Rick Joyner is a man who has spoken strategically into my life on more occasions than I can begin to remember. No one person has done more to equip me and shape my understanding of the function of God's kingdom than he. In saying that, I do have certain reservations about some of his teachings. However, those reservations reflect issues in which I'm sure Rick Joyner is maturing, and they do not touch on essential or orthodox issues of the faith. Nonetheless, that he has spoken decisively into my life on a multitude of times is undeniable.

This morning I was reading his Word Of The Week...I found it to be extremely profound both historically and practically.

Joyner has noted that historically there have been great advances for the gospel. There have been great movements in the working of God's Spirit to spread the advance of God's kingdom.
Then he writes...

Each one also brought about a separation in the church between those who were going forward and those who wanted to remain where they were.

If this is true it is certainly a sobering reality for which spiritual leaders need to be prepared.

He then writes about how he visted Geneva Switzerland where John Calvin and John Knox preached while in exile. He adds...

These two men were of such prophetic authority that they could preach in a small setting yet impact the whole world. They did this without the Internet or television, and their impact continues hundreds of years after their deaths. They were a part of a small group who blew a great spiritual trumpet that not only changed the course of church history but also human history. Their message not only reformed the church but also resulted in the birth of democracy, higher forms of justice and law, and some of the basic principles of science that have released a great increase of knowledge. It is always a marvel to me when I stand in the little chapel where they preached. The chapel was located in what was at the time, an obscure little village far from the mainstreams of civilization, and yet it had held a power to change the whole world. The only way this can be explained is they preached a truth which time had come.

Joyner makes the conclusion that our focus should not be on doing great things, but rather to the Lord's will--then great things will happen. Addressing Calvin's great contribuion he, then, provides...

It is fitting that one of Calvin’s most important contributions to the march of truth throughout the ages was his doctrine of original sources being required to validate a message. Of course, Calvin’s goal of establishing original sources as the basis of truth was to get Christians to see past the dogma and traditions of the church and to hold the Scriptures as the only basis of true doctrine in the church.

He then adds that the Reformers like Calvin and Knox always desired to reform the whole church, but they were resisted and even violently persecuted by the ecclesiastical powers. This addsbrings the dilemma that those who lead in a new move of God's Spirit in the church will typically face opposition by those who were part of previous moves of God's Spirit. Why does this occur??? Jealousy. So what then is a person to do to help preserve unity in the Body of Christ and move forward with a new wave of God's Spirit??? Joyner's answer is very insightful...

The Apostle Paul wrote in his most important Epistle, The Book of Romans, that even though the Jews had become hardened so that they resisted the gospel and persecuted its messengers, they were beloved for the sake of the fathers because they had been custodians of the oracles of God. Paul, therefore, warned the Gentiles who were marching forward with the New Covenant not to become arrogant toward the “natural branches,” or they, too, would be cut off (see Romans 11:21). Becoming arrogant toward those who may not see or hear what we do is a trap, which causes many to be cut off from further advancement.The only commandment with a promise is to “honor our fathers and mothers,” and the promise is “so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth…” (see Ephesians 6:2). Nowhere does it say we should only honor great fathers and mothers or even good ones, but simply the ones we have been given, good or bad. Almost all will be both good and bad, just as some of the greatest heroes in the Bible also made some of the greatest mistakes.

Then he closes with this insight...

Unity is important and is one of the primary desires of the Lord for His people. However, our “love of the truth” must sometimes trump our desire for unity if we are not going to be deceived and are going to be a part of the present purposes of the Lord. Once we see the truth we are responsible to obey it, and sometimes this means that we will be driven out and persecuted by our predecessors, even by the very ones who gave birth to us in the Lord. Not many of those who have gone forward have done so without reacting to their persecutors with retaliation. However, for those who can maintain David’s attitude toward Saul and the Apostle Paul’s attitude toward his worse persecutors, the Jews, who he loved so much that he said he would even give up his own salvation to see them saved, they will bear fruit that remains like David and Paul, which is continually increasing to this day.