Prophetic Vision: Demonic Storms of ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Rebellion’ Unleashed

During the writing of this, COVID-19 is ravaging the nations of the earth.

World economies and entire continents have shut down in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus and find a cure. On June 25, 2020, Robert Redfield, Director of Disease Control said, “We have all done the best we can do to tackle this virus, but the reality is that it has brought the nations to their knees.”(1) I have never witnessed so much confusion, shock, fear, and uncertainty in all my life. However, my greatest surprise and heartache in the midst of the pandemic has actually come concerning the body of Christ. It appears that we, the global Church, have also been brought to our knees as the barrage of deception, division, and conspiracy theories have increased at an unprecedented level. The need for truth, sobriety, and biblical theology regarding the house of God and the end times has never been greater.

The global shaking happening in our world today is seriously revealing our foundations in the Church. The torrent of spiritual and physical storms that are crashing upon the shores of America and other nations are simply exposing the type of house we have chosen to build in the Church and even our personal lives. We must remember that one of the outstanding biblical principles that Jesus taught in Matthew 9 was that He will not fill what He Himself has not formed. He will not put new wine into old wineskins (see Mark 2:22). In other words, are we crying out for God to fill up a last-days wineskin in the Church that He actually has no interest in filling, and is COVID-19 making that answer very clear? The disillusionment, questions, and opinions surrounding where the global Church goes from here are astounding.

One night as I was preaching during the pandemic, I received a shocking open vision and was startled by what God said and revealed to me in that moment. He began:

I am releasing judgment upon the Church because of her pulpit idolatries and the hirelings who have filled My house. For even now, I am stripping them of their wealth, titles, and desires to be worshiped. Many churches and hirelings will never recover after the virus has lifted because of My judgment. For I will expose the false prophets and priests in the land who feed themselves and not My sheep. Oh, how My heart breaks for the lost sheep who are not being taught how to feed on My word and worship Me. Rather, they are being falsely deceived into man worship, which is idolatry. Repent of celebrity Christianity and recognize the window of time I have now opened for a divine reset in the global Church, says the Lord.

I want to be very clear and make sure the reader does not misunderstand this encounter. God did not say that COVID-19 is judgment upon the global Church. Rather, He is communicating to us that during the time of the pandemic, He is releasing a cleansing judgment upon His house that is intended to prepare us for one of the greatest outpourings of the Holy Spirit that we have ever witnessed. Houses of glory will be established as we enter into a new era in the body of Christ. It is vital that we recognize prophetically that the coronavirus has given the global Church a divine opportunity to shift and make very significant changes as we enter the new era in the global Church.

Crisis or Revival

One of the most frequent questions Christians around the world feel the need to ask concerning the last days is regarding whether they will be filled with crisis or revival. Before answering that I would like to pose a more revealing question. Why is it necessary to choose one or the other? My answer is simply both. Both crisis and revival will mark the last days, but the underlying desire in the global Church to have one without the other has seriously crippled our foundations and paved the way for unbiblical theology and an unprepared Bride to face an hour of crisis such as COVID-19. Mike Bickle speaks into this issue with wisdom and experience as he shares:

I have found in over 40 years of teaching on the end times that preaching on revival is what the people crave the most but it only produces temporary change in their lives. However, when teaching on the crises that will mark the end times, I have discovered it most often produces sobriety and alertness long-term.(2)

The Perfect Storm

In 2015, I had a life-changing prophetic dream that I believe speaks to the current crisis and even prophesied about it in many ways. In the encounter, I found myself standing on the shoreline of the Atlantic coast facing the ocean. There was a tremendous storm front that was beginning to gather in the Atlantic. I could see the tip of Florida to my right and the upper parts of Maine to my left. I had a sense that I was somewhere near or in Virginia.

As I looked up over the Atlantic Ocean, I noticed two enormous storms beginning to form. The first front moved ahead of the other. The Spirit of God spoke to me and said, “The Perfect Storm is upon America.” These two fronts immediately began to move toward me, and demons began to manifest inside of them. I called out to the first front sweeping toward me and said, “Who are you?” The word “Rebellion” flashed before my eyes. I called out to the front behind it and said, “Who are you?” The word “Tolerance” appeared in the sky.

As these tremendous storms now passed over my head, I violently cried out and said, “I live in the most rebellious and tolerant generation that the world has ever known.” The Spirit of God responded to me and said:

The former prophets looked for physical storms by which they saw My judgments coming, but in these days I’m raising up prophets who will discern spiritual storms. You must know that the spiritual storms that are upon the earth are far greater than any physical storm that has touched earth. Physical storms are limited to a region of people. These spiritual storms that shall rise in the earth will have the power to affect every area of culture. Beware!

As I faced America on the Atlantic coast and saw these two massive storms sweeping the land, I felt the tremendous urgency of the hour. I immediately jumped on a horse and began to ride, and the word “Paul Revere” was placed in my mouth as I rode. During the next years in the dream, I traveled to different churches all over America proclaiming what I had seen and heard. Though I went to thousands of different churches and visited numerous ethnic groups all over America, there were only three categories of churches. The following are the encounters that I had as I visited the different churches.

The Sleeping Church

The first type of church I visited had “Sleeping Church” engraved on its doors. As I opened the doors to these churches, every one of them was in the middle of a service. I would hurry in to relay the message of what I had just seen and heard, only to be shocked to see everyone in attendance, including the leadership, sucking on pacifiers. While this type of church could hear my words, they had no ability to respond. I began to cry out and say, “Why are you silent, Church, why are you silent? Though you are awake, you are sleeping!”

In the dream, the Holy Spirit immediately spoke to me Ephesians 4:14: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (NIV). In Revelation 3:1, Jesus rebuked the church at Sardis and told them they had the appearance of being alive, but really they were dead. Be on the lookout for churches in America given over to an entertainment spirit who are spiritually immature. It appears that they are thriving due to the volume of programs, but from heaven’s perspective they are lethargic and infantile.

The Street Church

The second type of church I visited met in the streets of America. Upon seeing all of these different gatherings in many different cities, I was delighted because many of them seemed to be around my age (18 to 35) and simply claimed allegiance to “Street Church.” I began to interview and ask members of this particular type of church if they had heard about the two storms descending over America named “Rebellion” and “Tolerance.” None of them seemed to understand what I was asking.

I continued in the street on my horse until I found myself at a gathering of thousands and thousands of these “Street Church” people. They were protesting and filled with anger. As I pressed into the crowd, there was an incredible sense of chaos and confusion among the people. Many began to riot, burn buildings, and loot stores. I cried out to the Lord in the dream and said, “Who are these people?” He said, “These are the products of the works-based gospel movement of the ’80s and ’90s. These are they who have rebelled in the name of grace but not in the name of My Son.” As the Spirit spoke this to me, there began to be mass commotion in the crowd. They started looting and rioting in many major cities.

Suddenly, banners began to be carried by the Street Church all over America that read “GRACE.” It was especially intriguing to me that these banners were dusty, and you could visibly see the mud on them. I said to the Lord, “Where have these young people picked up these banners from?” He said, “They have resurrected them from the former generations. False doctrines that were once done away with are now rising in the streets. Universalism, humanism, and denying the existence of hell will overtake many young people.”

After visiting these two types of churches, I was in great distress. I cried out to the God and said, “Take me to Your church.” I immediately rode up on a church building that had “Surrendered Church” on its doors.

The Surrendered Church

I quickly walked in and sat down. I immediately noticed that in the back of this church was a gaping hole. It was as if a blast had gone off and almost entirely knocked out the back walls of the Surrendered Church. As I visited surrendered churches all over America, I found the exact same thing. I sat in the back and asked the Father what had happened. He said, “My church was at first deceived by rebellion and tolerance. The Street Church you just saw stormed out of the back of My church and left because of the lack of foundation and character, but now My church has been awakened and shall be repaired.”

I got up out of my seat and watched as many people were working on repairing the gaping hole in the back of the church. As I watched, I noticed something interesting; the workers were not just any workers. They were true apostles and prophets restoring the foundation, and many of them were teaching other young people how to properly lay the foundation. Meanwhile, many intercessors were in great travail repenting but having a great sense of hope as they cried out and thanked the Father for awakening His Son’s Bride from deception and for restoring the foundation layers to His church.

The Perfect Storm has landed in America and Rebellion and Tolerance have swept over our land. Rioting, looting, and misguided anger are threatening to destroy businesses and churches. Entertainment churches have an appearance of being filled with life but really, they are spiritually dead. Three different types of churches are on every street corner in America. Will the Surrendered Church arise and take its rightful place among the masses?

I knew by way of this revelatory dream in 2015 that we would see a tremendous increase of tolerance and rebellion in America. I now recognize that COVID-19 has simply just ripped off the band-aid of a drowning culture in deep need of an encounter with Jesus Christ. I’m now prophesying and warning you that one of the greatest challenges that the church in the West is facing and will face is how to deal with young people who have never understood or been taught biblical grace that brings true freedom from sin. Many of these individuals have been overly exposed to legalism and because of this are now embracing false grace and unbiblical views on love. They will walk in a lawless spirit and speak out openly against any kind of authority. They are being influenced by an anti-Christ agenda and many of them don’t even know it. As we enter into the new era beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, will the Surrendered Church arise full of glory and sobriety?

The Divine Reset

From a redemptive perspective, what if COVID-19 has helped to facilitate a desperately needed divine reset in the global Church? What if in the time of silence (quarantine) God is seeking the spiritually violent? What if it’s time to get back to prayer and the Word of God and put all our church growth textbooks and ideologies back on the shelf? What if crisis is actually creating the correct climate in the earth for the end-time Church to arise with glory and splendor? The tares are being separated from the wheat in this time of harvest and we must seek to build God’s house His way with greater intentionality than ever before. We must love the truth at all costs and not get swept away in end-time deception. Will the Surrendered Church emerge like I saw in my dream? What might the role of apostles and prophets be in the divine reset?

I believe a fresh generation of young and old trailblazers are being called forth right now. It’s time for the firebrands to arise and begin to build a house of glory for the Lord. These vessels of honor aren’t rising to establish a “new normal” but rather they will restore the ancient foundations that Jeremiah and Isaiah saw. Holiness and the fear of the Lord still matter. Revival is going to come to many lost young people who are being positioned for a divine encounter from above.

These pioneers will build according to the pattern that Paul and the apostles received from Jesus Christ Himself. It’s time to look toward the future with the hope and confidence that can only be found in Jesus’s promise when He said, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (see Matt. 16:18). Our Bridegroom King seeks a glorious and spotless Bride who is geared for emergency. A remnant is rising who will not run away from the coming battle lines but rather run straight for them. To the true Church of Jesus Christ—this is your finest hour. Now is the time to arise and shine, not run and hide. You were born for such a time as this.

Notes

1. Amanda Holpuch, “Coronavirus has brought US ‘to its knees’, says CDC director,” The Guardian, June 23, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/anthony-fauci-covid-19-statement-house-hearing.

2. Mike Bickle, “Positive Trends, People, and Events in the End Times,” February 17, 2007, https://mikebickle.org/watch/mb_1378.