Dear People Who Keep Company with God,
Recently I have been asked by pastor friends about what the Lord is currently doing at Riverlife, I have been telling them something along these lines; The Lord is stretching us again, He is transitioning us from a time of manifestation of the Holy Spirit, soaking in His Spirit, refreshing and acceleration to a time of manifestations of the kingdom of heaven. It is not that He is discontinuing doing the former things; rather He is taking us into the next ‘phase’ of the river adding to what He has already been doing, shifting the focus and intensity.
For the last couple of months we have seen almost a weekly occurrence of salvations, physical and other healings in our meetings, many of us are also seeing this as we go about our everyday lives. We have an emerging deliverance and inner healing ministry that is bearing fruit in the lives of those who receive this ministry. I believe we are being prepared for real revival. The response I get back from my friends is mostly joy and amazement.
When I step back and look at what is happening with us from the outside, it really is joy and amazement, but living in the midst of it does not always seem or feel so joyful or amazing. The truth is, God is stretching us again and there is an aspect of stretching that does not feel very comfortable. I believe many of us struggle when the Lord begins to shift things spiritually. We want to hang on to the way it has been, after all it is the Lord and has been such a wonderful time and there is a uncertainty with change that we would rather not have to deal with, however as we well know that is how religion and dead tradition get their foothold.
Since I have returned from Argentina back at the end of July, I have felt a shifting in the river and honestly it has not been easy on me. There is a pressure on leaders to always have the answer, but that is not the Father’s heart at all. We have to be like little children and have the heart that the wind blows where it will and we simply respond to the direction of the wind (John 3:8). Many leaders fall prey to the yoke of man, fear or strivings and consequently misinterpret the shifting in the wind and run aground the move of God.
I am convinced that the Lord has many of His future revival leaders in the school of the wind right now. I believe the Lord is looking for men and women who will press through the uncomfortable realm of stretching and transition in order to fully breakthrough into the higher places He has for us.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. 3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited. Isaiah 54:2-3
Anyone can draw back, sit down and be discouraged when what is happening around you does not meet your expectations. That is for the nominal, it is not for the Lord’s chosen kings and priest, His future revival leaders. Bill Johnson gave some great counsel on this; he said “you do not put your focus on what God is not doing, but on what He has done and what He is doing”.
God has really blessed and accelerated us in the past year and He will continue to do so, but the winds are indeed shifting. He is now beginning to use us to do the things He always desires to do; salvation, healing, deliverance and the gospel being preached to the poor which are manifestations of the kingdom of heaven being in our midst (Matthew 11:4-5). That is not a decrease in the river, it is a promotion, it is the wisdom of God that has been so freely given to us in the last year being justified (Matthew 11:19). Simply put, the biblical pattern is true manifestation of the Holy Spirit lead to the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven (Acts 1:8).
The Lord is giving us an invitation to press higher into the heavenly calling; this is truly a great honor and privilege (Matthew 22:1-14). However, as the Apostles Paul’s life reveals the laying hold of the heavenly calling is many times accompanied with uncomfortable stretching and transition (Philippians 3:12-14).
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14
Many Blessings, BW