WHO CAN UNDERSTAND THE THUNDER OF GOD’S POWER?

Rev 10:4 And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down."

In a prophetic vision, I heard the voice of God saying ‘The Seven Thunders of Heaven are Speaking.’

I can feel a contending going on in the body of Christ in the western world because we are in a ‘between times’ interval before a great outpouring of the Spirit. During this season it is hard to maintain vision for what is to come without comparing it to something we have already lived through or experienced. God is about to do a new thing though, something that we have not seen.

In this time, there is a great danger because the spirit of unbelief is plaguing many, including some mature Christians who have been through past moves of the Spirit of God. The enemy is trying to steal their hope and anticipation that something better is truly on the horizon.

Heb 11:15-16: If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

In this passage of Hebrews, it is clear that if we are preoccupied with the past then we will be crippled in our attempt to pursue the heavenly goal. This passage wasn’t just for those who left their past lives of sin…it was God-fearing believers who left even the good things behind in order to pursue the glory cloud of God. If we continue to look back at old days where God poured out a measure of His Spirit to us, a.k.a. past ‘glory days’--- then we could limit the coming expression of what He wants to do with us. We need to be looking ahead and pressing into the longing that God is allowing the body of Christ to feel… which is a hunger and desperation for an expression of Heaven to manifest that no eye has seen and no ear has heard.

The Past Can Be an Idol

Many people in the body of Christ have a hard time not living vicariously through their past ‘glory days.’ When this occurs, the past moves that we have experienced become a stumbling block that we can actually then try to feed our faith from. When we attempt to emulate the past it can block the prophetic move of God to build a container or new wineskin for something He is longing to bring that is fresh and incomparable.

It is hard for our human nature not to compare current moves or even the vision for future moves to something we personally have experienced. If we are going to press on towards a heavenly goal, however, we will have to trust that God is not limited to our experience, our imagination, or our practice. He wants a people who are expecting more than a powerful re-creation of a past revival. Rather, He wants a people who will pray for Heaven to be manifest on the earth.

The Past is only One Of God’s Building Tools
God always uses past moves of His Spirit to build toward the future, and it is appropriate to respect and honor what His hand has accomplished. We need to understand the testimony of the church so that we can build wisely on the foundation of it.

When these movements become idols, though, we begin to set our eyes on a lesser focus than on Him. Again, many believers live vicariously through their first few ‘glory years’ of Christianity, just as many church denominations and movements live through their first two to three years of history where they experienced the hand of God moving in a sovereign way. If we do not press on for more experience, more of heaven’s manifest presence, then we will be living under the judgment of the Laodiceans in Revelation chapter 3. We become lukewarm because we are only warmed by the fires of past experience, no longer having current revelation to add as new logs to the fire of our passion.

Past expressions of the Spirit is only one of the many tools God uses to build His house. If we have an over-reliance individually or corporately on any one of the tools in God’s tool chest then we will grow imbalanced.

The Spirit of Sentimentality

Bob Jones recently saw a demonic spirit of ‘Sentimentality’ operating against the body of Christ, trying to keep our eyes fixed on what was or could have been. This will cause our focus on what God is doing to become clouded.

The Spirit of Sentimentality is a spiritual force that tries to keep good Christian people engaged in their hearts to idolize “what was.” It keeps people constantly holding the past experience as a judge and weight to dictate the future. When people are focused on the ‘glory days’ of the past, then they oftentimes give them ‘legendary’ status. They forget the weaknesses and hardships and sacrifice reality for the sake of holding on to a shadow of the truth of what was.

When people experience emotional pain because of changes that are taking place in this season, it is probably because of this very spirit of sentimentality that is so viciously tying emotions to familiar past experiences. Paul addressed this issue to the Philippians:

Phil 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it (the goal of union with Heaven). But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead

Even Paul recognized the weakness of his own position in God. He had seen incredible manifestations of the Kingdom, more than most of us have ever seen, and yet He was still not satisfied or finished. He was not holding on to what God did yesterday to dictate what He will do today. When Paul made this statement he was talking to mature believers. We too have to strain for what is ahead. It is time to break the ties of our soul to the past and press into Today!

Job 26:14

In 1995 I was doing a conference in Rochester, New York . I don’t say this lightly, but right before I went up to speak I had an open vision of a Hand writing on the overhead projector screen. It wrote out a scripture:

Job 26:14 And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"

I had never before had this scripture emphasized to me. I was not familiar with it and could never have quoted it. It was completely supernatural that it was quoted exactly as it was written in the word.

The Lord spoke to me right after I saw this saying, “The Church has not seen anything yet… everything that has been is the outer fringes, but I am going to pour out the Thunder of My power on a whole generation of the Earth.”

If we believe we understand how God moves, then we are claiming to have seen the ‘THUNDERS’ of God which I believe no one has yet seen. I do perceive the time is coming when He will thunder on the Earth. But in order to see Him do this we have to come out of the place where we think we possess understanding that is based on past experience and sentimentality.

It’s a posture of humility that depends on God’s understanding and not our own for what is to come. No matter what anyone has seen in this generation or read about in other segments of church history, including the first, it is not comparable to what the THUNDER of God is about to do in one generation.

God is allowing us a personal time to open our hearts and be healed of our unbelief and idolatry of what was, and in some cases what is, so that we can press into and strain for what is to come on earth and in heaven.

Beat Your Plowshares Into Swords!

God is about to call forth an army that will fulfill what Joel saw and begin to take the territory for Jesus that the Father promised Him. They will manifest Heavenly dominion while still on Earth. They will plunder the earth using the resources of Heaven.

Joel 3:9-14: Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, 'I am strong!' 11 Come quickly, all you nations from every side, and assemble there. Bring down your warriors, O LORD! 'Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat , for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow-- so great is their wickedness!' Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

It is about to be the time for those in jobs outside the church to enter into taking that which they are doing and bringing a harvest through it. It is a time when God is about to release a people to enter into the secular arena with authority and begin to move in Kingdom dominion.

It is a time in the valley of decision for those who are called into the business, political, educational, or entertainment arena. Opportunities will come over the next decade to many who have influence in these areas to begin to take their secular calling and make them into weapons for the kingdom…to beat the plowshare of the entertainment industry into a sword… to make the pruning hook of politics into a spear.

The Father has promised Jesus the Earth as His inheritance, and now is a fresh beginning for those who have been in the valley of decision paying a price to partner with Heaven to deliver to Jesus that which belongs to Him--- not only in the church but in all of these secular arenas. We are going to see many Christians and Christian efforts forerun this kind of authority in the years 2004-2006.

1 Cor 1:28-29: He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-- and the things that are not-- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

The Holy Spirit is going to anoint the weak broken Christians in these arenas who seem to have no authority or position but have paid a great price personally. He is going to promote them in a supernatural way with favor that will nullify things that are already established.

God is Governmentally Shifting People Into Place

We have to come into a higher understanding of dependence on the Holy Spirit. The Thunder of God’s power is coming and it will not just be a move to awaken the church, but it will be for the purpose of Jesus inheriting His reward through the church that is not just the four-walled building, but those in whom His presence dwells all over the world. There is a harvest coming that will have a whole generation of desperate believers with hands on a sickle, sweeping through the nations on Earth capturing over one billion souls for Jesus in one generation. This has never happened before, and it will not happen in an ordinary way or even a known way.

In Galatians 4 Paul talks about us being children of promise longing for the supernatural fulfillment of our promise, not being ordinary in any way. This passage is pertinent to this very hour. We have to cleanse ourselves of the ordinary and the past, and allow ourselves to be a new wineskin for what God is about to bring.

The voice of the seven thunders is being released on the Earth to bring promises to people with an end-time focus. There was a move of the prophetic in 1989-1991 that helped establish the government of the church that we are walking in today. There was prophetic power and signs in the 80’s that opened doors of opportunity for people who had been waiting on God. Just like then, there will be a move of the prophetic in the next decade that will begin to governmentally shift people into position, not only in the church, but in the secular arena as well.

Prophetic voices will move in signs & wonders and prophetic words that shift the government into a right state. God will be speaking clearly to prophets about His key people, (and I am not speaking just of a ministry focus here but also in all the secular arenas), especially hidden ones that will require the revelation of seers to even identify. There will be a release of proven vessels in the prophetic that will not just be encouragement and blessings, but will actually begin to establish the government for the coming move of God.

Listen… can you hear the voice of the Seven Thunders? Who can understand the THUNDER of God’s power?