Revolution Church

God speaks to me through signs and dates.  I recently had an amazing revelation that came through “connecting the dots” about three experiences that involved the image of passing a torch.   These three experiences all happened on February 12 over the span of 18 years.

Before I share these experiences, I want to tell you why February 12 is such an important date.   February 12 was the date the latter rain revival began in 1948.   During that revival,  miraculous healings and high level prophecy were common.   Some of the revivalists in that era included Oral Roberts, William Branham, A. A. Allen, Jack Coe,  T. L. Osborne, and Paul Cain.

Paul Cain’s life has been marked by the supernatural.  He has stood before kings and presidents.  At the age of 17, he became a prominent figure in the latter rain revival.   Paul toured the country with an 8,000 seat tent, filling it wherever he went.   Many salvations and documented healings took place, as well as Paul calling out people and telling them detailed information about their lives by word of knowledge.

During those days, the Lord began to speak to Paul  about the hype and greed he saw in the latter rain movement.   Paul became disillusioned and burned out.       He went into seclusion for  25 years, but he was given a promise from God that his mother would not die until he stood before a “new breed” of leaders.  This new breed  would be marked by simplicity, purity, and remarkable demonstrations of power.

We had Paul Cain come and speak at a conference in Coeur d’Alene that began on February 12, 2007.   Before Paul came, we were praying and someone saw him passing a torch to the conference attendees.  

When that vision was shared at the prayer meeting, I remembered being in a leadership conference ten years prior with Paul Cain in Kansas City.  Before going to that leadership conference,  I had been given a prophetic word that I would be given a torch while there.   To my amazement, at one of the meetings, a real lit torch was brought in.  I checked my journal and was further amazed when I saw the date was February 12, 1997!

Three days prior to Paul coming in 2007, I read that it was on February 12, 1989,  that Paul had stood in John Wimber’s pulpit and announced he had found the “new breed” of ministry he had been waiting for.  (His mother died the next year at age 105!)

While speaking at a Vineyard conference, on Mother’s Day weekend 2009,     I was more amazed when I bought a book entitled The Quest for the Radical Middle, by Bill Jackson, in their bookstore and read the following:

“In February 1989, John Wimber hosted a conference on spiritual warfare in Anaheim.  It was to be a typical Vineyard conference – work through the notes and minister as the Lord directed.  What made these meetings different was that Wimber, who had just had his initial encounter with Paul Cain in December, invited Paul to speak at one or two of the sessions.  No one was ready for what happened.  It was so intense that the seminar was held over for two extra days.

In essence, Paul Cain told conference registrants that God had given him a torch with which to initiate the “last days” ministry.  What is more, God had instructed him to offer that torch to the Vineyard.  The symbolism appeared to be the image of the Olympic runner lighting the fire that initiates the games.  Paul had run his leg of the marathon and now was passing the flame to the final runner who would light the vessel in the stadium, thus officially initiating a significant era in the countdown of human history. “

Three different experiences….all involving a torch….all on February 12!   I know that God is wanting us to hear the message in the signs.

John Wimber’s main passion was the Kingdom and he taught that we are all called to do the works of Jesus.  I believe that God is saying that it’s time to run with the torch of revival in simplicity and purity, proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.   (Matthew 24:14)

In my last blog, I wrote that I had been hearing the words of Robin Mark’s song about revival.  Robin lives in Ireland.  After writing the blog,  I was surprised to learn that he was in central Idaho speaking and singing about revival while I was hearing those words!   

I have been a student of revival for many years.   I believe we need to pray that God will revive the Church once again so that we can see our land healed. 

On Mother’s Day, 1980, God used a young hippie preacher, named Lonnie Frisbee, to bring revival to John Wimber’s church in Yorba Linda, California.   The Vineyard movement was birthed in that season.    It was an exciting time of the Kingdom being demonstrated through healing and deliverance, prophecy, and signs and wonders.

On November 17, 2003, I had a dream that John Wimber’s secretary called me and told me that he was coming on 2/22.  I knew the dream was symbolic because John had passed away in 1997.  I was shocked when I later read  that he had died on November 17….the date I had the dream.   I felt the dream had to do with Isaiah 22:22, “I will place on His shoulder the key to the house of David; what He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.”

On February 25, 2009, Shawn Bolz had a dream about breakthrough coming to California.  In the dream, he was given 22 stakes, on 11 of them he painted the word “Breakthrough” with keys and crowns.  When he awoke from the dream, he felt  that the 22 stakes represented Isaiah 22:22.   I knew that John Wimber’s birth date was February 25….the date Shawn had the dream.

I also remembered reading in Lou Engle’s book Digging the Wells of Revival that in 1998 Lou had gone to Bonnie Brae Street, where the Azusa revival had started, with a group of intercessors.  They drove a stake into the ground, declaring that the revival well in Los Angeles would again burst forth.    When he got in his car, the clock read 2:22.  He thought of Isaiah 22:22 and realized that God had given him a key to open that well.

Shawn was in the service at John Wimber’s church on Mother’s Day 1980 when Lonnie asked the Holy Spirit to come upon the young people.   Shawn and I will be speaking together at a conference this Mother’s Day weekend in Pocatello, Idaho, at a Vineyard church.   

I believe we have a date with destiny!

John Wimber (born February 25, 1934 and died November 17, 1997).

I have been hearing the lyrics of Robin Mark’s song going through my head the last couple of days.

I feel it in my spirit, feel it in my bones
You’re going to send revival, bring them all back home
I can hear that thunder in the distance
Like a train on the edge of town….

I feel we are on the edge of “true revival” because of some dreams and prophetic experiences I’ve had.     I know we’ve heard it before…..but I truly believe that God is about to send another wave of His Spirit across this land.

A few days ago, I was talking to a young woman named Merrick who was told to move from Texas to Boise, Idaho.  Prior to that, she started the Burn in Nashville.    She emailed me after finding our website.  She had been drawn to our site because she had just had a dream about a former teacher named “Mrs. Browning.”

I connected her with some pastors in Boise, named Mike and Yvonne,  who were looking for someone with her gift mix to help them launch a new phase of their ministry.   It would be a paid position and she was exactly what they were looking for!

When I talked to Merrick on the phone, I told her about a dream that a friend named Joy Parrott had years ago.  Before I met Joy, she dreamed that revival had broken out.  She wanted to know where it had broken out as she wanted to be there.   In the dream, a man, by the name of Wayne Anderson, came to her and said revival had broken out in Idaho.    At the time of the dream, both Joy and Wayne were living in Washington.

While I was telling Merrick the dream, Yvonne called.  I called her back.  She was calling to ask me if I knew someone named Wayne Anderson because she had met him the night before and he had prophesied that revival was coming to Idaho!    I knew this was not a coincidence as I had not told the dream, nor thought of Wayne, in a few years!  

To be continued……

Life in the Kingdom is good!

At Revolution, we have been focusing on the themes of “love” and “community” for several months.   I have watched our church culture shift as we have purposed in our hearts to love one another as Jesus has loved us.

True community is being built.   People are serving each other out of genuine love and affection.    Families are being restored.   Broken relationships are being healed.

It is not always easy to love.   We’re all broken and in process.  We’re not perfect and sometimes we react out of past wounding.   When that happens,  we are learning to be quick to apologize and get prayer for our issues.

I have hope for the Church.    I see radical change occurring.   Ghandi said that we must become the change we want to see in the world.    (He also said that he would have become a Christian if it weren’t for observing Christians!)

A new government of love is being established according to Isaiah 16:5, and  the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.    

                                                      William Branham 1950     Todd Bentley 2008

The year anniversary date of the Lakeland outpouring is tomorrow, April 2.    What a year of shaking this has been!   

When the Lakeland outpouring began a year ago, I expressed my deep concern about the need I saw for the catalyst, Todd Bentley, to receive emotional healing.  I contacted  a leader who was directly involved and had close relationship with Todd.  I shared my fear that Todd was going to “crash” and that it would be devastating for him personally and for the Church at large if he didn’t get healing.  

My warning was not heeded  and Todd did have a very public “crash.”   I believe this could have been avoided and there is a lesson to be learned.  

I personally did not attend the Lakeland meetings, nor did I watch them on television because  I was grieved by the “fruit” I was observing.  I believed that genuine healing and miracles were taking place in Lakeland, but was alarmed over the exaggeration and hype that was also occurring.  

Some ministers from our area went to the Lakeland meetings and seemed very prideful on their return.   Some boasted that they were going to “bring revival” to the region because Todd had laid hands on them.     When they started extended meetings in our area, I received reports that many walked out of those meetings because of the pride, hype and competition that was being exhibited.

The Latter Rain movement began in 1948 and there were many healings and miracles.    William Branham was a key figure in that revival.   He was killed in a car crash in 1965.    When the Lakeland outpouring began, there was a car accident in our area and another man with the same name (William Branham) was killed in that crash.   The accident report said he was going too fast for the conditions. 

I felt there was a prophetic parallel.   I felt that Todd needed to slow down to deal with his issues and the media was fueling something that was going too fast for the conditions.

 “We can destroy with our character what we build with our gift.”   In the Latter Rain movement, there was lust, greed, pride, jealousy and competition.   That move of God stopped as a result.  I believe those same issues stopped the Lakeland outpouring.  

I hoped that the Lakeland scandal would start a conversation about our need for emotional healing and our need for true mothers and fathers.    Unless we receive healing for our souls, we will continue to make the same mistakes as past revivalists.    It has been said if we don’t study history, we are doomed to repeat it.  

Today is St. Patrick’s Day.  It is believed to be the death date of St. Patrick and is celebrated as his feast day.   It holds special significance to me personally as my mother, who was named after St. Patrick, died on this date four years ago.

A few years ago, I asked someone to teach at our church on the “Celtic way of Evangelism.”  As he was teaching, I kept hearing change rattling.  Since no one else around me heard it, I believed it was a supernatural sign and the Lord was saying that we need to change the way we evangelize.

St. Patrick evangelized Ireland by establishing communities where people were able to “belong” before they believed.   The way that we evangelize today is the Roman model where people believe first….then they can “belong.”   

The church in the next millennium will increasingly need to relate to the longing within society for community and relationship. People who have become suspicious of words, promises and hype, are attracted to relationships and belonging.

I have been greatly influenced by a movement called Mosaic that is based in Los Angeles.       They attract many unbelievers to their services.  They use art, dance, and media to communicate.  St. Patrick used  native art forms to reach the Irish people.  The Celtic evangelism model was highly effective at reaching people that the Romans thought were too uncivilized to convert.

The Celts would have had no problem with  “Power Evangelism.”   The Celtic Christian world view didn’t draw a dichotomy between natural and supernatural. All of creation was God’s!   They talked  of ‘thin places,’  places where the veil between the natural and the spiritual was slender, almost transparent, and a strong sense of the presence of God could be discerned.

St. Patrick planted over 700 churches. Whole tribes became Christians.  He ordained thousands of priests.  On this day, where we wear green and eat corn beef and cabbage, let’s remember the man who discipled a nation.

I just returned from Las Vegas where I experienced LOVE, a Cirque du Soleil show that celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles.    There was  a cast of 60 youthful international artists with aerial performance, extreme sports and urban freestyle dance. 

John Lennon said, “I’m a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change.”  The song All You Need is Love is timeless and carries a profound message for our generation. 

On the way to Vegas, I read a Henry Nouwen book on leadership.  A statement he made really impacted me and I have been pondering it ever since:  “Many Christian empire builders do not know how to give or receive love.” 

I have been grieved over the lack of love and self-promotion in the Church.    Many leaders are  building their own empires and do not care who they hurt in the process.   Recently I was studying Isaiah chapter 22.  We quote Isaiah 22:22 about the key of David and the authority to open and shut doors, but not many of us have understood that passage.    Shebna, the second in command,  was fired for building a monument to himself.  Eliakim (who was a servant and a father) was promoted and given the key of David.  His name means “God will raise up.”    I believe  the  message is that true authority and promotion in the Kingdom will come through sacrificial love.

In 1 Corinthians  13, we read that “Love is not self seeking.”       Romans 12:9-10 in the Message Bible says:   “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.”    We are trying to develop a Kingdom Culture of honor where, as friends,  we demonstrate love and prefer one another.

I think the Beatles were right…..Love is all we need. 

I can’t settle for mediocrity and “church as usual.”   We’re launching out into uncharted waters….looking for a “new world.” 

Sometimes that can be scary.  Old patterns and ways of doing things are difficult to change.  We must be willing to “go where no man has gone before.”      We have to be committed to the process of change and not draw back.

I realized that I was drawing back in the area of pursuing the gifts of the Spirit  because of disillusionment with the prophetic movement. 

There needs to be greater accountability in the prophetic movement.  Prophets are contradicting each other and giving words that are not coming to pass.   This, coupled with major character issues being exposed, has caused disillusionment.

Instead of drawing back, however, we need to pursue love.  We are told in Scripture to pursue love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.   The key is to “pursue love.” 

We need to have a wedding of the Word and the Spirit…a marriage of truth and experience.  We can have both love and the wildness of the supernatural.  

Like Abraham, we are looking forward to a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.   Let’s discover it together!

We started a conversation about “Creating a Culture of Life” at an event we hosted in October with Danny Silk and Shawn Bolz.   Much of the conversation centered around learning relational skills.   That conversation continues this year as we learn how to practically love one another.

My resolution for the New Year is to laugh more and to really enjoy family and  friends that God has put in my life.    I am committed to learning new relational skills so that I don’t repeat mistakes of the past. 

Jeremiah 6:16 exhorts us to ask for the ancient paths…..so that we can find rest for our souls.    Jeremiah also wrote that the shepherds took people from hill to mountain, but they never brought them to their resting place.   As shepherds, we have  been guilty of taking people from “hype to hype,”  without bringing them to a place of rest.

How do we find rest, peace and joy?   We ask for the ancient paths and walk in them.   In the Hebraic culture, family and relationships are very important.  I believe that being a part of a loving, safe community is a need that we all share.  It will bring healing to our souls.

Zechariah wrote about the prophet being “wounded in the house of his friends.”    The conversation will continue this year on how to create a safe, loving environment where we can be healed and find rest for our souls.   Let’s be patient with one another as we journey together to that place.