by Rick Joyner

This is the year that many predicted would be the end of the world. Adding fuel to this fire are such things as the Mayan calendar ending with 2012. In a way this year will be the end of this world, as we know it.

2012 will be one of the extraordinary years of our lifetime, and maybe even of all time. This does not have to be a bad thing. The world is no doubt facing unprecedented crises on many fronts, and many are beyond human remedy. Even so, this can be the greatest year of our lifetime—a reset. This year can be a Jubilee that allows us to return to the foundations of righteousness and justice that elevated civilization as we know it.

About the Mayan calendar and other indicators that end with 2012, the Apostle Paul acknowledged that even the Cretan prophets were right about some things (see Titus 1:12). When various sources start to see the same thing, there is often something to it. However, 2012 will not be the end of the world, but it will be a demarcation point. Form this time on, every nation and every person will either turn to righteousness and become more righteous, or turn to wickedness and become more wicked. From this point on, the distinction between light and darkness will become increasingly pronounced.

We are entering the times that the prophets and righteous of old desired to see. This is the ultimate battle between good and evil, and there can be no more sitting on the fence. Though it may be the most intense and challenging year of our lifetime, it will also mark the beginning of the greatest move of God ever to come upon the earth. We are coming to the end of an age, and the end of this age is marked by the greatest harvest the world will ever see.

In 1987, I was given a two-and-a-half day prophetic experience in which I was shown a panoramic view of coming events. I wrote about these in the book, The Harvest. Many of the things I was shown have now come to pass, and others are unfolding at this time—the greatest of all has not yet happened, but it is close.

I was shown two great waves of revival that would sweep the earth. The first one was great, but it was for bringing in those who would be laborers for the greatest move of God of all time that would follow. That first wave began shortly after I had the vision, and it was all that I had been shown. Then I saw a time of relative spiritual quiet before the greatest move of God of all time would begin. We are near the end of this time of relative spiritual quiet, and this great spiritual tsunami that will sweep across the entire earth will soon be upon us.

The most important thing we can do right now is not to find a safe place for our assets, but to get ready for this coming move of God. Of course, we should want to be good stewards with the resources we’ve been entrusted with, but if that is the dominant concern we have, then we are out of touch with a far greater reality that really determines who we are worshiping. Those who worship their possessions more than God are about to sink in the quicksand of these times. Those who are true worshipers of God will begin to know Him, walk with Him, and be used by Him more than they ever expected. This is the greatest treasure one can have on this earth.

Before a tsunami hits the coast, the water starts to recede from the coastline. This is also how it will be just before this great spiritual wave comes upon the world—it will seem like Christianity is in its biggest retreat in history. Some will even think that Christianity has been defeated and is being removed from the earth. They could not be more wrong. It may be at one of our lowest points when the great wave will appear. As it gets closer, it will rise higher. Then it will sweep everything and everyone away who are not prepared for it.

This is a spiritual tsunami warning. We must get ready. We must get to the spiritual high ground and get ready to save every soul we can. Multitudes will be coming into the kingdom, and we must mobilize for it now.

Just as tsunamis are the result of earthquakes, the great tsunamis of the coming harvest will be the result of the spiritual and cultural fault lines of the entire world shifting. We will see great upheavals, but with them we must learn to look for the move of God that will be bringing multitudes into the kingdom.

The earth is groaning and travailing as it yearns for the sons and daughters of the King to be revealed. There will be natural earthquakes and tsunamis that reflect what is happening in the Spirit. Getting ready for the times in the natural is important, but it is even more important that we get prepared for them spiritually. We can apply the way that we would get ready for them in the natural for how we should get ready spiritually.

For example, if we knew a great earthquake was coming and we would be without power for a long time, we would prepare by storing food, water, needed medicines, necessary clothing to keep warm, etc. We also need to consider how to get ready with spiritual food and water. We should also be storing Bibles, Bible studies, books, and other resources. Along with feeding our bodies, we have to resolve that it is just as important to feed our souls. We must also consider our neighbors.

As we learned at our Hurricane Katrina relief base, when the power is out and there is no TV, people will read, and the multitude of new believers will be starving for spiritual food. They will be hungry for answers, for hope, and for faith. Those who have the peace and joy of the kingdom will be great lights who will attract great multitudes in the confusion that is coming.

THE INGATHERING

In 1987, I was shown that when this wave hit churches of one hundred people, they would be adding one thousand people a week. We may think that if this is true of the small churches, the mega churches will be adding tens of thousands a week, but that will not be the case. The large churches were growing some, but not like the small ones. This was because the small churches were more prepared for what is coming since they had been building their people while the big churches had been building programs.

One of the main focuses of the coming harvest will be home groups. The Lord has been preparing a half-million home group leaders in just the U.S. who can lead people to the Lord, baptizing them, getting them healed, delivered, and established in sound doctrine. These home groups were the main equippers and laborers in the harvest.

Large churches will have a place, many becoming centers for “the apostles’ teachings.” They will be storehouses of spiritual resources and mission bases. However, the focal point of the ingathering will be small groups and small churches. This is why many have been hearing, “small is the next big.”

Many who have sat in churches for years absorbing the word of God, but may not have done much in the past, yet were sincerely seeking to understand and walk in His ways, will begin to teach and pastor large numbers of new believers. Many, who in the past may have been shy about witnessing, will become powerful evangelists.

The harvest is the maturing of what has been sown. Just as a single seed can grow into a plant that produces thousands of seeds, the harvest at the end of the age will see the maturing of all the spiritual seeds that have been sown by the great men and women of God throughout the ages. There will not just be one like John the Baptist, but thousands. There will be thousands like Luther, Wycliff, Zwingli, Wesley, Whitefield, Zinzendorf, Hudson Taylor, William Carey, and Seymour, as well as the great social prophets like Stowe, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Martin Luther King, Jr., Solzhenitsyn, and all who had visions of the coming kingdom of God. Now all of the seeds they have sown will be coming to maturity.

TRANSFORMATION

Romans 12:2 exhorts believers, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” The Greek word translated “transformed” in this text is the word metamorfos that we derive the English word metamorphosis. This is the process a caterpillar goes through to be changed into a butterfly. Even though until now few Christians have heeded Paul’s exhortation, but rather have been more conformed to this world, this is going to change. A great transformation is coming. The church is going to quit being a worm that has to crawl upon the earth and be conformed to the contours of the earth. The church will become the beautiful creature she is called to be with wings that can soar high above the earth.

I have only had glimpses of what the church will be like in the coming times, and we all “see in part and know in part” (see I Corinthians 13:2). Even so, what I have seen is revolutionary. The church will become a nation within the nations, with a government, economy, even those who function like foreign ministers and ambassadors representing the body of Christ before earthly governments. At the same time, they will be a community, or a people in “common-unity” like the world has never seen before.

Even so, far more than the community or the extraordinary power that the Lord manifests through His people, will be the manifest presence of the Lord among His people. We have experienced hints of this when delivery people have come into our buildings and were astonished at the presence they felt. We can multiply this in the times to come. The best part of all will be how close the Lord is going to be to His people. This is what we were created for, and no other endeavor or accomplishment on this earth can compare with simply being in the manifest presence of the Lord.

These truly are the most wonderful days there have ever been to be alive and to walk with God. The awe and wonder is going to rise steadily. There will be difficulties, but for those who are serving the Lord and seeking first His kingdom, these will hardly be noticed because of the joy in all that the Lord is doing in our midst.

When I first read in Isaiah 6 about the cherubim who stood day and night before the throne saying, “Holy, holy, holy! The whole earth is filled with His glory” (see Isaiah 6:3), I wondered how they could say that the world was filled with His glory with all of the wars, disease, child abuse, poverty, and hunger. Then I heard the Lord say, “They could say this because they dwelt in My presence. When you dwell in My presence, you will see My glory in everything.” In the world there will be tribulation, but for those who are abiding in the Lord they will be seeing His glory.

It is not that we do not have compassion for the suffering of this earth, especially as we go into the great times of trouble ahead, but when we are abiding in His presence we will see His ultimate victory in everything. We will be able to reach out to those in the present troubles from a position that cannot be shaken. This is the peace and the joy of the kingdom that is built upon His righteousness—doing what is right in His sight.

To make it through the times to come, we will have to stay close to Him and abide in Him. The good thing is that this is not just what we have to do but what we get to do. The key to overcoming all things is to seek His kingdom first in everything that we do.

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’

“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:30-35).

For those who are true disciples, who live the life of a disciple as He described it, in all things seeking His purposes first and seeking to do His will, 2012 will be our best year yet. It is not the end—it is a great new beginning. Regardless of how far we have drifted from Him and the true life of discipleship, we can come home now and He will receive us with great joy and celebration.