What To Do With The Quiet Moments In Your Life

Orlando Ridout (Direct descendant of John Ridout
 who sold Kunta Kinta in Annapolis) and Bill Haley Jr.
grandson of  Alex Haley  direct descendant of Kunta Kinta
May 2,  2014

 Over the last few years, I've had the ride of a lifetime ministering around the world, speaking in very special churches and conferences.  I have had great success in building a very important ministry in Annapolis, Maryland which has been developing a "strategic prayer" initiative that has been dismantling the "principalities, powers, and wickedness" in our city. We have been experiencing serious city transformation. This has resulted in breaking the spirit of slavery off our nation through indentificational repentance and reconciliation over the slave trade here in Annapolis. Annapolis was one of America's major slave ports - which is in fact where Alex Haley's (Author Of Roots) direct ancestor Kunta Kinta was sold on September 27, 1767.  I have concluded after witnessing God work through our ministry he is now directing us to do the redemptive work on making our city a center for addressing the plight of Modern Slavery and will be using our ministry to assist in those endeavors both here and abroad.  It's just like God to take a city's sin and turn it around to "Heal America's Wounds." So what does that have to do with "The Quiet Moments" of our lives?

In May of 2010, I had a very vivid dream/vision at 3am one morning.  It was a panoramic vision of a coming revival on Gen Y and the Millennials.  In the vision I was invited to come and minister to a group of young people.  They were laying all over the floors weeping, travailing, crying out to the Lord for mercy on their lives.  The presence Of God was so thick I was afraid to move.  I have been a part of several major outpourings in my lifetime but I had never experienced something like this.  I was literally afraid to move because I didn't want to be disruptive of God's work in their lives.  I asked a person who was standing in the vision along side of me "Why was I here?"  I felt privileged to be there but didn't understand "why."  Then a voice said, "We asked for you to come to help us because you are a Father."  "You understand the moving of the Holy Spirit."  I understood immediate what God was showing me was the next move of the Holy Spirit.  It will be an intense "Crying Out" from a generation that knows absolutely nothing about the Holy Spirit."  It's almost like the people in Acts 19 who said to Paul, "We have never heard of the Holy Spirit."  The Vision also was a warning.  Leaders who have encountered the Holy Spirit in past encounters need to be careful to not  assume they know how to proceed in this next revival.  There has never been anything like it and you cannot use your "pentecostal or charismatic wares" and just due business as usual and reteach old ways. Isaiah 43:18-19 proclaims, "remember not the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold I do a new thing.  God is not going to just give our churches and ministries a new infusion to do what has been done. He is going to use only those who have been stripped of "ministry know hows" and are sensitive and intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit... and you cannot have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit with the busy instagram world we live in.  That's why God is stripping down churches, leaders, dispossessing and putting extreme pressure on all of us.  He is trying to get our attention to spend time with Him.  We need to get quiet, listen, discern and prepare ourselves for the next move of the Holy Spirit.  I believe this next move will begin in about five years from now.  currently, we are in a preparation period. If you don't prepare you won't be ready for when the Lord comes. (See Matthew 25:1-13)

Although we are witnessing the prophetic fulfillment of the promises given in the 1980's of massive mega churches emerging;  God has not called the contemporary church to be reduced down to be a part of the entertainment industry. I have been privileged in years gone by to speak into major movements within the contemporary church.  It has been an honor to be a part of this past emphasis.  However, God is not in the lights.  God is not in the music - even if it makes the Billboard charts.  God is not in the preaching or the great theatre complexes or stadiums that have been filled.  It's been a blast to witness the church's growth and play a small part in it.  However, God does not dwell in temples made with hands.  He is calling us to be filled in our hearts with his presence.  That presence calls us "to put off" the old nature, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and "put on" Christ.  God is calling for "relational holiness." He wants us to get our lives right with Him, within ourselves, and with those we share life with.  

Brokenness and humility will be the earmarks of the next move of the Holy Spirit. No Super star Apostles, Preachers of LA, or Great mega centers of Christian entertainment.  It's all coming down. It's all going to be stripped, and "political power" will be taken away from the church so that the church of the future will have similarities of the early church.  (See Zech. 4:6) You might ask why I say this?  Because the next move of the Holy Spirit is going to lead us into a new phase of whole cities coming to Christ.  Everyone currently serving in ministry has to be retooled and prepared to minister in places and among people groups they have never been a part of to lead them to Christ, help them to become disciple-makers themselves, and turn whole cultures of godless behavior around.  It's going to take the entire "Body Of Christ" to work together for the Great Harvest coming.  No one church, no movement of churches, or denominations will be able to capture this movement of God's Spirit among the nations. Whole nations will be swept by the Spirit of God in an instant and changed.  This is not my wishful or magical thinking. It is a prophetic promise in the Bible that's about to come upon the earth before the return of Christ.  (see Hab. 2:14; Psalm 102:18; Isaiah 40:5)

I have no idea what other ministries are up to or what the latest "word" is.  What I am witnessing is extreme pressure being placed on everyone including me.  It's referred to in the Bible as a "time of atonement." God's people are being called to "get their inner world and outer worlds aligned with Him. In order for that to happen He will strip and shake everything in our lives to complete that work in us. Phil. 1:6 says, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."  So,  when your world gets quiet and invitations are not being issued to have you come and be a part of the big celebrations right now... don't fret.  Get busy and use these quiet periods in your life to prepare yourself for the next period God is taking you to.  You may be called to write. You may be called to finish that theological degree.  You may be called to study, develop a prayer life or get those music lessons needed to make yourself an accomplished musician.  Whatever God is calling you to do... now is the time to take the moment to get ready.  Parties will come and go.  You're not missing out on anything because nothing is happening right now.  We are all just being called to "get quiet."  Here's a couple of cool verses: I Thessalonian 4:11 "aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands";  Psalm 75:6-7 "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. For God is the judge! He brings one down and exalts another. " So don't worry about becoming a celebrity pastor, singer or worship leader.  James 3:16 explains to us, "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." God wants to kill all that self ambition in us. He's going to tear down the idol of "My purpose, My dream" emphasis because it's His purpose, His Dream, His kingdom that he's building not ours. I am glad that in all my years preaching, teaching, and being invited to be a part of great moves of the Holy Spirit in the past I've never once had to ask someone to let me come and speak on their platforms or conference.  They invited me to come - I didn't go seeking celebrity pastor status. I just want a relationship with Jesus that makes Him pleased with me. God alone is the one who promotes.  He alone calls us to a quiet place with Him so that we can be intimately acquainted with The Holy Spirit.  Prayer and His word provides the foundation we need for any work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Right now, God is giving us a reprive from "business as usual,"  He's giving us a quiet time to retool our lives and get ready for the "move of the Holy Spirit."