Remember that the three aspects of the prophetic are the following: 1) revelation, 2) interpretation, and 3) application. To help illustrate these, I will relate some personal stories as well as other peoples’ stories that I personally witnessed. I will start with one that reaches back 24 years but is becoming relevant today.
In 1987, I had a 2 ½ day prophetic experience in which I was shown a panorama of major events unfolding. The greatest event that I saw in this experience was a major ingathering of people into the kingdom that eclipsed anything that had yet happened in history. This ingathering came in two waves. The first was so big that many believed it was the harvest that Jesus said would be the end of the age. However, that first wave was only the gathering of the laborers for the second, much greater move of God all over the earth. Since then, I think the first wave has come, and we are now preparing for the next one.
Included in this panoramic vision were many other major events that would take place, some of which I only saw in part and some that I saw very specifically. Some of these events were so extreme and bizarre that I had trouble believing them myself and did not blame anyone else who had trouble with them. To my surprise, this Vision of the Harvest was almost universally accepted as a message from God.
The brief summary I wrote, which I sent to the then 200 people on my mailing list, which was basically my Christmas card list at the time, was instantly picked up, copied, reprinted, and distributed so fast that some said that it had gone to possibly every nation on earth within 30 days. This was before the Internet or email. Some said that it may have been the most widely distributed prophetic word ever.
To my surprise, just about everyone accepted it without challenge. There was so much demand for it that I took about a year to write in detail the entire vision. When this was published as The Harvest, it quickly became a bestseller, and more than two decades later, it continues to be a top seller. When I was reading it again for the 20th anniversary edition, I was honestly surprised by how much of what I had seen had already happened. It now reads more like a history book than a prophecy, but you can see in it an unfolding timeline that shows where we are and where we are going.
One of the events I saw and recorded in the 1987 vision was a major earthquake in Japan, followed by a series of earthquakes on the U.S. West Coast. These were all tied to a worldwide economic meltdown. Almost no one wants to hear this, including me, but these are imminent. Of course, the big question: What should we do to be prepared for them?
No doubt these words present major problems for Christians living on the West Coast. Two other prophetic friends who have good track records accurately foreseeing major events had seen the same link between the coming (now past) Japanese quake and what was coming to our West Coast. They began to tell people years ago to start moving away from the West Coast. I trust that they were doing what they were told to do.
When I inquired of the Lord about what I should say when people asked me whether they should stay or move, I was told to tell them to stay unless they heard from Him to move, but after the Japanese quake I needed to change that to move unless they had heard from the Lord to stay.
This brings up some important issues, but these are very important times, and we will have to grow up fast to be prepared for all that is unfolding.
First, I was not surprised that many on the West Coast would react negatively to this. If I were living there, or had built a church or ministry there, I probably would have reacted the same way. There are thousands of lives this can affect, and no shepherd would be a good shepherd who did not question this. This is serious business, and I would never lightly give such a word. I trust that those who reacted did not do so lightly either.
Of course, I considered how this could affect so many lives, but I know this word is true, and I’m thinking about the lives that can be saved. No doubt I will look like a foolish or bad person until the day this begins to happen. The dilemma is that I have to pray for this to be delayed as long as possible. Few are hearing, and few are preparing. I have had something like a supernatural grief building in me for the West Coast. I have never given a prophetic word that I hoped and prayed would not come to pass like this one. I know the day it happens, it will be the worst day of my life, and one of the worst in our nation’s history.
For years, I’ve prayed for it to be avoided if there was any way, and I think the Lord has long delayed this in answer to the prayers of His people. The Lord would always desire to show mercy over judgment, but there comes a time when judgment is inevitable. We have crossed this Rubicon. Great disaster is coming to our West Coast. It can still be reduced in intensity, and much of the devastation reduced, but it is now coming. I’m encouraging everyone I know to pray for more time to get ready, that the devastation would be reduced, and that the Lord would show mercy in His judgments.
The big questions now are: What is the timing? Where are the safe places? How can we prepare? Another important question is: Why can’t it be stopped altogether? We will attempt to answer these as we can over the next few weeks.