REVIVAL AND THE EMERGING - Todd Bentley

APOSTOLIC ROUNDTABLE
During the conference, FFM hosted a round table discussion in which various prophetic/apostolic leaders commented and answered questions about the emerging apostolic movement. Here are some significant excerpts:
Keith Abrahams: I think what we are seeing happening very rapidly in the body is a shift from legal structure to relational structure. What God is building is a flexible wineskin but it's all to do with function, it's all to do with relationship. What I am seeing in the body is a cross pollination between networks and also between different leaders. It's all by God's Spirit joining our hearts together.
Bruce Friesen: With my heart for Victoria and Canada, I see God developing an apostolic nation running with the redemptive gifting and calling of the nation which is healing, reconciliation and peace. That is what Canada is to bring to the nations. The US is to bring justice and freedom to the nations. People need to hear about these redemptive gifts and apostolic callings within the nation. On a national level, I see God raising up those who are hearing what He is saying about the call to be corporate.
Todd Bentley: There is coming a linking of many different apostolic ministries that go in and out of many different eagle's nests and are connecting together, covering grounds in a region and, literally, that is how we are going to take it across the nation.
James Goll: In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I saw, written out before my eyes, the letters A M P. I watched it and the "M" moved in front of the "A" and then spelt MAP. AMP and MAP. I asked God "what is this?" and God said, "When the apostolic "A" is made "P" personal, (and that word right there is really important), I will put those apostolic renewal centers on my MAP. I will amplify my voice and I will put them on my MAP. When the apostolic is made personal there will be Mighty Authority in the prophetic in that place. I will amplify my voice and I will put those apostolic renewal centers on my map." It's not primarily structural, it's primarily relational. It's when the apostolic is made personal that there will be mighty authority in the prophetic because the prophetic will be secure and they will move out and God will amplify His voice. People are drawn to the voice of the Lord and He will put those places on His map. They won't have to put something big in a magazine. God will put them on His map and people will come. If He builds it they will come.
Bill Johnson: I approach the (apostolic) gifting so functionally that I don't even stop to think about it (whether a woman can be an apostle). If somebody is producing the fruit of it, I don't mind if they are given the title. Structure is only there to produce life. That is the only purpose for order. It is not to give title for personal identity, it's not so I feel better about myself or understand my placement in Christ that is apart from a title. My identity in Christ is out of intimacy and it's personal. How I function is according to the grace upon me. That being said, it would be very difficult for me to say that Heidi Baker does not have an apostolic anointing. My goodness! I mean regardless of what I thought yesterday, today she produces five to six thousand churches. You've got to turn your head and say, "Well, she is producing more fruit than all the guys that I thought were apostles are producing, so, maybe I need to review (my beliefs).
That approach to scripture is very difficult and makes many of us nervous, but if you do look at Acts 15 as a model for the way we approach truth, (you'll realize) they did not look at the scriptures and then try to find experiences that ratified the scriptures. They heard the testimony of the move of God among the Gentiles and then they found the scripture to back it up. We have a culture that is so opposed to experience that we have dumbed down the gospel to what we presently understand instead of looking into where the Spirit of God is moving and then allowing Him to teach us how it is that He has put that in His book. I don't think there are as many things in here that are static as we once thought. It might make us a little bit nervous but truth is always built, line upon line, truth upon truth, but it's three dimensional. It evolves in its impact and application. And we have to understand that these things are shifting according to the Spirit that will never contradict Scripture but we have to make adjustments with Him. If His hand is on somebody and I don't acknowledge and recognize it, then I am a fool for it.
Traditionally people have gathered together around specific truths, causing the formation of denominations. In this hour, people are gathering around fathers and mothers and that defines the nature of our function.
Keith Abrahams: I think the issue of women (in ministry) is very, very important in the end time church. I think it is very biblical in the past there has been a lot of controversy over it. Lots of women have been put down in the church. But I believe that in the church of the last days we are going to have a lot of woman (in ministry). I just returned from Europe and I had the opportunity to speak with a pastor from the Ukraine. Most of the people on his apostolic team, in the largest church in Europe, are women. Now I think we need to back up (re-examine) Scripture . . ."
Todd Bentley: Somebody emailed our ministry and asked a valid question. He said, "Todd, you are going to have all these men prophets and apostles get together and talk about the emerging apostolic movement. My fear would be that there wouldn't be a representation of the Goths, the Punks and the Ravers the whole underground world that God is moving in today the movement that offends and scares most people in the church. You know the punked and colored hair with all the earings and piercings in every part of the body. Is there not room for true apostle and prophets in that sub-culture? From that question I realized that we need to be very careful in the whole new emerging (apostolic) movement, not to just package it how we think it should look. I am going to make some statements now; there are punk apostles; there are biker prophets; there are ravers that are apostles; there are skinheads that are part of this prophetic movement. I don't have any here right now. I'd be the closest thing. We must not forget that these (sub-cultures) have a voice in this whole prophetic movement too. The teenage apostles and the teenage prophets are being raised up and it's also happening in other spheres of life too.

JIM GOLL -- FINAL CONFERENCE SESSION:
Even as it is written in the book of Acts. In the beginning of the book of Acts, that Jesus went about doing and then teaching, so this night there has been an example set before this great congregation. There has been an example of doing and teaching. And the Lord says this is the model of the book of Acts of the Apostles. For there has been the calling for the strategic keys of an apostolic age to be released. The Lord would say that this is significant, that this is important. That this consecration would occur in the middle of this celebration, for it is a doing and a teaching. It's a catching of fish and a releasing of them to go forth and to multiply. And the Lord would say to you Todd, "I am going to surround you with elders. I am going to surround you with the elders of My counsel. I am going to bring them around you, those that are even twice your age and even some that are three times your age. I am going to bring them around you, both men and women, and they are going to be a safety net. They are going to be put around you for the birthing canal of which you are and they will look in upon you and they will wonder and they will be fascinated and they will wonder how in the world is all this happening in five years.
Generational Honor. The Lord would say, "I am going to bring the authentic joining of the generations and it should happen and this is but a paradigm shift, a paradigm shift, a paradigm shift, for you shall be a product of the multiplication anointing, that even as three prophets were joined together this night, each representing different generations of my Spirit one from the Latter Rain and one from the Jesus Charismatic Moment and now one from the new Apostolic Reformation the Lord would say, "this, My people behold; it is an example before you of what I will do when humble hearts, full of hunger, shall cry out to the Lord and will honor the generations in Jesus name. To honor the generations in Jesus name. For wherever three generations become joined in a generation, I will show Myself strong. I will show Myself strong."
"For this is the very reason why moves of God have been cut short in times past. It's because there was not honor in the midst, but rather, there crept in the spirit of competition." But the Lord says, "I am changing the scenery. I am changing the platform of ministry. For it shall be honor. Honor will rule the day. It will not be the spirit of insecurity that breeds competition but it shall rather be that My people shall be renewed in their minds and they will know that they are rooted and grounded in My great, immense, immeasurable love and I am going to open the ears of my people and they shall hear again about my great love. And you say, 'Oh, but I thought there was a deeper truth.'" But the Lord would say, "I am the deepest truth that there is! I am the deepest truth! I am the truth! And there is none other. For I have been looking for abandoned people that will be able to bring to me a structure that I could fill."
Apostolic Revival. But the Lord would say, "So many times My people have erred because they have built a structure for themselves to fill and then I have to tear down the very structures that I even called them to. And I have to oppose that of which they began to do in the spirit. For have you not read in the book of Galatians, 'Oh you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? You who began in the Spirit, do you believe that you can be perfected by the works of the flesh?'" But the Lord would say in this hour, "I am raising up an abandoned remnant of people and they shall not put structure as their foremost emphasis but they will rather put 'I Am' the Architect. 'I Am. I Am.' The 'I Am' is the architect. For Abraham went forth looking for a builder. For many men and women are going to cemeteries to go learn how things are laid out neatly and in order and everything is dead there. It is all laid out neatly and in order. But I am now calling forth the people that will look for the Architect that lives in heaven."
The Lord will have you know, "I will raise up many authentic, apostolic renewal/revival centers in the earth." The Lord would say, "It shall be my jealousy that shall be revealed. For I am the Head of My body and I will not share that position with any person. I am the head of the body and no man or no woman and no gift can take my position. And when they attempt to, I am put in a position where I have to make a difficult decision. For I am for my people and I am for my body and I am for the progressing, processional of the glorious presence of my Son being released in the earth. But there are times when running around in the earth realm there are decapitated bodies. Running around like chickens with their heads cut off, not really knowing where they are going, but flopping around and making a big scene." But the Lord would say, "In this hour I shall raise up dread champions again. Dread champions and giants of faith and humility. Giants of faith and humility. They will not care that their name is on a ministry. That they will care not that they have a business card with a title; they will not care about fame in the earth realm. They will care only about the fame of the one name that is exalted in heaven and shall be exalted in the earth. For I am coming in this hour and I am going to revisit My people with My hot jealousy. And so I shall surround you with elders of counsel (not elders of control) who will be coaches and cheerleaders to help you grow. And so I have set before you this night, a combination, more than a conference, a strategic event. I have set before you a paradigm shift and I am offering more than the visitation of 50 and 60 years ago. I am offering a page that has never been written." That's pretty good! Hahahahaha!
The Convergence Movement. A convergence is happening in this hour. Converge. The word converge means to blend, to tend to move toward a point together, to come together and to unite in interest or focus. The word convergence means to act in a moving towards a union a movement of two eyes, resulting in impingement of corresponding retina areas. For example, if you put your hand over one eye, you think you see everything but you really don't . . . it takes both eyes looking from different directions coming into focus together before you see all things clearly. A convergence is part of what is happening in this period of time. It is Psalm 46:4 that says, "There is a river whose streams" (that's in the plural), "whose streams make glad the city of God." In Isaiah 65:8 it says, "As the new wine is found in the cluster and one says do not destroy it, for there is benefit in it."
So, in this hour the Lord is bringing diversity together in unity. It is not uniformity and it is not conformity and it is not control. But the Lord is bringing diversity and unity together in this hour and there will be new wine that is found in the cluster. You are going to hear the word convergence in the business community, you are going to hear it in the secular public education and you are going to be hearing it in the kingdom of God in the church community; it's going to be like a buzz word from heaven that is going to descend on earth because it is a heavenly sound coming down to earth and earth beings are simply going to vibrate with the sound of heaven on earth. It's a convergence of heaven coming down to earth. I tell you the kind of agreement I'm looking for is first of all not you and I coming into agreement but it is me coming into agreement with Him, it is you coming into agreement with Him. It is not an ecumenical movement; it is a God movement in which we are coming into agreement. It is an agreement movement us coming into agreement with His priorities, us coming into agreement with Him. You see, when we come into agreement with Him, we come into a convergence with one another."
Hispanics and Taiwanese. It is an hour when the Hispanic church is going to rise on the scene. There are going to be some great champions of the faith. It will be they that have been shaped behind the scenes. But then the Hispanic church is going to arise in this hour, not only in South America but across North America. The Hispanic people are going to arise because God is restoring dignity to the oppressed, all of the people groups that have not had dignity. Some of the greatest church growth is going to happen in the Hispanic community. And watch out there is going to be a move of God in the nation of Taiwan, Taiwan. It will be an authentic, apostolic, evangelistic breakthrough. There will be radical itinerant Holy Ghost terrorists that are going to arise from out of Hong Kong and out of Taiwan and they are going to go throughout Southeast Asia for such a time as this. It is an hour when we love not our lives unto death and overcome the Evil one in our day and we realize that we have a license from God to die to self and to live unto God. It is an hour of the convergence of ages when God again fills His house. In 2 Chronicles 5:11-14, when the Levites are in place, the revelation is decreed, "The Lord is good and His lovingkindness is everlasting."
Restoration and Convergence. It shall be the 500 years of priestly service and the restoration of the office of the priest, followed by the 100 years of the restoration of the office of the prophet, followed now by the Day of the King. It is a period of time of the convergence of the ages where the Lord will take the anointing of the fresh fire of the Holiness movement of the 1880's and He will wed it and mingle it together with the authentic Pentecostal fire of the turn of the century and He will bring and wed that together with the wave of signs and wonders of Aimee Simple McPherson and John G. Lake of the 1920's, and He will mingle that together with the (restoration of) His manifest presence (as well as) understanding and prophecy and presbytery, the singing in the Spirit and this whole realm of understanding of the five-fold ministry gifts along with the restoration of the church that was birthed in the Latter Rain Movement.
He (the Lord) will mingle it (the previous movements) together with the great outdoor, outside the camp, healing evangelists of the 1940's and 50's. He will wed it together with the evangelical burden for the lost and He will wed it together with the best of the charismata anointing where each one has a special gift from God and they employ it in serving one another. He will wed it together with the zeal of the Jesus People Movement and He will bring it together with the sound theology of the third wave. He is going to mingle it together with the revelation of the prophetic movement and it's going to all get mixed together in this incredible concoction. Then it's going to get mingled together with the understanding of the international family of affection and the apostolic revolution, apostolic reformation. All of these ingredients of convergence will be brought together. All of the best ingredients of the past will be brought together because the best will be served at last. The best will be served at last.
Days of Glory. We are crossing over a threshold into the days of His glorious presence. In the history books that will be written, this time period, will be called 'The days of His glorious presence.' God will invade cities with a transformational glory. These are the days of convergence where bright illuminaries will come again and they will shine, where mysteries of the King will be revealed and where dread champions are once again raised up as giants of faith and humility. But they will point the way, not to themselves, but to the One who is greater than them.
Vancouver. The Lord is also going to cause a strategy to come forth to lay seige to the city of Vancouver. For the city of Vancouver has lain under a shroud of an occult spirit. But the Lord is going to release an apostolic strategy to lay siege to the city of Vancouver so the shroud of the occult spirit will be pierced. It will be as though the Lord comes with these two-edged swords and cuts through this false shroud of the occult spirit that has surrounded the city of Vancouver. That thing is going to be pierced. And there is going to be brilliant displays of power that is going to occur in the middle of the very city of Vancouver.
British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. There is going to be an upsetting of governmental things in British Columbia. The government shall change in British Columbia and Victoria Island shall not be a place where it shall be of witchcraft and new age practitioners hiding. But it is going to be a place where the victory of God is going to be seen in a governmental seat. And the victory of the Lord is going to visit some place called Prince Edward Island where there is going to be an apostolic move. I don't even know where in the world this is. There is going to be an apostolic move of God that is going to come upon Prince Edward Island. It is going to be an invasion, an invasion. Something similar to what occurred in the Hebrides Islands in the late 40's and early 50's. It is going to overwhelm some place called Prince Edward Island. It is going to come upon it. It is going to be a glory cloud that is going to be seen. Mark this down and pray this into being. This shall happen. It shall be seen. There are going to be actual cloud formations over this island and signs will be seen in the heavens and wonders will begin to occur in the earth beneath.
Lightening and New Music. (The Lord says,) "I am going to be moving in the heavens. I am going to be moving in the skies that are literally above your eyes. I am going to be releasing amber light. I am going to be releasing displays of My brilliant presence in ways where lightning is going to flash horizontally and not vertically and it's going to go criss-cross across the skies. People are not going to understand what this is and they are going to say, 'This is a new phenomenon we don't even have a word for this.' It's not going to be witchcraft nor will it be New Age, nor will it be the occult." For the Lord says, "It is My angels that are appearing on the scene. It will not be as it was when Lucifer fell from the sky and they said, 'We saw him fall like lightning.' But it will rather be that the angels of the Lord are coming to encamp. There shall be new encampments of the angels of the Lord of Hosts where the sounds of the orchestra of heaven are going to be released into the earth realm. There is going to be music that has not been heard in the earth realm for generations and it is going to be heard because Jacob's ladder is going to be coming down again."
Inuit Revival. And even as I spoke before, there will be this move of God which will mature. It has already begun. It is amongst the Inuit people and it's going to be transformation. Whole villages coming to faith. Whole villages coming to faith. Watch out in the northern arctic regions and in the regions in the Northwest territories and in all the regions called Territories where you have not legalized them to be provinces. The Lord would say, "I am going to move in the Territories; I am going to move in the Territories and I am going to claim territory in the territories. I am going to cause for a throne to be built over the territories, a throne that I am going to sit in, where apostolic rule is going to be released. I am going to use these Native peoples of this land and there shall be a redemptive work that will happen in their midst and they shall help lead the way of an apostolic reformation across this nation. They will have a heart of understanding for the persecution of the Jewish people."
Canada and Calgary. And the Lord says, "I am going to turn the heart of Canada. Oh Canada, Oh Canada, Oh Canada. I am looking for lands to be lands of refuge. I am looking for cities that will be places of hiddeness and refuge. Oh Canada, oh Canada, will you allow me to stretch out My wing where I can even hide My people? Can you believe that there is something greater than the prairie fires of the Latter Rain Movement that shall emerge once again? Can you believe that I will raise up something among the end times hand maidens and servants? Would you believe that I am going to look upon those that would sometimes be called the outcasts and I am going to look upon them and I will say that they are no longer the outcasts. But I shall raise them up to be the upper cast. And I shall place new spheres of authority. The Lord says the city of Calgary, Calgary, Calgary. I am going to unseat the high places that are around the city of Calgary and there will be a displacement. It will be a move of displacement where the occultic powers of the air shall be displaced by praise, praise, praise, praise. And there is a convergence that is going to occur in the city of Calgary where praise warriors are going to come together to lay siege to the city of Calgary. And I will release My horses once again. I will release My riders on My horses and it will not be as it was prophecied in times ago that the horse and rider will be hurled into the sea. But I will have My horses and I will have My riders and they shall be stationed, fixed upon My war horses. They will not be tossed off, but they will march forward. This will be a day when the dread army of the Lord appears on the scene once again."
New Revelations. Now I declare that there is a new sound that is coming down from heaven. Ears are going to be opened and they are going to be hearing sounds that they have never heard before. Many of you are going to hear the bells that are on the garments of the priests and it is going to be a call for you to come into the Most Holy Place. Your ears are going to be opened and you are going to hear a wake-up call in the middle of the night. Some of you are going to be awakened at 3:33, and you are going to want to know: "What in the world is this?" The Lord says, "I am going to show you great and mighty things which you do not know." He says, "Call upon Me. Call upon Me. Call upon Me. I want you now in the night seasons. I am going to be releasing my angels even as it was in the book of Zechariah in the fourth chapter where the angel of the Lord was released and came and aroused Zechariah. The word of the Lord came and he asked, "What is this?" So many of you right now, by the authority of that word that is going forth are going to be aroused in the middle of the night by angelic encounters for such a time as this. Visions are going to appear and you are going to ask, "What is this?" The Holy Spirit Himself is going to be a divine interpreter and He will interpret for you what the vision means because the Lord says this: "This is the hour when mysteries shall be revealed. This is the hour when mysteries shall be revealed. This is the hour when mysteries shall be revealed."
* Prophetic words have been slightly edited for grammar and readability