Divine Convergence
Thursday, May 6th, 2004Recently, during a time of prayer, I began to hear several phrases float across my mind; “Kingdom Manifestations, Risky Faith, Radical Abandonment, Intimacy, Intercession, Fasted Lifestyle… Convergence.” I immediately thought to myself, “What are You trying to say to me? Each of these thoughts seem so different.” Then it hit me… Convergence. That was the point that the Lord was trying to show me.
Next the Lord spoke to my heart and explained that when His people say “Yes” to His plan that there is a release of power from heaven to earth. The door to supernatural encounter is opened by the key of obedience. When we walk through the door of faith we enter into dimensions in the Spirit of God that literally unleash the power and potential of the kingdom of heaven into this natural realm. When God’s people willingly obey He answers with Power. He then gave me this scripture in Job:
Job 36:32-33 He covers His hands with lightning, And commands it to strike. 33 His thunder declares… the rising storm.
There are divinely orchestrated storms in the spirit that the Lord wants to unleash upon the earth and upon His people. There are power encounters that have been in the mind of God from ages past, that He has destined for His people that He desires to reveal in their appointed season. When they are released they will be released with the very lightnings of God.
He does not keep us unaware of the timing of these storms. Before the storms come, He thunders His voice to declare that the coming of the storm is close at hand. He puts the revelation of what is to come in the heart and mind of His servants and they speak forth the coming of the storm.
Once the time for the storm to come is at hand He then commands the very lightning from His throne to strike. (Rev 4:5, 8:5) When the lightning of Heaven is released upon the planet the earthly realm begins to give way to the realm of the spirit. The natural processes and principles of this realm begin to surrender to the power and supremacy of the heavenly realm. Earth is invaded with Glory. And then we finally see the reality of the Kingdom come on earth and the will of God done as it is in heaven. The day of the revealing of the storm and the striking of His lightning is the day of His power (Psalm 110:3), we call it Revival.
God is in the process of preparing the perfect storm. He is orchestrating a divine convergence of multiple streams in the Body of Christ from multiple aspects of His Kingdom. He is bringing them all together in this season. He is raising up ministries that are able to “multi-task” in the Spirit. They are not focused only on one movement or one flow of the spirit, but they are able to flow in and out of different streams and expressions of His Kingdom power and manifestation. He is causing all the streams to flow together as one river. The prophetic movement, the worship movement, the prayer movement, the faith movement, the youth movement, the men’s movement, the missions movement, the reconciliation movement; He is causing each of these movements to converge and become part of each other. When each of these movements begin to operate in concert within His church, great power and authority will be released. We are in a season of the beginnings of a Divine Convergence.
Approximately a week after the Lord began to share these truths with me, I was in a meeting with a prophetic minister named James Goll. As James began to minister He stated that his message was entitled “The Convergence of the Ages”. I was stunned. He further declared that we would begin to hear the word “Convergence” in an array of places because it was what the Lord is saying and it is what the Lord is doing in this season. That night he ministered that the Lord was joining multiple streams together and that there was coming a great release of power. He actually used the phrase Divine Convergence. Since that night I have heard the term “Convergence” multiple times; twice in the last 5 days specifically relating to what the Lord is doing in the church in this season.
In the rest of this article I will highlight a few areas where I see this convergence happening. Undoubtedly, there are a variety of streams and areas that this convergence is affecting. However for our purposes here, I will focus on just three.
- The Merging of Prophetic and Intercessory Prayer Movements
- The Merging of Authentic Faith and Renewal Movements
- The Merging of Worship and Teaching/Preaching Movements
Prophetic And Intercession
Through the 80’s God began to release a new wind of prophecy to the Body of Christ. Many ministries began to operate in an unusual way in prophetic ministry. God was releasing and restoring prophecy to the church in a way and on a scale that it had not functioned since the book of Acts.
As with any baby, the release of the gift of prophecy brought some precious moments and some precarious messes. There was a learning curve that the ministries were experiencing. At times the accuracy of the prophetic words were stunning and at times the inaccuracy was stunning. Through a variety of challenges this baby of prophecy began to grow and mature. Now there are a variety of ministries operating in the gift of prophecy with much accuracy and blessing. Much of the excess and immaturity of the early 80’s has been redirected and corrected. In many places the Lord is raising up entire prophetic communities who have the word of the Lord in their mouth and in their heart. It is truly as the book of Acts states:
Acts 2:17-18 ‘’And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.”
The first sign that a community of believers is operating in the power of the Holy Spirit is that they are a community of people who prophesy. It is not just for the older more mature saints, it is for the younger saints as well. It is for the sons and daughters, the young men and the old men. It is for the menservants and the maidservants. It is for all those who have the Holy Spirit. In other words a community of believers with the Holy Spirit upon them will be a community of believers who prophesy!
At about the same time in the early 80’s, God began to stir the waters in regard to prayer. You began to hear about spiritual warfare. And then into the nineties the idea of intercessors began to be acceptable in the local church. Through some modern revival movements, God began to rev-up these intercessors in a whole new way. Today, one of the most obvious currents of the Holy Spirit in the church is the prayer movement that God is building worldwide.
For the last several years God has been joining these two streams together in obvious ways. The prayer movement is a prophetic movement and the prophetic movement is a prayer movement. These two streams do not, cannot and will not exist mutually of one another. If you are into prophecy it will lead you to prayer and if you are into prayer you will soon be hearing the voice of the Lord. There is a divine convergence between the two.
Authentic Faith And Renewal
The Word of Faith movement has taken many “hits” over the last 25 years. There have been various excesses in several teachings that have caused many to want to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” However, the truth of the Word of Faith teaching is that regardless of what any man tells you “God is true and let every man be a liar.”(Rom 3:4) It is a movement that teaches people to believe the Bible above every other voice. Not even the voice of circumstance has authority over the Word of God. It is the final authority. There is an authentic “Faith Movement” that causes believers to fasten their hearts upon the Word of God and not let go until they see the reality of what the Bible promises to manifest in their lives. That is the kind of faith that we all need to have.
Through the nineties God began to manifest in unusual ways in meetings around the nation as well as internationally. These unusual manifestations of the Spirit included falling and laughing in the Spirit. Many were touched and refreshed by this amazing Renewal of the Spirit of God. The most famous of these meetings was held in Toronto Canada and still continues at some level to this day. Untold thousands have been touched by the Toronto Blessing over the last 10 years.
One fact that people don’t remember in regard to the Toronto Blessing is how it actually came to pass. It began after Randy Clark visited the little church in Toronto at the end of the airport runway. Randy was to minister for a few days of meetings which turned into a phenomenon that literally has touched the nations. Most, however, miss the fact that Randy was touched at another minister’s meetings in late ‘93. That minister was Rodney Howard-Browne. Rodney Howard-Browne is a Word of Faith minister. I believe it was a sign of the Convergence that God is bringing to His Body. He is joining the renewal movements from the Vineyard and other 3rd Wave churches with the authentic Faith message. When the fire of renewal and foundation of faith join, the church will operate in an expression of Kingdom manifestation and power previously never experienced.
Worship And Youth Movements
For several years the worship movement was primarily an adult led, adult enjoyed movement. Hosanna Integrity! and Vineyard Music were leading the way in a new sound of worship that was affecting the body of Christ internationally. Worship was changing, yet it was primarily being embraced by older Christians.
At the same time the youth movement was just beginning to gain momentum. There were national youth conventions beginning to happen around the country. Suddenly venues were being filled with 5,000-10,000 young people who were hungry for God. The youth movement began to crescendo when in 2001, The Call event in Washington DC saw 400,000 young people on the mall. God had begun the convergence. It was manifesting through a vast sea of young people gathered to intercede and worship for 12 hours to turn our nation back to God.
Today the worship movement is a youth movement. The youth movement is a worship movement. Vast crowds of teens and young adults have gathered in multiple venues around the world to worship and pray for revival in their generation. We are experiencing the convergence.
Conclusion
Truthfully, this article does not begin to do justice to the reality of what God is doing in joining the streams together. It is clear that there is a perfect storm that He has started and it will result in a release of power upon this planet, the likes of which we have never seen. We are going to witness and experience the release of the thundering and lightning of God.
This is a time to repent of prejudices against other streams in the Body of Christ. It is a time for all the streams to flow as one river. God wants to tear down the suspicion and division that have walled us off from one another. He desires us to operate as a Body with multiple giftings all flowing together in harmony. It is clear that there is no perfect movement or group in the Body of Christ. We all need one another to operate in the fullness of the power of God.
In the days ahead, the nameless, faceless generation will be nameless in that they won’t associate with any name accept the name of Christ. They will say with the apostle Paul, “…I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified… that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (I Cor 2:3,5) It is in this reality, the simplicity of Christ, that the power of God is manifest and multitudes will be touched and changed.
The perfect storm, the divine convergence is at hand. I want to encourage you to join your heart to the heart of the Lord in this season and experience first hand the storm that He is bringing upon the planet.