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Spiritual authority is an invisible force that can be used to your advantage if you understand its purpose in God’s divine plan. When I was just a young man in my early twenties, I was given a book about the Christian teachings of Watchman Nee, which was written during the time of World War II. He was a pharmacist in China and, though he never wrote a book, his students took notes on his teachings and they were later compiled into books that can be purchased on Amazon.com. A book that really affected my life was the one he wrote on spiritual authority.

Now, after 40+ years of followings it’s biblical guidelines, I’ve realized this one book by Watchman Nee has contained one of the most important foundational teachings of my life. Though it has caused me to follow the less-traveled road of success more often than many of my counterparts and friends, it has kept me on a sure foundation that is yet to be moved by trouble and adversity. I’ve learned the proven realities and strength of staying under spiritual authority. Everyone I know who has cut and rebelled, no matter how strong and convincing their reasons were, has ended up losing, because they entered into an unstable world without having a spiritual covering over them.

The Word of God teaches that there are four lines of God-ordained authority.

· The first is the authority of the family. Usually the father heads up this line of authority, but sometimes God sets a solitary person in the family that has to replace the father figure because the natural father neglected his responsibility. Moses did this (as recorded in the book of Genesis) when he shirked his duty as a dad by not circumcising his son. His wife, Zipporah, had to become temporary head of the household in order to save Moses’ life from the angel that was about to kill him. The incident was so severe that she called Moses a “bloody man,” and threw the foreskin of her son at Moses’ feet.

· The second authority is that of the church. This religious authority over you is extremely important because it augments the family with its covering power and protects you from evil spirits, harmful influences, and time-consuming sidetracks. I believe the authority of the church is so vital because it happens to be the area where the most powerful warfare that you’ll face in your life occurs. The Bible states that we literally, fight against spiritual wickedness in high places from the church. Though it’s probably the hardest place to get under Christ’s rulership, when it does happen everyone that is under its influence benefits dramatically from His rulership. (More on this later.)

· The third line of spiritual authority is your place of employment. But this is an area that is frequently dominated by illegitimate authority. The boss, or owner of your company, is the line of authority that you are to be in sync with, to help you produce good fruit for your company. However, spiritual wickedness can also be brought into the workplace ~ by unscrupulous unions, disgruntled employees, and plain old gossip. These things work against our ability to produce optimum results and, if we are not careful, will make us unprofitable servants.

· The last line of spiritual authority ordained by God is that of the government. It’s easy for governmental authority to be controlled by evil entities that can infiltrate and pervert the other three lines of authority that are ordained by God. For example, ever since Hitler and Stalin, world governments have tried to take authority over our personal health, even though it’s not fundamental to the government’s lines of authority to implement such intrusive conduct. That authority only belongs to the family.

What you eat, drink, how you die, or if you take medicine, or not, is a decision that should be solely given to the authority of the family. Yet, for the last one hundred years or so, governments have tried to take this authority away from you so they can rule men’s lives, and consequently the masses, by fear. Christ has come to set us free from this kind of bondage. His design is for governments to be reigned in, and to have the least amount of control over our lives. Christ wants to put the “lion share” of control not in the workplace or the church, but back into the family.

And, of course, Christ wants to personally help you rule your family.

I’ve just given you a brief overview of spiritual authority. Now I want to present a more detailed analysis so that we can see how spiritual authority is necessary so that each one of us can work to our optimum capabilities in 2012. The best way for me to explain this is to show you how God took me on a personal journey in 2011, and lined up my life with His spiritual guidelines of authority. On January 11, 2011, the Lord told me that He was going to ask me to do something that would require more faith that I’d ever possessed in my life. He said, “You are what’s wrong with the Gazowsky family. If you’ll take responsibility for every disagreement, misunderstanding, and mistake that your family has made, I can fix it.”

Let me start off by explaining to you that I’m not the oldest, or senior person, in my family. But through the years, because of my prayers for our family, I’ve become what the Bible calls the “solitary” that is set in the family. As a result, most people come to me, including my elderly mother, regarding family issues. So, when the Lord told me that I was the one at fault, His words seemed absurd to me. In my own mind it seemed that I was the answer to everyone’s problems ~ not the problem! Yet deep down I knew that God was telling me the truth, even though I wasn’t willing to admit it at the time.

After three days of mechanically confessing to members of my family what God had told me to admit, a problem began to surface. It finally came to a head in a heated argument between Sandy, my wife, and me. As I sat there in stony silence, afraid of what might come out of my mouth, I suddenly had my eyes opened. I saw that it really was my fault. I had been trying to use my fleshly fatherly authority to do the work that only God is capable of doing. I saw that it was time for me to turn everything over to God and admit how helpless I was as a father. Wow! This suddenly changed everything!

No longer was I going to try to set things right on my own. I would start relying on God to do it by His Spirit. And, boy, did He go to work! Throughout 2011, I faced this kind of crisis over and over again. Each time I had to turn it over to God and let Him fix it. What’s amazing is, I began seeing things change that had nothing to do with the issues that God was dealing with me on. For example, my mother (who is nearly 90 years old) has, in the past, had conflicting opinions with me on almost every subject. We would argue continually. Now she is as happy as a schoolgirl. Every day we giggle and laugh and there isn’t anything there to disagree on.

I’m totally amazed at how much fun my mother and I have together. I never dreamed that life with my family could be so wonderful! Then I became more amazed. I found out that the unity that was happening in my family was also occurring with members of my staff at the church. And I hadn’t even addressed this issue with them. Even more shocking was how a similar kind of unity had spread into our movie company, and to our outside suppliers.

As a matter of fact, just today I was literally overwhelmed at how many business deals went my way. Case in point, an expensive repair on some equipment was negotiated and paid for before it even came to my attention! Truthfully, it happened so fast that I needed to go before the Lord and ask, “God, was this Your perfect will? It happened before I even knew there was a problem.” The Lord said to me, “Did not I say in my Word that I would answer you before you even ask?” Wow! This is great! I’m seeing that when obstacles are removed that hinder your spiritual authority, God can put you on a fast track that seems to move at lightening speed.

So what are some obstacles that hinder spiritual authority? The main one that I’ve been able to observe and identify is rebellion ~ in my own heart and flesh against the perfect will of God. This is why Jesus said that He could do nothing unless He sees the Father doing it. I must personally come to this level of obedience. In addition, I must get rid of all of my own selfish desires, which are actually rebellions against the will of God.

For most of us this is going to take a little more time of soul searching, and also throwing things in the garbage ~ which can be mental, physical, or spiritual. Letting go things of our endearing past, that attract us so much to rebel against God’s future, is such a key to the freedom He wants to impart to each of us. I want to encourage you that this is the year to wipe your slate clean of all of your fleshly desires, will, and agendas, and simply say, “I will follow the wind of the Spirit. I can only do what I see the Father doing.” If you do it, you’ll move much faster than you ever thought possible!

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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Probably the hardest thing for us to face in leadership is the realization that we have made a mistake. But God desires for us to confess those mistakes so that those working with us understand that we have chosen the will of God above our own reputations. This week I faced such a decision. I’d known about my mistake for the last few months, during which time God has been putting me under chastisement. Now He has told me it’s time to come to grips with it and explain to you how the mistake was made. I hope it will help you also clear the air and step back into the perfect will of God.

A few years ago I was just getting the revelation about asking God regarding everything I’m to do, and being careful not to commit the sin of presumption. For the first time I decided to put a major decision I was about to make before the prophets of God. The question was, “Should I get a loan on our business property in San Francisco and use the money to produce our first Christian film?” The Lord then showed me four prophets that I should bring to San Francisco. During a church service I put each prophet in a separate room so they could not speak to one another.

The prophets were brought into the main auditorium to give their word of the Lord concerning the situation. I had earlier made it clear that it was my desire to get the loan, but I wanted to know what the Lord was saying concerning the decision. I was surprised when the first prophet said, “The Lord said, ‘No. The loan signifies bondage.’” The second prophet gave a similar word. All four prophets agreed that the loan was not the will of God. Though I was somewhat embarrassed, I stood up and told the congregation that I would obey the word of the Lord and drop the idea of getting a loan to do films.

A couple of years later I brought in an accounting firm to computerize the church finances. Earlier the church’s mortgage on the building had been at an extremely high interest rate and we had since been able to lower it considerably. I had asked the Lord if this was okay to do and He said, “Yes, because it would make the payment load much easier on the finances.” After we finished the legal papers the loan officer commented that we were getting the loan for quite a bit less than what the building was worth. He then nonchalantly asked if I wanted to borrow some extra money to do something special with. He said it would not raise the payments very much.

That night I saw a particular sum in my mind and quickly made the assumption that it must be God who put the figure there. It was also around this time that I’d been approached by a German producer about his desire to seek financing for our movie company in Germany. He felt that if we already had a studio leased and were in early development of one of our film projects, it would be easier for him to pull major funding from the German bank, which was at that time financing many Hollywood films. “Wow”, I thought, “This is really God! It’s all coming together so perfectly!” But the trouble was, I was disobeying the word of the prophets when they said not to get any loan to use for movies.

To be honest, I don’t think I actually recognized I was about to make such a big mistake. The words of the prophets had been nearly two years earlier, so I kind of presumed (through my own strong will) that what had been said was no longer applicable to the current situation. Also, my desire for seeing our company progress fast in the film industry overwhelmed any subtle warnings that I may have felt. The money we borrowed easily took care of the expenses to lease an empty airplane hanger on Treasure Island. Before I knew it, we were working full swing on the island. I then flew to Germany and, with a business associate who lived there, went to the German bank that had just financed a major film in America. I made a convincing pitch for our film.

The meeting ended up being totally awesome because the German Bank quickly gave us a green light. But when I got back to San Francisco things began to sour. We found out we lost the German funding. Next was the studio. The financial situation became a very heavy burden for us to bear. We ended up going through years of financial trials. God slowly began unveiling the reason for the difficulties, but it wasn’t until the last six months that I actually saw the root cause. It was my presumption against God. The necessity of God revealing my mistake then became apparent to me. The smallest misstep can lead to great disasters.

Since the German fiasco, God has progressed us forward in many other areas in the film industry. But now we are extremely cautious that no presumptions are made concerning His will. At every step we are careful that every word from God is established “by the mouths of two or three witnesses.” We are constantly ready to answer before God and men when anyone questions our direction. I hope this helps you in your journey following Jesus. I’ve learned from experience that those of us who are strong-willed can easily slip into the sin of presumption, and therein lies great disaster.

God bless you and give you wisdom along your path to success.

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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It was a good while ago that God gave me this simple prophetic word: “Less haste, more speed.” I don’t know if I can remember when a prophetic word has had so much influence on my life culture. One of the direct influences upon my ability to properly follow God, and submit to His daily instructions correctly, has been my ability to remove haste out of my life ~ especially in the decision-making process. And yet I find out, paradoxically, more speed occurs.

So it is with God’s instructions. Usually He will give us simple instructions and we have no clue as to how powerful the ramifications are. Their influences and effects on your life can be so encompassing that it can change your personal life culture to the point of taking you to a place of ineffective mediocrity to point of accuracy and effectiveness.

Haste is driven by the inner emotions of anxiousness, which powers so many things in our lives ~ such as love and desire. The only way to deal with haste is to take it through the passageway of death. And this is a whole lot easier said than done. It wasn’t until I came to the realization that it was impossible for me to change myself on my own, that I understood that the illusive goal of more speed could be achieved. Apostle Paul told us that if Abraham could have done it on his own, what we’ve read in the Bible would only be an Abraham story. But instead we are given a God story, about what God did for Abraham.

When Abraham entered into what God was doing for him that was the turning point. When you and I enter into what God is doing for us, the same thing will happen. We have to turn everything over to God’s control and submit, not only to His guidance, but His daily instructions that continually take us through the miniscule elements of life. At first this might sound complicated and difficult. But once you do it, you’ll find out that it is fun and enjoyable. Only a childlike mindset can prepare you for this type of transition.

Probably the hardest thing for you to understand is that God is willing to take all of the ugly things and save all of the good parts for you. He will take the worries, problems, responsibilities, even the calculations, and leave you with simple delight and fulfillment of each task being completed. And you get to enjoy it all! For me this seemed too good to be true. Yet it is true ~ simple and true! So how does this work in the real world?

Step one is to allow God to initiate everything. Didn’t He say, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end?” That simply means, don’t start anything on your own. My wife and I knew I needed a warm winter overcoat to wear with my suits. Sure enough, when we went to look for one we found a beautiful coat made by Georgio Armani. But something didn’t feel right about it. About an hour later we went to the Armani boutique and found the same coat, this time in the right color for my skin tone, and it was 40% off! Still, it all didn’t seem to line up correctly. We waited a week and both of us decided we weren’t supposed to get the coat. Things just didn’t align properly in the Spirit.

I realize this is just a simple purchase of a jacket. But these are the small things that God wants us to be faithful with, so He can entrust true riches into our hands. Just yesterday Sandy and I again addressed the issue of my coat. Then it hit us. The missing element in the episode of the coat was the initiation phase ~ God hadn’t started it. Since He is the Alpha and Omega, and we knew God was trying to teach us is to wait and let Him start the process. If we initiate the thing, already we have started down the wrong pathway. How much more important this is when it comes to your career, or decision regarding some other important aspect of your life. It’s time for us to quit initiating things and ask God to pick out the best of our choices.

This is why haste causes us to waste so much time. We don’t understand how useless it is to go down an incorrect pathway and for the wrong goal ~ even though our goal may appear genuine and might, in our book, sufficient for our own purposes. It’s only the wisdom of God that knows what we will really face in the future. Only He has the ability to align your present purposes with their necessary goals ~ and ultimate fulfillment. It may seem to you to be laborious and a waste of time to stop everything and go back to square one. But I can tell you, use less haste and you’ll definitely enjoy the resultant pleasure of speed!

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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I was standing on a 200-foot bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean when suddenly, as I raised my hands to praise God I had a vision of my body flying through the glory of God. My arms and legs were disconnected to the point to where even my tongue was out in front of my face. The word of God then came to me like a large egg slicer and sliced through all of my body parts. The fire of God purged through my body, soul, and spirit and the thoughts and intents of everything that was me was exposed. What I just described to you might sound painful and stressful, but to me it was very soothing and glorious. I knew there was nothing in my life that He did not have complete access to.

Around this same time I received an email from brother Timothy Snodgrass telling me about a comet named “Love Joy.” Let me give you some background to his story. Just before Thanksgiving I was at Cal Thomas’s church and the Lord gave me a word. He said, “There will be four rainbows and a comet as signs that God is going to fulfill everything He promised.” When I gave this prophecy regarding natural events in public, I knew I was really sticking my neck out because people would later face me regarding its accuracy. Mind you, at the time I had absolutely no clue of the meaning attached to it.

A few days later, on a Sunday morning in San Francisco, I went to buy something at the local 7-11 store. Suddenly the cashier told me to look outside because there was a rainbow in the sky. It brought to my mind the prophetic word I’d been given. An hour or so later I was interrupted during the morning service as some of the youth notified us that as there was yet another rainbow forming behind the church. Wow! This was definitely becoming something to be noted. After church, a third rainbow was seen by some of our parishioners, and by four o’clock in the afternoon a fourth rainbow appeared over the whole city of San Francisco. I believe rainbows signify the promises of God, and the number four represents the four cornerstones of the foundation of a building.

It seemed like God’s message was that He was going to keep His promises that He gave us at the beginning, and our building, ministry, and company would be built together in a foursquare kind of way. Timothy Snodgrass told me that he was looking forward to what God was going to show us in the upcoming comet. I marveled that he was so confident. Not only was he sure the comet was going to come to pass, but he believed it would come before the end of 2011. I’d heard what Bro. Timothy said, but I didn’t realize it would be so accurate and the message so profound.

Now it brings me to today. I was stunned when I opened up Timothy’s message. He tells about NASA’s space station in the sky, and how even they were taken aback by what they are calling the “eleventh-hour” miracle in the sky above the earth. The comet is called Love Joy, named after the gentleman who first discovered it in Australia. Even their name has a subtle message in it. Brother Timothy prophesied to us in San Francisco that the way to properly enter 2012 was to “fast” criticism and spend our time laughing in the joy of God. What better describes this current discovery is for Christians to be experiencing “Love Joy.” This namesake seems to accurately describe the victorious position that Christians should have entering into 2012.

But when you look at where the comet’s pathway has traveled, it has more profound consequences for the quests of you and me. It’s the first time in recorded history that astronomers have seen a comet pass so close to the sun and still survive. To their amazement, the comet in fact passed so close to the sun that it appeared to break in pieces in the fiery heat ~ and then reassemble itself on the other side of the sun! Wow! I feel this is a physical example of exactly what God has been taking us through in 2011. He’s been purging us with His fire and then putting us all back together after we have passed through His refining process.

Didn’t John the beloved see a vision of the Laodecean Church, and how it is to be tried by the fire until it’s purified like gold? Personally, this purging has affected me to the roots of my human nature. Lately my breathing has been so labored that many nights I can only sleep a few hours. I find myself praying six to seven hours, contemplating this purification. But to be totally honest with you, I wouldn’t trade the position I’m in for anything. That’s because sins in my personal life, that I thought would never leave, have been miraculously purged. That’s not to say I’m perfect, but I’m definitely not the same man I was a year ago.

Here is a picture of the comet Love Joy in time-elapsed photos, as it passes through the sun, growing bigger and bigger, as it continues its quest through God’s wonderful universe.

Click Here

May all of us pass through the fire, and also grow more and more, as we continue our quests through God’s kingdom.

Love you all.

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Update on the Comet “Lovejoy”

By Richard Gazowsky

The prophet Timothy Snodgrass just contacted me with the news that there’s a stunning update on the comet, “Lovejoy”. If you remember, the Lord gave me a prophecy at the beginning of this month that there were going to be four rainbows, followed by a comet, which would be a signs that God’s words over all of us were true. The next few days the Lord gave us the signs of the four rainbows. Timothy then prophesied that the comet would come at the very end of the year, and sure enough it did!

To the world’s amazement, on December 16, 2011, the comet passed so close to the sun that it should have been destroyed. Instead, it became enlarged and strengthened, shaped like a huge disc, with its tail growing ever larger. This last Sunday, on the first day of the New Year, an astronomer in England took a random photo of the Milky Way. The stars in the background made the Lovejoy comet appear to be in the hands of a massive angelic being, as seen from the British place of observation.

Not only is a photograph like this extremely rare, but if you observe carefully, the message becomes quite clear. The angelic being looks like Christ holding roses in one hand (God’s favor), and the tail of the comet in His other (God’s judgment). Below is the picture.

For further information you can read the article in the Daily Mail.

Click Here to read!

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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I love the way the Message Bible translates certain Scriptures, because it makes God’s meanings so stark-raving plain ~ especially where Paul talks about making a clean slate, a fresh start; and how to achieve it. In the year 2012 we will be entering a time of birthing brand new things, so it’s vital that we begin with a clean slate and a fresh start. The purer we are the purer our offspring will be.

2011 was definitely a year of ending things and of crossing the line. If there ever was a definition of this last year that made things abundantly clear, it was that it’s now time to cross the finish line and end all of the works of our former flesh. I can readily acknowledge that God has done this in my life ~ at an amazingly detailed level. He has dealt with me on so many personal levels that it’s almost impossible for me to articulate them all. And I felt that each change in my life was like cutting off a cancerous cell that could grow into something bigger later on. I can best describe the Lord’s pursuit of purity in my personal life as the relentless untiring chasing by a father who will never give up until his son reaches perfection. In other words, I feel loved.

What is God achieving in us? I feel He is looking for a completely clean slate where He can paint the colors of our future in shades that will last for generations. I recall when I once consulted with an artist about painting a poster for one of our movies. I had asked her to paint it on an 8 x 20 foot canvas. I took her down to an art supply house to make the purchase and was surprised that it was going to take a few weeks just to prepare the canvas to receive color. With fascination I watched the detail the artist went through in the process, and that it required so many coats of a plaster-like primer, sanding, and then more coats. This preparation continued for weeks, until finally the surface was white, smooth, and flawless.

I realized, as I followed her patiently through this procedure, that God also needed to go through the process of preparing our hearts ~ so they would be ready to receive the words of life He was going to give us concerning the future projects we were to do. Finally, the canvas the artist prepared was ready to receive the oil paints. They would adhere deep into its surface, creating a bond that would last for hundreds of years. This is why the artwork of the great masters in Italy has kept its vibrancy throughout the centuries. God desires our hearts to receive His words, not just as information or knowledge, as part of the permanent culture of our lives.

My three children were raised on a higher spiritual plain than I was. As a result, prayer is a part of their daily lives. It’s not a chore or a duty, but is an integral component of their cultural decision-making process. To present things before the Lord is natural with them. They wouldn’t even consider dating just any Christian without prior prayer and fasting. Even small decisions, like going to someone’s house to eat, or what garment they put on in the morning, is done with careful consideration in God’s presence. This is God preparing the canvases of their hearts.

Jesus said, “I can do nothing unless I see the Father do it.” Jesus’ heart was prepared to such a state of cultural discipline that He would not consider doing any activity unless He first saw it in the Spirit ~ that it was an action in pursuance of the Father’s perfect will. If I put this in the context of a painting, this means that the artist wouldn’t even consider putting a brush stroke on the canvas unless he had first seen the Father pick out the brushes, the colors, and even the direction of the strokes of the brushes. Wow! What unity in the Spirit there is in this example, and how it calls us to new levels of commitment to the activities we are to pursue in 2012. Because you’ve been listening to God, He’s been preparing your hearts to receive the anointed oils and heavenly hues of His Spirit. You will then be beautifully colored by His glory and will show the world the true vividness of the kingdom of Heaven.

This kind of pursuit will lead us to explosive moments of birthing. Once things are heaven-born, not only will they multiply quickly, the changes will be permanent and you’ll be set on an exciting pathway that you’ll be able to follow for many, many years. When Israel finally came into the Promised Land, they experienced an explosive growth period. They quickly conquered Jericho and, after a hiccup of disobedience, they conquered the city of Ai. But in their next decision they didn’t fare so well. They got so busy conquering and settling they forgot to ask God beforehand, and went ahead and made a contract and covenant with the Gibeonites. This slight mistake turned into four hundred years of annoyance and troubles.

We see that the same situation occurred in modern Israel when, in 1967, God gave Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir the city of Jerusalem. But instead of immediately removing the Dome of the Rock and reclaiming the whole site of Zion, they stood back and compromised. For the years since then, this action has been a plague in the sight of Israel. As a result, the Arab nations have become stronger, instead of weaker, with the passage of time. In the same way, you and I must be careful not to make little compromises in our ministries ~ especially during the next two years, which are to be the years of change. Otherwise, the compromises could turn into encroachments of evil in our businesses and ministries, and give satan the ability to attack and hinder us over the next forty years. Here are some areas that I feel you need to be careful regarding, and to consider asking the Lord about:

1. Endeavor to pay things off in full ~ from homes, to vehicles, to equipment. Try never to borrow, lease, or rent ~ but instead become the owner so you can loan to others.

2. Don’t step outside of your sphere of influence. Whatever area of dominion God has allocated to you, stick to it. Don’t get sidetracked by pursuing opportunities or affiliations that don’t concern you.

3. Ignore time wasters, black holes, and clouds without rain. During this time of birthing you will have many supposed opportunities come to you, and a large percentage of them will be nothing more than time wasters, or they’ll promise you rain but you’ll never see a drop. These so-called business and ministry opportunities are very easy to recognize, as they’ll be presented to you through the use of swelling words and great promises.

Usually, if God gives you something, He will tell you in advance that it’s coming. The, when it happens, you’ll find out it’s just what God promised! This may come as a shock to you, but I believe if you truly approach a business or ministry opportunity with complete honesty, every time God will reveal their deception right in front of your face. It really works! As long as you don’t allow yourself to succumb to their sales pitch.

4. Beware of becoming obsessed with a single “divine call”, where you end up ignoring your family, children, and grandchildren. You’ll become like a black hole in outer space, where the gravity is so centrally focused that even light cannot escape its intense inward pull. I’ve lost many a close friend because of their singular pursuit of their “God project”. They no longer were able to have healthy relationships with those closest to them.

God is not like the world. It tries to put you on its “cutting edge”, but you end up bleeding to death. God puts you in the center of His wheel, where you will experience life ~ in your family, business, church and social acquaintances ~ more abundantly than you ever thought possible!

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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Over the last few months God has been ministering to me in the night concerning the subject of innovation. The desire of God is to bring all kinds of spiritual innovation to the people on this planet. Firstly, God began talking to me concerning the vision that Ezekiel saw in the first chapter of his book. Many preachers refer to it as “the wheel in the middle of the wheel”. This vision is the key to unlock what God is doing in the current day (but I will get to that in a moment).

The concept of the wheel in the middle of the wheel appears to be repeated in Ephesians, the first chapter, where Paul says, “The church is not peripheral to the world but the world is peripheral to the church, and Christ is the center of everything.” Ezekiel’s image seems to be a sort of gyroscope (which is also a wheel in the middle of the wheel). I believe the concept that Ezekiel is trying to show us is when the wheel in the middle of the wheel is spinning properly, the Christian Church becomes stabilized and can move in a specific direction.

The concept that Paul is trying to show us in Ephesians is that believers need to be plugged into Jesus to receive the power that will drive the wheel, or the Church, which is collectively the essence of the wheel. If the Church is communicating with God through speaking in tongues (like the eyes that are on the spinning wheel, Paul says we see the deep things of God) Christians can stay in a steady direction with Christ. I know some of this seems a little complicated, but in essence Ezekiel and Paul are showing us the revival in the future, and how it will be guided by the Holy Spirit ~ which we all are privileged to listen to daily.

After God shared with me this revelation, He began to talk to me about the big picture of what is going on planet earth worldwide. Up until the last few years there have only been relatively few places on earth where innovation, spiritual revival, and freedom have occurred simultaneously. For example, the area around Baghdad, Iraq, where Babylon used to exist, had once been the source of great innovation. But for the last three thousand years it’s pretty much lain dormant, though roughly the same number of people live there now as did in the past. A similar phenomenon happened in Rome and other old metropolises of the world.

These facts seem to beg the question, “Why is California, one of the most out of the way places in the world from Jerusalem and the center of civilization, such a seat of such overwhelming innovation, freedom, and revival? One of the things that the Lord has shown me is that ancient principalities and spirits have, over centuries, created membranes of control over large populous land masses. The same Prince of Persia, that stopped Gabriel from giving a message from the Lord to Daniel, is the same spiritual principality that is trying to influence and control America.

All this may sound far-fetched until you look at what’s happened to America since 9/11. The same kinds of principalities have enacted thousands of laws in our nation that allow our government to spy on and control us, and thus influence our futures. This year there will be approximately 86,000 new laws enacted that will regulate all forms of business innovation. Ancient spirits are once again trying to shackle us with bureaucratic chains that bind our freedom. Please don’t think I’m talking about any specific persons. It’s never been about people. It has to do with spirits, and they don’t care what political party you belong to or what agenda you’re propounding. Their sole purpose is to control.

Never throughout history has there been a place like California, a region where spiritual revival has broken out with such uncontrolled freedom. The Azuza street mission converted ministers from every major denomination, while it never formed its own organized system of control over the ministers it sent out. So it is with the innovation sector of the California economy. California is the number one market in the world for the registration of patents. A detailed list of California’s accomplishments would be quite extensive, a casual glance at the innovations California has introduced into society reveals: the motion picture, the television tube, computers, microprocessors, cell phones are just a few. Wow! The influence that just one state has upon society is mind-boggling!

I’m trying to show you that spiritual activities influence global communication. The war between “Gabriel” and “the Prince of Persia” has a direct relationship with the thoughts, messages, and information exchanged between people throughout the world. Gabriel had a message to be delivered to Daniel. After a twenty-one day battle, where Michael the Archangel had to join the fight to hold back the forces of evil, Daniel was still not allowed to open up the vision and read it. It had to be sealed until a later time. In the same way, I believe the requisite elements of freedom must first exist in the atmosphere in order for God’s really powerful words to be released. As we know, Genesis 1:1 tells us that the world was created by the Word of God. And Paul tells us, in Hebrews 11, that the things which are seen were made of things which do not appear.

I believe words of God, coming through our mouths and spoken into the air, can cause divine innovation. And more importantly, innovation that results in spiritual transformation. Guttenberg’s innovation of the printing press came forty years before Martin Luther posted the spiritual revelations that resulted in the great Reformation ~ which caused an avalanche of social and religious change throughout the known world. It especially affected governmental systems, and helped bring about the end of their feudal control over populations. The point I’m trying to get you to observe is, that mechanical innovations precede spiritual innovations. Innovations are the vehicles that God has chosen to support and facilitate God’s true purpose ~ which is spiritual regeneration.

We have been seeing the incredible proliferation of iPhones and iPads throughout the known world. These devices facilitate the ability of people to communicate face-to-face with anyone on the planet through the application known as FaceTime. This one communication tool seems to be more innovative than the printing press was in its day. And look at the rapid results we are seeing. Ancient cultures that have been rigidly controlled, rocklike unmovable demon spirits, are being shaken. The largest Christian church in the Middle East is now found in Cairo, Egypt, where on 11/11/11, more than seventy-one thousand were in church praying for America. And Russia has a Holy Ghost-filled church pastored by Bishop Sunday, that is larger than the Vatican. Considering these breakouts of spiritual innovation that are occurring in some of the darkest spots on this planet, where does that put you and I?

The Lord showed me a vision of spiritual membranes, like massive transparent bubbles, that have covered large sections of the population and blocked spiritual communication. And Ezekiel’s vision, the wheel in the middle of a wheel, is a vision of segments of the Church striking holes, like bolts of lightening, in these kinds of bubbles, and thus allowing communication to get through the membranes. It’s important for us, wherever we live, to break through the controlling spirits that have formed a shield above us trying to block out the pure communications from Jesus Christ. The message for the hour is, “Christ wants His Church back.” He does not want to communicate through some minister’s agenda. He wants to communicate directly to you.

I believe every personal agenda is a form of blockage over you that is trying to stop you from hearing God’s voice ~ no matter how pure, innocent, or spiritually important, the agenda may appear. That’s why it’s so critical for us to put all this stuff aside and learn that the only voice we should be listening to is that of Jesus Christ Himself, and what He is asking us to do on a daily basis. While Jesus was on this earth He never seemed to have an agenda. He could have chosen many, for they were as numerous then as they are now. There was the anti-tax coalition, laws dealing with the circumcised, doctrines of the Pharisees, the anti-prostitute league, etc. Christ never chose any of those agendas but instead said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself but only that which He sees the Father doing.”

As most of you know, God has called my ministry into the movie industry. But the Lord has been showing me how important it is that I enter into this industry with no agenda. I’m only to daily obey His voice on exactly what He tells me to do. The Lord has shown me that any predetermined agenda makes one an easy target. Sometimes God will tell you to do something that does not make sense to anyone else’s minds, yet it totally fits into God’s overall plan. How could Jesus action of casting 5,000 demons out of the Gaderene maniac, killing a herd of swine by drowning them in the Sea of Galilee, suddenly Himself being kicked out of the country, while leaving behind a demon-free convert, fit into anyone’s agenda? What appeared to be another act that displayed God’s awesome power, later had dramatic ramifications when Christ returned to that city and its whole population turned out to joyfully welcome Him.

It’s important for each one of you to know that this kind of innovation starts with you today. Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice and another’s they will not follow.” It’s time for you to daily hear God’s voice. Let Him poke holes in the spiritual membrane that is over you that is blocking His voice. If you are faithful in little, He will make you ruler over much. Listen to His daily instructions, no matter how small or insignificant they may appear. Communication is your secret weapon. Prayer is your iPhone, dreams and visions are your iPad, and praying in tongues is your computer. It’s time that you plugged into God’s divine network, leave every agenda behind, and start hearing what Jesus is telling you today.

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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The scenario that I’m about to describe has happened numerous times in my life…It has taken me many years to “see the light”, but God showed me I was actually attempting to manipulate Him through my own selfish desires and ways. The simplest way to describe this is for you to picture a person who receives a word from God that simply says, “I am going to bless you with a new car.” Instead of the person waiting upon the Lord to do exactly what He said, bless him, the person takes it as God’s will and approval (even at the radical point of saying it is a command from God) to go out, chose a car of his or her own liking, sign a six-year contract for a loan, and then blame their bondage to the financial commitment as obedience to God. When the truth of the matter is, their disobedience, coupled with manipulation, put the person in the difficult financial position.

This scenario actually plays out in thousands of Christians’ lives every day. That’s because we never face the stark realities of what it means to truly obey the will of the Father. The reason I’m writing this blog is not to fill you with condemnation, but to reveal the beautiful pathway of obedience that lies before us all in doing exactly what God says, and means. I have seen the scenario that I’ve just described play out at many different levels of life ~ influencing the direction companies take, the paths churches embark on, and decisions countries make. I believe God is simply offering us the ability to make these kinds of decisions completely according to His will.

King Saul was told by God to annihilate the Amalekites and to destroy everything they owned. Months later King Saul found himself on the smoky battlefield with his soldiers, eagerly anticipating the great spoils of war because they’d experienced how easy the victory had been. Suddenly the thought came into King Saul’s mind that he must make good on the commitment that he made to the men when he became their king, and give them their just rewards for a job well done. And, to appease God for the slight variation in His command, King Saul would offer sacrifices to the Lord. Great! Wasn’t King Saul so smart, that he thought he could placate God by his offer of compromise.

We read that Samuel exposed this completely fruitless effort by King Saul to change God’s mind. How foolish King Saul was that he felt God could be manipulated through sacrifice. Samuel told him, “Obedience is better than sacrifice.” Like I said, this scenario has happened to me numerous times in my life.

The Lord once led me to organize an event in a San Francisco stadium. I knew it was the Lord who had told me to put on the event, but God’s instructions ended at that point. But I felt that since I was the leader, pretty much every decision was up to me. Boy, what an arrogant presumption! The event ended up being a financial disaster, and it took my church many years to recover from it. Of course I never let the real facts be known publicly, because the event had made us famous and put our name on the books as a “significant” San Francisco church. I had been unable to admit what went wrong until just lately, when I felt a need to expose my own manipulation of God’s word. That’s really what went wrong.

Last week the Lord told my family and I, through a prophecy by Timothy Snodgrass, that we were to go to Mount Diablo and perform a prophetic act. Timothy didn’t mention what the act was to be. The next day Timothy prophesied that we would turn one dollar into a billion. On Saturday the Lord spoke to us to go to a mountain that is just north of San Francisco. We prayed there for about five hours. The Lord kept telling us not to leave, that it was not time yet. Then, near the time of sunset, God spoke to three of us and said, “You must go to Mount Diablo at the crack of dawn to do your prophetic act.” That meant that we would be going to Mount Diablo before our 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning service, the first of two I was scheduled to preach that day.

As dawn was breaking we reached the base of Mount Diablo. Within minutes a park ranger happened to come by the gate entrance. He asked me, “Why have you come so early? The park doesn’t open for another hour.” Then, he unexpectedly said, “Well, I’ll let you in anyhow.” While we were driving up the mountain, the Lord spoke to us that we were to drop a dollar bill into the wind and let it float out over the Bay Area. That was to be the prophetic act. But when we arrived at the top of the mountain peak we found there was no wind blowing to carry the dollar bill anywhere.

I told the family I would obey the Lord anyhow and do what He told me. As soon as I felt the tiniest puff of wind I held a dollar bill up above me and let it drop. It circled down to the ground and lay at my feet. I felt something wasn’t right. The result didn’t have anything to do with what I’d seen in the Spirit. We all then looked around for the best position for the wind to blow, and for the next 1 1/2 hours we waited for some sort of gust of wind to blow. Finally there was a slight breeze, so I quickly threw the dollar in the direction of the wind and I watched it sail into some bushes on the side of the mountain below. I looked at my family and said, “Well, I guess this is the best that we can get out of it.”

We all then hopped into the car and started driving down the mountain. Suddenly my daughter, Rocki, became very quiet. I then said that something didn’t feel right in the Spirit. She said, “Dad, you’re right. Yesterday I saw a vision of us holding a dollar and the wind was blowing so hard that it knocked the hood of my jacket off my head. The wind then seemed to grab the dollar from my hand and it flew off into the sky. I believe that is the prophetic act that God is going to do for us.”

“But, honey,” I said, “we already tried. We waited over an hour and a half on the top of the mountain!” “Yes, dad”, she said, “but isn’t the whole thing God is trying to teach us, is to be obedient, to have patience, and to wait upon Him ~ no matter if it takes all day? Didn’t Brother Timothy say that this prophetic act would turn one dollar into a billion? If needs be, couldn’t we wait a whole day for something like that?”

Ouch! My daughter’s words stung like fire in my heart. I saw once again my own personal manipulation of God’s command in trying to make it conform to my convenience. I immediately turned the car around and drove back up to the top of the mountain. I grabbed another dollar from my pocket and walked out to the edge of a cliff, held it up, and waited for God’s wind. I was resolved in my mind that it didn’t matter how long it took, I was going to wait for the Lord.

After the waiting went on for another hour, I realized that we wouldn’t make it back in time for the 8:00 a.m. service. I started calling some of my associate pastors to see who could cover for me. Then, while I was on the phone with one of the pastors, Rocki called out, “Dad, give me the dollar!” I ignored her because I was busy on the phone. She rushed over and ripped the dollar out of my hand! Startled by her sudden movement, I took my attention away from my conversation and watched in stunned silence.

The wind suddenly rose up, blew Rocki’s hood off her head, the dollar flew from her hand and sailed up towards the sky, and soared thousands of feet through the air towards the San Francisco Bay Area far below. Wow! This was exactly how Rocki described it in her vision. She waited on God and now His wind was carrying it away. This experience was simple, but truly profound, because it taught me what I hadn’t been able to learn from books. The necessity to wait on God for the right time at the right place!

So often we leaders say we’re going to do exactly what God wants us to do, yet we’ve already conjured up a whole bag of tricks, pre-made decisions ready to fit into the so-called flow of the Spirit and perfect will of God. Your manipulation and presumptuous sin is so convincing that the loyal followers on your staff profoundly admire you for being true to yourself, while all the time you have violated God’s command. I have done this too many times. And, to be honest, I was about ready to commit the same manipulation again concerning an event that was to be held on New Year’s Eve at the Voice of Pentecost. The Lord had told me that this event was to be His event, and He wanted it to be a party. Immediately I began preparing to meet with staff members to start planning the party. There I went again! It was my manipulation, instead of the fulfillment being done by God.

It took about a week of prayer for my air to bubble to the top, and for me to see how God must fulfill His own words with His own actions ~ instead of mine. One of the problems we have as leaders, is we make the assumption that because we are given more authority and power we are to use that authority to control everything. The truth is, we are to use the new authority and power to allow God to control everything. And believe me, He has got a better idea. What His plan is for our New Year’s Eve service, I yet don’t have a clue. But I’m sure of this one thing: it’s going to be fresh, exciting, and will completely blow us all away. I can’t wait to see you there on December 31, 2011, starting at 9:00 p.m. It’s scheduled to end at 12:30 a.m. ~ but that’s up to God…

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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2011 has been the most intense year of my life, and I know many of you have also experienced great singular instructions from God as He fine-tunes your personal lives. I woke up this morning at 2:45 a.m. and felt what has now become a familiar burning in my chest; not heartburn or a physical ailment, but a spiritual feeling that my chest was on fire with hunger for God. For about two hours I was praising God, as the incredible relentless action of the Lord was knocking the fleshly ways out of my personal life’s culture.

Sometime during these same morning hours the Lord spoke to me to look at my email. I was pleasantly surprised to see a prophetic download from Susan O’Mara. When I read her prophecy I saw a vision of myself in my current condition, brought with such clarity, what I’d been experiencing in God. After I read her words I also saw a personal application of what I haven’t yet finished doing. I knew immediately that I must share her vision with all of you.

The Stone Of Reproach Is Being Rolled Away This Day

Today, I heard in the Spirit a great grinding sound. It was loud and grating and sounded like scraping or mashing. I couldn’t figure out what I was hearing at first. It was very loud and I knew that something very large was moving in the earth. As I was intently listening I saw what it was. I saw a very massive round stone in front of me. It was very big and whatever was behind it was even larger. It was rolled in front of a very tall mountain, at its base. The mountain was almost black, though as it had been burnt in a fire. The mountain looked desolate and empty of any vegetation or people. All that was there was the blackened mountain and the great stone by the base of it.

What I had heard was the stone, that was at the base of the mountain, as it was beginning to move. The stone must have been there for a long time because the stone seemed to groan under the weight of it’s own mass as it struggled to move. I did not see a hand moving it, but I knew that there was one there. The stone groaned and creaked and grated under the weight that had held it in place for so long. Suddenly, it began to break away from it’s crusted stance. It then began to move faster until it had fully moved in front of the mountain’s base. What I saw surprised me, because behind the stone was a huge cave.

The cave was massive and looked as if it could easily contain a multitude of people within it. The stone seemed to stand like a round statue, beckoning me to come closer to the blackened mountain. As I got closer and looked inside the cave, I saw a glorious scene. I saw a multitude of people, each one lit up with a different-colored flame within them. As they all stood there they shone like a multitude of colored flames, all burning as one great fire within a mountain-sized fireplace. The people were smiling and very happy. They were radiant and very regal in appearance. They were rejoicing because the stone had been rolled away.

The people were looking out at a new day. The stone had released them all and now they were all free to leave the mountain together. I could feel the joy and love that radiated from each of them. But there was even a greater love that I felt coming from them. They had learned to love while they were in the blackened mountain. They had all been changed within that place and now they each stood in a brand-new grace. Then the vision ended. I heard the words, “The stone of reproach is being rolled away this day.” I decided to look up some Scriptures regarding stones:

Matthew 27:59: “And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.”

Matthew 28:1: “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.”

Mark 16:3: “And they were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’ 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.”

Joshua 5:9: “And the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.’ And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.”

Isaiah 54:4: “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.”

Genesis 29:8: “But they said, ‘We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.’ 10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.”

The Lord then spoke to me, and said, “I have finished the refining of My People who responded to me in the hour of trial that I brought each of them into. I have caused them to pass through the death process and have thoroughly purged the sin and the stain that was within them. I have now brought them out corporately, because with them I will now do a new thing in the earth. I will reveal My Overcomers, and they shall shake the world with the knowledge of My Glory that they learned while I was dealing with them when I shut them in.

“I have rolled away the stone and now they shall come forth burning from within, burning with Me. I told you that the Transition is complete. I now show you this to further illuminate the message, so that My People will know that I have surely done it. I want them to each rise up and know that I have finished My work and that they are no longer bound, no longer alone, no longer shut out from each other. On the contrary, I brought them all through this phase together, even though most felt the isolation of the death process. My people are never alone, for I am always with them.

“I am now making it clear that they are to move forward and to begin to walk in a new way. The old sins, and their fleshly weaknesses and failures, have passed away. I am their life, for I have fashioned Myself into a greater reality within them as they were being transformed. They shall now overcome in the earth, for that is their inheritance. It is time for My People to inherit My Promises and all that is called to be theirs by right. You are seeing the emerging of My Remnant and they shall transform the face of the church that is still in bondage in the earth. It is time for My Church, My Flocks, My Sheep, to be watered again. It is time for strong food, and drink that is pure, to be served to My People again.

“My Mountain is a sign of the Death that I subjected all of Mine to, and now it shall be a Symbol of Life that overcame death for them. It is a memorial of victory to them. My Fiery Light shall burn into the night, and I shall open the eyes of multitudes to My Light, and they shall be drawn to My People, and to Me. I shall reveal Myself to all who look for Me. I have opened the Door to their Destiny. Now it is time to walk out their course. It is a Day of New Life and of new Vision. I will awaken a new vision within My People as they step forwards with faith in Me. This is a Day of Victory. It is a time to rejoice in the freedom that has been given to them today. I shall now move through them in a brand new way!”

Susan O’Mara

After the third time reading her prophecy, I realized that I was one of the people coming out of the cave. I also knew that I wasn’t ready to come out. The whole reason that I woke up this morning at 2:46 a.m. (and had been waking up for weeks like this) was because I’d felt a deep burning in my chest, like fire. I couldn’t sleep but could only pray. I knew that the fire had not completed its work in me.

I recently met with some people. During the meeting they shared with me some negative things that our government was doing and I joined in the criticism. Bro. Timothy Snodgrass had prophesied to me that for the last days of this year I must “fast” criticism and not speak against anyone in any way. Even if someone like King Saul was to throw a javelin at my head, I must sing his praises and bless him in the name of the Lord.

I sat there alone in the dark with tears running down my face, because I realized I was completely incapable of doing this. I thought that I should call the people up and repent to them for criticizing others, but as soon as the thought came into my mind the Lord rebuked me and said, “Richard, that is your problem. You are constantly trying to fix yourself. Stop now and give up. Realize that only I can fix you.”

After the Lord spoke this to me I remembered Romans 4:1-3: “What we read here is not an Abraham story but a God story. It was not what Abraham did for God but when Abraham entered into what God was doing for him that was the turning point. Instead of Abraham putting things right God put things right in Abraham’s life.”

This Scripture pinpoints where my victory lies. When I am completely letting God fix me, then I am ready to walk out of the cave and face the brave new world. Wow! O God, may we all get there before January 1, 2012.

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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While I was at the Rose Bowl, worshiping God with the thousands of other Christians, God suddenly said to me, “Be careful that you give no opinion as to what happens on this day, because I will show you that there is much going on that you will not see until later.” I knew that God had chosen 11/11/11 as a date to significantly impact the body of Christ. I was personally seeing its effects ricocheting through the church I pastor, the business I own, and the relationships that God has been developing in my life.

The next week God prompted me to go to Ukiah and visit Pastor Cal Thompson’s church in northern California. It had been a long time since I’d visited a congregation outside my own, so I felt the event was going to be significant. When my family arrived at our hotel, we had an instant sign from God that we were at the right place at the right time. (Three years earlier my son, Sunny, had received a personal a sign from God and it’s impact was very heavy upon Sandy and I.)

At the hotel, God gave me a most unusual prophecy for a young minister from Cairo, Egypt, the land of pyramids. The Lord suddenly spoke to me and said, “He came from a cave, like Elijah did after he ministered to Israel. When Egypt enters into outer space, this young man will enter into the fullness of his ministry.” The Lord then said, “I will confirm my word with four rainbows and a comet.”

As I shared the word with the young minister, I was afraid I’d really missed it because the word was so unusual. Afterwards he shared with me that his father was a minister at the Potter’s House in Cairo, that was actually a church inside a cave that is able to seat over 50,000 people! I realized that this was something very important from God, though I wasn’t exactly sure which word the Lord was going to confirm. Was it the one about Egypt, Ukiah, or what He was doing in California? I saw it was going to take time for all of this to be fulfilled.

Sunday morning I arrived back in San Francisco and went to the 7/11 next to our church to get a cup of coffee. The worker behind the counter suddenly pointed outside and said, “Look pastor! There is a rainbow over the church!” I thought, “Pretty cool the timing.” Two hours later a random group of young people reported that they saw a rainbow over a mountain behind the church. We ran outside to look and, sure enough, there was a second beautiful rainbow. This scenario continued as two more rainbows were spotted over San Francisco that same day.

To top it all off, Chris Rossetti’s wife, Darla, had a dream that night where she saw a rainbow that was drawn in the sky by a beam of light, almost like a comet. I believed these were confirming signs from God, but then it all came to a head on Tuesday morning at 4:00 a.m. I was sent an email video from the cave church in Cairo, where seventy-one thousand Christians were shown praying for Americans to have revival. The prayer on the video is ten minutes long. The Lord then told me to pray in tongues along with these Egyptian Christians for at least 30 minutes, and the release of their faith would rise up in my spirit and would give me the strength to conquer the forces of darkness that are coming against America.

In the wee hours of the morning I turned on the Egyptian video and began praying in the Spirit with them. My spirit began uniting with those wonderful Egyptian Christians, who are boldly living for God in the face of such overwhelming oppression coming at them from the evil forces throughout in their country. Suddenly, their strong faith shot through my spirit and I felt a grain of mustard-seed faith, the kind that can literally move mountains growing in me. What an incredible testimony to what God is doing with the line that He has drawn in the sand! I have included the video below. Watch it, pray in the Spirit, and feel faith in your heart begin to grow.

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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When an enemy is in a conflict involving multiple engagements in battle, he realizes that one of the most debilitating weapons that can be used against an opponent is the weapon of distracting from a vital objective at a critical moment. Each one of us have personal emotional buttons, that if pushed at just the right moment, can totally destabilize our ability to act righteously, and bring us into a state of defeat just moments from our victory.

In the Bible there are many clear examples of this tactic being used against the people of God, in ways that caused gross encroachments upon their victories ~ if not total defeat. For example, the children of Israel had just won two incredible battles in Jericho and Ai. The victories had given them an incredible sense of faith. But in their position of relishing their easy wins, they afterwards experienced a worse defeat than they could’ve imagined; one that left them with hundreds of years of pain, anguish and trouble.

The Gibeonites lived only a short distance away and knew that they were going to be in Israel’s future conquest. So, they put on old clothes, worn-out shoes, carried with them stale crusty bread, and trudged into Israel’s camp. They lied and said they had traveled from their home a great distance away to make peace with Israel. They hurriedly asked Israel to sign a peace treaty with them and make a lasting covenant of peace. But the Scripture says that on this matter Joshua and the elders of Israel did not ask the Lord.

In other places the Bible calls this type of action the sin of presumption, for Israel presumed that what the Gibeonites were saying to them was true, and never asked God for His opinion. Eventually Israel gave away a huge swath of land, that was intended by God to be theirs and their children’s future. Not only that, the Gibeonites ended up being a thorn in Israel’s side ~ one that wasn’t completely removed until the time of David.

What satan wants more than anything, is for you and I to be hung up in distractions instead of focusing on the real objective of what God sent us to do. The reason the Lord uses prophecy is to warn us what the enemy is planning to do so we won’t let anything deter us. The Lord doesn’t want us to spend all our time on the distractions and never get to our true objectives. I recently had a number of wonderful words from God, accurately spoken to me about my future. But immediately distractions started happening all around me ~ that were more prevalent, more right at hand, and more urgent. Don’t ever let the urgency of the present keep you from the destiny of your future. Many times I’ve found myself having to completely shut my mind off and totally ignore distracting phone calls, letters, and emails ~ in order to concentrate on the objective that God spoke to me about weeks (and sometimes months) before.

Even in the face of illness and debilitating conditions, men of God throughout history have deemed it necessary to press ahead with the plan of God, despite their unfortunate circumstances. This is the line that separates the men from the boys. You must realize that God controls every single element around you, especially your personal medical history. It’s important to understand that sometimes you must radically ignore even your own health condition to complete the task that God has sent you on. Don’t think what I’m saying is anyway unique. Every person who has sought for true greatness has had to make this type of decision.

Many of you remember the young Olympic gymnastic champion who found she had fractured her ankle, yet decided to compete in her last vault anyway ~ a decision that might shatter her ankle and end her career. But then, in front of millions of viewers around the world, she jumped with that injured ankle, executed a perfect landing, stayed there for a few dramatic seconds (while she flinched in unbearable pain) and won the gold medal! Her ankle would end up healing in about six months, but her reputation would go down in history as one of the greatest Olympic sacrifices ever.

We need to understand what is really at stake. Obedience to God’s objective will yield unfathomable riches in God, even if one is facing the worst-case scenario. It’s not only worth the sacrifice, but it’s the degree of sacrifice that actually determines the level of God’s response to your obedience. Some Christians are distracted by mere inconveniences. But to those who seek higher goals, the distractions become even more severe. It’s those of you who climb into the rarified air of incalculable distractions, while maintaining the most childlike obedience, who are going to receive the crown of true glory in God’s righteousness.

And yet, the act of obedience may be a simply keeping the instructions God gave you at the beginning, or being honest about your own weaknesses and failures. It might even be just showing up somewhere after you were initially rejected. Whatever it is, the Father in heaven is searching the thoughts and intents of your heart, looking for every way possible to move you to that prosperous level you will enjoy for the next forty years.

Yes, it’s truly exciting to know how important the next three years of decisions can be to the rest of our lives!

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Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”