Expect the Unexpected

Expect the unexpected

Isaiah 43:19

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Making a way or highway in the dessert was something undreamed as well as rivers in the desert.

God is unpredictable

God very rarely repeats what He has done in the past; He is always doing new things.

This is true of every move of God; He continues to do new things. This is why we cannot predict what a new move of God will be like. If we have in our mind what new move of God should be like we will probably not accept it when it comes because it will be different from what we thought it should be like. The Pharisees in Jesus time missed the new move of God because they had false notions of what the coming messiah would be like and what He would do.

Luke 19:44

And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

It is so easy for us to be like the Pharisees because we all have different mindsets that govern how things should be. It is a fact of history that the old move of God fights and hinders the new move of God. Like the receding wave on a beach hinders the incoming new wave. Martin Luther the recognized founder of the reformation fought the next release of truth which the Anna Baptist brought, that of water baptism by full immersion, Luther went as far as to say that during these baptisms they should hold the candidate under the water and drown them. This process has been repeated generation after generation up to this present day. So why should we think that we are any different? That kind of pride will cause us to follow in the footsteps of history.

God is about to do a new thing

So what will it be like? There are elements that we can safely say will be present, for instance, I believe a new level of holiness we be evident along with many factors of past manifestations  of revivals such as healing, miracles and the reaping of the harvest, however these may not be manifest in the way we think they should be. There is no such thing as “the good old days” and returning to them, as good as they were they are gone and the best is ahead of us.

Prophetic manifestations

Every move of God is accompanied by prophetic manifestations which are signposts or pointers to how God sees the church. For instance in the outpouring of the Spirit that became came known as Toronto Blessing there were many manifestations that were little understood. One of these manifestations was the Joy of the Lord manifest as uncontrollable laughter along with many other similar manifestations.

Something happened on January 10, 1994, at a Vineyard Church near the Pearson International Airport in Toronto that was unique in the history of professing Christianity. While some point back to somewhat similar phenomena during the Welsh Revivals, Cane Ridge Revivals (1800-1801), Charles Finney (1800s), and even the Great Awakening (1734-47), all of these pale in comparison to the claims of the "Laughing Revival" that received its energy, if not origin, on that cold day in Canada.  

On this occasion the Holy Spirit was poured out on that small congregation, resulting in spontaneous, uncontrollable laughter. Thus began a "revival" that continues to this day and has impacted churches throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands of visitors, including thousands of pastors, have attended the services at the Toronto Airport Vineyard (now called the Airport Christian Fellowship) in hopes of catching and transporting the spirit of this revival. And it seems to work. Churches across the globe claimed similar experiences, which, in addition to "holy laughter," include shaking, making animal noises, swooning, and being stuck in "Holy Ghost glue." It has been reported by some that up to seven thousand churches in Great Britain alone have experienced something similar to the Holy Laughter Revival.

How did you react to this move of God? There were many prophetic implications in the manifestation of this outpouring of the Spirit. In one such meeting I witnessed a man on all fours crawling around the room barking like a dog! I said Lord what is this? The Lord replied Isaiah 56:10 ... 

Isaiah 56:10	His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11	Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

This manifestation was a prophetic indictment of a portion of the charismatic church and its ministers at that time. Many manifestation of being stuck to the floor with people unable to get up were reported; again these were prophetic manifestations speaking to the church. God was moving on but many were still stuck in their old wineskins. The great danger in a new move of God is to criticise that which we don’t understand.

There was a period in the church when God was lengthening legs. Why would God specifically move in this way? Many legs were lengthened some in very spectacular ways. However apart from the goodness of the Lord in doing this He was prophetically speaking to the church saying, the church was unbalanced. Up to that time the Pastor, Teacher and Evangelist were at the fore front, but God was saying to the church this is an imbalance the church needs prophets and from that time on the ministry of the prophet began to arise in the church. God speaks many times to the church in prophetic manifestations that need to be correctly discerned.

We will see many things we don’t understand in the coming move of God

We, particularly leaders will need great wisdom and discernment to be able to lead the coming revival without hindering it. We will need great wisdom to discern the prophetic manifestation that inevitably will be present in the next move of God. Let us not have preconceived ideas of what this next move of God will look like because God will do a New Thing.

Blessings
Neville Johnson June 23, 2009