Mark 13: 7-8 is happening even as this article is being written, "But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows." This is not the end but Matthew 25:13 tells us to pay attention to what is happening around us, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."
The news is filled with wars, natural disaster, and yet another high school shooting that involved loss of lives. There is turmoil all around us but let me remind you this is not the end, this is the beginning. This is the greatest time in the history of man to be alive in the Kingdom of God. During the month of February my wife and I found ourselves in the position of being stranded during the recent tornados and then a snow storm. In my experience I have found that sometimes the Lord has to shut us down to speak to us.
During our time of waiting for the weather to clear there was a major shift in the spirit realm. The Lord visited Bev and me as profoundly as He did when He called me to preach over twenty four years ago. In this visitation the Lord reminded me of the dream that He had given me that Word Alive is an air craft carrier that carries five thousand men and women. That prophetic word has been spoken over our church by prophets and we have been reminded over the years as to what the job of an air craft carrier is. An air craft carrier does just that, it carries men and women where the need is. The apostolic anointing that God has imparted to this house is for sending teams of men and women around the world. As He reminded me of the dream He began to speak a revelation about the authority of the Kingdom. It is the time and season, for us as the body of Christ and as a church, to begin to move and live in the authority that establishes the presence of the Kingdom of God on earth. We need to begin to walk in bold authority that speaks to tornadoes, earthquakes and all manner of natural disasters, take authority over them and see them dissipate.
Bev and I started building the church twelve years ago as an apostolic training center to equip believers and send them around the world to do the works of the Kingdom of God. In this visitation the Lord reminded me of this vision. In the first dream I was wearing an officer’s uniform I was trying to find socks to match because I was being commissioned. We as a church were trying to find socks and the only color I could find were khaki colored. It was one of those dreams in which you are frantically trying to find something very specific but cannot locate it.
We were being commissioned to take the ship and I believed the socks spoke of wrestling with immaturity and fleshly issues while we were maturing, being prepared and readied. That has been and is a part of the process but when the Lord began to speak in this recent visitation He said that the khaki socks actually represent authority, not fleshly issues. We are moving into maturity and as a church we are to no longer to call ourselves a child. We are to have authority and dominion over strategy and plan of the enemy and to begin to speak to and curse sickness and diseases such as cancer and aids. That is the anointing that God is calling us to walk in.
In Genesis 3:15, we see that the Seed, Jesus Christ, will crush Satan under His heel, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." In Exodus 3: 2-6 the Angel of the LORD appeared to him (Moses) in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, so he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses was being commissioned to walk in authority to lead the Israelites.
When Joshua met the Captain of the Lord of Hosts in Joshua 15: 14-15 the Lord said, "As Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?" Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so. Joshua was being commissioned and God told him wherever you step that land I will give you. On and on in scripture it says when Israel was going to the Promised Land He said step into the Jordan and the Jordan will dry and split so that you may Passover.
In the New Testament in Luke 10:19 declares, "Behold, I give you power to tread over scorpions and snakes and nothing shall by any means harm you." In Romans 16:23 we see, "…the God of all peace shall surely crush Satan under you feet." I woke up after this encounter with the Lord and read the in my morning devotion it is time to put your foot down.
One hour after I had read my devotional Chuck Pierce called me and said that he called because he had been studying scripture for two days and that the Lord had spoken to him that people were at a crossroads and cited the place Moses had found himself with Pharaoh behind him and the Red Sea in front of him. That was a real crossroads experience for Moses and the Lord told him to not pray about it anymore to get up and stretch forth his rod and cause the sea to part. Chuck told me that when he read Exodus 14: 15-1, "…the LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." The Lord said, "Call Kent and tell him it is not time to wait on the baton to be activated it is time to stretch the baton and split the sea and move into the move of God."
Something shifted in the heavens over our church that night and it is time to walk into a brand new authority as an apostolic training center which literally means that we are a sending place. We find ourselves in a exciting time and place. One of our faithful friends and part of our church Steve Goodson called me right after Chuck and was crying and trembling under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He said, "Get ready, and open your mouth, I am getting ready to move in the Spirit in a way that you have never dreamed, seen or imagined. Chuck said that he thought it very important that he come and commission us to this place with a true spirit of evangelism Bev and I, as your pastors have been out of the pulpit for three weeks, yet because we are functioning in an apostolic anointing and our expectations are not based on one person to deliver the word of the Lord, we continue to thrive and move in the spirit while we have been out in the field. It is a great testimony of what God is doing in our lives and of what we are all called to do. I believe that we are on the verge of the greatest move of God that we have ever seen. It is prophetic and very powerful that we are moving as an apostolic people that God can move in and through to accomplish His plans and purposes.
God was so specific when we were called to establish Word Alive International Outreach that we are an apostolic training center and that we were to establish the this work to further the kingdom of God and send teams of men and women around the world from here.
God has orchestrated everything to this point and now it is time to stand on His Word and promises just as Ephesians 6: 6-13 instructs us to do, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 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 principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Once all of our armor is in place and our capacities have been enlarged we have to stand, and do all to withstand the enemies’ strategies and spiritual wickedness that has come against us and take the sword of the spirit and begin to declare that God promises are real and begin to pursue His promises with passion.
