Late last year as I prayed and asked the Lord for a Word for the coming year (something I have done annually for many years now) I felt directed to study the Prophet Amos. I felt that the Lord had a message for those with whom we minister from the Prophet. Now I must admit Amos is not a book I frequent. I don’t believe I had ever preached a message from it and consequently had not studied it lately. But I was fascinated with some of the things I learned about Amos and what I came to believe that God was saying to my Spirit from this small book:
First: What We Learn From Amos…
- Amos was not a trained minister or spiritual leader. In fact he essentially says that he is a shepherd and a breeder of sheep (a special sheep known for their thick wool) from Tekoa in the hills of Judah. (Amos 1:1,2 and 7:14,15). He was from absolute obscurity. Literally, Tekoa was a “wide spot” in the proverbial road. Not the type of place you would expect to produce the type of man who would have his finger on the pulse of what God was going to do in the Earth. (Never underestimate God’s ability to use you to impact the World!)
- He understood that though this should have disqualified him from speaking on God’s behalf, yet he knew that he had been called by God to deliver a message to Israel and to the surrounding nations. His call, as he describes it in chapter 7 came from God Himself, and in chapter 1 he says it was like the “roar of the lion out of Zion”. He stepped out in faith knowing that his credentials were not based upon birthright, the councils of men, or the right academies, but upon a Word from God, having had an ear to hear it and the courage to speak it. (So are yours!)
- In chapter 3 he teaches us that agreement is necessary if we are to walk together (3:3), that God always reveals His secret plans to the prophets (3:7) before He acts. (That can mean you!)
- It is amazing that Amos speaks to the World from the Kings Chapel and the Kings Court at Bethel (the Capitol city of the Northern Kingdom) having come from the obscurity of the Judaean highlands. What type of courage must it have taken for this humble layman in simple garments and humble speech to (a). speak at such an austere place, and (b.) with the authority and frame of reference to possess a vision for what God was going to do in the World? (You vision is only limited by your own perception of yourself and of God.)
Second: What I believe God is saying today from Amos Words…
And as I read his message to Israel and of the Lions roar he had heard in his spirit, I felt in my spirit that the Lion was again roaring out of Zion with a message for the church. Later in Chapter three (3:7) he says that God will do nothing on earth, except He reveal His secrets to his servants the Prophets and again he describes the prophetic word from God as the roar of the Lion!
I too, like Amos, have heard the roar of the Lion out of Zion, and from the frightening low tones of that sound, I hear the words “Supernatural Fulfillment” (By the way the lion on the hunt only roars when he/she is about to pounce on the prey). And the passage I was directed to by the Lord was Amos chapter 9 verse 13. It says,
“The days are coming says the Lord, when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes he who plants the seed.”
I believe that we have entered a season of Supernatural Fulfillment as it relates to the “Endtime Harvest”! This passage from Amos speaks of a season when the harvest will be so great that we will still be reaping in the fields when it is time to break-up and plow the ground for the next planting season! What a season, what a moment in history, when God will supernaturally speak to the fields to give forth a harvest so large that we will struggle to reap it. It will be great, not because of our perfected techniques or mastering the cultural trends so that we can communicate our message to the culture with slick sophistication. No, it will be because God will command the blessings on our fields, and our fields of labor in response must give up the Harvest with amazing abundance. It will be a quantity of harvest so great that, in Amos words, “the plowman will over take the reaper!” Get ready for the Harvest! This is what I am hearing in the Spirit. This is being echoed as though it is the Roar of a distant Lion.
I believe we are about to see laborers entering the fields like never before, churches previously empty are going to begin to fill, nations are going to begin to open to the Gospel, young people are going to flock to the opportunities to share the Gospel with activist enthusiasm. Money is going to be released, Kings are going to fund Spiritual adventures and a Harvest of epic proportions is about to be released! Hear the Lion of Judah Roar from the Holy Hills of Zion! Then Jesus Comes!