"Elijah the Prophet!"
Alma and I greet you in the Name of Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth! We pray that God continues to pour Himself out on you, and make the outpouring real and viable in your life. Praise the Lord!
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6 NIV
I reiterate: Sharing this letter with you, so that you can help us in prayer is so important. We firmly believe that our continued success in life and ministry is a direct result of your intercession. We say that to you from the bottom of our hearts!
The Holy Spirit is pouring Himself out on all flesh. Our sons and daughters will prophesy, our young will see visions and our old will dream dreams, and up our employees and our helpers God is pouring out His Spirit and they will prophesy! I think that is pretty clear.
First of all, as the above Scripture says, “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel…” This is not something unheard of. This is continuance of that which began when Joel prophesied it. According to Wikipedia, Joel was a Judean who prophesied around 835-800 BC, making him one of the earliest writing prophets in the history of the Hebrew Nation. It seems that one of the first things that God authored in writing in the era of the Kings was this prophecy about the post resurrection outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I say this often. Most people like to call it a revival, but that would not be true in this case. One of my mentors, Pastor John H. Osteen said (in my paraphrase), that although -revivals are good, the world is not looking for a return to the past, it is looking for something new.- The world is looking to put away the old and go to something new, something that they can give their lives for. They are actually seeking for the past to come alive again. They want to see and do what the Bible talked about. For one, they want for Acts 2 to happen again in their generation, and for one of their young Simon Peter’s to stand up in fearlessness and boldness and quote what the Apostle Peter said in Acts 2:16, “This is that!”
During about mid-March, I dreamed that I was in a church of about 1000, sitting on the front row next to the pastor. Suddenly everyone gasped and a wind began to blow. I looked at the pastor and asked what was happening, and he looked to the back, and said, “Look! It’s the Prophet Elijah! He’s here!” I felt some good Old Testament fear, because an Old Testament prophet could be paying you a visit to have dinner, or to set you straight, and usually when he set folks straight, he had a sword in his hand. I said, I’m not looking!” I did what I remember the Israeli’s would do in the Old Testament when a prophet showed up and I hit the ground on my face! Some folks alive today have no fear of stuff they should be afraid of, and at the same time, are too fearful of what they should not be afraid of, but I felt a holy fear!
The Prophet had shaved, and he was wearing clothes like you would see a person wear in church. He was a thin man of about 5’10” tall, and he seemed rough and dark, like he had been living outside of town. In the dream, he roared, “You! On the floor! Stand on your feet!” He then lifted me up and pointed his finger at me and said, “God wants obedience and not sacrifice! He wants his ministers to have clean, worthy hands and clean, worthy hearts, and he wants to use this generation! Obedience! Preach it!”
I was amazed. I awoke and had to analyze what he said to me. First of all, who was Elijah prophetically? Malachi 4:5-6 says that God is going to send Elijah back before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. That Day will be great for those of us who love and obey Jesus, but terrible for those who won’t! Supposedly Elijah will be a forerunner of the Lord Jesus. He was a forerunner in His First Coming, and Jesus said that John the Baptist walked in his spirit and power, and he was rejected by religion. When it happens again, before His Second Coming, we don’t know for sure, but maybe Elijah will return to Jerusalem to announce the Coming of the King? (I am making no predictions and we don’t know exactly what will happen.)
But one thing I am sure of. God wants us to have worthy and clean hands and hearts. If you look at me, I will be the first to tell you, I could never be worthy, and my hands? Well, I try real hard, but I have not attained, (and Paul said he hadn’t either). In our fallen cases, worthiness of heart can only be attained through faith in the One Who attained worthiness and cleanness of hands through His life, death, burial and resurrection. He paid our sin price and then rose from the dead for our justification. I listened closely to what Elijah said. God wants for us to do all we can and this trust Him for the restoration of families, because He wants to use this generation! Then we must faithfully teach what clean hands and pure heart really are. Neither can be attained by our own effort. We can only arrive by kneeling at the altar of Messiah Jesus and by saying, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. Please let me see what and who I am, and let me understand that I can do all things, only by You. Please let me stay close…” Please pray for us, that the message goes forth. Jesus is coming, however and whenever it happens!
Thank you for remembering that PayPal, CashApp, and Zelle are available, not to mention the return envelope, and we also have text to give. We greatly appreciate you and God does too! He promises to bless the giver! Thank you for your prayers and for all you do for us! We are winning!
