The Generation of Jacob By Mike McClung

Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Selah (Psalm 24:3-6).

The Lord is a God of generations.  The Lord looks on us individually, loving, providing and using us - weak and broken human beings - to accomplish His will, but He also sees us interconnected with all of the generations of past ages.  When confronting error in the Saducees’ resurrection theology, He said, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matt. 22:32).  In giving this answer, the Lord also verifies that the Father thinks and sees generationally.

From Kairos to Chronos - New Season is Here!

A new kairos moment has opened.

This is the opportune time to repent, adjust and get positioned (Acts 3:19) for the new season (chronos - Acts 3:21) that is beginning. The Jordan (the waters of death to SELF - and death to anything else necessary) has opened, and the waters of death are piled up back to "Adam" (Joshua 4-5). It is the time of cutting off the sins and iniquitous patterns of past generations to enter into the full inheritance that Jesus has purchased for His body to walk in. 

I've personally never seen such an onslaught of death around me, personally and within my sphere. For those who know the Lord, it's a joyous time of knowing that they (anyone who has passed on) will be safe in the cloud of witnesses, while we face and overcome, through the power of the Spirit, the forces of darkness. 

There's an inheritance in Christ to be possessed, and enemies to be put under His feet to prepare the way, the nations and the earth for His return. We're in that last season. We must repent of the Babylonian ways and systems that have entered the temple of God (His individual and corporate body). A new ministry has been in the process of preparation for years, and is now ready to be unleashed with authority and power. They have been dealt with and will be dead to self, ambition and personal significance ("MY ministry", "MY rights", ad nauseum), and who only live and breathe to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They will not fear the face of men or demons. They will speak the word of God with boldness and God Himself will back the word up with power. 

A great purging and purification is coming first to the people of God (the "oikos" of the "naos", or building material of the true temple of His body - see Eph. 2:19-22). It will then flow out to the outer court of the house, then to the cities and communities of that royal priesthood (Melchizedek) that have remained faithful to Him. There's always been a remnant. 

Things are in place.... The pieces are beginning to move.... The downfall of the accuser is imminent!

Hedged In By Mike McClung

Hosea 2:6-7; 14-16: Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.’ Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.” And it shall be, in that day,” says the LORD, That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master’….

We have entered a new season of restoration (Acts 3:19-21) in which the full purpose of God in restoring His fullness and glory in the earth will come to fruition.

Several years ago, the Lord gave me the scriptures, Joshua 3:1-6 and Joshua 5:1-12, as templates of the activities of the Holy Spirit that will lead the body of Messiah up to a “crossing over” into a final season of restoration. This will ultimately culminate in the bodily return of the Lord Jesus to earth. For the last twenty years, we have been in the process of becoming “Presence-focused”, with intimacy, worship and intercession taking central place in the body of Christ. As with Joshua and the nation of Israel (see Joshua 3:3), this focused pursuit of His Presence (the Ark) is what will lead us through the “Jordan” – a death to self – in order to enter into His fullness in this last season. Part of the process of preparing for this new season and entering this inheritance will entail a “circumcision” of flesh in the lives of a generation that has been brought up in a religious wilderness for the past 50 years (see Joshua 5:1-6). The Lord’s sharpened flint “knife” is coming!

A Letter From the Director of Lionheart...

To Our Lionheart Family and All Friends and Supporters of Lionheart Restoration Ministries and The Prayer Furnace of East TN,

The Body of Christ has truly entered a new era—one unlike any time in Church history. It has been said by many different prophetic voices over the last few months that the Lord is hitting the RESET button in the body of Christ. In other words, He is bringing sudden shifts in our mindsets and lifestyles in order to realign us with Him in the fullness of His purposes. Some of these “resets” have been subtle. Many, if not most, have been quite dramatic. Though this process is uncomfortable, we must learn to rest in the Lord because each reset is meant to bring us back to the original call of loving Him, pursuing His presence and establishing His purposes.

Lionheart Restoration Ministries is no different. The Lord has reset and realigned many things in our midst in the last few months. Each reset has been deeper than the last, and with each reset the Lord has brought us closer to Him and His perfect will as we have obeyed His word. Now it is time for yet another….

2012: Revive, Repair, Rebuild and Flourish

At the beginning of each year, I take time to seek the Lord for direction and a scripture that will describe and launch us into the next year and season. I began seeking the Lord in October around Yom Kippur about the new season that He is unfolding before the body of Christ. The scripture that He gave me as a strategic and intercessory template is Ezra 9:8-9.

Ezra 9:8-9: And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

Forming the Heart of David By David Townsend

Many places in scripture we see that during a time of great need, a man or woman of God appears to deliver a Word from the Lord and/or bring deliverance, seemingly out of nowhere. Their origins and/or training for the task are a mystery, and their sudden appearing like the signature of the God that sent them. John the Baptist, Gideon, many of the prophets—at first glance they all just seem to appear with no warning and immediately start doing what needs to be done. Many times, it only seems that way to the people of their time, other times they just appear in scripture, and we get no direct back-story. There is literally no word in the bible about Elijah before he appears before King Ahab and declares a drought. Moses disappeared in disgrace after murdering a man, only to re-emerge suddenly after 40 years with the boldness to confront Pharaoh to his face, and with the authority to work powerful signs of deliverance. And probably the most surprising of all, a 14-year old runt/shepherd boy named David, on an errand for his dad, ends up taking down a giant, leading the Israelite army to victory, and eventually, becoming king. Not only that, when he is finally king, he sets up kingdom that God said will never end. 

Our Earnest Need for the Spirit of Elijah By Mike McClung

God has promised to send another release of the Spirit of Elijah before the Lord’s return. What does the Father long to reveal through the spirit of Elijah that is so desperately needed today? A glimpse back to the times when God has previously released this Spirit will help us understand His purpose and recognize our need to earnestly seek that which will awaken us to rend our hearts and prepare for the coming King.

In Mathew 11:14, Jesus declares to the people that John the Baptist is Elijah, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” He came to prepare the hearts of the people so they could receive the message of the Kingdom. John the Baptist lived an austere, fasted life. He was completely sold out to the heart of God and the message he carried from God. He was born to prepare the way for the One who would fully reveal the Father’s will. In John, the spirit of Elijah turned the hearts of the people to repentance. This is how they were made ready to embrace the Lord. Only the Spirit could draw people that were steeped in religious tradition to embrace the uncompromised truth that John the Baptist lived through his radical lifestyle. John who remained in the desert, dressed in camel’s hair and eating locust and honey, drew crowds ranging from kings and priests to common people. Just as God separated John unto Himself, God drew and separated people from their spiritual traditions in order to hear the truth.