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My journey into the prophetic realm, part 9

When I first learned to hear God’s voice in 1982, I had become discouraged when His promises failed to be fulfilled within the first month. I had little or no understanding of the patience of God, nor had His patience worked its way into my own nature. James 5:7 says,

⁷ Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer [or husbandman] waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.

I had not yet learned to rejoice in tribulation, because it was not at all clear that He would deliver me. It would take time and experience to learn such things. Paul says in Romans 5:3, 4,

³ And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance [endurance]; ⁴ and perseverance, proven character [experience]; and proven character, hope [confident expectation].

In 1982 I was tired of such tribulations and for a time I no longer wanted to hear any more grand promises of future glory. I just wanted to see God fulfill a single small promise so that I could be confident that He would keep His word. But He was slowly leading me to the grave, which I was not expecting. The path to resurrection always involves death. I did not exult in this at all.

When I was raised up, and when He moved us to Batesville, I was more than able to exult in my new-found life. As time passed, I grew spiritually while under the tutelage of the Net of Prayer. When the elderly Sunday night preacher decided to retire, he asked me to take over his position and teach the word to the Golden Rule church.

Beginning to Teach

I taught many things for the next two years, but it was not until June 1985 that I had sufficient experience to begin teaching publicly about prayer, intercession, and spiritual warfare. I had been teaching a long series on the Genesis Book of Psalms in early 1985. As I approached the end of the series in May, I began to prepare to teach on prayer.

It happened that the Phoenix pastor died on Thursday, June 6, and I began teaching on prayer the following Sunday evening, June 9. Looking back on this, I realize that this marked a small but new beginning point in my ministry.

The following week, June 16, my brother received revelation that we were to fast and pray three months for revival, i.e., an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This involved teamwork, where at least seven volunteers would fast one day a week to cover the entire three months. As it turned out, this was to be a 12-week time of prayer and fasting. On June 21 we discerned that we were to begin on July 6, so the first week of fasting was from July 6-12.

Learning to Pray

On July 9 we prayed for James, whose ankle was severely bruised to the point where he could not walk on it. We saw immediate results. Pastor Thomas had glaucoma in his eye. Bobbie prayed for him, and he too was healed. It appeared that the group had entered a new level of spiritual things, which made prayer meetings exciting. In those days people were insulted when they were not invited to a prayer meeting! When God moves, everyone wants to go to a prayer meeting. When God is silent, only the most dedicated people show up.

It was during this time that a core group began meeting once a week to pray and discern the Father’s will. My teachings on prayer and intercession were ongoing during this time, but more importantly, God was teaching us all how to pray.

We began to gather around a dining room table, where we started by rehearsing the latest things that God had done in the progression of His Kingdom. Then we prayed to discern the reason why God had gathered us together that evening. We sought His mind and His will so that we could declare it in the earth.

In those days we knew the importance of the double witness. We knew that heaven and earth were two witnesses and that we were called to bear witness on earth of the word that God was speaking from heaven. Seven years later we discovered the Amen principle, which fit perfectly with what we had already been doing in our prayer meetings since 1985.

We found that it was best to limit the prayer meetings to 4-6 people in order to remain focused. There is, of course, a place for larger gatherings, but the dynamic is different. In a crowd, only a few are able to prophesy or to share their discernments. The advantage of a smaller gathering is that all are expected to discern so that they may all add to the basket of revelation.

This type of meeting was an intense training to hear God’s voice and to discern His will. It also set the pattern where we no longer met to ask God to meet our needs. We met to meet God’s needs, so to speak. We no longer asked God to bear witness to our will, but rather, we sought to bear witness to His will.

So as we prayed silently, each would speak what he or she discerned, whether this was a Bible verse, a song, a thought, or a vision. I was the scribe. I wrote down everything that was being discerned. At first, we did not know what direction these revelations were taking us, but at some point the pieces always came together and painted a picture of God’s will and plan. That was our “Aha!” moment. Each fragment suddenly fit with the other fragments, and in this way, we were able to pray and discern collectively as a unified body.

Once we knew what God was speaking, we drew up a summary and then declared it. We not only bore witness to God’s voice, but also became His spokesmen, declaring His word from the throne of God. After all, Paul says that He has “seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). If we seek His will, rather than our own, we come into unity with Christ and are able to make such declarations with effectiveness.

In those days we were led to declare His will and establish many things. Word began to spread, and one man who saw us coming, said sarcastically, “Here comes the God Squad again!” The name stuck. It reminds me of the sarcastic people of Antioch, who coined the term “Christians” (Acts 11:26).

Revival Begins

Pastor Thomas asked an evangelist named John Steer to hold revival meetings during the week of August 12-18. John was a Special Forces Vietnam Veteran who had lost an arm and a leg when a U.S. fighter jet dropped a 500 lb. bomb on American troops by mistake. He was a Spirit-filled believer who was ministering to other Vietnam vets who needed help overcoming the trauma of war.

The meetings each evening were inspiring with an emphasis on the Holy Spirit. On the final evening, Sunday, August 18, he preached a very good sermon on the gift of tongues. It was just a teaching session; he did not give an altar call for people to receive the baptism of the Spirit.

Pastor Thomas was not a “tongues” man, and for many years he had resisted the efforts of his Pentecostal friends to get him to speak in tongues. He certainly believed in the Holy Spirit but saw no need to speak in tongues or “swing from the chandeliers.”

I do not know what Red Thomas thought about John’s message, but some of the people in the church had never heard such things. They inquired further about this later, and some then received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

John’s revival meetings occurred in the sixth week of our twelve-week fast. It was an important midpoint. Over the years, I have seen many times that important events occur at the midpoint of an important cycle. This occasion was one of the earliest indications that we ought to watch midpoints.

From that point on, in the last six weeks of the cycle, our “God Squad” meetings were opened up to others who were interested in receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It so happened that the company where most of us were employed had brought in a Vice President earlier that year. His name was Bob Schuelke. He had led the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship in Orange County, CA for twenty years prior to this.

He was also very experienced in deliverance ministry. In fact, he had gotten out of the ministry because he was “burned out.” Deliverance ministry takes it's toll on many people, because such ministers often get called out of bed in the middle of the night to deal with an urgent need. So Bob had moved to Batesville, and we had struck up a good friendship. He often came to my office, where I was typesetting, and “invoked executive privilege” by taking me out to lunch.

Bob’s calling and gifting was in laying hands on people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So it was natural for us to draw on his expertise each weekend when people expressed an interest in this. For the next six weeks, a few people at a time would come and receive the Holy Spirit. The last week of the twelve-week cycle, six people came and received the Holy Spirit.

By the end of the twelve-week prayer for revival, ending September 29, 1985, all of the (active) people in the Golden Rule church had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, Red Thomas found himself the pastor of a Spirit-filled church!

Trouble lay just ahead.