Years ago a gifted intercessor we know in Malaysia named Christina prophesied over us. Part of her prophecy for us personally was from 2 Samuel 7…
8 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth.”
The Lord has graciously fulfilled the words of this promise displayed above in bold font. Let us give you the history behind this…
In 1999 we were serving as the pastor of a church we had planted in Houston. Prior to that in the early 1990s we were the pastors of a church we had planted in New York City after our return from the mission field in primitive, unreached regions of Indonesia where we had served for nearly nine years beginning in 1978.
But in 1999 we came to realize that our calling was not that of a local pastor. We resigned from the pastorate completely by faith, trusting the Lord to provide for our family and to show us what He had for us. The following year in 2000 The Elijah Challenge was born. Since then until today it has indeed been a very exciting and fruitful ride for us—just as Sister Christina prophesied to us above.
Indeed wherever we have gone (from verse 9 above) in well over forty mostly Third World countries around the world to teach The Elijah Challenge and to preach the gospel with extraordinary boldness in regions living under the dominion of darkness, He has been with us and has cut off all our enemies from before us. He has not only kept us safe, but also made us very fruitful even in regions dominated by the darkness of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and witchcraft.
The Lord has indeed graciously fulfilled the prophecy spoken over us years ago by our intercessor Christina in Malaysia.
Christina recently sent us another prophecy from the Lord. She declared:
”God is going to re-fire you into an upgraded level that you have never seen before. You are going to have dramatic overnight acceleration with sudden promotion, blessing and advancement.
This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Isaiah 45:1-3).”
What is significant about this prophecy?
Notice in the first paragraph of her latest prophecy above Christina used the word “acceleration.” Now it happens that in our mission statement in the top paragraph of our home page we have expressed our goal as follows:
“According to some missiologists, there still remain roughly 5,000 unreached people groups in the world which must be reached before the end (Matthew 24:14) and the coming of the Son of Man. We believe the time of the end is near. Therefore the Elijah Challenge is called to train the body of Christ to accelerate the pace and fulfillment of the Great Commission. We train committed disciples and missionaries to preach the gospel with great power to the lost—especially to non-Christian, gospel-resistant peoples in the Third World—exactly as was done by the disciples in Acts when the gospel exploded throughout the known world at the time.”
We noticed that in the prophecy for us Christina had used the expression “acceleration.” So we asked her about this. Had she known before she received the words and the prophecy for us (repeated again below) that we were already sensing the same burden to accelerate the pace and fulfillment of the Great Commission during these last days?
No! She replied and informed us that she had no idea that we had felt called to train the Church to accelerate in the area of the Great Commission and making disciples of all nations before the great and terrible Day of the Lord.
”God is going to re-fire you into an upgraded level that you have never seen before. You are going to have dramatic overnight acceleration with sudden promotion, blessing and advancement.
This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Isaiah 45:1-3).”
From a September 2015 event in Tasmania, Australia after we ministered
One of those who came up to testify afterwards was a white-bearded gentleman in his sixties named Tony. He had known and served the Lord for many years, and had a prophetic gifting. With the microphone in his hand he told the people that the message he had just heard was the clearest gospel message he had heard in thirty years. This was the message which the Lord had just confirmed through the testimonies of miraculous healings after the preaching.
After the service we had a chance to meet with Tony at the front of the sanctuary. He prophesied to us based on Ezekiel 47:1-5 where the prophet was led from ankle-deep water to waist-deep water, and finally to water deep enough in which to swim.
Tony prophesied to us that we in The Elijah Challenge were actually still in ankle-deep water relatively-speaking, and that the Lord would be taking us into DEEPER and DEEPER water. The best is yet to come.
The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in–a river that no one could cross. (Ezekiel 47:1-5)