God’s Safety Net

— by Steve Driessen

“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
       — Deuteronomy 33:27

Recently a friend shared that she had felt impressed to pray for “a safety net” underneath the United States, and at the same moment, she saw a snapshot vision of a safety net, such as is used by some trapeze artists.  She then heard the Lord speak, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”  As she continued to pray, she felt God was saying that He will be there to catch the nation, and will not permit it to come to utter ruin. 

I believe God is showing me that the way He will place a safety net underneath the United States is through His Church.  I am not speaking of a weak, ineffective Church, but a strong one, which is filled with the glory of the Lord to do great things upon the earth.  And the only way this strong Church will be in place to help the nation is through prayer.  Without prayer, the safety net will not be available.

We are headed for both the best of times and the worst of times.  Whether it will be a good or bad time for each of us will depend on where we are in relationship with the Father and His plan. Some people live in His house, but do not embrace His plan. Many who think they are safe will find that the things they thought were rock-solid will be shaken.

It will take strong relationships to navigate through the next eight to ten years. The time of trial will be a means to strengthen and mature the Church into the Lord’s army for the Last Days’ harvest.  We know things cannot continue on the way they are.  But times of difficulty tend to bring great men and women to the top. We either get stronger, or we become weaker. Jesus is coming for a strong Bride, not a weak one.

Get ready for the shaking, for it will be a worldwide shaking, and no area will be immune. Some, of course, will be affected more than others. Even those who live a sheltered life will feel the effects of what is coming.

God is even now preparing churches which will be safe houses of the Lord.  Some of them that currently look small will become major points of refuge for the many who will be taken by surprise.   This will be a time of great signs and wonders, healing and miracles. Joel 2 will again become a major theme in the church, along with the power of the Holy Spirit. When this happens, you will know the time of shaking has come, and even the foundations of the earth will be shaken.

We are now in a time of transition and positioning. God is placing His people in specific locales so that He can release them into their particular point of effectiveness in the fray.  They are being positioned, as David was, to confront the giants of fear and unbelief.

It will take supernatural power to overcome in the days ahead. Analytical people will have a hard time coping with what the Lord is doing. Life will not go on as usual. Those who fret will have the tendency to miss God’s moving among His chosen saints.

Will you join me in praying that the Church will arise in the Lord’s strength to be a place of refuge for this nation?  If we will pray, we will surely experience the truth that “underneath are the everlasting arms.”

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Prayer, The Key For Revival

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.”
      — 2 Chronicles 7:14

Without prayer, revival will not come! “There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin with united prayer” (Dr. A.T. Pierson).

Concerted, united, sustained prayer is needed to change our nations. The cities, counties, regions, and nations must be interlaced with a network of prayer meetings that will set aside one day each month to pray. Thirty-one churches, one day each, 24-hour prayer, where “fire will remain on the altar,” according to Leviticus 6:13.

24/7/365 prayer.

We need extraordinary prayer, where people will get up in the early hours of the morning to pray, pray half the night, or give up their lunchtime or free time to pray. That’s extraordinary prayer.

It takes a lot of prayer to bring true revival. It takes an army of intercessors praying over time. It must be united and concerted prayer. They do not need to be in the same room at the same time, although sometimes they are. They don’t need to speak the same language, because they may be from different countries. But they do need to be united in purpose: “Lord, pour out Your Spirit … revive us again … send Your rain … rend the heavens and come down!”

God is true to His word, and if we will pray, revival will come. Prayer is the beachhead, the first step to transformation. Prayer prepares the way for breakthrough, with signs and wonders, healings and salvation. As more people in your community become part of God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom of God expands into every sphere of influence in that community, transforming it from darkness to light.

We hold the keys! We are the generation! We are those who are called out! We are the ones who must pray! The Church, the ecclesia (those who are called out to enforce the political desires of the government from which they have been sent), must

1.)  Begin to legislate in the heavens — “I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” — Matthew 16:19 

2.)  And implement upon the earth — “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will  drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” — Mark 16:15-18

As we begin this new year of 2012, let’s join together in concerted, united, sustained, extraordinary prayer for:

1.  Revival in the Church
2.  Awakening in our cities, counties and nation
3.  Righteousness in our governments
4.  Crisis intervention
5.  The prosperity of Israel

How To Hear From God

There are many people today who struggle with the question, “How can I hear from God?” Does God really speak to us today in a way we can understand and use in our daily lives?

Some go through their entire lives without really knowing His voice. There may be road blocks of past hurts, disappointments, or misunderstandings that have caused them to not be able to hear. They may have heard from others that God is not talking in this day and age. This becomes an excuse for closed ears, closed minds, and closed hearts. It takes away any hope of hearing and  produces a lack of faith, lack of persistence, and lack of action. They end up looking for the audible voice of God, when God is speaking from the spirit within us.

We are not to continue to be spiritually immature. It is time to grow up through obedience and discipline, so we can hear the voice of our Heavenly Father. It is imperative that we hear His voice today and in the days that are ahead of us if we are going to prosper. Here are some steps, or keys, we can use to hear better:

1.  The Truth Is, God Does Speak Today

Our Heavenly Father wants to communicate with His children just like any healthy earthly father would want to talk with his son or daughter. Communication is the key to relationships, and without that ability to communicate, the relationship will die. He loves us, and it’s all about relationship and being a part of His family. He is consistent with His revealed will, the Bible, but a relationship must go beyond a letter written long ago to a people we do not know. We must have a personal, intimate relationship with Him today. We need to hear Him speak our names and about our lives, not just someone else’s.

2.  Stop Talking

Did you ever get with people who wanted to talk about themselves all the time? That does get old! Communication is more about listening to the other person speak and understanding what they are truly saying than it is about telling them what you know. We must stop talking and begin to listen — not only talking in our prayer time, but talking to ourselves and others about the negative things in our lives, the things that steal our joy and hope. Many people talk themselves out of their ability to hear God’s voice, and this leads to unbelief and doubt. God’s Word says for us to be still and rest in Him.

3.  Write It Down

Revelation is to “run” with. It is the fuel for your future, the very thing you will need to overcome obstacles in your life. Revelation comes through communication. It becomes a weapon of our warfare that is mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds over our lives. We are able to go to war with the words God has spoken to us along with His written Word. This becomes a two-edged sword, able to cut even between the spirit and the soul of a person. Revelation also provides boundaries for us, as we go along in our daily lives. It is able to keep us focused on the task ahead.

4.  Expect To Hear God’s Voice

It takes faith to hear God, and faith is expressed through expectancy. If we have faith to hear, we will want to develop our listening skills. One place to start is to listen to those whom God has placed in our lives to speak into us. The people God puts into our lives should be people that love us. They want God’s best for us and would not use us wrongly to meet their needs first. Faith works by love, and revelation comes by faith in knowing that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to communicate with us daily.

5.  Do Not Doubt What You Hear

If what you hear lines up with God’s known will and you have a knowing in your spirit that it is God’s voice speaking, do not doubt. “Has God really said” has been used since the Garden of Eden to keep God’s people out of relationship with Him. Understand the context of the word God has spoken to you in the light of your gifting and calling, and do not allow anyone to steal your future or your ability to hear God’s voice. Act on what you hear. Stay in close relationship with Him, and more revelation will come. Remember, He loves you, and you are significant.

James 1:5-8 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

A Prophetic Vision of Transformation (Part 4)

—  by Steve Driessen

Let the Earth Produce

In the very beginning, God commanded everything to reproduce after its own kind (Genesis 1). This is true in both the natural and spiritual realms. We reproduce who we are. We are able to reproduce in others the revelation we carry. We can only give away what we have. The problem is not that we need to receive more; it is that we are not giving away what we already have.

How will we see the promises birthed? How will we see authentic, real, hard, raw proof? I, for one, am tired of the hype and performance of those who have claimed to have something, only to burn out in a short time. I am looking for the real — the transforming power of God being poured out upon cities, regions, nations. Why not? Why not your city? Imagine your whole city under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Every move of God starts with a seed. In Luke 1, an angel came to a young woman named Mary to tell her she would give birth to a son. Mary asked, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”  The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (vs. 34, 35). He said she would conceive a move of God.  Jesus was a move of God.

To give birth to a move of God, we must conceive that seed, or revelation. We must know the Holy Spirit! He is a Person of the Godhead. He is the working agent of the Godhead on the earth today, working through the Body of Christ to bring about God’s will on earth. He has the power to create, as He did in Genesis 1 and in Luke 1. God wants us to have an intimate encounter with Him that will conceive and give birth to a move of God today. The problem is many only have a “date” with God. We cannot conceive on that level.

Jesus said, “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify of me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). Religious people know the Word of God, but not the God of the Word. Our relationship with Him gives us our identity in Him. Out of that relationship and identity we begin to do the works of God. We must become intimate with the Holy Spirit. He’s a lover. Out of this love affair we take on His personality, the personality of Jesus. We must worship the Holy Spirit. He is God, the third Person of the Godhead. We must become God chasers, those who seek His face day and night, those who cry out to Him, “I want to know you more.”

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired. — Isaiah 40:31, Amplified

To mount up is to sprout or to grow. The revelation seeds, prophetic words and visions, will sprout up and grow like the mustard seed of Matthew 13:31, 32 into a great tree or system — a kingdom of heaven system. You and I are carriers of this move of God. We are the gates.

Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty — he is the king of glory.  — Psalm 24:7-10

Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways. When men are brought low and you say, “Lift them up!” then he will save the downcast. He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands. — Job 22:21-30

We can conceive and give birth to this move of God. It must come out of an encounter with Him.

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A Prophetic Vision of Transformation (Part 3)

— by Steve Driessen

Let the Heavens Be Open

 In Genesis 28, Jacob had a vision of heaven opening and a ladder coming down, with angels ascending and descending on it from heaven to earth. He called the place Bethel, House of God. Jacob means “deceiver,” and at that point God began to deal with the “Jacob” in Jacob.

Jacob is a type of any person who will put himself in position to receive revelation from God. We all have some Jacob left in us that must be dealt with before we can be presented to the world as a gateway to the kingdom of heaven. As an opening to the kingdom of heaven, a portal into the supernatural, you are called to become a dwelling place for Almighty God here on earth, in your nation, in your city, for, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Even though the Body of Christ presently looks very weak in some areas around the world, ordinary people like you and me can enter into divine revelation that will bring transformation to our areas of influence. The Lord wants to turn the wounded, wandering sheep of His Church into warhorses.

Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for his flock, the house of Judah, and make them like a proud horse [warhorse] in battle. — Zechariah 10:2b-3

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. — Malachi 4:2

The firestorm in my vision (see Part 1) burned away the canopy above the forest floor, allowing light and new growth to take place, so that the forest creatures had good things to eat. We need to be feeding in the kingdom of light. Jesus, the Light, said, “Unless you eat me and drink me in, you have no life in you” (John 6:53, paraphrase). Starving people will eat anything, even the things that will kill them.  But God wants His people to have light and to feed on that which brings life.

Next time we will see what happens when the people of God have the opportunity to feed on life-giving food in the kingdom of light.

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A Prophetic Vision of Transformation (Part 2)

 — by Steve Driessen

Let the Fire Fall

In my last post, I shared with you my vision of a firestorm.  Every former move of God was designed to bring us to this place and point of time. Every generation before us received a measure of revelation that became another brick to build with: brick upon brick, layer upon layer, truth upon truth, each generation adding to the last, laying a foundation for the next generation to build upon. Our ceiling should be their floor. We must pass revelation gained to the next generation, or it will be lost to them, and they will spend needless time redigging wells that should be producing water for them now.

Isaac had to reopen the wells that had been dug in the times of his father Abraham. The Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham had died:

Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. — Genesis 26:18

That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!” — Genesis 26:32

Prophetic words and revelation are potentially ours, but we must war for them to be brought to earth and realized in our lives. We have been given the authority to bind and loose, according to Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Prophetic words are like keys that unlock doors of heaven’s purpose for mankind, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Some are saying it’s too late, and that God is going to remove His grace from this nation. They say the best is past. I disagree. I believe the best is yet to come. We stand today at the brink of the greatest move of God the world has ever seen. The Holy Spirit wants to birth something in you so great that the words Jesus spoke in John 14:12, “He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father,” will come to pass in your lifetime.

Spiritual generals of past generations have been a foretaste of what God wants to do. Jesus Himself was a prototype of what we are to be. We are to represent Him to this lost, dying planet. We owe the people of this world an encounter with God so powerful that they will know there is a God in heaven Who loves them. Even as Jesus was not able to do anything by Himself, but could only do what He saw his Father doing, we also can only do what we see Him doing. It will take complete, total submission to the will of God — passion for Him, a fire that cannot be quenched.

It will also take revelation from God and our willingness to move according to what He reveals to us.  We will talk about that next time.

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A Prophetic Vision of Transformation (Part 1)

— by Steve Driessen

Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. — Habakkuk 2:2-3

In a prophetic vision, I saw a large forest of ancient trees. Some of the trees were one hundred years old; others were four or five hundred years old. They stood tall and straight, their height over one hundred feet. At the top of the trees, the branches and leaves formed a massive canopy that blocked out all sunlight and rain from hitting the earth below. Because of their age, I understood that the trees had weathered many storms and times of great drought without faltering. They were firmly rooted and would not yield to any forces of nature that came against them.

As I looked at this huge forest, I saw out of the corner of my eye a firestorm. My first thought was of fear for the trees, because the fire was headed towards them. I even had the sense that the fire had been sent, or released, upon the forest. At first, I thought it was an evil fire, but as I watched it approach the trees, I knew the source of the fire was not evil, but good.

When the firestorm hit the forest, all the trees were consumed by the flames. Their branches and leaves were burned off in an instant, and only their massive trunks and huge limbs were left standing. By burning off the trees’ top growth, the fire removed the canopy that covered the forest floor, and for the first time in many years, even generations, the floor received sunlight. As the light hit and warmed the forest floor, new growth began to come out of the earth. Seeds that had lain dormant for many years sprouted, took root, grew, and bore fruit.

I also noticed that when the trees had been full of leaves, the earth could not produce any vegetation, and there were no creatures living in the forest. The ground was barren of any type of life except the trees themselves. After the firestorm, the earth produced plant life and the living creatures returned to eat and fill the transformed forest with new life.

This is what I heard in my spirit as I experienced this vision:

The trees represent systems of thought: economic, socio-political, religious paradigms that have been established in our minds and lives for generations and remain very strong and firm against any winds of change. The canopy was a protective covering, but also a blockage that kept the light of revelation from penetrating into the forest.

The sunlight was the revelation of Father’s love for His children — His grace and mercy that would bring new life to the earth. The lack of sunlight caused barrenness in the forest, and all the living creatures (people), had left the forest because there was nothing for them to eat or drink.

As I stood watching the vision, I realized I was facing the south, looking at the forest before me. The Hebrew meaning of the word south is “on your right hand when facing east” and represents the natural, the world or worldliness, sin, temptation, corruption, and deception.  

When facing south, the firestorm in the vision came from my left side. The left side represents man’s weakness and God’s strength or ability demonstrated through man’s weakness. My left hand is weaker than my right hand, so I understood this to be God’s firestorm, not man’s. As I saw the storm coming, I turned to the left as an indication of spiritual change coming from God. Because I was facing south when the storm began, it came out of the east. The Hebrew meaning for the word east is “in front of you when facing the rising sun.” This indicates a new beginning, a new day, a new life.

The storm represents a disturbance, or change. I had the sense of it being spiritual warfare and judgment wrapped together, a sudden destruction of the established ways of thinking and doing business, God’s power being released in revival fire. Fire is heat or passion for God’s Word or Spirit.  

A picture of devastation such as I saw in my vision can seem very frightening. But as I said at the beginning of this post, I felt God was showing me that it was being released for good.  God’s purpose is always to release good and to bring restoration in the midst of radical change.  We see this in Malachi 4:1-3:

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the Lord Almighty.

In coming posts, I will share with you what I believe God plans to accomplish through the coming firestorm.

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A Bold, Fresh View of Life

By Steve Driessen

Hi everyone! Welcome to Steve and Joan Driessen Ministries. Our vision is to inspire you to live life to its fullest.

We will use real life stories to encourage you to be all that you can be. Some of us only need a little help getting over the hump in the road to reach our goals, while others of us may need a push to get us going. I know. I need a push now and then.

Perhaps our life stories and the life stories of others on our blog will inspire you to do more and go further than you ever thought you could. We are all on a journey, and we need others along the way to cheer us on.

We will be giving proven life principles that can be used to turn frustrating circumstances into wonderful results for your good. Really, that is what this is all about, your good. Like the book, Eat this, Not That, we want to offer some alternatives to what you may be doing now. We are concerned about your spiritual, emotional and physical well-being. I like options — how about you? If someone could help me discover what to do to get better results, I would be open to listening.

I know you may be thinking, “That’s just the way my life is”, or “I’m just made that way”, but I believe we can change many of the things we do and say just by changing the way we think about ourselves and others around us. When my mind is at peace within, I have a better opportunity for peace without.

I think that’s what it’s all about — working together, living life together for our better good and the good of others.

We’re here to help you learn to live as a winner, rather than feeling like a loser. It’s not about competition with others; it’s really about cooperation with others. The way I see it, we’re all in this together. If I can help you, and you can help someone else, perhaps together we can make this world a better place to live, not just for us, but for our children and grandchildren.

As we travel this journey together, we want to encourage you to take a bold, fresh view of life and reach for new opportunities that you may not have seen before. Nothing is impossible: God is always on your side, and you are important.

We have materials available to purchase online at our bookstore (see the Resources tab at the top of the page). We are also available to come and speak to your group. We would love to meet you and share our life stories with you and your friends.

Steve and Joan