The following "word" will bring comfort and support to some (as myself) and turn others completely off ... i post this because it coincides with what i believe i'm also hearing from Holy Spirit (we're in a spiritual transition from one season to another) and not to cause controversy or debate ad-nauseum (i most certainly won't but of course you've got your own free will) ... So if you're blessed by it be blessed, and if you're turned off then reject it ... For as with all "words" and "prophecies" time will reveal ... AmenTHE TERRAIN HAS CHANGEDA Word from the Lord received 31st January, 2005Cheryl McGrathhttp://www.greatsouthland.org/prophecy05.htmlA WORD TO THE FORERUNNERS"If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?" (Jeremiah 12:5).The first section of this message is addressed to the Lord's "footmen", or forerunners. In Old Testament times the footmen were selected soldiers who ran ahead of the main army in order to scout out the land and prepare for its arrival.The church worldwide is currently experiencing a severe season of transition and change that will ultimately reveal the true Bride of Christ and expose an antichrist religious system built on the false foundations of man's pride and intellect. The word "antichrist" does not mean "anti-Jesus"; it means "anti-anointing". It is a mindset that despises and persecutes anything or anyone born of the Spirit of the Living God, who is the Anointing. The Name Jesus Christ means Jesus the Messiah, (or Yeshua Ha Meshiach), the ANOINTED ONE (Psalm 2:2; John 1:41; 4:25,26; Lk 4:18, etc). Let us not be deceived - the antichrist mindset acknowledges Jesus, but denies His Anointing, thereby exalting flesh over the Spirit. In the present season, the Lord is busy establishing His own church as He said He would, even while a false religious system blindly continues to expand and represent itself as "the church of Jesus Christ."Let us understand this time of transitioning is NOT simply aboutwhether to hold meetings in church buildings or in houses. To argue in such terms is to diminish the immensity of the Spirit's present work in the church as the Bride is being called out and prepared for the final stages of this current age. It is about the Spirit and the flesh, who are at war (Gal. 5:17). Only those who live and are ruled by the Spirit of God will discern the nature and timing of the Spirit's work in the church (1 Cor. 2:14-16).Many of the Lord's servants, in the wisdom and timing of the Lord, were called as forerunners in this transitioning process and have been "running ahead of the army" for some time now, even years. These are those who the Lord called out of denomination-alism in order to form an arrowhead for the Spirit's thrust of majorreformation of the "ecclesia", or those who are called to be Christ's (Rom 1:6). In a spiritual sense, these forerunners have been scouting the newly emerging landscape, adjusting their vision and their footsteps to the unfamiliar terrain and gathering necessary understanding of previously unexplored expressions of "being the church", as opposed to "going to church."For a great many of these forerunners the experience of being part of that "arrowhead" has been a costly one in terms of extreme loneliness, isolation and unjust accusations of rebellion from those they once walked with in the Body. However, the lessons they have learned and the brokenness gained from having endured and overcome in this place will prove to be of immeasurable benefit to the Bride in the days to come. These forerunners are the "nameless, faceless" ones spoken of by several prophetic voices during the 1990's. For the most part they have been hidden and crafted by the Lord until His perfect timing and they will not look like or sound like the former leadership models the church has come to rely on. Some of these footmen-forerunners have been scouting ahead for (what seems to them) a very long time, and their weariness is being compounded bydiscouragement and frustration as they wait for the movement of the main army. For those of you reading this who recognise yourselves as part of this company, the Lord has a specific word:He says "the terrain is now changing. This new terrain is no place for footmen and requires the power of horsemen. How will you transition to the next stage of what I am doing if your strength has already run out? Let each one answer for himself and herself. Let each one seek Me for the answer, for you cannot do such a thing."As I contemplated this question in prayer, I considered the weariness and discouragement I had been personally battling throughout the first weeks of the New Year, and I knew that I did not have an acceptable answer. I was then given to see that indeed the only way for the forerunners to keep pace was in the fullness of Christ and the total emptiness of themselves. This truth was etched further into me in recent days as I was led into a deeper understanding of what it means to "love our lives not unto death." This is not something that we can do by determining to do it.The strength of "self" as central to all things is so solidly entrenched in the human heart only the love of Christ Himself can bring each of us to a place where we love His Life more than we love our own. It is only then that we truly begin to understand the often repeated statement: "it's not about me, it's about Him." No matter how many times we say it, or assent to it's truth, we cannot walk in it until the power of His Life in us has broken the power of "self-consciousness", "self-exaltation" and "self-preservation". Then it is that we can truly witness with Paul "It's no longer I that live, but Christ......."As I allowed the Holy Spirit to search my own heart for the answer the Lord was seeking, I was reminded again of the account of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:44-46 - "Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said "There is a cloud as small as a man's hand, rising out of the sea!".... the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel." Even as the storm clouds dramatically and suddenly rolled in upon Elijah, so too is the spiritual atmosphere in and over the church experiencing dramatic and irreversible change. Even those who have been waiting and praying for such change will be challenged by the magnitude of the shaking and rearranging the Lord is determined to bring to His household. Yet, here we see that not only did Elijah contend with the horses of Ahab, he ran by foot ahead of them. How? By the Spirit of the Lord alone, for there was nothing in Elijah's own strength or stature that could enable him. Horses represent power. There is a way for the footmen to contend with the challenges of this new terrain and run with the horses and horsemen, and it is in the power of the Spirit and by no other means. The Lord is asking if His forerunners are ready to adapt to this new terrain, which will require a shift in focus.The Lord continued to speak: "Many of the footmen have run individually, aware only of their own footsteps, their own path, and their own goals. But now the terrain changes and they must see what I see - a company of horsemen riding. And they must see themselves no more, but see the company, and themselves as part of that company. They must take in and adjust to the wider view."If you are a forerunner or part of a forerunner ministry, the message is to look up, look around, stop what you are doing long enough to survey the new surroundings. For things are changing and the isolation many have known in this place is going to pass away. The Lord wants His forerunners to be ready and alert to the new season. There is grace and strength for the discouraged and weary, but the new terrain requires submission to the Spirit and dying to the fear of man as never before. Stay close! There is no other Rest but the Lord. He will enable you!ConclusionI wish once again to stress that as the Body of Christ moves further into the transitional process, we must grow beyond merely defining this transformation in terms of whether to meet in traditional church buildings or houses. There are believers meeting in houses who are still captive to the "temple" mentality with its hierarchy and law-keeping. And there are believers meeting in denominational church buildings who are free enough to meet with the Body in any physical setting because they understand that the true church finds unity and fellowship only in the Spirit.This transition is about much more than the mechanics of where the church should come together or how the church should function corporately. It is about whether to continue compromising with a flesh-dominated religious system, or abandoning compromise for the spiritual house of living stones, at any cost. Eventually, every believer will have to choose one of those two places. May the Lord give us grace and humility to understand this is all about Him, and not about us."He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." (Matt. 12:30)
