Thursday, June 14, 2012

New Sound Soundtrack


Sound has the power to change everything. Imagine a scene from a movie where a woman is walking down a sidewalk. I’ll add some details to spice it up. It’s a fall afternoon and the wind is picking up, making the dead leaves swirl around her feet with every step. The street is downtown in a big city. It is crowded with business people on their lunch break. The woman, in her forties, is wearing a navy blue skirt and a white blouse. Her right hand is clutching the strap of her purse, and she is walking extremely fast. From these visuals what do we know about the situation? Very little. We can guess at what the situation might be—maybe she’s late for a meeting, maybe she doesn’t work and has come downtown to give her husband something at his office. The truth is, we know nothing except what our eyes see. Our eyes simply give us facts.

Now take the same scene and add the eerie sound of a lonely faint chime. Voice this over the background of a futuresque dissonant chord from a synthesizer. Add the boom of a bass drum playing sporadically as if in a death march. Now we feel something. We’re concerned for the woman, maybe even scared and on the edge of our seats because we think she’s being chased. Change the music to a light piccolo playing over the pizzicato plucks of an orchestra’s violin section and the scene becomes more playful, as if she’s running against the heavy flow of people walking the other way. With this background music, she becomes more of an individual heroine whom we’re rooting for. Finally, change the music to the slow, lush sound of strings passionately playing “The Love Song” and hearts drop. Perhaps she is on the way to the hospital where her love lies dying and has only hours to live.

Sound can create a story from dry facts. It stirs our emotions to go beyond facts to feeling. The scene’s meaning depends entirely on how the viewer and the listener choose to respond emotionally and the meaning can also depend on their mood while watching and listening. The revelation that comes to the seer has everything to do with the sounds of the scene.

The woman walking is a picture of the church, progressively taking steps forward, often frantically. The sound being heard as the church goes forward has everything to do with how the seers will interpret what goes on. Therefore, the sound impacts how they will pray, how they will believe, and how they will interpret the activity they see in the church. Is she walking into a season of peace, a season of joy, or a season of being raped and violated by the world? Music is the indicator. Music sets the tone of her destiny.

Throughout the generations of history, the spiritual climate of God’s people has always had a musical indicator. God unveils new songs and new sounds in relationship to the new revelation of His presence in His people. That’s why the enemy fights so hard to counterfeit everything that God desires to do musically in a generation.

The eye gate is as important as the ear gate, for unless we see what the Father is doing, how can we hear what He is saying? The prophetic song in our generation is musically coming into agreement with and accompanying what God is doing and saying (See John 5:19). He has been developing our sensitivity to His Spirit through the emphasis on prayer, intercession, praise and worship, causing His church to walk as a victorious lady in a blue skirt surrounded by songs of deliverance, seeing and hearing with each step the sights and sounds of God’s heavenly purpose.

Our team of worshipers are stepping confidently into the land of Israel this December. We are on a mission to prophetically release a new soundtrack of truth that clearly interprets the heart of God for the nation of Israel, as well as the purposes of God unto our generation. May the accompanying soundtrack of this upcoming scene impact all the nations that are watching Israel, that they might hear the sound of heaven as we simply walk with our God and obediently release the sounds into the spirit realm that He has given to us.



Thursday, May 17, 2012

Tips For the Journey


God taught David that He didn’t want to inhabit a place that wasn’t prepared for Him.   We absolutely want the Lord to inhabit every second of Israel 12.12.12.  This being the case, we thought it would be a good idea to start sharing with you some tips for the journey ahead, both spiritual and practical, so that you could start preparing now. When we meet together in Zion in December, let us all be ready…body, spirit and soul.


Tip #1:  Walk About Zion

Walking was so much a part of the culture during Bible times. They didn’t have the conveniences of air-conditioned buses, or taxis, or Mercedes.

In spite of enjoying our many modern conveniences, practically speaking, this trip is going to involve quite a bit of walking. If you are not accustomed to walking a lot, now is the time to begin conditioning your body for what is to come. This is a land of hills and valleys and there are more steps than escalators or elevators. Don’t be afraid, we will always move at an easy pace, but we highly recommend that you begin methodically building more strength and stamina now.  Start walking.

The Psalms tell us to walk uprightly. That speaks of walking while holding a posture that enables your lungs to be used to their full capacity in prayer and praise.
Begin preparing now by rehearsing the Psalms of Ascent. Use walking on your stairs at home or at your office as opportunities to prayer walk, and whenever possible to sing your song as you prepare for the journey.  In David’s time the musicians were commissioned to stroll and worship.  Now is your time to become comfortable with singing your worship as you walk and to become familiar with the feeling of intentionally releasing the presence of God wherever you go.  Start walking!

“Walk about Zion and tell the towers thereof.” Psalm 48:12.



Thursday, May 10, 2012

Release of a Sound


Numerous times in Scripture Israel came to a point of pending desolation. Enemies would encamp against them with full intentions of devastating them beyond redemption.
Midianites came against them, Amalekites, Amorites and Moabites, Hitites as well as many other "ites".

At the time of Israel's greatest need and desperation some shepherd boy or maiden or a priest, a king or an ordinary citizen would encounter God and begin to worship. As the worship of God began to happen, a strategy would unfold that ultimately would lead to the release of a sound. At that moment all circumstances would change and God would move mightily on behalf of Israel.

This principle is throughout Scripture. Sometimes a single worshipper would be instrumental in changing sure defeat for God's people into an astounding season of victory and favor by a simple act of obedience to Gods promise of deliverance. As he or she would declare even a portion of Gods promises to Israel, God would move according to His promise. Whether the sound was the sound of a shepherds sling put in motion with a prophetic declaration, or four leprous men simply walking unknowingly toward the enemy invaders at God's promised time, God proved over and over His ability to use outlandish, bizarre and, may I add, ridiculous ways to defy the dark and idolatrous enemies of Israel.

There was always a sovereign factor involved and there was always a response factor involved. Those who proved obedient to His strategies and faithful in their worship were privileged to see firsthand some of the greatest miracles in the history of mankind; Joshua at Jericho, Jehoshaphat at En Gedi, David in the Valley of Elah, Gideon in the Valley of Jezreel. He is always looking for obedient worshippers that are willing to believe His promises, move obediently forward and release the sound of their praise against the odds.

I wonder what God will do when obedient worshippers sacrificially carry their sound from California and Mississippi and Canada and Wales and Michigan and Oklahoma and Scotland and Hawaii and Kentucky and Ireland and... 




Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Israel 12.12.12 Video (Please Share)

Israel 12 12 12

Please share this video and help us spread the word and cast the vision of Israel 12.12.12. Our goal is to give as many people as possible the opportunity to hear the call and join the mission.


Monday, April 30, 2012

An Amazing Addition!


Hey, Everybody, we’ve got some exciting news!  It looks like on 12.12.12 as we worship in the caves we’ll be joined by a local Israeli Ethiopian Choir.  You know, many of the religious Hebrew traditions are still practiced in parts of Ethiopia and the Jewish feasts and festivals are still kept. They practice an ancient form of biblical Judaism and it is believed that the Ethiopians are one of the lost tribes of Israel. Every year Ethiopian Jews return to Israel by the thousands!  The sounds of the nations returning to Zion…how exciting!


Saturday, April 7, 2012

Sunrise Awakening


I have some dear friends in Honolulu that are waking to 72 beautiful degrees. There is a gentle wind out of the northwest that will remind them that God really loves them. I have friends in Singapore that are asleep on an 81-degree night and the wind, at the moment, is still. It's cloudy and 47 degrees in Miles City, Montana, where my friend John is so thankful for spring that he doesnt care if the wind is blowing or not. It's 22 degrees and on the way down to 7 bone chilling degrees in Siberia, and the wind has a bad attitude. Im sitting on a porch in Alabama, breathing in pollen and thinking about Ireland. In a few hours everything will change, everywhere, because the atmosphere is in a constant state of change all over the world. In a few hours in Jerusalem, daylight will appear at 5:55 a.m., and sunrise at 6:20. It will be 67 degrees under a gloriously beautiful blue sky. The sun will shine on an ancient stone there that is a witness to a sunrise awakening that happened so long ago. That stone is a reminder that His love never changes and there will also be a calm one-mile an hour wind to remind everyone that atmospheres do.
From the four corners of the earth and from all the people that breathe the winds that blow, we acknowledge the specialness of this day. We declare our thanks to the one who rolled away the stone to show us what love can do.
May the beautiful Hallelujahs of Hawaii rise into the heavens like all Hallelujahs should. May the Songs of Singapore and Siberia be filled with praise, and may the wind mingle your melodies as they rise heavenward. Alabama, Montana, Ireland, it's a new day. May all winds that blow, carry our songs across the heavens over Israel this day. Let all the earth declare His glory as the Son shines on us all.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Passover / April 6-14

Hey! Tonight is the first night of Passover! We thought we'd post a little bit about the history and the spiritual significance that this feast holds for us as Christians. Enjoy! 


Passover (Pesach)


The first feast of the Lord is Passover (Leviticus 23:5). The word Passover is Pesach in Hebrew and means passing over or protection. It is the foundational feast. It cannot be overemphasized as to how foundational Passover is in God’s eternal redemption plan.

Passover is the time of beginnings for Israel. This festival ushers in the coming of spring on the Jewish calendar and is celebrated on the fourteenth day of Nisan. Each of the first three festivals—Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles—has an agricultural basis as well as an historical significance. Many different things are celebrated during Passover including: the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing season; the new lambing time, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt during Passover.

The Jewish people have celebrated Passover annually till this day since the time of Moses. Historically, there was only one Passover. It occurred almost 3500 years ago in Egypt when the children of Israel were slaves to the Egyptians. The Israelites cried out to God for help and He heard them. He commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel,
“I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.”

Moses and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him that the Lord said to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites, even for a brief visit to the desert to worship their God. Moses had warned Pharaoh that God would send a series of plagues upon Egypt unless the people were freed.

God did send the plagues to show the people that He is the one true God. The tenth and final plague was the death of the firstborn. In Exodus 12 God spoke to Moses and Aaron to tell the congregation of Israel to take for himself a lamb of the first year without blemish on the tenth of the month and keep it until the fourteenth, then kill the lamb at twilight. They were to roast and eat the lamb the same night and none of the lamb’s bones were to be broken. They were to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses and none of them were to go out of the door of his house until morning. “For the Lord will pass through to strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.”
Verse 14 says: “So this day shall be to you a memorial and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.”

This was given to us not only to remember the first Passover but to point us to the one true Lamb of God. The apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 5:7 “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us”

Jesus was examined and found without blemish.

He entered Jerusalem and the temple on public display for four days on the tenth of Nisan.

He died in the seventh hour.

His bones were not broken

His blood was shed

He was crucified, suffered and died in the same night.

It is the applied blood of Christ that saves us


Jesus even celebrated the Passover meal. When we keep the Passover we are following the ways of Jesus. Jesus also added to the Passover. He told his disciples that whenever they ate the Passover meal, they should remember Him using the special unleavened bread and the cup. In the Passover ceremony this cup is called “the cup of Redemption.” Jesus wants believers to observe this yearly institute to remember the deliverance of God’s people physically from Egypt, and to recall the spiritual deliverance of God’s people through Jesus the Messiah.

On this revival calendar Passover is posted for a full week. It is actually one day but there is some controversy on whether it is the fourteenth or fifteenth of Nisan. Some celebrate on the first day and some on the second.

The gospels appear to say that the Messiah ate a Passover meal with the disciples on the evening beginning Nisan 14, and John appears to say Jews were having their Passover meal one day later.

The Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed on the day of Passover. The Sadducees believed the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread were separate feast days. They held Passover on the fourteenth as God decreed in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Those of the majority opinion, including the Pharisees, held Passover on the fifteenth. Jesus may have been following both dates by having Passover with the disciples on the fourteenth and becoming the Passover lamb on the fifteenth.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is actually the feast that lasts for seven days beginning on the fifteenth day of Nisan.