Monthly Archives: June 2017

Pioneers and Forerunners #2 – Graces of Vision

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In my last blog, I spoke of the difference between pioneers and forerunners. Again, I received several good responses. I want to expand that blog since it has helped many people to understand what they are going through. It has also shown me the need to gather the pioneers to get mutual encouragement. I believe most of our conferences are for the forerunners.
Now looking again at pioneers and forerunners, we see that the pioneer is a visionary. They must see afar off and have a sense of direction. The apostolic and prophet graces fall directly into the category of pioneer. They are both visionary and bring new concepts of the future and new paths of spiritual travel. This is not to say there aren’t some pioneers in the other graces of pastor, teacher, and evangelist moving as well. It is just their numbers are very few.
Both apostles and prophets pioneer through the second heavens and make a new path to experience God in the throne room. They confront powers, principalities and oppositions of both demonic and men as they open new ways of seeing and strategy. They have an expectation after all the investment and spiritual work, that the forerunners and settlers will maintain the path and engage into the new discoveries. Both gifts are experiencing frustrations in this hour as they are not fully received nor are the pathways they have opened being received. Mainly pioneers are receiving the revelation from other pioneers. A secondary frustration is what has been opened in the purest form is then shifted or changed by man’s opinions or for man’s own gain. The capitalization of building a person’s own ministry on another’s revelation is doing much damage to many in the Body of Christ. It’s taking advantage of those who have labored in secret and giving them no honor, recognition, or placement in the Body of Christ.
Today we have seen new concepts of the truth being taught by very gifted teachers. These revelatory teachers are not gathering large followings nor settling as teaching centers, but are more transient teachers who are seeding the Body of Christ with revelatory truth. These teachers hang out with apostles and prophets and engage in conversations that are both revelatory and doctrinally sound. They are mature teachers and have deepened their teaching gift with ever increasing revelation.
But primarily, the teaching gift is in the forerunner ministry. They are stationary to grow and establish the Body of Christ. This type of teacher is not so much pursuing revelation to add to their teaching arsenal but is teaching more of the foundations to firmly settle the Body of Christ. They work with Pastors who are in the forerunner category settling people in faith. For the pastor who is frustrated with the constant need to settle people but wants to bring new revelation, they should probably look at their other graces and see if they might be more prophetic and need to shift into the area of pioneering.
It is very easy to see the pastoral grace is a forerunner or a settler type of ministry. The evangelist is there as well building the base of people by expanding the ministry with new converts to the Kingdom. Most pastors are forever consumed with the personal problems and life journeys that people are going through. But the gifting of the prophet and apostle can benefit them greatly. They bring vision and strategy to the people of God pulling them out of their focus on their problems and onto a Kingdom destiny. People who engage in a vision higher than themselves generally see their problems as small and allow them to fade away in their importance. Pastors are in more need of true apostles to give them strategy and bring the Kingdom. True apostles come to partner with and not take over or have them join a network. The days of networks are coming to an end and the time of divine alignments by relationships is upon us. Since I dissolved the network I had years ago, (I had about 80 ministers in it) it became very freeing to not build a structure but to build leaders. I know a lot of people but not everyone I know has been integrated into my network because it does not exist!
So, the understanding of pioneers and forerunners is critical to understand how to function and how to place and value certain things. Take prophecy: there are varying degrees of prophecy. Some is very directive and others are encouraging. The most important words to shift direction on are the prophetic words of prophets and apostles. Other words may be more for the forerunners of places that are establishing the Body of Christ and encourages many. Teaching can be both foundational and revelatory. Revelatory teaching opens vast areas to expand as foundations. Assignments. Many new territories take both apostolic and prophet grace to open while at other times, it’s simply taking what is already established and adding to it.
If we look at the book of Acts, we see the both the pioneering spirit and the forerunner spirit. The first 11 chapters are about the Church in Jerusalem and how it functioned as a forerunner. There were new concepts of taking care of social injustice and new ways of living life in relationship with God. Healing, miracles, and the supernatural are all shown as different from the religious structures. Foundations were laid to build a future upon, based on the fresh revelation of Christ. Acts 12 unfolds as the transitional chapter. Its prophetic symbolism is vast. Peter is locked in prison. Look at it like this; Peter is not locked in prison but the revelation that Peter carried is imprisoned. The Church is praying and crying out for Peter to be released. They are praying for what Peter is carrying to be released. A cry for more revelation. Revelation is released and revelation comes out of prison. Revelation enters a city and it finds a praying Ecclesia! Remember, Peter played a key role of saying Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Peter spoke after Pentecost and explained what was happening. Acts 13 onward is about the pioneers and the expansion of the Kingdom. We see the revelation they received dictated the course they were to go. New territories and new revelation came. Yes, we need the forerunners establishing, but we also need them connected to the pioneers to sustain the new territories they are attaining.

Pioneering or Forerunning

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Today as I got up, I started thinking on the life I have had of pioneering or forerunning. I used to think they were the same but after this morning’s reflections; I’ve concluded they are two completely different things.

When you are forerunning, you are announcing to a large group of people who are willing to follow you. Most forerunners have very large or sustainable congregations or larger groups of people already following them. The forerunner is only announcing to a group of people what has already been discovered. Generally, the forerunner is declaring revelation that has already been uncovered but is now finally ready to be received. The forerunner is not alone but has other forerunners to draw strength from. The forerunner looks extremely successful, supposedly has new revelation, numbers of followers, and enough funds to do the work. They seem to get great honor being a forerunner and are greatly appreciated for what they are doing.

Pioneering is different. You are blazing a new trail that has not yet been discovered. It’s a lot harder work because the resources of people are not there and finances are generally really stretched. Pioneers see destiny afar off and are dreamers of a better way. They are removing the obstacles off the path so the forerunners can function. The pioneer walks a pretty lonely road as there are not many around them to draw strength from. Unlike the forerunner who draws strength from followers, the pioneer must draw strength from the vision and destiny. The number of these trail blazers is low, there are not enough funds, and overall, they appear to be unsuccessful. No one wants to come down the blazed trail until it’s been completed. By then, the pioneer has moved on to the next assignment, never settling. They seem to get little honor and are unappreciated or unnoticed being a pioneer.

Over the years, I have been a pioneer desiring to be a forerunner. In all honesty, the forerunner’s followers are hungry to receive the new path, making it easier to do the work of ministry. It’s been a great journey discovering the unknown as I’ve lived a revelatory life but equally frustrating to see what is now a 5 or even 10 year old revelation for me, to be new for the forerunners. In the same moment, it is equally rewarding to know the path you cut was the right path. Yet you come back to the new path in front of you and you wonder again, will the forerunners find this new path or just settle on the path they are on. We experienced the exact same moves of God others have over the last 20 years, but God said “You can stay here and camp or you can let go of it and go deeper”. I chose the deeper while the majority camped.

Combating Leviathan to Bring Light to Iowa

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In my last blog, I exposed the Leviathan principality that is working in Iowa. (See past blog) Since the posting, many people have contacted me from other states saying they are combating the same exact things. Many have decided to follow my blog to find answers for their regions. I want to begin to address a strategic plan of spiritual warfare against the demonic forces that we encounter.
How do we fight against an unseen enemy and how do we determine the results? In the past, I have seen many so called prophetic acts that engaged a lot of activity but had little to no results. I do believe in prophetic acts, but only if they are very divinely inspired and prayed into and not a fleeting thought in the moment. I don’t see New Testament apostles doing prophetic acts but actual acts. That’s why the book is called The “Acts” of the Apostles. They were real men sent by God to do real acts of God to display His Kingdom in society. They did not depend on numbers to engage demonic forces but relied strictly on the spiritual authority they had been given. Success was not dependent on everyone agreeing or even understanding. It was based on them hearing God’s voice clearly and obeying. We are to pull down strongholds. You don’t pull strongholds down as an individual but with a group of people. This is an action of a group of people who demolish a fortress brick by brick until there is nothing left that remains. This, to me is the first step in strategy, finding the group of warriors.
We also need to find apostles and prophets. I’m not talking about those who want to be or who might be called, but commissioned apostles appointed by Christ, not men and assumptions. These will only be the ones carrying true authority to deal with deep things in the second heaven. They will know the time and moment to step into the heavens and begin to make the shifts. We also must have Christ appointed prophets as well. Ones who declare the true word of God, speaking what must be said. All apostles require and need prophets and all prophets require and need apostles. I have come to a conclusion over time that unless these divine Christ appointed relationships are in place, the strategy of God will not be fully known. If these relationships do not exist, then there is improper alignment, rebellion, or they are not truly called to operate in the grace of these two callings. These giftings will reveal the true word of God over regions and allow that word to be documented so that the Church can war with it. It becomes the spiritual roadmap that reveals the future and causes hope to arise and faith to be activated. The Biblical pattern in the book of Acts shows that when a principality was operating in a region, then Apostolic/Prophetic teams were sent into an area. They understood the culture and the demonic influences behind the people’s belief systems. They began to confront the principality by confronting what people believed. This is probably the primary way of defeating demonic oppression and deception. This occurs until a divine moment of time, confronting each head of Leviathan and weakening the overall principality. We need apostolic / prophetic teams to not just do meetings but go into regions and occupy for a season until breakthrough begins to happen.
Prayer is a key strategic point. There must be prayer over God’s people and decrees over demons plaguing God’s people. Prayer that seeks the heart of God to cause a person’s own heart to be changed. Prayers that communicate the burden we are carrying so God can adjust that burden. Prayer is what maintains and protects God’s people. But prayer alone will not bring changes so much in culture as tarrying to hear God’s plans and strategies is needed. This is more key than anything. In the past when we confronted principalities, we prayed for God’s people, interceded for the lost, made decrees and did lots and lots of deliverance over the people under the demonic oppression. We taught truth and held a Kingdom standard. The prayer room or prayer time was a key time because it allowed us to move into the spiritual realm as a contending group. It was not so much the act of prayer but what it allowed to be produced in us as a corporate Body. It was not just a few of us on the journey of prayer but all of us together. After all, we ALL were on assignment so everything we did, we did together. This was key because it caused our hearts to be knit in His purpose as all of us experienced and heard the same things. We also could hear each other’s heart and understood each other’s hearts. There was as much said and spoken in the prayer gathering as there was in our main meetings. The prayer meeting would set the stage for what God would then form in our main meetings. Without the time in the prayer gathering, a person would be at a disadvantage in understanding the overall direction as things unfolded.
All things will contribute to the weakening of demonic oppression. Healing, winning souls, deliverance, etc., all weaken evil influences. These things are very important, but if the Church is needing awakened, then these things will be hard to set into motion. People will only change how they function after they change what they value. So we must teach and teach and teach as people are perishing for lack of Kingdom knowledge. This has been and currently is the season of revelatory teachers needed. What they are forming is the people of God activated and functioning in real authority.
Now let me give a warning. What seems to happen when we start talking of principalities is there are a lot of ideas and Godly intentions, but little of it fits into an overall plan and strategy to take demonic opposition out of the way. Also, it seems that people can get very fixated on the demonic and not on the Lord thus even empowering demonic forces with their faith. All the good ideas will contribute to the overall success possibly, but they can also distract the Church as it divides people into different groups and passions with no real overall Kingdom plan or agenda unfolding. It can be said these initiatives are Kingdom but are they strategic, playing into an overall Kingdom plan of God? I have seen this in our state with some things that can appear to be a good initiative but don’t have a long-term goal or plan that continues. People can walk away feeling good about what they accomplished but when all is said and done, there was little to no impact. We must be sure we are hearing God and to know the application of what we hear. We must know how our initiatives fit into a larger plan.
The main thing is that we have grown accustomed to life as it is. Human nature is already non-confrontational. The deception we live with is thinking we have already arrived or that things are not really that bad. This mindset needs addressed first. We can’t have change unless we are discontent with the status quo. But there will come a moment of in time, divinely led and inspired, when a corporate group pf people are gathered and in faith will confront Leviathan head on and cut the heads off it. These people will then stand in faith afterwards not giving any ground in the spiritual realm back. This will literally shift the heavens and the atmosphere over a region. It takes time to defeat Principalities. We see Paul weakening many demonic forces over time. This is like a giant chess match being played out with the ultimate prize being a true sovereign move of God unfolding. It is the removing of what is detrimental to allow the light of God to shine into men’s hearts.
We truly need a divine sovereign move of God. Every meeting becomes another key step. Another step in the unfolding plan of God dominion and alignment of hearts. Every person is seen as a possible key to contributing to Kingdom advancement. The mindset is to advance. Advance in gatherings, advance seeing God in lives, advance seeing Kingdom people touching society and seeing that touch influence culture.

Leviathan Restricting the Light of Iowa

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Leviathan Restricting the Light of Iowa
I have been under severe attack in the last couple weeks. I had overwhelming thoughts to quit, depression and hopelessness and a host of others things. It is similar to when I took on another stronghold over a region and began battling it. Some of these are coming from things I have taken on to break off of people and others I believe are directly related to what I am preaching on and stirring in the spirit realm. My car was recently bombed by large birds on the windshield late at night. It reminded me of the witchcraft of Africa I have experienced.
There is a stronghold setting over our state. I had a prophetic word that I would not just break a stronghold off our state but it would affect the central USA. I have dealt with principalities before in Africa and here. I know what it takes to displace them and all that comes with it. There is much speculation concerning what demonic activity is going on in our state. All the way from no knowledge to some, to speculation, to fantasy. It takes revelation to know what to combat. It also takes research and study along with discernment without speculation. But one thing seems to remain consistent, everyone speaks of a demonic principality called Leviathan as the agent of the demonic.
First let me bring clarity to Leviathan. Leviathan, a twisting coiling serpent, is a seven headed principality working with strong demonic agents. In mythology, it would coil around the head, eyes and ears to restrict light, stop ears and hold the mind from understanding. This principality creates indebtedness. In mythology, it lived in rivers. Before I moved to the capital city, this demonic force was over our region. I finally combated it and overcame with a large group of leaders and spiritual warriors. The result was an announcement made by the large cult in our hometown that they had lost control of the spiritual realm over the region. People then began to feel the presence of God 20 miles outside of our city as they drove into town. The night we confronted this demonic force, a man had a vision that we had cut off five of the seven heads by our actions. That night five people died mysterious deaths in our small community!
Now to see the application the Lord has shown me. Leviathan’s seven heads are seven strongholds or smaller principalities. This is what makes it so hard to confront and change. We believe one of the heads is actually Leviathan when it is not. It is the combination of several demonic forces. Also understand that Leviathan will gather different heads to complete different task over regions. So the list I present is specific for Iowa. Other areas may have a similar list or even an exact list. I’ve identified the following heads: Pride, Jealousy, Spirit of Diana or Restraint, Religious spirit, Bondage, Murder, Spirit of Saul or False Leadership. Now these are root spirits producing certain fruit attached to them. The fruit is not the spirit but is only the outcome of its activity. But each one can seem to be dominant in itself. Leviathan is the “life source” or overall director of these seven heads working together in conjunction to perform a demonic activity. The tangled weave makes it hard to get a clear perspective. The main thing is to realize everything has an alignment and an attachment.
Iowa means sleepy one and here we are in our nation contending for awakening! This Leviathan spirit has so constricted and restrained, it has suffocated the Church in Iowa to put to sleep both the revelation of God and the people of God. It is the god of this age that has blinded the minds of the unbelievers lest they would believe the Gospel. It is not talking about the gospel of salvation but the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The restriction and unwillingness to really embrace revelation is directly related to pride in hearts and jealousy in actions. Pride enters the heart and keeps the person from seeing their lack or the self-deceived state they are in. This seems to bring forth a lack of true ownership for the Word of God and the revelation of the Lord that is given. This is the very thing the Iowa Band fought in the 1850’s in Iowa, the rejection of revelation as it was replaced with self reasoning. A new type of enlightenment came into Iowa in the 1930’s as the “age of enlightenment” appeared and man’s reasoning was found superior to God’s. This began a release of the religious spirit and an institutionalized Christianity began to appear.
This principality creates indebtedness and that indebtedness is seen in obligation to religious practices and institutions, specifically to the Goddess Diana found in Acts 19. Diana means ‘fully enlightened but flow restrained’. It works alongside Leviathan to bring a false enlightenment and it works to remove the ability to reproduce. It makes the temple an idol and we have done the same by pouring millions of dollars into structures instead of injustices. Today people pick ministries to associate with based many times on the beauty of a building instead of the presence of God. In Acts 19:27, there was concern when Paul confronted the teaching of this type of restraining structure at Ephesus. They were worried their “craft” would be in jeopardy as they made their living from this craft. The Lord told me the craft is the ability to restrain flow while convincing people they are enlightened. The result is people think being a good person is good enough. Getting involved in different causes, volunteerism, and doing the weekly duty and obligation (indebtedness) had created a knowledge of God without true deep relationship with God. We have knowledge of God, have acquaintance with God but don’t really know Him.
The ability to create large places of gathering without a life-giving flow has released the spirit of jealousy with leaders. Desiring to have large congregations, a compromise can settle in hearts to not present the full truth, thus empowering Leviathan even more. Competition arises and the outcome releases the spirit of murder as character assassination begins. Instead of letting God deal in hearts to convict and expose, fault finding in individuals, instead of judging with righteous judgements occurs. We can judge if something isn’t Biblical and we are suppose to, we can only discern what spirit something is from. With discernment shifted to speculation, coming from competition and jealousy, we must confess we have little to no Biblical discernment operating.
These things contribute to many stepping out of their primary calling and trying to step into a grace that has not been imparted to them. This has created a lot of confusion within the Body of Christ concerning function, identity, leadership and authority. It causes a drawing back as to who to believe, thus we don’t believe anyone except our own belief system and actually end with an open ended belief system. These progressive things have created a suspicion concerning other leaders and an unwillingness to embrace true apostolic government, authority, order and alignment. No true apostolic council exists in Iowa. There are few apostles and few strong prophets. Our state is lacking drastically in this area. They have not been received, (not receiving revelation) and when they have appeared, they have been rejected. But what is odd is the number of those “who say they are apostles but are not”. Without getting into a lengthy teaching, there simply is no apostolic fruit, no reproduction of sons, no apostolic lifestyle and no apostleship to verify the authentic calling. Leviathan has stopped the reproduction of Kingdom leadership and the heritage of fruit produced. This has created an endless variety of belief systems and has actually paralyzed the Body of Christ for some time.
But God always has a remnant reserved to bring forth the ancient paths and ancient ways. This is a remnant that has held fast to what they believe and refused mixture and compromise. A remnant willing to confront demonic forces and sees plainly both the mixed things and the intentions of God. There are remnant pockets in Iowa emerging. Places fueling hunger and answering the emptiness of people’s hearts. These places preach uncompromised messages and bring real encounters with God with power and signs and wonders. They are beginning to disciple in Kingdom principles and apostolic alignments. But for the most part, they are emerging outside of the current structures because the current structures have been infiltrated with the heads of Leviathan.
We are also not just finding these pockets but beginning to find the ones within the structures who want to break out of the bondages of lack. Amazingly, many traditional denominational leaders desire the Spirit filled lifestyle and all that it brings. I can see these two groups are the ones carrying hunger for awakening, and will be the voices of it as well. Those who are currently “Spirit filled” really need to examine their lives and motives as I can see them almost being left behind because of mindsets of believing they have already “arrived”.
The recent attack I experienced came after speaking on the Glory of God. I believe this is part of combating this spirit, along with outpouring meetings and healing meetings. The Lord told me that Iowa will not experience a move brought by someone from the outside but from those within. The fire we seek will only be sustained by those living in the land. He also told me the outpouring we desire will only come as people’s hearts are healed from the wounds they have experienced and disappointments from what they have experienced in the faith. In other words, we must break the Leviathan influences off of them. The army we seek is in both the prodigals and broken-hearted ones and the millennials who are wired to carry a true move of God.
Let me also clarify what I’m talking about when I say ‘glory’. I’m not talking about the typical glory manifested in a room that so many seem to be chasing, but the glory of God within an individual that is always present to display Christ. The glory that is the highest glory is this inward glory. Manifest glory comes and goes and does not sustain. It is an Old Testament glory. A glory like Moses experienced and is transitional to encourage into the future but it is fading. The glory that is within is transformational. It is ever expanding. Manifested glory is for the saints to believe, but the glory within is to go on mission. Demonic forces will never be stopped by us entertaining each other inside the walls hoping for God to manifest, but cultural change will occur as we go outward and do mission. This is the manifestation of the sons of God outside the walls not inside. This is what the whole earth is groaning for in Romans 8. Now if this is the real answer, the final response from man to confront everything and bring forth Eternity, then anything that brings forth light to shine will confront the deepest darkness. That’s what the glory within in is, a huge light we carry. Once that light begins to shine in our daily lives, then everything begins to change drastically.
I’ll post more as revelation increases.