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I'm very careful about prophecy these days. The world is littered with people claiming to have words from God yet only ministering out of their flesh.

Not all of them are "wolves in sheep's clothing"--some are just well-intentioned people who truly believe what they have to say. But in many ways, it's just like in the days of Ezekiel and Jeremiah:

Ezekiel 13:2-3—Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: 'Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! (NIV)

Jeremiah 14:14—Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. (NIV)

There are those in the Church who prophecy in the name of Jesus despite the fact that they have seen nothing. They speak out of their own imaginations—delusions of their own minds.

I have watched Loren Sandford over the past decade and have seen consistently that he is not one of these confused "prophets." Rather, I have consistently seen him speak words that both resonate in my own spirit and actually come to pass. He warned about the current economic "roller coaster" and even assured people that Y2K would be a non-event.

This doesn't mean I've thrown discernment out the window. I test every "prophetic word" I hear according to Scripture and the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14:29—Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. (NIV)

1 John 4:1—Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (NIV)

The things that Loren Sandford shares in the above video ring true in my personal spirit. See if they do for you as well. Additionally, I do not see anything that contradicts Scripture.

What follows is my analysis of each point from the video:

A Massive Re-Deployment of the Sheep

This portion was largely based on observation. First, he says that there are places where you can go to experience God in ways that He doesn't seem to be moving in elsewhere.

We have a tendency to argue back that "God can meet me anywhere He wants—I don't have to go somewhere to experience Him!" That statement is entirely true—but what if the place He wants you to experience Him is somewhere else? Then what?

Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. What would have happened if some of them ran off to another city? I don't believe those who left would have received the Spirit for three reasons: (1) they would have been in disobedience to Jesus, (2) they would not have been in unity with what God was doing in the Church, and (3) they would not have been in the right place at the right time for what God wanted to do.

Can God meet you anywhere? Of course He can. So seek Him where you are. But this does not change the fact that He seems to be more active in some regions than others. It's simple observation.

It's okay to admit that we don't have everything God has to offer in our own backyard; although, it would be unbiblical to think that it could never happen there. Just because God is stirring in one region doesn't mean He won't expand that region or spring up somewhere else. What matters is that each of us meet the three requirements I just listed: (1) remain in obedience to Jesus, (2) remain in unity with the Church, and (3) seek the Holy Spirit so that you can be in the right place at the right time for what God wants to do.

Loren's second observation is that all the blockbuster movies these days have a spiritual component, which implies that people are hungry for spiritual experience. This is also true. In my experience, I find it easier and easier to share the truth of Jesus with people because it seems as though fewer people are atheists and more people are searching for something real.

Then comes the actual prophecy: that because of this spiritual hunger (which is resident also in the Church), many will begin flocking to the places where a real experience of God is taking place.

When I was helping to plant a church in a small rural community several years ago, we saw many salvations, healings, and miracles. Our church was home to drug addicts, drunkards, drop-outs, and burn-outs. It wasn't long before some folks began coming to our church from other churches simply because they weren't seeing God move in the same way anywhere else. Both Christians and the lost came because they were hungry for spirituality.

There is, therefore, no doubt in my mind that the hungrier people get for supernatural reality, the more imperative it will be that our churches offer a true experience with God. And the more churches that offer real encounters with Him, the more other churches will begin to take notice and realize their own need for His presence.

As I have said, I believe persecution is one day coming to America. I have a feeling that this "movement of the sheep" toward real supernatural experience will be a necessary component to helping the Church withstand that persecution when it comes. Those who do not know God with certainty will have a hard time standing up under the attack. Take a look at the underground house-churches of China, and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

A Generation of Leadership being Trained in the Wilderness

Loren said, "The national/world-face of Christian leadership is in process of shifting, and that shift is going to accelerate." His point was that there is a generation of new leaders who have been hidden while the Lord trains them through trials and suffering. God is refining their character and making them more Christ-like.

He then mentions how God has been "breaking the ambition from them--breaking the need for recognition—bringing them to a place where they don't need to control anyone, they don't need to be seen, they don't need to stand on anybody's stage. They are therefore safe to minister the power and the love of God without abusing the sheep."

I'll be honest with you—this prophecy gripped me. I believe it's already happening. I don't want to promote myself as one of those "leaders," but I do know that any voice I have in the Church is because God has made it possible—and only after a time of purging. Any future leader in the church will have to go through a similar process—and probably deeper. The "Wilderness Experience" is a necessary component for solid leadership.

You can learn more about "The Wilderness Experience" in the interview I conducted with Loren Sandford on the Podcast page.

The Debate is Over

Even though so many of us long for a nationwide, culture-sweeping revival in America, Loren does not feel this will happen. I have to agree. As Loren pointed out, our nation has not only abandoned God but even made laws about it.

In history, large-scale revivals took place in America a few times, but we forget that we had an underlying foundation of cultural agreement on rules of morality. Today, however, there is no agreement. Everyone has their own morality. People don't understand the word "repentance" because they don't have a common ground of morality from which to form a conclusion about right and wrong.

However, this does not mean that God has stopped moving in our nation. There will continue to be salvations, healings, deliverances, miracles, and the like. The key is that we—the Church—make such encounters possible with our attitudes and actions. Lives will be transformed by the love and power of God, but only as we allow God to move as He chooses (rather than standing in His way).

This doesn't mean that we'll be without order or without structure, but it does mean that we will not idolize our "structure" over God's structure or our "order" over God's order. In the church I helped plant years ago, one of the things I regularly said was that our schedule is not the structure—rather, it is the scaffolding within which God builds the structure. Rather than Jesus being the "honored guest" at our meetings, He should be the Host!

Selfless Intimacy with God

Loren finishes this video clip with a call to conformity with the character of Jesus. We need it in our churches. We need it in our leadership. We need it in our own personal lives. It's not about healing, miracles, signs, prosperity, or anything else like that. What we need more than anything is to be like Jesus.

I believe this final statement is the most important piece of everything he shared in this video. Unless we are like Jesus in character, word, and deed, we will not be able to offer anything else we've talked about. Unless the church is like Jesus, there will be no "Lighthouse Churches" where God's presence can be encountered in powerful ways. Unless we are serious about being purged of our sinful natures and being made more like Christ, there will be no new generation of leadership to emerge.

If there's nothing else you got out of this message, get this: allow the Holy Spirit to make you more like Jesus. Only God knows where you or I fit into the grand scheme of His Church—but we can know for certain that we will not fit at all unless we embrace Christ and submit to His Lordship.

God bless,
--Art--

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