A NOW WORD--GOD WANTS TO RELEASE DUNAMIS POWER FOR MIRACLES, SIGNS, AND WONDERS
by Todd Bentley
Two thousand years ago at God's set time, the fire and wind of God touched down in our world, right on the heads of about 120 believers--believers just like you and me. While they were gathered together with one heart, waiting upon the Lord Jesus after His death and resurrection, God decided it was the right moment to flip them all upside down and then stand them up again with a whole new DNA. They were never the same again!
Are you longing to experience a "happening" like that--an event that could potentially "rip you out" to rock the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Are you getting prepared in your heart for something like that?
I'm asking that question because I have a "now" prophetic word, a "now" promise from God to share with you. I call it the "Upper Room challenge" because it's actually in the context of the Upper Room where you'll be empowered by the fire and the wind of God to leap from your everyday-life into the harvest fields.
A GREATER DIMENSION OF GOD'S SPIRIT IS COMING!
We're living in revolutionary days!! The church is going to go out with a greater bang than it came in with! I believe what happened in the age of the New Testament--New Testament power, the birthing of the New Testament church, and the early church--is only the beginning. The glory of the latter house is going to be greater than the former. Just look at what the prophet Haggai said to Zerubbabel, the overseer of the temple building project:
"'I will fill this temple with glory,' says the LORD of hosts. 'The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the LORD of hosts. 'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,' says the LORD of hosts." (Haggai 2:7-9).
What's more, I believe that God isn't going to come back until certain things happen in the church (all over the world). Before He comes again, He's going to release what we see in the beginning of the book of Acts. It's going to look the same as it did in the New Testament church! And, it's going to be the "restoration of all things" spoken of in Acts 3.
Heaven is going to retain and receive Jesus until the time of the restoration of all things (Acts 3:19-21). Which is what we read about from the beginning to the end of the Bible--the promise of the glory of God and the power of God. It means the level of the glory that Moses walked in, the power that Elijah walked in, the level and the power that the disciples walked in, in the New Testament (while Jesus is being retained)--Heaven isn't going to release the coming of Jesus until the restoration of all (those) things. The promise and the anointing are going to come back again. All things are going to be restored!
The Bible says that we have a better covenant and a better promise than the saints of old. We therefore need to at least walk in what they walked in before us! (Hebrews 8:6). But we still don't see that level of glory--the cloud by day and the pillar by night, and the Red Sea being dividing (Exodus 13:21; 14:21, 22). We're not yet walking in the streets and the market places in New Testament power with miracles, signs, and wonders. We're not living like they did in the Book of Acts yet. However, God wants us to live like they did, to the point that the glory of the latter house is greater than the former. That's how the church will go out with a bigger bang than it came in with!
GOD'S PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND POWER
Yes, we have some exciting days to look forward to! I believe that God is restoring, and that He wants to open up the anointing that we're hungry for. He'll give us the same anointing that the apostles walked in, in the book of Acts. In step with this, God wants us to realize that we'll be thrust forward or propelled into these momentous days by receiving and believing those same promises that He gave to the New Testament church.
I say all this with even more assurance, now, because of a prophetic experience I had when the Lord spoke into my heart. He told me that we, as a church, are positioned at the point of Acts 1:5: "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
What a promise from God! You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit! Right now, the Lord is offering a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit! Listen. I know some of you have already been baptized in the Holy Ghost, you are speaking in tongues, you've lived Pentecost. Maybe you've been in a Pentecostal Church for the last ten years. But I have a word that I want to declare to you today, that not many days from now, you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost!
I believe we, the church in North America, have an opportunity to actually operate in the word of the Lord called "dunamis." Dunamis (Greek) means dynamic, great power, strength, force, capability; raw power to accomplish something--"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). God wants to release dunamis power for miracles, signs, and wonders--resurrection power, raising the dead power--to be witnesses. That's the word of the Lord.
We're actually in a time when God wants to release a healing anointing, and miracles, signs, and wonders that will bring us to the harvest and to revival. Jesus healed great multitudes and when they came to Him to hear the word and get healed, many became believers. Today, God wants people to receive healing and then great multitudes will come and hear the word. That's where I believe we are prophetically. God's heart is for the lost!
The Lord is saying for those of you that are hungry, not many days from now, you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. When the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you're going to receive power to be God's witness in "Judea, Samaria, and the outermost parts of the earth." You're going to receive dunamis power. But let's pause for a moment. How did the disciples receive this empowerment? What did they do? They waited in the Upper Room!
WHAT IT TAKES TO RECEIVE THE PROMISE
Jesus told His eleven disciples and those who were with them (after His resurrection), "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). Friends, let that soak into your mind and heart while I ask two questions. Firstly, what is the Promise? The answer is the Holy Spirit. Secondly, what exists in the Holy Spirit and is inseparable from Him (intrinsic and inherent)? Answer--God's power.
I believe that God is offering that experience right now because the Lord said to me, "Todd, this is a 'now' word. For those that will wait and tarry the way that the disciples waited and tarried in Jerusalem, I will give this prophetic promise of the endowment of My power. Even today, (in our days), I will give another Pentecost not many days from now" (See Acts 2:1-4).
Look. If you can do what the disciples did, you will receive what they received! They waited upon the Lord, expecting the Promise to come upon them. They tarried (in Jerusalem). The Bible says there were about 120 who gathered together in the Upper Room (Acts 1:13-15). They were all in one accord and they continued fervently in prayer and supplication (verse 14).
Now, when the day of Pentecost had fully come (and they were all in one accord and one place), suddenly the visitation of the Promise, the Holy Ghost, came upon them. And they weren't just filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. They were filled with the Holy Ghost, drunk in the Holy Ghost, in the fire of the Holy Ghost, in the power of the Holy Ghost, and 3,000 got saved! Immediately the disciples were released into miracles, signs, and wonders! They received miracle-working dunamis power. Boldly they carried a demonstration of the power of God into their region and then to the uttermost parts of the earth.
How many of you would like to be serving God like that? If so, then it's the Upper Room challenge for you! Look. The Upper Room was a real place, and they were in that place at a certain time. It was where they purposed in their heart that they were going to get the promise--the Promise of the Father (Luke 24:49). They said in their hearts that however long it takes they were going to be there, and they set a place, and they set a time, because they were so hungry. And get this! They were in one accord for ten days in that Upper Room. Ten days!
In fact, "ten days" in that Upper Room really hit me. Our normal prayer life (a little prayer here and there) will not sustain us to be the history makers that God wants us to be. I felt the Spirit of the Lord say, "Todd, I want you to call people into a ten day fast. I want to release what I released in Acts" (See Acts 2:1-4). I felt the Lord speak prophetically to call those of you who are ready to participate in a ten-day fast, and to prepare a place and set a time to go and meet with God. Now, I'm not talking about your everyday kind of prayer. It's prayer and fasting.
FAST FOR YOUR UPPER ROOM EXPERIENCE
God is offering an Acts 1:8 experience--a Pentecostal experience, a baptism of the Holy Ghost experience no matter how baptized in the Holy Ghost you are right now! There is a blessing waiting for you, but you need to seek God's face. You might have to wrestle with God like Jacob did (Genesis 32:24-30). He would not let God go until He blessed him. That's big, and the results were huge too, because when God did bless Jacob, He gave him a new name, Israel, and a new identity (verse 28). Then, in that place of victory, Jacob memorialized this encounter by naming that particular place, "Peniel," which means "the face of God."
At Peniel, Jacob's whole life changed because in that place, God decided to give him a brand new DNA, and he was never the same again! Still, I believe that one big key to Jacob's total transformation, is that he did his part by deciding to purpose in his heart to be alone to meet with God, and he wasn't going to let God go until He blessed him (verses 22-26). Until something happened! Friends, God wants you to take action and to get a "Peniel," your own place to seek Him--your own Upper Room--and wait until something happens.
Ultimately, I believe that the word of the Lord for the North American church right now is Acts 1-2. Therefore, we need to take time to tarry with the Lord. I know prophetically that there's going to be a time where we're going to be living in that place described in Acts 1-2. In fact, I believe we're in that place now! The glory of the latter house is greater than the former! God wants to release that again, and I believe the Lord is offering it to those hungry ones like you, who are reading this today, if you can take up this challenge.
So, I want to strongly encourage you to fast for ten days. Determine before the Lord what kind of fast (i.e. partial, water and juices, or a Daniel fast, etc). And I am going to ask you to prepare a place, your Upper Room, and remain focused and press in. For instance, if you pray an hour a day every day right now, why not take the ten days to pray three hours a day? (Some of you will even take time off of work or take your vacation so that you can answer this Upper Room challenge. For others, it will be an extended season in the Upper Room.)
SCRIPTURE STUDY
I want to recommend for study (and preparing your heart), five portions of Scripture (below) about several great saints of old, and Jesus Himself. See how they drew aside into a place of solitude and quiet, so that God could advance His Kingdom through their lives. Their "Upper Rooms" were found in unique places--on a mountain top, the doorway of the tent of meeting, and in the wilderness. Where's your Upper Room going to be?
Exodus 34:2, 28, "So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments." (Moses met God on Mount Sinai for a history making meeting and was entrusted with the Ten Commandments; those righteous commandments that still influence mankind to this day.)
Leviticus 8:33, "And you shall not go outside the door of the tabernacle of meeting for seven days, until the days of your consecration are ended. For seven days he shall consecrate you." (Aaron and his sons were commanded to take seven intense days before the Lord to prepare them for the priesthood.)
Matthew 3:1-3, "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, 'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!' For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.'" (John the Baptist spent many hours of solitude before the Lord in the wilderness.)
Galatians 1:15-17, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus." (Paul spent much time with the Lord alone. After three years, he left Arabia for Jerusalem and other places.)
Luke 5:16, "So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed." (Jesus would seek the face of His Father in the wilderness and He would go to a solitary place to pray, Mark 1:35).
Now, I want to note with you that the 120 believers (on the day of Pentecost) could have waited 20 days, or 30 days, or they could have waited 60 days. In the end, it was ten days. However, they never knew in the beginning how long it was going to be before the Promise would come. But they purposed in their hearts that they were going to wait there until they received that Promise.
Listen! Be like those believers. Press in for your breakthrough. God wants to pour His Spirit out on you. It's unto His glory for His purposes--but you, yes you, get to be in the middle of it all!
Todd Bentley
Fresh Fire Ministries
www.freshfire.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Todd Bentley's Upcoming Itinerary:
October 1-4, 2006
Evangel World Prayer Center
Louisville, KY
Contact: 502-231-9100 or info@freshfire.ca or www.worldprayercenter.org
October 18-21, 2006
Prophetic Seers Conference
The Apostolic Resource Centre
Dudley, England
Contact: info@revivalfires.org.uk or www.revivalfires.org.uk/conf/index.html
October 22-25, 2006
Kent Revival Meetings
The River Centre
Tonbridge, Kent, Great Britain
Contact: sophie.foxwell@therivercentre.org
Visitor Comments (0)
