Old and New Treasures
In the last Special Bulletin, I shared about the dream I had been given—that if we would honor the fathers, the Lord would release revival in America within six months. In this dream I was shown that the evangelists from the great Healing Revival of the 1940s and 1950s were the ones that we needed to honor. As an attempt to do this, we hosted an Honoring the Fathers Conference together with WhiteDove Ministries. The conference was extraordinary. We knew that we had touched on something crucial, and it may have been the most important conference that we have ever hosted.

It was only a couple of weeks after the Honoring the Fathers Conference that I started getting emails from Stephen Strader about the breakthrough that had taken place in Lakeland, Florida. My first thought was that if this was going to be a wellspring, it would be fitting to come through a Strader as the source. His father and mother, Carl and Joyce Strader, have been used greatly in bringing renewal to not only our nation, but to the whole world when they invited Rodney Howard-Brown to Carpenter's Home Church over two decades ago. What better way could a son honor his father than to continue his work? Stephen has a remarkable healing and miracle ministry himself, but he is more than that—he is a gatekeeper like his father before him.

I was also not at all surprised to hear that the Lord was using Todd Bentley to spark this new outpouring of the Spirit in Lakeland. If you have any doubts about Todd, don't. He is the real thing and has one of the greatest gifts of faith for the release of the power of God of anyone I've ever known, and I've known some of the great ones. I've only been with Todd one time when high level supernatural did not start happening—when he was going through his "dark night of the soul." Even then, the Spirit of revelation was all over him, and I had no doubt when he came out of that period he would go to a much higher level. What has been happening in Lakeland has been great, but I expect it to go much higher, in Lakeland, or wherever else this breaks out.

However, Todd needs a little prophetic explanation (okay, maybe a lot). I have known Todd for many years. He is definitely new generation, but in a remarkable way he is almost a composite of some of the great healing evangelists of the 1940s and 1950s. I think it is because he is wearing some of the mantles from the great evangelists of that period. I say "some of the mantles," because just as the Lord's mantle was divided when He was crucified, the anointed pass on their mantles of authority, and they are usually divided and given to many, not just one. Like Jacob did for his son Joseph, the Lord likes to make special coats for His children that are many colors or diverse. Most of our coats or mantles are composites of those who have gone before us, and some are unique new ones.

For example, I think Benny Hinn carries part of the mantle that was from Kathryn Kuhlman, but he also has others, and likely, at least part of a mantle that God made especially for him. Just as part of God's joy in creation is seeing two of His children join together and bring forth children that have part of both of their parents, but are unique, the Lord also does this by joining spiritual ancestry as well.

In this way, if you have seen Todd you have also seen some of the great healing revivalists of the 1940s and 1950s. That is why right after we had the Honoring the Fathers Conference in early April, when we honored some of the great revivalists of that period, as soon as I heard that revival had broken out through Todd's ministry in Lakeland, I knew it was right, and right on time. It is right that this has come through another Strader, and I expect this to have long-reaching impact. However, as awesome as this is or it yet becomes, there are prophetic indications that this is the last great spiritual birth pang before the birth of another Great Awakening, which I expect this fall.   

Understanding Birth Pangs
Both the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul talked about things coming upon the world like birth pangs coming upon a woman in labor (see Matthew 24:4-8; I Thessalonians 5:3). This is the pattern in which many things will come upon the world in the last days, both the good and the evil. The way that birth pangs come upon a woman is they may start suddenly, but at first they are relatively light and infrequent. However, the closer to the birth, the more frequent and the more intense the birth pangs become. You can see this pattern in the weather, in political conflicts, and economic troubles, but you can also see them in the release of moves of God.

We have been experiencing these spiritual birth pangs or contractions in our congregation that now meets at Heritage for nearly twelve years. They have been getting more intense and more frequent. What we are experiencing now is by far the most intense yet—with some who have experienced the most intense birth pangs they have ever felt. Even so, we do have prophetic indications that this is the last great contraction before the birth of what God will be bringing forth this fall.

That does not necessarily mean we should put the timing on what God is doing with us or with what is going on in Lakeland or anywhere else, but I suspect they are related. I am not totally convinced because we see in part, know in part, and prophesy in part. What is going on in Lakeland could well be the full birth of something, but it would not surprise me at all if there was a break, and one last rest before the big push and the baby comes out. We'll see.

Either way, something great is happening in our country, and it will get bigger. However, do not be tempted to tie together what is happening with the elections this fall. This is beyond politics. It will likely have an influence, but this is about a government that is far bigger than the U.S. government or any other earthly government. Beware of those who do want to use it politically. That would be a distraction and diversion, and it would knock it off course quickly.

I very much believe that Christians should be politically engaged, vote, run for office, etc., but to try to manipulate the use of a revival for political purposes would be to demean it, at best. If this had not happened to the Second Great Awakening during the 1850s, then slavery could have been abolished in America without a Civil War. If that Great Awakening had not been hijacked for political purposes, America would have dealt with that great tragedy with more reason just as the United Kingdom did with Wilberforce's leadership.

Conclusion
As stated, I was told in a dream that if we would honor the fathers the Lord would bring revival to America within six months. I was shown to honor the fathers who were the leaders of the great Healing Revival of the 1940s and 1950s. If you want to honor them and see what they were like, and partake of the blessing and anointing that was on them, I would go to Lakeland and see Todd Bentley.

Is what is happening now in Lakeland the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecies about the "nameless, faceless" generation of leaders who fill stadiums with crowds being healed of all manner of diseases and witnessing all manner of miracles? It could help ignite this, and that could be what this gives birth to. Some are protesting that we cannot say that a work centered on one person, such as is on Todd, is a "nameless faceless" one. However, it could be that the Lord has raised up someone like Todd to represent the old in order to anoint the new, just as he raised up John the Baptist as the last and greatest of an order to baptize and prophesy over the new. It does seem that this is the way the Lord does these things, requiring the new to humble themselves before their fathers, submitting to them, and being sent out by them.

Do not let pride keep you from going to Lakeland. It is right to go and get immersed and baptized by what is happening there. It is contagious, and it will likely come to your town through someone else if you are not willing. God is pouring out His Spirit. Even though we have an extraordinary outbreak going on here at Heritage that is about as strong as we can stand, we plan to send many to Lakeland to honor what is going on there, and receive as much as we can to keep pouring it on here. We pray for them every night and greatly rejoice in what God is doing there. What the Lord is doing here is quite different and is supposed to be, just as I think the outbreak in every place is supposed to be unique. Our God loves diversity.

Outpouring Continues at Heritage
We have now gone through a week of nightly meetings, and it seems the anointing and presence of the Lord is increasing. If you stop at Heritage after being in Lakeland, do not come expecting it to be the same. As the Apostle Paul related concerning the gifts and ministries of the Spirit, it is the same God, but a very different expression (see I Corinthians 12:6). There are always dozens, and sometimes hundreds, involved in the ministry here at Heritage. Waves of the Spirit seem to pass through the room that you can tangibly feel.

Many people are seeing angels and even the Lord Himself. We know they are real because they come from many different people, all reporting the same things. We do not stop the meetings to report this because we wouldn't have time for anything else. This is normal Christianity, and it is the result of the Lord opening the eyes of our hearts, as Paul prayed to happen in Ephesians One. When we see angels, it is not so much because they are entering our realm, because they are here all of the time, but when we see them, we are starting to enter their realm.

There are noteworthy miracles happening almost every night, and we have not done a good of a job sharing those testimonies, but we will be doing this. They are coming so fast at times that we have to establish a system to process them. We also want to verify them because truth is our most basic commodity, and if we lose that, we lose everything. It is a different dynamic when there are so many being anointed and being used, and it is taking us a bit of time to determine how best to steward it.

Some of the youth came to me and begged me to keep this going; my response was that I did not start it, and I sure would not stop it. As long as the Lord is moving, we will be meeting every night, but when He stops or moves on, so will we. Right now He is moving, and the whirlwind of the Spirit continues to come in a way that at times staggers us. Even so, we think we are experiencing a taste of what normal Christianity will soon be all over the earth—with a presence and power of the Lord that will keep us in continual awe and wonder—something we could never get tired of.