One of the great encouragements I have had concerning the potential of the church in our time is meeting the people who attend our conferences. Because they represent many different denominations, and we have had representatives from up to fifty different nations present, we get a pretty good sampling of the body of Christ. I marvel at some of the most mature believers, most of whom have been in Christ for many years, who will humble themselves to be taught by some of our young prophetic people. This combination of maturity, wisdom, and humility is the formula for a spiritual critical mass. That is the formula for a spiritual nuclear explosion of extraordinary power.
I personally believe that right now the church possibly has the greatest body of believers who have ever lived. I also think that overall at this time we may have in the body of Christ some of the greatest shepherds and leaders ever. If we can continue to mature, going higher and higher, while at the same time becoming more humble and teachable, there is no limit to what we may yet attain in our generation.
One of the primary words that I have been hearing from the Lord lately is a call to walk in "the power of the age to come." If this is the time for that power to be released, we are near the beginning of the last day ministry in which the most extraordinary works of all will be released.
The "power of the age to come" is walking in the power of the Lord Jesus ruling upon the earth. Before the end of this age the entire earth will hear the gospel of His kingdom, as the Lord declared in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come." This gospel will not just go out in words. As the Apostle Paul stated in I Corinthians 2:4-5, 4:20:
And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.
We cannot be witnesses of the Almighty God without power. At the end, when the greatest darkness is covering the earth, the greatest power and glory of the Lord will be poured out upon His people (see Isaiah 60:1-2). The power that I saw coming at our Harvest Conference in 2001 was the power to move mountains.
This does not mean we are going to go forth and start rearranging the Appalachian Mountains, but that we will be given authority to move even the greatest obstacles out of our way. This is the Word of the Lord that was given in Zechariah 4:6-7:
Then he answered and said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel
saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,'
says the LORD of hosts. 'What are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone
with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!'"
The time is coming when some will move literal mountains. However, the one that Zerubbabel was standing before is the one that the church is now standing before—it is the mountain of rubble, the remains of God's temple that has been lying in waste since His people were carried into bondage. There is a remnant that is returning to rebuild His dwelling place on the earth, and they will face the rubble that Christianity has become throughout much of the earth. They too will move this mountain with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"
What has seemed to many to be the impossible task of restoring true apostolic Christianity to the earth is possibly becoming a reality. However, as the Lord told Zerubbabel, it will not be by might or power, but by His Spirit. It will not come through human strategies or good management principles. It will happen with the power of the age to come by demon-strating the authority of the King over all authority, power, and dominion.
Just as He also promised this remnant concerning the restored temple in Haggai 2:9, '"The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and in this place I shall give peace.'" We know that before the end the church will be restored to its apostolic glory and power, and that the presence of the Lord will dwell in her. The glory of the Lord will then so fill His temple that no flesh will be able to stand to minister there. Why not us? Why not now?
We may now look at our lives and think that there are too many obstacles—just too many mountains to overcome. It does not matter how big the obstacles are, the Lord is about to release His power to turn every one of them into a plain before us. Start now by declaring to the mountains in your life—"Grace, grace, mountain be gone!" Say to relational problems, "Grace, grace, mountain become a plain!" Say to the obstacles at home, work, and church, "mountain be removed!" Say to fear, say to lust, say to debt, "Grace, grace, mountain be gone!" It does not matter how big they are—before Him they are small! With the power of the Lord that He has entrusted to us by His Holy Spirit, there is no problem too big or barrier that He cannot move. Believe it.