The Great Shaking

We are living in a season where a great shaking is taking place in the heavens and the earth. The shaking we are seeing isn't because God is mad or because of some scary end time scenario coming on the scene. The shaking we are seeing is because we are about to see the greatest unveiling of Jesus, the desire of all nations, in the earth! The Church is about to be displayed among the nations. He's going to fill this House with His Glory!

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts. Haggai 2:6-9

The book of Haggai took place shortly after the Jews came out of captivity in Babylon. In this setting God commanded them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Instead they went about rebuilding their lives. They dwelt in their houses, sowed in their land, ate, drank, and lived life. They said it wasn’t time to build the house of the Lord. The Lord comes to them and tells them to consider their ways. He told them because they neglect his house they sow and do not reap, they drink but don’t have enough, and what they earn they put into a bag with holes. Because of their neglect for the house of the Lord they were living in barrenness and poverty. This sounds like much of the Church today. Many of us are content to come out of the captivity of the world and be saved yet don’t press on to know the Lord. We build nice Churches, have excellent programs, and entertain people all without building His House! Beloved IT IS TIME to build the House of the Lord.

God has done away with physical temples. It was never His intention to dwell in a physical building. He’s looking for a Body in which He can dwell. God dwelt in a tent in the wilderness, then moved to a temple in the Kingdom of Israel, and finally tabernacled among us in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). Today you and I are living stones being built into a spiritual house according to 1 Peter 2:5. We are being built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22).

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2

We have all heard this verse referring to mansions waiting for us in Heaven. The word for mansions in the Greek is mone and it means abode or dwelling place. It's only other use in the New Testament is in John 14:23 where Jesus says that He and the Father will make their abode with us. I want to suggest to you that the only mansions in Heaven are you and I. You are the mansion of the Lord. God lives in you beloved!

Let's stop looking for a future mansion and be the Mansion. Your citizenship is in Heaven. You are raised and seated with Christ in Heavenly places. You've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ. There is an open Heaven over you right now! Heaven shouldn't be only a future reality for the Christian, but a very present one. The Kingdom is within you (Luke 17:21).

I hear the Lord saying in this hour to look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh (Luke 21:28)!

This isn't the time to hang our head in defeat. Our greatest hour is upon us. The Lord whom you seek is coming suddenly to His temple! A great shaking is taking place... but the result isn't going to be our destruction. This shaking is what Ezekiel prophesied in Ezekiel 37 where bones come together bone to bone.

A great season of equipping is on us. To equip means to set a broken bone. God is setting broken bones in the body of Christ. He's connecting believers from all walks of life out of every nation and he's releasing the winds of Heaven on them. What we have coming is greater than any upper room Pentecostal experience. We are entering a season of Tabernacles where God is inhabiting a people. A Body is coming together! It's going to be the greatest army the earth has ever witnessed.

In this latter house He will give peace! I'm believing for a greater unity in the body of Christ. We won't speak the same things in this day because of our doctrinal positions or teachings but because we are connected to the Vine Himself. It's His body. Don't settle for anything less than peace in His house.

Times of refreshing are coming from the presence of the Lord. Peter declared in Acts 3 that this is a precursor to the return of Christ. Enlarge the border of your tents and make room because the King of Glory is going to fill His House. The Desire of All Nations is coming!

Look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh.

Restoration is Coming to Your City

This post is from a message I preached ten years ago in Kinshasa. Had I written it today it would have probably came out a lot different. I didn't change any of it for this post. I didn't bother sharing it on Facebook since I shared it there a couple of years back. If it blesses you please share it with someone else. Thanks!

This morning I want to talk to you about restoration because I believe with all of my heart that the Lord is about to restore His Church to a place of power, authority, and purity here in Kinshasa. Today is a new day for the city of Kinshasa and God has called you to make a difference here. You are the ones that God has empowered to reach this city for the glory of God.

We are going to look at a story that took place with the prophet Elijah.

Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth. I Kings 17:17-24

There are many parallels between Elijah and the Church today. Elijah was a mighty prophet that God raised up in a time where God's people were living in mixture. If there was ever a time where the Church has been full of mixture it is today. But, I want to tell you in the name of Jesus that's about to change here in this city.

There are two kinds of prophets. You have prophets of words like Jeremiah, Daniel, and Isaiah. Then you have prophets of action like Elijah and Elisha. Elijah was a prophet of restoration. His ministry focused upon bringing restoration to the people of Israel. Malachi 4:5 says that God will send Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord. Now we know that John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. He was a partial fulfillment of that prophecy. But after John the Baptist's ministry we don't see all things restored, so we know that his ministry was just a partial fulfillment. The Elijah ministry speaks of an end time prophetic ministry that the Lord is raising up in the earth to prepare the way for His coming. The Lord is calling you to be a part of that company that moves in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the coming of our Lord.

Here we see a story where the son of a widow woman fell sick and died. Here in this story the son that fell sick and died can speak to us of the testimony of the Church here in Kinshasa. Prior to this woman's son falling sick, this woman and her house were miraculously preserved because she obeyed the Word of the Lord that came to her through Elijah. This woman came into a place of blessing in which the flour and the oil, which she had, didn't run out. Many times your hardest tests will come right after you have received the blessing of the Lord. There was a time when the Church here fell sick and the blessing and testimony was lost. Because of that the Lord is releasing the prophetic ministry of Elijah to recover what has been lost.

This woman lived in the city of Zarephath, which was in Zidon. Zarephath means refining. Have you ever noticed that when the Lord begins to refine us situations come in our life that disturb us? We always want to get out of our refinement process. We say, "Lord, take this affliction our of my life." And the Lord says, "I thought you said, 'do whatever it takes Lord.'" Isaiah 48:10 says, "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." When the Lord refines us he takes us through the furnace. Zidon was the area from where the wicked Queen Jezebel was from. This was the place in which God was going to birth restoration and bring a testimony. Jezebel was one that brought mixture to Israel. The same can be said for the Church here in Kinshasa. She has seen much mixture, but the Lord has chosen this city to be a place for restoration.

We see that this woman couldn't live off of yesterday's blessings. We can't live off of yesterday's revelation, yesterday's blessing, or yesterday's word. We must live off of a fresh revelation, fresh blessing, and a fresh word. Otherwise we will die like this widow woman's son.

So this woman comes to Elijah and says, "Elijah, my son is sick. Why did this happen? Did you do this to call my sin to remembrance?" Many times when we get into a desperate place of need the first thing that the enemy does is tell us that the reason things are going the way they are is because of our sin. What we need to realize is that the Lord is bringing that place of need so that we can have a fresh revelation of Him. Yes, the reason things are the way they are in Kinshasa is because of sin. But, I tell you in the name of Jesus that things are going to change.

Elijah didn't bother answering her questions. He just said to her, "Give me your son." He then took this child and carried him. Part of the prophetic ministry of Elijah is bearing the infirmities of those who are weak. We as a Church need to learn to bear the infirmities of the weak. The Bible says, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." If we want to see the testimony of the Church change here in Kinshasa then we need to learn to bear one another's burdens. Jesus carried your burden all the way to the cross.

Elijah carried this child up into the loft. So many times when we get into a trying situation instead of going up to the Lord we stay horizontal. What we need to do is go vertical. Bring that one in need into contact with Jesus. Faith begins when we come into contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. As a Church all we need is to come into contact with the Lord and from that place God will raise up His Son in us.

In that place of contact with the presence of the Lord there is a release of life. John 10:10 says, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." The thief came to this widow woman, stole her blessing, killed her son, and destroyed her dreams. We have seen this same kind of work here in Kinshasa. The enemy has come and tried to steal your blessing, tried to kill the promise, and destroy your testimony in the earth. We have seen much of the power of the enemy here in Kinshasa. They day is coming in which the Lord is going to match that power with the power of His Church. The enemy's day is over here in Kinshasa. Isa. 59:19 declares, "When the enemy comes in like a flood, then the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard." That standard that the Lord is lifting up is the Church. The Lord is raising a standard in the Church.

We see that Elijah took this child into the upper room and cried out to the Lord for his life to come back into him. Prior to this event we have no record of anyone ever being raised from the dead. That didn't stop Elijah from crying out. Just because you may be in a situation in which you have never seen an answer don't let that stop you from crying out to the Lord. Don't limit God. Elijah was one that was persistent in prayer. Many Christians today get to their place of need and just give up when they see no sign of change. What the Lord is saying is ENDURE because I'm about to bring your breakthrough. James 5:16-17 says, "The fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elias was a man just like us, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months." Don't give up just because you haven't seen your results yet. The moving of God's Spirit is coming to this city in a greater dimension than what we have ever seen, but we must learn how to pray for it if we truly want it.

As Elijah cried out to the Lord, he stretched himself upon the child three times until his life came in again. This speaks to us of an impartation of life. When we have come to a place of defeat what we need is an impartation of life from the prophetic ministry of Elijah. So Elijah stretched himself three times. Stretch, stretch, stretch, and then the soul of the child came into him again and he revived.

The word stretched in the Hebrew means to measure as with a line. Much of the Church today has fallen sick and died. Much of the Church today doesn't have the strength of the early Church. But the Bible declares that the latter house will have a greater glory than the former. Jesus has been measuring his Church for the last two thousand years to see if His Church has met the standard of His Word, but for the last two thousand years the Church has not. But, the third time Jesus measures His Church her life is going to come into her and she is going to arise. In Luke 13:32 Jesus said, "Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." What did Jesus mean by the third day I shall be perfected? He couldn't have been talking about His death, burial, and resurrection because when He was in the tomb he didn't cast out devils or do cures. So this must have some other meaning. He is the Head and we are the Body. ON the third day the Church is going to rise up into a place where they will fully apply the life of Christ and they are going to rise like this child.

Here in this passage it says that the Lord heard the voice of Elijah. There is something about coming to the Lord with a boldness knowing that you have received what you asked. The Bible says in 1 John 5:15, "If we ask him anything knowing that he hears us, then we have received what we have asked for." God is for you and because of that no one can stand against you, not even the devil himself. Ask God for restoration.

After this miracle was performed Elijah took this child and displayed him to his mother. He didn't just stay there in the upper room rejoicing in what God had done. But he put this child on display. When God restores you don't just keep your restoration to yourself. But display it to the lost. They will begin to come to you and say I want that too. When God has truly touched someone what they have been given from the Lord begins to become contagious. People want what you have. The Lord is bringing a restoration to this Church in Kinshasa. Not so that you can just be blessed but so that you can be put on display to the nations. This woman said, "Now I know that you are a man of God." The nations are going to say, "I know that your God, He is God because of the testimony of the Church of Kinshasa."

This morning you may say I'm in a place much like this widow woman. "God has given me dreams and promises, but it seems like the enemy has stolen them. I'm going through trials like you wouldn't believe. What can I do?" I want to tell you that God is for you and that this desperate situation that you may be in is just an opportunity for God to reveal Himself and give you a testimony. The Lord is going to restore the Church of Kinshasa but he's going to do it one by one and he wants to use you.

Let US Rise Up And Build

My passion is to see Christ fully formed in His Body! God has called us to build the House. I'm praying that this short post will encourage you to catch the vision for the House God is building. The Glory of this House will be greater than that of the former and in this place God will give Peace! (Haggai 2:9)

It's a new day! The Father is building a glorious House made up of every tribe and tongue. This House isn't being made by man's hands, man's wisdom, or man's skill. This House is being built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). Except the Lord builds the House, its builders labor in vain (Psalm 127:1). It's all God's doing! Of this House God has called every believer to be a part. It will not be built only by a select few but by all of us TOGETHER.

What does this House look like? This House is Christ fully formed in His people! Paul says in Galatians 4:19 that he's undergoing the pain of childbirth to see Christ fully formed in His Church. Oh that leaders in the Body of Christ would get this. Our call is to build up the Body of Jesus, to equip the Saints, and to empower God's people to do the work of ministry. Jesus is the blueprint! We need to get a revelation of the House of God. If you're going to effectively build the House you need a revelation of Jesus! God is raising up leaders with an Ezekiel 43:10 ministry who are showing the House to the House and helping us get a vision of His pattern.

Ephesians 4:11-16 is one of my favorite passages of Paul. Here Paul speaks of the ascension gift ministries of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher. Their job is to equip the Saints (perfect the Saints KJV), for the work of the ministry, for the building up (edifying) of the body of Christ.

The word equip here means to set a broken bone, to place a dislocated part into the right place, to mend a net, and to put something right. Our natural body can't function correctly when a bone is out of joint. It's the same in the body of Christ. When our nets are broken we can't fully contain all that God has for us. We are entering a season where God is setting bones in their correct place and mending nets. There's grace for healing being released across the body right now. Where there has been division He's bringing healing. We're entering a time of equipping like never before! Grab your nets and join hands with others in the body. Get ready to see a outpouring like you've never seen.

We've all been called to the work of ministry. This word ministry simply means service. The ministry is not for some select few. It's for every believer. You will never outgrow service in the body of Christ. The work of service unites all believers from the Apostle to the most insignificant disciple (1 Corinthians 12:18-25). The Bible speaks of the priesthood of ALL believers. It's time to stop putting a select few in the Church up on a pedestal. Every believer has been called to place of honor in the body. When we only give honor to a select few we are saying that we don't believe in the priesthood of all believers. You've been called to the ministry! God has given you something that we need! There is no such thing as an insignificant Christian. You've got what I need. Please don't sit on the sidelines any longer. Do the work of the ministry!

Lastly the ascension gift ministries have been given to edify the body of Christ. Edification means the act of building. Bill Scheidler says that edification is the placing, arranging and the putting in order of the stones that have been gathered. It's the assembling of ourselves into a structure. You are the House of God!

Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. Romans 15:2
Let all things be done unto edifying. 1 Corinthians 14:26
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29

If what we are doing isn't edifying the body of Christ it's time we've removed it from our life. Corrupt communication in Ephesians 4 isn't referring to what we might call colorful language. Anytime we offer anything other than a word of grace that will build up God's people we are using corrupt communication. It's time we stop browbeating the Church and keeping Her sin conscious. Let's speak to who she is in Christ and call Her righteousness forth! That's truly building up the body of Christ. If the Church only knew who she was she would be unstoppable!

Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Isaiah 52:1,2 ESV

There is coming a shift in our identity in these last days. The Church is coming out of spiritual darkness and is shaking off the dust. She's no longer going to live according to the man of the dust Adam. She's rising in newness of life and declaring the finished work of Jesus. She's seated with Christ in heavenly places. Someone tell the Church that Her warfare has been accomplished! Nothing will stop this House from being built. Jesus WILL build His Church!

I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:25-27

The word "you" in Colossians 1:27 is a plural pronoun. The verse could better be translated, "Christ in and among all of you." If we want to fully see His glory released in the earth it's time we join together like never before. These bones can live. They're coming together and an army is being released in the earth. This isn't a time to hide in caves or get ready for a big escape. God's glory will fill the whole earth and He's going to do it through a Body! (Habakkuk 2:14)

The glory of this latter House will be greater than that of the former! God isn't interested in physical houses anymore. He's building a spiritual temple that will be fully formed into the image of Christ. I pray that God will give you a vision of the House that He's building. May we say like the men of Nehemiah's time, "Let us rise up and build!"