Much of what we are seeing and hearing, both in the natural and in the spirit is pointing to the Lord wrapping up the plan of the ages. As we look at this ending of the plan, we see there are many things that will happen that the church has never or only partially experienced before. The true unity of the faith, a Bride without spot or wrinkle, the fullness of the stature of Christ, power, gifts, a profound harvest, persecution, the revealing of the Anti-Christ, the rapture of the church and the second coming of our Lord to the earth.

The problem with all of this is that mankind has never experienced a lot of this and the tendency is going to be to reject it because it isn't the same as how God moved in the past. Look at all the "to do" that the Father's Blessing (from Toronto) has caused. Such a fuss over some laughing, jerking and falling. Those who have experienced it report that their lives are changed and the fruit bears witness. God did something that we weren't expecting and didn't fit with our old experiences.

Peter experienced this same thing when he walked on the water. Peter was a fisherman and knew about water and storms. He had probably heard of or known of men who had drowned while out fishing. From Peter's comments as he was sinking, it is quite probable that he didn't know how to swim. So why did he do what he did? The answer is quite simple. His desire to be with Jesus was GREATER than his fear of drowning. I am convinced that the other 11 could have done the same. They all could have played tag out on the water had they been of a mind to. The problem was that the other 11 allowed their past experience and their head knowledge to override their faith so they, being "wise", stayed in the boat. Peter stepped beyond the realm of his experience to pursue his Lord.

Much of what God is calling his church to is going to be BEYOND the realm of our past experience. There may not be a scriptural precedent for it nor an historical account of it. The only way we will be able to not make major mistakes is by knowing the spirit of the law as well as the letter of the law. We will have to follow the principles...body ministry, edification, exhortation and comfort, decently and in order, not gendering to strife, provoking to love, etc... To demand that God only do what he has done before is to put him in a box, and He won't stay there. If the church is to fly like a butterfly, then we are going to have to break out of our cocoon.

The big enemy will be tradition. If we look at Jesus' dealings with the Pharisees and religious leaders of his day, we see that the main bone of contention was that Jesus was non-traditional, He didn't conform to past experience. Jesus even told them that they rejected the commandment of God...and made it of none effect...so that they could keep their tradition. What an indictment!! Yet we can be in danger of doing the same in the coming moves of God if we demand to stick with our past experience and traditions. It doesn't matter if those traditions are Baptist or Pentecostal, if we demand them, they could get in the way and keep us from God's fullest blessing.

Our understanding of how God works is going to be stretched by what is coming. We need to begin preparing our spirits to be stretched and our understandings to be challenged. We are not saying "anything goes", for the Spirit of God will not violate the Word of God, but God will certainly stretch our understanding. Imagine spending 120 years building a boat to save every species of animal during a flood of rain that had never happened before! Where was the precedent? Imagine walking on the water, where was the precedent? Imagine a unified church even in doctrine and without spot or wrinkle, where is the precedent? Some of these things have already happened, without precedent and the rest will.

These are exciting and scary times. We must be firmly fixed on the Word of God and be led by the Spirit of God for we are about to see unprecedented things happening in our lives and in the nations. Even so, COME LORD JESUS!!!!! Jerry

*copyright by Jerry and Karen Snyder