Acts 3:19-21: Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
At the beginning of 2011, the Lord gave me this scripture as a template of what would be coming over the next few months, and then afterward, the following years. The Lord indicated that the body of Christ would be entering a kairos window of opportunity to align ourselves with Him and His purposes in a greater way, which would be attended by a great in-breaking of the Holy Spirit. The word for “times” in verse 19 is kairos, or the now, opportune timing of God. It is usually a very short window of time for us to align ourselves with the will of God, or the moment will be missed and may take years to come back around. This is what happened in the wilderness when the Israelites refused to obey the Lord and enter the land of Canaan, choosing instead to cave-in to the fear and unbelief emanating from their mindsets and emotional wounds and bondages formed in Egypt. Because they refused to trust God and actually accused Him of mischief, that generation, except for a Joshua and Caleb, missed God’s plan, and delayed it for another generation. A new, kairos moment is now upon us.
On June 1, 2011, I had an encounter with the Lord in our Prayer Furnace prayer room, in which the Lord told me that an “opportune moment” to enter into this “time of refreshing” is now open. The opportune moment will remain open until Rosh Hashanah, when the next phase of His plan, the “season of the restoration of all things” begins. The world is experiencing the remedial judgments of God on an unprecedented level in order to turn as many to repentance as possible. We are facing spiritual warfare, as the world is facing natural warfare, in an unprecedented way and on an unprecedented level. We must have a greater intimacy, holiness, anointing and authority to deal with the level of darkness and evil that’s arising. But, this is promised in Isaiah 60:1-3…when darkness and gross darkness begins to cover, His glory will arise within and upon His people.
Some of the best exegesis of Acts 3:19 I could find says that when the kairos moment comes, that the “refreshing” could actually be translated as the “violent blowing of God’s Wind.” Such is what happened on the day of Pentecost, and subsequent outpourings throughout history. This refreshing, life-changing and empowering release of the Spirit has been prophesied about for years. This outpouring would precede a great harvest of the earth (Gentile harvest), leading to the full restoration of the nation of Israel and the bodily return of the Lord Jesus. I’m not saying this is the “last” time of refreshing, but I do believe we’ve entered this window that will empower and refresh us from the past few years of hard endurance that most have had to press through. This past season of endurance testing is closing. This kairos of refreshing will bring vindication, validation and restoration to the heart, lives, ministries and businesses of those saints who would not compromise in the past season of endurance. In spite of all the hardships, they kept worshipping and pressing on even when there was no reason to worship and press on. Now is the time of great release, empowering and preparation to enter the chronos – the extended time period/season (Acts 3:21) – where all that the prophets prophesied about, plus all the prophetic words and promises the Lord has given His church, will begin to be fulfilled.
This season of restoration will also be a season of great spiritual and natural war and conflict. The land and promises must be contended for! The land of Canaan was given to the Israelites, but they had to yield to the Lord and fight for it. Actually, it was the Lord fighting for them, but the Lord has set it forth that His purposes in the earth must be partnered and participated in by humanity.
We’re preparing for war, but the Lord is going to carry this battle and we will fight from a standpoint of joy and victory. In an April holiday/ministry trip to Wales and Northern Ireland, I was given an open vision during an evening worship time in some very close friend’s church in Wales. In this vision, I saw the Lord open the door to a room that was dark on the inside. He went into this room and brought out a box full of rolled-up, sealed scrolls. There were literally dozens, or more, of them in the box. I immediately knew that these were unfulfilled prophetic words, promises, strategies and visions the Lord had personally given to me, either directly or through prophetic words from others. I knew what they were as I could see the title written on the outside. The word was never fulfilled because it was still rolled up and sealed. I saw the Lord, joyfully, begin to take each scroll, break its seal, and then unfurl them and begin to hand them to angelic beings that would immediately be dispatched. I knew that the fulfillment of these promises, strategies and blueprints were now being set in motion. The Lord also told me that this was not just for me, but for all those who had successfully passed the test of the wilderness, endurance testings. By the way, the passing of the test had nothing to do with being bigger, better, glory, etc. You passed the test, in spite of your flesh and failures, if you kept pressing forward in faith and endurance!
Now is the time to set ourselves aside to Him in devotion, worship and stillness to allow Him to “refresh” – loose the violent blowing of His Wind – to prepare us for the season about to break forth. I had seen in visions on June 1 many that I know who have been pressing through this past season of endurance. I saw the Lord come and breathe on them, and several of them received a new ring on their hands. The past season was a season of lack, testing, misunderstanding, seeming loss, etc., but if we will repent and align ourselves with Him, He will bring vindication, validation, refreshing and restoration as we move deeper into His end-time purposes. The Tabernacle of David is about to be fully restored in the body of Christ. The government of God is about to be restored in maturity (Eph. 4:11-16). The gospel of the kingdom is about to be restored in power and purity, without leaven. Great and ominous things wait on the horizon!
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