TRIBES: The Real Emerging Church

 

There has been a lot of attention given lately to a phenomenon which calls itself “the emergent church”.  While I agree that there is a stirring of God’s Spirit that is resulting in the emergence for this time of an expression of “church” which will be radically different from anything that has come before, I am anxious to see HIS vision is.  Simply revamping the same old same old in new and ”culturally relevant” or “seeker sensitive” formats is not going to get it done.  Nor is toning down truth in order to make it more palatable for the masses.  This is not the harvest God desires.  

I have been praying through a very strong and growing disquiet in my spirit over the past days.  In praying and searching and listening, I’ve been drawn back to a series of visions I saw during retreat over the Days of Awe almost five years ago.  They speak to the two seemingly conflicting things that the Lord is doing in the last days, the harvest and the judgment.  What I post here tonight is a portion of that series, which occurred September 13, 2002.  I released the entire series shortly after that, but am sensing that there is a “now” word here as well.  Read and discern.

Love and Let the Wind Blow,

Firedancer

Vision:    

I saw fires burning in various places, serving as gathering centers.  They were at the center of circles of people drawn together for worship and listening to the Lord.  I knew in my spirit that these were “council fires”,  and that they were sovereignly ordained, strategically located  portals…places where the fire of the manifest presence of God is kept burning 24/7 and those who will can enter in and be drawn up into the council chambers of the Lord. 

I knew as I saw this, and sensed these things, that a further result of this intimacy with the Lord will be broader release of the prophetic, and of hearing prayer.  There have been many “words” released in the past months regarding the dawn of a “season of suddenlies”.   The Lord promises in Amos, though, that He will do nothing of major proportions without first revealing it to His servants the prophets.  More and more saints will begin to experience revelatory manifestations during prayer.  They will be drawn up into deeper places of intimacy and hearing with the Lord.  Like the “comings and goings”  to and from the council chambers of God in Zechariah 3. I remember an earlier dream in which I was given a cup with stars on a deep blue background.  The Lord spoke to me in that, regarding the release of heavenly authority and angelic ministry, and I heard the voice of a prophet speaking in the dream, saying “You will come to be so at home in the heavenlies, it will be as though you have your own coffee cup.”  I mention this here because I believe this same thing is being released to the broader body in this season.  These sorts of experiences are forerunners of the broader move of God for this time.  The prophets’ experience becomes the prophecy for the body at large.

Word:     “Bring the elements, and bring real wine.  Don’t be afraid of the strong drink of My Presence.  Do not be afraid of the intoxicating effects of My cleansing blood stream.”  

The sharing of the bread and the wine in communion will take on increasingly deep and powerful significance in the days to come.  We will find in it power to heal, and to forgive, and to deliver.  To bring down walls and to bind up the broken hearted.  But we must not be afraid of the power of this Presence.  We must not try to substitute something watered down for the reality He intends.  (And of course, in the actual elements, make a place for those who cannot take wine.  Be wise.)  And when you gather, don’t substitute something contrived or controllable for the intoxicating  reality of God’s Presence.

Vision:     I saw a hand on an old ornate doorknob.  The floor below was rich hardwood, covered with red carpet.  The door led into a library.  Walls filled floor to ceiling with books.  Tables and overstuffed chairs.  A warm, rich, welcoming place.  Then I was given a key with a heart on the head.  And as I looked through the books, each one began with the bible, and then opened up real scenes.  Each, when opened, became a gateway to actual occurrences unfolding, past, present, or future. 

These are rich scenes of welcome.  Attention to detail, down to hardwood floors, and overstuffed chairs, and ornate antique doorknobs.  The way into this place of being at home with full rich revelation is not a new way, but old and well cared for.  The very path is the blood.  A thick welcoming carpet.  And the heart key is not a key to the door, but to the Father’s heart.  This vision is about revelation and rhema.  Revelation of Himself is God’s heart.  He wants to make himself intimately know to us.  And while we look for new “words” or “fresh revelation”, we must be aware that each new book…each new chapter…begins with the full revelation of scripture.  Every rhema “now-word” is really but an unfolding in this present birthing/kairos time of the heart intent of God from before creation.  The blossoming of the seed of the word of God.  The coming to fruit in the fullness of time.  Thus, the scenes unfolding in or through the books are not stories, but real scenes, or occurrences.  They are not even prophecies in the usual understanding of the idea, but rather future history being released…the will and heart of God being activated in time’s fullness.

Vision:     I saw gatherings of believers, going house to house, sharing as need arose, naturally and without apparent “organization”.  The sense was much more one of deep friendship and family, and openness to whatever the Spirit was doing.  A flow.  And the “word” I received explaining this was “TRIBES”. 

This was not the first time I had heard something from the Lord along the line of “TRIBES”.  I sense that the face and feel of doing church in this emerging season will be of a character much more like “tribe” than like organization.  The church has for too long pursued models or paradigms which mimic the organizational theories current in the world around it.  Club.  Social Agency.  Business.  School.  The vision of the Lord Jesus is, however, something entirely other.  “Upon this rock I will build MY ‘ecclesia’, or called out congregation/people (as in the “congregation of Israel”)…”  The Lord’s vision, is that of extended family, or tribe.  This season will see an emergence of new revelation and understanding regarding the implications of our being joined in BLOOD COVENANT to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  Further, the will be a deeper revelation of the two branches of the Tribe of Judah, and a release of those two branches, the Fullness of the Gentiles and Messianic Faith released in Israel.  Even now, the emergence of the movement for the Restoration of the Tabernacle of David, and epicenters of manifestation of the abiding Presence of God  are demonstrating spiritual authenticity and reality of that Presence which will trigger a deep rumbling of holy jealousy in remnant Israel. 

[Next there came a word which I am including here, although it seemed out of context in the general flow of things at the time.  The word was this.  “Saddam is not insane.  Treat him carefully.  There is much you do not understand.”  At the time, I took this as a serious warning against arrogant or prideful posturing, or attacking the Iraqi regime without due caution and careful preparation.  Many prophets were in agreement at the time that the time was not right for war.  Preparatory groundwork needed to be laid by intercession as well as military intelligence.  As late as March 3, 2003,  there was a clear sense yet the it was not time for the U.S. and Britain to go to war, but rather it was time for the church to go to war.  And a strong intercessory burden continues regarding the opening of the region to the gospel.  Iraq has until now been one of the middle eastern countries open to the existence of Christianity, and the fall of the Iraqi regime affords an opportunity for the Church to grow on a massive scale there.  However, the instability in the region also affords a new opportunity for an Islamic Fundamentalist takeover.  For these reasons, I believe the Lord’s counsel at the time was that we must be careful not to attempt the removal of Saddam prematurely.  It will probably be a long time before we can see with any historical clarity results of the hand of God moving in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s  regime.   

I received a dream on September 10 of 2001 in which a “Macedonian call” was being extended by a man (or angel) in middle eastern dress.  In my spirit, at the time, I sensed Iraq and Afghanistan.  In the time since, we as a nation have now been engaged in military action against to depose the governments of both nations.  This is a season for the church to be sending in apostolic workers to answer the Macedonian call from these nations and the other Islamic republics which will soon open up. 

I also have a strong sense that these wars are bringing about very important strategic realignments among nations and people groups worldwide.  Realignments of deep prophetic significance.  Global power blocks are shifting rapidly.  America’s global destiny will be defined in the coming season not so by her ability to wage war on terrorism, but rather by her resolve to remain a friend of Israel.

I continue to be burdened that we as prophetic intercessors must continue to stand against any spirit of national pride.  In fact, the revival and outpouring of God’s Spirit for the great harvest will only come in concert with a sweeping wave of humility.  We in this nation can choose to bend the knee and humble ourselves in repentance before God, or we can continue in pride and be humbled. Either way, humbling will take place. There are great lessons to be learned from the coming of revival to Argentina.

Finally, we as the church must take great care regarding identifying ourselves too closely with the desires, actions, and global agenda of our nation, no matter how apparently noble.  There is a clear destiny for the church in this season as prophetic presence and minister to the nations, and as sanctuary for those being gathered in by the harvest.  We must not allow that role and destiny to be compromised.]

Vision:    I saw houses.  Small fellowships.  Tribes.  These were clearly safe places.  This is the release of the new church in America.  Sanctuary.  City of Refuge.  Able to be invisible if necessary.  I sensed as I watched, “Pray that the government does not turn on Israel.  And that it does not turn on the church.  Especially the church that speaks prophetically against war that is contrary to god’s heart.  Pray and call the church back to discernment.  Call her back from blind patriotism.  Release the butterflies of the earlier vision.  The manifest sons. Those addicted to the Presence.  And to being sanctuary.”

This vision, in retrospect, flows in line with the earlier word immediately preceding it.  There is danger, with the strategic realignments currently taking place, of America being pressured into turning on Israel as part of a wrong-headed region-wide peace-package for the middle east.  And there is a very real possibility of the government turning on the church if the church presses clear opposition to such action, especially if such action is somehow seen as being an important tactical and/or diplomatic component of the global war on terror.  In such a scenario, it is entirely conceivable that the church could come to be seen as an opponent to world peace and the anti-terror agenda.

             Again, the Spirit emphasizes the distinct role and destiny of the people of God as a community offering and being sanctuary.  “Manifest sons”…those being released into ministry with a “ such a time as this” character about them and their actions.  Living and moving constantly in the Presence of God.  Living lives characterized by new vision.  New identity.

Word:     At the very time I was hearing and seeing these things, the Spirit spoke to me,

“This is as season for release of a new vision of Jesus.  The Jesus of REVELATION.”

This new community, this sanctuary, with its destiny as prophetic presence and center for the manifestation and  habitation of the Presence of God, and the release of radical discipleship and radical disciples, rooted in fresh revelation from the heart of the Father and growing from and into ever newer levels of personal and corporate purity and intimacy…this radical hungry for God warrior community will be driven by and drawn to a new vision of the Lord Jesus…the same vision that caused the apostle John to fall down as a dead man.  The vision of the Lord as Captain of the Hosts…as the returning warrior King manifest in Glory.  No longer the carpenter of Nazareth, but now the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  Tribes.

random signposts

“Things are more like they are now than they ever have  been before”–Dwight Eisenhower

“On my planet, we laugh once in awhile”–a button given to me by my daughter

“Love Wins”–bumper sticker on a local Heating Company service van

“Visualize Whirled Peas”–bumper sticker on what was left of a once proud Volkswagen Golf

“If it cries, pick it up”–from the Journals of Lazarus Long

“Lonely by day, empty and cold.  Only to say, ‘Lo and Behold.’  Deep in the night, down in my dreams, glorious sight this soul has seen.  There’s a well on the hill.  You just can’t kill for Jesus.  There’s a well on the hill.  Let it be!  Don’t you build no heathen temple where the Lord has done laid His Hand now.  There’s a well on the hill.  Let it be!…Everyone’s talkin’ bout the Gospel story.  Some shall sink and some shall rise.  Everyone’s talkin’ ’bout the ‘Train to Glory.’  It’s a long long time until it gets here…”–James Taylor

“No government on earth can make men who have realized freedom in their hearts salute against their will.”–Gandhi

“In nothing is the power of the dark lord more clearly seen than in the enmity that still divides those who stand against him.”  Haldir to Legolas in Lorien…J.R.R. Tolkein