Between the years 2016 and 2020 we will see the beginnings of a revolution that will transform the face of Christianity. I have been opening my eyes to the children of today (age 5 to 12) and I believe we are going to see a massive resurgence of mysticism, a fresh openness to the supernatural, and a strong desire for social change.

What is our generation (those 18-35) doing to train and equip these young people in the areas of the Kingdom of God? *Now* is the time to build up the body of Christ! *Today* is our opportunity to make a difference. It’s time get involved the lives of today’s children. We must love them and be good stewards of the grace that has been given to us.

We can’t wait until middle school or high school or even college to reach *these* children. Their worldview is being formed *today*.

On Friday, August 1st, Tanya and I drove 1 hour and 15 minutes north to a church called the Marion Christian Center. It was my second time there and Tanya’s first time there. On the first Friday of the month, they have an evening called the School of the Holy Spirit. It’s a time of charismatic-style worship with about 45 minutes of good music, lots of visual and creative arts, a guest speaker bringing the message, and a time of prophetic ministry at the end.

During our drive up there, I prepared Tanya for what to expect at a wildly charismatic church. Granted, our Vineyard is technically a charismatic church, but not nearly as eccentric as Marion Christian Center. I told her:

1. That the time of worship would be awesome, but exhausting.
2. There would be lots of colorful banners, flags, and on-stage props.
3. There would be a bit of speaking in tongues.
4. They would take an offering and suggest that we should believe in a material blessing that is proportional to our gift.
5. To be extra-discerning of the message from the guest speaker (Let’s just say that one time when I went, the content of the message was questionable at best.)
6. To have fun during the time of prophetic ministry and be open to whatever God may want to speak to us.

For items one through five, everything happened as expected. We were exhausted after our time of worship; Tanya got a taste of an artistic worship experience that was very much her style; I spoke in tongues a little (softly and to myself); I gave money cheerfully (but not with the expectation that I’m to get a whopping financial blessing); and the message was delivered by the Creative Arts Director and it was a good biblical message.

That finally brought us to the time of prophetic ministry. Here’s how they do things. When you first walk into the building early in the evening, they have a place where you can buy a tape for 1 dollar. You buy the tape, not the prophecy� see how that works? We were limited to buying one tape because we are a married couple. Written on each tape was a letter, A through L, and that letter corresponds to a dedicated room where you will receive prophetic ministry.

So at the end of the evening, we went to our room and there were probably 25 or so people in our room. On at a time, you stand up, move to the center of the room, give them your tape, and they pray and prophecy over you. Tanya and I let 20 people go first ahead of us because it’s fun watching other people receive prophecy. Sometime the person prophesying hits something dead on and it gets really emotional and people start to cry as they realize that God is a lot closer to their situation than they previous thought!

Before I get into our prophecy, I want to bring up what I wrote in my previous blog entry. The Thursday evening before, I went to an apostolic pastor’s conference and went up for prayer ministry. I wrote in my previous entry, “I told the person who was praying for me that I’ve really been trying to seek God in the direction of my ministry and it feels like I’m just sitting in a cloud not going anywhere.” Let me just say that God loves to meet you where you’re at when he speaks in prophecy! God had something to say to us!

For the sake of readability, I’m going to give you a few sounds bytes of that prophecy. Keep in mind this it was given to both Tanya and myself. Uppercase words were verbally emphasized by the person prophesying:

And the Lord says:

This is a fresh season where you have been feeling as though you have been in snow shoes and you have been trudging along in almost every aspect of your lives together. It’s been good, but it’s been some trudging. But, I would say that this is a new time, and I’m changing your shoes, and they’re not those snow shoes because the terrain is changing. And, I’m putting you on one of those skateboards or scooters where you can actually stand on it together and ride this thing together in a completely different terrain that you’re on now.

…

And I will do miracles this year says the Lord. I am going to do miracles in several areas THIS YEAR says the Lord. So that you might wake up with an expectation and a freshness, almost though it’s like a morning that you open up the window and you know something’s coming. That’s what it’s going to be like in this next year, especially just the beginning of that fresh chapter.

…

And I am going to be changing and shifting all things around and it’s like, “This is REALLY not the way it was up until now!” But, it’s a happy good thing. And, it’s a little bit, little bit scary. It’s like, but by faith, even by this word, you’ll say, “God will not harm us. We can do this. It’s kind of wild and crazy, but we’re going to go flow with it.” And I’m going to do exciting things says the Lord.

I believe this prophecy is accurate and spoke very strongly to the place I was at. Many of my prayers that week were about my direction in ministry and a sense that I was getting nowhere. God wanted to tell me he’s in the process of changing our terrain, which leads into a new season, which leads to a change in shoes, which leads to less trudging! God will do miracles this year, so we should be waking up each morning with a sense of expectation. We should expect a shifting, which may be scary, and at the same time exciting, but it’s ultimately going to be for our benefit! Go God! Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!

I’ve been keeping my eyes on a kingdom movement here in Columbus. The church is called Eagle Rock and they are located in Pickerington, Ohio. They hold a yearly conference and this year’s conference is called “Acceleration 2008″. They really didn’t promote this conference in my sphere of influence, so I had no idea who was going to speak or what they were all about. The only thing I knew is that they call themselves an Apostolic network.

Acceleration 2008 is a 3-day conference, so I dropped in the first evening on July 31st, 2008. I felt a little uneasy coming to a new church and not even knowing what the conference was all about. I saw a registration booth for “Guest Ministers” and I thought to myself, “Oh no! Maybe this conference isn’t open to the public! It says ‘Ministers’, so maybe this is a pastor’s conference!” Then I thought to myself, “everyone is called to be a minister, but not everyone is called to be a pastor”. So I realized that even though this might be a conference intended for pastors, I certainly couldn’t be excluded because I am not ordained. I decided not to register myself as a guest minister, but rather secretly slip into the sanctuary, hopefully unnoticed.

Before I went into the sanctuary, I stopped by the bathroom so wash my hands. I had spilled some gasoline on my right hand on my way to the conference and I smelled pretty bad. I came into their bathroom and it was well decorated and well furnished. It wasn’t the type of bland church bathroom to which I have been accustomed. Then I thought to myself, “Oh no! Maybe they are one of those prosperity-teaching churches!” I promptly washed my hands and went out into the lobby. I looked around with a new set of eyes and nearly every man was wearing a nice suit and tie. I had come dressed in a shabby pair of corduroy pants and short sleeve button up shirt. I started to feel really self-conscious and I promptly slipped into the sanctuary.

I noticed a book table to my left, so I checked it out. They were featuring Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline as well as some other books from a publisher called Chosen. They also had a very pink booth setup for “Gritty Girls” which is apparently a ministry run by the wife of the Apostle of this church. I thought to myself, “That’s a stupid name! Who wants to be a ‘gritty’ girl! Most girls would rather be a ‘pretty’ girl!” Hey, I’m not a girl, so I’m not going to explore why they’re gritty!

I strolled across their sanctuary and found a seat on the left side of the room. On each seat there was an offering envelope. I thought to myself, “Ah ha! Maybe they are a prosperity church!” I don’t have a problem giving money to ministries, I just have a problem when they make outlandish promises about how giving money is the key to getting more money and more stuff. That just doesn’t line up with my beliefs and it makes me feel yucky inside.

So I sat there in my seat, looking up at the stage and looking around at the people in the sanctuary. The sanctuary was medium sized; I would say that it could probably hold 300 people. The people there seemed friendly and they were all dressed really nice. I guess I didn’t get the memo that this was a coat-and-tie event!

There was this older female greeter hovering around the whole sanctuary greeting people. She eventually made her way to me and said, “I just wanted to come by and bless you! What your name?’ I replied, ‘Brian’. She said, ‘From where did you come?’ I thought for a few seconds and realized that she probably wanted to know if I was part of their church network, so I asked, ‘Do you mean which city?’ She said, ‘Sure, which city?’ I said, ‘Grove City’. She said, “That’s great, did you come expecting?” I smiled back at her and said, “Yes!” As she was exchanging more pleasantries, I couldn?t help but keep staring at her teeth. She clearly had dentures and there was a slight disconnect between where the gum ended and the teeth began. It was as if her teeth were 2 millimeters in front of her gums. Maybe I’m just a weirdo for noticing that sort of stuff.

I looked down at my clock and noticed that it was 7:10pm. They still hadn’t started this thing and I was starting to get restless. I had been sitting here since 6:52pm and I was running out of things to observe.

Around 7:15 they got started with the music and let me just say that it wasn’t what I expected! I came expecting Vineyard-ish kind of contemporary guitar music and what I got was some kind of old-school, early nineties Christian music with no lead guitar and mostly a lead pianist. The worship leader was a woman in her early 60ies with a voice like a freight train. Her voice was simply overwhelming and impossible to sing with. Don’t get my wrong, she wasn’t singing badly, she just sung in a manner that made it really hard to discern the right notes for the melody and harmony. She was white, but she sung like a full-gospel black lady!

She had a small choir behind her and they were really hopping to the music. It was fun listening to it, but I found it strenuous on my vocal chords to keep up with her. Have you ever had a time of worship so intense that you became exhausted physically exhausted? It was kind of like that, but mostly with my vocal chords.

After singing for about 35 minutes, they took an offering. They do offering a bit differently in some charismatic circles. Instead of passing around a basket, they had every row get up at the same time, walk in a line to the front, drop in the offering, keep walking in a big circle to the opposite side of your row, which leads you back to your seat. I don’t know about you, but I like a little exercise when I get my free-will offering, don’t you?

The person who brought the word to us that evening was Pastor Terence Stovell. He pastors a church in Bermuda. He is a black pastor, and one of the finest preachers I have ever heard! His sermon was lively and he got the crowd all riled up. Have you ever seen those gospel churches in the Bible Belt when the congregation is shouting back to the pastor, “THAT’S RIGHT!” or “UH HUH!” or “AMEN!” or “PREACH IT!” Imagine a sermon an hour and fifteen minutes long with no drop in the pastor’s energy or the congregation. Yeah, no sleeping through this sermon.

His topic was Faith and he took us through the book of Acts to show at times the people of called are called into situations in which there is no reference point. Situations that are so challenging and new that we simply cannot rely on how we’ve experienced God’s provision and presence in the past. That’s when God is calling us to have a raw faith to move into something new, even if it makes us uncomfortable. We can no longer put our faith in the “facts” (our preconceptions about God) but rather put our faith in the “truth” (what God is now revealing for you to do). In other words, God will sometimes reveal the “truth” even when the “facts” (what we presently understand) don’t add up yet. In those situations, since we have no previous reference point to gain assurance, we are called to move forward with raw faith. What it boils down to is, do you believe in what God told you? When you experience a shipwreck, are you still putting your faith in God’s word and his promises?

It was a powerful message and I went up afterward for prayer ministry. They do prayer ministry in way that is very similar to Vineyard. I told the person who was praying for me that I’ve really been trying to seek God in the direction of my ministry and it feels like I’m just sitting in a cloud not going anywhere. He laid hands on me and prayed. It was good to get some ministry that evening.

I came across Doug Addison’s ministry while looking for books on prophecy and evangelism. Here is a video clip I snagged from his web site: DougAddison.com

Removing the Cloudiness of Your Future

By Greg Crawford Apostle

This week’s teaching will show the practical connecting with the spiritual releasing our future. I want to use some real-life examples that are going on right now in our ministry. Many of us today realize that we have a future in God. But for many of us when we see our future and we see our reality the two do not seem to be the same.

What exactly is the future? The future is actually the revelation of God specific to our life. When revelation comes, prophecy comes, or we have dreams and visions we are actually experiencing types of revelation concerning our future. Revelation received is the future revealed. The early church moved based on revelation, and not circumstance. As we look to those in the Book of Acts we see that they first got a revelation and then acted upon that revelation, bringing God’s intentions or future into the present. This created a dynamic life in the spirit and tremendous results capturing the hearts of men. Revelation always releases our future and produces a testimony in our lives.

Revelation for your life is revealed in three areas. Your personal life and walk, your corporate life in a body, and God’s plan for the earth and how you fit into that plan. The first thing we need to do is look at the revelation that we have been given, or our future, and see which of these three areas does that revelation actually fit. To gain more revelation, or the revealing of our future, it goes like this:

TIME - with Jesus - Personal revelation

TIME - with the Father - Plan for the earth

Every leader in the Bible had a revelation of his life first, how it fit in the corporate body second, and Gods plan on the earth. Revelation is mainly never about you but what you do partnering with God. It is about being a steward of your future until you own your destiny. God is looking for those who can embrace their future to release the future of others.

We are living in the season of the Lords advancement and release of the future. Prophetic words are held in the balance and some are waiting for the manifestations of the sons of God. Some revelations can not come because people are not in a place to receive them yet. Others are unfolding quickly. Those who have embraced revelation and are coming into their future will be those God uses as His instruments to bring revelation and reformation.

You see Revelation impregnate us with what God is wishing to conceive on the earth. Revelation always produces Glory. When we look at Acts we see a pattern of revelation that comes to Moses life.

Revelation of the future always produces increase and multiplication

Acts 7:17-18 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt , 18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph .

What was happening is a promise given Abraham had not yet been fulfilled. But the promise was drawing near. In other words part of Abraham’s future was about to manifest on the earth. This promise, yet 400 years old, was going to in affect an entire nation! So God in His wisdom brought increase and multiplication of the number of those who would be affected by the promise. What is coming will affect every person, backslidden, prodigal, unbeliever and believer. But as the promise, or the future, is coming upon a nation so was that affecting an individual’s life.

Acts 7:23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel .

Abraham’s promise of the future now was affecting Moses life! What so many are sensing in this hour is the fullness of past promise, fullness of past revelation, fullness of the future pressing in. Some react and run. Some deny. A few embrace. You see it has to be in our heart before it is manifested in the earth. The problem is we try to act out a promise, but it never is firmly in our heart. Right now what has been promised is bearing down upon the age we are living in.

Acts 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush .

It was not just fire that appeared but the future appeared to Moses. What Moses saw in the burning bush was a type of his future. He would be one that would be known for the fire of God. What all of us have seen is only a type of our future coming to us. The true future that awaits us is greater than even the shadows of what we’ve seen. The problem is we lose heart waiting for the future to manifest itself or for the revelation to fully come. Myself I wrestle with this constantly knowing the revelation that God has given us, and yet not seeing it fully manifest. The only thing that keeps me going is that I know within my heart the revelation is resting. Habakkuk tells us to write vision down that others when they read it may be able to run with it. Today God writes the revelation of the future upon our hearts and ask us to run with it.

Sometimes the future tarries because we are not ready to receive it yet. Sometimes it tarries because we do not believe God wants to give it to us. But every promise, every revelation, every vision, every dream, will surely come to pass. The revelation or future for your life itself is held in the revelatory realm tarrying for your faith to make it manifest.

Revelation concerning the Plan of God

Ezra 1. 1-3

Let look at Ezra. Ezra comes on the scene to be a king over the nation. He finds the scroll of Isaiah and begins reading. Imagine his response when he sees his name written by a prophet 150 years before his birth. Gods plan, future, revelation of this mans life was written in a scroll to be released at a later time. Ezra was an ungodly man converted in one night when he found out His future was already sure! There are coming into the Kingdom those who are having a revelation concerning their future. So is there a scroll of your life with your future written upon it. Not only did Ezra have the past written scroll but he also had the prophets Jeremiah, Daniel, and Zechariah alive and prophesying his future as well. I believe many of us today have prophetic words given in the moment of our life upon the earth. But I also believe prophets of past have spoken concerning us as well. We just have not come across the scroll yet!

Now to come to the Revelation God gave me concerning what clouds our future so many times. At times all believers have an encounter where God reveals our future to us, or revelation, or we see ourselves in a vision doing some great exploit. When these things come we see and experience them in their purest form. They are in the spirit realm held by the hand of God. When the revelation or the vision starts to manifest upon the earth in enters into a realm that has sin within it. Sin begins to taint what we saw as pure and it does not look like how we first saw it. We can even begin to think this is not from God. We look at others and blame them that our vision for our life or ministry is not what it should be like. At the point of the revelation entering the earth realm, is the point the enemy begins to try and steel or destroy our future concerning what we know we are to do. I have seen so many be caught in this trap as the enemy whispers in their ears and he backs it up by tainting what God first showed us as pure. This is the point leaders loose heart in ministry and give up or quite all together. Many abandon the plan because it is not what they wanted it to look like. But what separates those who will fulfill from those who only see is what Moses experienced. Getting the vision in its pure form in our heart first and then seeing it manifest as it should be. We see a great example of this with Nehemiah as he approached the rebuilding of the walls.

In the season that we are under now, the revelation of God is beginning to manifest in the earth again. What we have all seen in its purest form is already taking root in our hearts. God spoke to me and said do not worry about those who do not participate, like Israel leaving Egypt, all will participate before it is done. Right now God is looking for those who have the revelation of their future firmly fixed in their heart. He is wanting them to begin to manifest that revelation in the earth realm so others future can be unlocked. Do not let the enemy whisperer lies in your ear. Do not be discouraged when your future begins to manifest that it does not quite look like you first saw. If we do not lose heart God’s power working through us will bring our future and a perfect clarity in this hour.

This message may be forwarded, posted on your website or distributed to your news group as long as it remains unedited and all ministry contact information is included.

Greg Crawford Apostle
J. I. M. Ministry Base
116 W. Burlington
Fairfield, Ia 52556
641-472-9916

J.I.M. Ministry Base
Iowa Alliance For Reformation
Jubilee School of Ministry
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