men without any effort.
The Church has proclaimed the righteousness of the Father and his hatred
for sin. They have proclaimed the awesome power and anointing of the Holy
Spirit, with signs and wonders. But it is time that the precious Lamb of God
that takes away the sins of the world takes His place as the lover and future
husband of the Bride of Christ. It is time for the gentle breeze of His love
to sweep across the world, wooing and winning the lost and bringing the
slumbering giant that is the Church to a place of full unity, as God intended
and as Jesus so fervently prayed in John 17 before He faced the work of
Calvary.
That is the next move of God folks!
