Promised Wine

As RISEnetwork gathered August 1, 2014, we had a time to receive from God and corporately express worship. Generations of leaders gathered and had a great time. Eric Lynch was used strongly to speak prophetically to individuals and later wrote a blog about what he saw the Spirit showing him about RISEnetwork. His blog was very encouraging. Read it here. 

I shared from Numbers 13:23-24 that explains how the 12 Spies where sent to see what was promised. They ended up with a cluster of grapes so large it took 2 men to carry them. As I look through the lenses of covenant, I see grapes being the promise of wine. Jesus is the Promised One. He is where we dwell. Jesus held up the cup of wine and said it displays His blood for the New/Better Covenant. The promise of wine from those grapes spoke of the promise of a Better Covenant through Jesus. That covenant would come through the violence of the cross. It would be a painful and heart aching work that would press the grapes into wine. The pressed Fruit of the Vine (offspring, son. God is the Vine, Son of God) would be pressed and crushed at the cross. He endured this for the prize of the new wine/covenant. 

Yet when the 12 Spies returned to give a report, only 2 felt the promise was worth the battle. (let every word be established by the witness of 2-3). The "2" (law and prophets) witnessed that the promise could be obtained. The "2" (Love God, love neighbor) would be obtainable. The "2" (Old Covenant, New Covenant) would display what is available. It was these 2 Spies that stated we could have what's available. 

Today, God is calling together and aligning leaders of each generation that see the promise, that know what's available, and are passionate to pioneer into it. Leaders in the Kingdom are being challenged into new territory for the glory of God and revealing of His ways. 

These leaders are not looking to fit into the established, but are identifying the hungry and leading them. 

These leader are not focused on the way things are but on the way things can be. 

Everyone knows many things are going wrong, but God is aligning those that know things can go right. 

We are those that see wine is available and fresh wine is being released now. It's the requirement for a new wine skin that has us passionate to come together. God is causing RISEnetwork to develop as a new wine skin and carry our portion of new wine in this moment. You are part of that. 

You are being stretched, pressed, drained so you bring forth a cup/container of enjoyable wine. You are one that's like the 2 Spies. You see it. You are hungry for what can be. This is your time to go after it. You are the kind of leader that shows it's possible to rise above what's been and come into what can be. Lead on!  Lead your home. Lead your business. Lead your congregation. Lead your community. Lead your generation. 

The grapes are the promise of wine. Let's be a wine skin for now so there is a taste of freshness in the earth. 

The Power of a Purchased Threshing Floor

During our RISEnetwork gathering on August 1, 2014, an awesome leader that is part of the network shared an impacting word of prophecy. Eric Lynch from Charleston, WV starting talking about the Threshing Floor and what it means for RISEnetwork.

Eric Lynch is a powerful leader that is functioning in many avenues. He travels speaking prophetically to church congregations and conferences. He's an author, singer/songwriter. He does missional assignments overseas. He holds capital city prayer thrust targeting the civil arena. God has graced Eric with many abilities and has strongly gifted him in a prophetic way. You can connect with Eric on Facebook and see his ministry focus called Ram's Horn Ministries here.

I asked Eric to write out his understanding to what the Spirit was revealing. The following is what Eric wrote.

// The Power of a Purchased Threshing Floor //
Written by Eric Lynch

As I was preparing my mind and heart to come to the August 1stRISE meeting, The Lord took my mind to a passage of scripture in the Old Testament found in 2 Samuel. In 2 Samuel 24 David had sinned against The Lord by taking a census of the able-bodied men in Israel and Judah. As result, The Lord sent the prophet Gad to King David and Gad gave him three options for the judgment that would come on Israel because of David’s sin: 1. Three years of famine, 2. Three months of running from their enemies, or 3. Three days of plague. The cry of David’s heart was to be found in the hands of God and not the hands of man, regardless of what judgment took place.

So a plague came on the land and in three days time 70,000people died. What takes place next is where I want to first direct our focus…2 Samuel 24:16-17 states,  16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of theLord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.When The Lord finally instructed the angel of The Lord to relent, the angel was standing on the threshing floor that belonged to Araunah.

The Lord spoke a prophetic word to Gad the day the angel was standing on Araunah’s threshing floor and Gad said to David:“Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor ofAraunah the Jebusite.” When David went to ask Araunah for his threshing floor, Araunah wanted to offer it to the King for free, but David refused to give God a sacrifice on a floor that cost him nothing. After David bought the threshing floor, he made intercession and offered sacrifices on it. The Bible says The Lord answered his prayers and the plague that was afflicting Israel stopped.

Now, some of you may be asking, ‘What is a threshing floor?”The threshing floor was a flattened outdoor surface, in a place exposed to the wind (so the chaff could be blown away), and used during times of harvest, as a place where grain was harvested from the wheat. The word “threshing” basically means, “To tramp or stamp heavily with the feet”, which originally were the feet of oxen or people.

The threshing floor, biblically, represented a number of things: 1. Victory, answered prayer, and supernatural, accelerated miracles (2 Samuel 24:24-25) 2. Place of gleaning and divine connection (Ruth 2:14-19) and 3. Harvest (Matthew 3:12).

If you will, follow me for just a few more moments, because I’m going somewhere with this…There are a few key things I want to highlight about what God was showing me with this topic of “The Power of a Purchased Threshing Floor.”

First and foremost, God is saying do not take a census of those who are with you, because I will cause you to have victories that some haven’t experienced with thousands. David sinned against God when he took a census of the fighting men in Israel and Judah. I believe The Lord’s admonishment to RISE Network is for us not to be concerned with a census, but allow God to add or take away from this army as He sees fit.

Secondly, my mind is taken back to a prayer gathering that took place in 2012. Myself, along with the prayer group I’m a part of in Charleston, WV had been spending weeks and weeks praying and preparing at a place called the Levy, for a day of prayer that was going to take place on October 20, 2012. Just nights before this prayer gathering, where hundreds of believers would be assembled, our prayer group was meeting to consecrate the grounds, and that particular night The Lord spoke to me and said: “You all have purchased a threshing floor.” The significance of this word God gave me that night goes back to 2 Samuel 24:24-25, where it tells us that David purchased a floor to build an altar for prayer, and as a result the plague on the land completely stopped!

When you purchase something that means you own it! When a person buys a piece of land or property, they become the owners of that piece of property and therefore have a certain measure of authority over what takes place on that land! The power of a purchased threshing floor is that it gives you legal right (in the Spirit) to have authority over what takes place on that land! The day of August 1, 2014 when God spoke to me about how RISE Network had “purchased a floor”, He was showing me how in a very literal sense, RISE (by way of Zak Huffman who leads Spirit of Adoption Ministries with his wife Amy) owns the building that we meet in every 6 weeks! Additionally, each time we meet at 404 Market St. to pray and worship it further consecrates that land, and because we own it, and have paid the price in prayer for it, we un-arguably have a say so in what takes place in that city and within the network!

The power of owning a threshing floor is the power to see accelerated answers to prayer…2 Samuel 24 says that once David built an altar on Araunah’s threshing floor THE PLAGUE STOPPED! As a result of RISE owning a floor, we have the ability to see the same kind of supernatural, immediate answers to prayer as David did.

The power of a purchased threshing floor, is the power to glean in fields of blessing and to make divine connections. In Ruth 2, a divine connection of favor was made with Boaz and as a result, Ruth had access to the harvest of Boaz’ floor! God is saying because RISE has found favor in His as (our kinsman redeemer) the harvest and overflow of His threshing floor is ours!

Lastly, the power of a purchased threshing floor is the power to bring in a harvest of souls! In Matthew 3:12 when John the Baptist began prophesying about the coming of Christ, John said that Christ was coming with a winnowing fan (a tool frequently used on the threshing floor) to gather the harvest and get rid of the chaff! Because RISE  has relationship with Christ, we also have the ability to purge the chaff out of our cities, churches, ministries and homes and claim the harvest that awaits!