A COMING STORM: AND IT'S NOT NAMED SANDY

The following is a vision which the Lord gave to me on October 26, 2012 in Ashtabula, Ohio  during an event called "The Wave," which is an incredible night of worship.  It went from being very personal to one that will affect even our nation.   It is one like I have never experienced before.  As this unfolded I could feel the holiness of God.  Somehow I knew that God was allowing me to experience a very small portion of His holiness.  Even with that, my entire being was shaken even to the depths of my soul.  I want to put a picture in your mind right now.  Picture a tornado.  Think of the times when someone has captured a coming tornado on their phone or video camera and you watch it on YouTube,  the Weather Channel, or news.  Now picture the biggest one you have ever seen.  Lock this picture into your mind.

As I was worshiping before the Lord I suddenly saw a great and mighty wind storm coming towards me.  It was massive and dark.  There was great power behind it.  As it got closer I noticed something very different and strange.  The winds were spinning backwards.  It kept moving closer the way a massive tornado always does, but yet the winds were spinning in reverse.  This greatly perplexed me and I asked the Lord, "What is the meaning of this?"  The Lord answered me and said, "Because I am reversing the effects of your sins."  The Lord then showed me that even though my sins were forgiven that over the course of my life the consequences of my sins had at times caused hurt to other people, sometimes very innocent people.  Some of them had been scarred and did not know how to deal with that and still had not forgiven me, nor did they know how.  Some of them don't understand the nature of God, but now in His time of mercy He is beginning to reverse the effect of my sins.  Healing will replace scars.  That is the one thing that stood out during the entirety of the vision.  I heard those exact words over and over and over, spoken to me by the Spirit of God.

As I stood before this mighty wind suddenly it began to move and I watched it move quickly over distances and towards different groups of people.  They were like remnants and wherever the wind went and wherever it stopped, God made it clear that He was beginning to reverse the effects of the sins of those people.  The Lord showed me that these remnants, these groups of peoples were ones who had chosen to pursue Him with their very lives.  People who were now determined to release the things of the Lord to those around where they lived.  People who would use spiritual force to cripple demonic powers running throughout their corner of the nation.   I was reminded of Jesus' words in the Gospel of Matthew, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."   The rule and nature of God; the Kingdom of Heaven.

As I watched this wind moving I was allowed to see what was within the outer winds.  I saw a portal; an opening that reached into the heavens and came down to the earth.  The center, this opening was being protected by the thick walls of the outer winds.  Within this portal I saw agents of heaven (those are the words which which were revealed to me..................agents of heaven) coming down and going up.  There were many and they moved continuously and were passing each other almost as if there were ladders taking them back and forth, and the agents of God were planting in the earth the righteousness of God.  I do not know and could not see what that looked like, but I knew that it was the righteousness of God.  It was planted so that in a specific season as people passed unknowingly by where the righteousness of God had been planted, they would find strength and be fed.  Many will suddenly experience God and it will be revealed to them exactly who Jesus was and is.  They will shake and be changed by the righteousness of God.  Many will fall down and be terrified because of the holiness of God.

 Suddenly, I noticed that after coming upon these pockets or remnants of people that this great storm of wind would sporadically change direction.  It followed no consistent pattern and would quickly change from one direction to the other.  I could not predict where it would go next.

I was totally caught up in and captivated by what I was seeing.  I was aware of my surroundings, my son next to and the worship music, but was unable to think, nor did I want to think of anything other than the Lord and what He was showing me.  As the vision ended I realized that I had not absorbed the entire revelation.   I believe that there are still parts which I don't understand,  but in the moments that followed God did begin to reveal more to me.   I knew that I was not to keep this vision only for myself and that I was to somehow share it and I was able to do that in the moments that followed.  As I stood waiting to attempt to even try to come close to describing what I had seen, the Lord reveled some very specific things.  When I woke up this morning there was even more understanding.

While this vision, at the beginning was very personal, this vision became one for all  to hear and was meant to used as a prophetic word for the nation.  I was so caught up in the tunnel of wind and the agents of heaven that I didn't realize, but now know that when the wind began to make drastic changes in direction that it was moving from state to state and was penetrating the nation.  As I stood waiting to share, I once again  heard the Lord speak.  "I AM GOING TO BEGIN TO REVERSE THE EFFECTS OF THE SINS OF THIS NATION."  I became very aware of how multitudes of people have been scarred by the sins of this nation and many just don't know what to do with those scars.  There were two giants that were highlighted to me, although there have been many sins of the nation.  The two giants that were impressed upon me were ABORTION and PORNOGRAPHY.  These two sins alone have released hounds of hell to gut this country.  But, today I find peace and rejoice in knowing that the Lord is going to now begin to "reverse" and bring healing to people who have been scarred by these sins.  As I shared last night I was reminded of the verse in Joel 2: 25.  "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten..........."  Abortion and pornography can certainly replace the words "swarming locust."

For my many friends who do not live in the United States, there is no reason for you to feel  excluded from this vision.  God intends to bring justice and healing to all the nations.  I knew that God was pushing me to tell right here of what I had seen.  God knows how people around the world keep reading and stumbling upon this blog.  That tells me that God intends to take this great storm or tunnel of wind to the nations, so wherever you are stand, watch and be ready.  Share the  good news of Gods mercy to those around you.  Be the messenger of the cross that He has called you to be!

As I prepare to close, if there is nothing else that you remember about what I wrote today, you need to remember these words:

                       I AM GOING TO BEGIN TO REVERSE THE EFFECTS OF THE SINS OF THIS NATION.  
                        
                                           There will come a day when the Lord reminds you of those very words.  While God's grace is revealed day by day, there will come a specific time when we see this taking place in masses of people and very quickly.
                                     

Shalom my friend,
Mark S.

A FOUR LETTER WORD

I first wrote the bulk of what you are about to read quite some time ago, so if it seems familiar you will know why.  I've adapted some of my thoughts so that I can address a recent family situation.  Please take the time to read this in it's entirety.  Even if you can't accept what I am going to express, give me some grace in being allowed to fully explain my feelings and beliefs.

Sometimes the things we believe within our faith will be put to the test.  We soon find out the strength of our convictions.  Depending on the result of a certain circumstance we may find that a conviction ended up not being a conviction at all, but more like wishful thinking.  As you read on you will begin to understand more as to what in the world I might be talking about.

I have an uncle who has been in a battle with cancer.  There have been ups and downs and for he, my aunt and cousin there probably seem to have been many more downs than ups.  Usually it's much easier to pray with confidence when it comes to praying for other people, but what happens when it is someone in your own family?  Usually, because the circumstance is more personal it's much easier to worry and doubt.  When it comes to my uncle, as well as others that are struggling with health issues in my family I have determined to stand by my convictions.  I will not waver  I will not doubt.

Let me keep moving on.

One of my favorite songs, especially when it was popular was "Jesus Saves,"by Jeremy Camp. As I was listening to this song on the radio one day I began to think about Jesus saving us. As I was listening to that song, I started thanking the Lord for his saving power.  I surely believe that the greatest miracle that we can experience is to be forgiven of our sins, receiving salvation and the promise of eternal life.   However (if you know me at all by now you had to know that a "but" or "however" would surely follow), I know that receiving salvation through Jesus should only be the beginning. Read these verses very carefully with me.  It will seem like one verse has nothing to do with the other, but if you give me some grace, I will show you that they do.  Ready?

Luke 19:10 .....for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Matthew 9:22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, "Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well."

Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Acts 14:8-10 And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple
from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking.
Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with
a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" And he leaped up and walked.


Any idea what those verses have in common? There is a little, but very powerful 4 LETTER WORD that is found in each example. The catch to this is that you would find that 4 letter word if you were reading those passages in Greek.  That 4 letter word, which is far from a bad one, is SOZO.   Sozo can be found several dozen times in the New Testament, but we instead usually see it in the form of the English word "saved." We also see it in the word "well" in the Matthew passage and in the phrase "to be healed" in the Acts 14 passage.

Why do I think this is important? Because Jesus intended to do so much more for us than to save us from our sins. I want to stress again that I believe that being finding salvation through the forgiveness of our sins is the greatest miracle of all.  However, in bringing the kingdom of heaven with Him, Jesus intended to set people completely free from things such as physical infirmities, personality disorders, the grip of the demonic, and generational curses (that's a bigger one than most realize), just to give a few examples. Now I know somebody will say that of course all those things will happen, but they may not happen until we get to heaven.  Indeed, for those who love Jesus and don't experience healing in this world it will be received in heaven, but let me get back to where I was going with this.   Often when someone is sick people will often pray, "if it be Thy will," for example.  (Jesus did pray, "........if it be Thy will," but it was in regards to facing death on the cross.  He nor the apostles never prayed that way in regards to deliverance and physical healing.)   Fault with that can't really be found because after all, church after church and pastor after pastor teach that principle. So many of our pastors learned that traditional view in theology schools and seminaries, or simply when they were growing up.  After all, if we pray for someone to get well and they don't, then it is easier for us to explain why.  We can say that it must not have been God's will.  People are taught this and accept it WITHOUT reading for themselves and that is so dangerous.  It is the thief that comes to kill, steal and destroy, not Jesus.  I believe that many have been robbed of God's best in THIS LIFE, because of teachings like this.  I would beg to ask the question: Are we saved from our sins right now or do we have to wait until we are in heaven and with the Lord? The answer is obvious. Jesus also wants us  to experience the other blessings of SOZO as well...........in this life.   There are just too many burdens that we simply accept and carry around with us until we step into eternity. Study SOZO for yourself and realize how many times it is used in the New Testament and begin to understand it's meaning. Maybe fresh winds of understanding and knowledge will flow through your spirit. Over the years I began to learn a different way to pray for people after starting to understand sozo. I found out that God desires to heal and bring release of heaviness and bring wholeness in this life and we need to pray accordingly.

Does everyone I pray for get healed? When I pray for someone to be set free from something like depression, or addiction do I see the result that I desire every time? Of course not. God forbid I try to get you to believe otherwise. However, just because I may not see the result right away, won't change how I pray. There is so often a missing link in those types of situations that maybe we can't see or understand in the moment. My friend, the missing link is not with God or His word, but it is with us and in the natural around us. Instead of changing our prayers we need to keep pushing into the Spirit to discover what we might be missing and pray that God would bring each person to a place to where they are able to receive their healing, deliverance or whatever the situation calls for. Even today as I was praying for a man I spoke to his body and commanded it to come in line with the way God created it to be.

SOZO (from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance) "to save, deliver, or protect from; heal; preserve; do well; be made whole."

I am hesitant to push a bit more for concern of causing offense, but no offense is intended, so I will speak on. I have been around several church settings in my life and I can be completely honest in saying that the churches that teach and practice what we have been talking about can give testimony to many more healings and miraculous works more than the churches who do not. That may sound critical, but within me there is no critical spirit when I say that. It is simply what I have witnessed. Signs and wonders of the supernatural tend to occur much more in the one setting than the other. I encourage you to study this for yourself. To read the Bible for all its worth, for you and nobody else. Always ask yourself if you believe certain things because of what you've been taught by tradition, or because of what God has revealed to you through His word.

I think of close friends or family who's lives have been cut short due to accident or illness. I have seen the effects that cancer can bring, so my heart is very sympathetic if you have experienced something like that.   Circumstance will not change the way I pray and believe, though.   I understand the word sozo and will instead continue to take a stand against anything that stands in the way of God's people walking in complete freedom and healing. Torments of darkness, sickness, disease and poverty are all things that have been mocking the people of God for way too long. I borrow that thought from a similar thought I heard made by Bill Johnson, a pastor in Redding, California. Israel thought they had to put up with Goliath because he appeared to be so much bigger, stronger and defiant until David came along and changed what appeared to be their discouraging destiny.  Now we have reached an age where God is calling for many "Davids" to come forward and to take a stand against the things that are hurting and destroying His people in this life. As I pray and join with others who pray with boldness against circumstances that destroy, I am seeing with my own eyes how quickly something from the enemy will begin to fall in line under the authority that has been granted by Jesus. I am determined to find those missing links.

Jesus.....sozos.........Jesus SAVES!!!!!!!  I pray this over my uncle tonight.  I pray that he experiences the entire sozo package.   Even though he is far from me the Holy Spirit connects me to him through prayer.  It is as if I am right there beside him.

And as always, I pray for you tonight my brother and sister,

Mark S.