Prophecy
John 12:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn (seed) of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.”
John 11:25-26, “Jesus said unto her (Martha, the 2nd day church who’s been about busy religious work), I Am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in Me, though he were dead (even though some things look like they’re dead), yet shall he (they) live:
26-And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Believest though this? (do you believe this?)”
John 2:19, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Jesus was speaking of Himself--of His death, burial and resurrection.
Mark 16:2-4, “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.
3-And they said among themselves, who shall roll away the stone from the door (entrance) to the sepulcher?
4-And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away; for it was very large (great).”
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Just as Jesus went through death burial and was resurrected to life on the third day, it’s resurrection time for the Church. We’ve been through the death of a lot of things in our lives. We’ve been through the burial of them--buried so deep that they’ve seemed lost to us and now, we’re in the third day of resurrection power. It’s time for those seemingly dead things that have lain dormant in the hearts of God’s people---it’s time for those dreams, visions, God ideas, giftings, etc., to come to life and live to the fullest in this third day of the Church!
Lets take a few minutes to understand what’s meant by speaking of the Church in terms of the Third Day. Prophetically speaking, a day is equal to a 1,000 actual years. We find that Peter said as much in II Pet.3:8, “But beloved, be not ignorant of (do not forget) this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Prior to verse 8, Peter is talking about creation and though the people of old perished in the flood, the same earth and sky remains. If you’ve read the book of Genesis, you know that God created all things in 6 days and on the 7th day, He rested. If each day of creation is equal to a 1,000 years, then we’ve already come six thousand years and the 7th year is the beginning of the Millennium of God’s rest.
Lets go back to II Peter chapter 3 and look at verse 10, “But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night...” This would be the 7th prophetic day he‘s speaking about. On the 6th day, God rested from His Work. It was completed. The 7th day would later be fulfilled by His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Day of the Lord also ties in with Revelation 20:6 that says, “They (the saints of God) shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years. God sanctified and blessed the 7th day, declaring that it was to be the Sabbath day.
We’ve just entered into the 7th Millennium, which would be the 7th day of God from creation. In my research on this subject, I discovered that the third day of Christ has been calculated to be from 1 BC to 2000 AD which would be 2,000 or two prophetic days.
Lets look at one more Scripture so it won’t seem like we’re fallen off the beam. The Bible says, to let every word be established by two or three witnesses.
Lets look at Hosea 6:1-3,”Come and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know; let us persue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us as rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth.”
This former and latter rain for the third day Church is talking about anointings on former men of faith in the OT and anointings of men of faith in the NT---both coming together on the third day Church as a double outpouring. Joel said, “In THAT day, God would pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh...”(Joel 2:28). THAT day he prophesied about was the third day of the Church and later, Peter verified this word and prophesied even further about it saying, “This (day of Pentecost) is THAT which Joel spoke of...”
Also, the 7th day of God and the third day of Christ has to come together in the end of things for there to be a Day of The Lord. Part of Hosea’s prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus arose from the dead on the third day. The remainder of the prophecy will be fulfilled when the Church is raised up in the rapture. But before this happens, the Church must become the glorious Church she was called to be. Plus, the third day is a time of restoration of all things.
Acts 3:19-21, “Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20-And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21-Whom the heaven must receive (hold back) until the times of restitution (restoration) of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began.”
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And this brings us back to where we began, that the Church is now in the third day--the day of resurrection life and power. It’s time to step out of the shadows of death---everything that's not productive in our lives and step into the resurrection life and power of almighty God whereby we‘ll bring forth much fruit.
Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the Vine and you are the branches; he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same shall bring forth much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing.” And in verse 7 He says, “If you abide (live) in Me, and My Words (as seeds) abide (Lives) in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.”
It’s absolutely vital that we abide in the true Vine Who is Jesus. We’ve got to remain attached to Him because He is our source for everything. We do this through hiding His word in our hearts and being obedient to act on the Word once it’s revealed in our inner man by the Holy Spirit.
Abiding, that is, staying attached to Jesus in intimacy and through His Word allows His resurrection life to flow through us. As it does, it’ll bring to life all those promised words of God that has gone through a death.
In light of that, I want to say again that it’s time in the body of Christ for those dry and lifeless bones of forgotten dreams and visions, prophetic Rhema words to be stirred up and come to fruition in your life. In II Tim. 1:7, Paul told Timothy to “stir up the gift that is within him.” And just as Paul told Timothy, God is telling you and I today to do the same thing---stir up the gift that’s within each of us. The wind of the Spirit is blowing throughout the body of Christ, causing a stirring and dead things are beginning to come to life within you.
Today is a time for those dreams and visions, those desires of your heart, ideas God has given you, goals, giftings, talents and abilities to LIVE again and live to their fullest potential. Those things that have been dormant in the tomb of discouragement, it’s time for them to resurrect and be birthed in the womb of expectancy and faith. The stone has been rolled away and it’s time to Step up in faith to fulfill your destiny in God because He’s the one who put those desires in you and gave you those dreams and visions.
God said, “My people perish without a vision.” If you don’t have a vision, ask God to give you one and He certainly will because if you don’t have your destiny plainly before you, you’re just a drifter going nowhere. But the Lord is saying today, come out of the tomb of despair and hopelessness, the stone has been rolled away---the way is open for you to come into My intimate presence.”
You can’t “step in” to this next level of faith toward the fulfillment of your destiny until you “step out” of the shadows of doubt, fear and unbelief. You’ve got to come out of that dead place where there’s no life and begin to stir yourself up. You’ve got to begin stirring up the gift that's within YOU. This is what Paul told Timothy, it’s what God is saying today, “YOU stir up the gift that's within you.”
Begin to stir it up. Get in agreement with the Holy Spirit and rise to the occasion of fulfilling your purpose here in the earth. What do we need to do?
1-Pour God’s word into your heart in abundance by reading it every day.
Out of the abundance the mouth speaks.
2-Meditate on the Word you read.
(God, by His Spirit gives revelation of His word when you do).
3-Memorize the Word.
David said, “Lord, I’ve hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.” We’re required to do the same.
4-Spend quality time in prayer and fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
5-Be still and know that He is God because He has some things He wants to say to you and things He wants to impart in your spirit in order to successfully complete your mission here on earth.
6-Spend some time each day praying in the spirit. Doing so not only brings cleansing to your spirit but it also is a crucial part in stirring up the gift thats within you. It sharpens your spiritual senses for the supernatural of God.
7-And whatever Jesus tell you to do, step out in faith and be obedient to “do it.” Thus, “Be a doer of the word and not a hearer only; deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
It’s the third day of the Church---stir yourself out of complacency and apathy. Wake up---get up and “step in” to greatness with God who will take you to heights in Him that you could never have imagined. You will sit with Jesus in heavenly places while the enemy has to stand by and watch because in this place, he can’t touch you. Get into that abiding place with Jesus. Get into the secret place with God. Abide under the shadow of His wings and commit your every way unto Him. We keep ourselves in that abiding place in Jesus by a decision of our will. It’s a choice we make by faith and we rely on the grace of God and His Word to help us stay there and
II Thess.5:18 says, that in this place, “And that wicked one touches you not.” That is, if you keep saying “no” to his every temptation to be drawn away from abiding in intimacy with Jesus.
This is one of the devil’s worst nightmares and that's to see the Church receive revelation knowledge of the resurrection power of the third day---the power that’s at work in each one for us to begin walking in it. Praise God forevermore, he can’t stop it from happening. Let us shout it from the housetops, getting louder and louder until the devils ears bursts. Hallelujah!! I like that, don’t you? Amen.
It’s time for the body of Christ to step up to the next level of faith-vision in God and get off the level of the devil where you have NO vision. The wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing resurrection life into our midst today. Dead things are coming to life again. Spiritual things, the soul area, the mind, will and emotions, and things in the physical bodies of God’s people are being re-awakened to the Spirit of God..
Deadened nerves in physical limbs are beginning to tingle and stir with resurrection life so that people who are bound in wheel chairs are stepping up, stepping out and stepping IN to the greatness of God’s call and plan for their lives. And His plans are not sickness and disease for any of His children. If that were the case then Jesus took stripes on His back and went to the cross for nothing. But His taking those stripes on His back and going to the cross was not in vain because God’s good plans for you and me is this, “I”ve come that you might have LIFE, and that you might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “And to Him Who is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all you can ask or think, according to power that’s at work in us (you)” (Eph.3:20). We have been in this time of resurrection life all along but things have stepped up a bit until now. Jesus has been to the cross, He was buried and He arose on the third day and He now sits on the right hand of the Father making intercession for you and I.
We’ve come a long way but we’re on the fringes of the third day and God is saying, “Step on across the threshhold and into this next level of the glory realm.” It’s not that we’re going to BE in a time when we’re going to see some miraculous things happen, we’re already IN the time when the miraculous is already happening all over the world. And though it is, the main focus for the Church, of everything past, present and future must remain to be the Lord Jesus Christ.
Without Jesus as the center of everything in our personal lives and our corporate lives as a body, what do we have? Absolutely nothing but a form of a religion and denying the power of Christ therein. All you have in something like this is deadness because Jesus said, “I am the resurrection life!” He said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the LIFE!” Hallelujah! You can find death all around you without going out to look for it but we can only find life in Jesus. And everywhere He went when He walked this earth, dead things came back to life, even after they had been in the tomb four days and was by now stinking (John 11:43-44). Praise God!
Many of you in the body of Christ have recently had forgotten dreams, visions, words and ideas pop up in your mind like a cork bobbing up in the water. Things you haven’t thought about in a very long time. You’ve even wondered, “Why am I thinking about this now?” I have to tell you again, the stone that has had those things sealed off, those things God gave you---its been rolled away and it’s time now to live your dreams. It’s YOUR resurrection day. It’s time to give yourself completely to the Holy Spirit and step OUT of that tomb of death situations and step IN to the newness of resurrection life.
How else is God going to pull together His victorious Army if half of the body hasn’t yet stepped up in faith and into the newness of His resurrection life where you’re living out the dreams and visions God gave you? These dreams and visions are really God’s dreams and visions, they’re not truly our’s. We each receive a fragment of God’s dreams and His visions for taking over the earth completely and establishing His Kingdom rule throughout. We link up with and get in agreement with His vision.
We’re entrusted with a fragment of the dreams and visions of God, and when we receive them by faith, we’ve CAUGHT His vision. We’ve believed it and received it as our part to do in God’s over-all plans in the earth. We’re a steward of it and must depend totally on the Holy Spirit to give us each piece of the vision puzzle so we’ll know which step to take next in executing God’s perfect plan for a people that He loves unconditionally.
Left on our own, man doesn’t share in God’s vision for establishing His Kingdom in the earth or preaching the gospel to every creature and making disciples of all nations. Those are not our visions. Our concept of dreams and visions is, “Whats in it for me?” When you receive dreams and visions, ideas, etc. of a God-nature, they are from Him and they are His. Some dreams and visions, ideas are strictly out of our own heads and they’ll usually be those that will ultimately exalt us and our little kingdom instead of exalting Jesus and His Kingdom. Our response to a God-idea, dream, or vision must come from a humble, servants heart that says, “Here am I, Lord, Send me.”
Plain As Day Ministries
Shirley Williams
7-7-02
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