Friday Fire Prophecies Summary (Mar 95 - Sep 95)
The following is a summary of some of the prophetic Words spoken at Friday Fire Meetings at St Mark's Northbridge between December 1994, and March 1995. As with all prophetic words, these must be weighed and tested with a spirit of humility and repentance. Where Bible passages are referred to, the interpretations given are not intended to be seen as the interpretation of the passage, but as God speaking to his people's current situation by giving an interpretation. Some of the following words have already seen a measure of fulfilment.
NB: If there is a question you have with a prophecy or prophetic messenger, you can only judge by fruit that is produced (Matt 7: 1, 16 ,20). Does it produce righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). It is imperative that you follow a strictly Biblical process of questioning, or you could come under judgment (eg. 2 Kings 1). Never dismiss prophetic words simply because they do not fit your understanding of the Bible - you may be wrong. It is wiser to repent first, in humility, and stay quiet, so that you will remain under Grace (James 4:6). If it is not from God, He will deal with it. For those in ministry, prophetic or otherwise, remember it is not your ministry that is important, but your obedience (Matthew 7:21).
MARCH * The Green Tree- the place of the green tree style of 'school of the prophets' has passed. Christ is raising up his servants sovereignly, in every body, in every place, the green tree is withering and the dry tree is flourishing (Ezek 17:24). We are passing through a stand of sycamore figs, which stand for humility (Lk 19:4). The Lord is making those whose testimony "I am dry Lord" green and flourish (Isa 55:1).
* Work of the enemy. The church is under attack! This has been levelled at us as individuals, as well as when we meet together. God's protection is dependent on our faith and obedience. Faith is knowing who we are in Christ, and our authority over the enemy. Obedience is our resisting the devil, and he must flee. We can give access to the enemy by our failure to have faith or be obedient. He can only attack us in those areas that we have unrepented sin (accusation, etc.), or when we put ourselves back under legalism. Then we suffer the dos and don't of the Law.
APRIL * Spring Rains. God is restoring the prophetic to the church, coming within a season of deep refreshing and repentance in the church. The issue of drought and sin are intimately linked (Deut 28: 20-24), and the Lord has broken the drought once, by sending the early rains. But as the drought takes hold again, the church must repent for the sins of the nation, only then will He send the latter rains of blessing- the spring rains (Deut 11: 11-14). When the former rain falls, we must plough and sow, or else they will not reap with the latter rains- the rains of harvest. There is a drought in the spirit, or the word of God, and as God breaks the temporal drought, he will also break the drought of our spirits (Acts 3: 19-20).
* Prophetic reformation. The prophetic is rarely official. Prophetic people rarely hold a position of recognised authority. Often the Lord will offend the mind to reveal the heart- using cracked vessels. One such vessel is the secular media. The Beatles for example, for all their wayward and devastating spiritism, once carried the message of peace and reconciliation. Recent adds have spoken of 'obeying your thirst', and Nike tells us to 'just do it!'. Today is also graduation day. Graduation is simply an official recognition of the hard work you have done for years. God has done more in us than we are willing to believe, and we are supposed to move on from the simple to the deeper things of God.
MAY * Plagues and war. The Lord is right now releasing on the face of the earth, a series of plagues which will kill many. Combined with this, the Lord has told us that a series of devastating wars is about to start, which will eclipse the gulf war. This curse has been spoken of in Scripture- a two fold plague/ war curse (Zech 14: 12, 13 and Rev 6: 6,7). The Lord gives dominion to the angels to destroy one quarter of the earth. This does not necessarily mean that one quarter must die but that they have authority over that much. We should pray, because the plague will affect even this island nation.
* Esau and Grace. The gifts of God are given freely. If we do not go for God while he is near, we may miss Him (Isa 55:6) we like Esau could miss out on what He has for us (Heb 12:17). Isaiah gives us an example of a message of grace ignored (Isa 28: 9-13), because the people lacked understanding- due to legalism (29:10-14). Grace is God's initiative (29:14), revelation and the prophetic is restored in HIS day, not ours (29:18). We are warned that rejecting revelation is dangerous, as dangerous as rejecting the message of grace (30:9-11).
* Protecting the Investment. Organisers of events often hire guards to protect the potential investment of an occasion. They toss out unruly guests, and guard the money that is made. In the same way Nehemiah set up guards day and night to protect the work on the walls (Neh 4:7 ff). By the same token , we must set up those who will pray over these meetings constantly watching over the work of God. The command is clear, "You have not gone up into the breaches, or repaired the wall for the house of Israel so that it might stand in the day of battle- Ezek 13:5. The call is equally clear "I have posted watchmen on your walls O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call upon the Lord give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem" Isa 62: 6-7. Call the watch-men!
JUNE. * The work of the religious spirit. Insecurity with who we are in Christ breads in us the need to control. A controlling spirit inhibits sacrificial love, and giving, and stops freedom in others. The religious spirit, which hates the grace of God, sees and judges events, not the hearts of people. It blocks the view of God's grace by virtue of showing us our sin, and our inability to deal with it. The religious spirit produces striving, where the Spirit of God produces zeal for God. Striving leads to burnout, the zeal of God leads to undertaking the perfect works of God. The religious spirit inhibits faith, because we stop taking risks for fear of failure. We must no longer be bound to the opinions of others, but rather depend on God's grace.
* Tithing and blessing. Failure to tithe and give generously to God restricts the flow of His blessing to us. Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly (2 Cor 9: 6). Malachi warns us that God will refine us with fire until "the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem are pleasing to the lord, as in the days of old and as in former years" (Mal 3:4). By robbing God in this way we restrict His blessing to us and lays down the challenge, that if we will give what is due: "See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven (Mal 3: 10). That promise ends with a connection between correct tithing, and the drought afflicting the land... "I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and the vine in the field shall not be barren"
* Prophetic- speaking out. Often the prophetic ministry simply speaks things by faith into the spiritual realm, where they impact upon the hearts of believers, and become reality. Every event in the chapter of Ezekiel 37 (the valley of dry bones) was driven by the prophetic word spoken out in faith. Faith despite negative circumstances. Faith despite what the matter in question looks like. Often we add the flesh, but Abraham, the father of faith, only made matters worse when he tried to accomplish things in his own strength. He will do the works through us, in his time. We have had a focus of discipline, but the bible teaches that it is the Lord who disciplines, and it is we who are to be self controlled, restricting our tendency to do things in our strength, and waiting on God to do them through us.
* Judging the blessing - When you look at a tree, sometimes the fruit is pretty wierd, but you can't judge the fruit by the packaging, you have to taste and see what it is like. Many fruits, like the mango and pineapple, don't look that good on the outside, but are delicious inside. likewise, you cannot judge this current move of God by the manifestations, but by the fruit it produces in people's lives. God just said the tree that he's offering now, and the fruit he's offering now is the fruit of the tree of Life. The major conflict in the Bible, all the way through, is not God versus Satan - Satan hardly rates a mention. It's not even Good versus Evil - it's Grace versus Law. Right from the Garden of Eden where you have the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, representing the Law; and the Tree of Life, representing God's Grace.
* Grace and Law - Reading backwards through Isaiah, you will notice the book of Isaiah has repeating cycles in it. "The people sin, and nearly every time its something to do with legalism, followed by God's judgment, God's blessing and finally God's Grace coming on them. Nearly every time it finishes looking forward to after the Day of the Lord, to the Blessing that comes. The "Generation of the Righteous" is a "Key" teaching - a key of the kingdom, because once you have that understanding of what God is working towards, it starts to unlock a number of other things in the Bible. It just all starts falling into place. At the beginning of Isaiah, he starts with a warning about the church's (people of Israel's) lack of understanding and legalism. A couple of months ago God gave us a word from Revelation 3:17 where Jesus says to the Church "You do not understand. You think you've got all this understanding and you've completely missed the point." Isaiah is really the book of the End Times - the whole way through you start to get this theme of the Day of the Lord, and then these cycles ending with the Generation of the Righteous - what God is going to turn the church into. Isaiah 28:9-13, states:"Who is it he is trying to reach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast?" The Generation of the Righteous is tied in with accepting the Kingdom of God like a child? It's talking about an obvious act of Grace. "For it is: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there." This is legalism, and it highlights what we've experienced in the church, in the last 20- odd years. You know: "a little here, a little there". Its been a real struggle. "Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people," (the Gentiles), " to whom he said, 'This is the resting place, let the weary rest'; and, 'This is the place of repose'-- but they would not listen." God is setting his Grace out. He's saying: "This is a resting place. This is a refreshing - something that's free for you to take." There are still people who won't listen, and it's really important that we are careful in how we treat the Grace of God, which is often not easy to handle - especially the fact that God is using fairly young, untrained people, who've never been to Theological college, and that He's bringing new revelation. Many people are finding that very difficult to deal with, because we've been so trained in human-wisdom methods of interpreting the Bible. We need to have an attitude of repentance, and say "God. You show me. You teach me." After all, we worship the Living Word, not the written Word.
JULY. * Vision of the pillar. I had a vision of a pillar of water standing in a cavern under the earth. Water can be a symbol for human help and support, which fails in the day of the Lord (Jer 2: 18). It can also stand for weakness of human strength (Ezek 7: 17). The Lord desires to make his church a strong pillar in the temple (Rev 3: 12), a household and the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim 3: 15). Christ desires that we become a strong pillar, built on Him, not relying on our own human strength, but rather in our weakness letting Him be our strength. The calling of Jeremiah shows us God's desire to build us into a strong pillar- "Gird up your loins; stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not break down before them, or I will break you before them. And for my part, I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall" Jer 1: 15-18.
* Justified by faith. Revelation 3: 17 tells us that we DO NOT understand, we can not comprehend what God is doing, even though we think we know. We are in danger of judging ministries, and suffering judgment on ourselves. Just because people are immature does not mean they are wrong (1 Cor 1:4). Grace does not judge, but rather presses on in faith. We are not justified by judging others, even if we are right, but rather we are justified by faith. Grace is not based on human wisdom, but rather God's "Hidden and secret wisdom" (1 Cor 2:7). Paul avoided preaching according to human wisdom, by coming in a demonstration of the Spirit's power. God's grace IS his power at work in us! Paul's approach offended the minds of many in his day. Today the emerging prophetic ministry also offends the minds of those inclined to judge it. Yet the quality will be revealed by the fire of God, not the criticism of men (1 Cor 3: 13) and the truth will be made apparent by the test of God's power (1 Cor 4: 18-20). God will not be mocked, demonstration of His power can not be criticised, and compared to barren intellectual theology (Gal 6: 7).
* Birthing Fatherhood - God is teaching the church how to be Fathers. "Even though you have ten thousand teachers in Christ, you do not have many fathers..." (1Cor. 4:15). One of the End-Time signs is the Malachi 4 restoration of the hearts of Fathers to the children. Paul's daughter Sophie (meaning: wisdom), born 13/7/95, is a sign that God is releasing (birthing) a Father's heart in the Church. This is done by Grace - you don't worry about responsibilities - you just love the child. And this does not depend on anything she has done, it just IS. God is showing us how He sees us, and how we need to learn to respond to Him.
AUGUST. * Speaking judgment. Part of the prophetic task is to speak judgment. Paul said that when he came, he would bring a demonstration of the Spirit's power. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of words, of talk, but of power (Matt 11: 12). Jesus Himself calls us sheep. Sheep are, by and large, dumb animals! We get nervous when God changes things around, why? Because we are focused on things, and form, instead of God's ways, and his character. God uses the secular media sometimes to tell us things, and recently on 'Home Improvement' Tim's favourite saying has been MORE POWER. This move of God has been preparing us, giving us a foretaste, so that we might get a taste for. The power around at the moment is paltry compared to what is coming! We are moving into a time when the Lord's servants will have to speak God's judgment on people, and that is scary. We are not to judge! God may give discernment, but this is not for us to use to judge others, or we come back under legalism. A critical spirit comes out of Pride, which leads to God resisting us. Like Paul in 1 Cor 4:3, we also should not judge (or criticise) ourselves, or we are trying to measure our maturity and growth by our understanding - again leading us into performance orientation and legalism. God will accomplish His work in us with our permission, but not our help.
* The heart of witchcraft is manipulation, and attempts to manipulate others for whatever reason (even to do God's work) release witchcraft curses against them and us. We need to repent of those curses we have released upon others, especially our attempts to manipulate and control our children, which is partially responsible for their rebellion against us, and against God. Many curses against us only have power because of our own sin in this area. Rick Joyner points out there are 2 ministries constantly before the Throne of God: Intercession (Grace) and Accusation (Law). In Rev 12, Satan finally gets thrown out of the presence of God, and his accusation against the church finishes for good, when the church overcomes "by the word of their testimony" - the testimony of "Grace in all its truth" Col 1:6.
SEPTEMBER. * Built on what foundation? Prophets and Apostles are foundational to the church (Eph 2: 20) Both offices carry more authority and power than teachers and pastors. There is a difference between the gift of prophecy and the office of prophet. In God's upside down kingdom, Apostles are the least, and face the greatest persecution, misunderstanding and trial, followed by prophets. These two roles were lost first, and are being restored last. What is seen in the church today is still immature: the pathetic prophetic! The end-time church is characterised by prophetic power, and all of God's children are called to have revelatory gifts (1 Cor 14: 1-5 and Acts 2). When a child sees the power of God their response is 'let's hang around daddy', not 'wow aren't I good'. We don't need a new anointing, we need more faith, a prophetic anointing. We have been in training for 10 years, learning faith, Godly wisdom and grace. He is able to make grace abound to us at all times (2 Cor 9: 8). Our church has been told by the Lord to model what little of the prophetic we have, to others. By encouraging belivers to move into their inheritance of being a prophetic people, we are built together into maturity.
* Spring Rains - A reminder about the spring rains. Today is the first of Spring. The Lord promised us back in April He would sent the spring rains. We then took that to mean 'autumn rains' and indeed it rained in Autumn and broke the drought. But we believe that if we pray by faith, repenting for the sins of our nations, the Lord will fulfil his promise, and send rain early in Spring (maybe tonight!). We need consistent prayer, and consistent rain to repair the soil. The rain is a parable for what will happen in the Spirit, as He restores His people, bringing a new wave of refreshing and empowering. Don't just watch the last wave's receding end- turn around and get ready for the next one!
We offer these words in the hope that they will be a blessing, and we feel that they are genuinely from God. If you have any question about these words, please feel free to contact us for discussion at: