I was praying about our upcoming Harvest Fest Conference, when a trumpet appeared in front of me, turned, and was blown right in my face. I knew immediately that this is what the Lord is about to do--the church will soon receive an "in your face" message from heaven.
In the military, as in biblical times, different trumpet sounds mean different things. When entering military service, one of the first things taught is how to distinguish the commands given by the trumpet or bugle. This is why Paul wrote in I Corinthians 14:8, "For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?" What is the message we are about to hear?
When I saw the trumpet appear in front of me and then blown in my face, immediately I knew what the message was because of something which happened to me when I was in the military. Normally, reveille, the call to wake up, was played over the loud speakers in the barracks. However, if someone did not wake up to reveille when it was played over the speakers, a more drastic measure was taken. They brought a trumpet in and blew it right in your face! This seldom had to be done more than once to a recruit. When this happened, not only did you awake faster and more completely than ever before, but from that day on you were especially keen to hear and respond to the sound of any trumpet call. When I saw the trumpet about to be blown directly in my face, I felt we were about to receive just such an "in your face" wake up call, one which we would not soon forget.
We see repeatedly in Scripture, especially in the book of Revelation, that a trumpet will sound from heaven before the great events at the end. One is about to sound. This trumpet blast is intended to awaken us to prepare for the great event which is to follow. We are on the verge of something very significant. Even though I saw this while praying for the Harvest Fest Conference, this does not necessarily mean it will come then, but I am praying earnestly that it will.
My prayer is that this trumpet call would come as an anointed message which will wake us up, and not another major tragedy. Either way, the church is desperate for a clear trumpet call--a clear message from above. We cannot waste any more time sleeping or drifting about without clear direction. We must devote ourselves and prepare for what is to come with clear vision and strategy.
"Fall In"
A rude awakening is coming so that we do not miss the coming "Great Awakening." Like the Navy did for those who did not hear reveille through the speakers, the Lord has been sounding His trumpet through many different "speakers." Very few are in fact responding to them, so more drastic measures are going to be used. This is grace from God. We will wake up.
Much of the church presently lives in a state which ranges from lukewarmness to a deep spiritual slumber. As the Lord warned in Revelation 3:16, lukewarmness is the worst state a Christian could ever fall into. Many, who are at least to some degree awake, do not know what time it is. The Lord is going to graciously sound an alarm that will wake us up, and declare the time to us as well.
I was also told that in recent times Christians have found just about every way there is to fall, but now we are going to learn to fall into line. After this spiritual reveille, there will be another call to muster into ranks. In the future the church is going to begin looking far more like the military than the social club it has often been. There is a reason why the most common title of God used in Scripture, which is used more than ten times as much as all of the others combined, is "the Lord of hosts," (I Samuel 1:3) or "the Lord of armies." The great mobilization is now, and the most intense training and discipline are coming for those who respond to the Lord's trumpet call.
Knowing the Times
After the 9/11 attacks, people poured into churches like never before in our history. Then, several weeks later, fewer people attended church than before the attacks because they did not find the church or its message relevant to the times. However, God and those who are awake and staying close to Him will know the times. Those who are faithful seekers will soon experience a great increase of words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and prophecy to keep us ahead of the times.
In Matthew 16:2-3, the Lord rebuked the people for knowing how to discern the weather, but not knowing the
signs of the times. When the Lord used such metaphors it was because there was a relationship. Discerning the signs of the times is actually similar to understanding weather. As a professional pilot I had to learn how to discern the weather because my life depended on it. We are likewise coming to the point when our lives will depend upon our knowing the times. One thing I learned early in my flying career was that I could not rely on the professional weather forecasters if I was going to be a safe pilot. I was certainly thankful for the professional meteorologists who gave themselves to knowing the present conditions and making forecasts, but I had to know the weather myself and I had to be able to foresee conditions which the professional weather forecasters might not see from their remote offices. This is true for Christians as well. We should be thankful for those who are devoting themselves to knowing the times and we should listen to them. However, this does not negate our personal responsibility to know the times, and to know what the Lord is saying to us personally.
For a weather forecaster, the penalty for getting a forecast wrong was a bit of humiliation. For the pilots, who understand that the majority of aircraft accidents are weather related, the stakes are much higher. I therefore determined that I was going to know weather better than the professional fore-casters. I studied relentlessly, constantly making my own observations, and talking to every experienced pilot or meteorologist that I could. My goal was to never be surprised by the weather conditions which I found en route or at my destination. We need to have this same goal for understanding the times.
After a few years of flying professionally, I was so good at knowing the weather that I was rarely surprised by it on a flight. Now I want to know the signs of the times so well that I am never surprised by what comes. At this time I am still far from this goal, but I am resolved to keep getting better. One of the ways I am pursuing this is by getting closer to those with the same devotion. I know the Lord would not have rebuked us for this if it were not possible to know the signs of the times better than we know the weather.
People still make jokes about the weather forecasters, but the truth is that in the thirty years that I have been involved in aviation, weather forecasters have become amazingly accurate. It used to be rare for them to be accurate, but now it is rare for them to miss. Even so, I am amazed at how many people, especially among the older generation, have a perception that weather forecasters are wrong most of the time. This is definitely no longer the case. I have watched with curiosity as some of these people seized a single missed forecast to re-enforce their opinion, not seeming to regard at all the overwhelming majority of amazingly accurate forecasts.
The same is happening to the church's prophetic ministry. It too is moving from a place of being a laughingstock to becoming increasingly accurate. It will continue to do so until we rarely hear of a miss. Even so, the perception of many, especially among the older generation, will be that it is rarely accurate even when the reverse is true. This can be discouraging, but we must not let it be. We just have to keep getting better at knowing the Lord's voice. We also need to view every mistake as an opportunity to learn, and to humble ourselves knowing that the Lord gives His grace to the humble. We are going to need much more grace for what is to come.
The Great Warning
One of the Lord's primary warnings through His teachings when He walked the earth was about being asleep when we should have been awake. From those who were not ready for the wedding feast to those who did not have oil in their lamps, sleeping when they should have been awake resulted in terrible spiritual tragedies. These were warnings for us. Sleeping when we should have been awake has already been more devastating to the church than possibly all of the sin and other deceptions combined. It will be even more so in the future.
We must wake up and learn to be alert watchmen. We must learn to see, and discern what we see. Ministries over the last decade such as: The Watch of the Lord, started by Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda in Charlotte, The International House of Prayer, started by Mike Bickle in Kansas City, The House of Prayer for All Nations, started by Tom Hess in Jerusalem, and many others are devoted to twenty-four hour prayer and prophetic watching. They have been sent by the Lord to help prepare the church for the times. All of these are helping people learn to be disciplined in their sleep, and to learn to watch even when they are tired.
Those who are awake and know how to see may continue to be ridiculed by the generation which is passing, but they will soon be greatly sought after by the nations. God is the answer to every human problem. All of our problems are rooted in mankind trying to do what God created us to do, but without Him. The end of this age is approaching and will demonstrate for eternity the consequences of trying to live without God. In contrast to this, the church that knows and walks with God is going to have both the wisdom and the power to overcome any problem or opposition. The world is going to see this demonstrated.
The King Is Coming
The contrast between the kingdoms of men that are collapsing and the kingdom of God which is arising will become increasingly distinct. This is the fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar's dream about the statue which represented his and the future kingdoms of men being struck by a little stone that grew into a mountain, and then kept growing until it filled the earth. That little stone was Jesus, and the mountain is His kingdom, which is even now growing upon the earth. As we are told in Daniel 2:44-45:
"And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
"Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy."
Those who are a part of the kingdom of God will be mobilizing and coming into increasing order, while those who are building their lives on the kingdoms of this present world will fall into increasing chaos. As one of the great wake-up calls in Scripture, Isaiah 60:1-3 declares:
"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
"For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you.
"Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising."
As these verses make clear, at the very time when darkness is increasing in the world, and deep darkness covering the peoples, the Lord's glory will appear on His people, and this will cause the nations to come to us. For years I have quoted this Scripture probably more than any other because it is one of which I am constantly being reminded. We really are coming to this time.
This is why we are also told in Proverbs 4:18: "But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day." If our lives are not filled with increasing light that is getting brighter and brighter, and our way becoming more and more clear, then we have somehow missed the path. The call which is coming is going to help all who call on the name of the Lord to get back on the path of life.
Don't Sleep on Your Watch
However, those who respond to the coming wake-up call, and again hit the "snooze button" to go back to sleep, their next wake-up will come with the enemy's gun in their face. When the church is awake and watching, the enemy will be restrained. When we sleep the thief will come, he will enter our house, and he will not only steal, but he will kill and destroy.
I have received this warning for years, and given it often--if the church in the West does not wake up, we will very soon be fighting the enemy in our own house, or on our own soil. You may contend that 9/11 is evidence we are already doing that, but that was just a foretaste of what is coming if we continue to sleep on our watch. We have entered the times when we can never again go to sleep spiritually without paying a terrible price.
The church is called to be a watchman for the nations. Even if the world is asleep, we must be awake and alert. If you were caught sleeping on watch while in the military, the penalty was most severe. If you were caught sleeping on watch during wartime, the penalty could be death. This was a just penalty because if you slept on watch, you were not only risking your own life, but the lives of your fellow soldiers, and possibly even jeopardizing your country. We are entering the time of the greatest conflict between light and darkness--the ultimate battle between good and evil. For the church to continue sleeping during these times will be a similar criminal act which will result in increasingly severe penalties.
The Four Steps
There are four basic steps to making an effective soldier. The first is mobilization. After gathering those who are being mobilized, you must then train them to fight. Only after training are they equipped, or given their weapons. Then they must be deployed, or sent to their units for duty in the Army.
The church has been given "divinely powerful weapons" for destruction of the enemy's strongholds. Though it may now seem that few really have them, or are using these weapons, the church which is obedient to the Lord, knowing His voice, and having been effectively trained, is going to be given great power. I recently went through a period when I was given a prophetic dream every night for nearly three weeks. Many of these dreams continued the same theme; we are going to see John 14:12 fulfilled:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father."
In one dream I was shown that we would move literal mountains just as the Lord said in Matthew 17:20, "...if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you" (NIV). I was told that this must be done to verify the Lord's Word that it could be done. We are coming to the times when the greatest miracles the world has ever seen will be witnessed. However, we must never forget that this power is given to witness to the truth, which we have been given to preach.
When even the greatest miracles are done on the earth, the angels are bored. They saw the Lord create the universe, and they see Him upholding it with His Word. His Word is the foundation of power, and those who are the strongest in His Word will ultimately be those who are trusted with the most power. Healing, miracles, and prophecy are crucial elements of true church life, but we must never forget that the most powerful weapon that we have been given is the truth.
The Third Day
The Scripture I was given when I saw the trumpet blown in my face was Exodus 19:16-19:
So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.
That this happened on the morning of the third day was no accident. As II Peter 3:8 declares, "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." If we added the genealogies of Scripture, it has been about six thousand years since Adam was created. If we see each one thousand years as a day, as Peter indicated, we are coming to the end of the sixth prophetic day, and the third prophetic day of the church age.
In the writings of the early church fathers, it seems that this timetable was commonly understood. It was believed that when the apostles of the early church talked about being "in the last days" (Acts 2:17) it was in reference to being in the last days of the prophetic week. The Lord Jesus called Himself "the Lord of the Sabbath," (Matthew 12:8) or the Lord of the seventh day, because that will be His one thousand year reign on the earth.
In his extensive letter, Barnabas wrote, "And elsewhere he saith; If thy children shall keep my sabbaths, then will I put my mercy upon them. And even in the beginning of the creation he makes mention of the sabbath. And God made in six days the works of his hands; and he finished them on the seventh day, and he rested the seventh day, and sanctified it. Consider, my children, what that signifies, he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this; that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. For with him one day is a thousand years; and himself testifieth, saying, "Behold this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished (15:2-5).
As described in the text from Exodus 19, we are coming to the time when the Lord is going to again descend on His mountain, His government (the rock that became a mountain). This is going to begin with "a very loud trumpet sound." It will cause all who are in His camp to tremble. We need to be shaken with the understanding of the awesome God we serve. If we are shaken with that understanding, we will receive and build our lives on the kingdom which cannot be shaken.
The Lord is then going to descend upon His mountain with fire, and all of His messengers will be flames of fire. This fire is coming to consume the "wood, hay and stubble," (I Corinthians 3:12) and purify "the gold, silver and precious stones." What is our life presently composed of? It is time to wake up and examine ourselves so that we are ready for the times for which we were born.