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*AWESOME AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS
*THE RAINS ARE BEGINNING TO FALL
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"AWESOME AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS"
~ by Bonnie Chavda
GOD IS A MAN OF WAR
The history of the world began with a war, and it will end with a war. From Genesis to Revelation we see the unfolding of the battle that began with Lucifer and which will ultimately end in the confrontation described by John when final judgment is meted out to Satan and his followers.
In between these two events, we see the hand of God on the earth waging war in righteousness and justice against the forces of darkness. The Hebrew Scripture uses the same word for righteousness and justice.
Justice is God’s way of thinking and doing. Jesus is justice for us. The greatest of all wars took place on Calvary 2000 years ago. That victory has been won. Jesus has gone to the top of the heights and planted a standard so that revival will come to the earth in its season.
Natural war is a manifestation of the spiritual clash of kingdoms. The increase in violence and warfare in our generation is an indication of the heightening pitch of the spiritual battle.
Throughout his letters to the first-century church, Paul likens believers to spiritual soldiers. In his letter to the Ephesians he instructs them, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
We have spiritual weapons mighty to pull down spiritual strongholds. The Church is God’s spiritual army. Take note of what is happening in the natural, and be prepared for the war that is being waged in the spiritual. The signs are all around us. It is time for war.
REVIVAL IS GOD'S WAY OF WAGING WAR
Arthur Wallis once wrote, “Revival is divine military strategy: first to counteract spiritual decline and secondly to create spiritual momentum.
Throughout the history of creation, revival always comes to a nation, people and culture when it is utterly and hopelessly dark—at the nadir of faithfulness. It is God’s mercy.
We see it in the prayer of Habakkuk, a prophet who lived in the midst of a generation filled with violence and iniquity:
“O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.”
It is the strategy of the devil to overwhelm you with oppression and darkness. I want to encourage you, God has an answer for the darkness that pervades our culture; it is called revival.
Exodus 13:17 tells us, “God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, ‘Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.’'
God is calling to His church. He is calling to His bride. Don’t be thwarted by the size of the enemy, or daunted by the scope of the battle. You can be the breakthrough for revival in this generation.
Remember the story of the Little Dutch Boy? He saved all of Holland by plugging a small hole in the dyke, a hole the width of his child-sized finger. He is a legend to this day. Why?
Because no matter what the magnitude of the wall facing you, the nation or our culture, all it takes is one little hole for the breakthrough. “It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”
The key to this breakthrough is thanksgiving. It is the drill that will prepare a place for revival to break forth in our generation. Don’t get distracted by the size of the impasse, but fix your eyes on Jesus. He has given us the victory on the cross.
YOU ARE THE POINT OF BREAKTHROUGH
God is calling us to take our place in the battle. As we position ourselves in our ranks, we will see God pour out His power. We see this in the life of David when he stepped into his place as king of Israel:
“Then David said, ‘God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water.’ ”This is a prophetic picture of God’s strategy for this hour. God is training our hands for war, and He is instructing His church to step into ranks.
The military note has been lost to the church. But now is the time to restore it. We are praying for the restoration of the gifts of the Spirit to the body of Christ – power so she will be as terrible as the battle array with banners described by Solomon. This is a picture of the end-time bride. This is a picture of us!
THE 82ND AIRBORNE:
There’s a wonderful story that took place during World War II. Late on the night of Dec. 23, Sgt. John Bannister of the 14th Calvary group found himself meandering through a French village.
He had been separated from his unit during the wild retreat during the first days of the Battle of the Bulge and had joined up with Task Force Jones defending the southern side of the fortified goose egg.
Now they were in retreat again. The Germans were closing in on the village from three sides. American vehicles were pulling out. Bannister was once again separated from his new unit with no ride out.
A tank destroyer rolled by, and somebody waved him aboard. Bannister eagerly climbed on. They roared out of the burning town, and someone told Bannister that he was riding with Lt. Bill Rogers. Who’s he? Bannister wanted to know? Will Roger’s son,” came the answer.
An hour later they reached the main hwy. There they found a lone soldier digging a foxhole. Armed with Bazooka and rifle, unshaven and filthy, he went about his business with a stoic nonchalance. They pulled up to him and stopped.
He didn’t seem to care about the refugees. “If you’re looking for a safe place,” he said, “just pull that vehicle behind me. I’m the 82nd airborne. This is as far as the **** are going.”
The men on the tank destroyer hesitated. After the constant retreats of the last week they didn’t have much fight left in them. But the paratrooper’s determination was infectious. You heard the man, declared Rogers, “Let’s set up for business.”
Twenty minutes later two truckloads of GIs joined their little road block. All through the night, men trickled in. Their defenses grew stronger until around that single paratrooper was formed the nucleus of a major strong point. And the battle turned.
YOU ARE THE POINT OF BREAKTHROUGH IN OUR DAY! GOD IS CALLING ALL WHO ARE ABLE TO GO TO WAR
We live in a time of revival. We are beginning to see with our eyes that the kingdom has come – miracles and power are being revealed in the church. God is calling His bride to awaken–to be alive and active by the Spirit, the point of the spear for His visitation. This call is for all of us.
God instructed Moses to number, “every male individually, from 20 years and above–all who are able to go to war…number them by their armies.”God has called you into rank as an active part of His formation–in this day on the earth.
Don’t retreat in the face of the battle. You hold the keys of thanksgiving that can unleash revival power to wage war against the darkness of this hour. Let us decide today that we have the power for revival breakthrough. We are the bride of Christ, an awesome army arrayed with banners.
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"THE RAINS ARE BEGINNING TO FALL"
~ by Lynne Hammond
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is about to experience a flood of God's glory the likes of which has never before been seen. We are already in the initial stages of it. The long awaited former and latter rains of the Holy Spirit have begun to fall.
Ever since the Church was born on the day of Pentecost, this outpouring has been prophesied and expected. When the first fires of the Holy Spirit engulfed the early disciples and they spilled out of the upper room speaking in tongues and praising God, Peter explained to astonished bystanders that the phenomenon was just the start of what God had planned.
He said: You Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be [explained] to you so that you will know and understand; listen closely to what I have to say… This is [the beginning of] what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, God declares, that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all mankind… (Acts 2:14, 16-17 Amp.)
Notice Peter didn't say this is the end of what Joel prophesied. He didn't say this is the culmination and the grand finale of the outpouring of God's Spirit. He said it's just the beginning. There's more—much more!—to come.
SEEKING ANSWERS IN TOPEKA
In the 2,000 years that have passed since Peter preached those words, the tide of that initial glory has ebbed and flowed.
At times, it almost seemed to have vanished altogether.
Religious forms began to replace the original Pentecostal fire. The divine organism of the Church that once pulsed with the very presence and power of God, slipped into a spiritual slumber.
Such was the state of the Church in America just before the dawning of the 20th century. The revelation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit had been all but lost. The life flow of the Spirit had practically dried up.
Then something wonderful happened. A young man named Charles Parham became so spiritually parched that he began to cry out to God for a return of the spiritual rain described in the book of Joel.
As he did, questions began to arise in his heart. Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit for believers today? He wondered. And if so, how can we know we have received it? Brother Parham determined to start a Bible school where students could search out the answers to such questions.
As he considered where to locate the school, God gave him a vision of a specific house in Topeka, Kansas. When brother Parham found the house, however, it was boarded up and empty. He had no idea what to do next, so he struck up a conversation with a man who was there mowing the grass.
To his amazement, he discovered that the man owned the house, had moved to California, and had returned just to take care of a few things. Brother Parham immediately shared with him his vision of a Bible school.
The owner responded by reaching in his pocket and pulling out a set of the keys. "Here," he said, "you can have the house for your school."
Immediately, the Lord began supernaturally drawing students to the Topeka school from all over America to study the Bible and seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Day after day, they gathered to pray for the fulfillment of Joel 2:23: Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He gives you the former or early rain in just measure and in righteousness, and He causes to come down for you the rain, the former and the latter rain, as before. (Amp.)
THE FIRE SPREADS
At one minute past midnight on the first day of 1901, their prayers were answered. One of the students, a missionary named Agnus Ozman, declared her belief that the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the power and manifestations seen in Acts 2 was, indeed, for believers today.
So brother Parham laid hands on her according to the Word of God and prayed for her to receive it. When he did, a light came upon her and she began to speak fluently in other tongues. For three days and nights, Agnes Ozman was unable to speak any English at all.
Instead, she spoke continually in a language that was distinctly oriental. A linguist called in from the local university determined the language was Chinese, specifically the Mandarin dialect.
So complete was the miracle that when others would ask her a question, she was able to write the answer in Chinese. (Brother Parham's granddaughter, a lady I know very well, told me that her family still has the paper upon which Miss Ozman wrote those Chinese words.)
Soon the students and this mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit spilled out onto the streets, just as it did on the day of Pentecost, and the Word began to spread. Some (including brother Parham and his family) left Topeka, went to Galena, Kansas, where a notable revival took place, then traveled through Oklahoma into Texas.
Eventually, some of them settled in Houston where they again opened a Bible school. It was there that a young, black minister named William Seymour met them.
Brother Seymour, aflame with desire for more of the Lord, eagerly embraced what the Parham company taught—that the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues is still available to believers today. And though he was not able to immediately receive the baptism himself, he boldly began to proclaim it.
DESTRUCTION BRINGS DESPERATION
Shortly thereafter, William Seymour was invited to Los Angeles to serve as assistant pastor in a Holiness Church. His heart still aflame with this newfound truth, he preached the message of the baptism of the Holy Spirit there on a Sunday morning.
The leaders of the church did not receive it well. They were so furious, in fact, they determined to prevent the message from being preached again. When brother Seymour returned on Sunday night, he found doors to the church padlocked and the service canceled.
The hungry believers who had come to hear him, however, would not be deterred. They moved the meeting to a house on Los Angeles' Bonnie Brae street where a small prayer meeting began and continued for several nights.
On the fourth night, April 9, 1906, the meeting was flooded with the power of God. The believers, as if struck by lightening, were all thrown off their chairs and began speaking in other tongues.
One woman, Miss Jenny Moore, who had never possessed any musical inclination suddenly found she could play the piano and sing like an angel (an ability which remained with her for the rest of her life).
Word of what had happened quickly spread and the house on Bonnie Brae began to fill up, night after night, with people eager to experience this wonderful, new outpouring of God's Spirit.
Before long, the crowd extended out into the yard and eventually so many people gathered on the porch that the porch fell in!
Clearly, another meeting place was needed. So, the group acquired an old Methodist Church on Azusa Street that had been turned into a livery stable.
They cleaned out the place and held their first meeting there on April 16. The next day a reporter from the L.A. Times attended the meetings, witnessed the moving of the Spirit, and reported on the believers' "antics" (as he called them) in a front-page article.
After deriding their shouting and gibberish, the reporter finished the article with a description of a prophecy given during the meeting—a prophecy that declared an awful destruction was coming to the United States.
The very next day, the prophecy was fulfilled in the form of the great San Francisco earthquake. Hundreds of people died in the rubble and the fires. As a result, thousands of seekers—suddenly awakened to their need for God and desperate to experience His power—thronged to the Azusa Street meetings.
The latter rain so fervently sought by brother Parham's Bible school students was beginning to sweep the nation.
THE LIGHTNING IS FLASHING AGAIN
In the years since, that early 20th century spiritual storm has gradually abated. What many called "the latter rain movement" has waned. But those who are attuned to the atmosphere of the Spirit can sense the winds blowing again.
The lightning of the Spirit is flashing on the horizon, and what brother Parham himself prophesied back in 1906 is about to come to pass. I learned about his prophecy three years ago from his granddaughter.
She told me that at the beginning of the Azusa Street revival, he prophesied that in the coming years there would be another spiritual outpouring when the former and latter rains of the Holy Spirit would come together. After that outpouring of glory, he said, Jesus would return.
COULD HE BE RIGHT?
Absolutely. James 5:7-8 backs him up. It says: Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand (NKJV).
According to the Bible—not just contemporary prophets—there is coming an outpouring of God's glory so mighty it will seem like the former and latter rains of the Spirit are falling together!
That outpouring will bring forth the harvest of souls God has been waiting for. That outpouring will usher in the second coming of the Lord.
There is no question about that. The New Testament clearly says it's true. The only question is, when will it come? Charles Parham expected it to come 100 years after the latter outpouring of the Spirit in 1906.
Before Brother Kenneth E. Hagin went home to be with the Lord, he prophesied that 2006 would be the year of the glory. He said the outpouring of God's glory would begin to manifest this year. So I am believing for it and expecting it all the time.
JESUS KEEPS HIS PROMISES
"But Lynne," you might ask. "What if you're disappointed? What if that glory doesn't come?" It will come. I know it will because Jesus Himself said so. When He spoke to His disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit, He said:
The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.] (John 14:21, Amp.)
Jesus plainly promised to make Himself real through the manifestation and revelation of the Holy Spirit to all those who love Him and keep His Word. He promised to reveal Himself fully to us and through us. That's what the glory is, you know.
It's Jesus in manifestation. It's Jesus revealing Himself through the Holy Spirit, making Himself known through us to the world! There's something else Jesus said about the glory that encourages my faith.
Just before He raised Lazarus from the dead, He spoke to Martha and said, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40 NKJV).
In that verse, Jesus clearly promised that if we will believe, we will see God's glory. And Jesus always keeps His promises. The word believe, however, means more than just rocking back on our heels and waiting for something to happen. To believe means to become fully persuaded.
If we're believing, we're expectant. We're declaring it by faith. In the morning when we get up, we're saying, "The glory is here!" We're talking about it all day long. We think about it and declare it at night as we drift off to sleep.
"I can't see any evidence of the glory around me," somebody might say. "So how can I say the glory is here?" Say it by faith!
Do what the army of Judah and Israel did when they ran out of water. They listened to the word of Elisha the prophet who told them to dig ditches to hold the rain that was about to fall.
"For thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.'" (2 Kings 3:17 NKJV)
Dig ditches for the former and latter rain with the words of your mouth. Keep believing, confessing, and praying for God's glory to fall until your heart is blazing with desire for it.
I know this: when God's people start to cry out and make a place in their hearts for the outpouring of His glory, it will come in increasing fullness. And God's people in the United States are going to cry out for it.
One way or another, we are going to push the distractions out of the way and become single-minded in our pursuit of the purposes and plans of God. We'll either do it because we want to or because we have to—but we will do it.
Look at the Bible and you'll see there are two ways revival can come. It can come because of people's spiritual hunger or because of crisis.
The latter rain outpouring that came 100 years ago came both ways. Early seekers, like Charles Parham and William Seymour, received it because they were hungry. Those who poured into the Azusa Street meetings after the San Francisco earthquake received it because of crisis.
I want to be like those early seekers, don't you? I want to see the glory come in my life because I'm hungry for the things of God. I want it to come because I've loved the Lord, obeyed His Word, and believed to see His glory.
Actually, I've wanted that for years, and I can truly say my desire is beginning to be fulfilled. Just a few months ago, I was preaching in a church in Arkansas on a Sunday night and the glory of God so radiated from that church that some unsaved people driving by felt compelled to stop and come in.
When they did, they got saved, got their needs met, and began their journey with Jesus.
TRULY, THE TIME HAS COME. THE GLORY IS HERE!!
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