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Event:17th April 2023
Nick and I had not seen each other for ages. Ministry work, life in general for both of us and a new ministry position for Nick had meant that he had become busier than ever. A couple of bouts of the cold for him had also delayed our meeting up.
I love how the Lord reigns in our busyness for an appointed time.
The day we met was to be a significant one indeed.
First, let us open this message with a couple of other messages from scripture:
Matt 24:10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Matt 15:8 These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.
March 2008 saw my first trip to Israel. I did not seek it or plan it but believed that the Lord would have me visit and it would be for a purpose. I went as part of a ministry team and during a very special gathering in the garden of Gethsemane, which had been closed off for a short while, especially for the use of our group, I found myself, after the meeting, sitting on a rock, contemplating the moment, when a small tortoise sped along a path just in front of my feet. It was a most unexpected sight. I knew I had to ask the Lord about it, and this is what He said:
‘When the conditions are right, the Jews will begin to return to the land. Those that I am bringing into the Kingdom now will be accelerated and overtake those who have been it the Kingdom for many years.'
Though the following passage of scripture did not present itself to me at the time, it speaks to me now. It concerns the hired labourers who help to bring in the vineyard owner’s harvest.
Matt 20: 16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Imagine a runner who is last off the blocks winning the race.
As the Lord revealed this message on that trip, He began to speak about the feast of Tabernacles and that I must return home and prepare for a gathering at that time of the same year.
This message is about being prepared for what is to come upon the world and more so upon the body of Messiah. The Lord spoke about how the times and seasons were a biblical timeline and that events occur when conditions are right. It’s like seeing a road sign that indicates your next turn-off is 15 miles down the road. A lot can happen in that distance.
Times and seasons are based upon a lineal cosmic clock, but God will control the conditions.
Have you ever seen the early spring flowers blossom in the latter part of the winter season?
Their blooming has nothing to do with the season; it has to do with the prevailing conditions.
We also must take into consideration the amount of time the flower has spent as a seed, growing in the depth of the earth.
Back to my time with Nick — Nick is a private pilot. We had spoken about taking a flight together at our next meeting. To bring a little history, Nick had previously survived, literally unscathed, a bad landing in his last plane due to an anomalous cross wind which was believed to have been caused by turbulence from nearby wind turbines.
The aircraft was badly damaged and was replaced by a classic Piper Pacer PA 20. The weather had been poor in the past weeks, so this was an opportunity to take to the skies, catching up on his flying hours and spending time in fellowship together.
As a pilot, Nick has to be meticulous and systematic in doing the all-important pre-flight checks; and as part of ‘threat, error management’ considers his own physical and mental fitness to fly,
The morning was spent rolling the plane out of the hanger, giving it a clean and performing the required checks.
We checked the weather conditions and decided that a wait would be wise because of the mist and low clouds. It was anticipated that conditions would improve within the hour. We watched the weather radar intermittently. This gave us time for a coffee and catch up on what had been happening over the last few months.
Finally, the weather lifted, and we proceeded to do the final checks before take-off.
Nick had arrived late, due to holdups on the road and it was obvious that as the day went on, the events that were about to occur were all linked. Scripture shows us that the prophets were often called to live out the word, or the message to the people. They were to be living signs. We are also shown that Israel would reflect the experiences of the patriarchs. These signs would be harbingers of things to come. They would not be personal, but signs to the wider community.
During a time of prayer this last month, the Lord gave me two words: “circumstances and situations”. He has also impressed upon me the books of Habakkuk and Haggai.
Habakkuk prophesied in the early 600s BC, about the invasion of the Babylonians. The Lord would use this nation to bring judgement upon Judah.
He was a deeply spiritual man who loved the Lord. He was considered to be a Levite and a musician. He was also a watchman who saw the sinfulness of the people and wondered why God allowed sin. Habakkuk would prophesy the judgement of God upon the people but also asked that God temper His judgement with mercy. In his writing we read about the vision that would be written on tablets, how the earth would be filled with the knowledge of God, the futility of worshipping idols, and the exaltation of God’s works of creation. Who can compare with the Lord and what He has done? Though the judgement of the Lord would be calamitous, Habakkuk’s faith was unshaken. He rejoiced in the Lord, the God of His salvation.
Haggai, was a post-exilic prophet. He brought the word of the Lord concerning the delay in building the House of YHVH. God raises a charge against the people, saying how they had wasted time, concentrated on building their own houses and neglected the building of a House for the Lord. Because they had neglected to do this, their situation had become unprofitable. Their economic circumstances had become dire. We are told that it was God who brought this about and furthermore, these circumstances would continue until they had built the House of the Lord. In response, the remnant who had returned to Jerusalem obeyed the voice of the Lord brought by Haggai and began to rebuild. The Lord encourages the people to work, telling them that He is with them. He reminds them of the covenant He had made with them when they left Egypt.
What the prophecy tells is the glory of a future temple, but what it also says is how the temple must be kept clean. God reminds the people of their profanity, showing what is clean and what is unclean. He tells them to consider their ways and to let them know that blessings are on the way.
Haggai 2:11 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: Ask the priests what the law says: 12 If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated?”
The priests answered, “No.”
13 Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?”
“Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”
14 Then Haggai said, “So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,” declares the Lord. “Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.”
15 “Now give careful thought to this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. 16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares the Lord. 18 ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
“From this day on I will bless you.”
This prophecy will lead to the overthrow of the gentile nations.
Haggai shows us that not all our worship is acceptable to God. We must understand what is profane and what is holy. Sadly, today, the lines have become blurred and an abomination has entered the church, all but cementing itself to the altar.
As a result, we will find, just as the people of Haggai’s time did, their seasons would produce a lack. God will change the condition, and the circumstances and situations of the people will also change.
Prophecy is given so that we can respond. It is given because the conditions are drawing near for an appointed time. Circumstances and situations are what we find ourselves in and are generally symptomatic of our interplay and design. When God asks us to do something, we use these as excuses, just as those who gave their own excuses not to attend in the parable of the wedding feast. Matt 22:1-14
After coffee, we rolled the aeroplane onto the grass apron next to the taxiway. Nick climbed into the cockpit and inadvertently dropped the keys on the floor. Reaching down to pick them up, they were nowhere to be seen. He searched all around the floor and the seats, lifting up the carpet and checking in every nook and cranny.
We took turns to search, but the keys seemed to have disappeared completely. We stopped and prayed for the Father’s help. We did not doubt that He would help, because He has us on His mind, especially when we keep His appointed times — we have His favour.
Nick used the torch on my phone to look down below the flying controls. His thought was then to take the seats out completely, but this would have taken too long if we planned to fly that day. Then another thought occurred. It may have fallen past the seats into the underbody of the aircraft. Part of the fuselage that looked like a tray was visible, with a small panel underneath.
The panel had to be taken off, from under the aircraft. Even with this panel removed the keys could not be found. After praying, the thought came into Nick’s mind that he had a slim but powerful torch in the car which had a magnet in the base. Using this he was able to see the glinting edge of a key beneath the flaps lever. The torch was the perfect tool, just long and slim enough to retrieve the keys using the torch’s powerful magnet. After putting the panel back and completing the pre-takeoff checks, soon we were headed down the runway - up and away!
What had happened was for a purpose. It was a sign. We both knew this. That’s why we prayed. Whilst Nick went to get the torch the Lord reminded me of the two words: ‘circumstance and situation’. On the tail of the club aircraft next to ours were two letters of the callsign: CS.
Whilst Nick was putting back the plate and finalising checks the Lord began to reveal the meaning of the whole situation — how conditions, circumstances and situations are all linked.
Prophecy will reveal a forthcoming event and the prevailing conditions will bring it to fulfilment at the right time. Circumstances and situations are on our side. Because they are in our control they will either delay or speed up the event.
Nick, in addition to being a pilot, has also had training and experience as a motorboat skipper. Watching out for weather conditions is paramount whether venturing out in the sky or on the sea. Failing to plan and finding yourself in unsuitable conditions, is foolish and dangerous.
In our story, we find that the journey was planned but the right conditions had yet to arrive. What we had to do was prepare for the flight and wait it out.
We might well have taken to the air in conditions where visibility was limited, but that was prevented. Our circumstances had changed. Our situation was to fumble around for a while trying to find a lost pair of keys. We found them at the right time and by then the weather was almost perfect for the flight.
Our blessing in obeying the Lord, seeking Him for His purpose and waiting upon the right condition was to enjoy the flight and our time together.
The event was planned but the purpose of it all was this message.
We are told that we are called to be a chosen people, called by God’s name, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Ex 19:6, 1Peter 2:9.
We are also told of God’s impending judgement upon an unholy people and an unholy priesthood. We are shown how we have disregarded God’s word and ignored the voice of the prophets, and we are also aware of how we have failed to react against unrighteousness and profaneness in the House of the Lord.
What will bring the judgment more severely upon us is that we are supposed to obey the Holy Spirit and the Law of God.
The call for repentance demands this and it also demands a complete paradigm shift toward Holiness. The Lord is going to reveal Himself as He did to the Egyptians to show Himself as God of gods and to His people, reminding them to shift their own agendas and refocus on His Kingdom.
Prophets abound and so do prophecies. There’s always a willing ear or a holy huddle to hear one. But what is the response? People are dilly–dallying and there is no action because for most it is business as usual. There is no manifestation of repentance.
Many are bewildered at present, unsure as to how to respond, wondering if indeed the Lord is telling them to make a paradigm shift and wondering what should they do.
If we draw near to Him, we will see more unity in the body, it will move as one. The problem is, there are too many differing voices crying in the wilderness. There must be a resounding call, a synchronisation. This will bring unified action. But alas, we must remind ourselves that the pattern of response will only come from a remnant. That is what the Lord is doing, He’s calling out a priestly prophetic remnant who can breathe life into the dry bones.
If we can stand before the Most High with no selfish agenda or motive, then the circumstances and the situations will be removed. We will fall into the wave of the condition.
Unrighteousness in the church is being removed because just as Haggai prophesied, God will shake what needs to be shaken. His glory will fill the temple again. There is no changing this prophecy. Nothing is going to stand in His way.
The book of Samuel reminds us that God changed the High priest and a king. God also uses Kings for His purpose.
In our nation, we are living in a time of a new king. The new King will be crowned King Charles III. This protestant king will be the third Charles in the line of Roman kings. He is already being honoured by the Vatican and is a key player in unifying the religions of the nation. He is also known as the green king because of his alliances with the sustainable development goals, propagated by the UN and the WEF. He is in a unique situation, far different from that of our previous monarch. The dialogue between him and the Church of England is somewhat fractious. The reconciliation of his role as the head of the CoE and his mixed-up religious ideals puts him in breach fundamentally of the first commandment. Thus, if he does not repent, this will bring great judgement upon our nation, and that is what those who follow the only true King, Jesus Christ, must be prepared for. King Charles III is a neo-Constantine.
My feeling is that the Lord will use KCIII to bring about the plan of the Lord for our nation. He was born for this moment. We will have to watch how all of this unfolds.
Conditions will change overnight and true believers will find themselves under attack.
We have time as we find ourselves in this window of grace. But the window is closing. Friends, we must put aside the aspirations of leadership and ministry building. We have to respond to rebuild the Lord’s house as Haggai prophesied. If we don’t, then this is what the Lord says:
Haggai 1:7 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.
8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labour of your hands.”
This will be a time of economic failure, just as Jesus prophesied about the days of Lot in Luke 17.28 “ It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything”.
This is a word that not many who are given the privilege to stand behind a pulpit, preach upon. Friends, the time is coming when a priestly Maccabean clan will rise against the regime that pummels the people into an anti-christ worshipping system.
In the last days, the word says ..’But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people’. 2 Timothy 3:1-5
And that’s the people in the church. Have nothing to do with wickedness the scripture tells.
In the same way, as the Scottish covenanters of the 17th century rose to fight tyranny and the rule of the Roman church, there will be a declaration coming that ‘Jesus Christ is our only King’. I see such a move taking place.
Personal circumstances and situations must no longer be a get-out clause in responding to the prevailing conditions. Habakkuk was a man of deep faith and that is how we are meant to live. There has to be a move to deeper levels of prayer for faith to increase for this end-time revival to come. Furthermore, there has to be a return to the biblical pattern. Did not Jesus, remark that the old wine is the best?
A final word — friends we have the keys to propel the church upward; this is a prophecy for the last days for we will be called upward to be with the Lord.
We have been given the keys, but often a fumble here or a lack of focus there can cause us to mislay them.
Have you ever been running on autopilot? It’s a situation where you have done things so often, you don’t physically remember doing them. It’s like driving a car to a regular spot and finding out you don’t remember any detail of the journey, or putting the house alarm on and then suddenly asking yourself whether you had done so or not. Nick had gone through the process of cockpit checks so many times, but a slight lack of focus caused him to lose the keys. He hadn’t of course; the Lord had hidden them, only to remind him that Nick already had the tools to retrieve them.
That’s the message for us. We have to salvage the keys given to us to open the gates of heaven and to release the kingdom of God upon the earth. But we have to be prepared, just as the Lord says, to shake what needs to be shaken.
The conditions are right now, and many things are converging at this time. This means that the battle in the heavens is increasing at an incredible rate. We are seeing it work out on the earth and in the nation of Israel, which is a sign for us. What circumstance and situation is holding you back?
I sense that the Lord is saying,
‘Come and argue with Me,
Prove to me that you are right, and I will listen. Strengthen yourselves and hold the keys tightly. Put away unfaithfulness, distraction and excuses. Breathe in the spirit and encourage yourselves. Get everything in order and get ready to soar. Rise above circumstances and situations
‘Take control, my priestly army.
Rumours are a reality now.
The waiting is finished, the runway is clear.
Shout! Watchman, what do you see over here, or over there? Do not delay your responses,
You have been given enemy ground.’
Friends, we must realise this caveat; priestly service does not qualify us to stand in the holy place. Consecration and holiness are prerequisites, and the lack of them is what I feel the Lord is bringing to our remembrance. The time of the return of our Christ and His kingdom is near. We are living in a foreshadowing event. The rising of the light is making the shadow shorter and we must remain in it.
We must also remind ourselves that the hearing of prophecy brings responsibility upon the hearer. If we don’t want to respond to it then it is best we remove ourselves from the room.
Let us remain faithful, trusting in the Lord and remove all fear and doubt. The Lord has prepared a place for us under the shadow of His wings. I sense the next part of the journey will be above the clouds.
“You have control”.
Shalom.
Grant
You Have Control. Part 2
Event: 23rd April 2023
As I write this additional part to the message, I am reminded of a word brought to me many years ago. I had been leading worship for a visiting pastor. After the meeting, the Lord spoke to me about the table He sets before us. He said that many will look upon the feast laid upon it, and will grumble. They will not appreciate the offering and will complain over the least of things - from the table setting to the selection of food, or the way something has been made.
So, to this message — some people will eat a meal and consider only that it was a pleasant one. Others might, by showing their appreciation, genuinely want to know about how it was made and what were the flavours in it.
That’s just how, sometimes, prophecy is received. Some will listen to a spoken word and just accept it as a prophetic one, giving no relevance to its message. I would suggest that many look to personal prophecy and not to that which is important to the whole of the body. But others will meditate upon it and search out its deeper meaning, wanting to savour it.
As I began to unpack what the Lord had given me in my last message, ‘You are in control’, I could see that within its message lay an instruction for all who are in some form of ministry leadership.
The messages of Haggai and Habakkuk were directed at God’s people and especially to the priests. They were not directed at a heathen world.
I believe my last message was both an alarm call and an encouraging word to us — admonishing us to look at where we find ourselves in our walk with the Lord and how our closeness to Him is conditional — dependent on the level of our consecration. The message of the prophet must bring the warning of judgement and the hope of restoration.
The blood of Christ was shed for the remission of sin, showing us the forgiveness of God. Grace was offered so that we, having received forgiveness, can turn around again to Him, and walk in the fulness of all that He has for us. We are renewed and therefore can come back into the covenant blessings.
Our lives in service to God can often be one of business and busyness. Leading a ministry or pastoring a church can be all-consuming, but we also need to understand that there must always be a balance. God is a God of order, not chaos. Our days should not be chaotic. If they are then we have filled it with too much. We have to walk in order and in peace. However, that is not to say that God will not allow chaos when and if He chooses.
When things become overwhelming, we see that there is an issue in the balance. We have to look at what God wants us to focus on and not what we feel demands our attention.
The keys I spoke of in my last message show us that this is the authority that we hold in our hands. When God wants us to pay attention to Him, we may find that those keys may well be, for a moment, removed from our hold. However, one who is listening to the Lord will find that he will, through his own choice and obedience to the Lord, put them down voluntarily.
For a while, the office door needs to be closed. It’s not business as usual. God wants our time because He wants us to understand our conditions. This is what prophecy does. It warns us of a pending judgment because the conditions are right for it to be dispensed.
Through a set of conditions, a man may find himself in leadership. His circumstance may be the position he fills, but his situations are what he gets involved in every day. Business must be normal, not busy. Ultimately, we must choose wisely and discern those things which we must get involved in. We only know this by listening to the voice of the Lord as we spend time with Him.
These times must now increase. Entrance to the office must see the door locked behind us and our business must turn to spending time in counsel with the King.
Just because we have the keys to the office in our pocket, it does not mean that we have to go into the office at all. We also have to learn when to put the keys down and keep the office door closed.
Our workload is piled up by our own hands. Jesus said His burden is light, and that we will not be given more than we can bear.
As this intense period continues to build up, we must realise that the conditions are showing us that we are in a season where we have to take stock, lighten the load and allow the air stream to lift us. If you have an excuse that delays your response to the Lord, then you need to look at your circumstances and the situations you find yourself in. We have to be brave and let go of the things that are not demanding. We can't keep blaming the enemy of our souls for side-tracking us. We have to take personal responsibility too.
Let’s be encouraged and brave enough to let go of the keys, and see which doors the Lord will want us to open and not those we want to open for ourselves.
When we look at the service of the priests in the temple, we find that after their sacrificial duties of presenting the daily offerings, they had to clean and consecrate themselves to enter the holy place. Only the ritually clean could enter.
We have to do that too. Our lives in this world mean that it is only natural that we will somehow be in contact with the contaminants around us. It does not mean that we are sinful, only that we have touched the uncleanliness around us; we live in a wicked world, a secular and heathen culture.
Thus, our surroundings affect us — that’s why God is calling us out. If our excuse is that we are much too involved in the things of the world, then we need to put a stop to the needless involvements in our lives. We can be as busy as we want to be or we can be as busy as we should be. We can be focused on the detail and not see the greater picture.
The message remains, however — ‘The keys to are still in your hands and you are in control’. We just need to exercise wisdom and common sense.
Proverbs 2:6 All wisdom comes from the LORD,
and so do common sense and understanding.
Shalom